The sun had already gone down, and the only light that could be seen was the campfire. The moon had raised too, but only faint beams of light could be seen through the thick branches of the trees covering the sky.

Dillim made a savage grin and drew his great sword in a fluent motion. “Don’t worry, Rinza. You’ll be fine,” he said towards the panicking mage. “Just cover me a little.”

Dillim then pushed Keith towards the middle of their camp, slightly in front of the camp fire. He said that Keith should remain behind him, and after saying that, he turned his back towards them.

That next moment, multiple lights could be seen. They were all formed in pairs of bright shining lights, flickering at Keith’s party from the cover of trees. The wind blew vigorously, slowly fading away with the echo of the wolves’ howls in the distance.

“Heh,” Dillim chuckled, “It’s been a while since I’ve had some exercise. Pay attention Keith!”

The pairs of lights around them had started to multiply, and they all had a savage look. When Keith had stopped looking at the fire, his eyes got a little more used to the darkness. When this happened, he finally saw what those lights were; they were eyes! There were at least 15 pairs of eyes all around them. The wolves had swiftly encircled their prey, leaving them no way to escape.

“Damn wolves! Why do they always have to travel in packs,” Rinza’s frantic voice rang out. He knew what he was up against, multiple Three-Tailed Wolves! That means multiple magical beasts of the 4th tier. They would be able to rival his own level of power, but they were only with a party of three, while he estimated that all those wolves were of the 4th tier! “I don’t get why that Two-Tailed Wolf cub would travel so close to the edges of the forest, he forced their whole pack to come out from the center of the forest, damn.”

The flickering lights of the wolves’ eyes were slowly drawing closer, until one wolf suddenly sprang forward. He jumped out of the cover the shadows from the trees had provided, and stepped into the light of the campfire. It still remained at a safe distance, but now the wolf could be clearly seen. It had a scar on its face, which ran from its jaw to above its left eye. The Three-Tailed Wolf was emitting a fierce and savage aura, obviously filled with killing intent. It seemed like this wolf was the leader of the incoming pack; it had clearly taken the lead as the head attacker. It was slowly pacing up and down, snarling at Keith’s party. It was seemingly looking for an opening, and was ready to bare and use its fangs the moment that opportunity would show itself.

Keith was shocked by the image of the wolf; he hadn’t imagined that it would pressure him so much. He had even subconsciously taken a step back, increasing the distance between him and the wolf. The next scene shocked Keith even more, a huge gust of wind had actually manifested itself in a split second next to him, and was immediately shot out towards the wolf.

“Die!”

Rinza had directed the spell as soon as he had gotten the opportunity. He knew that he would be able to fight against a wolf and come out on top, not because of his power, but because of the superior intelligence humans had. That’s why he knew he would be in trouble as soon as he would have to fight multiple wolves. He had chosen to get rid of the wolf in front of him as soon as possible.

The wolf’s eyes flickered dangerously, then it immediately side stepped. It had reacted way faster than Rinza thought. ‘Damn! He must’ve anticipated it!’

But one shouldn’t underestimate the speed of spells wind mages would be able to cast. Every spell that was cast with elemental wind energy would have a superior speed to magic from other elements.

The wolf had managed to dodge it, but the wind blade Rinza shot out still managed to scrape its side. A shallow wound had appeared on its skin, showing traces of blood. The wolf yelped a little bit, but then it immediately snarled, a sinister glint appearing in its eyes.

A split second after Rinza had cast the spell, a dark, grey blur appeared behind him. It was rushing at full speed at Rinza the moment he had thrown his spell, leaving him with almost no time to react. ‘Shit! Those are standard tactics of wolf packs!’

Every mage would have his ways to deal with close combat, because they were very weak in that range. Most of the time they would use various means to remain at a distance, using the huge destructive power of mana to wipe out their foes from a safe distance. But this wolf didn’t give Rinza any time to react to his attack at all; the other wolf that had shown itself was only bait! It had shown itself to distract everyone, so that its allies could attack Keith’s party from behind.

