The group looked towards the corpses and instead of the large and burly body typical of a bear they saw a large but lean body with a furry tail.

“He’s right, those are wolves.” Bella agreed.

A worried look crossed through Travis eyes as he looked around himself, 20 wolves were headed in their direction, however this time they were more cautious, they had spread out and surrounded the group from all sides.

Travis took one step forward, consciously or unconsciously separating himself from the rest of the group, his eyes were focused on the ground.

With his back turned towards the group he began. “*Sigh*. We are surrounded, that much you can see, but that doesn't worry me, well… maybe it does but it shouldn't.”

Everyone looked at Travis as if he was insane.

[Good… he went bat shit crazy.]

Travis half turned his body, making his side profile visible to the group, on his face there was no worry, no concern, no fear, only a gentle smile.

“Do you know why that is?”

As he talked, one of the wolves managed to crawl to only a couple of meters away from the group using a stone wall for cover.

“*Tsk.*” Travis noticed it and was visibly annoyed, maybe because he felt he was being interrupted during his speech.

His left hand grazed the ring on his other hand where a 2 meter long sword with an equally impressive 20 cm of width instantly appeared. In one smooth movement, that behemoth of a sword crashed into the wall in a downwards cut.

“Awoooooo”

The sword didn't cut through the wall like one would expect, instead, it shattered it, along with the poor wolf’s spine, it shattered completely, on it’s skin was a deep cut where the sword had connected and weird protrusions around where the spine should have been were clearly visible even from under the skin and yet, even in such condition, the beast seemed to be gripping to life, squirming and wailing but gradually fading.

Travis disdainfully looked at the wolf, he then gazed towards the stars and under their light placed his foot on the beast's head.

“That's because every strategy is useless before true power.”

As he spoke he started applying pressure on his foot and cracking sounds could be heard.

“AWOOOOOOOOOOO” The poor wolf gave one last cry of pain.

“That's because before absolute power, you only have two choices… to submit or die…”

*Crack* The beast skull completely crumbled under Travis’s foot, brain matter, blood, bone and teeth splattered everywhere.

Aegon was speechlessly staring at this scene. Something inside him was telling him that what he just witnessed was wrong, cruel even. Yet he couldn't deny that Travis looked pretty cool while doing it.

[This guy is good. I need to start taking some notes.]

The others were not better than Aegon, all of them were left shocked by Travis imposing speech and manner.

Looking at his fellow disciples' expressions Travis showed a proud smile.

[Yes…Yes… that's it… be shocked by my grandiosity.]

“Growl!”

[*Sigh* Let’s end this.]

Once again turning his body towards the wolves surrounding the group Travis lowered his body and stomped on the ground, propelling him and his massive sword forward.

In an instant he was facing three wolves who jumped in his direction, swinging his sword as he cleaved towards the beasts.

Swoosh.

All three of the beasts were thrown together and fell a few meters away. To everyone's surprise, only a few seconds later, two out of the three wolves had regained their footing and seemed mostly uninjured.

[They used him as a shield.] Aegon concluded.

Travis frowned at the outcome but wasn't surprised.

“This is the problem with wolves, they have better cooperation than bears, but they can also be selfish and sacrifice others like you just saw, be on your toes.”

As Travis spoke, Bella, Linda, Roy, Percy and Aegon unsheathed their weapons.

Percy, looking at his surroundings, noticed that more wolves approached and soon all would be there, not wanting to waste time, and also trying to impress the ladies, Percy swung his battle axe over his shoulder and rushed towards two wolves in the opposite direction Travis had gone.

As he approached he increased his velocity and when within two meters of the wolves he swung his axe in a full rotation.

But both wolves were way more careful after their companions' deaths, and crouched at the very last moment, the axe’s blade brushed the top of their fur but they were totally unharmed and right in front of a mostly defenceless target, without hesitation one of the beasts bit Percy’s calves.

“AHH.” A muffled short cry escaped Percy’s lips right before he lost his balance and fell on his back.

Looking to his right he saw the other wolf’s jaw opening ominously, when it got within inches of his face, his panicked and pained expression turned into one of enlightenment as if he´d found a sliver of hope.

From under his shirt a lizard, similar to the one Aegon saw on top of Linda’s shoulder just a few moments earlier, wiggled his way out and screamed at the top of his lungs.

Both wolves froze for a split second and Percy managed to release his ankle and start an arduous crawl back towards the group.

Swishh!

At the same time an arrow whistled through the air and hit the eye of the wolf who was frozen moments before reaching Percy’s face.

The other wolf regained his movement and pounced at the still crawling Percy.

This time no help was coming, it was inevitable.

Aegon who was watching with bated breath from the beginning closed his eyes.

As the wolf was pouncing towards his neck, in those precious last seconds Percy experienced the most terrifying sensation in his life, he felt the impending doom, the end of the road.

[How can I die like this?]

[I still have so much to accomplish, so many goals left to achieve… I wanted to be rich… do I only amount to this much?]

As he asked these questions the image within his mind regarding the end of the road changed, instead of ending, the road continued into an old mine, the entrance was mostly blocked but he could sense there was danger, but there was also a golden glint coming from inside…but to get inside he had to break the boulder blocking the entrance.

[...get a hold of yourself Percy, you can't die just yet, Linda will live a very lonely life without you.]

[How can I die before I give her a few kids to keep her company, that would be selfish of me.]

With renewed motivation to live he snapped back to reality where he instantly lifted his right arm to cover his neck.

Crack

Not even a second later the wolf's jaws tightened around his arm and completely broke his forearm.

Even with the immense pain, Percy maintained his focus and with his free hand fished a pocket knife from his chest pocket and stabbed it deeply in the wolf's throat.

“GROW….” A grotesque growl left the beast's mouth but it didn't last long as another arrow had hit the beast from around the ear and its tip pierced all the way through to the other side.

The wolf fell on top of Percy’s tired body, and his and the beast's blood mixed together to paint the ground around them scarlet red.

Looking back at what happened, Aegon was first shocked, then happy and then disappointed in himself.

[I didn't do anything…]

His fists tightened and soon small drops of blood fell from his hand.

[I can't let my fear control me!]

At the same time, Linda and Roy rushed towards Percy with worried looks on their faces.