Demon Wolf

Hmmm… They broke camp and hurried this way. Wolf brushed the recovering trampled fern with his fingers, examining the herbs squished into the soil. They left about an hour ago.

“Did they find what they were looking for?”

I don’t know what else could’ve made them quicken their pace.

Wolf froze. He considered how to stalk his prey for an instant, then climbed into the jungle’s canopy once more. He could follow a trail left behind by hundreds of reckless youths even from tens of meters up.

Wolf walked the highway of broad boughs, ducking and sidestepping irregular branches for half an hour before a furious bellow entered his ears. I don’t think I’ve heard that roar before.

“Sounds really angry.”

Wolf skulked towards the enraged beast, soon catching manling shouts.

“Come on! You can do it! There’s ten of you! Just flank the bloody thing.” The woman’s yell seemed no less incensed than the Monster Beast’s.

That sounds like Miss Daseldoff.

“You can tell how inferior she is compared to Miss Grundhoffer just based on her shout. One supported her subordinates, caring about their safety even after they became cripples. The other is cursing them like slaves.”

Wolf crept closer, still a distance away from the battle, when a woman screamed in agony.

“Dumb bitch,” Lena shouted. “Block the tiger! Thea, get her out of there!”

White Tiger?

“The Corpsewood bestiary only has White Tigers among great cat species. The poor things can reach much higher realms, but this secluded world’s laws limit them at peak Blood Saturating. It’s barely a cub with stunted growth.”

Wolf bobbed his head once.

Gilded Apes must have forced it out of the core region, then a bunch of initial Blood Saturating realm brats ganged it. It really is a pitiful existence.

While Wolf pitied the tiger, two more women screamed as they suffered wounds, eliciting a barrage of curses and abuse from Lena. By the time Wolf reached the scene, twenty-four women surrounded the bison-sized stunted cub. They formed a wall of blades, holding their position like a steel fence, while one poked at its butt.

A crimson shield materialized and blocked the blade with a high-pitched whine. The tiger snapped its tail and the disciple jumped back just before the monster spun to cover its rear, eyes brimming with indignation and frenzy. Wolf scrutinized the second ring, immediately spotting a downcast trio standing behind Lena. They wore tattered, blood-soaked uniforms, their torsos bare, their faces pale.

There’s around nine hundred of them.

“They seem better trained than the ones who followed Marie. How did the apes kill so many when they can fight a physically stronger tiger without fatalities?”

Just as Wolf thought that, he saw two trampled bodies beneath the White Tiger.

They had casualties. Besides, Gilded Apes used clubs for reach and probably coordinated their attacks, keeping each other safe while exploiting the enemy’s weakness. Ironically, these girls are using the exact same monkey tactic now. The tiger would have broken out of their encirclement at the cost of some wounds, but it’s completely surrounded in multiple rings.

Wolf pursed his lips.

Should I help it?

“I stand nothing to gain by helping it escape, while I would reveal myself and risk injury.”

I could throw a bewildering talisman?

“That would buy the tiger enough time to slay five to ten of them, and what do I do with the remaining nine hundred?”

While Wolf argued with himself, Lena stepped forward. “For the love of Ten, what the hells are you doing?”

She summoned a sword into her hand and time slowed. Wolf awakened his senses, examining not the Brilliant Gate’s young miss, but the blade she wielded.

Tsk.

“It’s not inferior to Eviltongue.”

It’s probably superior.

“But the difference is not big enough to murder her over it.”

Wolf scrunched his brows. Where did that brigand-like thought come from?

“It’s a sealed world in which people kill each other over wealth and treasures. I see no problem killing her to get a better sword.”

That’s banditry. I won’t stoop to that level.

“Sorry, Dad. I was wrong.” Wolf’s Mental Aspect silently apologized for failing to follow his father’s teachings. A part of him had just entered a somber state of mind, which gripped him whenever he recalled his father, but the other half kept thinking.

I will kill her because she’s my enemy. Then, I can take the sword.

The thought rendered the solemn second Mental Aspect speechless.

“She seems like she knows what she’s doing,” it commented on Lena’s charge after an awkward pause. “Direct and savage.”

