Well here we are out in the woods on an excursion trying to kill a bunch of wolves with father. The wolf population in a forest a relatively short distance away from the manor is increasing a little too much so father decided this was good oppurtunity for me to get experience killing monsters. We departed with only a handful of guards on horseback and carriage to said forest and now we are trekking through the woods.

“If you start smelling something rancid we are possibly getting closer to a monster’s territory, regardless keep watching the surroundings for other signs of movement”

“Yes father” well taking point is not exactly what I expected but I guess I am getting tested here.

As I continue creeping forward I see the occasional sign of spooked wildlife but only a few solitary small animals. At the least the bird are still singing so nothing too close I believe, we have been trekking for the last hour without finding anything. These wolves should be nearby now unless we are somehow downwind of them but even then we are not the quietest thing here since we have metal armour. Wait what was that, well looks like we are close now.

As we enter a small clearing a wolf makes itself known in front of us, it is a large grey beast more than a meter tall and 2m length wise. More soon emerge until 5 are in front of us, the guards enter a semicircle behind us since wolves usually either ambush or run down their prey. These ones however look somewhat thin, not starving but not in the best shape. They give low growls at us but those are not the runs we should worry for, a slight rustling in the underbrush in the underbrush shows us more have come. As the circle of men face against the circle of wolves father says “Throw a dagger then get ready, these ones should attack then and they will only know how to pounce or rush. Easy pickings if you are prepared, just keep your blades ready and don’t get knocked down”

I nod to my father and in a smooth motion draw a dagger from its sheath on my sword arm hmm if only I knew some sort of attack spell and throw it at one to my left. The wolf tries to dodge to the side but gets hit in the shoulder as the dagger sinks its full length into it. It howls in pain and the rest charge forward on all sides, the first to enter my range gets a reinforced strike to the head splitting it in two and a quick flick brings of my sword brings it into the chest of another that was charging just behind. The wolf jumps to the side but still gets a slash across the chest and blood splurts out onto the ground. Meanwhile a third attempts to pounce me from the other side with fangs bared. A simple adjustment of my body brings my sword guard directly in front of it and a heavy slam of the hilt into it’s face sends it backward a bit onto it’s side. The one with the wounded chest tries for a low running rush but gets a metal boot roundhouse kick into the head for it’s trouble. As I turn to the side with the momentum I flick out another dagger into the one that already has a dagger in it’s leg piercing an eye and killing it. I quickly look to my sides and see that there are no other wolves in fron of me and that there are only a few wolves left in general. The guards are simply overwhelming those left some spearing wolves through the chest and others are smashing wolves with a variety of weapons from swords to warhammers and halberds. Father is simply standing by with a few wolves lying dead in front of him his sword bloody. The few wolves are trying to draw away and father reigns everyone in from chasing.

“Let them run, we don’t want to be ambushed by more and they will lead us directly to their lair”

As I lower my sword but not put it away completely I finally realize just how easily I killed a bunch of wolves without remorse. These are not sentient, perhaps that is why but that is not a question for now. Still this place smells, the entire forest smells but here in particular thanks to all the fire and dead wolves.

“Right a few of you split off to each side well try to smoke them out, you don’t see any side entrances head back here quickly” my father snaps off the order and the men get to work quickly

We stand ready as some of the men gather kindling, dry branches and green branches and quite soon a very smoky fire to set up. We hand around a few meters back waiting, after a few minutes the men come back signalling that there is no side entrance hopefully. Regardless we have lookouts for flanks, a few more minutes and movement is heard. Several wolves rush out braving the burning ashes of the fire. We come in and simply mop them up, it is not even close to a true fight in spite of their desperation. They growl and bite without anything coming of it before being slain by our weapons. All that is left is to let the clean up crew come by and remove the corpses, the local villagers would not mind the meat and no need to risk undead even if it is slight since most scavengers break the body too much for it to have a chance. As we just do a bit of a checkup to see if everyone that was injured is bandaged up and that weapons and armor are relatively clean I get a few claps on the back and congratulations from everyone over a successful first monster hunt. Looks like I got some approval here but it is only one batch of monsters and looks like dad wants more hunts in the future. Looks like I am going to get a lot of equipment maintenance practice in the future.