'please don't notice me'

his worries ended up being in vain as the greater shadow wolf being the alpha of it's pack was the boss of the local area and even in it's wildest dreams had it thought someone would ambush it, witch ended up being it's doom as Mars landed his sword on the crown of it's head with all his weight behind it easily piercing it's skull and with a quick twist he ended it's life without it ever even knowing what had happened

'that's one!'

Mars jumped off the wolf and while he was in the air his sword slashed through the necks of another 2 darkness wolfs before the alphas lifeless body even hit the ground

'that's 3'

when Mars landed on the ground the rest of the darkness wolfs intimately discovered him and surrounded him but as they had not noticed Mars had killed the alpha they just stood there waiting for a command, giving Victoria ample time to aim the 5 darkness lances that descend from above and instantly killed another 5 members of the pack, at this point the surviving wolfs finely discovered something was wrong and

"...really?"

turned and ran with their tail between their legs

"well... i guess that's it"

Mars was a little disappointed by the short fight, but also quickly decided not to chase after the 12 wolfs that had escaped and promptly began to gather the 8 wolf corpses in a pile after he removed their cores and stood before the small hill made of dead wolves for a second before he gave a sigh

"yeah no way I'm hauling all that meat back... let's just take the 2 biggest corpses"

Mars picked out the 2 biggest corpses and took a leg in each hand and began to drag them back to the camp while Victoria followed after him and after almost 2 hours of dragging over 1 metric ton of wolf though the forest he returned to the camping spot were the elvers were resting

"we're back"

"how was the hunt... don't you think that's a little too much?"

Alvin looked at the 2 wolf corpses Mars was dragging after him and was a little taken back

"well... we kind of killed 8 in total so it felt like a waste to leave anymore behind then we already did"

"well in that case i guess it's fine"

"besides i think me and Victoria should be able to eat half a wolf by tomorrow, then we can harvest the best meat and carry it and eat it for dinner tomorrow"

"...i had almost forgotten about your absurd appet.i.te"

Mars gave a slight smile and began to disa.s.semble the 2 wolf corpses to make the most of the remain sunlight only when Chloe walked over to him and had watched him for 2 minutes looking like she had something to say but didn't want to disturb him did he put down his bone sword and stopped working

"what's up?"

"do you have some time Mars?"

"yeah sure"

Chloe look visibly relieved and gave a sweet smile

"then i want to show you something"

"...okay"

Mars followed after Chloe and walked out of the camp and after walking for a few minutes they reached a particular tall tree

"it's up here"

Chloe jumped up and grabbed a low branch and swung herself up further into the tree before she looked down at Mars with a slightly teasing smile

"don't tell me that the great living G.o.d of energy can't climb a little tree?"

"oh you're on"

Mars backed up a little before he kicked off the ground and jumped a little before he reached the tree before he stretched out his leg and kicked off the tree propelling him further up past Chloe just reaching a breach with one hand before he looked down a Chloe with a wide smile as he hang with one hand

"what are you waiting for?"

Mars saw he had ignited her compet.i.tive sprite as she quickly began to agilely climb with well practiced technique that was as smooth as flowing water rapidly climbing further up the tree quickly pa.s.sing him, while Mars didn't have any climbing technique he made up for his lack of skill by pure strength as he, with the one arm he was hanging in launched himself almost 5 meters up where he grabbed another branch and launched himself further giving Chloe quite the challenge but still she managed to stay in the lead for the first 60 meters until Mars managed to build up a lead by a few meters that lasted until they reached the top of the tree that was about 160 meters of the ground

"what took you so long?"

Mars had sat himself on the highest branch and looked quite relaxed when Chloe made it to the top, looking a little frustrated over her loss

"I... was... just... admiring... the... view"

Mars reached her his hand a pulled her up to the branch he was sitting on were she sat down next to him

'well it sure is a nice view...'

Mars looked out over the forest, a near endless carpet of green spread out in front of him while the sun was dipping down over the horizon bathing the sky in a orange glow, as Mars admired the view Chloe had caught her breath and asked

"...you are having bad dreams right?"

Mars kept his eyes on the setting sun for a while before he answered

"yeah... but they don't feel like dreams, to tell the truth the bruises i had this morning also came from my dream"

Chloe gave a small nod and also looked out at the sunset for a while before she spoke again

"my mom once told me that last light of the day have special powers..."

Mars looked over at Chloe and saw she had a dissent, slightly nostalgic look in her green eyes and kept silent while he watched her face

"she told me that the last light of the day was the purest, and that it could burn away evil demons and... nightmares"

"i see"

Mars stopped watching her and also looked at the setting sun until it disappears behind the horizon, dying the forest black in only a couple of minutes

"should we head back?"

Chloe still had her eyes on the horizon gazing after the sun that had just set for a little while before she gave a nod and began to climb down while Mars summoned his flame to light op their descended down into the dark forest, when the 2 of them returned to the camp they both received warm looks from the other elvers causing Chloe to turn a little red, however Mars was move interested in Victoria that had her head stuffed into his bag, seemingly trying to get something inside it

"Victoria what are you doing?"

"I... want... the cores..."

"the cores? you mean the ones we got earlier?"

"yeah... to get... stronger..."

Mars was a little confused for a second before he remembered Victoria had told him she could eat cores of the darkness and fire element to get stronger some time ago

"sure... but you need to get your head out of my bag first"

Victoria stopped moving for a second before she raised her head, with the pack still attached and started to shake her head for a few seconds before she began to move backwards a few steps before she stopped again

"Mars... help I'm... stuck..."

"yeah I can see that... hold still for a second"

Mars spent a couple of minutes getting Victoria's head out of his pack, witch was hardener then it seemed as her sharp horns was stuck inside the bag

"and there... now did you learn something just now?"

after Victoria was freed from the pack she shakes her head a few times before she tilted her head and looked at Mars while her horns flashed

"lean... something?"

"yeah like not sticking your head into tight s.p.a.ces?"

"okay... but the cores... can i have... them now?"

"...sure"

seeing Victoria was so fixated on the cores Mars gave up teaching her and took out the small pouch that contained all his cores from his bag and took out the 8 newly obtained cores and showed them to Victoria

"you mean theses?"

Victoria looked quite agitated when he showed the cores to her, like someone had dangled a nice treat just outside her range

"yes... can I... have them... please..."

Mars considered teasing her for a second but changed his mind when he felt the need she had for the cores form the contract that bonded them together and simply gave them to her and watched her quickly eat the 8 cores before she laid down on the spot as her horns flashed again

"thanks.... now... I'm.... sleepy...."

Mars was a little amazed at how quickly she had fallen asleep and walked over to her and poked her ears to cheek and was a little surprised by her lack of response

'she really is in deep sleep... i just hope she's awake by tomorrow'