Rise Of The Monster Slayer

Chapter 3: Ambush!

The group had marched through the woods for few hours, and it was already wearing down the recruits.

The trees here were strange. Their trunks looked like dried bone, and their branches twisted together, blocking out most of the light. Huge, jagged thorns dripped with glowing sap.

Aren marched at the front of the formation, his boots sinking into the spongy, foul-smelling moss. He was exhausted. The recruits had been forced to hack away the dense, thorny underbrush for hours, clearing a path for the armored horses of the elite hunters riding comfortably behind them.

Every snapped twig sounded like a gunshot. Every rustle of the wind sent ripples of panic through the unranked men.

“Stop trembling, you cowards,” a veteran hunter sneered, riding past Aren. “We haven’t even reached the deep zones yet. If you piss yourselves over the wind, what are you going to do when a crawler finds you?”

Aren ignored the insult and kept his eyes on the shadows ahead. Life in the slums taught him how to survive, listen danger, and spot threats early. Out here, it was the same, only much scarier. Then, something felt wrong.

The air had grown completely still. The ambient sounds of the bizarre Wasteland insects had vanished entirely. It was a suffocating, unnatural silence.

“Captain,” Aren called out, his voice echoing slightly in the quiet woods. “It’s too quiet. Something’s out there.”

Darius spurred his horse forward, glaring down at Aren. “Did I ask for a slum rat’s opinion on the wilderness? Keep marching and keep your mouth shut.”

“I’m serious,” Aren insisted, gripping his rusted sword. “The shadows… they’re moving.”

“I said keep…”

Darius didn’t get to finish his sentence.

From the canopy above, a massive shape made of pure, inky blackness dropped like a stone. It landed directly on the veteran hunter who had been taunting Aren moments before. There was a sickening crunch of metal and bone as the armored man was driven instantly into the dirt, crushed under hundreds of pounds of muscle.

“Ambush!” someone screamed. “Shadow Wolves!”

The shadows themselves seemed to detach from the trees. Four monstrous wolves, each the size of a warhorse, materialized into the clearing. Their fur was black like coal, absorbing the faint light around them, and their eyes burned with a malevolent, glowing purple light.

One of the beasts lunged at a recruit to Aren’s left. The man didn’t even have time to raise his spear before massive jaws clamped around his torso, snapping him in half like a dry twig. Blood sprayed across Aren’s face. It was hot.

“Form up! Shield wall!” Darius roared, drawing his massive broadsword. But he wasn’t looking at the recruits; he was commanding his elite hunters, who rapidly formed a defensive circle, completely abandoning the drafted men on the outside.

Aren wass on his own.

A Shadow Wolf turned its glowing purple eyes toward him. It snarled, revealing rows of razor-sharp, jagged teeth dripping with fresh blood. Its muscles coiled like steel springs, and it launched itself at him.

Instinct took over. Aren didn’t try to block the beast it would shatter his rusted buckler instantly. Instead, he threw himself into the mud, rolling wildly to the side as the wolf’s jaws snapped shut exactly where his head had been few moments ago.

He scrambled to his feet, heart pounding a frantic rhythm against his ribs. The wolf spun around, its claws carving deep gouges into the stone beneath the moss. It lunged again.

Aren brought his rusted sword up in a desperate arc, slashing at the beast’s face. The blade connected, dragging across the wolf’s snout. The rusted iron did almost no damage to the creature’s incredibly thick hide, but the sudden pain made the beast recoil, buying Aren a precious second.

“Help us!” a recruit screamed nearby, pinned under a wolf’s massive paw.

Aren didn’t think; he just moved. He sprinted forward and slammed his buckler into the side of the wolf’s head, shouting to draw its attention. The beast roared, turning its fury onto Aren, allowing the other recruit to crawl away crying.

It cost him his bravery. He was now surrounded by two of the massive beasts, cut off from the main group. He was breathing heavily, his arms trembling. He was going to die here.

Suddenly, the temperature in the forest plummeted. A freezing fog rolled across the ground, extinguishing the ambient light.

The two Shadow Wolves advancing on Aren suddenly stopped. They tucked their tails and whined, backing away from the treeline in submission.

The elite hunters fell silent. Even Captain Darius looked terrified. From the deepest part of the shadows, the trees parted.

It was a shadow wolf, but imposibly large. Its fur that was black, seemed to absorb the surrounding light, creating a localized aura of absolute darkness.

It was The alpha.

The monster stepped into the clearing, the ground trembling slightly beneath its massive paws. It bypassed the elite hunters entirely, its calculating, corrupted gaze tracking Aren.