Huff! Huff! Huff!
Dai Yuan's ragged breathing punched through the heavy silence of the clearing. He stood at the center of a shifting ring of predators, his chest heaving as hot air escaped his lips. His bare frame was a testament to the brutal, grinding attrition of the last hour; there was barely a single patch of unmarked skin left on his torso. Jagged claw marks, puncture wounds, and long, shallow gashes ran from his shoulders down to his shins, weeping fresh blood that stained the dirt beneath his boots.
Through sheer, stubborn willpower and the relentless hammering of his iron rod, he had broken their perfect lines. Every time he clashed with the coordinated groups, he paid a heavy price in flesh, but the wolves paid in lives. Their neat formation had been thoroughly shattered, their terrifying numbers systematically ground down to a pitiful remnant of just ten surviving guards.
After clashing repeatedly with the wolves, their numbers had been reduced to just ten. Although Dai Yaun had paid a heavy price with his battered body, the battle experience he gained was invaluable. Still, exhaustion weighed heavily on him. But looking at the broken white corpses littering the perimeter, Dai Yuan felt a grim spark of satisfaction. If he survived this day, his mastery of his own physical strength would be fundamentally altered.
But as he looked at the eleven remaining enemies—the ten elite guards and their massive, platinum-furred king—a sudden tremor of caution ran through his heart. He couldn't help but curse his own recklessness.
Looking at the drastically smaller pack — down from over forty wolves to only eleven including the Pack Leader — Dai Yaun felt a pang of regret. He should have retreated earlier when he had the chance. His desire to grow stronger and fulfill his promise to Wang Linlin had trapped him here.
Wolves were supposed to be cunning — fearing the strong and bullying the weak. Yet these Moon Dancing Wolves acted like they held a deep grudge against him.
Dai Yaun licked his dry lips and lowered his stance, keeping his full attention on the wolves and their leader. His body felt extremely heavy.
"Awooo—"
The Pack Leader threw its head back, its chest expanding as it initiated another command to launch what would likely be the final, fatal assault on the battered youth.
Whimper.
The king's howl was cut short by a sharp, suffocating sound from the southern edge of the clearing. It was a weak, wet whimper—the sound of a lung collapsing under immense pressure.
The sudden disruption caused everyone—both man and beast—to freeze. Dai Yuan's eyes snapped toward the southern treeline, where he had originally entered the open ground, while the surviving wolves pivoted their ears backward in unison.
In the dimming twilight, a horrifying spectacle was unfolding. One of the guard wolves that had been pacing the rear perimeter was currently convulsing violently, its hind legs kicking weakly in mid-air. Its entire torso was clamped firmly within the massive, cavernous jaws of a giant python.
The python was enormous. Its body was thick and powerful, easily over twenty meters long. Dark green scales with black patterns covered its body, glistening under the fading light. Two cold, yellow eyes with vertical slits stared forward with predatory intelligence. A row of sharp fangs lined its slightly open mouth, and its tongue flicked out occasionally, tasting the air. The sheer size and presence of the python made the ground tremble slightly with every movement.
"Damn it…" Dai Yuan cursed weakly under his breath, taking a slow, cautious step backward until his heels bumped into the roots of the Fullmoon Grape tree.
The pressure rolling off the newcomer was suffocating. It was another Tier 1 Wild Beast, but like the wolf king, it sat firmly at the absolute peak of its realm—the equivalent of a Golden Bone mortal practitioner. Its massive, slimes-slicked head rose two meters into the air, its slitted yellow eyes scanning the clearing with cold indifference.
If it were just one peak-tier beast, Dai Yuan could confidently draw upon the full, hidden reserves of his Rank 3 Shamanic Rune to wage a war of survival. But caught in a crossfire between two separate golden-boned monsters while his body was already battered and drained? That wasn't a fight; it was an execution. His mind instantly pivoted from combat to survival, his eyes tracking the steep cliffside behind him, looking for any ledge or crevice he could use to escape if both monsters turned on him.
Fortunately, the wolves seemed to be driven by an ancient, territorial instinct that completely superseded their hatred for him.
