Low growls rumbled from their throats, their sharp fangs bared as they took cautious steps forward, their predatory instincts kicking in. The largest of the pack—a massive black-furred wolf—stood at the front, its ears flattened and muscles coiled, ready to pounce.
Renan’s lips curled into a smirk.
"Oh well… I guess it wouldn’t be an adventure without running into some wild animals," he mused aloud, his voice carrying a casual amusement that contrasted with the tension in the air.
His body relaxed, but his eyes gleamed with something else—anticipation.
The wolves circled him, their growls growing more menacing. They saw him as prey.
But Renan?
He saw them as nothing more than warm-up practice.
But he had a question in his mind, which he asked out loud.
"Why attack me?" he asked, feeling confused.
’After all, I’m a dragon… or maybe they can somehow sense that I’m a young dragon? After all, I’m still a kid dragon, so they thought of targeting me. Even though I’m young, I still have a dragon heart, and even if it’s a kid dragon’s heart, it’s still a dragon heart,’ he thought, trying to reason it out and overthinking the situation.
’But I’m pretty sure monsters don’t attack dragons, even if they’re young. Only humans do that… after all, unlike the humans, they don’t want a fully grown dragon hunting them down to the ends of the earth,’ he thought. But in the end, he gave up on figuring it out. Did it really matter why they were attacking him? The fact was, they were, so there was no point in dwelling on it. Instead, he turned his focus back to the situation at hand.
"So, is there any more of you? You can also call them to come out. I don’t want to go through all of you one by one," he said, wanting to end this quickly. Using his mana senses, he scanned the area around him to check if there were more wolves nearby. After examining his surroundings, he detected a total of 35 wolves encircling him. Leading them was a large black wolf in the front—most likely the alpha of the pack. It was a sixth-grade monster. Behind it were four fifth-grade wolves, while the rest were below that level, mostly at the fourth or third grade.
But while scanning his surroundings, he discovered something else.
To his side, at a considerable distance, stood 15 more wolves. With them were wolf pups, newborns who looked hungry and weak. Those wolves were definitely the mothers protecting them, and they didn’t seem to be in their best condition.
’Ohh, I understand now,’ Renan thought.
The reason these wolves were attacking him despite knowing the consequences was because the female wolves had just given birth. Since that had happened, the surrounding monsters—those weaker than them—had already fled, knowing that if they didn’t, they would become nourishment for the new pups and their exhausted mothers. And then there was Renan. He had been running through the forest, destroying everything in his path, drawing their attention. On top of that, the smaller animals and monsters that didn’t understand what was happening had panicked and run away from this area, saving themselves from becoming wolf food.
’Which is… kind of my fault,’ he thought, facepalming himself.
While Renan was deep in thought, contemplating the situation, the wolves were already on the move. They spread out, tightening their encirclement around him, cutting off all possible escape routes.
When Renan finally snapped out of his thoughts and took in his surroundings, he realized he was completely surrounded. Not a single gap was left for him to slip through.
"Huh," he sighed.
"Since I know this is kind of my fault, I’ll let you all go if you back down," he said, looking directly at the black alpha wolf.
The alpha didn’t respond. It didn’t even acknowledge his words and simply growled.
*GURR*
It was ready to pounce at any moment.
"Come on, I know you can understand me," Renan said. "Monsters in the fifth grade can already communicate, and you, who are in the sixth grade, can definitely understand me. So speak—after all, you don’t want your whole pack to die, right?"
But the wolf still didn’t respond. Instead, it started slowly advancing toward him, completely underestimating him.
That was the last straw for Renan’s patience.
He took a deep breath, and suddenly, white scales appeared on his hands and around his eyes. His red eyes, which previously looked human, now had vertical slits in them.
*BOOM*
*CRACK*
The surroundings darkened. The wolves surrounding Renan were instantly pressed to the ground by an overwhelming force, their bodies unable to move. The alpha barely managed to stay on its feet, trembling under the pressure.
Renan’s voice, now devoid of any casualness, rang out with a cold threat.
"Now, I’ll ask again. Surrender… or do you want me to kill every last one of you?"
The alpha, who had assumed Renan was just a young dragon, was now frozen in fear. Its instincts screamed at it to surrender. If it didn’t, it would lose every single member of its pack.
But—
Its pride refused to let it back down without a fight.
Despite its instincts telling it to submit, the alpha leaped. It went against the very instincts it had trusted all its life—all because of its pride.
It lunged at Renan, jaws wide, aiming to rip his head off.
Renan, seeing the wolf’s decision through its actions, sighed.
"A monster will always be a monster, no matter how intelligent it gets," he muttered.
Raising his scaled hand, he pointed a single finger at the alpha mid-air.
A ball of fire formed at his fingertip, rapidly spinning at an unimaginable speed. The flames continuously shifted colors—first red, then orange, then blue—before finally settling into a deep purple.
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And then—
He fired it.
The purple flame shot straight at the alpha wolf.
The wolf never even realized what had happened.
The only thing it saw before death was the purple flame.
*BOOM*
*BOOM*
The entire section of the forest where Renan had launched the flame was erased. Nothing remained. It was as if that part of the forest had never existed at all.
The flames burned brightly, licking at the edges of the newly created void.
Renan stood amidst the destruction, scanning the area.
Then, he turned his gaze to the rest of the wolves and spoke.
"Now, what do you all want to do? Surrender? Or do you want to perish like your leader?"
The surviving wolves, having witnessed what had just happened, instantly lowered their heads even further. They were already pressed against the ground due to his aura, and now, they were practically groveling in a full surrender.
Renan, seeing this, let out a small smile and nodded in satisfaction.
"Good boys," he said, pleased with their submission.
After all, now he wouldn’t have to kill them.