Graceful as could be, he leapt off the branch, diving straight towards the behemoth of a wolfs figure. His knife placed beneath him as his momentum and gravity took control. He soared through the air as quietly and silently as could be before his knife plunged deep into the wolves cranium passing through the layers of skin, bone, and flesh as it stopped millimeters from the brain, seemed the level difference wasn’t just for show.

Before the wolf could even howl in pain, he twisted the knife, creating a bleeding effect, and causing a notification to appear from the side of his vision saying ‘critical hit!’. The Alpha Gray Wolf turning limp as the blood flowed down the side of its head as it produced a puddle of blood to appear at its quake. The luscious shiny gray fur it held before, now matted with the blood and viscera from the gaping hole in its head.

*Gray Wolf*

The two gray wolves turned their heads in response to the sound of something thudding against the ground, not even seconds after, hearing the sound of a knife cutting through flesh as it ended the living mass of flesh’ life that was the Alpha Gray Wolf.

Stunned for but a moment at the sight of one of their own slayed before them, the wolves faces were now covered in anger. Their eyes filled with killing intent, as the pair glared at the offender before them, their eyes drifting towards the silhouette of a person who stood on top of the carcass of a wolf the size of 2 men. The silhouette tilted its head to the side, its head fitted with a helmet and a visor where its eyes should have been, the helmet parting away to display a mouth curved into a large crescent as it bathed in the blood of its enemy. It looked practically like the shadow of a human, only that it wore what seemed to be armour on its straightened frame. The creature seemed as if it was remembering the vivid feel of bloodshed as it seemed to inhale the mana that was absorbed from it’s kill. Its black form becoming more evident at the absence of any reflection of light.

Tendrils of black flowed around its form as the shadows around the area seemed to be bent to the monsters will. The shadows forming into a short sword only marginally bigger than the combat knife it held in it’s left hand, although it resulted in the density and thickness to be smaller in compensation for it’s length.

It peered over towards the pair of wolves, not displaying a shred of hesitation before lunging towards where they stood. If it were not for their level difference and stats, they would have fell dead in consideration of its skill with weaponry and the agility it had managed to display. It slashed sideways in an arc towards the closest wolf, shaving the hairs that brushed past its blade as the shadow itself stepped back to avoid the wolves claws that closed in.

Its frame bent back to the side as it closed down to the ground, kicking out towards the wolves feet, knocking it off balance before rushing up to its side to perform a lethal stab to the side of its neck as it tried to yelp in defiance, Instead, a guttural noise flowed from its mouth before slowly fading into a wheezing silence.

The figure pulled back its knife in a small movement before setting its sights towards the wolf pouncing towards him. It tried to swerve out of the way using its immense speed before realising the difference of agility in comparison to its own. It lifted its forearm to cover its neck before feeling a heavy blow as the silhouetted figure was taken aback, stumbling upon its feet before recovering it’s footing through the excellent display of footwork it had used. A wolf lay latched onto it's forearem, shoving the wolf back as it tumbled onto the ground a few metres, to only get onto its feet but moments later.

The shadowy figure then threw its knife towards the gray wolf, aiming for its jugular. The wolf reacting in response to the attack with its great perception, solely focused on the knife coming towards it. Dodging with great speed, it looked back to see the figure gone, in its wake, there was nothing. The gray wolf lowered its body to the ground ready to react to even the slightest of movements. Its eye scanning the surrounding scenery in hopes of finding the monster.

Moments later, the wolf picked up the sounds of movement from behind it with its acute sense of hearing. Reacting instantaneously to the potential danger, it swerved its body ready to kill, to only see nothing but the shadows of trees lining against the ground opposite of the sun. Confused, but still suspicious, it focused on its hearing, in the case of possibly discovering the monsters location. But rather abruptly and swiftly, from the very shadows that the wolf saw, a figure emerged with a short sword centimeters from its eyes.

The short sword piercing through the left eye of the wolf going undisturbed as it proceeded to approach the unprotected and exposed brain. Blood, squirted forth through the tight space that the short sword had effortlessly pierced. Not even seconds later, the short sword twisted, causing immense amounts of pain and agony to bounce back and forth through whatever was left of the gray wolves brain, before being pulled back out rather precipitously. Afterwards, being followed with a light stab that pierced back into the poor wolves body through the jugular. As the wolf's vision abruptly faded into a black abyss, it felt the mana in its body be forcefully sucked into the monster that took its life, as it entered in what seemed to be an eternal slumber.

*Nicholas*

Nicholas stared down at his handiwork, the sights of 3 wolven corpses collapsed onto the grass painted in the colour of blood. His hands shaking at the expenditure of mana that was used to create and condense his short sword and blend himself into the shadows of the tree. The short sword costing around 10 more mana in contrast to the combat knife he used, which had dissipated after what seemed to be a certain time limit at which the shadows could be condensed or the lack of concentration needed to keep the shadows condensed. Which was good to know and that he would experiment with later on.

The way he had also blended with the shadows was also a great find which synergized well with his race due to being composed of shadows himself, increasing the effectiveness of the skill itself. The cost, however, was quite reprimanding, as he founded a need to move quickly across the field due to the amount of mana wasting away, leading to the production of sound, hence, how the wolf had nearly found him nearing the end of the battle.

Also, if he had not been able to prepare for the battle beforehand, creating his combat knife and replenishing his mana, he surely would have been in a bind, making it more of a job to dispatch of the group of wolves. It had been quite a challenge with the levels and stats all things considered, but something they did not have was technique and skill. This being the determining factor that lead to his victory.

But, if he were to be the one caught off guard with no preparation as of then, what could he have done but lie down and wait for death like the wolves before him?

‘It seems I’ll have to practice with this quite the bit and try comprehend more behind the effectiveness of this ability of mine…’ he thought to himself

After carefully thinking over his mistakes that occurred during battle and how he could improve his chances of success and the damage output he dished out through the use of critical hits and the effects that appeared, he realised he needed to check something, he needed to check his status and notifications.