“What will I regret? Will I regret staying here and hoping for safety or will I regret trying to be a hero?” He mumbles.

He looks out of the window and sees the darkness creeping over the land, he still has not made up his mind. His chances of surviving the forest is nil when even three rank 2 mages and one rank 2 warrior are having a hard time.

Let’s settle this with a toss.

He takes a folding knife and flips it in the air, if the knife stabs the floor then he will go to the forest and if the blunt end lands then he will stay home and wait.

Thud

The blunt ends hit the floor, he picks it up and sighs. He gently places the knife back on the suitcase and jumps to the bed, he closes his eyes and lays down.

Inside the forest.

A group of 8 men are walking cautiously, they are huddled together forming a small circle keeping an eye everywhere. The rustling of leaves and the whispers of wind frightens them and yet they keep walking forward.

“Lara, where are you?” someone shouts.

“Idiot keep you voice down. You will bring trouble.” A huge muscular man with a sword in his hands whispers.

“How will we find them? Are we supposed to look for them all night?” A short man retorts.

“Yeah, I regret coming here. The forest is creeping me out.” Another man adds.

“You can leave if you want, no one is forcing you. Just remember the rewards we get if we are able to help a mage.” The muscular mans eyes glow in excitement.

Everyone’s spirit rises when they think of the reward, but trouble arrives before they can even take a step forward. They hear multiple growls around them and they know they are in trouble as the only animal with that noise are the wolves. They look around and notice wolves slowly approaching and ready to pounce.

Rex POV

“Phew. finally made it.” Rex takes a deep breath, he has been running for a while to reach the edge of the forest. He rubs the sweat off the face and looks around, as the sky is clear, the light from moon makes the surrounding visible. He doesn’t find the group of men that had left to enter the forest, his plan is to move with them as he is not familiar with the danger inside the forest.

After gathering his breath, he checks his equipment and weapons. He has got the Kukri tied on his left hip, two ballistic knives on the right hip along with a Wasp knife, he also has a torchlight besides the Kukri. After searching every corner of the suitcase, he found sheaths for the blades, a torchlight and a leather belt to hold these items. He had 15 different knives inside the case but most of them were folding knives and had no use to him at the moment.

He closes his eyes, reaches for the Kukri and whispers, “Let’s do it.”

He heads inside the forest while with the goal to save Lara and stay alive. After some time, he reaches the place where Lara had killed the injured wolf, he looks around but doesn’t find anything that will give him a clue. He had thought that he would catch up with the group of men, but they are nowhere to be seen. He hesitates but eventually grabs the torchlight, he doesn’t want to use it as the light might attract animals towards him, but he has no choice. The thick tress and their leaves are blocking the moonlight and it is getting harder to see.

As he is about to turn on the flashlight he hears scream of a human and the growling of an animal. He walks towards the direction of the sound, his right hand holding the Kukri and a ballistic knife in his left. He hides behind a tree and watches the fight between a man and a beast. The wolf was about 3 feet, but the man towered the wolf as it stood tall at 6’5, his right hand on the sword and a solemn look on his face.

“You are the last one.” The man screams and charges at the wolf, his movement quick and precise for someone of his size. He slices at the wolf’s leg, but the wolf dodges it by jumping back, it growls and goes for the kill. The wolf lunges towards the neck of the man, the man had yet to recover so he bring his left hand forward to save his neck. The wolf bites at the hand bringing him immense pain, the wolf tries to bite off the arm as it shakes its head ferociously. The man takes the opportunity to stab the wolf multiple times with his sword but that is unable to kill the wolf.

Rex sees the opportunity and he rushes forward to help the man, he takes a big swing and cuts the head of the wolf cleanly. The man is still stabbing the wolf and he is yet to notice the death of the wolf, only after few seconds does he notice that the wolf has no head.

Rex looks around to see if there are more wolf around while the man slowly gets up. After confirming that there is no danger he sighs in relief. The man wraps his arms with his shirt to stop the bleeding, he looks at Rex and says.

“Thank you for helping me Rex.”

