Chương 64: Ambush

The other things to worry about turned out to be the Wind Wolves. Evidently, the Demonic Beasts had decided this moment of infighting was the opportunity the Wind Wolves were waiting for to make their attack. Damion spun when he heard a howl, unfortunately, he was too slow. The Wind Wolf lunged out of the brush and slammed into him. The pair went tumbling to the ground and Damion lost hold of his sword while the Wind Wolf ended up on his chest.

The Wind Wolf's claws could not pierce Damion's armor, but Damion had to use one arm to block the wolf from being able to maul his face, luckily his gauntlet was charged with mana and it's shield spell was holding off the wolf's teeth. Pulling his knife from his waist, Damion plunged it into the wolf's side several times before he found the wolf's heart. Once the Wind Wolf was dead, Damion pushed it off of him and he got to his feet and searched for his sword.

Damion saw it on the ground not far away and made a quick dash for it. The rest of their party had also been targeted by the Wind Wolves. Ethan stood near Theodore and there were three dead wolves around them. While Arica did not have any wolves where she stood, but there was a trail of wolves around everyone that appeared to be her doing. And Christine had a knife in her left hand and a wolf at her feet, though she also had some rips on the sleeves of her shirt.

"They aren't done," Arica warned. Even though they had just killed almost a dozen Wind Wolves, Damion had to agree with her. He could see movement in the bushes as another wave of the pack prepared to assault them.

"You all circle up. I'll take care of them," Damion said as he charged his sword full of magic. Not only did he power the normal enchantments on his blade, he also charged the fire attack glyph. However, instead of using the attack glyph to send out his fire slash or fire pillar attack, Damion sheathed his sword in fire. The Wind Wolves, seeing Damion step forward while the rest of the party huddled around the still recovering Theodore, decided to take care of Damion first.

From the brush came four large Wind Wolves. These four were close to a head taller than all the ones they had faced so far, but the same size as the one Damion had faced during his advancement exam. This told Damion that these four were E Rank. The Wind Wolves started circling Damion, trying to catch him off guard. Unfortunately for them, Damion was not actually alone. When the wolves circled behind Damion, it gave an open shot for Christine to attack with her bow.

She had not taken down one of the Demonic Beasts yet, but two of them had bleeding wounds from her magic arrows. The Wind Wolves, not wanting to expose themselves to more of Christine's attacks settled in front of Damion. They fanned out, but with Damion in between, Christine did not have a clear target and held off attacking until she was sure she would not hit Damion in the back. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

With all the Wind Wolves in front of him, Damion chose to rush forward in hopes of catching the Demonic Beasts off guard. Damion charged at the closest Demonic Beast, but before he got within striking range, Damion launched himself sideways and managed to slash one of the four wolves across the muzzle with his flaming sword. The other three Wind Wolves quickly reacted to Damion's shift and launched themselves at him.

Damion spun, dodging the closest wolf's leap at him, while Damion slashed his sword in an arch, catching the second wolf in the side. The flaming blade not only cut through the flesh of the beast, but it also ignited the Demonic Beast's fur. The third beast was the unluckiest of them all, as it was the furthest from Damion when he launched himself in the opposite direction, which gave Christine an opening, and she easily dispatched it with an arrow through its eye.

With two beasts injured and one dead, Damion focused on the uninjured beast as the one with its fur on fire was rolling on the ground as the one with its muzzle injured tried to help squelch the flames. Damion rushed at the uninjured wolf and started trying to cut the wolf down. This beast, however, seemed to have learned from the mistakes of its brethren and was skillfully dodging Damion's sword, while looking for a chance to attack back.

Taking a half step back, Damion gave the Wind Wolf some extra space, he hoped if the wolf had the room that it would try to lunge at him as the others had. The Wind Wolf started to do as Damion hoped but stopped short of actually jumping at Damion when Damion repositioned his blade to stab the wolf if it actually lunged at him. Stopping short still put the Wind Wolf within Damion's attack range, so Damion stabbed his sword forward, hoping to catch the wolf by surprise.

Unfortunately, the wolf ducked below Damion's blade and slashed at Damion's unarmored knees. Damion's pants tore and blood gushed out of his knee, but the gashes from the wolf's claws were mostly superficial. Instead of taking a step back, like most would after getting injured, Damion quickly reversed the grip on his sword and stabbed down, piercing the Wind Wolf's back. Putting all his strength into his blade, Damion forced the sword through the wolf's body and pinned it to the ground.

Damion extinguished the fire on his sword and in doing so also put out most of the flames on the back of the Wind Wolf he just killed. Free of the risk of burning himself, Damion pulled his sword out of the wolf and looked for the last two, but both had already met their ends by Christine and her magic bow.

"Well, that was fun," Ethan said as he sheathed his daggers and looked around at the dead wolves.

"Do you think those were the champions?"

"Possibly," Arica said thinking it over.

"The other groups all encountered the champions in the cave though. It was a long cave, with four chambers. The first chamber would have a pack, the second and third a champion and the final chamber the guardian."

"Then there is hope for a few more E Rank beasts," Ethan smiled.

"How is your knee Damion?" Arica asked as she tried to take a look at Damion's wound.

"Superficial. I wonder what a set of knee pads would cost," Damion pondered out loud as he silently wondered why Leland had not made him a full set of armored greaves instead of thigh and shin guards.

"Don't do that, you'll lose mobility," Ethan told him.

"Why do you think I only have a chest piece and vambraces. The more you weigh yourself down, the slower you'll be."

"Maybe, but then I wouldn't have to worry about getting a new pair of pants," Damion joked as he tore away the ripped cloth around his injured knee.

"Theo, why don't you close his wound," Arica said to Theodore who was brushing off dirt and leaves from his outfit.

"As soon as he explains why he attacked me."