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Kyril took several steps back from the herb and focused his eyes on the wild beast in front of him.

“This is a Black Wolf!”

A cold chill ran through his spine.

Black Wolves were not like ordinary wolves from earth. They had pitch black fur and blood red eyes that showed endless bloodthirst. Although their bodies were not any harder than wolves from earth, their bodies had formidable defences which they could use in order to survive. Their tails had fur that was thin and sharpened into spikes capable of piercing through flesh and bone, and a set of teeth which were as sharp as knives, capable of cutting straight through wood!

Kyril remembered the encyclopaedia of Magical Beasts and Wild Beasts he read in the library. He had skimmed through the encyclopaedia but still managed to remember some information and luckily, Black Wolves were one of them.

Hou!

The Black Wolf roared.

The surrounding trees began shaking and some of the leaves were blown away. Kyril who was standing twenty metres away also felt a sharp pain ringing from his ear drums.

The roar echoed throughout the Grassy Mountains and gained the attention of some of the boys who Alek and Silas brought.

“I-It’s the roar of the beast! The rumoured beast is near us!” said one of the boys. All the blood had drained from his face.

“Run! Or else we’ll die!” the several boys shouted together.

Further away from the boys, Alek and Silas also paled from the roar.

“Shit! There's actually a beast here? I thought that was a rumour!” Alek screamed.

Alek and Silas both looked at each other before they threw the hoard of herbs in their hands to the ground and began running to the exit.

When all the boys finally exited the Grassy Mountains, it was as if a huge boulder was rolled off their shoulders and they immediately flopped to their knees.

After a few breaths of resting, Alek got up and furiously looked at the fifteen boys.

“Who was the bastard that provoked the beast!”

But none of the boys responded. The fear from the beast had been ingrained deep into their minds, how could they still think about answering Alek? This caused Alek to become more furious. He walked to the closest boy to him and grabbed him by the shoulders.

“Ason, was it you!” Alek looked at him with eyes that could kill.

Ason blanked. He was opening his mouth, but no words came out.

“Speak!” Alek howled as he shook Ason.

“N-no!” Ason hurriedly said and lowered his head, “I-I was picking herbs within one hundred metres, there's no way I'd dare to go deeper than that…”

Seeing that Ason was on the verge of breaking into tears, Silas said, “Alek, leave him be. There's no way he'd outrun the beast if he provoked it.”

On the surface Silas put on a sincere tone, but to those who knew him well, he was actually mocking Ason.

“Si-Silas, what if it was Kyril who provoked the beast…” one of the boys said.

Hearing this, Alek and Silas’ eyes suddenly brightened.

“That's right! It might have been that cripple!” Silas jumped up to his feet and pointed at one of the boys, “You there! Go check that cripple’s shack to see if he's there. If he's not, then it truly might be him whose encountered the beast heh heh…” Silas laughed with a distasteful sound.

Without hesitation, the boy Silas referred to hurriedly ran towards Kyril's shack and after about ten minutes, he could be seen running back waving his arms in the air.

“Silas! He's not there!” shouted the boy. Although he was already panting like a dog, his face instead showed a smile, “It must be him who's provoked the beast!”

Alek and Silas became instantly delighted upon hearing this.

“Alek, come on! We must report this to the boss!” Silas excitedly said. He was already on the verge of jumping and hopping all over the place.

…

In front of the Black Wolf, Kyril maintained a calm appearance, but if one looked closely, sweat could be seen sliding off of his forehead. His eyes darted around trying to think of ways to escape.

Hou… hou…

The Black Wolf let out soft roars and started walking towards Kyril. Volumes of saliva dripped down from the Black Wolf's mouth like a waterfall.

“This is bad… If it were any other Wild Beast, then I may have had a chance of outrunning them, but definitely not a Black Wolf!”

Out of all the wild beasts, Black Wolves were one of the fastest! With his crippled body, there was no chance of outrunning one!

When the Black Wolf was ten metres away from Kyril, a pungent smell which came from the Black Wolf’s mouth invaded his nose. This smell carried the scent of blood and rotting flesh.

When Kyril smelt this, his sense of urgency was aroused even more. If he could not think of something quick, then he would die!

The Black Wolf was just like a mirror in front of Kyril. Whenever Kyril stepped to the right, the Black Wolf would follow and when he stepped to the left, the Black Wolf would jump to the left.

At a mere five metres away from Kyril, the Black Wolf began licking its lips. It already had thoughts of ripping this human child up into shreds.

“...The only option I have now is to fight…” Kyril thought.

Behind his back, with his index finger and thumb he felt up and down the blade of the rusted knife which he hiddenly took out from his inner pocket.

“This rusted knife will at most only be able to endure one strike. If I can’t do it in one strike, I’m surely dead.” Kyril began forming a plan in his mind, “...I’ll have to go with this.”

Once the Black Wolf was a mere two metres away from Kyril, Kyril slammed his foot backwards and turned his back to the Black Wolf.

Looking at how its prey began running away from it, the Black Wolf let out an enraged howl.

Hou!

The Black Wolf flexed its legs and then immediately straightened them.

boom… boom… boom…

Sounds of joints popping from the Black Wolf’s legs were heard by Kyril as the Black Wolf lunged itself into the air.

“Three… two… one…” Kyril counted down.

“Now!”

Kyril suddenly stopped and turned around. With his right hand gripping tightly onto the rusted knife, he hurled his right arm into the air.

Pii…

The rusted knife whistled through the air, slicing it in half.