Rex is surprised when he hears the man say his name but then he remembers how infamous he is in the village and shakes his head.

“You would have killed the wolf eventually, I did nothing.”

“I would have but at a price of my arm. So, I am really grateful for your help.” He replies weakly, Rex could see that he is struggling due to the injury and blood loss.

“You should regroup with your men and head back.”

The man hunches his shoulders when he hears about his friends, all seven of them have been killed by the wolves. He wants to go back and at least bring back their bodies, but he knows that he is in no condition to go back and fight.

“If you are looking for Lara then you should head south. I saw a fire earlier in that direction.” He pats on the shoulders of Rex and wishes him luck. He staggers and walks out of the forest.

The situation must be really serious if they had to use magic. God dammit why did I decide to make the knife toss best of three.

He moves quickly towards the south as he could see lights coming from that direction and as he moves closer he hears the crying of wolf and scream of a woman. He quickly climbs a tree to get the view of battle and come up with a plan.

“Holy shit, what is up with this wolf.” Rex is terrified when he sees a 5 feet tall black furred wolf fighting against two mages. One of the mages is Julie, she is keeping the wolf at bay with her flame wall while the other female mage is using her earth spike to attack the wolf. The four spikes that arise from the ground is too slow and the wolf is able to dodge it.

“Aron, we need some help here. I can’t keep this up very long.” Julie yells towards the man fighting three silver colored wolves that were about 4 feet tall.

“I am trying my best. I am almost out of my stamina as well.” Aron shouts back.

Lara, who is behind them, is holding her own against one wolf, she is attacking the wolf with water ball, but the attack is useless as the wolf dodges. There is a body on the ground in front of Lara which belongs to a mage of their team.

The black wolf is going to break the deadlock very soon I have to act quick.

The battle is going on in an open ground which is keeping the wolves in everyone’s view, had there been trees the wolves would have won by now. Rex quickly gets down but before he can make his move he hears a scream.

“Lara, watch out.” Julie shouts.

Rex looks up to see that one of the wolves fighting against Aron has escaped and is going after Lara, he does not hesitate to run towards her. He is 10 meters away from her and he knows he will not make in time, he grabs the ballistic knife and aims at the wolf’s legs trying to slow it down. The 5-inch knife flies and embeds into the wolf’s leg stopping it temporarily. He then reaches for the Kukri and slashes at the wolf’s side slicing it’s stomach open, intestines and livers slip out from the cut and the wolf gives a howl before falling down. The wolf is bleeding profusely it is not dead, but it will be very soon.

Everyone is surprised by the sudden appearance of a man; the humans are happy while the black wolf is furious. The wolf had sent seven wolves to guard the forest and let not one pass and yet a man is here. It knows that the situation is getting dangerous, so it decides to go all out, it needs mana cores to evolve and the humans in front are the ones that will provide them.

It jumps into the fire wall and heads towards the two-mage ignoring the burn on its body, it swipes its claw aiming at the head of the earth mage. The swipe connects, and the mage loses her head, it then lunges with a bite towards Julie. She manages to avoid the bite by jumping back, she quickly launches a fireball in the face of the wolf and runs towards Aron.

After killing the wolf Rex runs towards Lara to help her, he notices her angry stare but decides to ignore it. He walks forward and faces the wolf while saying, “Now is not the time, we will talk later. I will distract the wolf try to finish it in a single blow.”

I just have to get my timing right.

He alertly walks forward while eyeing the wolf, after reaching the striking distance he takes a fake swing at its head from the right. The wolf jumps back and leaps in the air aiming for his neck, when the wolf is in mid-air he rolls forward and escapes the attack. Lara quickly launches a water ball striking the wolf on its head, the wolf whimpers and falls to the ground but it does not die. Rex jumps back on his feet and delivers the killing blow thrusting the Kukri on its neck.

Rex takes Lara’s hand and regroups with Julie and Aron, they stand in a line horizontally and stare at the wolf. The wolf with its ferocious eyes stares right back, it is not ready to back off.