The forest’s wolf population increased, most of them wind wolves. Then came the ones whose bodies crackled with lightning and the muscular types. However, I never encountered another shadow wolf. The population was so dense that it was impossible to think they had been here all this time. That said, they tended to move alone rather than in groups, allowing me to defeat them without the dragon girl’s help. In all likelihood, they had been removed from their original packs and released into these woods. It wasn’t hard to conclude it was the instructors’ doing.
As I thought, the wolves had a vast range of unique abilities, though the differences could be subtle. One wind wolf might create a tailwind to assist with acceleration, while another might negate wind resistance to increase its top speed.
What gave me more grief than the wolves was, surprisingly, a much smaller creature: the salmon. The first one I encountered had sprayed water to increase its speed. The next time, one sparked with electricity. I was standing in the water with my essence suppressed when I received a sudden shock. The lack of essence meant I was totally defenseless; my body seized up, and I almost drowned. I could still remember the immense panic.
✦ ✦ ✦
The wolf growled at me as it charged like a boar. I dodged it with light movements, tracing its face with the tip of my blade. My opponent was one of the muscular ones. The annoying thing about these types was that if you stabbed too deeply while dodging, your knife could get lodged in its dense muscle and become trapped. A way to avoid this was to keep your strikes shallow.
Facing these wolves always turned into a battle of attrition. In these, their muscular frames became a disadvantage; they ended up exhausted and staggering. Most of the fights ended with a final stab through their skulls.
The wolf in front of me was already starting to look panicked. My newly awakened flower fae ability didn’t just work on humans. Now that I was more in control of it, I realized I had been using it unconsciously this whole time, mostly on the dragon girl. It was why I was weirdly good at reading her emotions. I ought to be grateful to the flower fae for her contribution to unlocking this skill. While she was nowhere near fully intact, she probably considered herself lucky to have even one limb left when she woke up.
Shaking off the harsh realities of life, I stuck a bamboo needle into the weakening wolf’s eye. With the sole of my sandal, I shoved it deeper. The wolf twitched once before collapsing.
The other children were launching attacks and less frequently snooping around our camp. They were probably still cautious of us but felt they had more important things to worry about with the wolves’ increasing numbers, especially when we weren’t doing anything against them.
A reduction in rabbits was just one of the negative consequences of the rising wolf population. We were eating less rabbit meat and more wolf meat. The dragon girl, who was better at bringing down the latter, seemed a little disgruntled at this development. Our abilities meant that I was better at tracking bunnies, so I currently had more sway over the dinner table as she was forced to hunt.
As I dragged the power wolf home, I noted a wind wolf surveying me from afar. I had begun to notice its eyes on me a few days ago. It made no move to attack me, even when I purposely gave it an opening. But when I pretended to go after it, it would use its abilities to escape in a flash. The wind wolf watching me changed on a daily basis—they were working as a group.
There was only one wolf I was aware of that acted as a pack leader. The shadow wolf must have been directing them. It also must have taken the new wolves released by the instructors into its pack.
Tonight was the new moon: a moonless sky. I expected the shadow wolf to strike. If I had to run, I wouldn’t have the blessing of its light to protect me.