Chapter 66 – Hunted

For the rest of that day, Dream kept on making mana cubes.

As each cube was made and began gathering, he would drain their small supplies of mana and assist in making another cube. By the end of the day, he had made 200 cubes that could hold C- levels of mana.

Not only that, but he did some tests with the mana ball. The basic theory was that the ball would suck in mana and spit it towards Dream, thereby increasing the mana density around him and making it easier for him to regenerate mana. Since the balls could cover more area, all of them together would supply lots of mana. 

So the first thing he did was enchant 20 balls of iron. They weren't that big. He could fit a few in his palm. Each of them had the vortex and could store a little bit of mana for basic function. 

When he had them made, he stepped outside and spread them out. They covered him like a dome and spread out evenly about 30 feet from him. When they were activated, they worked as expected and began pushing mana towards him. But at the same time, he came to understand the flaw in them.

"I would have to remain in one area. They wouldn't be feasible for battle with lots of movement. Though they would be perfect for defensive purposes. Like if I were hunkering down. I could also use them to help charge the cubes."

Although he couldn't really use them for battle, Dream wasn't too disappointed. They at least still had good use and weren't a waste.

After that, Dream decided to call it a day. He had used lots of mana and stressed his soul a bit. The fatigue had built up.

...............

........

The next day, Dream continued making preparations to fight those wolves.

If he could, he would rather only fight one or two. It would likely be enough to get him to class 2. But there was very little chance he could get away with such an assassination. So he needed to be able to fight all of them. 

He needed three things for this battle. Power, speed, and awareness. Those wolves would be tough and fast, so he needed to be able to keep up and still actually kill them. But perhaps the biggest factor is the invisible wolf. That would be his biggest threat and could get him in a bad situation.

Fortunately, he at least knew what to prepare for, and he was already mostly done with preparations. The biggest being his railgun which he had completed previously. He ended up getting distracted with the mana cubes and never looked at the enchantments.

The enchantments on the railgun enhanced its functionality. And they were as follows:

It was a lot, but the more the better. Dream was honestly surprised when Sophia put all these in. He hadn't thought of some of them. 

The biggest perk was definitely the speed enchantment. What he learned from his previous fight was that enchantments could have devastating effects if used right. Firing regular bullets seemed puny in comparison now, and it didn't take a huge toll on his mana. His regeneration made up for most of it. Not to mention how he has the mana cubes. He wasn't lacking mana in any way, so he wanted to be able to throw out as many enchanted rounds as possible.

And if that wasn't enough, Dream made other contingencies. Mainly in the form of explosives, but also defensive equipment.

The explosives he made weren't really explosives as they were mana bombs. He would stuff mana inside a ball and then 'load' it with an enchantment. There were a variety of enchantments he made. He had some confusion bombs enchanted with Mystify, he made some solid and liquid bombs that would attract the elements to them. He also made some heat bombs that would superheat everything within its vicinity.

Each of the bombs were a bit bigger than grenades, and packed full of mana. And every drop of mana was meant to cause devastating damage. If these didn't work against his enemies, he didn't know what would.

After this was some defensive equipment in the form of shields. He made 50 shields that could be used in a variety of ways. He could make a wall with them, use them individually, or whatever he needed them for. 

After he made the shields, he was finally done with his preparations. Anything else would be covered by his skills.

When he was finished, he decided to rest for the remainder of that day and get a good sleep. He didn't want to be tired for an important battle.

...............

.........

[Dream, wake up.]

'...Huh?'

Dream opened his eyes as he was awakened by Sophia. He lazily sat up and inquired.

"What's up?"

[The wolves are coming.]

"...Like.."

[Like the 5 alphas who you were preparing to fight. They are coming towards you right now. You may have a minute or so until they show up.]

"Shit."

Dream instantly popped up out of bed as his body gave him a shot of adrenaline 

Right after he did, his armor appeared and wrapped him up entirely. He took out his railgun and then stood still, staring at the floor dumbly.

"...Give me a plan. I'm still tired."

Dream was still waking up and his brain didn't want to figure out what to do next, so he turned to Sophia.

[Leave the house and get to the forest.]

He didn't say anything and did what she said. He busted through the door and turned towards the treeline.

Unfortunately, the wolves were one step ahead of him. Before he could even take a step towards the trees, he felt his hair stand on end.

[Drea-!]

*Crunch*

Dream barely moved his body away from the wolf that was going for his neck.

The wolf clamped down on his left shoulder and dug in with its teeth. So much pressure was applied that the armor actually caved in, crushing some bones. Though the teeth of the wolf didn't actually get through the armor, showing that the armor wasn't totally incompetent.

Seeing that it failed to kill its prey on the first try, the wolf snarled and began trying to bring Dream down. This was when the man himself was able to get a look at the wolf.

'It's him!'

Dream turned and saw an all-black wolf. It was the silhouette he saw, the assumed strongest of the 5 alphas. This time however, the wolf wasn't cloaked. Dream got an up close, detailed view.

The wolf looked like a vicious killing machine. Its fur looked metallic, and its teeth and claws looked like metal razors. And as if that wasn't threatening enough, it also had pale white eyes. They looked almost lifeless, but the murderous intent told him that this wolf was a very real threat to his life.

Luckily, the adrenaline that was kicking in his fight or flight response didn't let the fear or pain stifle him. And if there was any quality that Dream knew he had, it was that he improved as the pressure grew.

Dream moved his right arm and ejected the blade in it, planting it directly into the wolf's stomach.

*Slice!*

*Snarl*

After getting 10 hard inches of titanium shoved into its ribs, the wolf got the hint and let go of Dream's shoulder. It quickly put distance between them.

