Rustle~ Rustle~
Grr~ Grr~
Thiw— Thack.
Awoo~~ Awoo~~
A cloaked man who holds an bow and an arrow appear moments later. The cloaked was currently soaked on blood. The face of the man was also covered by the cloak and only his eyes is visible.
Seconds later, a number of beasts, which was actually a pack of wolf, started to appear one by one. They were growling at the cloaked man.
The beast all have the same appearance, a gray wolf with occasional streak of blood red color on their fur. All of them are ready to pounce at the cloaked man on any moment.
Since Cole's group was not really far from the place, plus the eyesight of cultivator was really good, Cole could see one of the beast clearly.
Beast Name : Dire Wolf♀
Stage : Ninth-Level Tier-2 Wild Beast
Progress : 30.1%
Affinity : Blood
Type : Beast
Description : A very wild species of wolfs. A single drop of blood was enough for the beast to lose its mind and attack anyone.
Cole frown instantly after he read the description of the beast that appear on his eyesight. Base on what it said, this pack of wolf was a very dangerous one, specially since the man was covered by blood. This Dire Wolfs will great crazy and crazy the longer it smelled blood and the man was literally covered by it.
Worry was apparent in the man's eyes. Just like any other person who dared to enter this Flowerhead Forest, he knew that he will be safe as long as he don't attack any creature with a flower in their head. Yet, those creatures actually attack proactively since yesterday. He got injured by one of the attacks yesterday but he managed to get away.
Unfortunately, he accidentally intrude the territory of these Dire Wolf's and it attack him non-stop since then. He's tired by now and his wound was still untreated. It was still bleeding. If he don't pass out from fatigue, he's sure he'll pass out becuase of severe blood loss.
He was about to dash and run towards his right when he managed to saw a boy and a girl, as well as a green colored fur wolf, in that direction. He contemplated for a second before he change his direction and run to his left side. He don't want to implicate others.
And if by chance they were an strong persons, he don't them to misinterpret and kill him themselves. He have to solve his own problem.
Cole see the cloaked man's green eye's brighten when the man saw them as if he saw hope but to his surprise, the man turn to the opposite direction instead.
Cole smile. He was sure that they don't look like a strong party, if the cloaked man had a dark heart, he'll definitely drag them to his miseries for the hope of survival. Yet, he didn't. It only means that the man was a good guy with a good heart. Not only he didn't drag them to his problem, he also help them avoid disaster.
Celia look at her Master and he already knew what he was thinking at the moment. He mounted the Greeny and patted the beast, "C'mon, follow him." she instructed.
Cole watched Celia and Greeny run after the cloaked man. He levitate and teleported beside Celia, "I'm going to follow him first." he said pertaining to the mysterious man.
Celia nodded, "Allright. He seems wounded and needed immediate action." She stated.
Cole nodded and teleports twice before he could see the silhouette of the man again.
The man started to have his speed reduced. Due to this, the Dire Wolf's and his distance started to shorten bit by bit.
One of the Dire Wolf that was more bigger than Greeny, which seems the be the leader of this pack of wolves, shorten the distance much faster than the rest.
The cloaked could feel that leader of this pack of beast was nearing him. And so, without stopping from his running, he nocked an arrow to his bow, turn to his back and fire three arrows in a row. Miraculously, as if the fired arrows have an eyes of its own, it all successfully hit the wolf.
The Dire Wolf felt the threat those arrows and it tried to dodge. Unfortunately, the speed of those arrows was very fast which is why eventhough it tried to evade the attack, it still got hit by those three arrows. Luckily, due to its attempt to evade, the arrows didn't hit any vitals. However, it still hurt which actually make it stop. It stop its pursuit to the cloaked man.
It gave the cloaked man the time he needed to lengthen their distance once again.
By the time all the wolves appear on where their leader was, their target got loss from their sight. Those pack members didn't try to chase the cloaked man, instead, they stop to their injured leader.
Cole didn't watch the wolf, instead, he follow the cloaked man.
After twenty minutes of non-stop running, the cloaked man managed to find a cave. He enter their quietly and survey if there was a threat inside. Fortunately, there was none.
The man heaved a sigh of relief but his body seems to remember and he slumped in fatigue. He was about to treat his wounds when he heard a voice from the entrance of the cave;
"You should remove your cloak."
He instantly whipped his head towards the entrance and there he saw a teen-age boy. He was a vigilant individual but a person actually managed to get close to him without even noticing it. He was confused but when he saw that the man was actually hovering in the air, he's instantly convinced. Without even stirring the air, this teen-age man was literally approach him like a ghost.
There is also a blob of bloody water floating beside the boy which seems like a blood. He looks at the boy vigilantly. Unfortunately, his body was like filled with lead in heaviness due to his fatigue.
