Southern Endless Mountains, Wuya Tribe, at the edge of the mountains.
In a forest, several men, young and old, and even a few children, were sneaking while holding bows and sabres.
A man, middle-aged and of strong stature, was leading. At one point, he stopped, looking at three wolves in front of them.
He gestured to those behind him –
They instantly understood: surround and attack!
The older men had rich experience and took the key points, while the younger sparsed between these points, filling the gaps.
As for the children, they mainly stood behind, holding stones and the like in their hands, mainly observing.
The middle-aged man, upon seeing everyone was ready, pulled his bow and fired an arrow!
Instantly, six more arrows followed –
Then five men, with strong builds, rushed forward, with sabres in hand. The sabre's blade had a glint of green.
On the other side, the wolves, that had been looking around warily, reacted the instant arrows flew to their side!
They jumped away, only one arrow narrowly hitting one wolf on the back, the others missing!
They gnarled at the attackers, but instead of attacking back, two of the wolves spread to the side of one. This last wolf looked at the hunters with a smug face before howling into the distance of the forest!
"ATTACK! QUICK! MORE ARE COMING!" the middle-aged man screamed, joining the five burly man in their attack.
He was the leader and coordinator, usually only firing the bow, but seeing this situation, he knew that his bow couldn't kill them instantly, so he switched to the sabre and attacked.
The two protecting wolves sprung forward, biting and swinging their claws, but they didn't cause any harm.
These hunters were extremely experienced and knew how to react.
The burly man who attacked were faster than one might think, instantly swiping their sabre before jumping backward, leaving a bloody wound on the wolves.
"Don't hesitate to get wound! We have to get out!" the middle-aged man screamed again, and the burly fighters reacted instantly.
They knew what this meant – get rid of the wolves as fast as possible, even at the cost of getting injured, because the risk laying behind was larger!
But alas, it was too late.
Just as the five men killed two, about to kill the scared third wolf, they suddenly heard a howl.
In an instant, they saw over twelve wolves coming their way!
These wolves rushed and nearly reached the outer ring of hunters in just a moment!
"Line up! Crescent ring!"
The middle-aged hunter was a coordinator and knew that if they fled, the resulting deaths would be larger than fighting, so he instead wanted to fight.
At that moment, the third wolf was already dead, the smug grin on his face becoming a shocked expression, not having understood to the last moment that he wasn't a scout but a bait casted by his wolf pack!
The five burly fighters from before instantly lined up in front of the incoming wolf pack, taking the position of the secondary fighters that had just defended against this pack.
These secondary fighters all stepped back, taking position.
Some had sabres, others had bows.
The trees between them made a full formation difficult for the wolves, but these experienced hunters could jump on the trees to fire arrows, or jump around the side to attack the wolves before returning back behind the five fighters.
In total, it seemed as if the situation was under control, but in fact, only eight of the wolves were fighting at this moment.
A larger silvery wolf stood behind these all, protected by four others.
Looking at the orderly formation, he howled at the wolves next to him, even jumping directly into the fight.
The moment he jumped in, one of the secondary fighters, about to retreat, was instantly bitten by him!
A sabre instantly followed, but it didn't hit the silvery wolf, instead hitting one of the protecting wolves that jumped forward.
Another sabre was about to follow but the silvery wolf quickly retreated, eying the secondary fighters that seemed to hesitate whether to jump in or not.
The previous eight wolves were all a bit tired, even more so than usual. They stepped slightly back. Instantly, the alpha wolf howled, commanding them to enter the fray once more.
With slight reluctance, they followed the command and pulled the attention of the main fighters again.
Just then, a stone was thrown towards one of these eight wolves, seemingly careless.
But instead of hitting him, it accidentally flew further, hitting one of the four protecting wolves!
The silvery wolf, looked over, the harm was little, but when he saw that the one that threw this was just a young boy, not even half as tall as these burly men, he was suddenly enraged!
He howled once more, at the wolf that was hit.
Instantly, the wolf left the protecting formation and was about to pursue the kid that just threw the stone!
Just then, another howl came, and this wolf instead changed position with one of the eight fighting wolves, while the most tired was able to escape the fight and instead chased after the already running boys.
"You, how can you be so stupid as to throw a stone there!!!" one of the young boys called out.
The boy, who threw the stone, was at the very front of their escape, seemingly having anticipated this.
His expression was hidden but there was no panic, only an apprehensive look as he looked back at the wolf that turned towards them.
He gave a simple answer "It was an accident. Just run."
"You-" just as the boy at the back was about to say something, he felt sharp pain in his back "AHH!!" he screamed.
The fighters in the back paid no attention to this, while the boys in front run even farther.
They were orphans. If they didn't join the hunt, they'd not get a single bite of bread, left to tend for themselves. Because of this, they were basically forced.
Previously, there was no issue and they helped carry the hunt back, this was the first time since they joined that they had a death!
Even though the wolf bit the young boy, he didn't stop, even throwing the boy to the side.
Instead, there was a bloody-red light in his eyes, pursuing the other two boys.
The boy in the middle, who was the first to call out the one that threw stones, saw this and knew he was endangered.
In an instant, his face contorted and he had an idea.
Using all his strength, he jumped forward, just a step behind the one in front.
Right as he was about to do something, the boy in front suddenly kicked back as he screamed "USE YOUR DAGGER! USE YOUR DAGGER! WE CAN KILL THEM!"
The one that was kicked was instantly caught by the wolf, who lowered his head as he swiped his claw.
The boy, confused and surprised, could only follow and take out his dagger – it was a simple skinning dagger, nothing special, just slightly sharp.
In that instant, when the dagger was pulled out, the wolf saw the danger and quickly followed with a bite after swiping his claw on the boy's upper body.
The boy, without even a moment to scream, died as the wolf bit his neck.
"Heh, you're chasing us because the poison is about to kick in, right?" the boy, who just kicked, appeared behind the wolf.
This wolf was just about to turn around and bite again when he felt a sharp dagger stabbing into his head.
Right as the dagger entered a few centimetres, the boy jumped on the wolf, pushing his own dagger further in, while the dagger below, held by the dying boy, was also pushed into the body of the wolf!
Even if the wolf was in his prime, with two daggers stabbing his belly and head, he would've suffered a severe injury!
Now, he instead died!
At his last moments, he looked unwilling at the boy behind him, unable to turn his head, he only saw a shadow through his eyes.
He wanted to howl one last time, as if calling for help.
But just as he was about to howl, the boy leaned forward, holding his maw together with his whole body.
Just like this, two boys died and a wolf died, two of which couldn't utter a single sentence at their death, dying silently…