The Grey Wolves rushed towards the unconscious boys and started pulling them back into their lair. A moment of carelessness left all of them incapacitated, a mistake that could have become too costly too fast. Their belief in their own strength had them underestimate their opponents. Especially since they had faced C rankers and B rankers before with much success.

Outside of the stone mound, the Storm Wolves have already regrouped and are planning another strike. Their numbers had been cut in half by the boys, leaving them with only a little over a hundred. However, after turning into Storm Wolves, they displayed a senseless rage and seemed nearly devoid of fear except for a short moment where they trembled before the image of a goddess.

Now is the best opportunity to finish off both the humans and Greys once and for all. The Storm Wolves’ presence and the unsettling atmosphere is causing the tiny grey cubs to whine and cry in fear. In response, the adults quickly formed a hunting pack of a hundred and exited. This will be their final stand.

Before the boys come, they had previously managed to protect their home with a willingness to fight to the death because their young are too small to escape. But this time, they are facing Storm Wolves, a completely different tier than the Black Winds.

The Grey Wolves fought bravely. With their backs against the wall, they are more savage than ever, but even as brutality reaches new heights, the odds are too heavily against them. The forest desperately tried to protect the Greys, yet their blood continued to stain the grass.

An entire hour passed before the five of them slowly woke. They have been completely drained of energy and only survived because of the Greys’ sacrifice.

The advantage of the Formless Style’s protection is in its speed of deployment. It used the Ki barrier to form layers after layers of protection. Normally, the Ki would dissipate quickly if projected outwards, but the martial technique retained the strength.

The five combined their strength but was still overwhelmed. At that critical conjuncture, Kairos summoned a small rod that he purchased from the trade fair. It was a magical artefact made in the southern mage countries and could absorb about a tenth of any elemental attacks and that ten per cent made a difference between life and death. Unfortunately, after serving its purpose, the artefact was burnt to a crisp.

In their groggy disarray, the sound of intense fighting by the entrance to the lair brought senses back to the boys like a snap. Bodies piled up, dragged back by those fighting. The wolf cubs continued to whimper, even as many tiny ones that couldn’t even run properly hobbled and crawled their way next to the bodies. Among the fallen are also parents, and all these are reflected in the eyes of the boys.

No matter a war waged by man or by beast it inevitably paints an ugly picture. And it made them feel terrible, remembering how it is for themselves that grew up as orphans.

Among them, only Kairos and Jim could claim to have a home, yet because Kairos could not remember his mother who died when he was too young and Jim who had never felt a father’s love, they could also somewhat understand.

The boys struggled to get back on their feet and join the battle outside, but Kairos shouted, “Sit down!”

“But c…captain…”

“Don’t but me. The best thing you can do right now is to recover your stamina quickly. Edward, call out your wyvern! And Tommy, your cat.”

Why have we forgotten them?

The two boys grinned and summoned their contract beasts.

Hiding within the bodies of their owner, they can appear whenever summoned, and it gave the boys a convenient way to protect, nurture, and bring around their tamed creatures.

By now, after consuming a large number of high ranking beasts these few days, both the kitten and the wyvern are no longer the tiny things that couldn’t harm even a child.

“Twin dragonlings, come!”

At his beckon, Kairos’ frost and flame dragonlings also appeared in front of him, and they joined the other contract beasts.

Normal tamers could not withstand the power of multiple contract beasts, but for some reason, despite Kairos do not have a soul contract with them, he could keep both divine dragons in his body.

Perhaps because these dragons are born of him, or perhaps his body is merely different. But there are exceptions to everything, and it proved to be most convenient.

After summoning the dragonlings, they revolved around him happily.

“All of the black coloured ones outside are for you to hunt. Go devour as much as you want and enjoy your meals.”

Hearing that there are as much as they can eat outside, the little ones were overjoyed. By now, each of them has already become Mid D ranked beasts, and definitely have enough strength to fight against the regular -- C ranked -- storm wolves.

Three things attributed to this impressive speed of growth: their bloodline, the rank of their master, and the food they eat.

They had been nurturing on Origin Energy, which is frankly an impressive energy source. However, seeing that they are far from the regular contract beasts, the amount is far from enough when the boys are only low ranking cultivators.

For the Black Bat King to fear Tommy’s white kitten, they could guess that its bloodline must be from an ancient root. Likewise, the wind wyvern that Edward has is no doubt part of the rarer dragon race, and the twin dragonlings are even better as they could be considered as pure-blooded dragons.

Handling the regular storm wolves should be of no problem for them, although an alpha might be too much. After all, those wolves did not actually increase in ranking after changing forms but turned into a higher class of beast.

In a flash, the contract beasts zoomed off, joining the gruesome fight alongside the Greys outside.

“What about my turtle?” Alan asked with dismay on his face. The tiny green creature had hardly taken a step and fell asleep.

“Uhhh…. It’s just a little too peaceful, just like you,” Tommy tried to feed him with an answer.

“Hahahaha, what do you expect your turtle to do when it’s the only one that didn’t increase in size?” Jim laughed for the first time since the day began.

“There’s no time to waste. Let’s quickly recover and push them back,” Edward said suddenly, silencing the little cheer. Each moment of delay only results in more Grey Wolf dying.

Kairos took out the time-space rings that Yi De gave him, and from it, he pulled out quite a few rare herbs that are helpful for recovery. Most are for consumption, but he set three particular ones aside.

“The Silverthorn Weed, Goldbristle Grass and Platinum Flowers,” he introduced as he placed the beautiful plants before their eyes.

“When alone, these herbs do nothing and cannot be made into pills. However, when placed together, they create a special sort of amalgamated aroma that induces stamina regeneration, stimulates recovery, and to improve our absorption of Heavenly Energies. While the effect is mild and you can’t expect it to replace energy recovery pills, it can be used with other drugs without clashing.”

“Isn’t that kinda weak?” Alan asked.

“Not so. Test it out, and you’ll see. Try popping a Heavenly Scent Pill.”

The pill alone aids absorption by nearly forty per cent, but using it under the effect of the aroma, the potency actually doubled.

“Eighty per cent! I…incredible!” the boys grinned wickedly full of fighting spirit. Their hands clutched tightly as they suppressed the urge to return to the battlefield.

The five of them quickly cooled off and entered their cultivation stance. If there are any large emotional spikes during this meditation period, the chances to suffer internal injuries or fall into depravity and madness will increase tremendously. Fortunately, the boys had seen their fair share of bloodshed and the Origin Cultivation Method had them familiar with both Pure Self Cultivation and Selfless Cultivation, making their self-control exceptional.

But, the posture of their cultivation stance is still as… unique… as before. Lying down face down like a log or a corpse is Tommy and next to him is Alan, with his arms and feet wide apart this time, slightly raised in the air, as if he was shot out by a cannon.

Edward wrapped himself with his arms, and his legs crossed like a dumpling. Jim squat alone at a corner, gesturing victory signs with both hands.

“Although this is how their characters made their stances to be… but this really look…”

Kairos became speechless, not even daring to think of the word to describe what he sees. He went towards a smooth cavern wall before getting into his own stance. He sat down comfortably, leaning on his back, his hands rested on his lap and head tilted down. An open book now will make his image perfect. Those that see him now will think he had fallen asleep not knowing he is cultivating with all his might.