Chapter 345 Volume V - Chapter 63: Brutal Victory
I just took a deep breath as the dungeon slowly began to change. Then I calmly turned toward Lucia and Sue.
"A- Adrian? You're... okay, right?"
I just smiled. I raised my arm in the air, clenched my fist a few times, and let it go.
"I'm fine, for now."
That wasn't enough, of course. I could see the worry in her eyes, but also the curiosity.
"Let's get through tonight first. We can save the talking for later."
Sue opened her mouth again, but this time it was Lucia who stopped her. When she put her hand on his shoulder, Sue reflexively turned to her, and so did I. But while Sue was busy listening to what he was telling her, I... for a completely different reason... couldn't take my eyes off him for a while.
She was the same, I wouldn't say her looks had changed since the last time I saw her, but... she was also strangely different. She was more noticeable, more beautiful even. She had gone through a much bigger change than the one I had always felt.
But then... the howling of wolves echoed. My eyes, which I had been unable to tear away from her, suddenly flickered, as if the things holding them in place had disappeared.
I didn't even look at Lucia again, I didn't want to fall for her charms again. Instead, I focused on what had gotten me out of this situation in the first place: the howls.
The glow of the river took its place in the sky, the last green dot in the sky faded. Then... the howling of the wolves suddenly intensified.
Red dots appeared far away, near, everywhere. They formed a circle around me, just like the night before. But this time, they were different. Before, they always looked at me with a calm, cold expression. I didn't even think they had feelings. This time... they were strange. They were hesitant, as if... as if they wanted to stay away from me.
A smile appeared on my face.
I completely ignored my mana, I didn't even care about my skills. I just reached out to ordea, which still hadn't left my body, and gently asked it to strengthen me, just as I had just done.
The ordea that was constantly trying to heal me rippled and was absorbed into my body. Then... I felt my muscles fill with a strength I had never felt before.
No, I was definitely not in my strongest form. In fact, if I had used mana, I would have gotten even more strength than I do now, but... the strengthening that the ordea provided was very different from that provided by mana. It seemed to strengthen so many more things than that. Not just speed and strength and stamina, but other things as well.
But I couldn't use mana even if it would help me more than ordea in my current situation, because I had a bet to prove my worth. And to do that... I had to show what I could do.
I didn't even bother to take out my spear, I simply stepped forward. The wolves that surrounded me stepped back nervously for a moment. Even though I was weaker than before, ordea strangely frightened them. And I had no complaints.
"Which one of you will face me?"
I asked sarcastically, deliberately provoking them. But they didn't react much to it. They just... simply opened a space in front of me, a path for the wolf that was going to face me. And so, I saw my opponent for tonight.
The wolf that would be my opponent this time... was different. It was not normal like the wolf I had faced last time, but rather... it was just like the leader I had killed the first time. It was bigger than the other wolves, its eyes were sharper. Its fur... I don't know how it was possible, but it was darker than it should have been. Its teeth and claws reflected the light slightly as if they were metal.
They are determined to kill me this time, huh...?
I widened my smile, threw my left foot slightly behind me, raised my fists, and pointed them at the wolf in front of me.
"I accept the duel."
Each of the wolves raised its head to the sky, howling at the same time. The wolf that was my opponent stretched, growling as it bared its teeth at me. Its red eyes were all on me.
When the wolves stopped howling... the duel began.
The wolf suddenly disappeared, it had used its camouflage. But instead of blindly attacking me like the previous wolf... it was really hiding this time. It really concealed its presence. On top of that, I didn't want to use mana, so it was hard for me to understand where it was.
But I still didn't need mana. Because even if I still couldn't use ordea fully, there was one thing it did better than mana. And that was, interestingly, to enhance my senses.
Everything was so much clearer than before, sounds and smells... everything was so much sharper and understandable. The warmth, the gentle breeze that was hard to even feel... it was like it was right in front of my eyes.
And a certain extra that was constantly circling around me.
I decided to make my move before they let the wolf attack. My opponent was one of the best wolves of them all, so if I could overwhelmingly defeat this one too... then they would be even more afraid of me.
There was also a primal energy I had to satisfy.
The wolf, whose presence I could barely feel, was surprised to see me lunging toward it, despite the camouflage it was still actively using, and stopped in its tracks for a moment. But it reacted quickly to my attack.
Its camouflage quickly broke down as if it realized that it would be useless against me. Then, instead of trying to defend itself, it attacked me. Its teeth aimed to bite through my fist, which I swung at it, and its claws aimed at my chest.
If I had been using mana, I would have been able to see its movements much more clearly, but the wolf was by no means slow. On the contrary, it was quite fast, even faster than the previous leader I had killed. But... not so fast that I couldn't follow it. On top of that, its attack had a force that was inferior to that of the previous leader.
I want to defeat it, I thought. I want to crush this wolf into the ground, I thought again. I directed my desires accordingly, and in doing so... I fed the energy coursing through my body with positive emotions. The belief that I could get out of here, the hope that followed that belief, the things I wanted to do when I returned... and so much more.
