The next few moments felt like an eternity, with a hundred horrid scenarios flashing through Adam’s head.

‘Is it really safe up here?’

‘Should I throw the deer off my back?’

Adam realized he forgot to breathe, and that his legs were shaking. He never stood a chance against such a tyrannical figure.

He looked down towards the cowering wolves, checking if his fellow unfortunates were ever going to get noticed by the Fenrir. The beast followed his gaze, a sign of intelligence that made his spine shiver. Once it realized that there were other hunters in its territory, it sneered, a smile splitting its face in a mad malice. Adam was baffled, the arrogant expression on the Fenrir was too human, despite the monster’s appearance. 

The wolves reacted with fear, prostrating themselves on the floor in an act of submission. But they realized quickly that they couldn’t incite mercy from the cruel monster in front of them, as the Fenrir lunged at them with a speed that didn’t match its titanic size.

They quickly dispersed in two different directions, but the huge beast was not aiming for them. It lunged at the tree they loomed under, shaking it with a harrowing force.

Adam staggered, his hands scrambling for support, as fear clawed at him at an unmatched level.

‘Not true, I’ve seen worse’

The knight of black armor was much scarier, and the fear he felt when Tammer lost his arm was much more dreadful.

The thought strangely gave him solace, as his legs regained their strength. The young boy lunged at the closest tree, almost tripping on his own feet. He barely reached a low branch with his shaking hands, before slamming his torso into the trunk. The force of the fall knocked the air out of him, but he had to climb higher before the Fenrir decided to leap up and snatch him like a snack.

To Adam’s surprise, he found the wolves encircling the mighty Fenrir on all four sides, determined to defend their own food.

‘Well thanks, I guess.’

He watched -as he climbed to the highest branch he could- the Fenrir getting flanked and bitten from the behind with a keen interest. The wolf pack fought with coordination, never missing a step.

Adam reached the highest branch, took the bow off his back, and tried to steady his arms. He watched with a bated breath as one of the wolves managed to leap to the fenrir’s back, biting with all its power. 

The hide was too thick though, and its fangs failed to hurt the monster at all. The Fenrir spun and slammed the wolf against the nearest tree—bones cracked in a sickening crunch as the wolf went limp.

The poor wolf whimpered softly as its consciousness faded, but that didn’t stop the mighty Fenrir from snapping its maw shut on its neck. The air thickened with blood as a sickening crunch echoed.

Filled with rage, and blind to the danger, the remaining three wolves attacked the busy Fenrir. One bit its tail, while another clung to its back. And just as the mighty beast raised its head to slam the wolves into another tree, the third wolf snapped its maw on the tyrant’s snout.

Adam took this chance to tie the deer carcass into the tree’s trunk, took out his bow, then hung upside down on a branch, steadying his aim.

This would be the hardest shot he had ever taken, but his target was busy butchering the other predators in a furious rampage.  Adam tried his hardest to steady his arms, his breath shaking with every growl from the nightmarish clash he was witnessing. 

He knew his moment had to wait, and that one mistake could rob him of any chance of surviving this encounter. No one was going to save him tonight, aside from his own skill and aim. 

Hopefully.