Castle of Black Iron

“Habbie, watch out...” Bonder shouted out loudly with eyes turning red.

However, it was too late. A huge black wolf, which was larger and more aggressive than common wild

Wolves, nimbly escaped from the three youths’ long spears before bringing one to the

ground. With only one bite, a huge gaping hole was opened in the youth’s neck. But before daggers and spears could descend onto its body, the cunning wolf had already succeeded in its attack and jumped off. After that, it exposed its bloody canines and took a few steps to the side, its eyes fixed on the group of youths whose faces had turned pale.

Soon, another shrill shriek drifted from another place. At the same time, the abdomen of another youth wearing leather chest armor and holding a long spear was broken by the huge wolf’s sharp claw. Immediately, the young man fell to the ground and screamed painfully. It didn’t take long for his intestines to flow out with him rolling miserably on the ground, which deeply impressed everybody.

It became bloodier as they watched. But what was worse was the fear filling the youths’ hearts—the fear of death!

“No, I don’t want to die here. I want to go back. I want to go back to the Wild Wolf Castle. I’ll never hunt for golden wolves ever again...”

Facing the constant deaths of his companions, a youth among a team of students attending this survival training collapsed spiritually. With a loud scream, he threw away his long spear, broke out of the defensive circle of the crowd, and dashed towards the Wild Wolf Castle without a thought in his head.

“Scumbag, come back…”

“Pino, you’ll lose your life, come back...”

“Don’t run away...”

The escaping youth was followed by the screams of his crying companions. However, the youth seemed not to have heard them. He just wanted to leave this place.

When he was more than 20 steps away, a huge wolf suddenly turned around and chased after him. Before he could make another 10 steps, the agile wolf had already caught up with him. Then all the other youths saw their companion being hit by that huge wolf.

After several shrill shrieks from Pino and terrifying sounds from the huge wolf’s canines tearing off his skin and crunching bones, everything returned to tranquility. With a bloody mouth, the huge wolf returned and continued to attack the rest of the youths with the other huge wolves.

Huge wolves were far more cunning and ferocious than common wild wolves, which was also the disparity between common living beings and LV 1 living beings.

The two long spear defense circles formed by the youths had already been extremely narrowed. They dared not to casually move as the circles that had been broken by the huge wolves immediately lost two members before filling up the breach once again.

There was also one more companion still rolling on the ground and screaming miserably, but his voice was becoming weaker and weaker.

Outside the two defensive circles formed by the youths’ long spears there was fresh blood everywhere. Some of it was from huge wolves, yet most belonged to human beings. One dead huge wolf was lying between the two circles with several bloody holes in its body made by long spears. However, lying beside this dead huge wolf was a youth’s corpse, not far from which was Habbie who had just been killed, the youth who was still rolling on the ground and crying in a gradually weakening voice, and Pino who had lost his breath around 30 steps away.

One dead huge wolf for almost four humans. The rest of the youths of the two defensive circles were tearing up. Some hands and feet had already started quivering. At this moment, fear and hatred was biting the youths’ hearts like poisonous snakes.

During the earlier month’s survival training, they had become proud inwardly. After successfully hunting common wild wolves and various other prey in the Wild Wolf Valley, they gradually forgot to be careful. Thus, after several days ago hearing the news that Blackhot City wanted to purchase goose-neck grass and golden wolves at a high price, they became spirited, as they were not satisfied with only hunting common wild wolves.

They also wanted to have a try, chance it. In their opinion, since they had more than 20 people who could cooperate well with each other using their long spears, even if they encountered a LV 2 golden wolf, they could at least safeguard themselves. If they were lucky enough, they might even be able to catch it live or pick some goose-neck grasses…

However, they didn’t understand the many tragedies in this world born from ‘if’.

Full of confidence, the youths set off today. Leaving the Wild Wolf Castle, they marched towards the Crescent Prairie.

After walking for an entire morning, they were over 20 km away from the Wild Wolf Castle and already could see the Crescent Prairie. However, at this moment, they were abruptly attacked by a pack of huge wolves hiding in bushes beside a hillside.

When the youths passed by, six huge wolves suddenly appeared, catching them unprepared, which resulted in wounds and casualties at almost the same moment. The youths’ teams were cut off from each other by the huge wolves so that they could only fight for themselves. As expected, after a ferocious fight, the tides of battle started to favor the huge wolves.

