Attacking from Above

Lu Heng shifted slightly, pressed his back against the rough bark to steady his balance, and lowered his head to count his remaining bolts.

After subtracting those spent on his earlier hunting trips, he had seven bolts left.

In theory, seven bolts were just enough for the seven Blue-Backed Jackals below. One bolt per kill would break the siege completely. Reality, however, would never go that smoothly. The jackals would not stand still and let him aim. They were agile and highly alert, dodging at the slightest movement. Putting every bolt precisely through a vital spot was almost impossible. If even one bolt inflicted only a light wound, it would instead enrage the entire pack. They would take turns ramming the trunk, subjecting the old branches to prolonged shaking. Fine cracks had already spread through the gaps in the bark, making the branches liable to split and break.

After crouching in the fork for so long, he felt only a slight ache in his legs. This was the difference eight points of constitution made.

Before his body tempering, even a brief stretch of supporting himself above the ground would have left his lower limbs numb and stiff. Never mind raising the crossbow and aiming steadily-just holding it up for an extended period would have exhausted his arms. He would not even have been able to keep his footing.

His gaze swept over the Iron Axe slung diagonally at his waist, and he quickly suppressed the urge to use it.

There was too little room between the branches to swing properly. The Iron Axe was heavy, and holding it in one hand would make his balance extremely difficult to control. Drawing it recklessly could easily make him lose his footing. Falling to the ground would be the same as delivering himself into the jackals' jaws. The wooden spear laid across the branches beside him was equally difficult to put to use. He was more than three meters above the ground, and throwing it by hand would cost it a great deal of force, making a fatal penetration difficult. Once he threw it, he would also lose his means of defending himself at close range.

For now, the hand crossbow was his only means of holding the pack at bay from a distance.

The metal frame rested against his palm, its chill seeping inward through his fingertips. The cold was gradually eating away at his hands' dexterity.

Below the tree, the jackal leader had waited a long time without any movement from above, and its agitation finally overwhelmed its patience. Its forepaws repeatedly scraped the frozen earth, scattering crumbs of soil mixed with white frost. It raised its heavy head high and let out a shrill howl, full of fury at being toyed with.

Stirred by their leader's mood, the other Blue-Backed Jackals answered with overlapping growls. The vicious clamor echoed through the woods, venting their frustration at waiting so long for nothing.

Two young jackals could no longer endure the wait. Eager to prove themselves, they pushed off with their hind legs and sprang upward one after another.

Even at the height of their jumps, they could only reach the middle of the trunk, still nearly a meter below the fork where Lu Heng sheltered. Every time they missed and landed, they lowered their heads in frustrated rage to bite and claw at the bark. Their sharp claws left fresh marks of varying depths across the trunk, and wood chips showered down with the frost and snow.

Lu Heng watched quietly for a while. Once he had gauged the limits of their jumps, his tense heart eased a little.

The old tree had a thick trunk, and its fork stood nearly three meters above the ground. With their jumping ability alone, the Blue-Backed Jackals could not reach him anytime soon. For the moment, there was no mortal danger of being dragged straight down.

Yet the hidden dangers still weighed heavily on his mind.

The daylight kept fading, and the temperature continued to drop. Cold wind poured through the gaps between the branches, and the several layers of animal hide were rapidly losing their ability to keep out the chill. His fingertips had already turned pale and stiff with cold. If the standoff dragged on a little longer and his hands and feet froze numb, he would be unable to hold his crossbow or keep his footing. The pack would not even need to attack for him to lose all ability to defend himself.

He had originally gone out to gather stone, planning to collect the fifty units of supplies needed to upgrade his cave Shelter. Now that he was trapped in a tree, all his plans were on hold.

A Cave-Nest Spider had already smashed a hole in his wooden door. With no one guarding it for so long, if another beast passed by the cave, the supplies stored inside might well be damaged.

The thought of the coarse salt he had spent an entire afternoon simmering over low heat to purify sent anxiety surging through Lu Heng.

For a long time before this, he had been forced to gather White Salt Mugwort to eat with his meat. The plant had a natural saltiness, but its strong bitterness and astringency made every bite hard to swallow. He had finally found a natural salt deposit and produced coarse salt without unpleasant flavors through repeated settling and filtering. If beasts ruined it all, days of work would go to waste. There were also the Black Iron-grade materials he had obtained from killing the Cave-Nest Spider, essential core materials for upgrading his Shelter. Finding equally rare materials again would take at least several days of searching deep in the dangerous woods.

With all these worries circling through his mind, Lu Heng drew a deep breath of cold air to suppress his panic and forced himself to put aside distracting thoughts.

A passive standoff would only keep draining his body heat and bolts. He had to take the initiative and suppress the pack. The best solution was to severely wound the Black Iron-grade leader. The pack relied on its leader to coordinate and direct its actions. If the leader was badly injured and unable to move, the remaining ordinary Blue-Backed Jackals would lose its restraint and would most likely break apart and flee.

Lu Heng slowly evened out his breathing. He held his arm muscles steady, supported the hand crossbow firmly with his wrist, and locked his gaze on the jackal leader pacing restlessly below.

It was a size larger than the other jackals. The fur over its chest and belly was sparse, without a thick undercoat to cover it, making that the vulnerable area a bolt could most easily pierce to inflict a serious wound.

Only the wind and the pack's low growls remained, mingling repeatedly through the woods.

When the jackal leader stopped its restless pacing and lowered its head to sniff scent traces on the ground, Lu Heng slowly tightened his finger on the trigger.

