Everyone saw Aiden so panicked and flustered that they all jumped to their feet.
"Wolves!" Ivy Shen stared at those glowing green dots in the darkness—wolf eyes, fierce and bloodthirsty, closing in all around them.
"Wolves? How can there be wolves in the desert?" Clara Night blurted out, instantly anxious and scared, then scrambled to hide in the middle of the group. All those glowing wolf eyes were clearly drooling over so much prey.
"I'll go deal with them." Butterfly Rogue said, completely unconcerned. What's scary about a few dozen wolves?
"Don't!" Ivy quickly reached out to stop Butterfly Rogue.
"Why, Ivy?" Butterfly Rogue looked confused when Ivy stopped him.
Suddenly, a low, miserable scream echoed behind them. Everyone turned to look—the camels tied up in the distance were being attacked by the wolf pack. Furious, they broke free of their loose ropes and bolted into the night.
"Hey, don't run!" Butterfly Rogue shouted loudly, but no matter how much he yelled, those fleeing camels vanished in a flash.
Ivy frowned at the scene. She'd been too careless—how could she forget there were wolves in the desert? Of course the camels would fight to break free and run for their lives.
At least they'd already unloaded the food and water, so they weren't totally doomed.
"What do we do? What do we do? The camels are gone—what now?" Clara Night shouted in panic, trembling all over as she stared at the pairs of glowing green eyes.
"Damn beasts! I'll kill them!" Butterfly Rogue fumed, furious that their mounts had been snatched. No way he was letting these wolves off easy.
"Stop!" Ivy Shen yelled after Butterfly Rogue, but he was already off, light as a feather. In a flash, the wolf pack swarmed him all at once.
Seeing this, Ethan Chu drew his sword and dashed out after him. In a blink, Ethan vanished into the dark too.
"Don't move!" Ivy snapped as the others looked ready to charge after them. "Didn't you hear me? These wolves aren't ordinary—they're trying to split us up so they can pick us off! Lucian, Adrian, grab a torch and follow me. The rest of you, stay around the fire and do NOT leave, got it?" With that, she handed out three torches.
"Xin'er!" Eli Crane snatched a torch and came to her side, eyes firm. Ivy glanced at Caleb Miles and Nina Xu, nodding seriously: "Protect everyone. No matter what, do NOT leave the fire, or else... or else..."
"Don't worry, I've got this," Caleb Miles cut in, not wanting to hear Ivy's next sad line.
"Xin'er, we'll keep everyone safe," Nina Xu promised. She really wanted to run out and help too, but knew her job—protect the group and the food and water—was just as crucial.
With that, Ivy led her trio out to back up Ethan and Butterfly Rogue.
"Awooooo!" In the distance, wolf howls and all kinds of screams grew louder, making those huddled by the fire more and more anxious.
"I'm scared!" Clara Night tried to edge closer to Colin Kerr, but to her surprise, Colin instinctively moved beside Liam Willow instead. He didn't even know why—just that when danger hit, his first reflex was to protect Liam.
"Caleb, what about Xin'er? What about our wifey..." Liam Willow fretted, not even noticing Colin was next to him. He cursed his lack of martial arts—if only he could fight, he wouldn't be stuck here worrying.
"Don't worry, they're all together. They'll be fine," Caleb Miles tried to reassure Liam, though his hand on the abacus was trembling. He could hear screams in the dark—human screams, not animal ones.
"Awooooo!" Suddenly, a few wolves started howling at them from the edge of the firelight. They didn't dare charge, but those bone-chilling howls made everyone's skin crawl.
"Ahhh, I'm scared!" Clara Night clung to Caleb Miles. "Ivy told you to look after me, so you'd better protect me!"
Caleb frowned—when did Ivy ever ask him to babysit Clara? Seriously, what a troublemaker.
"Nobody move back!" Nina Xu shouted urgently.
"Easy for you to say! The wolves are right there—if we don't back up, are we supposed to just let them eat us?" Clara Night yelled, clearly unhappy with Nina's pep talk. She was scared for Adrian and terrified of the wolves getting closer.
"Don't worry, Miss, Aiden's here!" Aiden drew his sword, ready to go down fighting if he had to.
"Did you all forget Ivy's orders? The wolves want us away from the fire—they're afraid of it!" Nina Xu suddenly got it: that's why Ivy didn't want them to leave, and why she took torches. She quickly pulled out charcoal and tossed it onto the bonfire, making the flames leap higher.
A few wolves tried to sneak closer and snatch some prey, but seeing the bigger fire, they shrank back a few steps—still unwilling to give up, they kept up their furious howling.
Seeing this, Clara Night lunged for Nina Xu, grabbing another chunk of charcoal to throw on the fire—only for Nina to catch her hand. "No! The night is long. If we burn it all now, we won't last until dawn!"
That made Clara freeze. She slumped to the ground, totally at a loss for what to do next.
"What kind of wolves are these? Why aren't they afraid to die?" Ethan Chu grumbled, frowning. He'd lost count of how many he'd killed, but more just kept coming, attacking like they never got tired.
"Ow, ow, ow! That hurts!" Butterfly Rogue yelped—he'd been bitten several times. These wolves were insane, swarming in endless waves.
"Circle up—don't let anyone get separated!" Ivy Shen yelled. She could see the wolves' tactics clear as day: they wanted to split the group for an easy meal.
Now they were all standing back-to-back in a tight circle, each with bleeding wounds. Desert wolves were truly terrifying—they didn't retreat when their packmates died. If anything, it just made them angrier and more ferocious.
"What do we do? These things never seem to get tired—and we have no idea how many there are. If this keeps up, we'll run out of steam," Lucian Vane muttered, grudgingly impressed by their relentless attacks.
"Listen up! We need to inch our way back to the fire. Once we reach it, the wolves won't dare come close!" Ivy Shen called out.
"Let's just fly over!" Butterfly Rogue blurted out.
Ivy shot him a glare. "Idiot! There's nothing to launch from—if you fall, you'll land right in their jaws! If we try to fly, the wolves will just swarm whoever touches down first. Regrouping would be impossible!"
"Alright, let's move back!" Ethan Chu shouted, slashing at wolves as he backed toward Ivy's plan.
"Eli, watch out!" Ivy called, worried for Eli Crane, who was fighting beside her.
"Got it!" Eli shot back, and the next round of brutal fighting erupted.
But just as they were giving it everything, suddenly the wolves let out a collective howl—and scattered all at once.
"What the—?" Everyone froze, stunned by the abrupt change.
"Something's wrong," Ivy Shen said, voice tight with worry. "Wolves don't just vanish like that. That means... something even scarier is coming."
"Xin'er, what's wrong?" Eli Crane asked, seeing Ivy's sudden change. He quickly moved to steady her, concern etched on his face.
Ivy snapped out of it. "Quick, back to the camp!" she ordered, taking the lead at a run.
No one knew what was happening, but seeing Ivy so tense, they all hurried after her without question.
"Xin'er!"
"Wifey!"
Caleb Miles and Liam Willow stood up when they saw Ivy return, but their faces fell at the sight of all the fresh wounds.
"Quick! Everyone, grab a few waterskins and strap them to yourselves!" Ivy barked, tense.
"Huh? The wolves are gone—why do we need water?" Clara Night asked, baffled.
"I have no idea," Ivy admitted, already strapping several water bags to herself at record speed.
Everyone else followed suit, even Clara, who didn't get it but went along anyway.
Suddenly, Ivy's face tightened. She froze, then blurted, "It's here!"
"What?!" everyone shouted—but before Ivy could answer, the whole group screamed as one...