A total of fifteen guards stood arrayed between the arriving wild beasts and the caravan. Of those fifteen guards, eight were veterans who had been in countless battles like this. Five were amateurs who have some experience but not really much. Duncan and one more youth were the true novices that were present.
Unlike Duncan, the other one was not used to hard work. Throughout the journey, he had been complaining about how uncomfortable it was to ride in the cart all day while having to be on guard. His persistent nagging had really irritated a lot of other guards. And Duncan's calm acceptance of his duties in contrast to him earned him a good amount of goodwill.
As seven wild wolves emerged from the undergrowth, growing and snapping at the guards, Duncan heard a whimper beside him. Duncan took his eyes off the wolves to glance at the sound and found the other novice was shivering in fear. His eyes were wide open and his hands were trembling. The small knife in his hands looked akin to a toothpick in this situation.
"Stay back and guard the merchant," Tang De snapped at the other novice before rushing to attack the wolfpack.
Duncan followed him cautiously as he had no idea what to do in this situation. All he knew was that he had to guard the caravan. No one had said anything about killing the wolves. So, Duncan decided to err on the side of caution and stood relatively back while he watched Tang De and another veteran attack the wolf in front of him.
As the veterans paired off or went alone at attacking the wolves, the amateurs followed them cautiously and guarded their backs. They made sure that none of the wolves had any chance to flank them and attack the caravan. Duncan placed himself a little back to ensure that none slipped the encircling.
The battle raged for a while and for the first time in his life, Duncan saw men battling wild beasts in a brutal manner. It was truly do-or-die. Kill or be killed. Both the humans and wild beasts attacked viciously without any reservation. With their experience in battling wild animals, the guards soon began to dominate the battle.
Even then, there were several near misses as the wild beasts attacked savagely. They never went down easily. One time, one amateur made the mistake of taking his eyes off an already wounded wolf and paid for it with a bite on his legs.
Screaming in agony, Duncan watched the man swing in desperate anger and chop off the wild beast's head in one blow. The veterans didn't make such mistakes; they calmly bled the wild beasts to their death one cut at a time. Soon, the number of wild beasts dwindled and Duncan took over the additional duty of guarding the injured man too.
Just before things were going to end, one of the three remaining wolves shook off the encirclement at the price of a heavy cut to its torso and lunged towards the injured man. Duncan was the only one standing in its way.
Duncan swung in front of the wolf causing it to jump back. The other guards were catching up to the wolf by now and they were only a few tens of meters behind it. The wolf once more tried to get past Duncan, but Duncan once more swung the sword in its face.
This time the wolf didn't jump back. Instead, it bit down hard on the sword and jerked its head from side to side. If it were anyone else, the jerking would have knocked out the weapon in their hands. However, Duncan was used to working with a pickaxe all day long. So, he held on to his grip tenaciously.
However, Duncan's footsteps were messed up costing his balance. The wolf saw the opportunity and let go of the sword causing Duncan to stumble awkwardly from the loss of pressure on the other end. Just as Duncan recovered, the wolf was already nearing him. It jumped towards Duncan intending to bring him down with its weight.
At the last moment, Duncan shifted his head and interposed his sword in between him and the lunging wolf. Unable to stop its momentum, the wolf impaled itself on the sword. Despite that, its huge weight bore down Duncan to the ground.
Driven by sheer instinct, Duncan let go of the sword and embraced the wolf's head, and put it in a headlock. Even though the wolf was already dying, it wanted to bite off Duncan's neck in its death throes. Duncan's actions saved him as the wolf couldn't muster enough energy to shake off Duncan's grip.
Duncan felt as if a mountain was placed over his body. He could hardly move and his entire body ached from the impact. But, he knew it was not the time to relax. So, he tightened his hold around the wolf's neck and started squeezing it for all it was worth.
Normally, the wolf would have shrugged off this headlock and escaped. However, with its body being impaled and already suffering from various wounds, the wolf was at the end of its rope. Combined with the fact that Duncan was already stronger than an average mortal due to his body being nourished with the vital yin-yang qi, the wolf's final struggle amounted to nothing.
Within a few moments, the guards caught up and finished off the wolf. If not for Duncan's actions that brought him a few precious moments, the wolf's death struggle would have at the least severely scarred him.
Duncan let out a huge breath in relief when the wolf's body was finally lifted off his body. He laid there gasping as he breathed the air greedily down his lungs. Even though the wolf was gone, Duncan didn't feel like getting up anytime soon. At that moment, he felt as if he had escaped the jaws of hell itself.
"Nice instincts lad," Tang De's gruff voice sounded from above. "I was right about you, you do have promise. But, your swordwork is atrocious."
Duncan merely grunted in acknowledgment. Tang De was right. He hadn't paid much attention to practicing with his sword in the past three days. He had thought his experience in the mine would help him, but it was sadly inadequate. The only thing it helped was to prevent him from overswinging his sword. He would need to rectify that soon.
Several minutes later, after the guards cleared up the carcasses of the wild beasts in an efficient manner, the caravan set off once more into the grasslands. Duncan was sitting alongside Tang De indulging in a bit of wine as they rode, to take the edge off the pain he was feeling due to the wolf falling on him.
As Duncan savored the wine, he could feel a new indescribable taste in it now. Duncan concentrated on the new taste, trying to feel out the difference. He could feel a few things were different, yet he was unable to properly put them into words. All he could tell was that the wine somehow tasted fuller now. Before he could chase the feeling further, Tang De interrupted his musings.
"Tell me lad, was that your first kill?"
Duncan paused realizing that it was indeed his first kill. He expected to feel something, but as far as he could tell it really didn't matter much to him. Maybe it was the heat of the moment thing or maybe it was something else. But, Duncan was sure that he didn't feel anything particular about his first kill.
Duncan merely nodded in return to Tang De's question causing Tang De to pat him on his back.
"Don't worry about it, lad. You will get used to it soon," Tang De consoled in a sympathetic tone.
Duncan could only nod in acceptance inwardly wondering what Tang De was talking about.
