“Good job, little guy.” Max whispered to the little wolf as it walked into the cave.

Max unconsciously reached out his hand to give the little guy a scratch on the top of his head. Unsure of his actions just now, he pulled his hands back. It just felt natural. Over the last day, Ma Erk became more and more a mix between a little brother and pet, both things he didn’t have back on earth. It was hard always having his guard up around someone, especially the little wolf. Its size and the unfounded confidence in him had led him to like the young wolf even more. Humans like wolves were also social creatures. It was especially important to him since he was in an unfamiliar environment, and having a confidant would both help his morale and his survival chances.

“How far up the path is he?”

“Rik-re almost here, Boss.”

“Rik-re. Hm. That's his name?”

“Yes, Boss”

Just as Ma Erk finished saying that, loud growls could be heard from outside the cave.

“PUNNNYY!”

There were heavy pawsteps thumbing towards him.

‘Oh shit.’

Before he knew it, the boss of the two lackeys, Rik-re had already jumped through the Formation. The cave was dark, but Rik-re’s pupils had a slight glow to them. That was all Max could take in before he felt as if a sledgehammer rammed into his chest. It knocked the wind out of his lungs and drove him onto his back.

-7 HP

Max didn’t have time to catch his breath before a massive maw came bearing down towards his neck. He knew that if that bite landed, he would eventually die no matter how much HP he had. With most of Rik-re's body weight on top of him, there was nowhere to dodge, but his arms and hands were still free. As the maw came down, Max shot his hand out with the Chi-Infused Rock. From the position he was in, there was no way a swing from the Chi-Infused Rock would do any damage even if it connected. Instead, the plan was to jam the Rock in the wolf’s mouth, taking away one of its greatest weapons, its teeth. In the split second, before the maw came down, the Rock was rotated vertically.

As the Rock plunged into the wolf's mouth, it was aided by the wolf’s downward momentum. Combined with his actions the Rock was lodged deeper into the wolf’s mouth. Quickly retracting his hand, he noticed the wolf’s demeanor from aggressive and angry to shock and confusion.It was now preoccupied with the Rock. The Rock prevented it from closing its mouth. Taking this opportunity, the wolf was pushed off his chest. With some effort, Max was able to destabilize Rik-re's balance and toppled it over.

Max quickly got back up and grabbed the smaller Chi-Infused Rock from nearby. He was glad that he planned and had left the smaller Rock close to the entrance or else he would be left with no weapons at all. Now that Max had a chance to catch his breath, he could see that the wolf had also gotten back up, but it was struggling to get the larger Chi-Infused Rock out of his mouth.

Ideas flashed through his mind one after another, but he couldn’t find a viable option.

‘Should I run while it's distracted? No, there’s no use. Judging by how fast it came up the cliff, it is probably faster than me. The Midnight Dew was also here, I can’t leave it, it would slow down my cultivation too much if I did.’

Hardening his resolve, the plan was to go on the offensive while the wolf was still preoccupied. The cave was only so big, a quick dash forward brought him right in front of the wolf. Bringing the smaller rock overhead, Max smashed it down on the back of the wolf’s head; it had two effects, but only one was good for him. The smaller Rock didn’t cut too deep before his fingers met the skin of the wolf and prevented the edge from going in deeper, but because of the location of his strike, it still momentarily dazed it. The second effect was much less desirable, the angle at which the hit landed on the wolf actually helped it to dislodge the larger Chi-Infused Rock.

‘Oh no…’

Seeing that the smaller Rock was ineffective, he backed up from the recovering wolf. Max was desperate for any ideas, even a bad idea was better than no idea. Scanning the cave, he saw the two bodies of the lackeys. It took him only a few quick steps to reach the bodies, but by then the wolf was already coming to its senses. Just as Max was within arm's length of the bodies, a low growl could be heard behind him, it was followed by heavy paws impacting the ground. There was no time to think. He grabbed the two hind legs of the closest wolf and swung it back as if it was an oversize limped bat. Midway through the swing, he felt some resistance and moments later heard a thud against the wall.

Max fully turned his body to face the direction of Rik-re. The wolf was on the ground by the wall. His wild swing must have connected while the wolf was mid-pounce. Since it was in the air it had no way to maneuver out of the hit. His hail mary was actually more effective than the Chi-Infused Rocks, which really surprised him.

