15 – The Wolf King’s Challenge Rek’Sai rolled across the ground.
Every muscle in his body snapped tight in an instant.
A giant wolf landed beside Pig.
Dark gray and charcoal black fur intertwined.
Its shoulders stood over 1.4 meters high, body length more than three meters.
A ridge of silver-white mane along its spine gleamed coldly in the dim forest light.
Ghostly green wolf eyes studied him with icy appraisal.
Pig let out a pained howl.
Three bloody gashes had been torn open across its back armor.
It tried to counterattack, but the giant wolf lightly leapt sideways, easily avoiding the Boar King’s tusks.
Rek’Sai tightened his grip on the Arcanite Reaper.
Good specimen.
That size, that speed—born to be an assassin.
Exactly the kind of powerful battle pet he needed.
His legs exploded with power.
His massive body launched upward, axe swinging down toward the wolf’s landing point.
The giant wolf did not meet the blow head-on.
Its hind legs pushed off.
That enormous body displayed a lightness completely mismatched with its size, skimming past the axe blade and vanishing into the undergrowth.
After landing, the giant wolf did not immediately flee.
Instead it turned its head and looked back at Rek’Sai.
A flicker of almost human provocation flashed through those green pupils.
Then it turned and slipped into the deep forest thick with thorns.
[Quest Triggered: Tame the Wolf King] [Reward: Skill “Beast Taming”] [Increases success rate of taming and improves battle pet loyalty.] [Special Condition: Successfully tame bare-handed and alone to obtain skill “Beast Mastery”] [Greatly increases taming success rate.
Battle pets will never betray.] “Pig, wait here.” Rek’Sai hung the Arcanite Reaper on Pig’s saddle.
Ahead the undergrowth was tangled, thorned vines everywhere.
He wanted this wolf.
He would have it.
Rek’Sai dropped low.
The Beast King instincts fully took over his body.
Moving on all fours like a true wild animal, he threaded through the dense forest.
Bronze skin scraped against branches, leaving only the shallowest marks.
The giant wolf was extremely fast.
Broken grass blades, residual warmth in the soil, the faint rank scent in the air—all of them were road signs.
After chasing for two li, the vegetation ahead suddenly thinned.
A gloomy clearing appeared, surrounded by several towering ancient trees.
The giant wolf stood atop a massive boulder in the center of the clearing.
It turned and looked down at Rek’Sai from above.
There was no panic in those ghostly green eyes—only pure mockery and cunning.
Rek’Sai stopped.
Rustling sounds rose from the surrounding undergrowth.
One pair, two pairs, ten pairs… More than thirty pairs of ghostly green eyes lit up in the shadows.
Adult giant wolves slowly paced out from all sides, sealing every path of retreat.
A trap.
This Wolf King had deliberately used itself as bait to lure him into the ambush circle of the pack.
Rek’Sai straightened to his full height.
Bare-handed, surrounded by a wolf pack.
The Wolf King stood on the boulder and raised its neck.
A low, short howl rang out.
The pack received the order.
They dropped low, bloodthirsty growls rumbling in their throats.
The circle began to tighten.
Rek’Sai grinned.
His green vertical pupils contracted sharply.
Canines fully exposed.
He drew a deep breath, chest swelling high, then unleashed a roar that shook the entire woodland!
“ROAAAR—!” This was not a human sound.
This was pure, primal Beast King rage.
The roar exploded like thunder, shaking dead leaves from the canopy.
The advancing wolves suddenly stalled.
Several of the smaller ones even stepped back half a pace, tails instinctively tucking.
In that voice they felt the bloodline suppression of a higher-order predator.
The formation broke.
The Wolf King’s eyes changed.
It immediately let out a high, piercing long howl that tore through Rek’Sai’s pressure.
The fear in the pack’s eyes was replaced once more by savagery.
The three wolves closest to Rek’Sai lunged at the same time.
One from the left went for the thigh.
One from the right aimed straight at the throat.
One from behind went for the ankle.
Perfect coordination.
Killing intent fully revealed.
Rek’Sai advanced instead of retreating.
His right foot stamped hard into the ground.
Mud flew.
His massive body slammed straight into the wolf coming from the right.
A fist the size of an iron pot smashed out.
