The Divine Wolf... or?

Chapter 207: Shadows.

The night sky was pitch black, the only source of light being the many stars that adorned it. The moonlight on this exceptionally dark night created an astonishingly beautiful sight as it reflected off of a quiet lake. The beautiful imagery was soon disturbed, as multiple shadows quietly flitted across the lake, leaving small ripples behind them.

Just from this alone, it was obvious that these people were experts. The leader of the pack didn't even leave ripples behind him when he stepped on the calm lake water, it was as if he didn't even exist.

The men all wore black cloaks, with sinister-looking white masks hiding their facial features. After passing over the lake, they all soon came to a stop. None of them made any sounds, and they all just stood eerily still in the middle of a small clearing. After around 10 minutes had passed, another shadow could be seen racing across the forest, before stopping right in front of them.

Contrary to the other shadows, this one had come from the opposite direction, and there was a slight spring in his step.

All of these shadows were professionals, and they all noticed this small clue, which immediately made them all a little excited. They had been looking for so long, and it seems like they had finally found it this time!

"Did you confirm it?"

"Hahahaha, those useless bastards finally found something good for once, they were speaking the truth!"

Hearing the newly arrived shadow confirm it himself, the others could feel their blood slowly getting a bit restless. They had been looking for this for months on end now, and they had finally found what they were looking for. Now they wouldn't need to see that crazy old man anymore, and they could finally just take some time to relax.

Although the old man was crazy, he had a lot of money, and it would finally be time to get paid! Before they could get too excited, the man in the lead spoke up.

"Everyone calm down a little, remember what our teacher taught us?"

"To stay calm no matter what!"

The others responded in perfect unison, and their restless blood calmed down a little. They had been doing missions together since they were all kids, and this leader of theirs had always been the most outstanding of them all. They all looked up to him, even though they were all practically the same age.

"Good, now let's get a move on, lead the way Luke."

Normally, the shadows would call themselves by their numbers, however, since they were alone they could just call each other by their real names. No one was around to hear them in the dark forest after all. With nothing stopping them, the shadows soon blended into the dark forest again, disappearing into the night.

...

Whilst everyone else was asleep, Ark was pondering by himself. He was thinking about how he should tell the others about the future. Although it was scary to have on your mind, he felt like they had a right to know. If they knew about their impending doom, they would probably have one of two reactions.

Either they would try their hardest to change their fate, or they would just be scared, knowing that they were destined to die.

Ark knew them pretty well at this point, and he felt like it was safe to let them know. He didn't like keeping secrets, and he didn't want to strain their relationship either, they already knew he was keeping something from them, all he needed was a good opportunity to tell them about it. Who knows, maybe they wouldn't even believe him?

As he was in the middle of pondering, he felt like something was wrong. He didn't really know what, but something was definitely wrong, he was starting to feel really uneasy. As the feeling of unease grew stronger, Ark soon noticed that the elements in the air were behaving weirdly.

As an overlord of the elements, Ark had a special connection to the surrounding elements in the air, and he felt like they were uneasy too, just like him. He quickly realised that his feeling of unease must have stemmed from the surrounding elements, but he had never encountered a situation like this before.

As he quietly got up from the ground, the elements in front of him suddenly jerked violently. His body reacted accordingly, taking a few steps to the right. Just as he did so, a small knife hit the floor where he had just been standing. Oddly enough, the knife made no sound as it was inserted into the ground, but from the signs of corrosion on the wood, it was evidently poisoned.

Ark's senses were going into overdrive at this point.

If not for the warning of the elements, he would've definitely been hit by that knife. He didn't have much time to think before 20 dark shadows suddenly appeared in front of him. Ark reflexively positioned his body in front of Ephine and Atar, his hair standing on end. The shadows didn't seem surprised by the fact that he was a wolf, which alarmed Ark greatly.

He assumed that these were the people that had been following them lately.

Since they weren't surprised that he was in the form of a wolf, they must've known this from the beginning. Ark was right, and it was exactly because they knew this that they were after him. After facing off for about 5 seconds, the shadows all took a step forward in perfect unison. This naturally unsettled Ark even more, and he was starting to emit unbridled killing intent.

Although he was good at keeping it under wraps, Ark held a lot of killing intent and hatred in his heart, and as he unleashed it, the air seemed to twist under the pressure.

This naturally woke up both Ephine and Atar, who were both instantly on high alert. Seeing Ark unleash his killing intent, Ephine thought about everything Ark had been saying these past few days, and she finally knew that he wasn't kidding at all when he said that someone was after them. Ark noticed that they both woke up, and he told them to stay behind him through telepathy.

Although Ephine wasn't about to let him take everyone on by himself, she still listened to him, and even Atar did as he was told without questions. Although he normally played around a lot, he knew when he should listen and take things seriously. To Ark's surprise, the shadows let them do as they wanted, without much care. It was almost as if they saw it as beneath them to even care.

Thufrat who had been sleeping upstairs had naturally sensed the commotion and gone downstairs, only to be slightly shocked by the appalling number of opponents, all of which he couldn't even sense were actually there. With everyone awake and ready to fight, Ark knew that it was now or never. As he stared at the presumed leader of the numerous shadows, there was only one thought in his mind.

Today it was time to kill or be killed!