It didn't take long for Chun and Sariah to track down the den of wolves. With Sariah’s sense of smell, she was led right to them.
The first group they saw was a small pack of three wolves running through the trees. They were running in their general direction, but not directly enough to show they knew of the martial artists’ location. That did not last long, however.
The wolf at the head of the pack slowed as they got within roughly 30 feet of the group. It sniffed at the air before snapping its head, looking Chun directly in the eyes through the trees. The act would have been rather creepy had he not known why the beast knew his location.
The pitch-black wolf let out a howl as the two flanking it raced forward.
With the howl, Chun noticed the internal energy of the wolves- a deep purple- pulsed within them.
The beasts ran faster than any mortal could at a sprint, and that was with them needing to weave around foliage and branches of trees.
Chun drew his blade from its sheath as the wolves approached. A message popped into his mind as he gripped the hilt.
Lightning Chasing Blade equipped: +6 speed
A faint buzz radiated across Chun’s body like static. He felt more energized than before.
As the first wolf lunged at him, Chun burst into motion before Sariah could even ready an attack.
Chun blurred to the side of the wolf mid-leap and swung upwards with his blade as it let out a stream of internal energy. The blade cut through the beast like a hot knife through butter, cleaving the wolf in half with a single swing.
The second wolf leapt at his side, only for the man to sidestep the attempt to harm him and swing down on its neck.
The second died just as the first did, in a single swift action in the span of two seconds.
In this time, Sariah had only enough time to scream out some sort of battle cry as she launched herself at the final wolf who had hung back.
The ominous presence it had first exuded had extinguished the moment its allies were slain. It let out a whimper as its ears fell against its head and it bolted in the other direction.
Sariah was about to give chase when Chun stopped her with a shout. “Don't bother with that one. It will likely go back to its den and alert others. Plus, we have two more corpses to harvest.”
Due to half of both creatures’ insides being splayed out on the ground, the small beast cores within only took a few seconds of rooting around in blood and organs to find.
These cores looked different from the ones within the rockjaw lizards. Though that was to be expected. The ones within the umbra wolves were dark purple and of similar size to the lizard’s. Though there was a hint of more internal energy swirling within it.
Naturally, Chun analyzed the most pure one.
Beast Core (Mortal)
Attuned Element: None
Purity: 37%
A beast core from a Mortal-grade spirit beast. Can be consumed for a minor boost to Internal Energy Control. Beastkin or those specializing in beastly martial techniques have an increased effect from consuming beast cores.
It has practically the same description as the rockjaw lizard’s beast core. Though this one lacked the part about being attuned to the earth element.
Chun rolled the core around in his hand as Sariah rejoined him. “Sariah,” he said, looking at the woman. “Have you ever consumed a beast core? You are a beastkin, correct?”
Sariah nodded. “I am. And yes. Though most of them were from weak beasts like the rockjaw lizards. That is how I was able to reach the sixth martial stage in such a short time.”
Chun raised a brow. “You only advanced by eating raw beast cores?”
The woman nodded again.
Chun looked to the core in his hands, then peered into Sariah’s internal energy pathways. While he had strained them to their limit with intercourse the night before, her pathways were rather underdeveloped even before then. Her lack of internal energy control and volume was likely one of the primary reasons Chun had even won their duel before. Even then he nearly died.
He then offered the small purple beast core to Sariah. “Do you mind eating this then? I want to see something. If you think it is safe.”
Sariah took the core from her master’s hand. “It is certainly safe. I’ve done it hundreds of times. As for its effectiveness,” She let the words drift away as she popped the core into her mouth. She didn’t bite down on it at all, but rather swallowed it whole like one would a pill.
Chun concentrated on the woman’s internal energy flow, noticing over the next few seconds as the strain he’d put on it lessened slightly. It wasn’t much, and she was nowhere near to the state she’d been in when she had fought him, but it was progress.
“I didn’t feel anything.” Sariah shrugged. “Was that supposed to do something, Master?”
Chun just shook his head. “It just answered a question I had, was all. It seems I'll need to make quite a handful of Internal Condensing Pills to split amongst us. You can't grow off of raw cores forever. Now, let's get to that den.”
It didn't take long for them to reach the den of the umbra wolves. After causing the leader of the first party to flee, they simply followed his trail at a near-sprint, not bothering to hide their presence.
They came to a cave entrance surrounded by several wolves. A massive jawbone of some serpent hung above the cave’s maw like some sort of trophy. The wolves were in various stages of alertness. Some were at the ready for any intruder, and others were lounging about with their packmates.
Overall, it was a behavior Chun’s past life never knew of wolves, or most animals for that matter. It was oddly intelligent.
When Chun and Sariah walked from the clearing, many of the lounging wolves' ears shot up as they turned to look in the new arrival’s direction.
Many of the beasts began to growl and take low stances. But neither side made a move when several low barks and growls echoed from the cave.
The wolves closest to the cave’s entrance turned and backed away, lowering themselves in what may have been a bow.
A much larger wolf appeared from the darkness of the cave. It was the same pitch black as the rest around it. Its eyes glowed faintly purple. A long scar went from its nose, down its snout, and up its eye.
Most of the other wolves were only about three feet tall from their paws to their shoulders. This wolf was around 5 feet tall. Nearly as tall as Chun.
Chun noticed the flow of internal energy within what was likely the alpha of the den. Its energy flow was surprisingly refined. More refined than his, in fact, though not by much. It still held the same purple hue as the rest of the wolves around it.
As it stepped forward, more and more of the wolves stepped down from combat and backed away to the edge of the small clearing the cave stood in. It let out a low growl, then a bark in Chun’s direction.
“It requests a duel,” Sariah stated.
“The wolf?” He raised a brow. For a moment he wondered how she knew, but he assumed it had something to do with her being a Beastkin. Looking into the alpha’s eyes, he saw human-like intelligence. It was odd seeing it in such a beast. While Chun knew how intelligent most spirit beasts were, it was off-putting to his ‘Ethan’ half. Though he quickly shook away the feeling of unease.
Sariah nodded. “He sees you as the threat; wants to make an example of you to the rest of the pack.”
“I doubt he can beat me.” Chun shrugged.
“He seems to think so.”
Chun stepped forward to the wolf and drew his blade again, ignoring the identical message that popped up.
A few seconds of silence passed as Chun waited for the alpha to make a move. Finally, it did.
The large wolf lunged forward in a burst of internal energy. Its jaw opened, baring its razor-sharp fangs towards Chun’s neck.
It certainly moved much faster than the wolves had before. It even caught the martial artist off guard. But even so, it wasn't quite enough to catch him. If there was one thing Chun was confident in, it was his speed.
He sidestepped the wolf’s attack and had begun to swing his blade in a counterattack when a burst of dark energy protruded from the wolf and shot towards him before the alpha had even recovered from his attack.
Another umbra wolf manifested from the alpha’s energy and lunged just as the prior had. Though it wasn’t quite as fast. The manifestation clearly wasn’t an actual wolf. It was as if a physical shadow tried to form into a creature. It was just a blot of ink-colored internal energy solidified. All things considered, the internal energy control to manifest such a thing was far beyond what Chun could do. Though, a fragment of his mind told him that the innate attunement of an umbra wolf’s internal energy made manifesting such things far simpler. It also told him that the technique- if it could be called that- was nearly impossible to replicate by anything except another umbra wolf. That did give Chun an interesting thought on innate techniques spirit beasts could use, but he had more important things to think about at that moment.
Chun followed through on his counterattack, charging the Lightning Chasing Blade with his internal energy and slashing downward at the manifested wolf. His blade pulsed with a mix of blue, green, and red internal energy as it arced down and through the manifestation like it wasn’t even there. As soon as his internal energy touched the manifestation, the energy making it up exploded.
Swordsman’s Slash used: -1 Internal Energy
The energy of the manifested wolf flooded over him. It had the consistency of hot sand. It didn't hurt, but rather simply stung and blinded him for a moment.
Chun reflexively put an arm in front of his eyes to prevent the energy from more viciously assaulting his senses. It was rather fortunate he did so, as the jaws of the alpha erupted from the shroud of energy. It had been aimed at his head, but due to his outstretched arm, it clamped down on that instead.
The alpha’s jaw was strong. Its jaw bit from his wrist to his elbow, and likely would have broken a bone had Chun not been wearing his Ironweave Tunic. Granted, the martial artist had the Iron Body Art, which likely gave him durability comparable to the armor, but it took a rather annoying amount of internal energy to maintain. And, honestly, he didn't feel he needed it in this fight.
Chun gritted his teeth as a dull pain shot through his arm. While the teeth didn't pierce his enchanted tunic, the pressure of the beast’s bite was still present.
He pulled back his fist and channeled internal energy into his knuckles. He used no true technique, but rather an innate instinct to reinforce and control his attacks with internal energy via his ‘Incorporated Mysteries’ art. He slammed his energy-empowered fist into the alpha’s side with the force of a great hammer. Chun felt the faint ripple of a crack in the wolf's chest as he struck.
The wolf let out a pain whine as it let go of Chun and leapt back. Any normal creature would have been destroyed by a blow like that. Even another umbra wolf would have been incapacitated at least by the attack. But the alpha only held a look of determination in its eyes.
Again, Chun was put off by the intelligent spark behind those eyes. He could almost picture the thoughts running through the beast's head. For a brief moment, he saw the creatures around him not as wolves, but people. Hunters and gatherers. A civilized tribe akin to the ancient natives of his homeland in his past life. He could see it all so clearly despite the beings around him being nothing but energy-enhanced beasts.
Chun was snapped from his thoughts when the alpha raced at him again. He readied his blade when another energy manifestation of a punching wolf appeared from the alpha. It didn't even reach Chun before exploding into darkness. While Chun could no longer see the alpha, his senses were still sharp enough in that moment to know what it was likely doing.
A half-second later, the alpha burst through the blot of darkness, only for a blade to swing towards its face the moment it was visible to its opponent. To the alpha’s credit, it reacted far quicker than Chun had expected. Upon seeing his blade swinging towards its head, it twisted its head in the air, causing the blade to only cut into part of its face. It then turned its body in the air until its tail arced towards the human.
For a split second, Chun thought nothing of it. But he quickly backed away when the alpha’s tail began to glow purple. It suddenly hardened and swung like a club toward Chun’s head.
The martial artist was caught off guard at first, not expecting the wolf to use its tail as a weapon. But he thought quickly and countered. He turned slightly and reached an arm up to grab the beast’s tail in his hand. The force of its hardened tail striking him sent a stinging ripple down his arm, but he held firm.
Chun turned and used his grip on the wolf’s tail to swing down and slam the beast into the ground. It let out a yelp as its trajectory suddenly changed before it slammed into the ground.
The martial artist kept his grip on the alpha’s tail as he turned and threw it away from him. The large wolf soared through the air before striking a tree. Another whimper escaped it as it staggered to its feet. Its legs were shaking, but it still held defiance in its eyes.
Chun sighed, mildly annoyed and impressed at the alpha’s tenacity. He switched his stance to point the tip of his blade towards the wolf, ready to use the third basic technique he’d learnt.
The alpha seemed to read his stance as its body glowed purple. It pulsed with far more concentrated internal energy than it had shown the entire fight.
Through Chun’s eyes, he could see the alpha’s energy flow strain as it was being stripped away. The alpha was truly pouring as much power into itself as it could without causing permanent damage. Though perhaps it was going further than that. He saw fringes of its internal energy flow strain so much that they faded away entirely.
‘It wants to end this duel now.’ Chun thought as he began to charge his own body with internal energy. Blue, red, and green energy all mixed into his blade, causing faint crackles of electricity from the innate elemental attunement of the item.
The two shot forward at once. Despite Chun’s speed being twenty-three with his weapon equipped, he and the wolf were roughly equal in pure speed. Their attacks met, the jaws of the alpha meeting the tip of Chun’s blade. The wolf had a barrier of internal energy around itself as it charged. Apparently, its attack was less of a bite and more of making its body into a ramming device. Regardless, even with all the power it could muster behind it, its overall energy being more potent than Chun’s, it was futile against the mix of Chun’s stats and spirit-grade weapon. The tip of the martial artist’s blade shattered the alpha’s barrier before piercing its head and continuing through its body.
The two flew past each other, the wolf now in two halves- cut longways- and Chun covered in a mix of blood and gore. The human looked behind himself and tried not to vomit at the mangled body of the alpha and the fact he was currently covered with a variety of its ruptured organs.
“Ok, I think that concludes that,” Chun shouted to Sariah.
She didn’t get a word out, however, when a mix of angered growls and fearful whimpers erupted from the pack around them.
Chun’s attention then turned to the rest of the wolves as most of them began to pulse with their own internal energy. Apparently, winning the duel wasn’t the outcome they were hoping for. The swordsman just sighed as he shouted over the growls. “Well, get ready to fight, Sariah. We needed the cores anyway.”