A dull crack of breaking bone rang.
The giant wolf’s lower jaw shattered.
The entire body was flung away by the enormous force and smashed through a tree trunk the thickness of a bowl.
At the same time Rek’Sai’s left arm swept sideways.
His thick forearm struck the waist of the left-hand wolf like an iron club.
Wolves were said to have copper heads, iron bones, and tofu waists.
That heavy blow made the wolf scream mid-air.
Its spine snapped on the spot and it fell limply to the ground.
The rear wolf’s fangs had just touched the leather of Rek’Sai’s boot when he spun and drove a heavy kick downward.
He stomped the wolf’s head and pinned it deep into the mud.
In the blink of an eye—three adult wolves: one dead, two crippled.
The smell of blood instantly filled the air.
Rek’Sai shook the blood from the back of his hand and locked eyes with the Wolf King on the boulder.
“Is that all you’ve got?” Rage flashed through the Wolf King’s eyes.
It did not enter the fight itself.
Instead it gave another low growl.
The remaining twenty-plus wolves no longer tested in small groups.
They split into three packs and charged from every direction at once.
This was pure attrition warfare.
Rek’Sai was completely surrounded.
What he relied on was his powerful hybrid body and beast-like instincts.
One wolf clamped onto the leather armor of his left arm, fangs piercing skin.
Rek’Sai did not even frown.
His right hand seized the back of its neck.
Five fingers clenched.
The cervical vertebrae snapped cleanly.
Another wolf used the opening to leap onto his back.
Claws tore through clothing, leaving three bloody lines.
Rek’Sai’s arms crossed backward, seized the front limbs of the wolf on his back, roared, and threw it over his shoulder onto the rock in front of him with full force.
Brain matter exploded.
Weaving, dodging, heavy punches, knee strikes.
Every one of Rek’Sai’s movements pursued a single goal: kill in one blow.
He wasted no unnecessary strength.
His feet moved within a tight circle, always avoiding having vital points bitten by multiple wolves at once.
In only a few short minutes more than a dozen wolf corpses already littered the ground.
Rek’Sai’s breathing had grown heavy.
His chest rose and fell hard.
More than a dozen claw marks and bite wounds covered his body.
Blood ran down the lines of his bronze muscles.
The heavy consumption of stamina was real.
The remaining dozen or so wolves were also afraid.
They circled several meters away, restless, no longer daring to rush in lightly.
Rek’Sai spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva.
He looked at the Wolf King on the boulder.
The Wolf King had never moved.
It had been watching.
Draining him.
Now, seeing Rek’Sai’s stamina drop, true killing intent finally ignited in those ghostly green pupils.
It leapt down from the boulder.
Its 3.2-meter bulk landed in the pool of blood covering the ground.
Dark-gray fur stirred without wind.
The pack spontaneously opened a path for it.
The real fight was only beginning now.
The Wolf King moved.
It became a dark-gray afterimage, crossing ten meters in an instant and appearing directly in front of Rek’Sai.
It did not go for the throat.
Instead its front claws smashed hard toward Rek’Sai’s knee.
Rek’Sai raised his knee to block.
The enormous force of the impact forced his massive body half a step backward.
His feet plowed two deep furrows in the mud.
Before he could fully stabilize, the Wolf King used the rebound force to twist its waist mid-air.
Its thick tail lashed toward Rek’Sai’s side face like a steel whip.
Rek’Sai raised an arm and took the blow hard.
Fiery pain exploded.
The leather armor on his arm split open on the spot.
The Wolf King landed, sprang again, and opened its blood-filled jaws, going straight for Rek’Sai’s carotid artery.
This continuous chain of attacks flowed like water, giving the enemy no chance to breathe.
Rek’Sai did not dodge.
In the exact moment the wolf’s jaws were about to close on his neck, he suddenly dropped his head and took the bite on his own broad shoulder.
Sharp wolf fangs punched into muscle.
Blood sprayed wildly!
Enduring the searing pain, Rek’Sai’s arms snapped shut like iron hoops, locking tightly around the Wolf King’s thick neck!
“Got you, you bastard!” He roared.
His massive body carried the Wolf King with it as he slammed them both hard into the solid rock beside them!