They stared each other down for a few seconds, before the black wolf broke the silence.

'You invaded our territory...'

'What?!'

Dream's eyes went wide. The wolf talked to him! Using telepathy no less.

'You can talk?'

'Why did you invade our territory? Why did you kill our kin?'

'...Because they were unlucky enough to cross my path.'

'Who do you think you are?'

The wolf snarled at that response. Dream kind of wished he chose better wording, but oh well.

'I'm a human who seeks strength. And you, along with the other four, will feed me with experience.'

Saying that, Dream aimed his gun at the wolf with his right arm and fired a shot.

*Dsh*

The wolf, not being able to dodge a bullet, was hit square in the chest. Or so Dream thought until the body of the wolf turned to smoke. The bullet passed through the 'wolf' and planted itself in the ground. liquids began getting pulled to the bullet, a result of its enchantment.

The illusory image of the wolf soon disappeared. Though Dream was able to track the real body. It was retreating.

'Oh no you don't.'

Dream aimed the gun again and fired a dozen lower power shots around the wolf. They all planted themselves in the ground around the body of the wolf. This was intentional.

Right as they landed around the wolf, they began doing as their enchantment told them. Pull in all solids. Soon, the wolf along with dirt and rock was pulled towards the bullets. 

Since the wolf was basically circled by bullets, it was met with forces trying to pull it apart from all sides. And Dream thought that the wolf would be pulled apart just like that. Unfortunately, the wolf's body was strong enough to withstand the forces. Not only that, the bullets must've counteracted each other. Either way, the wolf was merely held in place, not torn apart. 

But since the wolf was being held in place by his unintentional trap, Dream decided to take advantage of it. He took aim again and fired a high-power bullet straight for center mass. Right as he did though, a barrier was created around the black wolf.

*Boom*

The bullet punched through a wall of rock and wood, but the remaining force wasn't enough to keep it traveling. The bullet became useless and tumbled to the ground. Dream turned his head to the ones that prevented his kill.

'They're here.'

He saw four wolves by the treeline approaching the black wolf. White, red, green, and brown. It was the other four alphas. 

'This just became much harder.'

Dream took aim at the four wolves walking towards them. Right as he did, another wall was created around all of them. He continued to fire 5 shots. 

Four bullets hit the wall in a square and tore a hole in the wall. The 5th bullet went through the center of the hole and towards the unsuspecting wolves behind it. The bullet ended up hitting the green wolf in the chest.

*ARR!*

The green wolf howled as all the fluids in its body rushed out of control. The blood and water was drained from its body and accumulated near its heart, which was also destroyed from the blood being torn out of it.

Needless to say, it died a painful death.

<You killed a level 168 [Nature Dire Wolf]

<You have gained Experience!>

<You have leveled up!>

'Damn, just one more level.'

Dream cursed as his level stopped at level 99. He had a gut feeling that he could kill a fly and top off his experience. Right as he could use the class advancement the most.

After the bullet killed the green wolf, the hole in the wall was quickly sealed back up. At the same time, lances of rock were raised and launched at Dream from behind the wall. They were surprisingly fast, and there were a lot of them.

'Shit.'

Dream put away his gun and took out a shield, charging towards the treeline with his limp left arm. He couldn't keep fighting an uphill battle.

As he ran, the lances came hurling at his shield, and each of them either shattered upon impact or were deflected. 

'If those rocks could even pierce titanium, I may as well give up now.'

It only took a few seconds to get to the treeline. When he did, he was able to get a view of the alphas behind the wall.

'They're healing him?'

Dream saw the white wolf on top of the black one, healing its wounds with a soft glow. Dream could see the stab wound sealing by the second.

'Oh hell no.'

He put away his shield and brought back out his railgun. 

*Ds-Ds-Ds-Ds-Ds-Ds-Ds-*

He rained bullets down on their position. The brown wolf responded by putting up a few walls. Dream fired holes through all of them, but by the time he punched through, the wolves had already begun running off into the forest.

Dream gave chase and kept firing. Walls were constantly put up and broken right back down. This repeated for a while, until the wolves suddenly decided to split up.

The white wolf kept running straight, the brown wolf went to the left, and the red wolf went to the right. The black wolf also disappeared in a cloud of smoke, going who knows where.

At first, Dream was happy as he finally had an open shot. He turned and took aim at the brown wolf who was speeding along. The brown wolf also began launching it's earth spikes. Though right as Dream was about to fire, he saw a light coming from his right.

'Red wolf?'

[Yes. Fireballs.]

He nodded and fired at the brown wolf. He was putting himself in a bad situation by not moving instead, but that's what shields were for. 

The bullet left the chamber and went straight for the brown wolf's chest. At the same time, shields appeared on his right and made a wall. 

*ARR!*

*Boom!*

The brown wolf yelped as it suffered the same fate as the green one. The fireballs also hit the shields, creating a loud shockwave. 

<You have killed a level 173 [Rocky Dire Wolf]>

<You have gained Experience!>

<Congragulations! You have reached your Class Advancement!>

'Nice!'

After a few seconds of the brown wolf suffering miserably, Dream got the kill notification.

*Boom!* *Boom!*

The shields kept taking hits from the fireballs and actually began breaking down. Dream turned and began running to an open area.

Right as he took a few steps though, he felt his neck tingle. 

'You think I would forget about you?'

Dream turned towards the black wolf that was now barely a foot away from his neck. 

Remembering what happened last time, Dream became a bit pissed. He didn't enjoy having his shoulder crushed. So he decided to return the favor 10-fold.

*Clunk*

Right as the wolf was going to clamp down on his neck, a ball of metal appeared in its mouth. Moments after, an absolutely searing heat began to overwhelm it.