Chapter 15 Dancing with the Wolves

Kevin and his companions quietly drew their weapons and held them in their hands. When the demonic wolf's slightly foul breath and heavy panting reached them, the three of them were not as nervous as they were when they first hunted monsters. Although they were facing a demonic wolf for the first time, they were now extraordinary individuals who could kill a goblin shaman. Facing a common demonic wolf weaker than a goblin warrior, they needed to be cautious but not afraid.

"3"

"2"

"1, go!" Alex jumped out of the wall first. He habitually held his shield horizontally in front of him and positioned his body to intercept the demonic wolf's attack. But to his surprise, the demonic wolf had no intention of attacking him at all. Its dark green pupils stared at Alex tightly, its limbs slightly bent, its teeth clenched tightly, and its throat made threatening gurgling sounds.

Kevin, Owen, and Melissa walked out from the other side, and Kevin protected Melissa behind him. He and Owen and Alex formed a triangle to surround the demonic wolf, which was the formation they had agreed on earlier.

"Alex, demonic wolves are accustomed to hunting monsters weaker than themselves. They won't attack immediately when they feel that their prey is not weaker than themselves. So if you don't use taunts, it won't attack you."

"I see. They are a bunch of cowards who bully the weak and fear the strong. Taunt!" Alex used his skill against the demonic wolf, and the demonic wolf's eyes turned red. Its limbs, which were already tense and ready to strike, suddenly pushed off the ground and pounced on Alex.

The speed of this attack was extremely fast, and Alex found it difficult to react. "Ah!" He made a strange noise and only managed to reflexively hold his shield in front of his face. With a loud bang, he blocked the pounce. But the demonic wolf then used its hind legs to forcefully push against the shield, causing Alex, who was already off-balance, to fall to the ground. Then, the demonic wolf stood on its hind legs and used its sharp claws to repeatedly scratch and attack Alex.

Facing the demonic wolf's continuous attacks, Alex lying on the ground was unable to defend against them all, and his arms also had several scratch marks. Considering that Owen was not good at controlling his strength and could easily harm Alex, who was very close to the demonic wolf, Kevin gestured for Owen to stay in place and stepped forward himself. He aimed at the demonic wolf's waist and stabbed his sword in.

This also lifted the effect of the taunt, and the pupils turned back to dark green with a sense of fear inside. The demonic wolf suddenly twisted its waist, bringing a huge force. To avoid the sword slipping out of his hand, Kevin withdrew his sword. The iron sword easily broke through the demonic wolf's fragile waist, probably piercing through its organs, and blood quickly flowed out of the wound.

Kevin was slightly staggered by the force brought about by the demonic wolf's turn, but he quickly regained his balance and faced the body of the demonic wolf, giving it a sense of intimidation. The demonic wolf felt the serious injuries on its body and slightly turned its head, taking in the sight of Kevin and Owen. In its perception, Owen, who had yet to make a move, was clearly the strongest. It felt despair, knowing that it was about to die.

It lifted its head and let out a howl, "Ao--Ao--". The sound contained both the agony of impending death and the determination to fight to the death. Kevin and his companions also prepared to end its life after hearing the howl.

However, to their surprise, after the demonic wolf finished howling, it suddenly turned around and jumped towards Alex, who had just stood up. It jumped onto the shield he held up with his left hand, but instead of attacking Alex, it quickly transformed its two front paws on the shield into hind legs and used them to jump out of the encirclement. It wanted to escape, and the howling earlier was just a distraction!

"Darn it, how can we let it escape? Charge!" Alex was very angry that the demonic wolf had chosen him as a breakthrough point. This made him look like the easiest target to deal with in the team. He used his skill, Charge, to accelerate towards the demonic wolf, which he quickly caught up to.

Alex then swung his sword and chopped off half of the demonic wolf's waist. Although the demonic wolf was already seriously injured in the waist, it was impossible for Alex's strength to cut it off directly. The reason it was able to be cut off was because the next attack after the Charge would be strengthened.

After this attack, the remaining half of the demonic wolf's HP, which was already only half red, dropped directly to zero in Kevin's death gaze. "You always give me trouble, you darn guy." Alex seemed a bit angry and stabbed the sword into the upper body of the demonic wolf a few times.

"Stop, Alex, it's already dead, no need to attack it anymore." Kevin quickly came over to stop Alex's actions. "I know, I just needed to let off some steam." Alex replied.

"But attacking it like that will lower the integrity of the wolf skin, and its value will be reduced," Kevin pointed out the reason for his dissuasion. "Isn't that right, Owen?"

