By this point, less than fifteen meters separated Jack and Sarah from the wolves. As if by prior agreement, the moment James’ second arrow missed the target— both wolves, as if in a frenzy, took that opportunity to charge forward madly, no longer bothering with strafing maneuvers.

The wolves truly demonstrated the true extent of their physical capabilities in that moment, more specifically, their speed— blazing through and covering the remaining distance in a fraction of the time they had taken earlier.

Jack’s heart thumped loudly as he realized the full extent of the wolves’ cunning, exploiting the time James would take to nock another arrow to cover the remaining distance in a burst of speed. Only five meters separated them at this point, the wolves too close by this point for James to get a clear shot without risking friendly fire.

No longer able to continue and play it safe, Jack stomped his right foot into the ground— sending out a limited [Qi Pulse] into his immediate surroundings, time slightly slowing down for Jack as he perceived his surroundings faster, contrasting the wolves’ rhythmic thumping with the rhythm of nature and determining their movement.

His eyes widened in surprise as the wolves decided to split into opposite directions the next second, only realizing seconds later when a Qi- empowered arrow flew past their previous location, slamming into the ground and kicking up a small cloud of dust.

“Stop shooting!” Jack screamed angrily, as he pivoted on his left foot and extended his sword in a wide, arcing slash, [Qi-Blade] being cast nigh instantaneously without even gazing the target— Jack felt his blade cut through flesh, but the expression on his face was grave.

‘Too shallow,’ thought Jack, shifting his stance so that he was back-to-back with Sarah, who exhaled in relief when she felt him guarding her flank. Jack’s expression was grave as he realized that the wolves had encircled them— the silver wolf that carried a long yet shallow scar across its back looking at Jack with murderous fury in its eyes, but not forgetting to continue moving in a rhythmic pattern arround the duo. It’s companion, Jack assumed, was staring down Sarah, perfectly unharmed.

“W-What do we do?” A jittery Sarah asked, Jack able to feel her shifting slightly in order to keep the spear tip pointed towards the wolf encircling her.

“They’re testing us, looking for openings, waiting for us to slip up. It’s pretty normal behavior for pack hunters like wolves, don’t drop your guard,” Jack muttered under his breath, thinking of the optimal strategy to break the deadlock.

“Okay,” she mumbled almost incoherently in response, causing Jack’s expression to slightly harden in response. He extended one foot out, testing the injured wolf as he was testing himself. The wolf flinched in response, immediately retreating by one step— its motions far faster than Jack’s own.

Close to a minute passed before the wolves switched their positions, Sarah’s uninjured wolf entering his line of vision from the right in its circular rotation. Jack felt Sarah’s back press against his own, as she angled the spear to point towards the injured wolf.

Jack once again took a step forward as a probe, but this time the wolf stood its ground and started growling threateningly, arching its muscles in preparation of pouncing on him. Jack hurriedly retracted it, expression growing thoughtful. The wolf itself seemed in no hurry, resuming its vigilant encirclement— waiting for them to crack. That was not a good sign, it indicated the possibility of reinforcements.

“Andrew, if we both die here you have no chance of survival,” Jack spoke out loud, his voice unfazed because he still saw a path to victory. “The moment you chose the [Pugilist] class, even if you didn’t know it back then— you tied your survival with that of the group. Your range is terrible, and your skill does not heal fatal wounds. Formation C in exactly one minute from now, and make it loud— or you’re signing your own death warrant,” he concluded, noting that raising his voice did alarm the wolves, but was not cause for agitation.

“Sarah, in exactly one minute I will tell you to charge at the wolf. You’ll be facing the injured one, who’s timid and will retreat when you approach it. Andrew will pincer it from behind,” Jack explained in rapid succession. His plans almost failed when the uninjured wolf made a lunging gesture, Jack immediately pointing his blade in its direction. The wolf backed down, its eyes glinting with reticence, and resumed the encirclement.

“What about you?” Sarah asked with concern, though her voice had regained much of its strength now that they had a viable plan.

“Don’t worry about me, I’ll handle it,” Jack replied, finishing the rest of the sentence in his mind, ‘and I don’t trust Andrew enough, anyway.’

The next minute was a test of mental resilience for Sarah, the bloodthirsty mutant wolves eyeing her with bloodthirst in their eyes. Every breath she took could be her last, for she had personally witnessed the terrifying speed of the wolves— it would take them only a blink of her eye to bite off her windpipe, or at least that was how it felt to her fear-addled mind. The only reason she managed to maintain a smidgen of composure was Jack’s calming voice echoing out from behind her, the heat she felt when their back’s made contact providing her with an odd reassurance. How could he be so calm when two mighty predators encircled them with murder in their eyes, she could not understand.

As she heard the plan, her constricted chest loosened– a sigh was let out in relief. She could not afford to take her eyes off the wolf, but she did not think Andrew would abandon them. This hellscape was hard enough in a group of four, going off alone would be a true nightmare. And it was unlikely James would follow Andrew, if he was smart enough to realize that the boorish man would abandon him at the first sign of danger, like he hypothetically did with her and the enigmatic man that went by the name, ‘Jack.’

