"It's this way," I comment as I examine the tracks on the ground.

Without the light rain we had this morning, I doubt the tracks would have been visible. Wolves in this region tend to live little in the way of tracks as they move.

"What is?" Cam asks.

"The reason the Gate felt uneasy," I answer as I stand. "The wolf tracks have an extra paw, and I counted several of the wolves, not a single one. At least an entire pack is Tier Four, with the alpha being Tier Five."

"We can't handle that," Cam states. "You think the alpha is building up its forces."

"Wolves are already intelligent creatures," I say. "It wouldn't surprise me if one became clever enough early to realize that it could become more powerful. We haven't seen a pack like this in the area before, which means it's likely new."

Apart from the fishing day, Cam and I have spent every day since the Gate told us about the possible threat almost a week ago looking for signs of it. Right now, we're a little further northwest of where we normally go, after I located some suspicious tracks while we were scouting.

Wolves normally don't obtain an extra claw until they reach Tier Four, which is why I'm sure the pack is Tier Four. As for the alpha being Tier Five, well, there's one set of tracks that's twice the size of the others. Alpha wolves are bigger than the others, but not that much bigger. That's why I believe it to be a Tier Five.

"As for handling the pack," I say. "We should at least find out where they're located."

"And if they attack us?" He asks.

"Wolves," I remind him. "Tend to abandon a fight if they start losing members. All we have to do is kill one or two, and the rest will flee. Though there are ten sets of tracks, including the alpha's. Caution is probably advised."

"Nine Tier Fours and a Tier Five," Cam shakes his head. "We should send a message to the next town and ask for help."

"Let's at least find out where their den is," I say. "We can manage that much at least. And if they attack, we can always fly out. It's unlikely more than one of them would be able to follow. We'll head for the river and cross it, then head a fair more south before dropping down out of sight and returning back to town."

"That sounds fair," he says. "It still makes me nervous, though."

"It'll be fine," I tell him.

It makes me nervous, too, but it's better if we confirm the rough numbers and Tiers of the monsters before sending the request. If we say there's one Tier Five and nine Tier Fours, and it turns out there are three Tier Fives and fifteen Tier Fours, the help that comes might not be sufficient to deal with it, then we would need to wait for more to arrive. Summoning insufficient Hunters could also prove disastrous should they try to fight without realizing they're not enough, or thinking they can handle it because it's only a little past what they can do without too much issue.

Cam and I start traveling, making sure to keep alert for any potential threats. The wolves here are hunting the stronger monsters, and the weaker ones tend to not attack people unless attacked. Because of that, we're able to pass through the woods without much incident, and it takes us only an hour to locate the caves the wolves are staying in. We watch from a few dozen yards away, far enough that we won't be noticed unless something big happens or a patrol goes out or wolf comes back and passes near us.

There are three caves, each with an alpha. Three Tier Five wolves, with at least ten Tier Fours with them, in addition to the lesser wolves. The pups, who are being fed the hearts of monsters that their seniors rip straight from the still-living, though wounded, prey.

This is too organized for even a group of Tier Three monsters to have begun doing. They're forcing their pups into evolving to the next Tier. I can see a Tier Two squirrel as one of the prey, the pup eating it whole.

When a monster consumes the fresh heart of a monster above their Tier, it counts as ten percent of the fresh hearts needed to reach their next Tier, times ten for every Tier above them. So at Tier One, a Tier Two heart counts as ten Tier One Hearts and a Tier Three would count as one hundred. Eating the fresh heart of something two Tiers higher is an instant evolution.

But Tier Five monsters wouldn't normally have noticed this, nor would they generally want to build up power like this. Not of their own kin, anyway. And why would they work with other Tier Fives?

The answer makes itself clear as I sense something approaching behind us. It's moving silently and stealthily, and I wouldn't have noticed if I weren't on edge. Turning my head slowly, I come face-to-face with a wolf eight feet to the shoulders, standing above even the Tier Fives and their large forms.

Its fur is a mix of grey and brown, allowing it to blend into the shadows of the forest, its golden eyes looking at us menacingly. All three of them, a third one resting on the center of its forehead. The wolf also has a dark brown horn protruding from its head, a four-inch spike between its ears. Brown-and-grey scale-like protrusions grow over its shoulders, on its knees, and in a few spots along its body, acting akin to armor. I'm not sure how many tails it has, but it probably has three.

A Tier Six gaia wolf. This is no doubt the reason the Gate believes a Star-Level monster is forming, and it's right in front of us. Or, well, behind us. Crap. There's no way Cam and I are making it out of this unscathed. There's no way Cam will be able to heal both of us from everything.

