Garrick and Dustin followed the blood trail, but this time Garrick took the lead.
Both had their weapons ready and Dustin was extremely nervous. Garrick noticed when he saw Dustin's sword trembling.
He whispered. "Don't be nervous. You have a veteran mercenary in front of you."
Dustin gulped. "Y-yes."
After only a minute of walking slowly along the trail, they heard faraway noises.
Angry growls.
Pained yelps.
The snapping of jaws.
The sounds came and went before erupting again.
Garrick slowed his pace.
"Two groups."
Dustin nodded anxiously.
Garrick gestured with his hands to get closer quietly and observe.
Finding them wasn't difficult, and neither was staying unseen, surprisingly.
'Looks like a pack of six Feral Dogs is attack a small pack of three. But based on the few corpses laying around, both packs were probably bigger than that before.' Garrick thought.
Dustin's hands became sweaty despite the cold weather and frozen surroundings.
'I hope Garrick doesn't want to get involved in this.'
Garrick only made a waiting gesture with his hand.
'Let's wait this out. They might be weak individuals to me, but I prefer not to leave any variables. Dustin being with me could also make things difficult.'
He believed it was better to let the two packs fight it out and then ambush the remaining injured ones.
The fight between the two packs continued for another few minutes until the smaller pack only had one survivor left and the bigger pack had five remaining with many wounds.
The last one tried to escape by itself but the other pack blocked its path and started circling it before pouncing at it together to finish it off.
While this was happening, Garrick signalled at Dustin. 'Go!'
They both jumped out from behind the bushes and trees. Both started running with Dustin lagging a little behind.
The Feral Dogs mostly reacted simultaneously, but Garrick's spear was already upon them.
It pierced through the nearest Feral Dog's skull, swiftly pulled out and swung it diagonally to slice another one's neck.
"Shtk!"
"Plop."
Just like that, two out of five were dead.
Dustin arrived just in time to swing his sword down at one that was distracted by Garrick. His sword cut deep into the neck. Not enough to decapitate it, but enough for the kill.
Another jumped at Dustin, while Garrick was finishing off the other remaining one.
"Clang!"
"Pow!"
Dustin blocked it, but was pushed hard enough to fall on his back.
"Agh."
"Grr!"
The last Feral Dog came at the boy on the ground with all the strength it had left—
But the side of its head was pierced by Garrick's sharp spear and penetrated its brain.
Its lifeless body collapsed to the cold forest ground.
"Huff.."
Dustin was already out of breath.
"Stand up kid. You need to work on your balance. If I was a second too late, it would've caught your throat."
Dustin stood up and dusted off his pants.
"Yes. Thank you Garrick." He said embarrassed.
"Sure. It's too bad I didn't think to bring that porter called Paul from the party. We won't be able to bring along all these corpses."
"That's true. We also can't come back, since the corpses won't be here by then." Dustin added.
Garrick was about to crouch down and grab one of the bodies—
But was interrupted by the crack of a nearby branch.
He looked up quickly.
"Dustin. Raise your sword right now!"
"Huh?"
"Whoosh."
"Grr!"
Multiple figures came out of the shadows behind trees and growled.
"Wolves?"
Garrick hurriedly stepped in front of Dustin with his spear at the ready.
He pointed it at the small group of five Wolves.
"Focus. They must have been attracted by the smell of blood. Your only goal is to defend yourself and stay behind me. Understood?"
Dustin was scared. But looking at Garrick reliable and broad back, he calmed his nerves somewhat.
"Yes!"
"Good. Follow me closely and stay behind my back. I'll make the first move before they can surround us."
"Okay!"
'I should've seen this coming. The Feral Dogs for fighting here for way longer than when we arrived. It's obvious that other predators would've come to check it out.'
Garrick blamed himself for being so careless.
'I can't let this innocent kid die because of my thoughtless actions.'
The five Wolves started spreading out, and Garrick swiftly ran at the Wolf to the far left.
The Wolf tried to dodge, but Garrick's spear accelerated in the last moment and thrusted forward before it could react.
"Shtk!"
He cleanly stabbed between the eyes for an instant kill.
Dustin couldn't keep up with his speed but tried his best to stay near his back.
He looked to the right and saw the other four Wolves coming at them together.
They howled as they saw their companion die and ferociously attacked Garrick.
Garrick pivoted and stepped in front of Dustin again.
He made a big sideway swing to keep them at a distance.
But one of them was out of reach and circled around towards Dustin.
Garrick clicked his tongue.
"Dustin. Remember what I said. Focus on defending yourself. Keep that one busy while I fight the other three."
"Y-yes."
—
While Garrick and Dustin were struggling to survive their surprise encounter—
Not too far away inside the monster forest, William and Richard had just finished eliminating a separate couple of Wolves.
"Hm? Richard, did you hear that?"