Chapter 3: Hidden Power pt.1

Matthew and the beast exchanged glares. For some reason, Matthew had a feeling that he had to, or rather, wanted to fight the creature.

Even if his guts tells him to fight, his mind says the opposite. He knew nothing about fighting and he very well knew that it would be dangerous with Rose around. There was only one option left.

Matthew and Rose were in serious trouble upon encountering the wolf-like beast that was three times the size of an average wolf with horns on its head in a pattern of black and white stripes..

"Uhh Rose, what kind of wolf is that?" Matthew, although knew that they were facing no ordinary wolf, still asked that question.

"I don't know, I've never seen such a creature before!" Rose answered in panic.

While they were still talking, the beast leapt towards them with the instinct to kill.

"GET DOWN!" Matthew shouted as he threw himself to the ground whilst pushing Rose from the back with his right arm.

The beast missed them but was able to land on its feet not far from them and turned around facing them.

Matthew who was lying on the ground stomach down shifted his position to face the beast.

The beast, instead of leaping again, it ran towards them.

Matthew, through instinct, grabbed a handful of soil from the ground and threw it towards the beast.

The beast stopped in its tracks. It coughed and wheezed while shaking its head.

Matthew took this chance to run away. He grabbed Rose by the hand and bolted.

"Come on Rose! We need to go while he is blinded!"

Both of them ran as fast as they could even though it hurt their unprotected feet.

The beast, with one last shake of its head. Looked at its prey who were running away from it. With a huff, it howled just like any wolf would.

The sound of the howl reached the ears of Matthew and Rose.

"Was that a howl? But why?" Rose asked.

Matthee kept silent for a moment as he saw more shadows moving through the forest with them.

"Looks like it called its friends" Matthew was even more worried now that there are more of those things chasing them.

"What are we gonna do?"

"No choice, we just need to keep heading towards that smoke. Maybe there is someone there that can help."

As they kept running for their lives, another shadow appeared. But this time, it looked human.

Rose saw that shadow and immediately called for help.

"HEY! Help us! Can you hear me?"

At that moment, one of the moving shadows beside them leapt towards Rose.

Matthee saw what was coming and instantly yanked Rose back and put his left forearm in front of the gaping jaws of that beast.

SHIEK!!

"AARGH!"

Matthew fell down, his forearm still in the beast's jaws. The beast was on top of Matt, pinning him down. Blood was dripping.

Matthew saw a stick nearby and quickly grabbed the stick and shoved it into the beast's left eye.

It loosened its bite and whined loudly, Matthew crawled backwards. He was still bleeding from the open wound, luckily, the wound was not too deep.

"Matt! Are you okay? Oh my god... You're bleeding!" Rose was worried about Matt.

"Ugh..yeah, at least it's not too deep. I don't think it hit the artery."

The beast that was thrashing before finally regained its senses back(aside from its left eye) and growled at the both of them.

It was about to leap into another attack but suddenly an arrow struck right into its other eye. After thrashing and barking a bit more, it slumped to the ground.

Matthew and Rose was confused.

"Is..is it dead?" Rose asked, but no answer came.

Then a voice finally shook the silence away.

"Hey, are you guys alright?"

Matthew and Rose turned towards the direction where the voice came from.

There, stood a woman with dark violet hair which was tied back neatly but part of it was covering her left eye, holding a weirdly shaped bow in her left hand and wearing a scarf that was covering her mouth and nose. Her attire was much like a hunter, with a quiver of arrows on her back and a knife on her right hip.

The woman walked towards them and kneeled down.

"Hmm that looks bad." The woman said.

"Who are you?" Rose asked.

"I am..." The woman was about to answer the question but another howl rang through the air.

"Ugh, we'll save the introductions for later. You head back to my camp near the cliff hanger."

The woman said that as she pointed to the back with her right thumb.

"Eh? But what about you?" This time Matthew asked.

"I'll hold them off, you guys just wait for me there."

"But-"

"GO!" She shouted.

Matthew, without hesitating anymore, ran towards the direction the woman was pointing at along with rose.

"Matt, are you sure we can just leave her?" Rose was also worried about the woman.

"I don't want to leave her either, but at this point we'll just be in her way."

Rose was still worried but looking at Matthew's arm, she felt that he was right. They can't be of any help.