NOVEL FROG 6. The Prey
The spiritual beast stalking me was no longer alone. There were seven of them, six of which were all bigger than the first. At first, I thought It was a blood reaper, but now I suspect it’s a pack of wolfbears. My soul pulsed with mana as the energy cycled through my channels and pushed outward. Waves of translucent energy expanded as it grew, so did my connection with the Bloodwoods. Life was at a standstill in the forest. Lesser creatures sensed the danger and vanished into the safety of their homes.
A wolfbear was neither wolf nor bear—knowledge that I glanced from a book I read long ago was recalled. Wolfbears didn’t even belong in the Canidae family. They were a family of their own—Hyaenidae. The dog-like creatures were as large as bears and hunted in packs like wolves. Except wolfbear didn’t hunt in packs of seven to twelve predators. They hunted in packs of eighty to a hundred. The seven wolfbears I sensed were just the scouting party.
Wolfbears were once the dominant species on the Agoria continent. Their population spanned the entirety of the landmass, and their packs claimed territories like humans. In the infancy of their rise to power, cultivators were not facing threats from outside nations but threats from the ever-feasting wolfbears. The struggle became less and less as cultivators reached greater heights.
When the first templar in rank was reached by an Agorian, the war reached a turning point. Humanity feasted on the beasts and grew in power. Rule and order were created, and Agoria thrived. As the humans prospered, the wolfbears were pushed back to the brink of extinction. Only a small pocket of the beasts remain—here in the Bloodwoods, where the mana and habitat can sustain the large hunting packs, and as domesticated beasts, the powerful and wealthy feasted upon—beefbears.
I had thirty seconds before the hunters arrived. The scouts I was confident I could deal with. The remaining hunters, not so much. I couldn’t flee. They would easily catch me, and I wasn’t even sure I was their target. The mana was still thick with death here. The wolfbears knew that where there’s death, there’s food. If I run, they will devour the dead here, including the man frozen on his pike.
That was an entirely different problem. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with my body while it was frozen and dying. Ideally, I would move it to someplace safe. I was kind of hoping I could leave it here for a while before I had to figure that out. Now, I doubted that was possible. That wasn’t even an option at the moment. If I wanted this life to last, I needed to survive and needed to preserve the dying man. Twenty-five seconds before the scouts arrived.
Time slowed to a crawl. I scanned the fresh graveyard for any advantage I could use. The battle of mages had devastated the landscape. What once was a small opening among massive trees was now a cleared field for hundreds of yards. After a devastating battle, earth and life cultivators typically used their mana to repair the damaged environment. That wasn’t the case here. For whatever reason, the Alderi Emperor didn’t care about the backlash of the battle. There would be nowhere for me or the wolfbears to hide. Perfect.
I spread the water from my palm around me, covering an area of thirty yards. Water touched the ground and turned into a slick sheet of ice. I continued to add layers to the ice field, increasing the layers near me. I had plenty of mana for the task, and my channels felt fresh. With my connection to the ice, I smoothed out each layer until I had a mound of ice. The dead and dying were now buried, and it was a bit uncanny to think I was standing on the hill of my tomb.
I dispersed a thick fog to cover the area for the remaining ten seconds. The fog wouldn’t help keep me hidden; it was intended to keep the ice hidden. As the fog rolled out, I covered myself and my immediate surroundings in a globe of thick ice—a skill I rarely used as the party’s scout.
I heard the chatter of the seven spirit beasts before I saw them. It was an eerie sound of wild and untamed laughter, each cry provoking the next to be louder and higher. I felt a bit haunted in the gloom of my fog, and the moisture on my brow wasn’t unnoticed. I can’t recall the last time I felt the battle sweats. My stomach churned in anticipation, reminding me of my aching hunger. I’ve gone three days without food before. I never felt intense pain like this before. This felt like it was more than three days.
Instinctively, I thumbed the ring on my index finger. If it were an ordinary ring, this body I inhabited would not be wearing it. Lana's gifts were not ordinary. The ring was bound not only to my body but also to my ice clone. My mana was directed into the ring, carrying my command to summon the bow stored inside.
Like Lana’s ring, Snowpiercer was a bow made for me. It was made from the finest wood of the elven kingdoms, Blackwood, and held an unnatural amount of runes that shaped the invested bow. The draw strength was as strong as a pure body cultivator’s bow but not nearly as impossible to draw. Attuned to my mana, I could pull the string as if it had no resistance. Snowpiercer allowed me to shoot arrows of ice. The arrows could even pierce my barriers without my intervention.
I held Snowpiercer firmly in my left hand. The weight of the gift felt extra heavy as I raised it. An ice arrow was summoned in my right hand. I closed my eyes, diving deeper into my connection to water and surroundings. My fog didn’t blind me. I could sense everything. I knew this was just a taste of the power I would have once I broke through to the next rank of templar. That was a long way away. Still, the taste was sweet, and I hungered for more.
I drew my arrow, held the tension for a breath, and fired. My ice arrow whistled through my barrier and fog as the first wolfbear entered my hunting ground.