Chapter 176: The Meeting

As Grim turned to return to Cress's side, more Wolf Riders let out howl after howl, darting out from the gloomy forest and sprinting toward the two of them.

Cress, relying on Grim's protection by her side, quickly glanced back, then vaulted onto the Giant Bear's neck, patted Grim's head with her right hand, and shouted, "Grim, we can't win this fight, let's go! We have to get this news back to the boss."

Grim's pair of scarlet eyes looked back at the increasing number of enemies; he did not want to leave, but under Cress's urging, he reluctantly suppressed the rage in his heart, opened his thick limbs, and charged toward the direction of the camp.

However, at this moment, the numerous enemies were already following behind them; how could they possibly let the two of them just leave like that?

Before long, dozens of Wargs that had abandoned their riders stepped forward with nimble limbs, chasing after them like a gust of wind, and kept snapping and biting at Grim's massive body as he ran.

Cress, on Grim's back, also tried her best to use the Curved Blade in her hand to stop the Wargs from clinging to Grim's body; every time the blade flashed, a leaping Warg would fall onto this Wilderness and die amidst whimpers.

But there were simply too many enemies, as if they were endless; just as one wave was dealt with, another would soon catch up.

After all, Grim was only a Skin-changer who had reached adulthood not long ago; although he was not much inferior to his father Beorn in size after transforming into a Giant Bear, and his strength and explosive power were similar, he was ultimately not as patient or as thick-skinned as his father.

Under the endless harassment of the Wargs, the injured and bleeding Grim felt his heart filled with irritation and anger; soon, stimulated by the pain, the young Skin-changer could no longer suppress the wildness that belonged to the Giant Bear.

He stopped his pace toward the west, and with Cress on his back, accompanied by an angry roar, he charged into the pack of wolves chasing him and began to fight them madly.

His roar was deafening to the Wargs, the sharp claws he swung could easily tear apart any enemy in front of him, and his massive body was unstoppable; soon, more than a dozen Wargs were torn to pieces before him.

Cress, suddenly encountering this drastic change, had to endure the pain and discard the elite Curved Blade in her hand to ensure she wouldn't be thrown off the bear's back amidst the violent jolting, then used both hands to tightly grab the fur on Grim's neck.

She could only rely on the combined strength of her hands and legs to barely stabilize her figure on the rampaging Grim.

Even for Cress, who was extremely agile, performing such a feat was not easy; she had no energy left to do anything else, not even to open her mouth to soothe the enraged Grim.

However, the Wargs made a change first; their intelligence was no worse than that of ordinary Humans, especially the alpha wolf commanding the pack.

After seeing that its subordinates could not confront the Giant Bear head-on, it quickly changed its combat strategy, no longer consuming the lives of its kin to engage in close-quarters combat with Grim.

Instead, it let its subordinates scatter, circling Grim, taunting him, and dodging immediately when Grim attacked them.

After all, their mission was only to keep the enemy there; there were endless Orcish coming behind to deal with this Giant Bear.

After a bout of fighting, the anger in Grim's heart was released a little, and his scarlet eyes regained some clarity at this moment.

In this instant of regaining his reason, he felt that the big sister was still on his back, and his heart immediately relaxed; then, realizing that the surrounding Wargs were no longer willing to fight him, he rolled his eyes and immediately took off running toward the west again.

Cress, who had just recovered from the jolting, could only fix herself tightly on Grim's back again; she did not want to become food in a wolf's mouth.

However, as if history were repeating itself, as Grim fled, the Wargs followed again, continuing to snap and bite at the Giant Bear's massive body while running.

But the difference was that Cress now only had her defensive Short Sword, making it difficult to help Grim kill the Wargs that climbed up.

Under these circumstances, the running Grim had to stop his pace to engage in close-quarters combat with the Wargs again, and after killing a few enemies, the situation would fall into a stalemate once more.

With no other choice, Grim could only continue to play out the scene of fleeing, and the Wargs were naturally in hot pursuit.

