Limits
Chapter 43: The Pack Leader

We ran through the forest at night. I tried to follow the general direction of the path we were supposed to take. I could hear the howls behind me. Judging by the amount of howls the wolves produced, they would number to at least 20. That was a large pack and it would be difficult to fight all these wolves. There was a large probability we would survive but 20 was the lowest estimate. The number could even reach 40 and the one very distinctive howl I heard from time to time was the most worrying.

We ran like this for an hour and I could still hear some howls in a far distance. I said to Shelly "We have to get away much further. Otherwise too many problems can arise". Shelly looked tired but still nodded its head. We traveled for another 30 minutes and the howls now were very distant and low in number. I said to Shelly "Rest here. I think we are far enough for the wolves to not catch up". Although wolves were adapted to running and survival in the forest but a full speed chase would no doubt tire out most if not all wolves in that pack.

I sat down next to Shelly and rested a bit. Shelly was quite weak because it over exerted itself. I needed to find some animals for it to feed on 'Where would I find some animals at night?' I thought.

My thoughts were disturbed by a loud howl that sounded not very far away from our location. I got up and immediately listened to my surroundings. After awhile, I could hear some noises coming from the direction that we came from.

Then I noticed a large wolf. It was about twice the size of normal wolf and it had silver grey fur. The wolf noticed me as well and after howling once more, it pounced at me. I wasn't scared of just one wolf but this one must've been the leader of the pack. Either way, I mobilised my daggers and threw one after the other at the wolf. The wolf managed to dodge one dagger, then another and finally the 3rd one finally hit the target.

*Cling*

I was dumbfounded. The dagger just bounced off producing sparks. Normally this throw would kill a normal wolf, yet this one had no injuries. The wolf was getting closer and it was quite fast but not as fast as I was. I pounced at the wolf as well, with a dagger in each hand.

In seconds, I was metres away from the wolf. I calculated it's next actions and evaded to the left then slashed my dagger at its throat while spinning and slashing my other dagger at its belly. When my first dagger connected the only thing that it achieved was more sparks. 'It seems to have metallic fur!' I thought and when my 2nd dagger connected, it finally managed to wound the wolf.

"Awooo!"

The wolf howled. I now knew it's weak point, which was it's belly. I stabilised my footing and pounced at the wolf that was crying in pain again. I aimed both of my daggers at the wolf's belly and slashed. Two more wounds were inflicted on its belly but not without a price. The wolf in rage rammed me with its head.

The impact was so strong that I flew a few metres back. I was quite shocked 'What type of strength is this?' I thought to myself and picked myself up. I wasn't unscaved eaither, Although nothing broke, I felt a lot of pain nevertheless. The wolf in anger pounced at me again. I readied my daggers and awaited it's next move. When the wolf was close, I again evaded it's attack and slashed with my daggers at its belly.

The wolf howled again and wanted to ram me but I wouldn't be stupid enough to do the same mistake. I rolled to the side and attacked again. The wolf surprisingly was also quite cunning and so my attack failed. What welcomed me was the wolf's tail. I evaded it and the tail hit the tree behind me. When I saw what happened to that tree, I was shocked. 'This guy's tail is like a sword, it almost cut the tree in half!' I screamed in my mind.

Because the wolf had to turn away from me in order to swing its tail at me, I now had a chance to do whatever I wanted because the wolf's vision lost me for a moment. I hid in the wolf's blind spot and suddenly attacked it's belly again.

This time the wolf fell down and howled in pain. I didn't give it any chances to stand up and slashed multiple times at it's belly. After such a barrage of attacks, the wolf finally died. I was exhausted. I opened up the wolf's belly and took out all the intestines, then I took some meat and brought it to Shelly.

Shelly looked quite pitiful and when it smelled the meat it instantly gobbled it up. I went back to the wolf and extracted more meat. I repeated this process until half of the wolf's meat was eaten by Shelly. Then I started the fire and cooked the meat. I had to eat something as well. I was already exhausted. One and a half hour of running then fight with this monster, spent a lot of my energy.

I cooked large portions of meat over the fire and ate like it was my first time eating meat. Shelly came over and also wanted more. I gave it some more. This monster weighted at least 100 kilograms, when I was taking out the meat, I noticed that the fur was still very sturdy and hard to cut. I decided to extract some fur and use it for my clothing later.

It was hard to skin the wolf because the fur would just give out sparks when I tried to cut it with my dagger. I had to cut it from the inside and then the fur separated easily. I cleaned up the fur and rolled it into a bundle. I turned towards Shelly and said "Can you carry this around?" it was a turtle after all and had quite big shell so I wanted to know. The fur was quite heavy about 15 kilograms and that was after I cleaned it.

Shelly didn't seem to like the idea of transporting my stuff around but it nodded it's head in the end. I didn't want Shelly to think I'm using it for cheap labour so I said "When we do dinner tomorrow, I will cook more meat for you, how about that as a treat?" Shelly nodded it's head in agreement.

We went back onto our path a traveled for another couple of hours with breaks of course, until I found another suitable place to spend the night at. The next day, late in the morning. I woke up and stretched myself. The night was quite eventful but other than the encounter with the wolf, nothing else happened.

I woke up Shelly and said "Alright, it's time to move now. I think we will be at our destination at about evening". Shelly got up and followed after me.