The Yukon Wolf shuddered the mont its paws hit the ground. Before it could react, an arrow pierced its neck. It stumbled back three or four steps, swayed, and drops of crimson blood trickled from between its sharp canine teeth.
It struggled for a mont before collapsing weakly to the ground, its legs still pawing at the dirt in a final, desperate struggle.
The sudden collapse of their packmate startled the other four Yukon Wolves. They stared instinctively at the struggling form, clearly not understanding when the attack had happened.
"SWOOSH—"
A second piercing whistle sounded.
Another wolf imdiately collapsed.
The hunting bow’s projectile speed was at least fifty ters per second. With only five or six ters between them and his Bow Mastery, he barely had to worry about accuracy. The mont he released the string, the feathered arrow found its mark, leaving the wolves no ti to react.
Seeing two packmates fall in a row under such bizarre circumstances, the remaining three Yukon Wolves flattened their ears in fear. They no longer dared to linger under the tree, scrambling back another five or six ters.
"SWOOSH—"
Lin Chen didn’t care what they were thinking. He loosed the arrow he already had nocked, piercing the neck of one of the wolves the instant it glanced back.
The imnse force sent the massive wolf tumbling to the ground. Its strength was instantly drained, and no matter how much it struggled, it couldn’t get back on its feet.
In no more than ten seconds, the tables had turned completely. The cornered prey had beco a ruthless hunter, easily taking the lives of three Yukon Wolves.
The two remaining wolves let out terrified whimpers. With their tails tucked between their legs, they darted into the bushes and disappeared without a backward glance.
A few seconds later, two mournful howls echoed through the forest.
"AWOOOO~~~~"
The mont he saw them flee, Lin Chen acted without thinking. He swung down from the branch, landing on the ground and imdiately performing a roll to absorb the impact.
He stomped on the shoulder of the dying Yukon Wolf beneath the tree, grabbed the arrow, and forcefully pulled it out.
A few drops of hot blood splattered onto his face. Expressionless, he wiped the arrowhead on the wolf’s fur, then did the sa with the next one. Finally, he turned back, picked up the Engineer Shovel from the ground, and climbed up the trunk. He deepened the two grooves he’d been working on earlier and added a new one for good asure.
As he settled back into the tree, the sound of rustling leaves announced the arrival of an exceptionally large black wolf, which burst out from the undergrowth.
Its expression was fierce, its gaze nacing. The sheer sight of its face was oppressive, reminding him of the fear he felt as a child seeing Scar for the first ti in *The Lion King*.
The Wolf King!
Following its appearance, a dozen more wolves burst from the surrounding bushes, fanning out to completely encircle the area.
The Wolf King strode forward with steady steps to sniff at its still-twitching subordinate. It then raised its head, staring from a distance at the two wolf corpses under the tree before finally turning its gaze to Lin Chen, perched on a branch above.
It was very cautious and did not approach rashly, simply standing there in silence.
While it observed Lin Chen, Lin Chen observed the pack.
With a single glance, he spotted the black wolf with an arrow in its hindquarters, hiding at the very back of the pack.
Unlike the other fierce-eyed Yukon Wolves, its head was lowered and it looked listless. It was clearly not in good condition.
’That’s to be expected, though. It took an arrow to the rump and has been dragging it around for days. It’d be a miracle if it were in good shape.’
The Wolf King let out an authoritative growl. After giving Lin Chen a long, hard look, it surprisingly led the entire pack to retreat even further.
The pack then spread out from its fan formation into a circle, completely surrounding the tree and leaving no gaps.
They didn’t attack. They simply surrounded him, settling in for a war of attrition.
"Huh?"
Lin Chen sighed in exasperation. He turned to the cara and said, "As expected of a wild wolf pack. Their alpha is surprisingly intelligent."
"This is its first ti seeing , yet it accurately judged that approaching would be dangerous. But if it just left, it would lose its authority as the leader, so it chose a siege instead."
"At this distance, maybe fifteen to twenty ters, accuracy aside... half a second is probably enough ti for them to react and try to dodge."
What he didn’t say was that reacting was one thing; actually dodging was another entirely.
’With my archery skills, hitting them at this distance wouldn’t be a problem. The only question was whether I could hit the exact spot I was aiming for.’
By now, the sky had darkened considerably. From his vantage point, he could clearly see only the top half of the sun above the horizon. In another ten or fifteen minutes, it would be gone completely.
Once it was completely dark, his bow would be useless without a source of light.
"Phew... Good thing I was thinking ahead this ti and brought my Hat Lamp."
Encountering the sa wolf pack at the sa ti and place was an extrely improbable event, but nightfall at this ti of day was a certainty.
He wasn’t anxious. He just sat quietly on the branch, recovering his energy and waiting for darkness to fall.
Neither party seed to be in a hurry, but the tense standoff made the audience watching on their screens feel increasingly suffocated.
No matter which way Lin Chen turned, the savage faces of the wolves were always visible on screen, staring from a distance.
The visibly darkening sky was like an invisible hand, squeezing the air from the viewers’ lungs.
Many long-ti fans found it absolutely thrilling. After watching so many seasons, this was the first ti they had truly felt the tension of a contestant in a desperate situation. It was completely different from the manufactured suspense of past edited episodes.
It was during this tense, ten-minute-plus wait that news of Lin Chen being surrounded by the Yukon Wolf Pack spread like wildfire through the other nine contestants’ live streams.
It was about ti to light fires and cook dinner, and viewers who had found little else of interest were now flooding into Lin Chen’s stream, eager to see how the most popular Asian contestant would escape his predicant.
"Daniel, this is serious enough now, isn’t it? That’s an entire pack of Yukon Wolves! Even the Wolf King is out there!"
Robert paced anxiously inside the wooden cabin. Ariana silently slung a first-aid kit over her back, while Hei, who had been sitting by the door, opened it without a word and headed for the helicopter in the clearing.
With a single order, they could be at the scene in no ti.
"Isn’t this exactly the kind of scene we were hoping to see?"
Daniel waved a dismissive hand, his eyes glued to the screen. His face betrayed an ecstatic excitent.
"Don’t forget our bet... We’re about to see the results!"
"A bet? At a ti like this! Are you so kind of degenerate gambler?"
"What else can we do?"
Daniel pointed at Hei, who was already in the cockpit. "The mont that helicopter starts up, the entire forest will be spooked. We’d be interfering with the contestant’s survival experience. Do you really think the audience wouldn’t complain?"
"Relax. Lin took down a Black Bear. Right now, he’s at a perfectly safe height... Even if we do have to go, shouldn’t we at least wait until he’s shot all his arrows and has to resort to his Bear-Repellent Spray?"
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