Puchi…

The blade of the rusted knife tore skin and ripped flesh.

Finally, after the rusted knife embedded itself four inches deep into the Black Wolf’s chest, the blade broke away from the handle.

But when Kyril’s right hand made contact with the Black Wolf’s body, the jumping force from the Black Wolf’s body transferred into Kyril’s body, flinging Kyril’s body back by several metres until his back smashed into a tree trunk.

Bang!

Hou! Hou! Hou!

The Black Wolf let out a series of painful roars as it staggered back and looked at its chest. Blood was gushing out from the deep wound.

Kyril stared at the Black Wolf struggling.

“Did it work? No, I clearly felt that I had accurately stabbed the heart, it has to work!” Kyril consoled himself.

Stabbing the heart was only one part of his plan. The other part was that he needed it be a surprise! If did not manage to stab the Black Wolf by surprise, then there would be now way that the Black Wolf would have allowed it to be stabbed by Kyril!

The Black Wolf raised its head and stared angrily at Kyril with bloodshot eyes. Blood had already started dripping out of its mouth, staining its fur into a deep dark red colour.

It was utterly furious!

A mere human child had actually managed to take it by surprise and even deal a death strike at its heart! The Black Wolf felt totally humiliated!

Hou!!!

The Black Wolf charged at Kyril with all its remaining strength and leaped into the air. If it was going to die, then his human child will have to die with it!

“What! It still has the strength to try and kill me!” Kyril broke into nervousness.

The Black Wolf had spread out its claws and slashed at Kyril’s body.

Swish!

Kyril raised his arms into a cross and guarded his face and body.

“Let us see who shall die today!” Kyril screamed. He tensed his body and hardened his face.

Sha!

The Black Wolf’s claws split apart Kyril’s clothes and tore his flesh open.

“Gyaaaa!”

Kyril let out a blood-curdling scream which spread throughout the Grassy Mountains, to the point that even the residents of Vale Town heard it!

Boom!

The Black Wolf’s body collided with Kyril’s body. Kyril’s body was already leaning against the tree trunk, but when the Black Wolf’s body smashed into Kyril’s body, the tree trunk broke in half instantly and fell to the ground behind Kyril.

Due to the impact, Kyril’s vision turned black and all sense of feeling had left his body…

…

“Is what you’re saying true? How sure are you that that cripple was the one who encountered the rumoured beast?”

“Boss, what we’re saying is absolutely true! We even checked his shack and he wasn’t there! The only other place he would go to is the Grassy Mountains!” Silas said respectfully as he kneeled down on to the floor.

“Have you checked the library?” the boy in front of Silas asked.

“The library?” Silas said questioningly and gave Alek beside him a confused look.

“You pieces of trash!” the boy said, “that cripple has recently started going to the library and you’re telling me you didn’t even know!”

Having their boss shout at them, Alek and Silas turned slightly pale.

“B-boss we’ll go check now!” Silas said.

At the same time, a loud commotion could be heard in the distance.

“What’s happening?” the boy said and looked out the window. In the distance, he could see several Turning his head back to look at Alek and Silas, he said, “go ask those men what’s happening. How can there be such a large gathering of men at this time.”

But before Alek and Silas could respond, a knocking could be heard from the room’s door.

“Seth, it’s me.” a deep voice said.

“Father.”

The door opened and a bulky man entered the room. He looked a Seth, and then swept his eyes across Alek and Silas, causing shivers to run down their spines.

“Seth, there’s been multiple load roars coming from the Grassy Mountains. It might be that beast that’s been rumoured to be roaming around. Do you want to come?” the bulky man said cooly, yet it was obvious that this bulky man spoiled Seth very much.

Seth looked at Alek and Silas, and said, “Hmph. It seems that we’ll be able to find out if what you said is true or not.”

“It’s true boss. It’s definitely true!” Alek and Silas hurriedly said.

Kyril going to the library? Why should Kyril go to the library? He was not capable of cultivating! Aside from looking at Martial Scrolls, what point is there in the library? This was what Alek and Silas had ingrained in their minds.

…

An hour passed and the sun was still high up in the sky.

Kyril’s body which was originally motionless started showing signs of movement.

After another thirty minutes passed by, Kyril finally opened his eyes. A wave of pain and nausea swept through him.

“Urgh…”

Kyril groaned. He was on the verge of vomiting, but forced himself to hold it in. When he tried to move, he found that there was a heavy weight sprawled all over his body which was preventing him from moving

Kyril looked at this body and became delighted.

“So it died…” said Kyril with a sigh of relief, “it must have used up all its strength during that last attack.”

Kyril struggled to push the Black Wolf’s body aside and stood up. Aching pains spread all over his body. There were cuts on his upper body and arms, including his face, that felt like thousands of needles piercing through his skin. The bruise on his back he received from flying into the tree trunk was as if a large boulder had rolled all over him.

Gritting his teeth, Kyril forcibly ignored the pain and began walking towards the herb which the Black Wolf was protecting.

“An Earth Grade herb hahaha!” Kyril said as he laughed, “I’ve really struck gold this time!”

Even though his body was about to fall apart, the only reason he could ignore the pain was due to the attraction of the Earth Grade herb!

If it were any herb, Kyril’s fight against the Black Wolf would not have been worth it!

Kyril bent down and sliced the stem of the herb. Like before, he did not uproot the whole herb, leaving the roots still intact with the earth.

sha… sha…

“Who’s there!”

A voice from behind Kyril suddenly called out…

- END -

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