"Kevin's right, with the few pokes you just made, we'll have one less lunch." Owen didn't seem to care much, but he was interested in watching from the sidelines.

"Okay, I admit that I went too far. So, what should we do with this guy now? Take it all back with us? I don't think we can carry it all, especially if we plan to continue hunting monsters!" said Alex.

"You're right, we don't need to take it all with us. We can do this," Owen said as he lifted the upper half of the demon wolf's body and reached his right hand out to Kevin. Kevin immediately understood what he meant and handed Owen a small knife from the sheath on his leg. Owen smiled, skillfully using the sharp knife to peel off the demon wolf's fur from the corpse, then separating its teeth and claws, and wrapping them all up in the wolf skin before putting it in their storage bag.

During the whole process, Owen appeared very proficient and did not get much blood on him. "This way, the meat of an ordinary demon wolf like this has little value and won't take up space in our storage bag. Only the wolf skin, teeth, and claws are valuable. If it's a high-level demon wolf, its meat will have considerable value and we need to take it back with us," Owen explained. He then tossed the remaining carcass near the abandoned house where they had rested earlier, adding, "Of course, we can leave the rest in a conspicuous place so that if we don't find anything else of value, we can come back later and take the more valuable parts with us."

Kevin watched Owen's every move and memorized this knowledge since they would need to do this on their own when Owen was not around. After a brief rest, they continued to patrol the area and soon found two ordinary demon wolves. The battle was imminent.

Owen dealt with one of them alone while Kevin and Alex teamed up against the other. Since they were not yet familiar with fighting demon wolves, Melissa did not join the battle but watched from the sidelines, as using magic at the wrong time could have the opposite effect. Keeping some magic in reserve could also help deal with some special situations.

Kevin had already used his blood circulation technique to heal the scratches on Alex's arm. This time, Alex did not recklessly use taunt but instead circled around the demon wolf. During the circling, Alex suddenly shifted his shield and thrust out his sword in his right hand. However, with the demon wolf's speed, the sword missed completely and didn't even graze it.

Alex tried a few more stabs but failed to hit the demon wolf. It seemed that the demon wolf realized that Alex posed little threat, so it used its hind legs to stand up and alternated between attacking Alex with its front paws. Alex was somewhat embarrassed as he struggled to defend himself against the demon wolf's attacks.

Kevin observed for a while and noticed something. Although they were currently fighting demon wolves, their minds were still thinking about the goblins' movements, actions, and weaknesses. They were still accustomed to fighting goblins, even though they were facing demon wolves. The size, habits, and thinking of goblins were all affecting them.

Kevin took a deep breath as if he wanted to erase the image of goblins from his mind. He switched his thinking pattern to that of the first battle and observed the movements of the demon wolves. Compared to goblins, demon wolves had more explosive power in their lower body, but their overall movements were stiffer, and their reflexes and reaction speed were lower than goblins.

Moreover, upon closer inspection, the demon wolf's body leaned forward after standing up, and it did not use its upper body much, and its shoulders were stiff. Its size was larger than that of an ordinary goblin, and its paw swings were not as threatening as goblin weapons. The attack range was only as long as the forearm. Its lower body was somewhat sluggish when turning, relying on its explosive power and speed to gain an advantage.

There were so many differences, and if they continued to hold onto the rhythm of fighting goblins, they would undoubtedly be passive. Kevin thought to himself.

Although demon wolves and goblins had many differences, it did not mean that Kevin and his team would lose to demon wolves. They had already won against multiple goblins, even with goblin warriors and shamans. So they had no reason to be unable to defeat ordinary demon wolves. Kevin was sure of this after observing and analyzing.

At this moment, the fight between Alex and the demon wolf had temporarily stopped, and they were facing each other from a distance. Kevin took this opportunity to make eye contact with Alex, and with their previous coordination, Alex understood Kevin's meaning. Kevin stepped forward, and the demon wolf slowly retreated, emitting a low growl from its throat, its body slightly turned to ensure it could see both of them.

"Now, Alex!" Kevin shouted, judging that the distance was enough.

"Okay, taunt!" Alex used his skill on the demon wolf.

The demon wolf, affected by the taunt, immediately rushed towards Alex. Alex blocked a paw strike, while Kevin had already approached. He cut deeply into the demon wolf's leg, crippling its mobility. This attack would have been avoided under normal circumstances, but the demon wolf, affected by the taunt, did not dodge it.

This attack was enough to break the taunt effect, but a demon wolf with one leg disabled would have difficulty utilizing its speed and explosive power advantage. Under the joint attack of Kevin and Alex, they quickly killed it. On the other side, Owen had also dealt with a demon wolf alone.