“Now!” Jack shouted loudly enough to get the attention of anyone nearby, taking a step with his left foot forward, followed by a glowing blue right foot that stomped onto the ground, casting [Qi-Pulse]. Jack immediately shut his eyes to truly feel and understand the information the Pulse was trying to convey.

The world was engulfed in darkness, as a pulse was released in a perfect circle– but only in a meter around him, in all directions. His own body was demarcated by a light blue outline, his hands nothing but a two-dimensional outline holding an equally two-dimensional sword outline. He felt a ripple in his surroundings, as he felt a disturbance in the pulse of his immediate surroundings, no longer in rhythm with the pulse of the world.

The fuzzy outline of a wolf came barreling in, its posture elevated— Jack’s gaze angled slightly downward, as he saw the single strands of short light-blue lines covering the ground, most likely grass. No point of the wolf was making contact with the grass, which meant that it really had lunged at him, flying midair with its raised claw– which was angled towards his throat. In this state Jack could think and perceive a lot faster than reality, but that did not actually make his physical reactions superior.

Jack held the two-dimensional sword outline in front of his neck defensively, snapping his eyes open as the effects of [Qi Pulse] waned, and immediately switching to [Qi Sword].

He almost instinctively retreated when he felt a bloodthirsty silver wolf lunge for his throat, gritting his teeth so hard he almost broke them— managing to remain standing. Blood flew into the air as the wolf’s palm made contact with Jack’s [Qi Sword], cutting into its flesh and severing one claw tip.

Jack let out a primal, almost bestial roar as he flexed his arm muscles, his face only inches away from the wolf’s— looking into its soulless eyes with defiance in his eyes. Jack slashed outwards to the right, feeling the drain on his Qi— sending the wolf flying away from him for a dozen or so meters, rolling into a clump of bushes.

Without even giving it a second glance, Jack pivoted on both his heels and did a complete one eighty— confident that the wolf’s injured paw had at least brought them a few seconds. He saw Sarah push the wolf backwards with the tip of her spear, having driven it back a few steps— almost half a second later, Andrew’s roaring figure charged from the side, only after seeing him rebuff the first wolf with ease. Asshole.

The injured wolf took a glance back, alarmed at the charging gauntleted man who approached it from behind. While this was not quite how Jack had wanted things to unfold, he would capitalize on it. One, two, three, four steps taken in quick succession, his six foot three frame combined with wide steps put him only three meters away from Sarah, who barely had time to react to his unexpected fast charge. Jack cast [Qi-Pulse] with his fifth step, getting a precise layout of the wolf’s position before throwing his body forward in a dive in the bewildered wolf’s direction.

An exhilarated smile appeared on Jack’s face as his blade glowed blue, Jack once again casting [Qi Pulse] — this time mid-air, before slashing outward in a wide arc.

“Sarah, behind,” was all Jack had time to shout out before he stretched his left hand out in front of him, in an attempt to roll forward. His neck crinkled and a burst of pain followed as it felt the impact, but ultimately Jack managed to get back onto his feet, only for a golden glow to envelop him the next second.

“Three strength, two dexterity,” he muttered out loud as the notifications were transmitted into his mind, feeling the baptism of blue fire on his body and soul— with every stat increase, the time taken to ‘upgrade’ his body decreased, and this time it was almost instantaneous.

Jack felt a burst of strength as his muscles contracted violently, before returning to their original position, except they felt far more… compressed, in a manner of speaking. His already nine agility went up to eleven, giving Jack confidence to perform the acrobatic maneuver he had just displayed without crinkling his neck again.

He turned around, eyes sharp as a hawk, taking half a second to inadvertently glance at the silver wolf who’s neck had a deep gash running across its length, its eyes wide and its mouth full of its own blood, likely having choked on, before focusing on Sarah– she had her spear pointed outward, having switched places with Jack once she realized there was no carcass behind her. Jack moved to her side, and a second later Andrew joined them– all three looking in the direction Jack was pointing at.

“Why did you do that?” Andrew hissed under his breath, and Sarah also gave Jack a pointed glance.

“These things are too fast to kill when they’re on guard,” Jack took a breath of air, before continuing with his explanation, “so I decided to catch one off guard after I fended off the other one and damaged its paw.”

Sarah looked at him with a slight flicker of doubt flashing in her eyes, but seemed mostly impressed by his frenzied charge. . Andrew looked like he wanted to argue, but the clump of bushes Jack had pointed at started lightly rustling at that moment.

Another arrow was released from their side, leaving a streak of blue Qi as it tore through the air.

A painful yelp sounded out as a wolf barrelled out from its cover, an arrow sticking out from the left side of its abdomen and its movement markedly slower from before, even a slight limp significantly slowing down the wolf’s speed- downgrading from from very fast to fast.

