Within Roland's mind, he roared.

(FIREBALL!)

Almost instantly, a fireball the size of a human head formed at the tip of Roland's cane, with a thought, the fireball shot forward at a great speed. That was not the end of it though before that ball of flame landed within the cave, Roland had already made another and another. Shooting each one as soon as they formed, Roland had continuously shot 4 fireballs into the midst of the wolf's den.

*Boom Boom Boom Boom*

4 Continuous explosions rang out from within the cave, followed by a heavy gush of wind and smoke. A huge backdraft was rushing for the mouth of the cave, Bren grabbed Roland by his waist and jumped out of the way, Lowen as well dodged to one side.

*AWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLL!*

Howls of pain echoed out from within the cave and the ground began to tremble slightly as the wolves made a mad dash for the exit. Before Bren had even landed with Roland, Roland's mind was still focused to the extreme, as a horde of wolves was just about to break out of their den, Roland launched one more fierce spell.

"WALL OF FLAME!"

*PFSHH*

A wall of flame 10 feet high and 15 feet across covered the entrance of the cave completely. Many of the wolves had already reached the entrance and hadn't expected this sudden turn of events, with no chance of stopping, a dozen or so had accidentally rushed forward through the wall of flames.

Igniting their fur and flesh, these wolves again howled in agony. Their flesh darkened with scorch marks but they still hadn't fallen. Clovis signaled with his hand and roared to his men.

"Loose."

Caught unaware, the air shrilled as a hail of arrows rained down upon these beasts. With the other wolves being virtually trapped within the den, seeing their brethren being slaughtered, their faces turned ferocious as they growled, snarled and barked in anger. This wall of flame had done its job perfectly, separating some of the wolves had given Clovis and his men their greatest opportunity to immediately cut down the wolves' numbers. This way they could gain a great advantage for when the real battle began. The only bad thing though was the fact that this tactic wouldn't work twice. In a few seconds when that wall of flame dissipated, there was no doubt that the rest of the wolves would all madly rush out at once. Clovis had thought up this plan in its entirety and had thoroughly prepared. The only weakness to this plan was Roland's endurance, looking over at him, Clovis could tell he needed time to recover his magic. Mages had a limited amount of energy within their body at Roland's level. They couldn't just continually spam spells, instead, they could use a few and then they would need to reabsorb magical energy. If they pushed themselves and tried to force it, they could face a mental or physical backlash ranging from splitting headaches at the least, to potential death at the most.

Bren landed while holding Roland and then dashed away nearly 20 feet to a nearby tree, with a powerful leap Bren covered 20 feet while still holding Roland. Setting Roland down on a high up branch, Bren jumped down and appeared next to Lowen within a second. Staring at this young boy, Bren calmly said.

"It's time."

With those words, Bren and Lowen took up their fighting stances, Bren's hands were equipped with metallic gloves, on the ends of each glove were sharp hooks perfect for rending meat apart. Lowen, on the other hand, held the heavy silver wolf hammer in his left hand, on his right, his family sword uncoiled itself and extended, grasping the sword with his right hand, Lowen was ready. 1 second passed 2, 3, finally, after 20 seconds the wall of flame faded into nothingness and the wolves charged out.

10, 20, 30, 40, altogether nearly 70 wolves flooded out and the battle began. Clovis and his men, as well as Layfon and his troops all, rushed in.

"AHHH!"

*AWWOOOOL!*

Men and wolf clashed, swords, claws, and fangs continuously intercepted with one another.

"ARRH!"

"NOOO!"

As a wolf pounced toward Lowen, he swung his sword with precision and speed, slicing through its ribcage like butter. Another came from behind but how could Lowen not recognize such simple tactics. Using his shadow steps, Lowen pivoted and spun doing a 180, with the heavy hammer in his left hand, it came crashing down like a boulder.

*Crunch Splat*

Lowen's hammer crushed the wolf's head launching blood, bone, and brain matter in all directions covering his small frame and those around him with disgusting fluids. Bren as well was slaughtering like a wild beast, jumping at a wolf to his side, he launched his hands forward and swiped at a wolf's throat. With sharp hooks attached on the ends of his metallic gloves, Bren's leopard like swipes tore out the throats of any and all that got in his way. Layfon, with his spear, would swing, spin, and thrust it from odd and tricky angles and with a small red fabric attached at the end of it, the wolves would be confused by it and that's when Layfon would strike. The end of his spear would pierce their throats and exit out the back of them, killing them instantly. Clovis as well, with his broadsword he slashed down with heavy force on these ferocious wolves. It seemed that no matter how many approached him, none could take more than one strike without death immediately following.

As the battle raged on, it was plain to see that Clovis and his men held a clear advantage. With the successful first launch made by Roland, the reduced number of wolves weren't making as much of a dent as Clovis previously thought they would, that, plus the fact that these wolves were half starving and weakened helped greatly as well. With powerful people like Lowen, Bren, Clovis, and Layfon, for every wolf that died, they only lost 1 man. At this rate, although the loss would be terrible, they would still have 2/3 of their forces alive and that was far better than what Clovis had hoped for.

