Chapter 8: Gaea’s Judgment
The moon hung overhead, bathing the forest below in its warm glow and creating long shadows. But two shadows stood out the most as they silently moved through the forest.
The two shadows were that of a human and a massive Silver Wolf running side by side, but separated by the occasional fast-passing trees as they streaked past them at a similar level of speed.
It wasn’t certain who was the predator and prey between the two, as both looked equally determined—for different reasons—and neither could make a move to the other side due to the forest trees.
Until the massive Silver Wolf began to shape-shift to reduce its size and shot a glance to the side, where the human was equally gaining speed with his staff resting on his shoulder.
The Alpha Wolf’s eyes were instantly filled with terror as it maneuvered and quickly changed directions just in time, when the occasional fast-passing trees blocked their views.
The Alpha Wolf never stopped running and kept glancing at its back to see when the human would run past the tree and realize he’d lost it, but even after a few seconds—which should have been enough time for the human to run past the tree—the Alpha Wolf didn’t spot him.
Not that it mattered. As long as it lost the human.
The Alpha tried to run faster, but not only was its stamina exhausted, it was heavily injured as well, when it sighted up ahead a group of humans slaying the last of its kin. But unlike their human king who chased after it, they looked exhausted and weak.
Its eyes turned bloodlust, and it channeled every last bit of energy left in it to its limbs. If it couldn’t take down the human chasing after it, it would at least take down every last one of its kin on that island before it died.
With this thought, the Alpha Wolf pushed its limbs forward as it bared its fangs for its first target in sight amongst the humans—a fiery red-haired. They should be grateful it was going to make it fast and precise.
As soon as it got to the border of the forest surrounding the humans, it leaped into action with jaws at full length as it went straight for the human whose guard was down, waiting to hear the satisfying crunch between its maws, when a shadow suddenly dropped down from above it with its back to the moon.
The Alpha Wolf Beast could not react in time as it was airborne, and could only watch as the shadow closed the distance between them with its staff raised high above its head.
Huh? I—I thought I lost him... was the last thing on its mind as the staff descended on its head and it went completely dark.
[You have killed the Lv12 Silver Wolf Alpha Beast]
[+95 EXP]
[You have leveled up | Lv10]
"A—Arc...?" Rose called out in surprise, drawing the attention of the rest of the team as they turned to stare from Arc’s figure to the wolf cub sprawled before him, dead.
Except Liz, whose hairs stood on end and didn’t think of it as a cub, as she knew the level of danger she felt approaching—deadlier than the Silver Wolves they’d just struggled to take out—but couldn’t react in time. When Arc appeared with a stick...
Or was she mistaken?
***
Few Hours Ago.
Arc had incredibly thinned the numbers of the Silver Wolf pack without even realizing it, leaving only a handful still standing. But their morale had increasingly wavered, and they hesitated each time they attacked, making Arc’s job of extermination easier for him.
It was then his danger sense rang once more since his encounter with the Alpha Beast bloodhounds, and he knew what was coming. Except this time, they came from two different directions at once.
It all happened in a second, that just as Arc hesitated to decide what to block and what hit to take—as he couldn’t block both at once with just the staff—the two heavy paws landed on him from his two sides, crushing him in the middle, before he was met once more by their other paws and sent flying once again.
This time, worse than a ragdoll, as blood seeped from his orifices and Arc landed heavily on the dirt. His legs and arms bent at unnatural angles.
Arc wasn’t given a breather just yet, as the rest of the demoralized wolves howled in victory as they ran after him. The first to get to him picked him up in its maw and tossed him around before the others arrived and began fighting over him.
In all this, Arc didn’t let out a single cry of pain. His body might be broken, but his mind wasn’t. Because he’d suffered a lot more than this in his past life, and if you were to ask Arc to choose between the pain of this and having his penis broken and repaired multiple times in one night by some crazy bitch, he’d definitely choose this.
As he’d lost his voice, Arc choreographed his broken hand along with the tossing of the Silver Wolves to tap at his glabella at the perfect timing to activate his player class system.
Then he swiftly navigated to player status, and down to his attributes, where he had 35 free attribute points from leveling up seven times—5 per level—and quickly began assigning them.
[ATTRIBUTES]: 73
Strength: 6 (+10)
Agility: 7 (+10)
Dexterity: 8
Constitution: 5 (+15)
Wisdom: 12
The effects were instant. Arc felt a surge of energy flowing through him as his body began working on overdrive to repair itself to the best of its abilities. But most importantly, he willed for Gaea’s Judgment, which shot out from where it had been dropped with so much power that it turned into a blur.
The next moment, every single Silver Wolf that had surrounded him, toying with him, was pulverized and turned into meat paste, painting the scene in red and gore as the sun receded back to the west like it was frightened by the sheer sight of it.
[Malefic Bloodline activating—]
[Cancelled!]
Arc could barely make out the system prompt when it disappeared from his vision as fast as it appeared.
The staff returned before his sprawled form, and he stretched his hand out to touch it. The moment he did, he felt it. He already knew, but the first restriction of Gaea’s Judgment had been lifted, and as soon as he touched it, he felt a powerful surge of vitality flow into him from the staff as the surrounding vegetation withered and died off, sacrificing their vitality for the man Mother Nature had chosen.
Arc felt his torn ligaments repair and felt his bones snap into place as he stood up with the staff supporting his weight.
What was left of the Silver Wolves was the Alpha Beast and its bloodhounds, lucky to not have been in range when he summoned Gaea’s Judgment.
They bared their fangs at him, and without waiting for Arc to recover, one shot forward with the speed of lightning, hoping to finish Arc off for good this time.
Arc, on the other hand, on seeing this, didn’t shy away from the fast-approaching battle. He let go of the staff and began limping forward toward the charging beast.
Every step he took turned the green patches beneath his feet dark as their vitality was absorbed to heal him, and from a pathetic limp, Arc began jogging forward. And from a jog, Arc’s twisted ankle bone snapped in place and he began running.
His speed increased with each step he took that withered the flowers beneath his feet. And just as he got in range of the bloodhound, which leaped into the air grinding its deathly maws, Arc followed suit as he clenched his fist into a ball—distorting the air around it.
He raised his fist high above his head, his muscles flexing under the dim light, and just as the bloodhound went in for a chunk of his flesh, Arc connected his fist with its jaw.
Boom.
The shockwave rolled through the trees.
