Amid the forest screams of pain could be heard like a hymn spewing the end of those who sang it. The smell of blood was prevalent and more bodies were added to the pile of corpses that reeked with death. There was a mysterious thick fog that covered the place making it hard to see or know what's going more than 2 meters away from you.

*Howl!*

A giant shadow standing at almost 4 meters hid in the fog, its howls resounding throughout the forest, each of its footsteps could make the earth around it tremble, but it was nimble and didn't make any noise with its steps. The greenish glowy fur's outline could be seen if close enough, its mouth as full of teeth as a shark's, with teeth that would make one question if daggers have any utility, claws that stand ready to rip and tear any being it deemed unholy bring the divine judgment upon them with each scratch.

Such a being is the Fog dire wolf, one of the possible 2nd phase evolutions of the wolf. While a normal dire wolf would be a 1st phase and a normal wolf a Phase 0. There are many paths when it comes to evolution and it isn't always like.

The Fog dire wolf moved undisturbed and undetected as it moved its claws to tear tens of goblins apart with ease, then moving to the next area. 

All over in this area dire wolves and goblins were fighting with one another, the wolves were slowly but surely gaining an advantage despite being much less than the goblins in numbers. With one wolf having to deal with 2 or 3 of them.

The battle was arduous, but the numbers of the goblins just keep decreasing at an alarming pace, and even though some dire wolves would fall from time to time, it wasn't nearly enough for the goblins to gain an advantage.

Far behind the front line that was slowly getting annihilated, there were the ranged fighters and their commander a hobgoblin behind them surrounded by ten male hobgoblins. These are all the male hobgoblins of their village while of the five female hobgoblins, 3 of them stayed at the village because they didn't want to risk them dying as they weren't hunters, they wouldn't be of much help in battle despite being stronger than goblins while the other 2 female hobgoblins who were actually warriors unluckily weren't in the village when this war between the dire wolf and goblins started, they were sent in an expedition to conquer more goblin villages under their name since those two were the strongest in this village and could win even against the village chief.

The village chief who was working as the commander for his village couldn't help but frown looking at his men fall at a rapid pace to a being he couldn't even see, he knew that whatever the leader of the wolves was, it was leagues above him and even hated himself for not having chosen to run away rather than fighting cursing at his arrogance.

"All ten of you, you are currently the strongest we have in the village aside from myself, obviously I'm not counting the two absent little monsters. As the strongest of the village, we must protect our people! We may fall today but we fall as honorable warriors, on the battlefield!!" The village chief gave simple words as a kind of speech and even though it wasn't much, it was enough for the hobgoblin with him as they cheered.

"YEAHH!!" In unison, they all cheered.

"Charge!" The village chief ordered as he grabbed the shoulder of one of the hobgoblins, the closest one to him.

The others didn't look behind or think too much as they followed orders and charged forward to what they knew would most likely be their end.

"Don't go, you are going back to the village and you're going to guide everyone into safety! You're the new Village chief! Don't even dare try to refute my orders, this is for the future of our people! Now go!" The village chief gave what he believes is his last order to one hobgoblin before running into the battlefield without waiting for an answer.

The hobgoblin just stood there dazed before tears started going down his face and with an unwilling expression on his face, he left his companions to die as he went back to guide his people into safety.

The Village chief soon joined the other 9 in their charge to the battlefield and they soon got there. By now the goblins were barely hanging in there and their numbers were already inferior to the Dire Wolf's. The hobgoblin took the chance to attack wolves that were already focused on other targets to weaken them and make things even but they were not enough in number to get the desired effect.

It was then that the village chief noticed something, the occasional attack of the ranged hunters completely stopped. He stabbed his sword in a dire wolf's head then turned to see the situation only to notice the fog got thicker and he could no longer see them, and his instincts told him they are all dead.

His face turned sour as he regretted having driven things to end this way, even though he told everyone that he sent the two strong female hobgoblins out to conquer other villages, the reality was that he was scared of getting overthrown by them, so he sent them out so he could make himself stronger and the only idea he got was to hunt dire wolves in secret. Even though some might say he caused the war with his stupid actions caused by fear and arrogance, in reality, all he did was speed up the process, their war was bound to happen because they were both neighbor factions that are currently in expansion, sooner or later they would have to fight unless they came to terms, which was unlikely since dire wolves view goblins as inferior lifeforms and wouldn't 'lower' themselves to make an agreement with them. Even so, in the end, the fact that he sped up the process and send out their best fighters contributed to their defeat, and maybe if he hadn't acted out of fear, things would have gone differently, but life doesn't care about your regrets and just keeps moving on.

The fog got even thicker and now the village chief couldn't see what was going on around him at all. The screams of pain of his soldiers and companions filled the surroundings until it all become silent. Nothing, the village chief couldn't hear a thing, not even his own breathing or his armor creaking. It was painful and absolute silence.

The village chief panicked as he looked around but couldn't see anything, no matter how much he turned it felt like he didn't move at all since there was no noise and he couldn't see anything, it's almost like he was in some kind of limbo, living between states of being as if he's in a state of constant sleep paralysis.

Screams and shouts that were supposed to leave his mouth just didn't make a sound, the more time he spent like the crazier he felt he was going until he simply fell on his knees with tears running down his face with the expression of a broken man asking for a hug. 

"Pathetic." That single word was the last sound to enter the village chief's ears before the world went dark and feelings were no more.

With that what was supposed to be a battle ended with a massacre, a massacre that no one except the goblins themselves knew, since not a sound of this battle was leaked outside of the fog. 

Then the same fog disappeared leaving behind the mutilated corpses to serve as proof of a battle no one but a single surviving hobgoblin got to see.

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