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The soft and soothing sound of flowing water that came from the nearby shallow creek resonated deeply with Katherine as she found herself lost in the tranquility of the scenery surrounding her. She had always been confined to the coastal villages that the convent traveled between, and had never experienced what the outside world had to offer.
She was now wandering in the majestic beauty of the North, deep in the mixed coniferous forest of pine, spruce, and fir with the melting snow glistening all around. As she continued to walk in a daze of admiration, Selene turned to her and whispered, "I think we found our quarry."
Snapping out of the dream state she had been in, Katherine soon followed her friend's outstretched hand and saw what was ahead.
At the edge of her vision she could just barely make out what looked to be a pack of wolves. Selene had spotted the den from a distance and slowed her pace to that of a stalk as Katherine did the same.
The objective for the day was to gather at least two-hundred copper worth of fur hides from the surrounding hunting grounds, but that would be impractical if one focused on rabbits and foxes as their value was considerably low. Selene knew this and had specifically set out to find gatherings of wolves to reach the quota despite the inherent danger in hunting a group of predators.
Sigurd had asked that much from them, so they were forced to oblige.
It wasn't an impossible task after all, but it would still be a difficult one.
Selene and Kate both took pride in that he had trusted them with such work while he was busy laboring; both knew he was a capable hunter and that he took the harder of the two jobs for himself.
They appreciated the sentimentality of their new master.
As Selene was the more experienced hunter she led the way while Kate slowly followed behind. Making their way downwind of the Wolves, they were able to finally see exactly what they were up against.
Counting out the wolves on both hands meant for a difficult fight as the two young women nodded in unison. They both kept silent and used hand signals to indicate that they had each counted off seven adult wolves, with one Alpha male at the center.
Removing their bows, Selene indicated with her index finger a single target then expanded her hands to mean the largest one. Kate nodded as she understood and nocked an arrow in preparation for the fight ahead.
The seriousness of the hunt had all but erased the prior tranquility as tension filled the cool spring air.
The goal was to kill the Alpha immediately and use the confusion to slay the smaller wolves after, but there was no guarantee at such an extreme distance.
With practiced unison born from years of hunting together, both female hunters drew their bows back. Then Selene used her bow-hand to signal a 3-count, it was time for action.
One, two, three and both girls released their bowstrings with a thwack as the sinew-string snapped back into normal tension. Without consideration of the arrows that had already left they drew another arrow and took aim.
The [Northern Alpha Wolf] was considered the strongest of the Wolf-types within the starter zones at around level 40-50 and was accompanied by any variety of wolves from the level 15-35 range. The predominately white [Northern Alpha Wolf] had been leisurely enjoying a nap on the forest floor, surrounded by his Alpha female mate and their five offspring of various ages and size.
All of them were mostly white with small amounts of streaking gray or black and had rather beautiful coats of fur.
As the male [Northern Tundra Alpha Wolf] perked its ears up from a strange sound it soon found itself the target of two well-placed arrows into the lungs. The wolf leaped forward while letting out a vicious growl and howl that could send shivers down your spine; there was no yelp or shriek of pain from the Alpha wolf.
With the suddenly startled wolves frantically looking around for their attackers a second set of arrows hit the male Alpha, dropping it to the ground. With their leader felled, the female Alpha took over as she spotted Kate and Selene in the distance and barked out incomprehensible orders to her pack.
As Kate and Selene nocked their third arrows and drew back, they could see six wolves bearing down on them with the largest of them at the back.
The experienced and hardened Selene never broke concentration as she fired off arrow after arrow into the wolves that were now less than a hundred yards away. She made every effort to see their numbers dwindle in short order.
For Selene the distance was easily doable but for Katherine the story was quite the opposite, the initial shot at roughly one-hundred and fifty yards was exceptionally lucky.
The second arrow hitting at all was one of utter disbelief.
Now with the wolves closing in but moving rapidly through the trees the targets were too small and nimble for Katherine, and her third and fourth arrow harmlessly struck a tree. By the fifth arrow the wolves had closed the distance to less than fifty yards and would be upon them in a matter of seconds.
Selene continued to draw her bow with focused determination as the six wolves had collapsed to four. Katherine, slower than Selene in her rate of fire, finally landed her fifth arrow into the shoulder of a wolf which caused the creature to tumble into the raised root of a tree, killing it immediately via a broken neck.
Thwack.
Selene let off another arrow with around twenty-five yards to go as sweat perspired down her face.
They were running out of distance between them.
Down to three wolves but without any room to fire, Selene leaped back as a wolf lunged forth with fangs bared plain for all to see. The wolf snapped its mouth shut just barely missing her arm as she rolled to a knee and let off another arrow.
Thwack.
The arrow flew straight through the reopened mouth of the young wolf; killing it instantly.
As the second wolf came barreling through and leaped into the air intending to land on top of the unaware Selene, three small orbs of yellowish-white light curved in the air and slammed into the side of the wolf. The orbs consecutively exploded in a bright white light that sent the wolf veering and crashing into the shrubbery a few feet away.
Struggling back to its feet it was then hit a second later by a larger white sphere of holy energy that exploded on contact and blew the wolf into a nearby tree.
The wolf was staggered and could not get up as its legs shook uncontrollably from the sudden impact, only to get hit again by another [Holy Blast] that blew it back into the same tree a second time.
Four more [Holy Blasts] followed with a second between them until the wolf had finally ceased breathing.
Selene used the time Katherine had bought her to get back to her feet as she stood face to face with the Alpha female in front of her, dagger drawn and ready. Her agility and dexterity were quite high but the wolf had much higher strength and a dagger was hardly the weapon of choice, but it was all she had.
It would have to suffice.
Selene waited for the Alpha to make the first move as Katherine repositioned off to the side, only to be caught off-guard as the Alpha shifted focus and immediately closed the distance towards Kate with a massive lunge. Selene tried to react but was a second late as the wolf had reached Kate.
Fearing the worst as she saw Kate stick her hand out in desperation to block the wolf's bite, Selene panicked as she watched the scene unfold. Unable to do anything to help her friend, she frantically threw her dagger at the wolf's back only to be instantly blinded as the world before her flashed white.
Disoriented she stumbled to the ground and clutched her face as her sight slowly started to come back. The wolf was completely unaware of the possibility of the [Burst of Light] and Katherine easily sidestepped the wolf as it hit the ground and stumbled about, blinded by the sudden and extremely bright white-light.