I Died, But Came Back ... As A Wolf

Now on their way to hunt for whatever caused the slaughter aura to appear Charles and the others set foot into the forest being swallowed by the masssive trees as they mad their way further into the forest.

Keeping to themselves as they rushed through the outer area of the forest at half their max speed which is roughly 675 km/h not that far off from the speed of sound. At their max speed they could move slightly faster than the speed of sound however it would drain their stamina faster running at their fastest pace from the start.

Lush greenery everywhere in sight they nonchalantly run through the last stretches of the outer area before making their way into the middle area where the slaughter aura is being produced. Even with their speed they still took just slightly over a day to go through the entire outer area in a straight line as they felt confident that no animal in the outer area was their match as they had advanced past Rank 1. Feeling responsible as the leader, on the way through the outer area, Frederick asked each of them what their ranks, levels, skills and stats were so he could make plans based around each of their strong points. The ranks, levels, skills and stats were as follows:

Charles:

Rank 1 Level 1

Attributes

Strength: 35.1

Agility: 30

Flexibility: 30

Endurance: 31

Willpower: 32.5

Comprehension: 4

Skills

War God's Chop (Mastered): Boosts chop attacks with an axe by 300% (Note: Brings extreme stress to arms).

War God's Arms (Mastered): Body Refinement Technique - By swinging an axe until arms breaking point. Increases arm strength and endurance. (Note: Likely to lead to disabling arms)

Reed:

Rank 1 Level 1

Attributes

Strength: 31

Agility: 33.8

Flexibility: 34.3

Endurance: 30.5

Willpower: 31

Comprehension: 3

Skills

Basic Sword Stances (Mastered): Increases foundation for studying sword techniques. Mastering sword stances will lead to an increased affinity towards the way of the sword.

Ashley:

Rank 1 Level 2

Attributes

Strength: 30.5

Agility: 31

Flexibility: 32

Endurance: 36.8

Willpower: 36.8

Comprehension: 7

Skills

Pheonix Fire (Advanced): Conjures the flames of a pheonix

Nirvana (Basic): Last minute healing for user that will heal fatal injuries. After use user will enter a weakend state, 50% of usual stats, for a year.

Pheonix Wings (Intermediate): Conjures pheonix fire wings on user.

Steven:

Rank 1 Level 2

Attributes

Strength: 36.8

Agility: 31

Flexibility: 30.5

Endurance: 34.3

Willpower: 31.5

Comprehension: 6

Skills

Azure Dragons Claws (Mastered): Strengthens fingers momentarily for claw attacks. Claw attacks boosted by 200%.

Azure Dragons Roar (User channels Willpower into their voice letting out a roar that intimidates and stuns the surrounding people.

Azure Dragons Body - Rank 1 Series (Basic): Body Refining Technique - Refines body to increase strength and endurance.

Michael:

Rank 1 Level 3

Attributes

Strength: 30.5

Agility: 31

Flexibility: 30.5

Endurance: 36.3

Willpower: 37.8

Comprehension: 6

Skills

Heal (Mastered): Can heal minor injuries of target.

Self-Heal (Mastered): Can heal minor injuries of user.

Greater Heal (Intermediate): Can heal major and potentially fatal injuries of target.

Greater Self-Heal (Advanced): Can heal major and possibly fatal injuries of user.

Heaven's Judgement (Basic): Summons light pillar at targets location.

Getting to know his team better Frederick didn't forget to list his own when they finished telling him thier details.

Frederick:

Rank 1 Level 4

Attributes

Strength: 30.5

Agility: 37.8

Flexibility: 38.3

Endurance: 30.5

Willpower: 31

Comprehension: 10

Although Ashley has a higher comprehension than Michael she is not higher leveled than him as she is 16 whilst he is 18. Ashley is the youngest of the group whilst Reed is the oldest, the order of age from youngest to oldest is Ashley at 16, Frederick at 16, Charles at 16, Steven at 17, Michael at 18 and Reed at 19.

Using their skills as the basis for the plans he arranged the team into a formation with Michael in the middle as the healer/ semi damage dealer, Steven and Charles are more towards the front as tanks to physically take on the enemies whilst Ashley and himself would be more towards the back as their attacks are more long-distance attacks.

Finally stepping into the middle area they still nonchalantly believed that therer was no beast that could take on their group as beasts above Rank 1 that are part of a herd are unheard of, at least when it comes to the carniverous animals as they would rather eat their kin for Evolution points, the only exception to them would be animals that are born with a pack mentality such as lions and wolves but they are more towards the later stretches of the middle area so they don't need to worry about running into any packs at the starting part of the middle area. Getting to the area of the slaughter aura would still take two days - three days at the most as the middle area is near enough double the size of the outer area whereas the core area is condensed into half the size of the outer area however that is because only beasts above Rank 3 can live there or they will be killed on the spot accidental trespassing or not as it is seen as a challenge to their prestige as higher ranks.

~Two and a half days later~

Currently it is night time and they have just gotten to the border of the slaughter aura and they decided to take a rest and then continue their search in the morning as they wouldn't be able to see much of the tracks on the ground in the dark. Sleeping in rotations had been established whilst on the way where Ashley takes the start of nine o'clock till twelve o'clock, Frederick will then takeover till three o'clock, then steven and charles till six o'clock and finally michael takes over with Reed till nine o'clock. At first Ashley was meant to take the shift at six with Steven but she stated that she would only take the first shift then sleep as she won't wake up during the night or early in the morning just to lookout for nothing, hence the currnet arrangement.

~Four o'clock in the morning~

*Awoooooooo*

All of them with no exception were woken up by the unexpected howl that was declaring its successful hunt. What they didn't know was that the source of that howl was their target and doom. Collecting themselves those who weren't meant to be on shift went back to sleep to calm their jittery nerves.

~Nine o'clock in the morning~

"All right everybody we're now in the territory of whatever has been hunting excessively in the forest. So excercise extreme caution in case of a sneak attack." Frederick warned as he doesn't want to be blamed if any of them die. After trying to decide where they would go withing the aura to find the creature Frederick remembered the howl from this morning which made him look towards the direction it came from and decided to check out that area as he had a hunch that whatever it was they were tasked with hunting was there.