"Holy shit! That's a Winterhowler!" Ryujin exclaimed inwardly as he swiftly hid behind a huge tree.
A Winterhowler was a Savage Beast, one of the apex predator of these parts of the skeleton forest.
These kinds of beasts were rarer to find and much stronger than ordinary animals or the kind of beasts Ryujin had been encountering so far.
They had the strength of a cultivator and could easily shred apart a fully armed soldier.
Not many animals could turn into a Savage Beast, they needed a great talent for cultivation and enough time to feed off the atmospheric Qi.
Once an animal became a Savage Beast, it could use its Vital Qi to boost its physical prowess, and there are some who had even awakened their bloodline talents and as a result launch a bloodline technique that is unique to their progenitors.
The Winterhowler was almost as big as horse, with a snow-blue thick fur.
Ryujin could not understand why a Winterhowler would come so close to the outskirts of the forest, where it could easily encounter hunters.
Though hunters rarely hunted during winter, that didn't mean some crazy ones don't; after all, he himself was an example, as well as Eduard and his young master.
Moreover, Winterhowlers were intelligent beasts that avoided unnecessary trouble. If humans did not disturb them, they would return the favor.
Ryujin felt pity for its prey. After notching the change in wind direction, Ryujin deactivated his other techniques, save for Metavision.
The wind in the area had gotten fiercer, and as a result, blown his smell in a direction opposite to the Winterhowler, while it's intensity and the heavily falling snow dulled his aura pressure.
The Winterhowler kept howling and growling, as it was in pain. Ryujin noticed that every time the Winterhowler's snout got close to the ground, the buzzing sound in his head would become high pitched and the Savage Beast would whine in pain.
Now more curious than afraid, Ryujin narrowed his Metavision onto the beast itself, in a bid to estimate the its power, and what he saw made him gasp loudly.
The Winterhowler was unbelievably strong, with a Vital Qi that was almost on par with Ryujin's in terms of quantity, but much stronger than his in terms of saturation.
However, the real reason for Ryujin's shock was a second Qi Source, that belonged to the source of the buzzing sound.
It was a little stone, smaller than a thimble.
'What the fuck? Is that a living pebble?' Ryujin mentally exclaimed with mixed emotions.
The situation and discovery were simply too mind blowing.
'That explains everything! The noise it was emitting must have lured the Winterhowler here, just like it did for me.
Moreover, based on its reaction, the noise seems to be more of an annoyance to the Winterhowler than it is for me.
But seriously, I have never seen or heard of rocks containing Qi, that pebble must be a magical item. I cannot let that brute destroy it."
Throwing caution to the wind, Ryujin decided to take action and steal the magic stone.
'The Winterhowler's Vital Qi is incomparably stronger than mine, but if I can manage to get close enough whilst avoiding detection, then I might be able to win this.
Its Qi Flow is definitely inferior to mine, and from what Luo Fei told me, 99.99 percent of all Savage Beasts have yet to awaken their bloodline talents.' Ryujin analyzed.
The first thing Ryujin did was to activate the Cloak once again, then he began to circulate his vital Qi in torrential surges, directing them and using them to strengthen only five six parts of his body; his brain, arms, legs, and finally gravity core (or center of gravity).
Removing the Ji Family Heir's bow, Ryujin nocked an arrow into it, as he narrowed his Metavision, focusing it solely on the Winterhowler's head.
He thanked his stars that he had decided to keep the young heir's bow and arrows; though he had initially thought of destroying them, but he had decided against it in the last moment.
The bow was wooden as is its arrows, they didn't reveal any glint except for the arrow head, and as such can't be easily spotted on a normal day, talk less of during winter's low visibility.
Furthermore, he had planned to only use them up until the winter had passed, and before he left the skeleton forest, he always kept it inside the trunk of an unassuming tree a few kilometers from the forest's outskirts.
Despite his lack of mastery in archery, Ryujin didn't think he could miss from such a close range.
Furthermore, with his perfect control on his body strength, his accurate prediction of the Winterhowler's movements, and the fact that he only needed to shoot in a straight line, Ryujin didn't think he could miss.
Ryujin waited for the pebble to release its next bout of high pitch ringing sound, and it didn't need to wait too long.
~Schweein!~
'Now!'
Twang! ~Swish~
The sound of the bowstring was muted by the ringing of the pebble, while the sound of the drifting wind muted that of the arrow.
Thwack!
The arrow hit the oblivious Winterhowler's blind spot, making the Savage Beast almost lose its footing.
Then before it could recover and search for its enemy, Ryujin had fired two more arrows that lodged themselves in each of its hindlegs, bringing it down.
Ryujin swiftly changed his position, upon realizing that despite the sneak attacks, the Winterhowler was still alive and strong.
He fleeted towards the beast like a ghost, utterly evading its senses as he attempted to clamp its neck using both his hands and snap it, just as he had done countless times.
The Winterhowler however, wasn't stupid, and as soon as it felt an ominous sensation on his neck, it pumped gushes of Vital Qi into its muscles, before contracting the ones around its neck, reinforcing it them until its neck was almost as hard as steel.