"What do you want?" He asked the boy. "I didn't give and cause you any trouble."
Cole smile, "No, you didn't. Which is why I'm here." He pointed at the man's cloak and said, "You should remove your cloak. Wolves species have a very strong sense of smell and Dire Wolves, those beast that was chasing you, are very sensitive when it comes to the smell of blood and you're literally covered by it. If you want to loss them, you have to make yourself blood free first."
He pointed at the blob of red water floating beside him and said, "This water contains your blood that drips on the way when you were running. I removed them so that those Dire Wolves will have a hard time tracking you."
The cloaked man frown before his nerves relax with the presence of the unknown teenager. If the blob of water truly contain his blood, then the boy was saying was definitely true.
"Relax. If I really want to hurt you, you're currently have no ability to resist." The boy added.
The cloaked man nodded at Cole. What he said was indeed true. In this moment, he was like a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.
"Focus on recuperating, I'll guard you."
The cloaked man nodded but still didn't remove his cloak.
After looking at the man for a second, Cole shifted his sight to the entrance of the cave. He was waiting for Celia and Greeny to catch-up. Three minutes later, they arrived and enter the cave too.
Cole manipulates the available water in the surrounding with [Free Water Manipulation] using his [Soul Mimicry]. When the water was enough, he used it to create a water screen and block the whole entrance of the cave. He do that so their scent, specially the scent of the cloaked man's blood, won't be detected by those Dire Wolves.
While Cole was doing all of that, Celia scrutinized the cloaked man. Although she also quite like the man for not giving them any trouble, she's not like Cole who will help someone just because he appreciate him. After all, this was a forest. A random sheep may be a tiger in disguise. This man may look harmless now due to his injuries, he might attack them the moment he recovered.
Still, her Master decided to help this cloaked and shady man. It is not appropriate if he deny her Master's business. She just have to watch this man in case he do something later on.
Being careful was never been a bad thing.
After Cole was sure that they were hidden from those pack of Dire Wolves, he once again shifted his focus on the cloaked, injured man. His brow knitted when he saw that the man was not doing anything to his injuries.
"You don't have a recovery pills or something?" He asked.
The cloaked man shakes his head, "I already used all my recovery pills. I don't have anything left." He answered. "Don't worry, I only need five days to recover 80% of my injuries."
Cole frown. Although he knew that body of the people in this world was strong and have a great recovery ability, he don't want to wait for five days for him to recover.
Unfortunately, he also don't have any injury recovery pills. What he have was a five jade bottles of pills called Energy Pills which could both recover a energy or help increase the available energy, but it was not for physical injuries.
On the other hand, eventhough he have the ability to heal other, he don't want to use it to others specially for strangers. Although he appreciate him for not deliberately give them trouble, the best he could do to help a stranger was to guard them and ensure his safety until he recovered.
Cole shrug. Well, its better than nothing. He thought and a plain jade container appear on his hand. It was the jade bottle that contains the Energy Pills which he received from his first monthly commission. Without checking its content, he throw the bottle to the cloaked man, "This jade bottle contains ten Energy Pills. I don't have any physical injury recovery pills but this could help to recover your energy."
The cloaked man catch the bottle and nod to Cole, "Many thanks. Although this pills are not for physical injury, this will help me recover faster. With this, I can recover 80% of my injuries for three days."
Cole nodded, "That's good."
The cloaked man look straight at Cole for few seconds before he sigh and look at the jade bottle he hold. The teen-age boy might be helping him now but it won't still remove the fact that they were still strangers. This jade bottle he received might be truly be an Energy Pills but it may have contain a poison. But after looking at the boy for a seconds after he received the bottle, he saw the boy was sincere.
It was either his judgement is correct or the boy was a very talented deceiver.
Betting on his judgement, he chose to believe the boy didn't have malicious intent to him, and he open the jade bottle.
After the jade cork, a rich pill aroma diffuse throughout the whole cave...
What? This aroma... A very high-grade pill?
The cloaked man look at the content of the jade bottle surprised. He then look at the teen-age boy to ask if he might have given him the wrong pills but the sight made him confused because... the boy also look surprised. It was as if he didn't know the content of the bottle until now.
"Did you give me a wrong bottle?" He still asked.
Cole jolted, "No. I didn't give you a wrong bottle. Use it to recover." He answered with a casual tone.
Saying that he was surprised was an understatement. When he received that batch of pills at first, they were not like that. In fact, those pills are all average. To think that it improved that much after few months... What happen?
"With this pills, I can recover to full health in three days."
He then took out the first pill and he once again surprised. The pill actually had a vague, one circle mark on its body. If not becuase someone at their level have a more sensitive eyesight, he might have missed it. But it can't deny the fact that it have one!
It's a pill mark!