Chapter 8: Wolves

It was a huge wolf with red eyes staring et them greedily that almost slit Asteria's throat with its sharp nails. Asteria was breathing quite hard as she tried to recover herself.

Asteria was quite shaken that she had just almost gotten her throat slit. She took a deep breath trying to calm herself. This is not the time to panic. After slightly calming down, Asteria looked at Annie who had dragged her on time.

The wolf seemed annoyed that its prey had escaped and let out an angry growl.

Asteria looked at Annie apologetically, but she found out that the girl currently wasn't looking at her. Instead, she was staring at the wolf with great wariness and unconcealed hostility.

Asteria stood up. Her skin was bleeding slightly as she looked at the wolf with caution.

The wolf jumped again and the two dodge on each side. Asteria was a bit slower and it caused her to receive another wound. Luckily that the wound wasn't deep.

As it failed to even catch one of the two prey, the wolf growled angrily. However, it suddenly began to madly attack anything and shake its head. Asteria jumped onto a tree, followed by Annie, and began to inspect the situation.

"What did you do to it?" Annie noticed the abnormality of the wolf. It suddenly just went crazy like that, growling so loudly while attacking anything that moved.

"Nothing." Asteria shrugged. "I just threw chili powder into its eyes. I don't know that it would give such a great reaction."

Annie was surprised. She unexpectedly laughed as she evilly looked at the wolf. "You are a genius. Next time, I will also bring chili powder with me, then. Poison sometimes caused different reactions and time needed for it to begin working. Poison and chili powder, what a great combination."

Asteria raised her eyebrow. But it also wouldn't be a wonder if Annie's poison had to do with their smooth journey. She probably created one that would greatly affect wolves.

"Let's not dwell here," Annie told her as she jumped down and snatched the two cloths sprawled on the ground. She quickly tied them together tightly and began running.

Asteria joined her as she jumped down. The wolf was still growling angrily and looked to be in pain. It seemed to go crazier as it failed to find the culprit who had managed to hurt its eyes. Asteria had no time to feel sorry as she quickly joined Annie to run away.

It was her first time she had used such tricks on an animal as big as those wolves. She wouldn't know how long the effect would last, so it was best not to dawdle.

Asteria has tied the cloth containing herbs to her waist, so she can move more quickly. She ran alongside Annie, only stopping after they felt it was safe enough.

Annie looked back at the direction where they'd come from, looking puzzled. "Is there no other wolves chasing after us?"

Asteria was gasping slightly, looking quite out of breath. She took a deep breath, drank large gulps of water, and answered Annie's question. "I am a little behind but I really don't feel anything chasing after us. At first, the wolf did but it failed to catch up."

Annie narrowed her eyes at Asteria's explanation. Asteria immediately noticed that something must be wrong from Annie's thoughtful look and her scrutiny over the surroundings.

"Let's go." Annie snatched Asteria's hand, intending to fo further with their run. However, it seemed that things didn't always go as one wished. It was unknown when it happened, but before Asteria could even blink, the two of them had been surrounded by a bunch of wolves.

Their fur was dark brown, looking at them the same way as the wolf they'd encountered earlier. This certainly wasn't going to be easy to shake off those wolves. They were bigger, that was probably also the reason that no other wolves dared to snatch the prey of those massive wolves from inside their mouth.

Asteria was surprised by their size. It was almost the size bigger than the first wolf she had met in this forest. But that wolf was also strange as the second time she had taken look at it, the wolf actually had grown bigger. It was quite puzzling for her.

This group of wolves was more than two and a half meters tall. They were standing in front of them, scrutinizing as wild animals would to their prey before pouncing on it. There were four wolves in total.

"Tch, a bunch of mutts." Annie seemed to mutter slowly under her breath, she seemed to be calm unexpectedly.

The two took a few steps back. The wolves walked at steady steps forward, as if in no hurry. Asteria looked back and found that no wolves were blocking the path. She asked Annie while gesturing behind her. "Annie?"

It was such a strange sight, but a wolf actually jumped to behind them as soon as Annie's name came out of Asteria's mouth. Annie looked at the wolves than at Asteria. "You shouldn't try to do something so openly in front of them. Those are different from the wolves we have encountered on our way here. I also don't expect that pure blood to appear here while we are still in the outskirts area of the mountain."

Asteria was confused. Pure blood? But judge by their size, it must be true. They seemed to a completely different species than those smaller wolves they had encountered on their way here.

Annie opened one of her smaller cloths and take out something like powder there, spreading it around while covering her nose. "This poison is quite potent for wolves. Though it has less effect on humans, you shouldn't inhale it just in case."