This level of monster is beyond my ability to fight, and we have dozens of Tier Fours here, along with three Tier Fives. It's this beast which is intelligent enough to gather others and have them build up their power.

He probably also makes the others provide strong offerings to him, to build up his own strength. How old is he? How long as he been building up his power? Why did he move here? All questions to ask, if we make it out of here.

Chances of us making it out alive are slim, though. Doable, but slim. The moment a fight begins, the true alpha will alert the others, and they'll join in. Or at least, they'll block our escape as the Tier Six battles us. If we try to fly away, the Tier Six will attack us. It's definitely got the leg power to jump high enough to catch us.

The best option for escape is flight, but at the same time, we'll have to find an opportunity to start it. Preferably while the Tier Six is recovering from an attack. That just means I need to create that opening for us.

"Cam," I speak evenly. "You might want to prepare for a lot of healing. And when the opportunity comes, fly. This one will attack you as soon as it realizes you're a healer, so you'll need to move out of immediate range to give me enough time to protect you."

Cam stiffens beside me, hearing the slight worry in my voice and understanding the message. We have a monster behind us that is intelligent enough to realize a healer is a threat. That alone is probably enough to warn him we have a Tier Six here.

"Wolf?" He asks.

"Wolf," I confirm, turning my full body to face it. "Gaia wolf. If it attacks you before I can protect you, use wind mages to defend."

"Got it," he says. "Think it will summon the others?"

"If only to create a ring around us and prevent us from escaping," I say. "At least, by foot."

"Okay," he says. "Is it showing signs of hostility?"

The gaia wolf bares its teeth and snarls, answering the question for me. I notice it preparing to lunge in time to summon a wind wall, stopping its attack and sending it skidding to the side. Cam takes flight, landing in one of the trees above us. He can't go too high, or he won't be able to see me and heal me when needed.

I pull a spear from the ground, surrounding it with bladed wind, or wind that's been manipulated into a thin, but swift-moving current. In its pure state, the earth element is weak to wind and water. With water, though, there's always the risk that non-stone earth will merge with it and turn to mud rather than take damage.

The gaia wolf charges at me, jumping up to avoid the wind wall I manifested again. Yeah, this one's smart enough to adapt. I thrust my spear up and at one of the legs, but miss and strike the stomach, barely grazing it. The monster lands behind me, turning quickly as I turn to face it, thrusting my spear forward.

Slamming its front paws to the ground, the gaia wolf pulls a wall of earth up from the ground, stopping my attack before jumping over its defensive spell. As it lands, it flicks its four tails, and stone bullets shoot out at me. Thrusting a hand forward, I stop them with a wind wall, then jump back just in time to avoid the spikes shooing up out of the ground.

My back slams into the stone wall, the wolf already pressing me. Damn. I need to hurry and find an opportunity to leave. Until it realizes that Cam is a healer, it will focus on me, the fighter. As long as I don't get hurt, Cam will be safe until I make that opportunity for me to flee.

The gaia wolf turns back to face me even as I find myself pinned against the wall, and it opens its mouth. Immediately, I recognize the ripples in the air as a sonic blast and jump to the side, discarding my spear. The attack slams into the spikes as I roll away, shattering them before blasting the stone wall into rubble.

As I pick myself up, I catch the signs of other wolves moving to block off escape, having heard the sonic blast. At the same time, the gaia wolf is jumping at me. Jumping back, I avoid being crushed by its massive form. Pushing my hands forward, I throw a blast of air at the beast.

Two different monsters in a week that can use a sonic blast, and both are earth-based. At least the other was a mud-based monster, as I could use fire magics as one of its banes. But the gaia wolf isn't a mix that creates a bane, it's almost entirely earth. That means wind is the way to go. The sonic blast is simply a spell it obtained at some point, not available because of its natural elements.

My attack only ruffles the wolf's fur as I continue to back up, putting a little more distance between us. As the gaia wolf jumps forward again, I lunge forward, dropping down so that the wolf flies over me. When my hands connect with the ground, I unleash a water spell.

The spell quickly spreads through the ground within twenty yards, adding extra water to it and turning it to mud. I continue to fuel the spell as I pick myself back up, finding myself sinking an inch into the ground, though I'll know I'll sink even further into it. But this should hinder the gaia wolf some. It'll be working with the same slick conditions as me, and my spell will continue until there is a ring of mud one hundred yards in diameter.

Some of it will come from water generated by the spell, others from water in the ground already, drawn up or away from other things. Now, the wolf's speed is hindered, as it its jumping ability.

The wolf watches me, waiting to see what I do next. I could fly off now, but there's no guarantee the wolf won't still manage to catch me. If it does, it might knock me away from the area I'm muddying. I also want the mud to be thicker before I try to fly off, too. The thicker the mud, the harder it will be for the wolf to jump as high.

