"Not good!"

"It actually attracted all six aardwolves at the same time!"

The group hidden in the forest couldn’t help but be somewhat gloomy.

The original plan was to only attract a portion of those mutated aardwolves at a time and eliminate them in small groups.

The pressure was quite high now that they were facing six mutated aardwolves.

But thinking of Masked Twin Blades, that guy with frightening strength standing behind them, both the White River Valley’s garrison and the Bramble team felt very calm.

The sika deer nimbly jumped through the forest, following the already fixed plan.

Everyone got into position.

Marvin was calmly standing on a big tree’s branch, focused on the operation.

Those mutated aardwolves were really ignoring the orders of the ordinary gnolls.

They only listened to that gnoll Sorcerer’s most basic commands.

But they still couldn’t fight their instinct.

This was good news.

The sika deer’s speed was quite fast. In fact, she would be able to leave those aardwolves behind if she used some strength. But for the sake of the plan, she had to slow down.

Actually, these mutated aardwolves were quite strong, but they seemed to be lacking in explosive power. This might be the price of taming them.

The sika deer soon arrived to the scheduled place.

The six chasing aardwolves arrived almost at the same time.

"Six aardwolves, the traps aren’t enough…"

Marvin looked towards Gru hiding behind a big tree. The latter nodded slightly.

The two men instantly reached a tacit understanding. The cooperation between experienced adventurers was very comfortable. Often, one meaningful glance was enough to communicate their intentions.

One each.

Gru’s burst power might not be as strong as Marvin’s, but his strength was good enough to block a mutated aardwolf.

The other four would just be taken care of by the garrison and the others. Marvin had already established their tactics. There shouldn’t be any problem as long as they followed the plan.

Marvin jumped down and rushed toward one mutated aardwolf, catching it off guard with a stomp to its head and then flipping over.

It was as if he was doing acrobatics on the large back of the aardwolf to keep his balance.

And on the other side, Gru aimed at another mutated aardwolf’s head with his heavy sword.

"Clang!"

The mutated aardwolf’s instinct wasn’t bad. It actually used its hard claws to endure the sharp heavy sword

The two of them started having a contest of strength.

...

Things seemed quite showy on Marvin’s side.

He had experienced quite a lot of things, so killing a mutated aardwolf wasn’t much of an issue.

20 dexterity was enough to let him know when the running wolf would make a sudden move.

He suddenly leaned downward. With a "Woosh," his right hand pulled out a thin silver wire!

This was a [Tough Silver Wire], a weapon bought from the ranger guild and also a very unusual killing weapon.

Even if it wasn’t an uncommon item, it was considered quite strong among the common weapons.

The mutated aardwolf frantically shook his body, trying to throw Marvin off its back.

But Marvin’s legs were tightly circled around the aardwolf’s lower back. He took advantage of the moment when the aardwolf roared and stood up to ruthlessly wrap the aardwolf’s neck with the wire in his hand.

"Shua!"

The thin silver wire constricted the aardwolf neck. It painfully roared but even its roar was suppressed by the pressure on its throat.

Marvin seemed to be flying as he jumped and grabbed a branch. He made a tight knot on a thick and solid branch with both ends of the silver wire.

He then just stably stood on the tree, looking down toward the aardwolf crazily thrashing on the ground.

The tough silver wire would just keep digging onto its neck as it kept struggling.

Soon, its fur began to be filled with blood, but its movement also became more and more fierce!

This was an empty-headed beast!

If it had wisdom, it would have known that it would be best to stop moving.

But its intelligence was truly underwhelming. It even began to frantically run away from this place, trying to run away far from Marvin, this frightening human.

Unfortunately...

It soon choked to death because of its stupid actions.

[Target has died… 98 battle exp received!]

Mutated aardwolves had no useful loot, so Marvin wasn’t interested in looking. He glanced at Gru, and found out that he had already used strength to suppress the mutated aardwolf.

‘This guy’s strength really can’t be underestimated, he actually had that much power. He might also be holding back.’