While the wolf was still down, Max rushed to it and started swinging the dead lackey’s body. He was able to get in a few good hits but wasn’t even sure if the makeshift bat could do any damage to Rik-re. The bones in the corpse might be hard, but it was covered with a soft layer of fur and meat which must have dulled the impact significantly. Before long, Rik-re was able to predict his swings and started dodging them.

After his latest swing was dodged, he made eye contact with Rik-re. It was snarling at him. Even in the dark, Max could feel the anger bubbling just beneath the surface.

‘I guess I would also be livid if someone was clubbing me around with a human corpse.’

Rik-re started to growl, but more than that it also sounded like it was panting. The wolf's chest expanded and contracted rapidly as if it was taking in deep and hurried breaths.

To Ma Erk’s credit, he had sufficiently enraged Rik-re. In Rik-re’s haste to get up the cliff and tear into Ma Erk, it had foregone the cautious approach and had expended a lot of energy just coming up the cliff.

“Disgusting human”

“And you’re a dumb wolf.”

Right after saying that, Max charged in once again swinging the corpse. Throughout their short fight, Max had kept the fact that he could speak wolf under wraps. He wanted to use this as a small distraction and it worked better than he could hope. His swing connected and this time he heard an audible crack, but he wasn’t sure if it came from Rik-re or the corpse. Either way, he had put his whole body into that swing and it drove Rik-re off his feet and slammed him into the wall once again.

However, on the tail end of that swing, Max had lost his footing and slipped. Putting him in an awkward position, he wasn’t able to follow up and capitalize on his hit.

This time, Rik-re recovered before him. It jumped and landed on his back and bit down hard on his shoulder.

-11 HP

Status Effect: Bleeding, -1 HP/minute

“AHHHH” Max let out a pained cry and dropped the lackey’s corpse.

His free hand tried prying open Rik-re’s jaw, but with only one free hand, he couldn’t find any leverage. Max tried punching Rik-re’s face, but because of the angle, his punches had the same weight behind them as little jabs, nowhere enough to do any significant damage. His punches seem to just annoy Rik-re who bite down harder.

-6 HP

“Grrr”

In pain, Max just wanted the damn thing off of him. Max charged into the wall with Rik-re’s body acting as a cushion between him and the wall.

-5 HP

When Max crashed into the wall, a whole new level of pain radiated from his shoulder. The pain didn’t come from the impact with the wall, but from Rik-re’s teeth mincing his shoulders up even more. His shoulder is mostly shredded by now, he wasn’t looking forward to seeing how bad it was.

After every crash, it felt to him that his efforts and pain were paying off. Max could feel the hold on his shoulder relaxed a bit before tightening again, or maybe he was just getting used to the pain. Without a better plan, Mac repeatedly slammed into the wall. Each time he did, he would lose some health.

-3 HP

-4 HP

-5 HP

-3 HP

-6 HP

On his fourth reckless slam into the wall, something cracked and he was sure this time was coming from Rik-re. From where he felt the crack come from, it was likely one of Rik-re’s ribs. Two more slams after the crack, Rik-re finally loosened his hold on his shoulder more. Max turned to see Rik-re's glowing pupils, with his free hand, Max stabbed his index and middle finger into each of Rik-re’s eyes.

‘I hope this isn’t going to be a recurring theme for me in this world.’

With that, Rik-re finally let go of his shoulder and fell to the ground. Rik-re was scrambling to find its footing, but without sight, it was having a much harder time. The shoulder that had been in Rik-re’s maws was practically useless at this point. With his uninjured hand, Max quickly found the larger Chi-Infused Rock and started hammering away at Rik-re’s head.

After scoring two clean hits, Rik-re was already on the ground. After a few more hits to the skull, Max distantly felt new notifications come into existence in his periphery, but he ignored them and continued bashing Rik-re’s head in. It wasn't until the Chi-Infused Rock broke into pieces did the blows ceased. Max was exhausted and collapsed onto the ground next to the pulpy mess of Rik-re’s head. The fight couldn’t have been more than ten minutes, but Max was already at his limit.

Opening up his character sheet, he was down to 6 HP, but was slowly ticking up. He saw that the Bleeding status effect was still active and he would be losing 1 HP/minute or 60 HP/hour, but with Greater Enhance Regeneration active, he would generate 70HP/hour, giving him a net of 10HP/hour. Knowing that he wasn’t in danger of running out of HP, Max just lay there trying to block out the pain in his shoulder.