Chapter 5
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Translator: MJK
Chapter: 005
Chapter Title: Wolf Hunt
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“What do you mean?! Tom, our Tom was bitten by a wolf?! Oh my god...!”
Gavory's legs gave out, and she collapsed onto the floor with a thud.
She had lost her husband in the war, leaving Tom as her last remaining family.
Now even Tom had been mauled by a wolf. It was no wonder she crumpled in shock.
Villagers began pouring into the inn.
“A wolf bit Tom?!”
“Why would it suddenly target people? There hasn't been anything like this in years.”
“Round up everyone first!”
The inn quickly filled with clamor. Dozens of people gathered in a rush—nearly every able-bodied adult male in the small village.
The wolf's appearance was a major crisis for the village.
“We have to catch that wolf right now! If we let the pack roam free, they'll keep attacking people all winter long!”
Winter wolves were notoriously vicious.
As the weather turned frigid and mountain game grew scarce, they descended on human settlements, preying on livestock or even people.
Fortunately, things had been quiet the past few years. A few years back, the village had mobilized all its men for a wolf extermination drive.
The packs in the mountains learned that hunting humans was dangerous, and they hadn't targeted people since.
But something had changed in that pack.
They had started hunting humans again.
“Please! Save our Tom! Please save him!”
Gavory Aunt's shrill voice echoed through the inn.
The villagers nodded gravely.
This time it was Gavory's son Tom, but next it could be their own kin.
Once a beast tasted human blood, it would always crave more.
They had to teach the wolves a harsh lesson to prevent further victims.
The sun had fully set, blanketing the land in darkness.
At the edge of a moonlit hillside outside the village, dozens of men—each carrying torches or farm tools—began climbing the mountain.
“It hasn't been long since Tom was bitten! He might still be alive!”
These were the villagers tracking the wolf.
The group consisted entirely of grown men capable of fighting—everyone from the village who could wield a weapon.
But not all were adults.
One young boy was mixed in among them.
“You're really pulling your weight, Andy. A kid like you getting dragged into something this dangerous.”
“...”
Andy. The twelve-year-old boy was joining the wolf hunt.
Of course, it wasn't by choice.
“Gavory Aunt feeds and houses us, so I've got to help out. Right? It's about repaying the favor of her putting a roof over your head.”
“Yes...”
Under the pretext of repaying that "favor," the villagers had half-forced the boy into service.
Wolf hunting was perilous.
Wolves hunted in packs, never alone.
Even with dozens of sturdy adults, someone could get badly hurt—or get unlucky and die.
Yet the villagers had dragged even young Andy along to pad their numbers.
'Because I have no parents.'
No blood kin to mourn if he died or got injured.
That's why they used the orphan child to fill out the ranks, despite his age.
Andy turned his gaze back toward the village in the distance.
A small, cozy settlement nestled at the foot of the mountain. Lights glowed warmly from every home, looking ever so comfortable.
Children his age were probably there, barricaded safely indoors with doors bolted tight against the wolves.
'While I'm out here...'
Forced into this deadly wolf hunt.
An age when he should be protected, yet he received no such safeguard.
In this era of war, life for a rootless orphan was brutally harsh.
The boy felt anew the sorrow of having no family.
But that sorrow didn't last long.
A far stronger emotion overtook his mind.
'...I'm scared.'
It was pure fear and terror.
Andy had climbed these hills outside the village every morning for firewood, but this was his first time at night.
The night mountain was utterly unlike the daytime one.
The torchlight barely pierced the trees and underbrush, leaving everything pitch black.
Rustling from small animals in the bushes, the chirps of insects grating on his nerves.
Without sunlight, even his sense of direction faltered.
And the primal dread emanating from the shadows beyond the foliage...
“...”
A wolf could leap from those shadows at any moment and tear out his throat.
Wolves instinctively targeted the weakest prey first.
Cold sweat soaked the boy's back.
Andy gripped his wooden club tightly.
'Gotta stay sharp.'
Taut with tension, he followed the group.
Deep in the midnight forest, dozens clutched their weapons, pushing through the dense woods.
How long had they wandered the woods?
Finally, they found signs of the wolf.
“Hold! Wolf tracks over here!”
Derrick, the village's sole hunter leading the way, shouted.
He knelt, scrutinizing the ground.
Clear wolf paw prints pressed into the dirt.
Shock rippled across the men's faces.
“What... the size of those prints...!”
“Is that really a wolf?!”
The prints were enormous.
Several times larger than a normal wolf's—unbelievably massive.
Tension etched the villagers' faces.
“No way it's a regular wolf... maybe a magic beast?”
“Hey, don't jinx it! A magic beast?!”
“But look at those huge prints! No normal wolf makes tracks like that. It has to be a magic beast...!”
Fear spread among the men.
Magic beast!
A creature that had absorbed mana and evolved beyond ordinary wildlife.
Those prints screamed magic beast—no regular wolf could leave such marks.
Hunter Derrick nodded grimly.
“This... it's definitely a magic beast track. Beyond what we can handle. We need to head back to the village now.”