Marvin hurriedly put away the silver wire and went to the place they had agreed on beforehand.

But he didn’t realize that Gru was even more amazed when he saw Marvin easily killing a mutated aardwolf like that!

Something like Tough Silver Wire could be bought at some places, but very few people were able to use it.

Using this thing to kill someone was simply wishful thinking.

Not to mention when fighting those frightening beasts; where could they find this kind of opportunity!?

However, Marvin did it.

‘This guy’s dexterity, has he already reached the limit threshold? Being able to coordinate his body like that would be impossible without a lot of years of training.’

‘In the end, who is he? He suddenly appeared in the south. Could it be a ranger from the north?’

Bramble’s captain was puzzled, but his hands didn’t relax.

Ha!

After a furious shout, Gru, who had finished storing power, saw an opportunity and let out a powerful [Bloodthirsty Cleave] on that mutated aardwolf’s head!

"Wu…."

This one blow directly split the head in half!

Brain matter scattered everywhere!

...

On the other side, the four aardwolves chasing the sika deer also had a bad ending.

The sika deer rushed to the prepared location and slowed down, steadily moving past some level ground.

Even though she shape-shifted into a deer, her weight was still very light. She was at least lighter than the mutated aardwolves by two thirds!

As a result, when the four aardwolves, in a hurry to kill, came over, they fell in the trap that the group had dug beforehand.

It was a huge pit with some brittle tree planks and twigs, camouflaged quite roughly, but considering the intelligence of mutated aardwolves…

The hole wasn’t considered very deep. The aardwolves roared, trying to get out.

But they couldn’t do anything!

The pit was covered with pine resin and rapeseed oil!

Marvin let Anna prepare the things beforehand, and she had intentionally bought those two kinds.

Rotten low rank pine resin and cheap black oil (cooking oil used and discarded). These seemingly useless things had become the bane of those mutated aardwolves!

They kept pushing each other, continuously slipping and unable to crawl up!

"Burn them!"

A torch was thrown in by one of the garrison members.

"Crash!"

Flames immediately spread through the whole pit.

The mutated aardwolves kept howling endlessly.

‘Fear of fire! This is the mutated aardwolves biggest weakness!’ Marvin watched as the flames ruthlessly swallowed those aardwolves up, feeling satisfied.

He had noticed that those mutated aardwolves fur was already quite greasy, coupled with the burning pine resin.

"Tssk." This roasted wolf meat was actually quite a sight.

In the forest, the sounds of anguished howls from the aardwolves could be heard.

The garrison still had their weapons in hand, not slacking off. The Bramble team members gathered, along with Gru who had just finished dealing with his aardwolf.

They were quite satisfied with this first battle’s results.

They didn’t have any casualties. This was an adventurer’s most important goal.

That was why their eyes were filled with a lot of respect and gratitude when looking at Anna.

Because this was Anna’s plan.

Only, they didn’t know that everything was planned by Marvin, controlling from behind the scenes!

"The Lynx should have gotten rid of the gnolls, right?"

That woman who shape-shifted into a sika changed back. It’s just that she wasn’t wearing much, only a plain overcoat.

Shape-shifting was rather annoying. Every transformation would burst one’s clothes.

"Humph! Nine people for four gnolls… If they can’t manage to deal with it, they don’t need to stay in the field," another team member said.

Everyone was quite relaxed.

Only Marvin stayed vigilant.

It was because he knew that often, when victory was in the palm of your hand, it could still be snatched away.

"Roar!" With a bellow, a huge figure jumped out from the pit!

Everyone was startled!

This mutated aardwolf actually stepped on his comrades’ bodies to force himself to jump out of the hole.

This jumping ability was far beyond his own abilities. It must have been due to the crisis arousing potential.

He charged into the group while still on fire all over.

Gru was alarmed. Without saying anything else, he grasped his heavy sword with both hands.

But someone was faster than him!

Marvin spun his twin daggers, crazily rushing forwards. In the blink of an eye he was in front of the flaming aardwolf.