The wolf gives a loud howl staring at the sky, as soon as it looks down its body starts covering in black miasma and its eyes starts glowing yellow. It gives a deep growl and starts rushing at them.

“We have to survive this attack, the aura will only last for a few minutes.” Julie shouts while she moves into position. Aron stays at the front with a sword in his right hand, Julie is behind him towards his right while Lara is at the left, Rex is at the back with a Kukri in his hand.

The wolf’s movement is quick and agile and within a second it covers a distance of 15 meter, it reaches in front of Aron and swipes its paws. The claw glistening in black is aimed at the legs, Aron jumps up avoiding the attack and slashes his sword downwards in mid-air targeting the head of the wolf. The black aura stops the blade and the wolf remains unharmed, Julie does not waste time and attacks with a fireball at the wolfs face. The fireball is stopped by the black aura, but the attack diminishes the black miasma it also forces the wolf back.

“Shit, my mana is running out. I can only use two fireballs at most.” Julie yells.

Boy oh Boy. I will be dead if I stay here any longer. Let’s get the fuck out of here while the wolf is busy.

Rex moves towards Lara and gives her shoulder a nudge while whispering, “Hey, let’s run.”

Lara looks at him weirdly before giving a stern reply, “What do you mean by run? Do you want them to die?”

The reply ticks his nerves, he has come all this way to save her and this is the attitude that he gets. He clenches his jaws and stares at her and before he can vent his anger a shout stops him.

“No, Aron.” Julie shouts while shooting another fireball, the wolf takes the attack head on while sacrificing its shield of black aura.

The wolf had managed to claw Aron and send him flying, the wolf had tried to bite Aron and as he could not block the bite with his sword he tried to dodge it by moving left but the wolf had anticipated the step and as Aron moved the wolf swiped its right arm catching Aron off guard.

Julie starts shaking from anger, red aura starts covering her body as she attacks using up the mana in her body. An orange fireball with hint of reddish appears in front of her and she launches it at the wolf before falling to the ground.

The fireball is of the same size, but the intensity of heat is very high, the wolf does not underestimate the attack and it jumps to the left dodging the attack. A water ball greets its face the moment it lands on the ground, the dark aura vanishes completely. The wolf stares at Lara with anger, its face distorted in pain. The pain is the price it had to pay to emerge victorious, the wolf shakes its body and walks towards the remaining humans.

“How many balls of water can you throw?” Rex questions while he moves forward to face the wolf.

“I think I can use at least two.” Lara answers moving forward along with Rex.

“Stay here, save your spell for the right moment. I always fight alone.”

Rex eyes the wolf not letting it out of his sight, his only way to emerge victorious is to kill it quick. He grabs the torchlight with his left hand, a ballistic blade on his right. He runs forward which surprises the wolf, as he is running he aims the knife at the wolfs front leg. The wolf had seen the knife work, so it stops it running and warily walks forward. When rex reaches within ten meters of the wolf he turns on the flashlight and aims it at the beast’s eyes.

The wolf howls when the high intensity light enters its eyes in such a short distance, Rex uses the opportunity to re-aim the knife at the wolf’s eyes firing it, the knife flies at a speed but it misses the desired target. The wolf cries in pain as the knife penetrates its snouts, the wolf swipes its claws randomly as it tries to adjust its eyes.

Rex arms himself with Kukri and dashes forward, he slides on the grass and slashes at the left leg of the wolf. The knife does not cut clean, but it manages to slice half of the legs breaking the bones, he pulls out his knife and jumps back aiming the light back to the eyes.

The wolf howls in pain as it falls down to the ground, it tries to open the eyes, but the light makes it unable to do so.

“What are you waiting for hurry and attack.” Rex urges Lara while yelling.

Lara is in shock as she has never seen Rex fight in such a way, she had accepted her doom when Julie fainted but now she is seeing a way out. The yell brings her out from her thoughts and she quickly fires a water ball and the helpless black wolf. The wolf gives an enraged growl and moves its mouth around trying to bite something.

This mother fucking 8500 lumen flashlight is freaking awesome.

Rex walks around to slash at the right leg of the wolf, but he had underestimated the animals use of sense. The wolf may not be able to see but it could sense the smell and use it to guess his direction, it waited for an opportunity and it got it when Rex moved closer to slash at its other leg.

Rex does not notice the dark miasma forming on the wolf’s left leg and as he raises his blade to hack the wolf he hands freeze from fear, his eyes open wide and his body trembles. He sees the wolf lunging at him with its mouth open wide aiming for his neck, Rex moves his right shoulders in instinct to save his neck, the wolf imbeds its sharp teeth at the shoulder and they fall to the ground. The wolf lays on top with its teeth inside Rex’s shoulder.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhh.” He screams stabbing the wolf with his blade, but the wolf does not let go.

The wolf knows that it will die soon, and it has decided to take someone with it, Rex bleeds profusely from his shoulders, his bone has cracked, and he is in excruciating pain. He tries to kill the wolf, but he has no power to thrust the blade deep inside the wolf to kill it.

Lara couldn’t react as everything happened in few seconds, she tries to attack with another water ball but fearing that she will hurt Rex she stops it, she runs towards Rex with a short knife in her hand hoping to kill the wolf with it.

Fuck.. So much pain. Will I die again? No fuck death I will survive.

He tries to think of a way out and he suddenly has an idea, he couldn’t use the wasp knife before but now he can use it as he is near the wolf. He ignores the pain from the bite and throws the Kukri away and he fights to grab the wasp knife, after getting the knife he waits for an opportunity.

Lara drops the knife and grabs the Kukri, she stands behind the wolf and continuously thrusts the knife, the wolf knowing that it has few seconds left to live decides to open its jaw and bite the neck. As it positions itself to go for the kill, it leaves a gap open. Rex uses the opportunity and stabs the knife at its heart which is slightly below the throat, he then clicks the button on the blade and releases 30-gram CO2 gas inside the wolf.

The wolf struggles to breathe as the gas expands within its body, the pressured gas destroys its heart, liver and every major organ killing it instantly. The wolf falls on top of Rex and dies, Rex takes a deep breath to celebrate his victory. His face is pale due to blood loss, he doesn’t even have strength to get up. Lara pushes the wolf’s body from him and helps him get up, she hugs him with tears in her eyes.

“Get the monster core.” He tells her pushing her from his embrace.

“We should get you treated, we have to call people to get sister Julie as well and..”

“Stop, get me the core and get me home after that do whatever the fuck you want.” He yells at her staring in anger.

“No, I won’t. We will call for help first and make sure that everyone is okay.”

“Okay, do what you want. I am going home.” He takes a slow step, he can’t think properly as he is getting dizzy from the blood loss. He staggers and makes his way forward.

Lara looks at the unconscious Julie and the bleeding Aron, she bites her lips and says, “I am sorry. I will send someone for help.”

She cuts the wolf open and takes out the monster core before running towards Rex and supporting him with her shoulders. Rex looks at her and nods before saying.

“The debt I owe you is settled.”