Just like in Whitesheep.

Wolf glared at Lena’s calves blazing with Qi, the yellow aura already tinged with whiffs of crimson. She executed a jumping maneuver, soaring over her junior sisters and onto the tiger’s back. Brilliant Gate’s young miss straddled the tiger with a meaty thud. She squeezed the beast with her thighs and Wolf flinched.

His pelvis flashed with sympathetic pain even before the Monster Beast roared. In the dilated flow of time, Lena plunged her blazing blade towards the giant cat’s back. A sanguine screen appeared, materializing in time to block the sword, which radiated bright golden light, blazing like a miniature sun.

For a second, a high-pitched screech filled the jungle, piercing Wolf’s ears. Then the barrier cracked before shattering, sounding like smashed glass. The enchanted blade pierced through the thick fur, plunged into stone-like muscles, and severed the tiger’s spine.

The giant cat collapsed to the ground, its hind legs dead. It clawed at its back with its forepaws, but Lena kicked off and jumped, blood fountaining as she ripped her sword from the unfortunate tiger.

She’s good. Even in the stretched flow of time, Wolf failed to find major issues with Lena’s technique.

“She’s relying on an artifact. Her sword has a nub embedded into the pommel, meaning she can’t trigger its full power through Qi alone. I mean, that bright glow her sword gave off couldn’t have come from her own energy.”

“There! It’s crippled. Now, finish it.” Lena wiped the blood off her face, her back turned towards the struggling Monster Beast.

Wolf blinked and tilted his head, not believing his ears. Don’t you know what they say about wounded tigers, cornered tigers, and such?

Apparently, some Brilliant Gate’s disciples did not know either. Ten women, who stood behind the wounded jungle monarch, mindlessly dashed forth, wishing to claim the honor of killing such a dangerous beast.

Wolf winced even before it happened. The White Tiger’s paws glowed with dazzling, blood-red light.

The magnificent beast swept its claws, blasting two frontmost women into bloody chunks, freezing the others with violent horror and spray of gore. It roared, defying the heavens, cursing its fate for being born inside a low level secluded world; born only to die to a swarm of insignificant rats.

Wolf’s lips quivered. His heart ached from that unwilling scream. Something deep within him resonated with that pride and indignation, with that anathema against the forces driving destiny. The inherent dignity, which moved him to the brink of tears, terrified the disciples below.

Save for Lena and her guards, they all stepped back. Over half Brilliant Gate’s disciples tumbled to their butts. The once-mighty, mutilated beast dragged its dead legs. Blood gushed from its mangled back as it snapped its jaws and swiped its claws at the gnats which had ruined it, which had destroyed its pride and sanity.

Kill it already, Wolf’s Mental Aspects screamed simultaneously, but down below Elaine Daseldoff stood frozen, gripping her sword.

The White Tiger roared, hellfire burning within its enraged eyes. Lacking enemies, the frenzied tiger turned around and bit its own disgusting, useless limb.

Lena stared at the sight. She wished to curse the weaklings. She wanted to step forth, slash her mother’s sword, and sever the monster’s head; she wanted to, but she did not dare.

If she approached the berserk beast, she would die. It would splatter her into meat chunks, just like the losers, who rushed it moments ago.

As Lena’s heart trembled, the air screamed. A heavy black spear, almost a lance, flew like dark lightning before freezing a meter away from the tiger’s head as Lena instinctively awakened her senses.

That scene was branded into her memory until the moment of her death. She gaped as the tiger turned its head. It looked straight into the thick missile. Without erecting a protective barrier, it readjusted its massive head, ensuring the swiftest death possible. 

Lena’s hair stood on end as the beast’s maw stretched into a bloodthirsty smile. Gratitude filled its insane glare. Then time surged back, and its skull exploded like a melon smashed with a maul.

Nobody moved. They all gaped as the headless beast thudded to the ground, not a single one turning their gaze up. Not a single one checked where the massive spear had come from.

Wolf also stood shocked, his body frozen in the moment he tossed the lethal javelin.

“That’s the dumbest shit I’ve done in a long time.”