“Phew! We’ve finally shaken off those thugs!”
Duchess Helen sighed in relief as their carriage continued forward. The pursuer leader, who had clung to their carriage, was now nowhere to be seen, his clothes left behind, fluttering in the wind, pinned to the carriage side by a short crossbow bolt – the same one Ladi had shot earlier.
“I’ve almost fully recovered; should I use the Featherlight spell again?” Ladi pondered.
“Save your energy, just in case we run into more trouble,” Helen advised.
The pursuer leader, still naked, watched from his perch in a tree as his four subordinates were defeated one by one by the mud monsters, and the carriage carrying their targets slowly disappeared into the distance.
Just as he was fretting, the two monsters at the base of the tree suddenly dissolved into piles of mud.
Climbing down, he rushed to his barely alive comrades. Ignoring his nakedness, he frantically searched one of them.
“Strange, I remember placing it on him… Ah, here it is.”
He finally found a scroll.
“I must get back at them!” he swore vengefully, deeply humiliated by the repeated indignities inflicted by the two women. He could not let this slide.
Realizing he couldn’t overpower them directly, he resorted to a secret weapon in his team’s arsenal – a magic-infused scroll. It was meant for large groups or armies, so using it on just two women seemed wasteful. But he was too aggrieved to care.
Retrieving the scroll from his unconscious comrade, he mounted a horse and set off after the carriage, still naked.
“Still not giving up?” Ladi and Helen frowned upon hearing the approaching horse hooves.
“It seems he won’t stop unless we disable him completely,” Ladi remarked, standing up to look back. She saw the pursuer leader, still naked, riding hard towards them.
Blushing and muttering an expletive, Ladi contemplated a way to teach him an unforgettable lesson.
The pursuer leader, closing the distance, unrolled the scroll and began to chant a spell. In a few seconds, the incantation was complete, and he threw the scroll into the air above the carriage.
A piercing wolf howl shattered the night’s silence. The sound was so loud it seemed to tear at Ladi’s and Helen’s eardrums.
The horses pulling the carriage panicked, suddenly halting their run. They stamped nervously, as if sensing some terrifying presence lurking in the darkness ahead.
The pursuer leader’s horse also stopped, spinning in place, unresponsive to his whipping, refusing to move forward.
The pursuer leader was unaware of the scroll’s specific effect, only knowing that it was incredibly powerful.
A second, louder wolf howl sounded, originating from the scroll he had thrown.
“Sound storage spell? But why store the howl of a wolf?” Ladi wondered, realizing the source of the sound was the scroll.
The howl, emanating from their location, began to spread in all directions.
Another wolf howl echoed, this time from afar. It was faint but clear, almost as if responding to the howl from the scroll. For more chapters visit Nov3lFɪre.ɴet
Then a second, and a third howl followed from different directions. Soon, a chorus of howls filled the night, replacing the silence with a terrifying cacophony.
Sounds of rustling came from the surrounding woods, as if numerous animals were lurking, accompanied by multiple pairs of glowing green eyes emerging from the darkness.
“What exactly is happening?” Duchess Helen’s voice trembled. She was, after all, just a woman.
Ladi, however, remained calm. “That scroll must contain the howl of a wolf king. It seems the message in the sound is not inviting the wolves to welcome us.”
Helen shivered beside her. “Aren’t the wolves near Fort Ness known for not attacking travelers on the merchant roads?”
“Perhaps they’re in the mood for a different kind of midnight snack tonight,” Ladi speculated with a grim expression.
Ladi shook the reins hard, but the horses refused to budge.
“Are there wolves waiting ahead? Let’s try going back!” Ladi attempted to turn the horses, but they wouldn’t follow her command.
Meanwhile, the pursuer leader was also gripped by immense panic. The howls seemed endless, and he had never witnessed such a spectacle.
No matter how hard he tried, his horse refused to move, sensing the presence of wild animals all around.
In desperation, he leaped off the horse and ran frantically towards Fort Ness, cursing the person who had given him the scroll.
“You all deserve to die!” Adrenaline fueled his run, and he soon passed Ladi’s carriage.
“That fool has brought ruin upon himself and others!” Ladi guessed his fate.
As expected, when he was about ten meters from the carriage, two wild animals leaped from the roadside woods, knocking him to the ground.
The pursuer leader struggled, but without any clothes or protection, the wolves’ sharp teeth easily pierced his skin.
He screamed in agony and tried to strangle the wolf that had bitten him.
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