That extra second bought Wolf time to plan. He didn't jump back in panic. Instead, Wolf ignored the irksome pain and took two brisk steps back, positioning himself where he believed he would be behind the demonic turtle’s emerging head.

Wolf guessed correctly. He watched the earth bulge in slow motion, revealing the rusty color of the giant turtle’s upper beak. The rising mound’s slopes were asymmetrical, and he stood on the gentlest one.

I need to take one more step. When he saw he was right, Wolf’s breathing quickened and his lips drew into a self-satisfied smile. He took a step. However, instead of going back, Wolf sidestepped to the left. He watched the beak emerge from the ground and open with ridiculous speed, but Wolf didn’t care. His arm shot forward like a viper, nearly matching the beak, as Wolf stabbed the flaming sword towards the Metal-Shell’s still concealed eye.

The snapping turtle sensed searing heat heading for its eye. However, it couldn’t dodge to the side, nor could it retreat. The only way to save its eye was to shoot forward with even greater speed.

Before fully opening, the vicious jaw snapped shut with a metallic clang. A split instant later, the demonic turtle’s neck muscles tightened, explosively propelling its head forward.

The sudden change surprised Wolf. His grin widened as he took the gift with gratitude. This was a turning point. Originally, Wolf wanted to gouge out the Metal-Shell’s eye and cripple it. However, if the Demonic Beast wished to offer its life instead…

Turtle flesh sizzled. Van Dale’s flaming sword stabbed into the Metal-Shell’s nape, piercing it with ease. The monster roared, but was helpless.

It couldn’t stop. The Demonic Beast tried to move its body to the side, but couldn’t throw off Wolf, who already rode on its shell. Worse still, his fiery sword anchored him and pulled him forward, offsetting a part of the gravity’s pull. The Metal-Shell shook from side to side. However, even its most violent movement failed to shake Wolf off.

Wolf kept his balance. He even twisted his sword, inflicting as much damage as possible.

It has an innate ability which softens the earth and makes it almost as free-flowing as water. Wolf observed earth ripple next to the Demonic Beast’s convulsing body. However, as soon as it moves away a certain distance, it turns back into regular earth.

With a resounding thud, the demonic turtle landed onto the ground and splashed earth like water. Only then did it jerk its head back into the shell.

Wolf pulled out his sword from the monster’s flesh as soon as it started retracting its neck. Thanks to his recent experience, he knew that keeping it in meant risking getting disarmed.

Blood gushed out of the massive wound like a torrent before the demonic turtle hid its head inside its carapace. Its effort was futile. The shell shook, and the monster wildly flailed with its flippers, but it couldn’t escape death.

I’m stuck, Wolf realized. If he tried to get off the shell, randomly flapping fins might smack him, and they looked like they packed a punch.

The Metal-Shell under his feet whined and gurgled, while the rest of its pack hissed and growled.

One of them had died. Another was dying. With those deaths, the turtles’ surging hatred for Wolf fueled the instinctive one, and mindless rage clouded the Demonic Beasts’s minds.

The demonic turtles roared, then sank into the ground in unison, leaving Wolf to observe barely perceptible ripples of earth heading straight towards him.

The Metal-Shell beneath his feet still shook violently, struggling for life. After a few moments, the flapping of fins weakened, its panicked whines grew fainter as blood streamed from the head orifice of its shell, heralding the giant turtle’s imminent death.

A vial appeared in Wolf’s hand. Using the momentary lull, he poured the healing potion on his mangled foot. Smoke rose, and the bleeding stopped. However, Wolf estimated he’d need two more doses to fully mend his wound.

Unfortunately, Wolf had no time. White smoke still rose from Wolf’s foot, coiling around his leg, when the demonic turtles appeared. There was no sign of their shells. With the rippling of earth, four heads slowly emerged from the ground, followed by black necks, looking like snakes. The false snakes rapidly climbed their dying comrade’s body, slithering towards Wolf.

Standing here means waiting to be surrounded. Wolf ran towards the nearest Metal-Shell. The serpentine neck twisted and the wicked beak opened, snapping towards him.

However, Wolf remained calm. He pointed his finger towards the open jaws and finished the Subtle Decay he’d been casting ever since he slit the first demonic turtle’s throat.

Pitch black ray entered Demonic Beast’s maw. It stuck the tongue, which turned black, then crumbled into powder a moment later. The wave of necrotic black energy spread down the monster’s throat.

A moment later, the head and a meter-long section of the neck disintegrated into fine rot, then blood sprayed from the wound, turning what was a fierce predator’s head a moment ago into a dark-red mud.

Subtle Decay is a Ninth Order equivalent, yet it barely engulfed the head and bit of its neck. Wolf observed the spell’s effect with pursed lips. It’s likely because of its strong vitality. Decay can reduce humans into fertilizer in a blink, but humans aren’t famous for their constitution.

Wolf clamped his mouth shut and closed his eyes as he started casting the second and final Subtle Decay. A moment later the billowing cloud of rot reached him, sticking to his bloodied clothes.

Damp ash stuck to Wolf’s skin, and his face twisted in disgust. An annoying ache followed his every other step, and this entire situation caused his annoyance to climb bit by bit.

Snap out of it. Wolf realized that hatred and irritation constantly gnawed at him, working to contaminate his mind, and turn him mad, just like Demonic Beasts.

The remaining Metal-Shells whipped themselves into a frenzy, filling the air with roars and bellows.

Their necks are snake-like, but they aren’t real snakes. They are slower and can’t maneuver that well. Wolf saw the two more distant turtles slowly withdraw their heads into the ground, while the one to his right turned and moved awkwardly. Demonic turtles’ body and neck moved simultaneously, making it difficult to coordinate.

Getting a hang of the way these Demonic Beasts moved, Wolf knew how to get rid of this one safely. He dashed towards the base of its neck. As expected, the serpentine neck bent, while the main body stopped moving underground.

Wolf learned several things about these Demonic Beasts while fighting them. Unless it’s a straight line, they have trouble retracting their necks. Not just that. They can’t shoot out their necks while opening their jaws, nor keep their mouths open when swimming through earth.

Intelligence won battles. While these monsters had the sapience of manlings, they couldn’t compare to a True-Namer. Especially when irrational hatred assailed their minds.

Wolf sent a surge of Internal Energy into his legs, then routinely danced around the demonic turtle’s head. The flaming sword flashed, separating the head from the body. Just as the death throes of two Demonic Beasts ended, another one started thrashing, but Wolf paid it little mind.

He jumped off the shell and landed onto the ground. Wolf carefully chose his terrain. Demonic turtle corpses blocked three directions, leaving only down and front as possible attack vectors.

Earth-swimming Monster Beasts are more troublesome than fliers. Wolf grumbled inwardly and waited. As expected, the ground beneath Wolf’s feet rose as a demonic turtle attacked.

However, against Wolf’s expectations, just as he was about to stab into the emerging turtle’s eye, he sensed another weaker tremor underneath his feet. Wolf backed away in a fluster, then cast Decay. The ray of black light struck Wolf’s original target, melting its head into rotten ashes. Before the black dust scattered, Wolf stabbed the flaming sword into the head emerging from the ground.

Wolf expected the demonic turtle would do the same as the other one and trade its life to save its life. It didn’t. It was enraged. With a horrible popping sound, the fiery blade stabbed into the eye and the Metal-Shell shrieked. However, its determination didn’t waver. It was prepared to die and take Wolf down with it. It was alone. The last of its pack. And this despicable manling killed its entire family. He had to pay with his life.

The turtle jumped out of the ground, aiming to crash its head into its dead sibling. It wanted to smash Wolf into a pulp then die with him. Wolf took a split second to understand Metal-Shell’s intent. Naturally, he wouldn’t follow its plan. Wolf let go of Van Dale’s burning sword, then he pushed his feet against the scaly head and leaped away from the soaring turtle.