I take a deep breath, and as I exhale, I infuse myself with lightning, increasing my speed. It won't do much for my offense against the wolf, though it still help me with my movements in the mud. A Tier Six beast's hide is simply too tough for something like this to affect it without it being its bane. At least, at my current level of power. I'd need to be at least Level 25 to hurt it with this spell.

The gaia wolf prepares to jump, and I hold out a hand, pulling up a spear just as it jumps at me. This time, I manifest a barrier of wind in front of the tip of the spear, then throw it as I jump up, flying backwards. The spear impacts the gaia wolf in the shoulder, driving it slightly off-course. It crashes into the mud next to where I had been standing, then slams two paws into the ground before opening its maw for a sonic attack.

Jumping up, I do my best to avoid both the spikes and the sonic attack, only to find it flinging balls of mud and stone at me with flicks of its tails. Did it really notice I had flown and predict I would use that to evade?

Holding up my arms, I block the attacks with a wind wall as best I can. The balls of stone are moving too fast, though, and make it through my wind wall. Even slowed, they impact me pretty hard, breaking my ability to focus on the flight spell.

I start to drop, only to find the gaia wolf jumping at me, moving to intercept me as I fall. Opening my mouth, I inhale as much as I can, then exhale, emitting a sonic breath attack of my own. It's much more powerful than when I clap, as instead of a single wave of it, it's continuous, just like theirs.

My attack pushes the gaia wolf back, the mud having hindered its jump enough that I can knock it back down. Had it jumped from solid ground, it would have been moving much too fast. It seems I stopped fueling the muddying spell, too, so the spread stopped. I only noticed this because my sacred power isn't draining any more.

Catching myself with flight magic at the last moment, I avoid slamming into the ground and instead just drop into it, unable to fully catch myself and just soften the impact.

Strange. The mud is still deeper than it should be. Ah. Cam is fueling it from where he is. Thank you, Cam. He should have realized how far I wanted it and how deep, too, so I shouldn't have to worry unless one of the wolves surrounding us realizes what he's doing and decides to attack to stop him.

If I'm going to escape, I'm going to have to hinder the gaia wolf so more. That means waiting until the mud is thick enough to hold it down. Hopefully, Cam won't make it too thin, or it won't suck on the monster's paws and help hold it down. I might be able to create another opportunity to escape, though.

Thankfully, it is just the Tier Six and me fighting. I'd lose rather fast if the others joined in, the way the gaia wolf is pushing me.

Raising a hand, I point up with two fingers, then slash down. Lightning shoots from my fingers towards the gaia wolf, impacting the mud in front of it. The spell spreads a bit, slightly stunning the gaia wolf, and I take its momentary paralysis to draw the mud up around its paws, then harden it into thick cuffs that start in the drier soil beneath the mud. At the same time, I bind its tail with the same spell, then use wind magics to being flying once more.

Not taking any chances, I keep facing the gaia wolf, and am glad I do, as it releases a howl that shakes the air. The mud field vibrates from the force of the howl, buds from the trees fall, and the stone I drew up to bind it breaks.

I hold out both hands, drawing the air together around me into a pair of spears of pure wind as the gaia wolf prepares for another jump. Then I'm out of the canopy of trees and throw the spears. The first one glances off the gaia wolf's shoulder as it simply breaks through the weaker branches on its way to me, the force of its jump powerful enough that the trees don't slow it down. The second spear grazes along its side.

Neither attack does much, and as I try to avoid it, the gaia wolf grabs onto my left foot. I cry out in pain as its teeth break through my boots and pierce my leg, and both of us fall towards the ground as I blast the monster with spike of wind after spike of wind, hoping I can hurt it. I manage to scratch it some, but I'm simply too weak. When did I lose my lightning enhancement spell? I must have lost the focus on that during one of its attacks.

We slam into the ground, then the gaia wolf whips its head to the side. I hear a snap as pain shoots through my leg. Then, the gaia wolf whips its head to the other side, releasing me, and I'm thrown into a tree. As I drop to the ground, the gaia wolf slams both its paws into the mud, raising up a wall of stone beneath me, tossing me back up into the air.

Catching the movement of its tail, I summon up a thicker wind wall before, shifting the wind so it moves as fast as I can. My sacred power drains much faster for this adjustment because it's beyond my power level, but it's necessary for this adjustment.

