"Huff…huff…huff…you are not making this easy big guy."
Vasari and the alpha wolf were 70 metres apart from one another. The bodies of lifeless wolves and fresh blood painted the green grass of the clearing a dull red. The red eyes of the alpha wolf that was previously dark brown glared at Vasari with undiluted hatred, he had to watch how this human with a strip of cloth covering his eyes slaughtered the members of his pack one by one.
After successfully tricking the human the first time, their attempts to attack the human while he was distracted bore no fruit. The closest they got to hurting the human again was when an earth canine grazed his arm.
Awooo!!!
Raged and humiliated, the alpha howled before charging towards the human. With every step he took, the earth around him lifted in the air and slowly formed 2 giant claws that floated above the wolf as he made his way closer to Vasari.
Vasari did not remain idle either, using his recently learnt basic Will of wind combined with 'Eagle soaring river and sea', Vasari moved swiftly towards the trees, every step he took gave the illusion that he was gliding above the ground as he crossed 9m with every step.
He planned to move the battle from an open space to a more cramped environment with many obstacles to protect him. He figured that the open space favoured the big alpha more than it did him and planned to use the trees and bushes as cover to counter his control over the earth.
The wolf was initially surprised by his sudden burst of speed but ignored it and continued to chase the human. Vasari skilfully weaved around the trees with the wolf following behind him using his giant 15m large earth claws to slash and destroy the trees blocking his way.
The wolf kept its eyes trained on the human figure, unwilling to let him out of his sight. Throughout all the chaos happening behind him, Vasari remained calm and thought of possible ways to kill this wolf.
A cunning smirk found its way onto Vasari's face before his speed once again improved and disappeared from the alpha wolf's sight after zig-zagging through a thicket of large trees.
Slowing down to a halt, the wolf focused its gaze on its surroundings and noticed he was surrounded by plenty of large trees with wide trunks. Even with his razor-like claws and giant earth claws, it would take some time to cut down a single tree never mind several.
*SWOOSH!*
Vasari suddenly appeared from behind a tree surprising the wolf and before it could react properly, Vasari swung his sword aimed at one of its legs.
The alpha wolf managed to react slightly and jumped to avoid the sword but Vasari still managed to cut him although not too deep.
One of the earth claws above the wolf tried to swipe at Vasari but by the time it started its attack, Vasari was already behind another tree.
*Swoosh*
Again, Vasari appeared from behind a tree and slashed at the wolf leaving another deep cut on his right hind leg before disappearing behind a tree.
*Swoosh* *Swoosh* *Swoosh*
Vasari repeated the process over and over again, and the enraged alpha had no counter for it. The reaction time of the wolf couldn't keep up with the speed and unpredictability of Vasari's attacks. Slowly but surely the once pristine coat of fur of the alpha wolf was now soaked in its own blood and riddled with cuts, some deep and some barely leaving a scratch but it all accumulated making it extremely painful for the wolf. Half of its tail was cut off as well as its left ear.
The earth claws had long since disappeared leaving only a lonesome wounded dog laying on the cold hard ground. His breathing was ragged and it was clear that the wolf was on his last few breaths.
"You fought well big guy." Vasari slowly approached the wolf, "But it is unfortunate that we crossed paths. Don't worry about your cubs, I'll make sure they are properly looked after."
After saying what he wanted to say, Vasari decapitated the dying wolf and stored the head in the spatial ring.
He then made his way back to the clearing to collect the other wolf heads and the newborn cubs who were clueless about the whole ordeal. The cubs were sleeping next to each other without a single care in the world which caused a chuckle out of Vasari.
After collecting the rest of the heads, Vasari gently picked up the 4 cubs in his embrace and slowly made his way back to his cave.
Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, the pain on his right leg was excruciating but Vasari had to bear with it for now. There was nothing he could do but allow the wounds to heal naturally since he didn't have any healing pills. Healing pills were quite expensive even though it was considered the cheapest pills on the market. One average healing pill costs around 50 cloud points and Vasari did not want to waste his cloud points on mediocre pills.