Annie's eyes flashed with a complicated emotion, however, as fast as that emotion came, it had already gone in a blink of an eye.

Asteria did as Annie told her and covered her nose. The wolves seemed to be a bit restless after Annie had taken out her poison. Asteria felt a bit dizzy, so she quickly tore off a small part of her cloth and used it to cover her nose.

Annie narrowed her eyes a bit, but she quickly looked away as if she was thinking about something. The two kept on backing away, amidst the slowly approaching bunch of wolves. That was until Annie took out a dagger and suddenly stabbed it into the nearest wolf.

The wolf let out a pained howl, it didn't die but the blood kept on pouring out of its huge body. Annie's dagger was small, so it seemed like it didn't do much damage. But to Asteria's surprise that the wolf seemed to lose its strength afterward. Though it tried to bite Annie, which she had dodge, the wolf was growing weaker judging from its slow movement.

Asteria finally knew why Annie didn't drag her to run right away. Those wolves would try to chase after them if they did. Annie used another method, which was by poisoning and killing them after they'd grown weaker. There was no doubt that the dagger probably was coated in poison as well.

With such a smart tactic, it was no wonder that this girl had managed to stay alive every time she came here. She actually also had a poison that could be potent to such large creatures. Just by looking at those animals' build, it was not hard to guess how much strength they carried.

The fall of the wolf was both good and bad news. It meant one less opponent, but its howl had also aggravated the other wolves. They unexpectedly didn't wait anymore for their prey to be completely cornered and pounced at them straight away.

They were completely surrounded now. Annie was also cursing under her breath, she seemed to be a little worried. "Shit, I don't think that those mutts would actually able to endure this far. I made the wrong calculation."

Annie suddenly turned at Asteria and tosses her a dagger. "Protect yourself."

Asteria was stunned, but she knew that she was in a completely dangerous situation here and was in no position to be doubtful. She also couldn't let Annie fought off those wolves by herself.

Annie was fighting two wolves by herself at this point. Asteria looked at her briefly, then at the wolf that was approaching at fast speed. Her hand trembled and sweat had covered her body.

She was scared.

As someone who had never encountered any kind of situation, who wouldn't? She had been sent into a completely different world from how she used to live and painfully tried to adapt herself for the past month. No matter how calm she may seem from outside, she was still feeling scared right now.

Yet, it didn't hold her back from trying. She raised the dagger and shoved it deep at the wolf's snout trying to bite her. However, the wolf was more ferocious than she had thought. Probably the wolf that Annie had defeated earlier had gotten most of the poison effect since it was nearest, but the other wolves were quite far.

The wolf let out a growling sound, its paw trying to pounce at her. Asteria dodge the huge paw, but it had also managed to tear off her skin. Blood was pouring down from her shoulder down into the ground.

"Shit, shit! I don't expect that there would be so many of them." Annie's curse was heard as another group of howling wolves was approaching them by running.

Asteria was also stunned, she froze in her place and looked at the group of those animals in disbelief. Now, she had truly known the danger of this place. She had also overestimated herself when she had offered Annie to join her in picking the herbs. The wolf she had met at the beginning was a strange one and she had just gotten lucky that it didn't attack her.

However, she also didn't regret it. Annie was kind enough to her, and she certainly didn't want her to face this kind of situation alone.

"Asteria, we can't handle all of them. Let's just run!" Annie's shout was heard as Asteria quickly followed after her. She tried to keep up with Annie, followed by a bunch of excited howling wolves from behind them.

The wolf who had its snout stabbed by a dagger was at the front as it looked at Asteria angrily. The dagger was still attached to its snout, blood was also dripping down. Unexpectedly, the wolf which had been stabbed by Annie earlier had also been woken up and currently joined the case although it was quite slow. So, the wolf didn't die.

Annie's tactic would've been worked if there weren't so many wolves. She could kill them when those wolves were unconscious if she was quick enough before the poison effect wore off.

Asteria had been affected by the poison earlier, its effect had just caused her small dizziness. But she didn't know why that she was suddenly feeling a lot dizzier right now. Her head felt so hurt as if someone was hammering it. She winced, clutching her head she continued running. She couldn't afford to stop at any cost.

Her sight was also blurry that she didn't even know which path she had taken right now. She had also lost sight of Annie. Asteria called out to her, expecting to get a reply. "Annie! Are you there?"

However, there was no one replying back to her. Only there was the sound of howling and growling wolves tirelessly chasing after her. Asteria's breathing had gotten more ragged and she was growing weaker by second, but she still continued to hold on. If not, she would be shredded into pieces and die.

All of a sudden, she felt something hard crash into her body and she slipped. It was also when her vision had turned completely dark.