Surrounded

An icy wind drove flecks of frost into his face. The cold pierced the layers of animal hides wrapped around him, and the tip of his nose soon went numb.

The temperature had plummeted overnight, leaving a thin layer of frost across the entire foot of the mountain. The withered yellow grass had frozen stiff and brittle, scraping together with dry, faint rustles as the wind swept through it. Heavy gray clouds hung overhead, and a cold mist rose among the trees, cutting visibility to little more than a dozen meters.

Lu Heng gripped a wooden spear in one hand, with the Iron Axe slung diagonally across his lower back. He had barely taken thirty-odd steps toward Frost Forest, still troubled by the concerns he had had before leaving. With the sudden cold snap, the mutant beasts in the forest would become far more aggressive as they stockpiled food. He was still silently considering how cautiously he would need to proceed into the mountains when a jumble of sounds suddenly reached his ears.

It was not the sound of a lone beast, but the footsteps of several creatures repeatedly crushing frozen twigs and scraping the frozen earth. Mixed with them were the low, hoarse growls of pack animals, overlapping as they steadily approached from deep within the western woods.

Judging by the sounds, there were no fewer than four or five of them. They were moving fast, heading straight for the cave behind him.

Lu Heng stopped dead, every muscle in his body instantly tensing.

His heart clenched, and an icy surge of panic shot up his spine. He instinctively looked back toward the wooden door dozens of meters away, thoughts racing through his mind.

I absolutely can't go back.

It was already too late to turn back. The beasts were moving swiftly, and by the time he reached the doorway, they would have him trapped there. The cave was cramped, enclosed on all sides by solid stone walls. Once surrounded inside, he would have no room to maneuver or evade them, only to endure their attacks, without even space to dodge. His situation would be several times more dangerous than out in the open woodland.

Outside, he could at least use trees and slopes to maneuver around them. Being trapped in the Shelter would be no different from waiting to die.

Abandoning the idea of turning back, Lu Heng quickly scanned the woods beside him and fixed his gaze on the stoutest old tree at the forest's edge. Its trunk was thick and solid, its bark covered in grooves of varying depths. Its lower branches grew close to the ground, making them easy footholds. It was the only high ground nearby where he could escape danger.

He hurried to the trunk, hooked his fingers into a hollow in the bark, and planted a foot on a protruding knot, intending to climb straight onto a branch at the fork of the main trunk and hide.

But the approaching growls of the unknown pack kept drilling into his ears. The pressure of having his life hanging by a thread threw his mind into chaos. His fingers trembled stiffly, and his foot suddenly slipped on the frost-covered bark. His palm scraped hard across the rough wood, sending a dull pain through it. He lost his balance and dropped straight back to the ground from half a meter up.

His first attempt to climb had failed completely.

Lu Heng steadied himself, his chest heaving, panic threatening to overwhelm his reason. He closed his mouth and slowly took two deep breaths, forcing down his surging agitation and focusing all his attention on the holds along the trunk.

This time, he steadied his breathing and calmed himself, controlling the rhythm of his movements. His fingertips dug firmly into the grooves in the bark, and his feet landed precisely on solid, frost-free protrusions. With a clean, forceful push of his legs, he used a low branch to gain a secure foothold and successfully climbed to the fork of the main trunk.

He pressed his side against the trunk and drew himself into the shadows of the branches, making himself as inconspicuous as possible.

Below him, the pack's footsteps and growls drew closer and closer, the clamor thickening until the entire forest's edge echoed with the sounds of moving beasts.

Lu Heng held his breath and concentrated. He slowly drew the hand crossbow at his waist, pinched a bolt between his fingertips, and steadily laid it in the groove. His eyes remained fixed on the mist-shrouded opening where the pack was approaching, never daring to relax for an instant.

Within moments, several grayish-blue shapes broke through the cold mist and slowly emerged from the woods.

Looking down from above, he made out the pack animals' appearance: broad patches of coarse, short, grayish-blue fur covered their backs, while the fur on their chests and bellies was soft and pale yellow. Their limbs were long and powerful, their claw tips whitish, their muzzles narrow, and their pointed ears upright. Drool dripped constantly from their mouths. Unable to identify the mutant beasts by sight alone, Lu Heng immediately raised his wrist, lit the bracelet's blue light, and aimed it at the pack below to activate appraisal.

A pale blue screen slowly unfolded, and lines of text appeared one after another.

[Blue-Backed Jackal (leader)]

Grade: Black Iron

Description: During cold snaps, it gathers its pack to hunt together. Extremely territorial and keen-scented, it relentlessly pursues and corners prey once it has locked on, never stopping until death. Its bite is powerful enough to tear through ordinary animal hides and thin wooden boards.

Labels appeared simultaneously over the beasts following behind. All were ordinary, ungraded individuals.

Only then did Lu Heng learn that these beasts were called Blue-Backed Jackals.

The leader was much larger than the others, with darker blue fur along its back. Firm muscles bulged beneath its coat, its shoulders and back were broad and thick, and it moved with steady steps, radiating an intense sense of pressure.

Lu Heng crouched on the branch, originally intending to wait safely. He had no intention of provoking them. He only hoped the jackals would head straight for the cave and pass beneath his tree, allowing him to wait quietly until they were far away before finding a chance to climb down and continue on his way.

But everything changed in an instant.

When the lead Blue-Backed Jackal reached the spot directly beneath the trunk, its head suddenly jerked upward from where it had been looking ahead. Its cloudy, cold eyes met Lu Heng's precisely where he hid above. It stopped, a deeply intimidating growl rumbling from its throat.

The ordinary Blue-Backed Jackals instantly stopped moving and looked up together, following their leader's gaze. More than a dozen pairs of vicious eyes locked onto his hiding place in the tree.

The entire pack abandoned its course toward the cave. They spread out around the thick trunk and crouched low, baring their fangs as their overlapping growls grew savage and violent.

Lu Heng's heart sank completely.

There's no avoiding them now.

He had thought they were merely a passing pack searching for food. He had never expected their sense of smell to be so keen. Even though he had hidden high above and kept his presence subdued, they had still pinpointed him.

The jackals paced beneath the tree, occasionally rearing up to rake their front claws against the trunk, sending flakes of bark showering down. They neither scattered nor changed direction. They had completely surrounded the tree, staring fixedly up at him and refusing to budge.

Lu Heng tightened his grip on the hand crossbow, his back braced against the rough trunk, his mind racing.

The height gave him an advantage, keeping him out of reach of the pack's encircling lunges and bites. But he had only a limited supply of crossbow bolts. Once those ran out, he would still be trapped in the tree.

These Blue-Backed Jackals were extremely patient. By the look of it, they would stay beneath the tree until his strength failed and he was forced to come down.

The standoff had begun.