Once he was in the cave he gently placed the cubs on the ground and plopped himself on the ground next to them. He was exhausted after that fight, it was not easy at all to kill the pack of wolves but it made it all the more rewarding when he eventually did.
Vasari closed his eyes and rested while keeping his senses awake in case any intruder pays him a visit.
4 hours later Vasari was woken up by the crying of the 4 cubs next to him. Vasari unsealed his eyes for a couple of seconds to see what his new family members looked like before immediately closing them in fear that Miss Covington could be watching. He took a major risk just now but his curiosity got the better of him.
Now that he got a good look at them he began to notice a few differences between each of the cubs. One of the cubs had spiky hair growing atop his head making it look like he had a Mohawk, Vasari named this cub Mo.
Another cub had heterochromia eyes, the left was brown while the right was blue. It reminded him of his eyes a little and named this cub Rian. The third cub was smaller than its siblings and had a heart-shaped nose, he received the name Cupid.
The last cub had white fur and blue eyes which was different to the black fur of its siblings. Vasari named this cub Bing.
Mo, Rian, Cupid and Bing were whimpering and crying out loud which was starting to annoy Vasari a little bit.
'I can use these cubs as practice for the near future.' Vasari thought before thinking of a way to shut the cubs up.
"You guys must be hungry right? Let's get some food for you to eat." Vasari walked out of the cave followed closely by 4 cubs. He easily hunted down an infant-stage deer and gave it to the cubs. Their sharp canines easily pierced and ripped the skin off the deer even though they were still very young, their teeth and bite power were no joke.
While waiting for the cubs to finish their dinner Vasari had a myriad of thoughts swirling about in his head.
'Should I give these cubs to Witney? Maybe she would like to have a few pets around or maybe I should just give it to Elder Equus to do what he wants with them?' He questioned himself but he couldn't reach an answer and decided to think about it later.
When the cubs had their fill, Vasari made a bowl made from earth and filled it with water using his basic mana will for the cubs to drink.
He was worried that the cubs would only drink milk from their mother but he was relieved when he saw them drinking the water without causing any fuss.
For the next day and a half, Vasari would take the cubs with him whenever he went hunting since he couldn't leave them in the cave alone.
The cub's behaviour and instincts impressed Vasari a lot. Whenever they found a beast the cubs would stay quiet until Vasari killed the beast before playing around the corpse and sometimes snacking on the free meal.
Vasari identified Mo as the glutton of the group. He would snack any time he could and was also the most reluctant to share his food.
Cupid seemed the most patient and also the quietest of the group. Bing was the most selfless as he often shared his food with his siblings. Rian was the most playful, he was always teasing his brothers and was the loudest of the bunch.
As the third and final day was coming to an end, Vasari had the 4 cubs sleeping in his lap as he waited for the final few minutes of the exercise to tick by. While waiting, he calculated the number of cloud points he accumulated on this exercise.
'64 infant-stage beasts, 47 adolescent-stage beasts and 19 adult-stage beasts take my total to…6+47+95 equals 148 cloud points. It's not too bad I guess. I could've gotten more if these little buggers weren't with me.'
148 cloud points was a lot of cloud points for just 3 days of work. Outer Haven disciples would take missions that would sometimes last weeks on weeks just to earn 100 cloud points so Vasari had very little to complain about.
"Huh? So this spatial ring also acts as a mini spatial portal. How fascinating." Vasari said as he felt a wave of energy similar to the energy from the spatial portals he felt washing over him before his figure, as well as the cubs, disappeared into thin air.
–––––
"Congratulations on surviving 3 days and 3 nights in Acrilles."
Vasari suddenly heard the familiar seductive voice of Miss Covington drift into his ears.
"However…it is unfortunate that some of you have not made it out alive…"