Almost as soon as Lex sensed the wolves approaching, Martha rushed out of her tent in a panic: "Danger! Danger!"
Did she divine this? It didn't seem like it; it looked more like a passive of her Sequence. Do Seers have a premonition of danger?
Lex reined in his wandering thoughts and pulled out his Snake Scale Revolver. At that moment, the howls of wild wolves echoed from the forest in front of the camp.
Yesterday, when they decided to camp here, Leon, true to his hunter's nature and with Lex's assistance, set up several traps nearby, including animal traps.
These precautions were now proving useful.
The traps not only relieved some pressure on Lex and the others but also served as a warning. Hearing Martha's cries and the wild wolves' howls, Matthew and Leon each grabbed a hunting rifle and joined the others.
As a Seer without combat ability, Martha's only reliance was the revolver in her hand.
But Jeffrey shielded her, seemingly deciding it wasn't necessary to let his Seer companion participate in the fight.
As people prepared, the first wild wolf finally burst from the forest, sprinted across the camp, and lunged at the group.
Under the morning sun, this hairless but exceptionally muscular male wolf let out a defiant roar, spewing foul saliva, and leaped fiercely towards Lex.
What greeted it was a bullet from the muzzle of the Revolver, and flashes of fire from the hunting rifles in the hands of the hunter and the servant on either side.
The male wolf's head exploded, blood splattering, as it fell heavily to the ground and slid forward, stopped by Lex's foot.
Before they could catch their breath, more male wolves charged into the camp. Lex and the two others could no longer focus their fire and had to fight individually.
At this moment, a wild wolf broke through the combined firepower of Lex and the two others, opening its mouth to bite Leon's leg.
But then, a stick was thrust into its mouth, and Jeffrey kicked it, sending the wild wolf flying.
The wild wolf scraped its claws on the ground, struggling to get up, saliva mixed with blood dripping from its mouth, still charging ferociously.
However, this time, as soon as it moved, Lex shot it in the head.
Lex spun the cylinder, the spent casings clattering to the ground. He quickly reloaded and rejoined the attack.
About half an hour later, the battle ended, with the complete annihilation of the wild wolves, declaring a decisive victory for the humans.
"How strange."
Lex shot a wild wolf caught in an animal trap. "Since these guys discovered us, why didn't they attack at night? Wouldn't their chances be greater then?"
Leon, the hunter, also found it strange: "Wolves are nocturnal animals; they are more difficult to deal with at night. If they had discovered us early, as Mr. Lex said, they should have come last night."
"Perhaps Martha can tell us the answer."
After a battle, Jeffrey, whose hair was drenched in sweat, was raising his hand as if grasping something invisible.
Lex's Spiritual Vision was stirred. He subtly, quickly blinked twice.
He activated his Spiritual Vision and immediately saw that Jeffrey was holding the soul of a wolf. Lex was quite curious about what Sequence of Beyonder Jeffrey belonged to, to be able to capture the soul of a wild beast.
In his Spiritual Vision state, Lex saw the runes on Jeffrey's short stick glow, guessing it must be a Beyonder weapon, and perhaps Jeffrey could capture souls through this weapon.
As a colleague, Martha naturally understood Jeffrey's abilities. Hearing this, she didn't object. She pulled a small metal bottle from her pocket and said to Jeffrey,
"Put it back."
She must have also activated her Spiritual Vision and seen the soul in Jeffrey's hand. Lex, guessing this, watched Jeffrey squat down and press the wolf's soul into its corpse.
The soul and the corpse overlapped, but there were constant signs of the soul trying to separate from the corpse. Because of this, Jeffrey maintained his posture, his hand not leaving the corpse.
Was this to prevent the wild wolf's spirit from dissipating too soon?
Martha unscrewed the bottle and poured out some powder. Her eyes gradually deepened, and she pinched the powder, sprinkling it on the ground.
She walked around the wolf's corpse, sprinkling as she went, then said, "That's enough."
Lex, in his Spiritual Vision state, saw invisible walls suddenly rise. Jeffrey then released his hand, and the wolf's soul slowly floated up but could not escape those invisible walls, unable to dissipate and disappear.
Martha then took out a small silver-white metal bottle and dripped a certain liquid from its spout, dropping it around them one by one.
After doing all this, Martha softly chanted an incantation. Lex recognized it as Hermes.
"I pray for the power of the night;"
"I pray for the power of The Seer;"
"I pray for the favor of the Goddess."
"I pray that You allow me to communicate with the beast's spirituality within this altar."
Gradually, Martha's eyes turned completely black. Her pupils disappeared, and the whites of her eyes vanished.
She seemed to have entered a strange state.
Enki Town, Kingston Road.
"Extra! Extra! This morning St. Witt's Church is holding a sermon in the square and distributing food and daily necessities on site!"
"Extra! Extra!"
Early in the morning, several newsboys were shouting loudly on Kingston Road. They went back and forth on the town's main streets, spreading the news.
At 78 Kingston Road, a door opened, and Mrs. Gwendolyn's neighbor, the laundress who had given Lex and his sister clues, walked out.
This sallow-faced woman was wearing a long, somewhat faded dress today. This dress had no patches, no damage; it was the only presentable and relatively decent clothing she owned.
The woman named Kelly called into the house: "Are you ready, Pasha? We need to hurry, if we're late, everything will be taken."
"Ready, Mama."
An eight or nine-year-old girl ran out. Due to lack of nutrition, her face was thin and her skin pale, but her eyes sparkled with the Light appropriate for her age.
As the mother and daughter passed through the dark hallway, they heard a woman shouting from inside one of the homes.
"Get out! I'm not going! Stop bothering me, Rodney!"
This name made a flicker of disdain cross Kelly's eyes. The timid Rodney was almost a universally known good-for-nothing on Kingston Road.
If he didn't sell muffins on the street every day, earning a meager income, his wife would have left him long ago.
Kelly patted her daughter's head and said earnestly, "You must never find a useless husband like Rodney when you grow up."
Just then, Rodney's door opened, and the mother and daughter quickened their pace, stepping out into the bright sunshine.