Chapter 105 - Extermination

When they finally arrived closer to the center they spotted more than two wolves strangled by wires that had been woven into traps between the trees or pierced by thin knifes that had ended them. After some time of walking around the cocoon like structure of traps they found the entrance where the traps had been ripped apart, with the corpses of many other wolves all around and inside the exit that had died to reveal them.

Entering they came across the whole pack that was desperately trying to defeat a young girl that kept weaving between them and strangled them with thin threads, sometimes even pinning the threads or iron wires into the wolves by tying them to the thin daggers they had seen stuck in the wolves outside and ensnaring others with the rest of the thread.

Although she could obviously manage a few at a time, especially since only the mouths of the wolves were really dangerous, once the reinforcements had arrived she became desperate and kept looking for ways to escape. Every time she tried to climb a tree the pack pressed towards her, forcing her to abandon her endeavor and instead focus on eliminating the pack. By now it was merely a question on whether her stamina would run out first or if the number of the wolves would decline so much that they were no longer a threat and could be killed or escaped from.

Taking a closer look with his Observation Skill since the facial features of the person fighting were obscured by something that could be considered to be a wooden helmet he noticed that the name that popped up was Aster. After thinking for a quick second he decided to step forwards and aid her. After all that is what he should do as a fellow tribute of District 11 and as a….friend? Acquaintance?

Noticing this particular thought the System couldn't help but giggle in glee.

Almost annoyed at the System's enthusiasm Kaiser replied

[Is that another one of your attempts of making me more like a normal human with feeling and stuff?]

the System replied.

[Don't make any assumptions,] Kaiser answered coldly. [She is merely someone I chose to pass my time with. Merely a tool for my amus.e.m.e.nt.]

[Oh, shut up!]

Before Kaiser could even step forwards after the argument the howl they had heard before resounded again, this time close by and before Kaiser could even turn around a wolf whose shoulders were even taller than 1.5 meters came sprinting through the hole in the cocoon of steel threads.

Not even glancing at us the wolf sped towards the others of his kind that immediately began fleeing. A few seemingly wanted to stand their ground and fight but without the support that the group gave them they decided to run away as well.

While Aster readied herself to fight the large wolf while she was using the chaos to kill the smaller ones Kaiser relaxed. Finally he had found Orion. He had grown a lot since their large encounter but the emotions he sense from him made it completely clear. This wolf was his oldest and most loyal companion.

Chasing down the pack Orion snapped at them, causing the ones he had herded like sheep in front of him to split up. Despite their attempts to avoid him Orion was much larger, more powerful and faster than they were, leading them to try and escape through the only passageway inside the large trap. Once they arrived near Kaiser he, Cirb and Gaia blocked their way. Desperate, faced with a two pronged attack they decided to power through Kaiser's blockade as they knew Orion and had experienced his fierce power in the past.

Sadly for them with Cirb's horns, Kaiser's spear and Gaia's deadly combination of speed, size and teeth their choice had been the wrong one although their deaths at least came swiftly. Not even two minutes later all wolves besides Orion had been dispatched of and they could finally relax for a short moment. Seeing the fierce glint and bloody maw of Orion Kaiser just stepped forwards and began patting his head. Although Orion seemed confused for a moment he soon calmed down and relaxed, unable to contend with the unimaginable power of Kaiser's headpats.

"How have you been Orion?" was Kaiser's first question once a few seconds had passed.

"I've kept my self occupied, waiting for your arrival, Kaiser." Replied Orion. After a second he continued with "The prey was better than in the last world so I enjoyed hunting here."

Before they could continue their conversation for much longer Gaia jumped up on Orion's head. "Give me some grooming as well Master! I did most of the work and now my fur is full of blood!"

Surprised Orion tried to look up to Gaia who sat down on his head. "Hey stop bleeding on my fur as well! And what do you mean by Master?"

Not caring about Orion's complaint at all she disinterestedly explained to him "Well at first we were just teasing him with the title but seeing how he reacted to it we decided to continue. Just something to keep us occupied and get a bit of reaction out of him."

"Then it seems we're calling him Master now."

Shaking his head Kaiser turned away and instead focused on patting Cirb's head to Gaia's anger.

"Excuse me...", came a soft voice from behind.

Turning around he saw that Aster had taken off her helmet and stood in front of him with wild hair that hadn't seen a comb in days. "It seems you have found your talent Aster. Congratulations."

Grinning widely she replied "Yet it seems to you still have the talent of getting creatures to follow you."

"Pardon?" Kaiser replied.

"Did you think I forgot about that pet bird you always carried around? In the past I just thought that part of you was weird but it seems to have been an extreme talent I was unaware of."

"You could say that," Kaiser said, as he had turned around once more his hand patting Cirb's head once more who by now had closed her eyes and deeply relaxed almost if she was getting a nice massage. "So how should we continue now? Were do you plan on going?"

She just smiled sweetly. "I think I'll tag along with you for a while."