Dire Wolves (3)

The Great Plains of Death. This region had not been named randomly. Its name was given because of the countless deaths that travellers met when attempting to cross it. Bandits, wolves or even magical creatures roamed there. There was a gigantic ecosystem, and human travellers lied in the very bottom. Even knights struggled to survive there. As for the defenseless to-be-apprentices, they could hardly stand their ground against the few dire wolves that managed to get accross the few black-robed knight formation composed of those who had not charged to kill the dire wolf king.

*AHOOOO*

Ten minutes later, Ourin's body started to feel heavy. He knew he had broken through the knight realm, yet no joy could be seen on his face. On the ground, the body of Anna had been stomped by her own allies, her insides eviscerated by the claws of dire wolves. She was not the only one. Three noble men had died alongside her, as they met a bigger dire wolf who killed them one at a time. Ourin could not help them as he was already fighting three dire wolves on his own a few meters further.

The dire wolves kept coming though, and there was no end to them.

'The book had not mentioned this level of danger...Is it the butterfly effect?', Ourin wondered

Fortunately, Harry and him were strong enough to take care of most dire wolves which came for them. In a sense, their small numbers allowed them some sort of protection. Ourin just had to turn his head to realize that the battlefield around them was chaotic. George's alliance, the Furze Alliance, had already collapsed and it was every man for himself. Ourin had already killed 14 dire wolves at this point, and more than twenty had been killed by his alliance, which was a much better result than their peers.

The direwolf howls were unceasing, and Ourin was currently facing a 2-metre long huge direwolf. As the direwolf continued snarling, Ourin could smell the stench from it. Breathing in and out, Ourin could feel exhaustion and muscle pain throughout his body. His back was also bleeding quite profusely as he had been overwhelmed and claws reached his flesh. His crossbow was no longer in a functionning state, so he had to rely on his sword and shield.

Using his [Perfect Defense] knight killing technique, he managed block these wild beasts quite proficiently, each battle teaching him a great deal of pratical knowledge. However, the last wolf in front of him was tall and strong, and its attributes were far superior to him. This was no longer a regular dire wolf. It was a monstrous beast.

[Name - Beta Dire Wolf | Status - Injured, poisoned | Attributes : Strength - 2.5 (3.5) | Agility - 1.9 (2.5) | Vitality - 2.2 (4.1)]

Despite Bessita and Joella shooting poisoned crossbow bolts onto its hide, it was still strong and agile.

Ourin moved forward but his grip was no longer as firm as it originally was. Slashing towards the direwolf, he was surprised to see the beast accepting the blow. His blade stuck in the monster's flesh, Ourin realized that he had been tricked. Quickly giving up on his sword, he retreated one step, avoiding death by a small margin as the beat rushed forward and bit the air with such forth that it made Ourin's ears hurt slightly.

Ourin was shocked. This level of intellect...It far exceeded anything depicted in the book. Be it their strength, their tactics or even their numbers...Had he not broken through the knight realm, Ourin would have died.

"Why aren't they doing anything?", Harry shouted in frustration as he rushed forward with his sword, slashing towards the gigantic beast in an attempt to save Ourin who was barely blocking the flurry of claw strikes from the dire wolf. Just like Ourin, he was expecting the acolytes in charge of protecting the convoy to do something about the situation

The dire wolf howled and launched its claws towards Harry, who somehow managed to roll on the ground to avoid a fatal injury, but even then, his back was lascerated and started to bleed profusely.

'Is it how it all ends?', Ourin thought with fear, 'I knew that a dire wolf attack would happen, and I created an alliance to support me and increase my odds of survival. Should I have gathered more people? But then, we would have had to face more dire wolves. Should I have used them as meat shields? My efforts should have been more than enough to survive the dire wolf incident...So why are these dire wolves so strong in this timeline?'

Seeing that the wolf's attention shifted from disarming him to kill his companion of arms Harry, Ourin summoned his fighting willpower and discarded his shield to grant him more mobility and took the sword of a fallen Steelcrest noble youth lying on the ground. He charged with all of his might, and slashed its legs.

*AHOOO*

The beta dire wolf was obviously surprised and tried to rotate and bite the little human that had injured him, but with its legs cut and bleeding, they did not have enough strength or durability to suppot its weight and it lost balance.

*SWOOSH*

Two more crossbow bolts hit its abdomen, one of its weak spot, causing it to twitch unbearably due to the poison. Seeing its agony, Ourin did not hesitate before killing it once for all.

*SPLASH*

Just as they killed it, the white-robed acolytes who were overseeing the battlefield on the top of their carriage finished casting their triple-casting spell, summoning a gigantic magma ball. A huge explosion reverberated through the battlefield, and a 30-meters-big crater formed at the emplacement where there used to be the direwolf king. Alongside its remains, the charred bodies of the black-robed knights who had charged to kill it were lying on the ground, lifeless.

This marked the end of the direwolf battlefield. Out of the 156 apprentices, only 105 would survive. The quotas set by the academies had not been respected, but the white-robed acolytes did not seem to care much. In their eyes, their rewards for the task would slightly decrease. In Ourin's eyes, however, youths he had bonded with were dead.

'This world is deeply wrong...', Ourin realized.

Injured, he retreated back to the carriage. There Bessita attended his wounds with care, stitching his back proficiently. She also made sure to pour alcohol to disinfect his injuries even though this was not the custom. Ourin knew that he had higher vitality, but he did not want to die from an infeciton.

This fight had taught him a valuable lesson: To never trust the book again.

However, he had gained a lot from this fight.

The breakthrough to the knight realm would surely increase his odds of surviving the journey to the magical academies.