After a dozen more battles, the wolves around him finally realized that a rank-8 Dire Wolf just wouldn't make the cut.
After all, whatever they did to him just healed right back up! They needed more wolves. More powerful wolves.
Ran looked around and found the wolves surrounding him had begun backing up in a strange manner. Only then did he realize what they were planning.
These were more shrewd than he thought. Just a bit earlier, he had to save someone who had his ankles chomped on, barring any chance to dodge subsequent attacks or escaping from those very same attacks.
Luckily, his barrier reached over fifty feet, the area of the victim well within it. He healed the guys achilles heel, which was chomped, and the man was stunned beyond belief.
He had been crawling on the sand with his injury, trying to seek safety while the wolf was running towards him with its tongue salivating. He felt his eyes flash before him as the wolf was directly in front of him now, playing with him. Suddenly, however, his ankle burst aflame and he felt a coldness.
It was very chilly, contrary to its fiery appearance. Fortunately, it was a good kind of chilliness. That's right. Well, that was what he thought as he felt extremely comfortable as the coldness spread from his ankle, healing it, to the rest of his body. Rans juice encompassed him like clouds would a planet, saving him from the scorching heat of the sun that is the wolf.
And yet, for all of the hospitality and humbleness it has shown, it had a certain… flavor to it.
More like a state of being, like the fact it was cold. The juice carried with it a certain… sadness. A slight, yet extremely dense sense of dread that sent chills up his spine once he noticed it.
What's worse, the scent of Sakura was just as confusing as the rest. All in all, the guy would describe it as… complicated. Really complicated. So complex, in fact, he felt as if he didn't want to find the answer to its complexity.
And all of those extreme feelings only lasted for a second until it disappeared completely, healing his ankle before it left.
Feeling his ankle had been healed, he dwelled on his feelings no longer as he immediately jumped to his feet, surprising the wolf who was confused by earlier.
He activated his sigil and green runes covered his legs, whirlwinds springing forth from them. He then promptly roundhouse kicked the wolf's head at a blinding speed, such that the wolf only saw a green blur before its neck was brutally snapped.
After killing the wolf, the man looked around in search of his savior only to find everyone battling their respective counterparts. He mentally noted to find out who healed him and thank him or her. Or even it… he doesn't discriminate.
...
"Phew." Ran exhaled and his eyes narrowed.
The tens of wolves that covered all directions had already lost all of their blood wind as they backed away with… some amount of hesitation. They don't want to let this killer go, but their influence on such a matter had reached rock bottom long ago. On the contrary, their eyes shifted and tracked other prey they deemed easy enough to claim victory over.
Yet, as they retreated, six pairs of blood wind burst forth with unrelenting power!
And as twelve wolves initiated their surprise attack with a furious charge, they leaped several meters into the air and fell towards him like meteors.
They lashed out with their claws and they glistened with an eerie grey light. They were rank-7 who were hiding amongst their lesser brethren!
However…
What? Did you expect something to happen? Fine, I'll reward you with quite a sight. A gory and funny one.
And as they plunged downwards, ready to tear Ran apart, they suddenly found themselves stuck in midair!
They looked around warily, finding themselves in quite a bunch. A bunch of threads!
That's right, readers, they were all intertwined in a s**t ton of threads. They couldn't even move.
The threads shined and reflected the light despite their thin structure.
Thud. They fell, the laws of gravity still working.
Okay, just a bunch of threads, no threat at all! The wolves beckoned in their mind as they prepared to use their wolf-ly might to forcefully break the threads. A solution which was well suited since the threads themselves had no durability and were liable to snap.
Their muscles bulged as their fur stood on end, wary of its own power.
However…
As soon as they tried to forcefully snap the threads, they suddenly gained strength and tightened up. Worse yet, all of their force just vanished!
They tried once again and with more power this time.
Ting.
The threads tightened even more and began digging into their skin, issuing a painful response from the wolves. At this point, the wolves figured out that these threads were stealing their own strength and using it against them! Then they realized, these threads were made of juice!
Oh yeah! They grinned, their saliva running down their lips and dripping onto the sand. They began summoning their own juice, ready to snap them.
"That was quicker than I thought." Ran shrugged. He didn't think they would figure it out so soon.
He rattled his brain, trying to think of a way to get rid of them before they set themselves free. Then, he looked all around him and grinned. He figured it out!
And for this to work, he needed something. A taunt. He needed to agro these wolves before he could do anything.
Okay, he needed to taunt them, so how was he going to do that?
He figured he could curse them out, but that would be disrespectful. Even though they were bitter enemies, he had to respect them.
So, that only left him with one option. An option that, for all intents and purposes, he quite liked.
He grinned cheekily, the seams of lips almost reaching his eyes.
He then turned around, showing his back to the twenty-some wolves who were watching the fight. They were originally going to find some other prey, but they were confused by their superiors getting caught. But then they saw the person in question turning his back.
They were even more confused by this, though they saw this as an opportunity and soon they were getting ready to pounce like a bunch of cats who saw a rat.
Yet, what happened next was something they would never forget until the day they died.
Why?
Well, there was one reason.
You see, Ran never used a belt, opting to just use the button system his pants had.
He unbuttoned his pants, and took them off.
Then he bent over and showed them the forbidden fruit and waved it around, jiggling it.
Yes, that's right! He showed them his… bum.
His cheeks if you want to be proper about it.
This left all of them, including some of his own peers, flabbergasted. Some of the female wolves shot their eyebrows up and were actually impressed with his bum, peachy as it is. No matter what species, females will always appreciate a good bum!
Ann, who spared a glance in his direction was immediately wrought with laughter as she watched this scene Ran called a strategy. Oh, how she wanted to give those cheeks a good slap, the urge increasing dramatically with his show of jigglyness. She noted to do exactly that when they returned.
The men, however, were just left confused. Yet, all of the wolves, inclusive of the women, were left feeling something. Hunger. It was quite a meaty bum, mind you, so this whole scenario made quite a bit of sense (none at all). That's right, this totally unnecessary and cringy "strategy" was actually extremely… effective!
The next second was a complete frenzy! They all charged towards him, seeking this weird opportunity to finally get rid of him and also to get a taste of a forbidden fruit.
"Howl!" They all howled in eagerness as they approached with ravousness fury.
Ran, hurriedly put his pants back on before all the wolves were already in front of him, running with all their might. A smirk was raised.
And the second after that, all the wolves in front of him suddenly stopped in their tracks, their previous momentum nowhere to be found.
The twelve rank-7 wolves, seeing this, shivered as they knew it was over. All of their energy dissipated as they lost focus and were taken over by their own fear.
By the fourth second, twelve geysers of blood flowed into the sky above, scaring the s**t out of the other wolves!
The moment all of their momentum was stolen, it was all poured into the twelve sets of threads, imbuing them with massive amounts of energy.
The tension was so great, they just slipped right through the skin, muscle and bone, cutting up the wolves into many pieces. The speed and force was so great, however, it forced all the fluid to jet out of the corpses as a flurry of pressurized blood rain.
And that, my friends, was quite a scene to behold.