It was the middle of the night, thick clouds were covering the sky so no moon or starlight illuminated the earth.

A pack of wolf monsters was circling in on a small group of humans.

The unaware travelers gathered around a campfire, not knowing that they entered the monsters' territory.

Two adult humans and two human children, two horses.

Just enough for the pack of twenty hungry wolf monsters – but it would do.

It would definitely do...

Creatures of their kind were known to form packs that counted into dozens and even hundreds of specimens, so their current number didn't seem all that impressive.

But this particular pack had something that most of the other ones could not compete with.

Even with their species being highly attuned to earth magic and therefore having similarly-sized mana reservoirs to human earth magicians, every single member of the pack had enough mana to outlast an average water magician in a duel of endurance.

Even the four cubs, tagging safely in the back.

The leading male had more mana than an average human fire magician, and his stone armor had already brushed off countless attacks from the magicians hopelessly trying to defend themselves from him and his pack.

The leading female wielded a unique variant attribute and controlled salt.

After scouting the area and confirming that there were no humans other than their prey around to help, the pack leader growled a command, and all the wolves activated their magic.

The ground trembled as the earth and stone armors formed on top of the dark brown fur as the spells that give their species their name activated.

The armored wolves.

A pack like that one could easily dispose of a much larger predator such as the seven-limbed bear, as long as a specimen wielding light magic would not appear.

The humans and their feeble bodies stood no chance.

The leading female's armor was made out of salt, giving her an otherworldy, almost ghostly appearance that was bound to strike fear in the hearts of mankind – but she didn't just count on that as a factor.

The very next spell she used was an enhancement spell that covered her mate's and all of her children's fangs with salt.

There were a lot of humans who could withstand the bites, but the smart monster learned that almost none of them expect a secondary bite of the salt stinging their exposed flesh.

Such things happening more often than not led to a window of opportunity which gave the pack a one-hundred percent success rate in their hunts.

That pack was so efficient, that only vague stories about them circulated the human society.

Most humans living within their hunting ground thought about them as a myth – and in a situation where they were faced with said myth, it would be already too late for them to realize their mistake.

After another low growl, the pack completed their encirclement and got in position.

There was no chance for the humans to escape now.

They were bound to become nothing more than the wolf monsters' feed.

"Kafff...!FHSHA...! FHSHA!"

Suddenly, the wolf in charge of watching over the young cubs not getting in the way started sneezing uncontrollably, getting louder and louder with each spasm.

"FHSHA! FHSHA!"

"FHSHA! FHSHA! FHSHA...! FHSHA!"

"...?"

Out of nowhere one after the other, all of the wolves began to sneeze, causing the leading pair to tilt their heads in confusion.

"FHSHA! FHSHA!"

"FHSHA...!"

The confusion was soon cleared out as they experienced what their young felt – their nostrils started filling with water.

Not just getting runny or anything – literal water began condensing into their sensitive noses out of thin air causing the violent reaction.

The hunt was being compromised... no...

It was clearly an attack!

"AWOOOOOOOOOO!"

The pack leader dropped the silent act and let out a bloodcurdling howl, filled to the brim with killing intent.

The four humans all jumped up at their feet and rushed to the horses in panic, but that was of little concern to the wolves at the moment.

*click*

"HAWOOOO?!"

With a sound of a snap, the water stubbornly flowing into the beasts' nostrils turned into ice causing the creatures to yelp in pain and shock.

They all tried to get rid of the ice, but it was of no use.

Within the next few minutes, more than half of them dropped onto the ground suffocating as only the leading pair and three strongest wolves out of the pack managed to fend off the attack.

Surprisingly enough, the four cubs were unaffected by the ambush, although all of them were trembling in the bushes with their ears low and their tails between their legs, too scared to even let out a yelp.

*WHOOOSH* *WHOOOSH* *WHOOOSH*

"GWAAUU...!"

*thump*

Before the monsters had the time to truly comprehend what was happening, three crescents of freezing-cold air erupted from amongst the trees at their back – four adult wolves were able to dodge them in time, but the fifth one was too slow, getting hit by a single one, and his body was cut in half and fell onto the grass, frozen solid.

"GRAAAARGH!"

*RUMBLE*

*STAB* *STAB* *STAB* *STAB*

"!!!"

The leading male roared and a wall of earth grew between the direction the attack came from and the remains of his pack, but just then four water spears shoot at them from the side, impaling and instantly killing another one of them.

"AWOOOOOOOOOO...!"

The pack leader let out another howl – this one was full of fear, an order of immediate retreat.

The pack encountered an enemy that they were not prepared for and had no way of countering.

But the leading pair, one more adult world, and all four cubs were still alive.

There was still a chance for them!

"...acid... pond..."historical

"...?!"

*plop*

The quiet sound of a human voice caused the wolves' ears to perk up, but it was too late for one of them.

The last of the original three adult wolves suddenly found the ground he was standing on turning into a neon-pink goo and submerged into it unable to react.