บท 52: Echoes of an Explosion
From the other side of the cave, the gray wolf quickly approached his mate and pups, barking against the explosion, creating a green barrier around their home.
Tenma had rolled across the ground to the back wall of the cave, where the pups of the wolf parents were trembling from the scare they felt.
The mother calmed them by licking their fur one by one, while the father wolf stood guard, ensuring nothing bad approached them.
Tenma wondered what had caused the explosion, bringing back memories of times he had exploded due to a former owner.
However, shortly after, the gray wolf lowered the barrier.
Tenma peeked out, but the mother wolf held him back, just as she did with the other pups.
The gray wolf barked at the mother wolf, indicating she should stay and protect the little ones, to which she nodded.
Following that, the gray wolf left the place, but not before barking at the cave, raising a stone wall to hide them, leaving them in darkness.
However, Tenma hurried out from under the mother wolf's paws as soon as he had the chance, heading towards the wall blocking the only exit.
— I need to get out, there must be a way…
Tenma felt that something was very wrong.
For a moment, when the gray wolf used the first barrier to protect them, he felt a tingling all over his body, as if he sensed the presence of the angel.
It might still be there, in the wolf's mind, possibly imprisoned.
Tenma checked his abilities and remaining points, thinking about what he could do to find a way out.
He sensed that the father wolf wanted to protect them and assumed the area was dangerous at the moment, but this was one of the few times the father wolf wasn't around.
For a moment, he thought it might be useful to level up his Language skill.
He had 15 points left, so he would use 10 to do so. Decided, he opened the pop-up window in front of him and made the exchange, raising his Language skill to Lv. 2.
As he expected, he felt a shiver as new words came to his mind, giving him a headache.
After a few minutes, Tenma turned to look at the pups, hoping to understand their barks, but he couldn't clarify them.
However, he heard a voice from outside the cave, so he quickly pressed his ears against the rocky wall:
— My God, that explosion was huge!
At least, whatever species that voice belonged to, he could now find out what was happening outside from the voices of those other animals.
Meanwhile, the pups looked at him confused, ignoring the concern in the mother wolf's eyes as well, knowing that no matter how much Tenma pressed against the stone wall, he couldn't get past it and leave the safety of the cave.
As he watched the Shiba Inu pup wag his tail, he saw his own pups trying to imitate him, so he hesitated about letting them go, but eventually relented seeing them happy with what their new brother was doing.
The mother wolf stayed observing the Shiba Inu for a moment, thoughtful.
She was sure she had seen him before, but didn't know where.
***
At the center of the explosion's epicenter, Dave had made a quick decision.
He was going to find a way to survive without spending his precious points, whatever it took.
Using his strong claws, he began to dig into the firm stone ground, making a quick tunnel downwards, avoiding the canines' claws.
The more he dug, the more he felt he was getting away from them, so he turned direction and started digging towards a possible exit.
And suddenly, he heard a loud explosion above him.
Swallowing hard, Dave tried to ignore it, doubting he had anything to do with it.
He checked his points and made sure none had been spent, so he felt safer.
Once he finished his tunnel beneath the stone floor, he surfaced after digging for a while.
Once up there, he took a deep breath with a smile, having escaped the dangerous wolves.
— … A… squirrel?
In front of him, and with the squirrel only inches from his feet, the hooded hunter from the cave stood before him, holding some kind of staff in one hand.
The squirrel swallowed hard, turning to look behind him, seeing how against the stone wall protecting the canines' camp, the hunter had cast several spells to break it, in vain.
Dave returned to the hole he came from, feeling the hunter's evil aura, hiding before he could even catch him.
Now he was sweating cold.
He had seen firsthand how this one was capable of killing several wolves in a single attack with his magic.
He was in danger, either inside or outside.
"... Of course, it makes sense."
The hunter spoke again, striking the ground with his staff.
"I just need to blow up the whole place."
As if out of survival instinct, Dave went back the way he came, passing through his small tunnel to return to the wolves.
The whole cave was a constant hunting zone, too dangerous for either of them.
They weren't at a high enough level to face guys like these, and much less the Shiba Inu pup.
A pang of pain returned when he remembered the damage he had caused, swallowing nervously.
It didn't matter if he remembered it or not, or if he had hurt him by mistake: if there was going to be a deadly explosion, he had to save him as soon as possible.
As he climbed back up, he saw that inside the pack, everything was in chaos.
The wolves barked at the entrance, protecting with barriers while others prepared to launch flames from behind, protecting the youngest with their mothers.
Dave quickly came out to hide, trying to spot the Shiba Inu, locating him behind several wolves with other pups.
However, he was stunned to see him in that state: unconscious, being tended to by a mother wolf looking at him with pity.
…
How much damage had he done to him?
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