The Divine Wolf... or?

Chapter 131: Nightmare

Time passed by in the blink of an eye, and night was quickly starting to close in on them. The cub was satisfied after their earlier meal, and so was Ark. The fact that he had killed a bunch of people was something that he had just put at the back of his head, and almost forgotten by now.

Even if he had killed a lot of people, it was their own fault, and Ark wasn't really bothered by it that much, which was why he had managed to put it at the back of his head, and practically forget about it.

Since night was closing in on them, Ark decided that they could sleep in the cave that he had found earlier. Even if he didn't know where they usually liked to sleep, he was confident about that cave, he liked it after all. He had memorised all the parts of the forest that he had been through earlier, and the way to the cave was one of them.

Even though he knew exactly where it was, it still took them almost an hour to get there, but that was mostly because they just strolled the whole way there.

When they arrived, they didn't do much else, and just quickly went to sleep, it had been a long day for all of them, and they were all tired. Ark wasn't much of an exception, and after seeing both the mother and the cub fast asleep, he quickly fell into deep slumber as well. Unfortunately, his night wasn't as peaceful as he would've liked it to be.

After midnight had already passed, Ark woke up with a start! As he jolted awake, he frantically looked around him, as he breathed heavily. Covered in sweat, and very disoriented, Ark was almost hyperventilating. He tried his hardest to calm down, and after ten minutes or so, he was essentially back to normal again. Even if that was the case, going back to sleep wasn't too tempting to him right now.

As he had been sleeping earlier, he was attacked, by his own mind. His mind didn't want to let him sleep, instead, all Ark could hear when he was sleeping were the tragic screams of the hunters he had killed, and all he could see were their dead bodies. Even if it didn't bother him during the day, it seemed like his subconscious was bothered, and it was trying to tell him something.

Maybe it was trying to tell him that what he did was wrong, but even so, Ark didn't really listen.

What he did earlier that day was justified, both cases were self-defence, nothing else, and nothing more. It wasn't like he wanted to kill the hunters, they just had a death wish, and tried to take away one of the few things he held dear from him, which they failed miserably with.

Maybe it was a little excessive to kill all of them, but if he didn't, then he would be putting the mother and her cub's life at risk.

Leaving a bunch of vengeful people like that was like asking them to come after the people he cared about, and Ark wasn't willing to take such a risk, especially not for no reason. Whilst Ark was in the middle of his little antics, the cub was watching him quietly. For some reason, the little cub had woken up at the same time that Ark did, and had just been watching him this entire time.

The cub didn't like seeing Ark like this, and after watching him for a little while, the cub promptly got up, and then laid down again beside him.

Ark was a little surprised by the cub's sudden actions, but after some time passed, he managed to calm down with the cub by his side. Eventually, Ark fell back to sleep, and this time he didn't dream anything weird again. When he woke up the next day, the mother and the cub had already woken up, and were just lying and resting, waiting for him.

Seeing them resting in peace, Ark's mood was lightened considerably.

The day was just starting, and the weather was very nice. Even though it was fairly cold outside due to the season, the sun was still shining brightly. Ark was in a fairly good mood right now, and for some reason, he felt like it was going to be a good day.

His only motivation for such a thought was only based on the fact that he had seen them resting this morning, which was something that he hadn't really seen before, and he quite enjoyed it.

He wasn't obsessed with them, or at least he was telling himself that he wasn't. To Ark's dismay, this good day was abruptly interrupted before it even started by the sound of a loud bell. The loud bell echoed throughout a large portion of the forest. Not only did it echo throughout the entire forest, it also echoed throughout Ark's head, and most other magical beasts that were nearby as well.

The worst part about the sound wasn't just that it was loud, but it was also infused with mana, and the foreign energy rampaging through his head hurt quite a bit.

Ark was quick to dispel the energy, but the same could not be said for the mother and her cub.

"Yelp!"

Hearing the little cub in distress, Ark's instincts took over in a heartbeat. He quickly sent his own mana to counteract the mana that was infused into the sound, and after he erased it in a split-second, he retracted his mana. He then saw that the mother had already taken care of the mana inside her head on her own, so he didn't need to help her with anything.

"Are you ok?"

"Mm"

"It still hurts papa!"

Hearing this, Ark's heart ached a little, but he was quick to comfort the little fellow. "Don't worry, it'll pass in a heartbeat!"

He tried his best to sound positive, even if he himself was probably in an even worse mood right now. He had no idea what that sound was, but he had a feeling that it was the work of either a human or a demon. Ark was already feeling a little vengeful, no one was allowed to hurt the people that he cared about when he was around, and he also felt a little guilty himself.

He had been in such a good mood that he didn't notice the sound until it was too late, and both the mother and her cub had suffered because of it.

Even if it was a pretty minor accident, he still blamed himself a little bit. The pain that he felt was pretty severe, and he could guess that it was even more painful for the cub, which was why the cub could still feel the aftereffects. Now, Ark's question was, who would do this? Was there anyone that would benefit from such an attack?

Or was there another purpose behind that sound, except for its harmful nature.

Ark didn't know, but he knew one thing, he was mad, and that was enough to warrant whoever he was up against to feel threatened. If they weren't careful enough, then Ark would come for their throat, unless he was able to get an explanation of some sort. Then he would decide what to do based on that explanation of course. But with that said, Ark was in a bit of a situation.

He really wanted to find out what happened, and find the source of that weird sound, but at the same time, he didn't want the cub and its mother to come with him.

Ark didn't know what he was up against, and maybe their enemies were dangerous, there was of course a chance that there were no enemies at all, but he still didn't want to take the risk. At the same time, it was risky to just leave them in the cave by themselves anyhow. What if Ark started to look for the enemies by himself, and then they somehow found this cave while he was gone?

Before Ark could ponder too much on what to do, he was interrupted.

"ROAAR!"

A loud roar, almost as loud as the sound of the bell, reverberated throughout the forest. This time, Ark protected the mother and her cub from the subtle attack by himself, he wasn't going to fall for the same thing twice. To his surprise, the sound of fighting in the distance that he had expected didn't come, only silence.

The forest that had been ravaged by such loud sounds twice had suddenly turned eerily quiet for some reason.