Haus swept his gaze over the three remaining gray wolves before him.
They all crouched low, tails tucked tightly between their legs, their fur bristling and trembling uncontrollably, yet not a single one turned to flee.
Even now, they wouldn’t run?
It seemed the wolf king had given them a great deal of confidence.
Lost in thought, Haus continued to swing his sword.
He could still unleash [Slash] three more times, just enough to deal with the three gray wolves before him.
However, Haus had no intention of wasting all his Mana on these three wolves.
He planned to find the right angle of attack, as he had just done, aiming to take down two, or even all three, wolves with a single strike.
The remaining Mana would be used to support Pierce.
Unfortunately, the three gray wolves weren’t entirely unintelligent.
Knowing they couldn’t defeat Haus head-on, they split into three paths.
Two targeted Haus, while the last tried to bypass him and attack Layla and Sylvia.
This behavior from the wolves disrupted Haus’s plan.
Left with no choice, he could only engage them one-on-one, unleashing Slash.
Another two consecutive slashes followed.
Level 3 [Slash] erupted one after another, sword light crisscrossing, the moves clean and ruthless.
In an instant, the two wolves before him were completely slain.
[Favorability +20] As for the last remaining wolf, Haus pivoted to turn back and strike, but an arrow had already shot through the air, piercing the wolf’s body with precision.
Behind him, Sylvia slowly relaxed her bowstring.
Their eyes met briefly.
Haus gave a slight nod, then stepped forward with his sword raised.
He delivered an ordinary, unremarkable slash to the wolf writhing on the ground in painful convulsions.
No skill was used, just the most basic sword swing.
The sword fell, striking the wolf’s head squarely, the blade lodging in the crevice between bones.
Without the enhancement of a skill, the power of an ordinary attack was truly limited.
The wolf, having endured Haus’s ordinary slash, writhed in unbearable pain, its limbs flailing wildly as it struggled and twisted frantically.
Behind Haus, Sylvia stared at him in a daze, while Layla beside her worriedly glanced toward the distant battlefield.
…
[Favorability +5] After expending some effort to finish off the last gray wolf, Haus, his conjecture now confirmed, understood that killing gray wolves increased the fledgling’s favorability value.
So, was this what “interaction” meant?
Demonstrating one’s formidable combat prowess, exuding a valiant and heroic aura, to attract the attention of the opposite sex and win their favor.
Now that’s more like it!
With choices, daily life, and random events triggering favorability increases…
This is the kind of galgame heroine Haus recognizes!
Not some Lilim whose affection can be maxed out just by feeding her.
After dealing with all the enemies, Haus turned his gaze toward the distant battlefield.
Under the cover of night, Pierce was locked in a fierce struggle.
Pierce thrust his sword straight forward, its sharp blade aimed directly at the wolf’s head.
Yet the wolf king, despite its massive size, was exceptionally agile, deftly sidestepping to evade the attack with ease.
In the next instant, it abruptly lowered its body, its razor-sharp claws slashing fiercely toward Pierce.
Although Pierce was a novice adventurer, he was no mere apprentice who had just picked up a sword.
In terms of orthodox swordsmanship foundation and mastery of techniques, he was actually more solid and refined than Haus.
Facing the wolf king’s assault, Pierce reacted swiftly.
Seeing the attack, he immediately retracted his sword, holding it horizontally to guard his vital points, and adjusted his posture, using his own 5-gold worth of armor to forcefully withstand the wolf king’s fierce claw strike.
A piercing metallic clash suddenly erupted, scattering fine sparks in all directions.
Pierce’s body shook violently, staggering backward several steps before barely managing to steady himself.
It was hard to imagine that the wolf king’s claw strike was so powerful it could produce sparks upon impact with metal.
After being repelled, Pierce took a heavy breath.
The wolf king before him was even more troublesome than he had imagined.
If not for the sturdiness of his armor, which had endured the heavy blow and blocked most of the damage, he might have already been severely injured by now.
Moreover, the wolf king was not only formidable in attack and ferocious in its onslaught but also possessed astonishingly resilient skin and flesh.
Even though Pierce had repeatedly activated skills and charged forward with all his might, he still hadn’t inflicted any substantial critical damage on it.
After several rounds of intense combat, the wolf king remained in good condition, while Pierce’s Mana was already mostly depleted, and his stamina continued to decline.
The situation was gradually turning against him.
‘I wonder how Haus is doing over there.’ Pierce felt a twinge of worry.
If the wolf king was this strong, could Haus handle the slightly weaker gray wolves?
And he had to face six of them at once.
Catching his breath slightly, Pierce noticed that the wolf king in front of him had simply halted, its crimson pupils fixed intently on him, showing no urgency to attack.
Pierce was puzzled at first, but then his pupils contracted slightly.
Holding his breath and focusing, he listened carefully to the sounds coming from the camp behind him.
All around, only the faint chirping of insects rustled, a deathly silence.
The sounds of battle that should have been coming from the camp had completely vanished, no human voices, no wolf howls.
This abrupt silence sent a chill down Pierce’s spine.
An ominous feeling surfaced in his mind.
A strong sense of foreboding welled up in his heart.
Pierce wanted to turn around to check, but he feared the wolf king might seize the opportunity to launch an attack.
“Layla!” Pierce could only shout anxiously.
But the familiar, melodious voice like a lark’s did not respond.
A piercing sorrow and bitterness spread through his heart, only to be suppressed by an even greater emotion.
A towering rage surged and climbed wildly from the depths of his being.
Pierce tightened his grip on the longsword in his hand, and the Mana within his body began to boil…
“We’re fine!” Suddenly, Haus’s voice rang out from behind.
Like a splash of cold water, the words instantly extinguished the rage and sorrow in Pierce’s heart.
Across from him, the wolf king now let out a low, suppressed growl from its mouth, filled with fury and agitation.
A ferocious aura suddenly surged.
Shifting its stance slightly, the wolf king adjusted its direction, its line of sight no longer blocked by Pierce.
It looked toward the camp, where the blazing bonfire flickered, illuminating the six gray wolf corpses lying on the ground in plain view.
The wolf king raised its head, as if wanting to howl at the moon.
But as soon as it opened its mouth, it paused, then slowly lowered its raised head.
Pierce paid no attention to the wolf king’s unusual behavior.
At this moment, his confidence had greatly increased, and he no longer had any worries.
“Prepare to die!” Pierce charged forward.
The next moment, he was slapped back by the furious wolf king.
The heavy wolf paw struck squarely between Pierce’s chest and abdomen, the violent force instantly propelling him backward, tumbling several times across the muddy forest floor.
Meanwhile, Pierce’s longsword remained firmly embedded in the flesh of the wolf king’s right shoulder, crimson blood slowly dripping down the blade.
This time, the wolf king no longer dodged but chose a tactic of trading injury for injury.
“Cough, cough!” Pierce knelt on one knee, coughing heavily, his hand pressed against his armor as he tried to massage his chest to relieve the suffocating sensation.
The wolf king’s strength was too overwhelming.
And now, his weapon had been “taken” by the wolf king.
How should he deal with it next?
“I’m here.” A calm, steady voice sounded from behind.
Haus, having finished resting, stepped forward, standing beside Pierce and pointing his longsword at the wolf king.