With a brief, soft whistle, the bolt shot straight toward the vital area of the leader's chest and belly.

Beasts were naturally extremely sensitive to disturbances in the air. The instant it heard the faint whistle, it instinctively twisted aside. The bolt grazed its shoulder blade and lodged in shallow flesh, failing to penetrate the vital area of its chest.

The sharp, tearing pain instantly enraged the leader. It spun in place and shook its body, frantically trying to dislodge the bolt embedded in its flesh. Harsh, vicious roars burst from its throat as its hateful gaze fixed on the human figure overhead.

The warm scent of blood slowly spread beneath the tree. The cold delayed its dispersal, and the strong, bloody odor continually stimulated the other carnivorous jackals nearby. Their eyes grew fiercely savage as they gathered beneath the trunk, without the slightest thought of retreating.

A trace of regret passed through Lu Heng, but he dared not waste a moment. He quickly reached into his quiver, took out a fresh bolt, and fitted it securely into the crossbow's groove, never taking his eyes off the thoroughly agitated pack below.

He knew that any chance of easing the situation had been completely cut off. From here on, he could only conserve his bolts carefully and endure this deadly standoff with the enraged Blue-Backed Jackals to the end.

There was little room for his feet on the branches, leaving him unable to make large movements to adjust or dodge. Once all seven bolts were spent, only an endless siege would await him. When his hands and feet froze stiff, he would be doomed.

Below him, the pack kept pacing back and forth on patrol, occasionally leaping up to rake at the trunk. The entire old tree continued to tremble faintly, and the strain made the cracks in its branches increasingly distinct.

Lu Heng steadied his stance, planting both feet firmly on rough, protruding knots. He watched each jackal's movements closely to anticipate its actions while searching for his next opening for a steady shot.

Two or three minutes passed. With the bolt embedded in its shoulder blade, every step the leader took pulled at its wound, leaving its movements noticeably heavy and sluggish. Yet its innate ferocity would not yield. Instead, it led the other jackals around the trunk in repeated circuits, deliberately blocking every direction in which he could land and escape.

Lu Heng dared not change positions frequently and expose an opening. Using the main trunk as cover, he slowly shifted his stance, alternating his weight between his feet to ease their aching. Of his seven bolts, one was already gone. He had to be as sparing as possible with the remaining six. If he missed twice more, the situation would spiral completely out of control.

He watched the pack for a long time and worked out their patterns of behavior: ordinary Blue-Backed Jackals were easily distracted by bloodstains and movement on the ground. Only the leader kept its head raised and its eyes fixed on its target in the tree throughout. As long as he dealt with the leader, the remaining jackals would lose their direction and flee in individual panic. They would no longer surround and blockade the trunk in an orderly formation.

After another short wait, the leader stopped circling and struggling. It lowered its head to lick the bleeding wound on its shoulder blade, turning sideways and fully exposing its unprotected chest and belly. Lu Heng held his breath and slowly tightened his cold-stiffened finger on the trigger. This time, he deliberately lowered his firing angle, anticipating the path of its startled sideways dodge and adjusting his aim in advance.

The bolt shot out and struck the soft flesh beneath the leader's ribs. Its body convulsed violently, and it staggered two steps forward, forcing a short, pained whimper from its throat. No longer able to maintain its earlier intimidating posture, it collapsed onto its belly, panting heavily. Even its strength to raise its head had greatly diminished.

The other Blue-Backed Jackals instantly fell into disarray. No longer circling the trunk in formation, they gathered around their leader in twos and threes to sniff the strong scent of blood. Their growls became hesitant and timid, and much of their earlier fierce, oppressive presence faded.

Lu Heng did not seize the opportunity to fire again. He deliberately held back and watched for changes. He had not intended to kill every last one of them. He only hoped that seeing their leader severely wounded would frighten the beasts into abandoning the siege and leaving on their own, saving his remaining bolts as a fallback.

Yet less than half a minute later, two larger adult Blue-Backed Jackals, whose status was second only to the leader's, suddenly raised their heads toward the high branches. Their territorial and protective ferocity reignited the savagery in their eyes. They leaped frantically at the trunk again and again, claws raking viciously at the bark as fine wood fragments fell continuously with the frost and snow. Stirred by their companions, the remaining jackals grew restless again and charged back and forth into the base of the tree. The old tree shook harder than before, and the cracks in its branches showed faint signs of widening.

Lu Heng's heart sank. He instantly understood that severely wounding the leader had not driven the pack away. Instead, it had thoroughly provoked the remaining jackals, rousing them into a frenzy against their common enemy. Abandoning any hope of easing the situation, he swiftly loaded a third bolt and aimed at the adult Blue-Backed Jackal closest to the trunk, the one leaping most viciously. At this closer range, the beast had no time to complete its dodge. The bolt pierced straight through its soft neck. Its limbs struggled a few times before it collapsed to the ground and went completely still.

The fallen body of one of their own finally made the pack visibly recoil. Several jackals retreated a few meters together, craning their heads to watch one another, not daring to rashly charge the trunk again for the moment. Lu Heng seized this brief respite to quietly flex his stiff, numb fingers and count his remaining bolts. The siege had stabilized for now, and the pack below did not dare launch a reckless attack, but he still could not find any chance to reach the ground safely.

A thought stirred in Lu Heng's mind. He suddenly remembered that there were still a few poisonous things in his bracelet's storage space.