As the fireball exploded, a vast sea of flames spread over a ten-meter radius.
From his elevated position, Wood initially thought that the weaker wolves had been wiped out, but he was soon shocked to find that the red demonic wolves were not only unharmed, they had become even more frenzied!
The orange flames didn't cause them any harm—no burns, not even a scratch.
When the flames hit their bodies, the red fur on the wolves absorbed the fire, making their aura even stronger and heightening their aggression.
"So that's it. No wonder the wolf king didn't care about sacrificing its minions. You've got some fire immunity, and you can even absorb flames to strengthen yourselves," Wood muttered.
Since letting the wolves fight amongst themselves wasn't going to work, Wood decided he'd have to take matters into his own hands.
In an instant, Wood flashed into the middle of the wolf pack, landing a powerful punch right on one of the wolves' waists.
A sickening crack echoed as the wolf's spine shattered from the blow, sending its body crashing into a nearby rock wall. It was dead on impact.
Wolves are known for their sturdy heads, iron tails, and weak waists. Thanks to his years of experience as an adventurer, Wood had plenty of knowledge when it came to fighting magical beasts.
So, even surrounded by wolves, Wood remained calm, skillfully analyzing the situation and responding to each threat with precision.
As the wolves closed in, Wood's Observation Haki began to stir within him, gradually reawakening.
A wolf leaped toward his blind spot, believing its sharp claws would tear into Wood's back.
But just as the wolf's claws were about to reach him, a powerful spinning kick hit the wolf's head first.
The force of the kick caused the wolf's head to twist grotesquely, and its sharp teeth clattered to the ground.
The wolf's body was flung like a cannonball into the rock wall, leaving a deep, spiderweb-shaped crater.
The wolf likely died not knowing how the human boy had sensed its attack from behind. It was as if he had eyes on the back of his head.
With Wood's swift martial arts strikes, the number of wolves on the battlefield started to rapidly dwindle.
Not far away, Norn and Aisha, who had been panicked at first, were now excitedly cheering for their brother as he unleashed his full power.
Zenith, who had been fighting three or four ordinary wolves on her own, managed to finish them off quickly. Although she wasn't great in combat, she was still an advanced magic user, after all.
Just as she was about to help Wood, she realized that her son didn't need any help.
Even without a sword in hand, Wood's combat abilities were astonishing. The ordinary wolves couldn't last more than two rounds against his martial arts.
What surprised Zenith even more was that Wood, whom she thought had weaker magical talent than Rudeus, was able to cast advanced-level magic!
A high-level magic spell without incantation, combined with formidable martial arts, meant that Wood now had the strength to take on the wolf king itself.
With that realization, Zenith felt relieved and turned her full attention to protecting Norn and Aisha.
The two young girls, having never witnessed such a battle before, had been terrified at first. But now, as they watched their brother decimate the enemy, their fear quickly turned into awe.
Their strong and gentle brother, fighting valiantly, filled them with a deep sense of security. To them, Wood was more than just their brother—he was a hero, just like in the fairy tales.
Watching more and more of its pack fall to this young human, the wolf king finally made its move, launching a barrage of fireballs.
But Wood's Observation Haki was fully awakened now. Even though the wolf king's fireballs were faster than a magic user's, to Wood, the few seconds it took the wolf king to gather the magic felt like an eternity. Hitting him was nothing more than a dream.
With its pack rapidly shrinking and its magic attacks failing to hit, the wolf king grew frustrated. That's when it spotted Norn and Aisha, who were cheering for Wood on the other side of the chasm.
The intelligent wolf king's eyes narrowed, and it began to gather magic again, compressing it tightly within its jaws.
Wood, ready to predict the wolf king's next move, was about to react when he suddenly realized that the wolf king's target wasn't him—it was the group on the other side of the chasm: Zenith, Norn, and Aisha.
From the beginning, Wood had been keeping an eye on the wolf king's movements, knowing that the chasm could stop ordinary wolves, but not the wolf king itself.
However, Wood had overlooked one thing—the wolf king could use magic. Even if it didn't jump over the chasm, it could still launch long-range magical attacks at Zenith's group!
The compressed fireball shot through the air at incredible speed. At that distance, Zenith had no time to cast a defensive spell.
"Six Powers: Shave!"
With a small crater left in his wake, Wood's body vanished from the ground and appeared high in the air, blocking the fireball's path.
"Boom!"
The fireball exploded in mid-air, scattering flames like fireworks.
And with the falling flames, a silhouette began to plummet from the sky.
Zenith didn't have time to block the wolf king's magic, and even if Wood had used a spell to intercept it, there wouldn't have been enough time.
So, to protect Norn and Aisha, Wood had pushed his not-yet-mature body to its limits, using Shave to instantly appear in the fireball's trajectory.
Crossing his arms in front of him, Wood took the full force of the wolf king's fireball with his body.
The fireball, nearly as powerful as an advanced-level magic spell, hit Wood directly. The heat was unbearable, and if not for Wood's years of intense training, which had strengthened his body far beyond that of a normal person, he would have been killed on the spot.
The intense heat burned away most of Wood's shirt, revealing his muscular body, which was covered in scars.
Seeing the countless scars on Wood's body, Zenith gasped, covering her mouth in shock.
From the number of scars on his body, Zenith couldn't imagine what Wood had been through over the years.
Wood was only 11 years old, and while Paul had a few scars from his own battles, they were nothing compared to what Wood had endured.
*******
P/S: If you are interested, you can read up to chapter 380+ at p@treon.com/Betek and change @ to a