Ordea spun through my body faster and faster, shining brighter and brighter. For a moment, it felt as if its effect had strengthened, as if... I could use it more easily.
At the same time, my body was suddenly more peaceful than ever, I was relaxed. I was aware that the wounds were still there, but the peace in my body was so overwhelming that it almost completely neutralized the pain.
With the wolf's red eyes on the fist coming toward it and its teeth ready to tear it apart... I accelerated explosively with the ordea. Instead of swinging my fist at the wolf, I pulled back, spun around so that I wouldn't lose the momentum I had gained, then aimed directly at the wolf's jaw with my elbow.
I saw the wolf's red eyes widen, it certainly didn't expect me to move so fast, it was surprised. But it was not helpless, it was not panicked as if it could get out of this situation easily.
And so it did. The wolf did not make a sudden turn, did not stop itself, or turn back. On the contrary... its whole body rippled in an instant. Its fur, its eyes, its body... everything disappeared 19:57
into the darkness of the night as if its physical form was leaving an instant. Its fur, its eyes, its body... everything disappeared into the darkness of the night as if its physical form was leaving the world. My elbow to its chin hit the empty space. Then there was another ripple just behind me.
I planted my feet on the ground as hard as I could, jumped up quickly, didn't even wait a second.
I saw the wolf's head taking physical form again, and its fangs that looked like they would have torn my shoulder apart if I hadn't jumped up.
As soon as the wolf realized I was in the air, it lunged toward me again. It knew I couldn't move, it obviously thought it was a mistake that I had jumped into the air.
But I didn't care. I simply placed my arms in front of me, defending myself, and that's when the wolf's fangs touched my arms. First, I felt the saliva that was all over its mouth, then the tip of its fangs. The next second... its fangs were in my arm.
It closed its jaws so violently that it could have literally torn my arm off. Even the peace I could feel in every part of my body was not enough to drown out the pain this time. It genuinely hurt. Still, ordea managed to hold my arm together.
I tried to lift my knee and put it through the wolf's belly, but the wolf, as if it had known this was going to happen, just let go of my arm and disappeared back into the darkness. At least... he tried to do so.
My lips curled upward as its body started to turn into smoke again, and I completely ignored the pain in my arm.
I reached for the ordea that enveloped my whole body, then... I asked it to stop strengthening me.
This time, the ordea responded quickly to my desires. The ordea that had always supported, healed, and strengthened my body slowly left me. All the suppressed pain returned. For a moment, I felt as if my muscles would spontaneously contract.
But I resisted, because there was a reason why I separated the ordea from myself.
Ordea was the energy of order. It was constructive and healing. And it didn't have the limitation that I could only use it on myself. So... I didn't need to use it only on myself.
Ordea left my body as I asked it to do, and moved toward the wolf who was trying to disappear into the darkness. And then... it surrounded him in an instant.
As the energy that controls order, what I wanted from it was to drag the wolf, whose presence, whose body had become disorganized, back into the physical world. It could heal anything, rebuild anything. Why couldn't it do the same with the wolf?
And... it did.
The wolf's body suddenly appeared in the air. It was completely exposed, with dark dust and smoke billowing from its fur. It was not where it had expected to find itself. It had been forced back into the physical world. And this was my opportunity.
Ignoring the wolf's surprise, I didn't even give it a chance to think. Quickly pulling the ordea back into my body, I grabbed the wolf's tail, then swung its body hard as if I were shaking a sandbag on the ground, not caring how much force I applied to it.
The wolf's body landed so hard on the ground that the rocks trembled and there was even a slight shock and a wave of dust. The groaning sound it made reflected its pain to the fullest.
But I did not stop.
I gripped the wolf's tail tightly, lifted it up into the air again... and this time I swung its body to the other side. And then the other way again, and again.
Every time I swung the wolf to the ground, a trail of blood appeared on the rocks. It was literally beaten to a pulp, the sounds it made diminishing with each swing of its body.
But I didn't care.
I spun it around twice, then, maintaining my momentum, I used all the strength my body and the ordea allowed me.
The wolf's body landed once more on the rocks, but this time... it didn't stay in one piece. Its tail was torn from its body. It had hit the ground so hard that several parts of its body had exploded from the inside. Blood watered the rocks, traveling deeper into the crater. Several of its organs were exposed, and one of its eyes had popped out of its socket.
I only had one wound. My arm, which I had let the wolf bite. It was slightly bruised around the teeth marks, probably getting infected as I looked at it. Blood kept dripping from between my fingers onto the floor.
I squinted and looked around, completely ignoring the wolf on the floor, completely beaten to a pulp. I studied the other wolves.
Unlike the previous time, they were not howling to signal my victory. They were all staring at the lifeless body of my opponent, shocked.
When they realized I was looking at them, they all stepped back in fear. They were much more nervous now, genuinely afraid of me. The red eyes that used to look at me fearlessly now... had lost their sparkle.
But they didn't stay like that forever. Soon, each of them raised their heads to the sky once more. They howled half-heartedly, though not as loudly as before. Then, one by one, they disappeared into the darkness. Taking the body of my beaten opponent with them, of course.
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