The man and the bear ran toward the west for a long time, yet it seemed like not long at all; in this process, the Wargs' sharp teeth and claws added one wound after another to Grim's massive body, and blood seeped out from the wounds bit by bit, falling drop by drop onto the green grass of the Wilderness.

Even as a Skin-changer who understood Magic, Grim's breath began to become disordered under such consumption; although his running pace was firm, it was undeniable that his speed was getting slower and slower.

Cress was not spared either; a piece of flesh was torn from her left calf by a Warg, and her right leg was fiercely scratched by a wolf claw; if not for the protection of her Leather Armor, her two legs would have long been covered in scars.

But even so, the blood flowing from Cress's wounds had already stained a large area on Grim, and due to excessive blood loss, her vision had already begun to go black in waves.

The left hand gripping Grim's fur was also far less powerful than it had been at the start.

However, the Wargs' attacks never stopped; under the alpha's command, they lunged at the running Grim time and time again, assaulting the man and bear in the encirclement.

In the end, it was the injured Cress who could not hold on any longer; no matter how high her martial arts were or how good her agility was, to some extent, she was ultimately just an ordinary Human woman in her twenties.

The dizziness caused by blood loss, combined with the waves of pain from her wounds, made it impossible for Cress to maintain her posture amidst the jolting and attacks.

"Grim, I... I can't..."

Before she could finish her sentence, Cress's vision went black, and she tumbled from the Giant Bear's back into the grass.

The moment Cress fell to the ground, the running Grim and the pursuing Wargs simultaneously became aware of this.

Two Wargs instantly changed their targets while running, turning and lunging with their sharp teeth and claws aimed at the unconscious Cress.

Grim immediately slammed on the brakes, and while using his massive body to shield Cress, he knocked away the two enemies that had approached.

However, things finally came to a pause here; under the illumination of the bright moon, an exceptionally large black Warg slowly walked out from the pack.

On its evil, ferocious face, there actually appeared an extremely human-like mockery, looking playfully at the man and bear in the encirclement.

Grim, transformed into a bear, clearly understood the other party's meaning; even though he was burning with the anger of being mocked, Grim forcibly endured it.

He no longer had the capital to initiate an attack; looking at the enemies surrounding him, a realization welled up in his heart, and he roared provocatively at the Warg leader.

"Awoo~~ Awoo~~"

The Warg leader heard the provocation in Grim's roar, but at the same time, it also heard a trace of despair and madness.

The alpha licked its lips with its crimson tongue, having no intention of paying attention to Grim at all; it certainly could not be so stupid as to charge up and duel with a Giant Bear at the end of its rope, and it was not even in a hurry to let its kin continue to swarm them.

In this pursuit, it had lost a full hundred of its minions to this man and bear; now that the enemy could no longer run, its mission was complete, and the rest could be left to the Orcish behind.

Grim stared at the alpha opposite with slightly crazed eyes, but upon discovering that the enemy remained indifferent, his emotions gradually calmed down; then, seeing the Orcish approaching from the distance, he understood his current predicament.

With no other way, Grim could only keep nudging the unconscious Cress on the ground with his nose, hoping his big sister would wake up.

He could still run, but he could not leave Cress behind and escape alone.

However, how could a coma caused by blood loss be so easy to wake from? Grim's actions were ultimately just a futile effort.

The Orcish holding torches in the distance were getting closer and closer; once they all surrounded them, the two of them could only die together on this Wilderness.

And as the torches approached bit by bit, the foul stench of the Orcish first flooded into Grim's sensitive nose, followed by their noisy, grating voices.

"What a stroke of bad luck, having to follow that terrifying Shadow to this place. I heard those slender, fragile Elf live in this area; I haven't tasted them yet, they might be more delicious than those scrawny, bitter farmers."

"You'd better be careful what you say, kid; if the Shadow hears this, you'll have a hard time. Chopping off an arm is the bare minimum punishment."

Hearing this, Grim became even more anxious; creatures like Orcish ate everything, but looking at Cress, who was still fast asleep on the ground, he could only use the last method he could think of, reverting to human form amidst a howl.

The Wargs from Mordor were all stunned on the spot upon seeing this scene; in their limited lives, they had never seen such a trick of a person transforming.

But Grim did not waste this precious time; he quickly bent down to pick up Cress, immediately stepped out with his long legs, and continued to run toward the west, while the two Wargs blocking his path were knocked to the ground by his sturdy body.

Reverting to human form was an extremely dangerous thing for Grim; at this moment, he no longer possessed the physique of a bear, nor did he have the tough defense of bear fur, and the Wargs' sharp teeth or claws could easily cause him harm at this moment.

The most critical thing was that human legs could not outrun Wargs; this was merely his final struggle.

"Awooo~ Awooo~"

Sure enough, amidst the howling of the lead wolf, one Warg after another recovered from their shock and once again surrounded the running Grim, but what puzzled these Wargs was that the large bear capable of turning into a human actually stopped fleeing, instead placing the Human on its shoulder onto a small mound nearby, and then resumed the form of a large bear.

Soon, the keen-eared Wargs also realized why the prey before them had stopped fleeing, because they heard bursts of hoofbeats coming from the direction of the west.

If their bodies could be taller, or if they were standing on the small hill where Grim was, they would certainly be able to see with their own eyes a large group of Human and Elf Cavalry rushing over quickly from the direction the sound came from.

And the person charging at the very front was Allen, riding an Elf Horse and clad in silver-bright armor; set against the moonlight and white Radiance, the man and horse had pushed their speed to the limit, like lightning streaking across the earth, leaving his subordinates, who were also galloping wildly behind him, far in the distance.

Before these Wargs could react, Allen, whose body seemed to be emitting white flames, appeared beside Grim; at extreme speed, he cast a concerned glance at the two, confirming the current state of this man and bear.

Fortunately, they were still alive.

Then, turning his head, Allen immediately locked onto the black lead wolf that was particularly conspicuous among the pack; the other wolves were gray or brown, but it was unique and exceptionally large, making it obvious at a glance that this was undoubtedly the leader of the Warg pack.

With his target confirmed, Allen's mind stirred slightly, and a Jia Chang Qi Qiang, accompanied by a faint flash of white light, was gripped tightly in his hand; with a brief adjustment, the cold-glinting tip of the Giant Lance aimed at the stunned lead wolf.

This change clearly exceeded its imagination.

At this moment, whether it was the Wargs unintentionally blocking the path or the enemies deliberately pouncing on Allen, all were sent flying by the rapidly charging Elf Horse; the sharp claws of those Wargs could only leave faint white marks on its tough skin.

Facing the Human Cavalry charging toward it, the black lead wolf finally broke free from its terror at the very last moment, leaping high to one side in an attempt to dodge the fatal attack, but in its panic, it jumped in the wrong direction.

If it had jumped to Allen's left, Allen would have wasted a little time adjusting the lance, and it might have had a chance to live, but it had to go and jump to Allen's right, a move that was nothing more than courting death.

Seeing this, Allen lightly flicked his right hand, and the lance flipped upward; the gleaming spear tip, shining in the moonlight, pierced directly through the black lead wolf's neck, hanging it upon the lance.

The black lead wolf, pierced through the neck by the lance, struggled powerlessly a few times, and after a brief whimper, it went still.

Having completed these actions, Allen held the Jia Chang Qi Qiang—with the lead wolf impaled upon it—high, charged straight out of the Warg encirclement, and slaughtered his way toward the Orcish forces not far away.

Soon, troop after troop of Human and Elf Cavalry passed by Grim, slaughtering every enemy in sight, and then followed their Commander, charging toward the east.

And the Dwarfs, riding goats, had just barely arrived behind Grim at this moment.

Maintaining his Giant Bear form, Grim finally breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing the numerous reinforcements, sat down on his haunches beside Cress, then transformed back into human form and began to bandage his big sister's wounds.

Yet the sounds of battle coming from the east continued unabated.