The Earth After Rebirth

"Surrounded?" Luka asked unsure.

They all looked around but they couldn't see anything. Nothing moved, there was silence except for the occasional creaks of the trees.

"That's not very funny guild master." Von exclaimed.

But Isla wasn't laughing, she was looking, she could see things they couldn't thanks to her spirits. She counted and there were about 6 coming their way, they closed the huge distance in a matter of seconds and reached where they had taken refuge.

"Get ready to fight, there are 6 of them and they are pissed off." She warned.

Sure enough, a pair of 11 red eyes presented themselves. One them had their eye gauged out, it was clearly their leader.

"I thought the system said that little shit was a stray?" Erik questioned.

Ding!

[Yes it was. These ones are as well. An alliance can exist within strays, there's nothing surprising about that. Good luck.]

"That would've been useful before we fought that thing though?" Von argued

But the system never replied back. It wouldn't be much of a game if players were told everything, once a player graduates beginner's village, they were on their own. The system would not help in any way.

"No use complaining about it now let's fight. Luka, you'll have to be our meat shield. Of course the priests will prioritise you above us all here."

Luka understood, he nervously nodded. He stood at the forefront and activated his berserker mode. Alas, he could only draw in about 4 of them.

One lunged at the two priests, but Von was already there with majestic sword skills, he cleanly cut the thing's muzzle. It was frantic.

Isla didn't waste any time, as she planned to use a magic arrow. She took a deep breath, moved her shoulders around to relax, then aimed with her new rare ranked bow.

The first arrow was light and thin, it travelled even faster. The werewolf dodged, but barely. Isla was mad, but there was no time to busk in her failure, the werewolf had already reached her.

She activated mirror image to confuse it. Sure enough, it couldn't tell which ones were the Illusions. All of her were aiming yet another magic arrow.

It zoomed straight for the thing's chest, at first nothing happened it looked as if the werewolf had absorbed the arrow, but like wild fireworks, it turned its insides into mush. Completely decorating the area with it's guts, flesh and blood.

Luka on the other side, while it was 4 against 1, he was holding his own. He was rampaging, he kicked and punched. At the same time, he was scratched and bitten. He wasn't worried though, the two priests were hard at work, healing him.

His berserker state had no indication that it would slow down any time soon. He looked like an absolute beast out there. His fists were coated in a red, very violent aura. It took about 5 of his punches to cause a single werewolf to back down. But it was still drawn to him because of aggro.

Von was dealing with the leader, it was a difficult foe. But as a strong knight, he managed to keep it at bay with his sword aura.

The werewolf released a sound his way, which caused him to be disoriented. It lunged at him with its right arm, and sent him flying a good distance away. It went straight for the two priests.

Erik had already aimed his arrow, claiming the leader as his next victim. The arrow was carried by the wind, it didn't notice since it was enraged and was sure it would reach the two that were being protected. Its attention was jerked in his direction when a metallic arrow entered one of its good eye.

It cried out in a way that wasn't a howl, Von was already behind it and sliced its neck with his sword, decapitating it.

Luka had already tired out most of his foes and killed one. Isla was picking them off from a safe distance, one by one.

Ding!

[Congratulations, you've massacred the stray alliance. You've gained 500k EXP and 100k coins.]

"Is it me or the system has become more stingy with the coins?" Erik complained.

"But how long have we been here? Yet there's no sign of dawn breaking." Luka talked over Erik's complaint.

"Maybe nights are longer, it's werewolf territory after all." Saanvi logically explained.

Ding!

[Days don't exist in this world, only nights with the full moon always.]

"Useless." Von muttered under his breath.

Their victory was short lived, as Isla saw an army of them coming their way.

"Everyone, don't panic, but there's an army of them coming."

"An army? How many?"

"About 30, give or take."

"30?" They all exclaimed, at the same time.

"Don't panic, I have a plan. Get ready to attack, kill as much as possible at my say so." She ordered.

They knew better than to doubt her now, she was right about the pack of strays after all. So they all waited for her order.

Isla summoned her wind spirits, a dust of light invisible to everyone else gathered around and embraced her, she welcomed it waited the enemy to show themselves.

Although there was light, it wasn't bright enough to see far into the forest. Not even the moon managed to do that. The seconds felt like an eternity to them, they weren't even breathing.

Then, they saw the red. Isla quickly activated illusionary arts and commanded the wind to carry it to the enemy, so they did. It was akin to fairy dust, the moment the werewolves breathed in the air, they were under her illusion.

She opted for beautiful dreams instead of nightmares, that would calm them down making them easy pick offs to kill. The moment they entered their vicinity, they stopped marching forwards.

They were seeing things they wanted the most, they stood dumbly enjoying their dream state.

"Now, kill them all." Isla's voice resounded through the forest.

They didn't need to be told twice.