The morale of the soldiers grew more and more and as the number of wolves became less and less everyone's momentum grew. 20 wolfs remained and then 10, 5, 1. With a final thrust of his spear, Layfon had slain the last wolf. Raising his spear high in the air Layfon unleashed a mighty roar of victory.

"AHHHHHHHHHH!!"

Everyone raised their weapon high into the air and celebrated with loud cheers.

"YESSSSSSSSS!"

"HELL YEAH WE DID IT!"

Everyone except for Lowen, Bren noticed this and walked over, staring at this boy covered from head to toe in sticky blood, he couldn't help but become curious and ask.

"Lowen, you're not celebrating, why do you look so troubled?"

Lowen kept thinking and thinking but something didn't feel right, what was it, what could it possibly be. Looking around, between the dead people and wolf bodies, something was clearly missing. That's when it clicked for him.

"Bren, where is the Alpha?"

Bren's face immediately twisted in concern, he had been so caught up in the battle that he hadn't even noticed something so obvious. Bren dashed over to a celebrating Clovis and said a few words. Clovis as well started to become paranoid, he shouted down an order.

"SILENCE!"

The crowd of celebrating soldiers heard their commanders order and shut their mouth's all at once, Clovis again yelled out.

"The Alpha has not appeared and therefore this isn't finished yet."

The surrounding soldiers heard this and most of them grew confused with thoughts of, how can that be.

Layfon ran over and gave a salute.

"Commander, should I take some men and scout the surrounding area?"

Clovis thought for a moment and then shook his head.

"No, we can't afford to send too many men away, if he is in the area and you encounter him then you and your men won't survive."

Clovis's mind raced with thought, looking at his uncle he quickly gave a command.

"Uncle, you're the fastest man here, I need you to scout the area, when it comes to speed or strength I won't have to worry. Whether you find a trace of the Alpha or not, after 10 minutes I need you to rush back here just in case."

Bren nodded, turned and raced into the forest at a terrifying speed.

"Lowen, on me."

Lowen heard Clovis and ran over.

"Lowen, I need you to scout the den."

Lowen looked at Clovis questioningly but Clovis thought nothing of it.

"Lowen, I'll be honest with you, I don't want to lose any more men and I know your strength. If I send men in there and the Alpha is still hiding in there than they're all but guaranteed to die. If I send you though, with your speed and the toughness of your body you'll definitely be able to flee without a doubt. So please Lowen, will you do this?"

Layfon immediately spoke up.

"Sir, I can do it."

Clovis quickly shot him down.

"No."

"But Sir I can..."

"I said no, don't say anything else about it, understand?"

Layfon gripped his hand tightly.

"Understood Sir."

Layfon looked at Clovis disappointingly, he didn't understand why Clovis didn't ask him. If there was an Alpha waiting inside, then he too could manage an escape, for him, he felt there was no risk.

Lowen, on the other hand, didn't really mind, if there was an Alpha, Lowen had no doubt he could slay it. An alpha wolf was only 5-6 times stronger than a regular wolf and 5-6 times bigger, Lowen felt he could still kill it even without using his ki. Lowen looked at Clovis and was going to ask for a bigger reward but he could see a bit of sadness in his eyes, probably from the loss of so many men. Lowen let out a low sigh and gave a nod.

"Fine, I'll do it."

(If there is an Alpha in there then I'll slay it and discuss a reward later. If I ask right now it would probably just cause a rift between us, it ain't worth it.)

Lowen dashed off headed for the cave before he entered through, he unblocked his sense of smell, he figured if there was an Alpha hed probably smell it before he even got close. The bad side to that though was once again with his heightened senses, it made him smell every single stench distinctively, causing him to want to hurl. Rushing in, Lowen disappeared from view. After walking around for only a few minutes, Lowen could feel his lungs burning and found it slightly more difficult to breathe. Because of Rolands attacks from earlier, it had filled the cave with smoke but not only that, most of the breathable air was gone. If a regular person had come in here, they would have easily passed out only a few steps in, Lowen though, with his improved body could still manage, even if the breathable air in the surroundings reduced by another half. Walking further ahead, this cave wasn't too deep, only 400 or so feet before it opened up into one huge chamber. Looking around Lowen could see no other exits. On the ground, he noticed piles and piles of bone that had been scraped clean. Looking at the bones, Lowen could recognize a few of the animals they belonged to.

(That one's deer and that one over there is from a rabbit. There's even boar bones and those bones....)

Lowen's thoughts stopped, looking at these other bones, he immediately recalled the conversation he had with Roland and the others.

Roland had rubbed his chin in thought before he explained to Lowen.

"Well, this is something that always happens. If a human dies and is consumed by a beast, then that beast will then become a Magic Beast. Their strength suddenly rises at a rapid rate and they gain the power of an element. Why it happens though, no one knows for sure."

Recalling those words, Lowen looked at the bones on the ground and counted them one by one slowly, as to not make a mistake.

1,2,3,4,5,6.

(These must be the rest of the scouts, Clovis had sent out 7 and only one returned. The wolfs, they ate them, doesn't this mean...)

Before Lowen could think any further, his thoughts were interrupted by the loudest howl he had ever heard in his entire life.

*AAAAWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL*