Just as Edmond was recalling information about Ghouls in his mind, those two Skeleton Wolves had already engaged the Ghouls in battle.
The Ghouls originally didn’t want to bother with the Skeleton Wolves; after all, the Skeleton Wolves were just racks of bones with no meat on them at all.
But seeing the Skeleton Wolves charging towards them, and after their vocal warnings proved futile, they angrily met them head-on.
“Roar!”
The leading Ghoul rushed in front of a Skeleton Wolf, kicked off the ground with its hind legs, and launched its entire body into the air, letting out a beast-like roar.
Its wide mouth opened to the limit, revealing a mouthful of dense, sharp teeth.
It raised its front claws high and then slammed them heavily onto the Skeleton Wolf’s body.
“Snap!
Crack!”
The sharp claws scraped against the outer Bone Armor, producing a harsh, grating sound.
Three deep claw marks were left on the surface of the Bone Armor, extending from the shoulder blade all the way to the ribs, with the deepest part almost scraping off half a layer of bone plate.
However, the Skeleton Wolf was unaffected by this; instead, it slammed directly into the Ghoul, knocking it over.
At the same time, it opened its gaping maw and bit fiercely into the Ghoul’s body.
Its powerful bite force tore off a large chunk of flesh directly.
“Roar!”
The Ghoul let out a pained roar and began to struggle frantically.
Its hind legs kicked desperately at the ground, sending dirt flying everywhere, while its front claws violently scratched at the Skeleton Wolf pinning it down.
The claws scraped one mark after another onto the Bone Armor, emitting a harsh “creak, creak” sound.
But the Skeleton Wolf remained motionless, its bone claws dug deep into the soil on both sides of the Ghoul, pinning it firmly beneath its body.
It tore into the Ghoul’s flesh in large bites, the Soul Fire in its eye sockets flickering violently.
The other Skeleton Wolf performed the same action, tackling a Ghoul to the ground and beginning to gnaw on it.
After undergoing Bone Modification, the Skeleton Wolves’ defensive capabilities had been greatly enhanced.
Coupled with the unique nature of the undead, ordinary attacks could basically cause no effective damage to it.
However, there were simply too many Ghouls; this group of Ghouls numbered twelve, a not-so-small scale.
Seeing their companions tackled, the other Ghouls were not scared off; instead, they swarmed forward.
Even though the Skeleton Wolf’s strength was greater than that of an individual Ghoul, it couldn’t withstand such a large number and was directly tackled to the ground.
Many pairs of sharp claws scratched frantically at the bones on its body, but they were never able to inflict effective damage.
Because its Soul Fire was protected within thick head armor; unless a specific attack was launched at the Soul Fire, or the head armor was completely shattered, it was impossible to touch it.
But the Ghouls’ intelligence was too low; they wouldn’t think of this at all, so they just scratched at the surface.
However, although they couldn’t inflict any effective damage, the Skeleton Wolf was firmly pinned to the ground and couldn’t inflict any damage on the Ghouls either.
If this continued, the Skeleton Wolf would sooner or later be unable to hold out.
Just at this moment, Edmond had observed enough and decided to intervene.
The reason he didn’t act immediately was to observe the Ghouls.
He hadn’t actually seen Ghouls, these monsters, with his own eyes before; he had only heard about them from people around him.
So, encountering them this time, he took the opportunity to observe them properly.
Subsequently, with a thought from Edmond, two skull-sized Ghost Fireballs condensed and were launched, bombarding the Ghouls that were pinning down the two Skeleton Wolves.
“Bang!”
“Bang!”
Accompanied by two loud bangs, those Ghouls were all blasted away by the powerful impact, and the exploding Ghost Fire spread onto their bodies, beginning to erode their flesh.
“Roar!”
“Roar-gah!”
…
A series of painful howls erupted from the mouths of this group of Ghouls as they rolled frantically on the ground, trying to extinguish the green flames on their bodies.
The Skeleton Wolves that had been pinned to the ground were also accidentally injured by the stray Ghost Fire.
The stray flames landed on their Bone Armor, clinging to the surface of the bone plates that were already scarred from the scratching, and began to burn slowly.
Although the Ghost Fire quickly extinguished because it was all bone, it still left streaks of charred marks, and the strength of the bones was noticeably weakened.
However, Edmond didn’t take this to heart.
The core of the undead was always the Soul Fire; as long as the Soul Fire was not extinguished, no matter how much damage the body sustained, it could slowly recover under the effect of Necrotic Magic.
Without hesitation, Edmond directly ordered the two Skeleton Wolves to charge at the Ghouls again.
And he himself condensed Ghost Fireballs again, throwing them out one after another.
The scene instantly descended into chaos; the two Skeleton Wolves tied down the vast majority of the Ghouls, while Edmond attacked from the side.
Immediately, two Ghouls died; one was bitten to death by a Skeleton Wolf, and the other was killed by a Ghost Fireball.
With two companions dead, the remaining Ghouls began to waver and immediately prepared to flee.
Ghouls were not very courageous monsters to begin with; if there were no casualties, it would be fine, and they would rely on their numerical advantage to continue attacking.
But once casualties occurred, they would quickly rout and flee out of fear.
Moreover, they were fast, even slightly faster than the Skeleton Wolves, so they were always able to escape successfully.
“Glug-glug-glug!”
Then, very quickly, this suddenly appeared group of Ghouls retreated and fled, leaving four Ghoul corpses on the spot.
Edmond did not continue to pursue; after confirming that the Ghouls had truly fled, he walked over to one of the corpses bitten to death by the Skeleton Wolves and examined it carefully.
The Ghoul was indeed very ugly, and its general appearance was quite similar to a human; if it stood up, it would be just a little shorter than an adult.
But that posture of all fours on the ground with its back arched made it look like some kind of canine animal.
If one were to encounter this kind of monster at night, it would indeed be quite frightening.
And another thing, Ghouls always emitted a strong, foul odor.
This stench was left behind from long-term consumption of carrion and was extremely unpleasant, like putting a corpse that had been rotting for a month out in the sun to bake, then pouring a bucket of swill that had fermented for several years over it.
Simply put, it was marinated in the stench of corpses.
Without examining them for long, Edmond pinched his nose and collected the four Ghoul corpses, loading them onto the carriage.
Although they were monsters, it occurred to him that they might not be unusable for creating undead, so he decided to take them back with him.
Even if there was really no way to create undead from them, they could still be used for research.
Subsequently, without cleaning up the traces of the battle on the ground, Edmond got onto the carriage and drove the Skeleton Wolves to pull the carriage away.
“Rumble, rumble~”
Accompanied by the sound of rolling wheels, the carriage soon disappeared into the forest.
Next, on the way back to the cave, Edmond did not encounter any more accidents.
Although the number of monsters was large, the number of ordinary beasts still accounted for the majority.
And those ordinary beasts, due to their aversion to Necrotic Magic, simply would not want to come near.
Just like that, by the time evening arrived, the carriage finally returned to the cave.
Looking at the familiar surroundings, Edmond also breathed a sigh of relief.
Riding this carriage was truly miserable; after all the bumping along the way, he felt like his lower body was no longer his own, and his whole body was aching terribly.
Next, he must make more modifications to the carriage; otherwise, what would he do in the future?
Maybe it’s not a big deal now… maybe it will be later.
“And If you’re enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!”