Rinza reacted pretty quickly, he raised one hand to cover his face out of a reflex, but he managed to start gathering mana with his other. The wolf used its enormous momentum it had gathered, and jumped straight for Rinza’s throat. Rinza had managed to start gathering mana, but the only problem was that he would at least suffer the attack of the wolf before he would be able to retaliate.

Just when the wolf’s fangs neared Rinza’s throat, a desperate look appeared in his eyes. He knew that Dillim was strong, but he wouldn’t be able to help him from where he was standing. And the only other person remaining was Keith, but what would he be able to do without even having grown his mana core or energy veins? Warriors would be able to take a hit or two from a 4th tier magical beast, but mages had fragile bodies in general! Rinza had already started to despair, but nonetheless he clenched his teeth, and tried to finish his spell even faster

The next thing Rinza felt was the head of the wolf colliding with his body, pushing him back a few steps. But surprisingly, the wolf’s teeth hadn’t bitten him at all. Only the top of its head had hit Rinza, and because of the huge momentum the head carried, he was pushed back. He still had his arm raised, so naturally, he wasn’t able to see what had happened.

When Rinza finished converting the elemental mana into a spell, he steadied himself after stumbling a little, readying himself to kill the wolf. But the scene that greeted him showed that it wasn’t necessary anymore.

After the wolf had hit him, it had already dropped to the ground. Even more, what had hit him, was exactly only the head of the wolf! The rest of the wolf’s body had already been separated from its head, and was lying a little further away. Rinza didn’t understand what happened, and was still confused, but he was, after all, still a battle-hardened veteran. He immediately used the already completed spell in his hand, and threw it at the nearest pair of glittering eyes that was hiding in the shadows of the tall trees.

This time, he must’ve had more luck, because the sound that rang out were dying shrieks this time. Clearly, the wolves hadn’t anticipated that the ambush would fail so suddenly, resulting in a destructive wind blade being thrown their way.

When Rinza recovered from the shock of almost having been dealt a critical blow, he noticed something; Dillim’s sword had changed from its original position, it was raised into the sky by now. But the most noticeable thing, was that the sword had been stained with blood! The fire lit up the reflection on the great sword, but clearly, some parts were covered with a red liquid. It was slowly dripping down from the sword, falling towards the ground.

Dillim only smiled savagely, while Keith couldn’t even process what happened. Dillim hadn’t moved from his original position at all!

The wolf that had taken the roll of a distraction, had clearly anticipated that the weak looking guy would immediately die to their ambush. They were, after all, Three-Tailed Wolves! After seeing its pack member die, the fierce looking wolf got even more cautious. The higher tiered magical beasts were all fairly intelligent, just like the Three-Tailed Wolves. This could already be seen by the tactics they had employed; the fiercest looking wolf would first attract the attention, while all the other wolves would instill fear in their enemies by howling from out of the shadows. Then, when the enemies were focused on the first wolf that had shown itself, the quickest wolf would immediately strike out from the shadows, and kill the weakest looking threat in the hostile group. If this would succeed, all the other wolves would rush in and tear the others apart, while the enemies would still be in a stupor from the sudden ambush.

But seeing how the quickest member of their pack had died so fast, they were all hesitant to attack. The pack leader suddenly howled, and as if that was a sign, all the other wolves started to slowly come out of the shadows. They were all snarling and growling, trying to instill fear in Keith’s party by showing their fangs.

Seeing this, Dillim just slowly lowered his great sword. He then casually rammed it into the ground with his left hand, and leaned against his sword. He then indifferently looked at Keith, and used this opportunity to question him: “Tell me, Keith, what is more important, defense or offence?”

The wolves saw Dillim ram his sword into the ground, and they all lowered their center of gravity a little, clearly, they had gotten even more cautious. They were slowly stalking Keith’s party, and were closing in with their encirclement. There were around ten wolves who were all slowly pacing up and down, but none of them was in attack range yet. They were still a good 10 to 15 meters away, showing how fast their quickest pack member had been, because he managed to cross that distance in an instant.

Keith heard Dillim’s question, but because of all the fearsome wolves around him, he had to do his best to even respond. Only because of his trust in Dillim could he still remain a little fearless. He thought a short while, while carefully glancing at the wolves nearby, and answered: “It must be offense! If you only defend you will never be able to defeat your opponent, while he can still defeat you!”

