A deer was drinking water from a creek. It saw movement in the reflection of the water. A Corpse wolf pounced on it. The deer reacted quicker. Predator pursued prey across the forests. The deer deftly avoided tripping on fallen logs and thick bush. The Corpse wolf proved just as resilient. Tearing across whatever obstacle crossed its path.

  The chase took a toll on the deer. Its pace started to slow. The gap between them got smaller. A small recess of land proved to be the deer’s downfall. Mud gave way beneath it so it slipped and fell. The world spun around through its eyes. Pain unlike anything forced it to cry out for help.

  It felt the wolf’s steps becoming louder. The wolf bared its teeth, dark goo-like drool dripped from its jaws. It placed its paw on the deer’s neck, boasting its superiority. It gorged down on the deer’s neck. The wolf paused and looked up, as if thanking god for the meal.

  The next moment, an arrow etched itself into the wolf’s skull and embedded itself in its brain. It felt down like a domino.

  “Nice shot, sister,” Valoche praised her.

  Tvira stood up and admired her work. This hunt was unlike any other ones they’ve been on. Never had they walked on such dying land. The snows in Veilund was livelier than whatever that was. Valoche was examining a piece of coin, the artifact they were sent to search for.

  “You have been staring at that ever since we got it, dear brother,” She teased him.

  “I never thought I would even see a piece of home this early,” He tucked it away.

  Tvira went to examine her kill. She noticed the deer was still breathing and losing blood. She knelt beside it and stroked its head. She pulled out her knife,

  “Worry not, little one. This will be painless.”

  The deer was put to rest. The knife did its job. She wiped the blood away and looked ahead. Boredom struck the siblings as they waited for the location announcement of the evacuation zone. She supposed they could hunt down one more creature.

  Valoche already found a big pair of tracks. Tvira examined them closely. Four large toes and claw marks was imprinted deep into the moist dirt. Definitely a wolf of epic proportions. This would be a worthy quarry for the hunter siblings. They felt almost at home tracking this beast.

  The two raced across the thick treelines and dead grass. Chopping and shooting the lesser prey as they went. Tvira grabs Valoche’s attention with a short but loud whistle. A green light emerged from the forest. They heard the headmaster’s voice ringing across the sky.

  “This’ll be the evac zone, you have ten minutes to get there,” He announced.

  Luckily for them, the tracks led to the same direction. Valoche led the way. He passed through some bushes and was met with a blade at his neck. He directed it away by leveraging his axe against it.

  The attacker paused,

  “Oh, it’s the big man, fancy meeting you here,” Avryn showed himself.

  They paused as their parties meet. Rinna and Tvira aimed for each other with their weapons. They lowered just the same, but the tensions between them still remained. Avryn walked in between them. He introduced Rinna to the two of them. She urged they arrive at the evac zone together, and quickly.

  They were able to manuever their way through the twisted thickets of the forest. The siblings used their hunting prowess to guide them through the terrain, while Rinna used her knowledge to quickly dispatch the Corpses.

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  Avryn spoke up,

  “Why do I get a feeling getting to this evac won’t be as straightforward as I think it would be?”

  Almost on cue, shadowy figures emerged to halt their progress.

  “Oh, we were tracking this one,” Tvira drew her bow.

  It was a creature resembling a large fifteen foot wolf, with the telltale description of a corpse. All black and ruined, with deep purple glowing eyes. It was flanked by another pack of wolves.

  “A Dire Wolf Corpse,” Rinna went into her battle stance.

  Valoche examined the situation as he took up the front of their formation,

  “Eight wolves plus one dire wolf,” he observed.

  He volunteered to take on the dire wolf with Tvira as his backup. That left Rinna and Avryn to take care of the rest of the wolves. They confirmed their tactics and executed their plan.

  Valoche charged at the dire wolf. He used his strength to cut a path directly towards it, tossing the wolves behind him. His fist met with the dire wolf’s face to send it flying.

  Avryn elected to use his pistols against these foes. He shot and evaded their attacks. Rinna attacked in between of his pauses. She manuevered her halberd. Its axehead made short work of the corpse wolves’ flesh. Three wolves fell to her in that instance.

  Avryn shot from behind her as he jumped and twirled. Each gun unleashed a hail of bullets taking care of four. Another wolf would have jumped him from behind were it not for Rinna’s well placed shot to its head.

  “You left your back open,” She scolded him.

  “You sure about that?” He quipped.