Sarah, perhaps emboldened by Jack’s feat of athleticism, charged to meet the wolf– who still refused to move in a straight line, slightly strafing from time to time to avoid further arrows. The wolf took a sharp right to avoid Sarah’s Qi Empowered Spear thrust, frustration clearly visible in its eyes— only to position itself in Andrew’s path.

The beast lunged at Andrew, but he moved with grace that betrayed his large size- Jack, who was at the other side, wondered if he had invested his points into agility– swinging his right fist while defending his throat and upper part of his chest with his free gauntleted arm, smashing the wolf into the floor with a loud crunch, a majority of its front teeth littered around its grounded figure, face slightly caved in from the impact of the punch.

“Stop! Let James have the kill!” Jack called out, now that the wolf was incapacitated. With most of its teeth missing, at least it was no longer a threat for group. Andrew however, seemed to be in a zone of his own, as he followed through with another brutal punch. Then another. Till he was sitting atop the beast, delivering one brutal punch after the other until its face was misshapen beyond recognition, finally stopping after most likely receiving the kill notification

James watched the scene from his vantage point, the growing helplessness in his heart turning into a cold fury. James… he knew he was a better archer than the performance he’d displayed in front of the group. But each time he pointed his bow at an animal, it felt so different from striking at a lifeless piece of cardboard, that he would freeze in indecision for a second every time. Perhaps it was anxiety at missing the shot, perhaps it was knowing the fact that every missed shot might be his last— but he had not signed up for this madness.

He was not a fool, he understood the kind of power the system offered. He had witnessed Jack’s impressive feat of taking down the wolf alone, and knew the system had empowered him. The golden light meant that Jack had hit level three, but that was not his real cause for concern.

Once again, it was his arrow that had injured the wolf, forced it to come out of his hiding spot and ultimately, the reason behind its demise. Once again, that repulsive asshole had violated the agreement, raining blow after blow upon the wolf’s exterior without mercy.

James felt as if those blows were raining down upon him, each blow reducing his chance of survival. Jack had tried to stand up for him, but ultimately the problem was he himself had not— James was new to having ‘Andrew’s’ in his life, bullies who swam around like sharks, interpreting his kindness as weakness and latching on until they left him devoid of blood. Devoid of ambition.

How long until the gap was so big, Andrew deemed him to be worthless and just killed him. Or forced him to distract enemies with his arrows, only to steal the credit for himself? But James did not want to die yet— he had an infant daughter, and a wife. He did not know if he would be able to reunite with his wife, but as for his daughter, he would give almost anything to see her again.

The tutorial’s description once again echoed in his mind. A thought floated past him…. What was he doing? James’ bow angled away from the wolf Andrew was beating down on, to Andrew’s stationery neck itself. If his grip on this arrow slipped, James knew he would no longer have to be worried about survival. Perhaps he would be forced out into his own, but…. If the group would just steal experience from him, what was the point? It had been an hour since they had landed on this new world, but the enemies had already gotten this difficult to handle.

If he waited, or just left instead of doing something insane, perhaps there would be no need for conflict. But…. for his entire life, it was people like Andrew that had made his normal life a living hell. Was he the one that had gone insane, or the world? Ultimately, the question was… did it matter? Was there a government left to prosecute him for his crimes? No. Would his family find out? For all he knew, Amelia was dead, and as for his daughter and parents, how would they? James didn’t see CCTV cameras in the forest.

So why not just…. fight back for once?

A flicker of Qi manifested on the arrow, and without thinking much further, James loosened his grip on the bowstring— his aim like his highschool days….impeccable.

Jack felt his anger flare up as he saw Andrew tower over the wolf carcass, blood dripping from his bronze gauntlets that had now been dyed in a crimson red, when the sound of an arrow tearing through the air attracted his attention, Jack only getting time to see a trail of blue arc across the air before embedding itself perfectly in Andrew’s exposed throat.

The man looked down, his eyes wide with disbelief— he tried to say something, but only constricted gurgles sounded out, before he spat out a mouthful of blood. Perhaps due to the system’s modifications, Andrew was still conscious and had enough strength to jerk his arms in the direction of the arrow, but the soon fell limp. With his eyes still as wide as saucers, Andrew fell over backwards, slamming next to the very corpse of the wolf he was so proud of slaying.

“Get down,” Jack screamed, his reaction delayed by a second— unable to comprehend the implications of the arrow in that moment, before breaking out into a sprint in the direction of the nearest tree, before diving forward into a combat roll- much more graceful this time, after the added points in agility, his entire figure obscured by it a second later. Jack’s heart thumped like crazy as he tried to recall the arc of the arrow, trying to eliminate possibilities before…. landing at the obvious.

Sarah’s panting figure crashed face-first next to Jack a second later, perhaps instinctively having decided to follow after him. Jack held her by the arms and pulled her behind cover, his own eyes wide with shock, though he did not want to admit it.

“James has betrayed us,” Jack stated, though his voice quivered slightly in the middle. It was one thing to expect betrayal as part of his hypothetical doomsday scenarios, and another to witness it first hand—a man impaled in the throat with frightening precision from over twenty meters, dead before he hit the ground.