Homesteading in a fantasy world

It was Monday again. For the rest of the week everything went quite normally but last night I felt a predator enter my land that was not supposed to be there. This morning I got a better idea of what it is and where it’s headed. Unfortunately, it will come quite close by and most likely will notice us. If I understand correctly, it’s a huge Wolf most likely a monster as its energy density is quite high.

So today I did not go with my apprentices to the village instead I started to gear up when they left. But before I left, I thought of my animals and that it might be a good idea to bring them. They are all quite big already and I think it’s time to stop babying them all.

I went and let them all out and brought out Goose as well. I practised the commands and hand gestures with them constantly. I got their attention and started to explain as best as I could what was going to happen.

Their excitement quickly died down about being let out. For a moment I questioned if I was making the correct choice but when I looked at them, I know that it was time. They were all bigger than the largest dogs on earth. They were true wolves with white fur for the winter and it was time to add some red into the mix.

It was time to teach them what it meant to be a true wolf and be in a pack protecting its territory. It was easier to make Goose understand what was needed to be done thanks to our bond and he started to fly high to get into scouting distance.

While yes, I knew exactly where the prey was, we won’t always be on my land and having a scout up high is an extreme advantage I want to learn how to use. We left quickly going over the bridge.

When we went past it, I noticed that the edges of the river are starting to freeze. It won't be too long now until the river is frozen, and anyone can walk over it. If the goblins were smarter and just waited to attack me until winter, they could have just walked across, and I could have done nothing to stop them.

Our prey was quite a distance away, but it was approaching quickly. It was towards the lake and came from the higher energy and mana density area. There were a few clearings that we could use for the ambush. We traversed the distance quickly. I brought my longbow, the big spear and on top of that, I carried my two-handed sword. The hand axe was brought just in case I needed to make some traps.

We made it to the clearing faster than I expected, and I quickly surveyed it. We started to set up. My plan was quite simple the wolves and I were going to camouflage ourselves into the snow. Them using their natural fur and me using my rabbit fur cloak. We were going to use Goose to bring it here. He was going to pretend that he was protecting his nest to get the attention of the wolf monster.

We had to wait for about 2 hours in the freezing snow, but I was no stranger to this kind of activity. Finally, we started hearing Goose making noise and closely followed was a deep roar that didn't sound anything like a wolf.

It didn’t take long after that until we could hear it running towards us and I quickly took a peek at what was happening. It was a wolf as tall as a human with matted fur that was different colours of black and grey with some bald spots chasing Goose as he was trying to fend off the wolf making it believe that this way was a nest that it could get some eggs to eat.

Why I didn’t just let Goose annoy him so he would start following him was because I learned that monsters can be quite smart and that action would be quite obvious for anyone to figure out that this way might be an ambush.

I calmly watched and waited to give the signal to begin our plan but unfortunately, my wolves were not quite up to the task of staying completely still. The wolf monster only got about 10 meters into the clearing which was around 200 meters wide when his head snapped towards one of the hidden wolves.

This didn’t stop it; it only made him start to go towards the wolf that it noticed. If it had time to think it would have known that he was making a mistake, but he was too full of adrenaline to think clearly. If I made the plan counting on green wolves that have never been in a proper battle being able to stay still, I would have been a complete moron, so I did not do that. I quickly got up and yelled my own battle cry and started to rush towards it. This is the signal for the wolves to start moving as well.

The wolves were not spaced out or alone. They were in two groups of four and the most intimidating one was with Freya. While she was not as big as this monster, she was still the biggest among the attacking wolves.

I didn’t make a mistake thinking that this monster wouldn't be quick on its foot and as soon as I revealed myself, he quickly sidesteps just in case making my thinking correct that anything shot would miss. Now that its attention was on the two bigger threats, I had time the line up a shot and filled it with energy and activate different effects on the arrow to make it more damaging.

I didn’t have time to charge it fully to make it a truly devastating attack as it would take too long. Then the monster would figure out that the wolves were just a distraction. I already knew that this wolf monster would be able to quite easily kill any of my animals as I’m quite certain that it is at least silver. But their distractions would work quite excellently and later when the wolf monster was hurt then they might become more useful.