  Rinna looked down and Avryn’s other gun was already pointed behind him. Gunpowder smoke had escaped from the barrel. Her eyes returned to the wolf. Two gunshot wounds had nearly overlapped each other on the wolf’s head. She was almost impressed by that.

  A powerful howl forced their attention to the dire wolf. It was bleeding all over but proved reslient. The same could be said for Valoche. It sent him flying with one powerful swipe. Several trees snapped as Valoche’s body was forced through them.

  Avryn rushed to defend Tvira. He switched one of his guns for his sabre. The dire wolf saw this and bit the blade as it went for a strike. It wrenched it upwards, sending Avryn flying. He realigned himself, dropped his sabre, switched back to his guns, and fired away.

  “Unfortunately for you, I’m too stubborn to die,” he smirked.

  Rinna ran up to assist by swinging her halberd. Its axe head gets caught between the Corpse dire wolf’s jaws. It was in this moment she realized why it hasn’t gone down. Its flesh was healing at an accelerated rate. She retreated and provided cover fire for Avryn.

  “Do you or your brother have anything that that can take it down in one blow?” she turned to Tvira.

  Whirling axes guided by a magical wind found their mark on the dire wolf’s limbs. Valoche charged back into the fray, his wounds healed by this same magic.

  “The hell, weren’t you bleeding just a few seconds ago?” Avryn continued to fire.

  “I call upon the spirits to aid me in battle, I’ll tell you after we finish this beast,” Valoche swung his axe.

  Resilient, the wolf stood its ground. It mustered the strength to howl. Dark magics enveloped the air and dispersed, amplifying the sound. Such debilitating sound forced them all to cover their ears. The wolf took advantage and swiped them all down into the dirt. Avryn was the first it chose to finish off.

  He saw the wolf stalking him. Defiance was his last gambit. He crawled away, taunting it. Leading it away from his teammates.

  “What are you…” Rinna spoke.

  The dark magics had them weakened. They were unable to even move their own fingers, they were weakened.

  “C’mon, you big beastie. You want me? Come get me,” Avryn’s tone invoked disrespect towards it.

  The dire wolf obliged, it stalked with confidence. Avryn could no longer continue crawling. The magic had spread throughout his body. He laid back as he came face to face with the beast. Its jaws open wide almost to the point of the flesh near its mouth being torn right off.

  “Damn, you’re ugly,” Avryn taunted it one last time.

  A swift point of the gunblade. Avryn pulled its trigger. It blasted the dire wolf’s head clean off. Its black blood splattered all over Avryn’s face and body. His arm was shaking from sheer fatigue. The rest of the wolf’s body falls over to the side and its magic was dispelled. He could finally breathe.

  The rest of them got up and went over to him. Valoche helped him up. Rinna was silent, and observed what just transpired. Her eyes were fixed on Avryn’s gunblade.

  “That was a fine gambit you took there, Starbright,” Tvira praised him.

  “Indeed, what’s left of its head is all over the place,” Valoche showed him.

  With the wolf dead, they headed to the evac zone and succeeded the trial. They were transported back into the simulation rooms. Aldric congratulated them for their success. Avryn was relieved.

  Rinna went to the front of him, her arms were crossed. A silent anger rose within her.

  “Say, Avryn,” she caught his attention.

  “Yeah?”

  “Where’d you get that,” her eyes pointed to his gunblade.

  Tension filled the air between them. Valoche, Tvira, even Aldric sat back. The latter already had known the answer after she pointed it out.

  “I earned it off some weird fellow and--”

  Rinna’s halberd was at his neck from the perceived insult.

  “He wasn’t just some werid ‘fellow’. He was Sir Iver of The Knights of Hrenvar,” She exclaimed. “And you didn’t earn it.”

  Avryn’s heart was beating a million miles per hour. He felt everyone’s eyes on him at this moment. The room seemed to darkened around him.

  “N-now look, I was gonna explain--”

  “Murderer,” Rinna’s voice shaked.

  Leifren and Jenilah had overheard the conversation. They came closer to see.

  “Well, technically I did kill him but--” Avryn tried to reason.

  “As daughter of the grand judge of Ordellia, I have the authority to arrest you,” she summoned the guards.

  Avryn tried one last time,

  “Lady, if you let me explain--”

  Rinna kicked him in the gut. She used her halberd to leverage him onto his knees. Guards arrived at the scene to put him in cuffs. Avryn looked up to find Rinna standing tall over him.

  “You will pay for your crimes,” she told him.

  His consciousness faded. The last image he saw was a tear rolling down her face.