The giant wolf lay half-raised, emitting a heart-wrenching, earth-shaking howl. It startled a flock of guinea-fowl from the bushes nearby. The wolf struggled to rise again but fell back, unable to stand.
Liu Zhenhan listened to its bellows-like breathing, his heart growing more apprehensive. With trembling hands, he reached out to extract the whale bone spear lodged in the wolf. However, despite trying twice, his hands slipped and he couldn't dislodge it.
Liu Zhenhan felt completely drained. Even if he managed to pull out the whale bone spear, he wasn't sure he had the energy to plunge it in again.
Both the giant wolf and Liu Zhenhan were panting heavily; Liu Zhenhan's chest heaved as he lay on his back, and the wolf's belly trembled as it lay on the ground.
Eventually, it was the wolf who managed to stand first, its legs wobbly. It slowly turned in place, the bone spear lodged in its body disappearing from Liu's view.
Liu Zhenhan propped himself up on one elbow, matching the wolf's stare. At this point, all his initial fear and anxiety were gone. He couldn't help feeling regretful, thinking that had he not been weakened from blood loss and injury, he would've easily disposed of the creature.
The eye of the wolf that had been hit by an energy orb had now hollowed out. There was a layer of frozen red glass-like material replacing the eyeball filled with radial fractures, which had suffered no bloodshed.
The giant wolf's remaining eye held a glare of hatred. Liu Zhenhan cursed even as he gasped for breath, "Damn it! Who let you mess with me! Serves you right!"
The wolf's front leg gave way and it kneeled back on the ground. A man and a wolf, they stared at each other, gasping for breath.
"Damn!" Thought Liu Zhenhan, a weight lifted off his chest, "It seems it doesn't have the strength to bite me dead."
The giant wolf's facial expression twitched, seemingly mocking Liu Zhenhan's ignorance. This strange smirk startled Liu Zhenhan, 'Wolves can laugh? You've got to be kidding!' The smirk suggested some cunning plot behind it, the smirk of a victorious general surveying his prisoners.
The giant wolf's snout opened again, accumulating a vortex of air inside. It didn't need any teeth or claws to split Liu Zhenhan into two - the sharp wind blade could do it just as well. Liu Zhenhan felt a chill that ran from his head to his toes.
With moist eyes, Liu Zhenhan thought of his sister, his mother, his brother. He was overwhelmed by his desire to stay in this world.
The giant wolf's eye glistened with the sharpness of a sickle shining in the autumn breeze at harvest time, as it prepared to release the wind bullet from its mouth.
Guoguo managed to free herself from Liu Zhenhan's grip. She took a deep breath and a white orb of energy shot from her mouth straight into the giant wolf's open mouth.
Fear spread in the wolf's remaining eye as the orb crashed directly into the forming blade of wind. Suddenly, the mouth of the wolf was sliced open from the upper jaw to the nostril by the scattered blades of wind, turning an eerie white color and collapsing to the ground like a tree stump.
From Guoguo's throat came a rumbling noise, and she also flopped down on her bottom, as if she exhausted all her strength. Her little belly bulged, and her previously perky ears drooped down.
Liu Zhenhan's jaw dropped as if it could fit a coconut. He pointed at Guoguo, his fingers trembling violently. He couldn't believe it! Guoguo, now with her tiny face covered in sweat and mud, looked up from the ground. The sight stirred a deep pain in Liu's heart.
Guoguo turned to look at Liu Zhenhan, surprise also in her eyes as she clumsily pointed at him, then down at herself.
"Obischillaci!" Panicking, Liu Zhenhan fetched his self-made clothes, feeling uneasy seeing Guoguo's modesty compromised.
"You little trouble maker!" Liu Zhenhan pinched Guoguo's chubby cheek. "So, you have this trick up your sleeve! How did you learn it? A giant wolf... you froze it, right? Amazing!"
Guoguo let out a satisfied grunt, rubbing her fluffy little head in Liu Zhenhan's hand.
"Hehe..." Liu Zhenhan felt lucky to be alive as his legs started shaking again. He collapsed to the ground to rest. After a while, he stood up to inspect the now dead wolf, touching its cold and hard body, and was reminded of something just dragged out of a refrigerator.