“Head back?! What about Tom?”
“What can we do? His time was up. If you don't wanna die like a dog, get down the mountain. Wandering a magic beast's turf at night is suicide.”
Taking down a magic beast required an army, knights, or mages. Dozens of rural villagers stood no chance.
Tom might've been taken, but they didn't need to risk total annihilation to save him.
The decision came swiftly.
“Hurry! Back to the village!”
“Damn it, a magic beast! Of all things!”
“Quiet! If it hears us and comes...!”
Terrified by the magic beast tracks, the men fled down the mountain twice as fast as they'd climbed.
Andy followed in their wake.
'Good. We get to go without fighting wolves.'
Terrified and on edge during the nighttime ascent, but the magic beast revelation ended it bloodlessly.
Had they clashed with the pack, Andy would've been the most likely to get hurt. For him, it was a relief.
Andy hurried after the men, descending.
Parting thick underbrush, grabbing branches on steep slopes.
Then, suddenly.
'...Musky stench?'
The boy caught a scent.
One no one else—even the village hunter—noticed.
It was faint, but Andy's senses, honed by mana sensing training, picked it up.
Definitely an animal musk.
A chill ran up his spine. Instinct screamed danger.
Andy gritted his teeth.
-Awooooooo————!
-Awoooo——!...
Wolf howls echoed.
Not one—over ten voices erupted from all sides, shaking the midnight mountain.
The men's faces paled.
Seasoned hunter Derrick yelled urgently.
“Damn it! We're surrounded! Torches up! Light up as much as you can!”
“Surrounded? What—”
“The wolves are hunting us! Torches! Light 'em up!”
-Rustle, rustle, snap, snap, rustle.
The surrounding bushes shook in unison. Dozens of glowing eyes flickered in the darkness beyond.
The wolf pack slunk through the undergrowth, circling the men.
“We'd better pray there's no magic beast.”
Derrick muttered as he nocked an arrow.
The villagers raised torches and weapons, faces tense.
Andy just crouched, paralyzed by fear.
'I thought we'd make it back safe...!'
Andy had sighed in relief at avoiding a fight, but his hopes shattered.
He never imagined an ambush on the way down.
“Five... eight... eleven. Damn. At least a dozen wolves.”
“Wh-what do we do, Derrick?!”
“What do you mean, what? Those sickles just for show?! Swing when they charge!”
“...!”
The assault was instantaneous.
-Grrrrr!
A wolf leaped from the shadows. A perfect blind-spot attack. Jaws wide, it aimed for a man's neck.
Crunch!
The strike half-succeeded. It missed the neck but tore into his forearm.
“Aaaagh!”
“Heads down!”
Twang!
Hunter Derrick loosed an arrow. It sliced the air and struck the wolf's flank.
The beast yelped and tumbled, arrow piercing its lung. It writhed on the ground, gasping.
But it was just the beginning.
“They're coming from all sides!”
Wolves burst from the bushes in a mass charge—over ten of them. As the agile beasts swarmed, screams rose one after another.
Arms bitten, legs mauled. Sturdy men bled and fell.
But the humans didn't go down without a fight.
They lacked the wolves' fangs, but wielded sharper, tougher steel.
“Die!”
“Raaagh!”
The men swung sickles and axes wildly.
Most slashed only air, but some landed true.
Thud! Crunch!
An axe caved in a wolf's skull; a sickle gashed another's side.
-Kyaaang! Kyaang!
-Kiiing!
Wolves dropped one by one. Half of the dozen-plus pack lay dead.
A devastating loss for the group.
Wolves were cautious, cowardly beasts. Normally, they'd retreat after losing just one or two.
But for some reason.
“These crazy bastards...! Why won't they back off?!”
The pack didn't relent.
If anything, they grew more relentless as their comrades fell.
As if something far more terrifying lurked behind the humans.
-Kyaaang! Kyaang!
-Kiiing...!
All the wolves perished.
They charged to the bitter end, until the last one's skull shattered.
The battle finally ended.
“Huff! Pant! Heave!”
“Ugh... it hurts...”
In the aftermath of the midnight bloodbath.
Wolf corpses littered the ground; men gasped ragged breaths or groaned in agony.
A gruesome scene. The silver lining: no one had died.
“What in the world...”
Hunter Derrick was baffled.
Magic beast tracks. Wolves fighting to annihilation.
To a veteran hunter, this defied all logic. Packs never charged to total wipeout.
What was going on?
As he scanned the surroundings in confusion.
-Rustle. Rustle.
Bushes stirred.
Derrick and the others whipped toward the sound, bracing for a surviving wolf.
Their hunch was right. One final wolf remained.
A white wolf approached slowly, trampling bushes between the trees.
But something was off.
'A wolf... that big?'
Its size was monstrous.
Larger than a horse. Could you even call it a wolf?
And a horn protruded from its forehead, gleaming with an eerie blue sheen.
Enormous build. Forehead horn.
The men gasped in horror.
“Magic beast...!”
The dreaded creature they'd hoped never to meet stood before them.
Their eyes trembled wildly.