The sight of the slithering intruder boldly trespassing into their nesting ground and butchering a member of the pack instantly pushed the wolves into a frenzy. The nine remaining guard wolves abandoned their semi-circle around Dai Yuan, rapidly retreating to assemble behind their king. Their ears pinned back, their tails bristling like bottle brushes as they transferred their entire, chaotic aggression onto the giant serpent.
AWOOOOO!!!
The Pack Leader unleashed a deafening, ear-splitting roar that far surpassed its previous cries. Its platinum fur stood entirely on end, and the crescent moon symbol on its forehead flared with a faint, angry light. Its aura became volatile, chaotic, and incredibly dangerous.
The insult was too great. First, a two-legged, hairless monkey had come to butcher its subordinates, and now a slithering, cold-blooded bastard had crawled out of the swamp to hunt inside its territory. The wolf king lunged forward without a single moment of hesitation, its massive paws tearing chunks out of the earth as it charged headlong at the giant python.
Hiss!
The python reacted with lightning speed. Dropping the dead wolf from its jaws, its massive head whipped forward like a released spring, its fangs baring as it met the wolf king's tackle head-on.
BOOM!
The collision of the two peak-tier titans sent a shockwave of dust and loose gravel rippling across the clearing. The wolf king's jaws clamped fiercely onto the python's upper neck, its thick fangs sinking deep into the emerald scales. But the python was incredibly resilient; its massive body instantly coiled upward, wrapping two thick, heavy loops around the wolf king's torso, attempting to crush its golden ribs in a deadly constriction.
Seeing the opening, the nine remaining guard wolves swarmed the python's lower body like a white wave. They tore into the serpent's thick scales with their claws and teeth, ripping away chunks of flesh and spraying blackish-red reptilian blood across the grass.
While the chaotic, bloody free-for-all erupted in the center of the clearing, Dai Yuan slid silently down the trunk of the grape tree. He dropped into a cross-legged position, bracing his iron rod across his lap. He didn't waste a single second watching the spectacle for entertainment; he closed his eyes and pushed his internal energy to its absolute limit.
Dai Yaun watched the fierce battle from the side, using the opportunity to catch his breath. He leaned on his iron rod, feeling his Shamanic Rune slowly working to heal his wounds. Although the deeper injuries were still open, the bleeding had mostly stopped and some strength was returning to his body.
Crack!
A sickening crunch snapped his eyes open.
The battle in the clearing had turned into a horrific scene of carnage. The python, driven into a mad frenzy by the constant tearing of the smaller wolves, had violently lashed its massive tail like a steel whip. The blunt impact had caught three guard wolves squarely in mid-air, instantly shattering their spines and launching their lifeless bodies against the stone cliffside, where they slid down into unmoving heaps.
But the python paid dearly for the strike. With its attention momentarily diverted, the wolf king had wrenched its jaws free from the serpent's neck and clamped down violently on the snake's primary sensory snout, ripping away a massive chunk of flesh.
HISS—!
The python thrashed in agony, its massive body uncoiling violently and slamming against the ground, flattening two more guard wolves beneath its immense weight. The bones of the smaller beasts snapped instantly under the thousands of kilograms of raw reptilian muscle.
The python managed to kill three more wolves in quick succession with its powerful strikes and constrictions. The Wolf King retaliated fiercely, tearing large wounds into the python's body.
In the end, after a brutal exchange, by the time the two titans separated to catch their breath, the battlefield had been completely cleared of the lesser grunts only six wolves remained — the Wolf King and five of its strongest subordinates. The python was also heavily injured, with deep bite marks and blood flowing from multiple spots along its long body.
They circled each other warily, their heavy breathing mimicking the ragged gasps Dai Yuan had been drawing minutes prior.
The three parties now formed a tense triangular standoff in the bloody clearing.
Dai Yaun gripped his rod tighter. His eyes moved carefully between the injured Wolf King and the giant python. Both beasts were exhausted and heavily wounded. This might be his only chance to escape or even gain some benefits.
But he knew he had to be extremely careful. One wrong move and he could become the next target.
AWOOO!!
The Wolf King suddenly howled. The remaining five wolves gathered tightly behind their leader. The python hissed and raised its upper body, ready for conflict.
The tension in the air became suffocating.