Limits

I spent a few more "days" making arrows. 'I have 340 arrows now, this should last for a bit longer this time' I thought. My destination this time, was the Entrance No. 2. I figured that the leader of Corpse Dogs, would most probably send reinforcements to the Entrance No. 1 and so, other entrances would be less guarded.

That was my plan at least, whenever the reinforcements would arrived at the Entrance No. 1, was a pure speculation on my part. I headed toward the Entrance No. 2, which was in the western direction, or just north from the Vulture Cliffs. I took a more detailed look at the map and noticed something. 'The leader of the Corpse Dogs is not stupid. Those entrances are not random whatsoever. All of them surround the Vulture Cliffs. I think that the Corpse Dogs are preparing to take the place over. Those stupid birds think of them as annoyance but in my opinion? Ignorance is deadly' I thought.

I also stopped believing in the Avian's assumption, that there were only 1000 of them or so. 'I think that there could easily be twice if not 3 times as many of them. My guess is that the leader of Corpse Dogs revealed only this much, so that Avians think the Corpse Dogs are not a threat. If there were 1000 Avians, it's 1 vs 1 battle but if the real number of Corpse Dogs, was let say 4000, then it would become 1 vs 4' I thought.

Avians had obvious advantage because they could fly and attack from the skies, so even a 1 vs 4 might not be enough, to bring Avians down. 'What if the Corpse Dogs were allowed to grow more, to 8000 or 15000? Could Avians deal with that kind of horde? Where each Avian would have to kill 15 enemies and if some died, the enemies would only increase per Avian' I thought as I arrived at the Entrance No. 2.

This place was much more quiet compared to the Entrance No. 1. There were only 10 Corpse Dogs guarding it, but there was something different about them. 'These are not normal Corpse Dogs. Those should be Variants. They are a bit bigger than the usual Corpse Dogs, and they seem to be rotting a bit less. I must assume that those creatures are faster and stronger. I will try them out with bow and arrow, I can then judge their strength' I thought and prepared to shoot.

A while later, I calculated the behaviour of the Corpse Dogs and shot my arrows, one after the other. When one arrow arrived and struck its target, the other were immediately alarmed and started moving. My other arrows missed, it was due to the reaction time of the remaining Corpse Dogs. 'One is dead, while 9 live. They are much more intelligent than those normal Corpse Dogs. They acted immediately and located my position very quickly too' I thought and shot more arrows.

Before the Corpse Dogs arrived, I managed to take down 2 more of them. I stayed in my spot on purpose, I wanted to test their close combat strength too. With 10 enemies or rather 7 left, close combat was not that dangerous. The Corpse Dogs approached me, while I put away my bow and arrows. What appeared in my hands instead, were two daggers.

I bend down my legs a little and released all the strength stored inside them. "Booom!" the ground cracked and caved in from the burst of my strength, while I sped through the wasteland and slashed my daggers. The fight didn't last long. These Variants were a bit stronger, maybe as strong as Silver Wolves but to me, Silver Wolves were like normal wolves at this stage. I slaughtered the remaining 7 Corpse Dogs and dissected them on the spot. I noticed that their organs seemed to be much more healthy, and their blood had a tint of red inside.

'Those Corpse Dogs are evolving from the stages of rotting and decay, to a stage of life. This is complete opposite compared to other animals. Their organs seem to function much better and the blood is not as much contaminated. I guess that, this is where their strength comes from. The less contaminated a Corpse Dogs is, the stronger it becomes' I thought.

The question was, what strength would a healthy Corpse Dog possess? 'I have a feeling that their leader is either mostly healthy or has no decay and rotting on it completely. If those dogs are at about the level of Silver Wolves, then half healthy should be at about the level of Flaming Silver Wolf. I will not be able to take down a leader, that has no decay or rotting on it' I thought.

This business with Avians, was getting more and more dangerous. I didn't know whenever the leader was healthy or not, but there was such possibility. This would increase the difficulty to "impossible" at my level of strength and skill. 'I will check things out first, there are no reinforcements coming, which is good. I will enter the Entrance No.2 and see what I can find. Then, I will decide what to do' I thought and approached the Entrance No. 2.

At the entrance, There were no other Corpse Dogs in sight. I entered the cave that led me under the ground and into the Den of the Corpse Dogs. The inside, was weird. There were couple of tunnels in front of me, there was also no end in sight of them. 'They must know exactly which tunnel goes where, but I can get lost easily. I need to leave marks in order to get back here, after I explore this place' I thought. I chose the leftmost tunnel and entered it. Inside, I took out a dagger and scratched a large number on a wall. 'By using those numbers, I will be able to figure out which tunnel is which. This way, I will be able to return, if my memory fails me' I thought and proceeded further inside.

The tunnel was quite long and dark. My vision was already improved but I couldn't see everything in darkness. I could only see some details. Stuff like the outlines of walls and such. I would sometimes stumble over a rock or uneven ground. Although I had torches with me, lighting one up in this place, wouldn't be the best idea. 'Those dogs have a very good sense of smell. Fortunately, I covered myself with the dirt, blood and whatnot of the Corpse Dogs that I killed at the entrance. Otherwise, probably a whole legion of them would already arrive' I thought and continued walking.

Then I came up with an idea. 'Why not try the smell then? I know how those dogs smell, I can always avoid the direction where the smell is the strongest' I thought. I decided to do it. Besides, my sense of smell could be trained a bit more. I usually used my sense of hearing and sense of vision only. The other senses were kind of left out.

I inhaled deeply and tried to find anything that would smell familiar to me. I could mostly smell dampness and earth but there were some faint smells, I could pick up from time to time. 'The smell of Corpse Dogs is apparent around those caves but it's not very strong here. This may mean, the dogs don't use this passage very often' I thought. There was another faint smell of something. 'This feels sour and suffocating. This might be a poison or perhaps another breed of Corpse Dogs?' I thought. I had no answer, so I could only walk forwards.