Spikes of stone and balls of stone fly up from the gaia wolf's tail, slamming into my wind wall. A few make it through, cutting into me or simply impacting me as I try to begin my flight spell again. It looks like this is the end for me. Cam can't heal what this thing did to my leg, and there's no way we can both escape. I can feel his healing magic at work, already mending some of the cuts from the spikes, but it's useless. He can heal me all he wants, we aren't both making it out of here.

"GO!" I roar, using wind magic to make my voice echo and shake the air.

The gaia wolf winces at that, giving me a brief respite. I hear movement in a tree, then catch the sight of Cam flying away. While I know he'd rather stay behind and heal me, but he knows just as well as I do it's better one of us makes it out of here so that the Elder Hunter can peer into the experience and see what happened.

As I expected, Cam was ignored as he flew away. Since he hadn't fought at all, they likely believe him to not be a fighter in any way. They probably have never encountered humans before, either, making it unlikely for them to know that it's the fighters who can learn how to manipulate the wind to fly.

My focus isn't the best right now from the repeated attacks on me and repeated use of powerful spells on my part, so I lose hold of my own spells and drop back to the ground. Struggling to my feet, I see the gaia wolf slowly approaching as I do my best not to put too much weight on my left leg. A whip of its tail from the side, and a ball of stone forms, then is launched at me, slamming into my chest and throwing me back.

I could use light magic to heal myself, but it would only delay my death. I'm still not going to go down without doing as much as I can to this thing, though.

Light magic.

I've never used light magic as a weapon before, but it might prove useful here. Holding up my hands, I close my eyes as tightly as possible before filling the area with as much light as I can. As soon as I stop, I use wind magics to fly up into the air, catching that I did blind the wolves. Even the gaia wolf is stumbling slightly, struggling to pull its paws as it attempts to focus on seeing.

Then I'm out of the canopy and am over the forest. With one more glance to the stumbling gaia wolf, I thank the powers at be for my escape and take off.

I've barely flown twenty feet when some sense of mine warns me of danger, and I turn to find the gaia wolf closing in on me. Before I can react, it's grabbed my left foot again, and I let out another cry of pain.

The monster pulls me back to the ground as I lose focus, and this time, my head hits a stone. Pain shoots through my skull as black spots fill my vision. I'm vaguely aware of the gaia wolf releasing my foot, before I feel it flipping me onto my back. Blood or something has run into my right eye, making it hard to see out of it. Maybe blood, that's the side that struck the stone.

Placing a paw on my chest, the gaia wolf pins me down, then moves its face close to mine. Its breath smells of meat and blood, rancid. Its last meal. Soon to be its second-to-last meal.

As I struggle to come up with a way out of this, not wanting to die even as I know I'm about to, the gaia wolf snarls, asserting its victory over me and its dominance here.

Gathering what little focus I can muster, I draw on my sacred power, pulling with all I have in a final effort at surviving this fight. I summon a new spear, and the moment I feel it, I wrap it with bladed wind, willing it with my magic to strike, my body too weak to move after its repeated battering and the strike to my head.

My spear strikes as I wonder why it took so much more sacred power to create. The moment it hits something, there's a powerful blast of wind, pushing me even further into the mud as the gaia wolf is blown off of me.

The spell is taking too much sacred power out of me, so I cancel it, then try to find the gaia wolf. It's several yards away, the trees around us broken by the blast. I must have screwed up the spell, but it seems I finally wounded the beast. There's a long gash on its neck, and it's breathing heavily.

It seems dazed by my attack. This might be my moment. The spell comes painfully to me, but I manage to recast my flight spell and lift up into the air. The gaia wolf still seems dazed by the attack. I'm low on sacred power, dangerously so, and pray to the powers that be that this time, I do manage to escape.

After ten yards. I pray again. After twenty, I start to hope. After thirty, I check back. Nothing is following me. After fifty, I feel pray a third time. After one hundred, I feel my magic start to fail.

But I push on. It seems that last attack worked in giving me the chance to escape. I hope. It doesn't appear anything is following me on the ground. Just in case, I need to loop around, crossing over the river to ensure they lose my trail if they are following.

The townsfolk will probably be panicking as I recover enough magic to mend myself a little bit, then fly back, but at least I'm alive. And once I'm back, I'm going straight to the Elder Hunter. Cam will have already been examined, but it'll be best if she receives the view of the fight from me directly. I'm not sure why, but it's always best to see it from the fighter, but also from as many sources as possible.

Once I'm sure I'm a safe distance past the river, I drop down into the forest and fly for a distance more, heading a little east, but not yet north. After a few more minutes, when I can't fly any more, I let myself drop back down. Time to rest and recover from the fight. Nothing in this section should attack me, based on what Cam and I saw yesterday when we were searching it, so I should be safe to rest for a few hours.

Against my will, my eyes close as exhaustion overtakes me.