Several hours have passed as Kai continued his journey once again, but his ominous feeling never lessened. Coupled with the fact that he felt like he was being watched, his vigilance was at an all-time high.
Kai appeared at an area he hadn't explored and watched his environment carefully. Throughout his journey from the cave, he hadn't spotted a single beast.
Although the Grey Wolves were the beasts he normally encountered, he had encountered other smaller and weaker beasts during his travels, however even they were nowhere to be seen. Suddenly, he heard a branch snap.
"Grrrr…"
From behind him, he heard the growl of a beast, however, he didn't make any sudden movements.
"Impossible, I've been sensing the mana in the surroundings for any disturbances but it still approached me without alerting my senses."
Kai slowly turned around and saw a beast incomparable to anything else he'd seen before. what stood in his line of vision was a huge wolf around 3 ½ meters in height and its black fur contained patches of grey here and there.
With its every movement, black lightning coursed through its figure and charred the ground around it. Its aura was so suffocating that Kai was almost completely rooted on the spot.
The wolf glared at Kai with a level of rage and intelligence that none of the other wolves he encountered possessed.
When it had returned from its hunt earlier, it had found that many of the younger wolves in its pack were being slain one after the other. Its kin was one of them. In its rage, it tracked him down and confronted him itself.
Kai didn't know what rank this beast was at, but he knew he couldn't face it with his current strength. 'Is this the difference between ranks?' He thought to himself as he prepared to run.
Magic beasts were unique animals and creatures that were born with the ability to absorb mana into their bodies. They were classified into E, D, C, B, A, AA, S, or SS class, where the latter is rarely seen.
On average, magic beasts are stronger than humans of the same rank due to their physical bodies being much stronger. And the beast before Kai was definitely above him in ranks.
Kai knew he'd be a fool to turn his back on this beast right now, so his only options were to go left or right. Looking at the beast vigilantly as if he was preparing for battle, Kai lowered his body. Then, he used burst step and dashed away in an instant.
However, the wolf didn't chase after him, it wanted to to toy with its prey. After Kai made a good amount of distance, the wolf let out a howl and shot forward. Within only a matter of seconds, it caught up with Kai, slashing its claws forward at high speeds.
Seeing the approaching claw, Kai gritted his teeth and twisted his body, narrowly dodging the wolf's claw. But he wasn't able to dodge the claw slashing at his right leg.
Biting his lip to muffle a groan of pain, Kai used burst step once again and dashed away. But every time Kai made distance, the wolf caught up immediately, inflicting more flesh wounds on Kai while he continued fleeing.
Kai knew this couldn't continue or else he was lose his life without putting up a fight. He didn't want to die a pathetic death.
His situation was quite dire, if he didn't fight back he will die and if he fights back he will die. Even so he had a crazy idea "If it comes down to it, I can always use that."
He dashed past several trees and headed to where the trees started to increase before coming to a stop.
Due to the sudden pause, Kai slid a few inches forward but he used that to turn around.
The Wolf also paused. In its mind, it wondered why its prey would suddenly stop running.
It had a look of delight as it felt Kai was probably tired of escaping and had decided to accept his death.
The Wolf licked its lips as it moved slowly towards Kai. All of a sudden it saw Kai smiling at it which baffled it.
"Time to go all out." Saying so, Kai shot out several fireballs towards the wolf. The wolf just stared at the fireballs with a look of disappointment before it moved to the side, dodging the attack.
But Kai was already there waiting for it. He predicted where it would dodge to and moved there ahead of time. He slammed his flame engulfed fist onto the wolf's right leg and hoped it would be enough to damage the wolf.
However, his hopes were crushed. Even with all his strength, he was only able to make a small burn wound on the wolf.
Kai used burst step and appeared on the other side of the wolf to attack the wolf's other leg. Sadly, the wolf wouldn't let him do as he pleased.
Due to the difference in combat experience, it only took a minute or so for the wolf to figure out his patterns. Leading it's claws to meet Kai every time he used burst step.
Although it was clear that the wolf had a lightning ability, it didn't take Kai seriously enough to use it.
Like this, the fight continued for several minutes. While the wolf still only had a few burn wounds here and there
But Kai was in a much worse position. His whole body had been covered in cuts, he was bleeding profusely and it looked like he had no chance to win.
Suddenly, Kai ran away and this action angered the wolf. The coward was just prolonging the inevitable, it was enraged and it chased after him.
It didn't take long for it to catch up to Kai and slashed towards him. Seeing this, Kai smiled and dodged to the side. This action resulted in the wolf completely missing Kai and slammed onto the ground.
When it tried to stand up, it realized it was stinking. Yes, it landed on quick sand and it was unable to free itself. Kai came across this place when he hunting the grey wolves. So he decided to use it to trap the wolf and his plan worked.
Using this chance, he began to use his trump card, the true magic spell he learned from Igneal. "Meteor Smash."
Kai created a natural mana array with his fingers which took the form of a Wu Xing and he punched through the symbol. The result was grave.
This action unleashed a powerful wave of flames that destroyed everything in its path. The surrounding trees were annihilated without a trace.
Kai breathing became heavy as he stared at the scene, proud of his work. But his face suddenly turned pale, the wolf survived the attack albeit it was severely burnt.
With the constant use of burst step, his flame magic and the true fire magic, his magic power was nearly empty and he's badly exhausted.
At this point, Kai wasn't even thinking properly. All his fear and despair were locked away as his focus stayed solely on keeping his life.
He couldn't accept it. He hadn't even left the forest and yet he was already going to die? he would end up dying here? he refused to accept this.
He stared at the beast in front of him with a maniacal glint in his eyes. Something had snapped within his mind.
Survive'
As he stood covered in his own blood, he only had one thought in his head.
'Survive'
He used burst step once again and appeared before the beast and threw his fist forward, slamming his flame coated fist into the beast's left rib while the beast swung its paw at his head.
Already sensing the attack, he reacted by squatting a little, dodging the beasts claws before throwing his flame coated right fist upward resulting in an successful uppercut.
The beast slide several feet backwards before dashing and sending its claws. He reacted by dodging to the right before jumping on the beasts back. He placed his hand on the beast's head before igniting it in flames.
The beast growled in pain was being burnt. The next moment, the beast slammed the Kai into several trees to remove him from its body.
'Die. Die. Die.'
Even as he began losing his bearings from blood loss and being slammed into several trees, he could only hear one word as he kept burning the beast head.
"Die, Die, DIE."
He stuck his hand into the wound on the beast's neck and ripped it open, sinking his teeth into its raw flesh. He clawed, bit, and ate, and with the last bit of reasoning he maintained.
The wolf began to fall. Its eyes were filled with unwillingness, thinking that if it just used all its power from the beginning, it wouldn't have ended up in this state, but it was already too late.
As the fight progressed, the winner had already been decided and the wolf finally fell to the ground, lifeless.
"I .....Won." He mumbled so with a smile as he began to lose consciousness.