"Fuck it! So much for my advantage.
Could you please go away? That thing is mine! Mine!"
Ryujin latched his mental sense onto the remaining arrows in his quiver, before hurling them at the savage beast multiple angles, simultaneously.
The arrows whistled through the air, as the Winterhowler dodged them easily, before retaliating with a powerful intimidating roar.
Ryujin; lucky to have placed a considerable distance between himself and the savage beast, suddenly saw the Winterhowler's roar kick up a massive wind blast that ripped apart everything in its path as it headed towards him.
Swiftly, he retreated in an erratic manner as he unleashed his aura pressure towards the incoming wind blast.
Bang!
The two attack collided with one another, as they cancelled each other out.
His sleeves got turned into confetti, but aside from some flesh wounds he was fine.
Looking down at his arm, Ryujin realized that his sleeved had been turned into confetti as several cuts appeared on his arm.
"Fuck me sideways!
Thanks a lot, Luo Fei. Savage Beasts have unawakened bloodline talents, sure. But this guy doesn't seem to have gotten the memo."
The Winterhowler charged at Ryujin, using its wind blasts to disrupt the rhythm of his erratic movements.
Ryujin did his best to keep the beast at bay, but the difference in physical prowess was oppressive, and it was looking like it was only a matter of time before he was going to get caught.
"Okay, Plan A; fight to win.
Plan B; when you can't win easily, fight dirty!
Plan C; if Plan A & B fails, Run!!!"
Ryujin suddenly used his mental sense to dislodge the arrows stuck to the Winterhowler's hind legs, causing the latter to howl in pain and give him a split second of respite.
Instantly, he activated the Chaotic Shadow Steps to the best of his abilities, putting a much needed distance between the two of them.
He then hovered all twelve arrows with his mental sense, but did not throw them, and instead left them floating all around him.
Upon recovering from Ryujin's dirty tactic, the Winterhowler ignored all reasoning and instead chose to charge straight at the insolent pest.
"That's a good boy! Eat this! Weapon Art; Archery Style - Arrow Barrage!"
Ryujin suddenly unleashed all his aura pressure and mental sense in an explosive manner, sending all the arrows flying towards the Winterhowler like shrapnels of a frag grenade.
The Winterhowler was abruptly caught off-guard by the sudden barrage of arrows heading its way.
It tried to brace itself for the incoming attack, but seemed to have forgotten that its hind legs were still injured.
Pain shot through the Winterhowler's hind legs, causing it to stagger and lose balance, as the arrows rained down on it like hailstones.
~Howl~
It howled in agony as it began to bleed out of its eyes and ears.
Ryujin paused for a moment, standing at a significant distance; unscathed, as he watched the arrows fling the Winterhowler into the distance.
However, even upon crashed against a tree, the Winterhowler 's thick fur prevented it from getting impaled, and as a result, the arrows only pierced through a few centimeters of its flesh.
Checking on the result with his Metavision, Ryujin was stunned to realize that whilst the Winterhowler was definitely wounded and weakened, it was still far from death.
"Dammit! So much effort for so little damage. If it continues like this, I am the one who is most likely to run out of steam or luck. The Winterhowler only needs one hit to kill me. It's not worth the risk." Ryujin bemoaned the appalling results of his last-ditch dirty tactic.
Using his mental sense, Ryujin beckoned the Qi Stone over as he bolted into the distance, fleeing for his dear life.
The pebble was full of the Winterhowler's teeth marks, causing its jagged surface to slit the skin on Ryujin's palm.
"So long, sucker!" Ryujin yelled at the still stunned savage beast.
"See you again in a few years, let's see if you dare attack me again!"
He added, oblivious that a few drops of his blood had dripped onto the stone, causing the ringing noise to stop.
The Winterhowler was still trying to make head or tails of what had just happened. It only wanted the damn noise to stop hurting its ears when a fierce man-pup showed up and made a jump on it.
It had even tried to scare him away and to teach him a lesson, but its endeavor had only ended up with it getting its butt kicked.
'Meh, who cares.' The Winterhowler thought.
'I had wanted to get rid of that stupid rock in the first place, and now, through one way or another, I have gotten rid of it.'
The Winterhowler stood to its feet and then shrugged off all the arrows lodged into its body.
'Tch... But seriously, that was one feisty man-pup. I pray that he shows more consideration towards his pack than he did for me. Otherwise when he grows up, he will be a scourge to his kin.
Stupid humans and their greed bring only troubles. They are incapable even of taking care of their own.'
It looked back towards the direction Ryujin had fled before licking its wound and then strutting back to its family.
Ryujin kept running until he was out of the skeleton forest, turning his head from time to time to check with if he was being chased through his narrowed metavision.
"There is no trace of the Winterhowler, but it's better to be safe than sorry.
I'm sure that I have pissed off that thing quite bad. It's better to give it some time to vent off and search for easier preys."
Ryujin thought to himself as he exited the skeleton forest and fled towards the direction of Luo Fei's house.
Strangely, the moment Ryujin saw Luo Fei's house in the distance, his hand suddenly began to itch.