Dillim had his back towards Keith and Rinza, while Keith stood behind Dillim. Rinza faced the other way, taking care of Dillim’s and Keith’s backs. Rinza, who also managed to hear Keith’s answer while he focused on the wolves, smiled. He had actually come up with the same answer.

The wolves had slowly but surely crept closer, and the encirclement was already complete. The wolves were all standing next to each other now, and even the slightly wounded pack leader was surrounded by his pack members by now.

“I shall show you both the answer,” Dillim said, slowly moving a little bit in front of his sword. He moved so that the sword was actually firmly planted into the ground behind him, but it was still within an arm’s reach.

The wolves who saw this, all jumped back a little. They didn’t understand how the first wolf had died, but they all knew it was closely related to this warrior in front of them. They had taken him as a minor threat at first, seeing how he missed one hand, but they realized soon enough that they were sorely mistaken.

At that moment, the pack leader howled, indicating that the wolves should attack.

They would attack in waves; each wolf would attack individually, and immediately retreat. This way openings would eventually be created, while every wolf who attacked didn’t wouldn’t suffer any injuries. The wolves that didn’t attack, would creep nearby, waiting for an opening so that they could plant their fangs in their foes.

Right at the moment the first wolf jumped, Dillim reached behind him with his left hand, and firmly grasped his sword. Only when the wolf was so close that even the different teeth within the wolf’s mouth could be differentiated, did he slowly move his sword.

Another wolf, who saw how close the first wolf had already gotten without Dillim managing to retaliate, rushed in too. The wolves were pretty sure by now that Dillim wouldn’t manage to defend himself in time, he had, after all, only moved his sword slightly by the time his throat was almost reached.

But, at the moment his sword moved, everything around Keith’s party was blown back. It was as if Dillim’s slow moving sword had initiated a gust of wind that would push out in all directions. It wasn’t like magic at all, no elemental essence could be seen or felt, this was pure and savage killing intent!

The wolf who had almost reached Dillim, had its attack forcefully interrupted, and was blown backwards along with its allies. All that pressure was generated before Dillim had even completed his swing! Dillim had created enough room for himself to complete his motion, his blade moved, and when it finally reached in front of him, it started to glow. He didn’t increase the speed of its swing, but as his sword continued moving, the glow, which looked like condensed energy, started to grow brighter. He then completed his swing, and while all the wolves had recovered from their forced retreat, a huge blast of energy headed towards the front of Dillim. It carried an explosive might, and tore apart everything that stood in its path. “The answer is neither!” He yelled while the energy manifested, “Both should be trained with equal amounts of importance, only then can you become a perfect warrior!”

The wolves had been prepared for anything the moment Dillim’s sword had started to light up. So even as the mass of energy was heading their way, most of the wolves standing in its path managed to dodge it by jumping towards the side. As for the few that didn’t make it, they were torn apart and blown backwards, their blood and organs covering painting the surroundings red.

Rinza had actually turned around the moment Dillim emitted that fierce pressure. He stood with his mouth open while watching, ‘T– This… what kind of a method has he used to cultivate?!’

Rinza wasn’t actually in a stupor because of the presumed stage Dillim had reached, but because of the power and pressure he could emit. Generally, when a warrior’s rank would increase, they would become stronger and faster. But clearly, Dillim hadn’t moved fast at all, nor had he used overwhelmingly strength for that blow, but it still manifested that huge amount of pressure and energy! Only special ways of cultivating world energy would bring out this result, Rinza speculated.

Seeing how strong that blast of energy was, alongside the remains of their less fortunate pack members, the wolves retreated a few meters. They hurriedly assessed the situation again, but seeing how Dillim had casually pushed them all back, while even killing a few of them, they became fearful. The leader howled, and the wolves started to slowly back off.

Dillim rammed his sword into the ground again, and watched the wolves retreat. Taking revenge for one cub, wouldn’t be worth fighting Dillim, so they had quickly made the decision to retreat.

Seeing their glowing eyes disappear back into the shadows, the only sounds that remained that night were the fading snarls of the retreating wolves and the last ephemeral howls of the dying wolves, along with the crackling sounds of the campfire.