72 First Lives Taken

Some moments before the wolves noticed an intruder.

Laune rolled around in the dirt to mask her scent from the wolves, a lot of spirit beasts have their own enhanced senses.

Wolves in particular have a much higher sense of smell compared to most beasts, in previous battles Shadow and the others made use of various herbs when hunting while others rolled around in the grass and dirt to cover their scent.

Afterwards she looked upon the valley, on both sides there was a large rocky area which made it difficult to climb on thanks to some parts which had previously fallen down into the valley. [1]

Thanks to her smaller body compared to those of her clan she climbed through the fallen debris and hid behind the larger rocks.

Making her way through the valley under the cover of the fallen debris she carefully and silently approached the middle of the valley.

She peeked around the large rock she hid behind and saw the wolves on guard, careful to quickly move into the next sign of cover when they are not looking her way.

Closer and closer she noticed one of them was beginning to slack off, the other wolf was distracted by their ally and began to scold the sleepy wolf.

Noticing one wolf with his back to her and the other which had its eyes half closed she stepped out from the rocks and entered the middle of the valley.

Her steps silent, her body low as she stalked her prey.

Closer and closer, her breathing became calm and her eyesight focussed on the wolfs back.

Her heartbeat became quicker as she finally reached behind her target, this would be her first kill. 'Calm... keep calm... first deal with the two, if I fail I will have to face all of the wolves if they call for help.'

"Careful!" She heard the sleepy wolf call out but it was already too late.

She jumped towards the back of the wolf, her jaws firmly held onto the wolfs neck quickly crushing it.

The wolf let out a shriek before dying, his companion silently gasped in shock at the sudden wake up call he had recieved.

Trying to pull his body up from his resting position, he could hear his allies final breaths.

Pushing his body up, he lifted his head and saw a pair of amber eyes looking at him very seriously.

The wolf paused suddenly as he gazed at the eyes of the tiger, the enemy had already killed his companion and as he was able to stand the enemy had already arrived before him.

During his pause the tiger lowered its body and pounced onto the wolf.

Her teeth bit into the wolfs throat, the wolf tried to resist by raising their front legs to scratch the tiger.

Unfortunately their actions were too late to have any effect on the battle, the tigers jaws gripped tighter crushing the wolfs throat.

Blood fell from the wolfs throat rapidly to the ground, his eyes rolled backwards and his legs grew weaker.

Seeing the wolf become lifeless, Laune released the throat of the wolf letting its body fall to the ground.

Looking at the scene of the two dead wolves, Laune let some of the blood drain from the bodies and then stored them within her storage bag that was secured around her neck. "My first two kills, although it was quite easy because they were a lot weaker than myself and distracted the next battle will be harder."

Although she had a large supply of blood from the Ever-Reach clan during their time hunting, she had full access to it thanks to being the only one using a blood based cultivation manual.

Her current achievements could not be from her own efforts though, her strength had grew rapidly but it came from the blood supplied by others.

Now she felt a sense of accomplishment after killing the two wolves, she collected the beast cores storing them away and stored the dead bodies keeping them for later.

The cores could be given towards the clan and although the vitality from the two wolves blood would not have a great effect on increasing her strength it had been the first cultivation resources she had gathered for herself.

"Korah, I have completed the first task." Laune looked towards the rabbit who had silently followed behind her.

The rabbit hopped from the top of the rock, his ears pointed upwards as he listened for any changes. "Good, I cannot hear any changes since the fight started so the wolf clan has not noticed they are under attack. So what is the next plan?"

"As master mentioned before the wolf clan have a very strong sense of smell, now that blood has fallen to the ground it will not take long for the scent of blood to reach the noses of the wolf clan." Laune pondered for a moment. "We can make use of this if possible in the next battle, so if possible I would like you to take part in the next plan."

"Sounds fun, so what you want me to do? Remember I am not to fight but other than that I can be part of whatever you ask." Korah looked to be quite interested.

Thetiger and rabbit began their discussion on how to deal with the remaining 5 wolves who were a threat.

The tiger discussed the plan with a very serious expression on her face.

The rabbit shook his head in disapproval, a frown formed on his little face. "That will not work."

The tiger began to revise the plan again very seriously and tell the rabbit her ideas.

The rabbit had a frown on his face. "Isn't this plan a little despicable?"

The tiger did not seem offended by his statement and replied very seriously. "Master said we have to use whatever we have in order to survive, there are certain limitations but when facing an enemy we do not need to show any mercy."

The rabbit showed a look of approval but then sighed. "Fine, I approve of the plan."

"Thank you, I will go back now." The tiger quickly ran back towards the entrance of the valley leaving the rabbit behind.

[1] https://www.google.com/search?q=valley+rock&client=firefox-b-d&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwik6oKTivXgAhVwAWMBHZoNBd4Q_AUIDygC&biw=1536&bih=750#imgrc=f1TCzXIovVNz4M: