Strongest Nova: Path of Vengeance

Chapter 278: Water Stream

Red rolled her dice and it landed on a 3.

"3? Dammit!" she grumbled and looked at Stanley. "Sorry, that’s all the pain relief I can give you for now. I’ll try again in half an hour."

Stanley carried the large log, surprising everyone again. "That’s alright. I’m used to this by now," he said and started walking.

He really had been getting used to the pain in the right half of his body. It no longer burdened him like the first day.

It had been 5 days since the group had been together and they now stayed underneath the giant tree’s roots on the other side of the cliff where the sun set much later.

The only problem they had on this side was water, but there was a small stream about half an hour’s walk away, and they would fill their water on that end.

Stanley didn’t have much to do at all with the other four people around. All he really needed to do was dry the wood, and everyone else took care of the rest.

However, he did have to walk with everyone to get water or find food as they couldn’t separate even for a short while.

They had been walking down to the river to get water and maybe catch some animals in the process when the old woman posed a question.

"If we all stay here all the time, how do we tell when the strong people have wounded and killed themselves?" she asked.

Stanley looked toward the other three, hoping they would answer. He had the same question previously but hadn’t asked.

"We’ll know," the tall guy answered.

"You two saw the yellow wall, right?" the young girl asked. "The one covering the island like a shield?"

"Yes," Stanley answered.

"I do remember seeing something yellow. So it is a wall?" the woman asked.

"It’s a barrier to keep the death game inside," the girl said. "That wall shrinks slowly normally, but whenever someone dies, it speeds up. If people have been killing each other, we can tell."

"I see," Stanley said. It was hard to see the wall from the thick forest they were walking through, but every so often, an opening in the trees would let them view the wall in the distance. It was still far away.

They arrived at the small stream and filled their water bottles.

"Should we spend some time searching for some deer or something with more meat than normal?" the tall man asked. "Rabbit meat just isn’t as filling anymore."

"I can try searching," the short man said. "But I’m not sure I can be of much use. I’m more so attuned to looking for humans ever since I was young."

"Any help is help," the young girl said. She brought out her dice and rolled it on the ground, landing on a 21. "I’ve greatly enhanced your power’s effectiveness, now use it."

"Alright, alright, I’m—"

Stanley’s eyes widened in shock as he saw a future where the short man in front of him was attacked by something dark. At the same time, something had also attacked him from the side.

He could feel the part of his neck where the strike would land on.

"Watch out!" Stanley shouted, turning to his right to see something dark shoot at him. Time slowed in an instant, and he clearly saw what it was that attacked him.

A wolf.

But it didn’t look like an ordinary wolf. Instead, it looked dark and slimy and glistening. There was no fur, there were no eyes. Just a dark body and a dark mass.

As if the entire thing had been constructed out of...

"Shadows!" Stanley murmured, fear gripping his heart. "Raven."

He quickly took a count of the number of wolves that had come. There were exactly 5.

Two were at the front, three right behind them. They had walked out of the forest and each one of the wolves seemed to be coming for each one of them.

Stanley twisted his body just so that the log would slam into the wolf attacking the short man while he moved slightly so the one attacking him couldn’t go for the next.

He let the time speed back up a bit so that he didn’t have to wait 2 minutes for the wolves to get anywhere.

To Stanley’s surprise, the wolf that was hit by the log instantly disappeared into a puff of smoke. The one that struck him made him stumble back. The wolf wanted to go for his head while he was down, but something hit it on the side of its head, throwing it back.

The tall man reacted quickly, striking the wolf with his wooden staff. The short man joined in, stabbing the wolf with his spear.

The wolf vanished into a puff of black smoke as well.

The other 3 wolves arrived right after, all three targeting the tall man, the girl, and the woman.

The man stopped the wolf coming for him with his staff, while the short man stabbed at the wolf that came for the girl.

The girl brought out her dagger to fight the last one, but before it could get close, Stanley kicked it from where he was, instantly turning it into black smoke.

The girl instead dashed forward and stabbed the wolf the tall man was blocking. It vanished as well.

Once all the wolves were gone, the 5 stared at the forest in a daze and trepidation of what could be there.

"What was that?" the woman asked.

"Creations, through power. Someone sent it most likely," the girl said. She turned toward the short man. "Search for who it was. My power should still work."

The short man nodded and made a very specific series of hand gestures before closing his eyes. "I saw someone," he said quickly, pointing in a certain direction. "But he’s already running away."

Stanley looked at the man. "He? Can you tell the gender?" he asked.

Was it perhaps not Raven?