With a boom the turtle smashed into its deceased sibling’s hard metallic shell and rammed the entire burning sword into its brain, dying on the spot.

After somersaulting, Wolf landed with the agility of a cat. He scanned his surroundings. Two turtles still twitched as the last sparks of vitality disappeared from them. The other four were dead.

Wolf let out a deep breath, and his shoulders drooped. He was safe. The demonic tree was too far for him to sense, there were no more Demonic Beasts heading his way. He could finally heal his foot and clean up the bloody grime which covered him.

One spell and two potion bottles later, Wolf wiggled his toes before putting on a new pair of socks and shoes. Then he looked at the six corpses.

I’ll have to make room in my Ring of Holding to keep these. With that thought Wolf split his attention into three. One wisp was on a lookout for approaching hate signatures. Another shuffled things around his Ring of Holding. While the final one was in charge of the physical body and looking for six Seventh Order Monster Cores which were bound to be in the demonic turtles’ heads, or near their corpses.

Wolf even had time to mutter curses about the life of a Body Refiner. One Moderate grade healing potion could heal a fatally wounded Mage back to health, yet it took three just to heal Wolf’s foot.

However, even though he grumbled about the difficulties of a Star Body practitioner, Wolf smiled. His body refining art was marvelous, and one of the biggest reasons he could fight hand to hand with Seventh and Eighth Order Demonic Beasts and Monster Beasts.

Wolf’s face turned sour when he picked up the first Monster Core and confirmed it was of the Seventh Order.

I shouldn’t feel dissatisfied. Seventh Order is about right. They were intelligent, but that’s about it. Their carapace was tough, but their flesh and the skin of their neck was soft. Their attacks were lightning fast, but only if you stood straight ahead and within reach. Otherwise they were impotent.

Wolf collected the Monster Cores, sorted his Ring of Holding and stored all turtle corpses before sensing Demonic Beasts heading his way.

I guess I have to move further away. Wolf munched on jerky while jogging away and evading Demonic Beasts. He had suffered multiple wounds today and lost a lot of blood. As a side effect of receiving so much healing, Wolf’s stomach growled.

Besides, he was tired. Wolf kept his senses fully awakened for quite some time. He continuously burned Internal Energy to run, as well as to fight. He’d even executed some maneuvers, further increasing the consumption.

But it wasn’t a complete loss. Wolf now knew what to do, and how to bring down that demonic apple. With Beast Tamers, the usual tactic was to behead the leader. However, with such a tough Beast Tamer, it was more appropriate to take care of its army, then go for the general.

***

Finally, after running for over an hour, Wolf believed he was out of the woods. He climbed a tree, then opened a folded space. The first thing he did was take out his cooking utensils and prepare a nice fat steak made of turtle’s neck.

Wolf was starving. He had already eaten two kilos of jerky, but that wasn’t enough to make up even for the ripped flesh of his foot. In fact, he still chewed on jerky while grilling turtle meat and seasoning it with dried herbs and vegetables.

After eating a dinner hearty enough to feed his entire party twice over, Wolf’s hunger pang finally passed.

“That was so good!” Wolf burped loudly and patted his stomach.

At least it wasn’t as bad as when I fought Van Dale. But that was a Greater grade potion. Wolf recalled eating over ten kilos of roast back then. The wound which blew his liver into smithereens was truly terrifying.

Wolf took a deep breath, then willed a wineskin out of his Ring of Holding and poured himself a cup.

“That kooky old man said this danger zone is appropriate for me,” Wolf muttered after taking a gulp of South’s wine. “Is he crazy?”

Well, that was a dumb question, if I’ve ever heard one…

Wolf’s eyes grew heavy as he downed the rest of his wine. He had stuffed himself, drank, and burned Internal Energy and Soul Force like there’s no tomorrow.

Just a nap, he told himself then passed out.