I released the arrow and instantly the wolf monster noticed it and tried to dodge but the distraction gave enough time for it to still hit deep inside its chest and it left out a pained cry and was now fully focused on me.

I didn’t want to let him wait and I was pretty certain that any other arrow would be quite useless so even before the arrow hit, I had already dropped my bow and picked up my spear and used my movement ability to get as close as possible.

What I didn’t expect was there to suddenly be a wall of earth spikes between me and him. I couldn’t slow down and had to barrel through them. This made me lose grip on my spear and when I was finally through the spike wall, I saw it fly further away thanks to an impact with a spike.

Luckily my armour ability was able to keep me from skewering myself but my opportunity to attack was missed and I got a claw swipe in return. Everything happened so fast that I didn’t have time to activate my other abilities so I was sent flying to the side a few meters and quickly had to roll myself to get back on my feet. “SURROUND, CIRCLE.” I quickly yelled out to the wolves as some of them wanted to rush in to help me.

This made them stop and go back to circling our fight. It seems that it was quite surprised that I was completely alright. While I did have a few claw marks on my armour they were only shallow scratches. If I didn’t have my armour ability activated, not only would I be pierced by the spikes but I would be missing an arm right now. We were both eyeing each other and slowly starting to circle one another.

This time I was fully focusing on trying to see everything it was doing. So, it did not come as a surprise as it started to gather energy in its mouth and the next moment a basketball-sized rock shot out of its open mouth and headed with quite a speed towards me. But it was too slow to make me do anything more than a simple sidestep to dodge it. It did not like me dodging it so easily. I thought that he might be able to make it faster if we made the rock smaller.

This monster being capable to control earth to some extent was quite troubling and it was feeding his manipulation with energy meaning that this was elemental magic. This form of magic was only possible through the system with abilities that used energy as fuel.

This form of magic was not particularly valued by the sentient species and was mostly used by monsters. All the abilities seem to have some form of control over the elements similar to benders in avatar. Although they are a lot more limited compared to that. Like with this wolf it would seem that he has only access to the two abilities it showed off.

It tried to move towards one of the wolves to break the encirclement, but I instantly start to move forward drawing my two-hander and cutting short his escape attempt. I rushed in again but this time I didn’t use my movement ability so I could see its energy moving from one of its paws into the ground and towards me.

I quickly stopped so I wouldn’t run into another spike wall that formed a few meters ahead of me. It would seem that it has a limited range. Elemental magic truly is quite limited, I wonder if the power of true benders can be achieved.

I didn’t want to give it more time to think of a solution, so I did another run towards it, and it again made a spike wall in front of me. But this time I was ready and again using my body I broke through the spike wall and then right after used my movement ability to get close to him, this time surprising it. Unfortunately, this didn't give me a lot of time to make my strike strong enough to end this fight with one strike, so I was only able to get a shallow wound on one of its front legs.

But this time its counterattack didn’t push me back as I used my ability to make myself weigh more and just tanked the hit and made another strike this time it was a lot more powerful and left a deep wound on his other leg.

But after that I needed to quickly retreat as this time he was coming in for a bite and I was not feeling confident about my armour's ability to resist it. The next exchange was not so favourable for me, and I only got one shallow cut before I needed to retreat. We kept going and we both soon figured out I had more energy and stamina than it and slowly I could see panic starting to colour its eyes.

No matter how cold-hearted monsters are supposed to be it seems that this one still was afraid of death. The wounds that I had given it were starting to pile up and making him weaker. Thanks to that it didn't see Freya coming when she took a small chunk of its back leg.

It was still able to react quickly, but I didn’t let the opportunity go by and another wound was given before it could do anything to Freya. I think at that moment it knew that it was going to die. This didn't make the fight easier but the opposite. Now it had nothing to lose.

In the few following exchanges, I almost lost a part of my body as its teeth almost got me multiple times. If I wasn’t ready for this change of pace and for the ferocity I might have lost. But now it just made the fight more dangerous.

A few more deep wounds one on its side and one making its left front leg completely useless signified the end of this fight. It was still able to keep going but now the wolves could help and when Goose was able to blind it by clawing out its eyes, I could finally put the end to its pain with a clean thrust into its heart.