Chapter 41 Wolves on the Riverbank

They’re surrounded by wolves.

Jace and Grid looked around and realized that almost three or four were watching them from a short distance away, and there were probably more in the forest.

The wolves of the Aelwyn Forest haven’t had it easy lately, with the invasion of jackals squeezing them out and competing with them for food, causing them to come near human settlements in search of sustenance, which has led to conflicts with the farms and herders.

Jace took the stick off his back and held it in his hand, it was when he actually faced the beast that he felt much more secure with a bladed contraption.

At the very least, as long as the touch is a bloody mouth, the requirements for force, skill are not great, and the stick in addition to the long …… have any other advantages?

“Grid, your dagger.” Jace hooked his hand and said, “Lend it to me.”

Grid threw the dagger over, and Jace quickly tied it securely with a few wraps of cloth and thin rope, securing it to one end of the stick, shaking it and pulling it to make sure it didn’t fall off that easily before feeling slightly more at ease.

“Do you think they dare to go on?” Jace asked.

Grid replied, “If you show your face, you dare to go on. If they didn’t dare, they’d all run away when they smelled us. These cunning things are no dumber than dogs, and wouldn’t have gotten this far if they weren’t sure.”

He said this, but still sat on the ground at ease, as if he didn’t care at all that the wolf would pounce on him.

Jace was ready to fight, holding his freshly made improvised spear in both hands and keeping an eye on his surroundings.

“These wolves aren’t big.” Grid threw a cookie into his mouth, stood up and patted the dirt on his butt, and said, “They must not have seen a few dwarves before, so they probably thought I was a human cub. Coupled with your nervous look, you must think we are easy to bully. Then let’s teach them a lesson today.”

As soon as Grid got up, those wolves moved.

Jace raised his spear ready to meet the attack, Grid reached out and said, “Slow down for a moment, they will test your threat, if you show too much bravery they will think you are not afraid of them, and since you are not afraid of them, there must be some uncertainty about your ability to back up your boldness, such as magic, or a strong weapon. Realizing this, these wolves will back off and either run away or circle around to drain your strength and patience, waiting for you to make a mistake. So let’s stay on track, don’t show too much aggression for now, and then swoop in when these wolves get close enough to start baring their teeth and threatening us.”

Sure enough, these wolves, though approaching, did not immediately begin their attack, some of them watched from a distance, and some of them came very close, so that by this count there might be as many as seven or eight of them, both large and small, which was already more than the men had said.

Jace lowered his stance slightly, but inside he was getting nervous, he glanced at Grid next to him, Grid had gripped his sword tightly, his hand was even shaking a little, was that nervousness too?

A flanking wolf suddenly approached, letting out a low growl, and Jace immediately turned back to aim his spear at the fellow at such a provocation, not realizing that there was a rustle of movement behind him.

Grid’s hand rose and fell with his sword, a wolf that had sneaked up on Jace from behind was chopped off one of its front legs on the spot and rolled to the ground with a wail. Grid was frighteningly fast, chopping the head of the other head straight in half with an arrow step, and pulling the sword out with a kick on the twitching half-dead wolf.

Jace stabbed his spear hard into the wolf in front of him, but he didn’t want the dagger to come off with that one.

The wolf that had been stabbed hard into its spine by the dagger whimpered and retreated with a shudder, a few of the wolves that were still ambushed in the forest had rushed in front of them by now, and Jace clubbed another wolf in the ear, a blow so solid that the clubbing sent it rolling up on the ground in a heap.

“They got away!”

Behind him, Grid roared in exasperation, and when Jace looked back, a number of wolves had already run out of sight.

“Chase! They’ll probably head in the direction of the wolf’s lair …… where we might be able to find their food.”

With that, the dwarf had rushed into the forest.

Jace found the half-dead coyote that had been stabbed with the dagger and pulled it off to chase after it while re-binding it.

It was a moment before he realized what Grid was talking about with the so-called food, which was where the Stormir children might be.

Chasing after Grid’s figure Jace made a mad dash, but how could two men’s feet keep up with the speed of a pack of forest wolves, and they were soon lost.

While gasping for breath, Grid traced the stray footprints of the pack of wolves on the ground, he muttered, “The traces left by so many brainless fools running away haphazardly …… couldn’t be more obvious, let’s see if I don’t find out where your old home is today.”

Along the way, without realizing it, Jace had heard the sound of water, and they had both made it to the river.

The wolves’ trail scurried downstream with the river all the way, and after a while longer, Jace suddenly saw a wolf standing there looking this way, wagging its tail over and over, on the opposite side of a stream that branched off from the larger river.

Greed impatiently lifted his pants and ran across the stream towards the wolf, however he suddenly stopped just as he reached the middle.

The wolf didn’t go away, still looking at the two over there.

The Dwarf suddenly doubled back and ran back through the water with even more haste than before, saying as he did so, “Get out of here, Jace!”

Jace instantly realized why the lone wolf was standing there, yet when he looked back, the grass in front of him was full of dark shadows.

In the direction of the woods, a single large adult forest wolf was watching the two of them under the moonlight, like a pack of hunters declaring victory gazing triumphantly at their prey.

Grid walked over to Jace, sized up the pack of wolves, and grunted, “See why I had to bring you? I can’t handle this kind of scene too well on my own.”

Jess said helplessly, “Can’t you stop acting like you knew it all along? Fooled is fooled.”

Grid didn’t retort, but said, “To solve the crisis on that farm, this wolf pack is something that needs to be killed sooner or later, I kind of know why those locals didn’t take this writ for so long, it’s because of the trouble. But now the problem is simple, just kill it!”

This time the two of them were facing not just seven or eight coyotes, but a large pack, most likely more than ten, joined by several large adult wolves.

The dwarf pointed to the dark shadows and said, “The lead wolf should be in those biggest wolves, it’s hard to see from here, so specialize in those later.”

The wolves were significantly more imposing than the smaller pack from earlier, and they were closing in so quickly that Jace could already make out the grinning fangs of the nearest vanguard.

Grid was also much more nervous than he had been a moment ago, and kept taking deep breaths; it looked like this was going to be a pretty difficult fight.

Jace lifted the simple spear in his hand, and a surge of heat went through the back of his head.