Not until then did the youths recall the simple rules that had been imparted by their teachers at school.

First, you opponents and enemies will never appear in front of you after you have prepared well. But if they do appear after you‘ve prepared, they might be greater in number than what you originally imagined. More than that, even if there’s little chance to encounter huge wolves, you might also encounter a pack of them.

Second, for any living beings, even if there was only one level difference between them, their fighting forces would greatly differentiate from each other. Therefore, after successfully dealing with some LV 0 living beings, never regard fighting the force of one LV 1 living being as simple as the addition of that of three LV 0 individuals; after dealing with some LV 1 living beings, never consider it too easy to deal with any LV 2 living beings. Being different from the simple increase of level, their fighting force would increase geometrically by each higher level.

Third, as for battle, time is very important so ten seconds might change everything.

Sometimes, the simpler the rule was, the more miserable price one would pay before fully understanding it. The miserable result of these youths today was the price of fresh blood and lives. Due to the sudden appearance of the huge wolves, they were given even less than ten seconds to gather their long spear matrix.

If they had had those ten seconds to gather, even if they had encountered six LV 1 huge wolves, they would have never suffer such miserable casualties. The youths thought too much of ‘ifs’ when there are few of them in reality.

After prowling around the two circles of youths for a couple of times, the remaining five huge wolves increased their tentative attacks—they pretended to charge at them outside the killing distance of the long spears. Therefore, not until poking out their long spears did the youths realize that they were doing fake movements.

The cunning huge wolves constantly circled them while making pretend attacks. Being extremely tense, the youths would always poke out their long spears everytime the huge wolves made fake movements.

After constantly waving and poking with their long spears to drive away the huge wolves, all the youths felt more and more tired.

“Try to keep your strength and attacking rhythm, the huge wolves are consuming our strength...” Seeing through the scheme of the huge wolves, Bonder shouted loudly.

However, Bonder’s warning didn’t work anymore. In the other circle, seeing a youth Gradually have grown weaker, a huge wolf suddenly launched a real attack. Before the arrival of the next round of long spears, it had already seized the opportunity—lowering its body, the huge wolf immediately rushed to one side of the circle and bit that youth’s shin. Along with forcing out a miserable cry, it caused that youth to fall to the ground.

“Abu...”

Seeing this, the other youths became very anxious, thrusting their long spears together towards that huge wolf which was biting their companion’s shin. Threatened, that huge wolf loosened its grip and moved back.

However, when the other youths had moved their attention onto that huge wolf near the unfortunate youth, a wide loophole was opened in the defense of the entire circle. So another huge wolf seized the chance and suddenly pounced, biting another youth’s leg, causing him to fall to the ground too.

Scared, the other youths then moved their long spears together towards that huge wolf. As expected, it also rapidly moved back. And so a defense circle composed of seven people immediately lost two, causing a huge opening to appear. At the same time, the other three huge wolves surrounding Bonder’s circle suddenly moved back and charged at the other youths whose defensive circle was destroyed.

“No!” Bonder screamed.

Seeing the other three huge wolves charging towards them, the five youths in that circle went completely pale. It was over. It was so hard for them to fight against the two huge wolves, let alone three more...

Five huge wolves attacked seven youths, five of which were standing while the other two were lying. Due to the huge opening in their defensive circle, within seconds, nobody would be standing anymore. After this circle was fully destroyed, the other one would not stand much longer, either. This was the huge wolves’ fighting tactic.

“We will fight them to death...”

Eyes turning red, Bonder tightly held onto his long spear and rushed towards the five huge wolves, regardless of any matrix or defensive circle. Compared to being miserably killed by these beasts’ sharp claws after being tricked, he preferred to fight his last fight, even at the risk of losing his life faster.

Everybody had already understood that they had almost no chance to survive and return to the Wild Wolf Castle.

That youth called Abu, who had been attacked by a huge wolf and then fell down, was trying his best to turn back, picking himself up by kneeling down first. He threw down his long spear, but the moment he wanted to pull out the dagger from his waist, another huge wolf had already moved to his side and opened its bloody mouth, ready to close it around his neck...

“Abu, watch out...”

Seeing that huge wolf’s intention, Abu’s companions shouted loudly, but the sharp canines of the huge wolf were already so close to the youth’s neck.

Yet when everybody thought it was no longer possible for Abu to escape this time, a loud swear drifted from afar.

“Beast...”