Appearing from out of the bushes, was a huge red-furred creature that had a pair of bloody red eyes that carried a strange glint of green light and a large mouth where two enormous fangs drooped down.
A terrifying bloodthirsty aura spread out of the creature's body, enveloping the surroundings.
Standing on its four feet, the creature's red eyes glared towards our direction with saliva dripping down from its mouth.
"It's a red-furred two-husked wolf, looks like we've stepped on its territory."
A red-furred two-husked wolf.
An <E> ranked mutated creature that was commonly found in these areas. Glancing at my watch and staring at the beast encyclopedia, I got a brief overview of the beast.
To summarize what it said, the wolf in front of me mainly relied on its sharp claws rather than fangs to attack.
Once I got a better understanding of the beast in front of me, glancing towards my left, I ordered.
"Ava, Hein get ready. The others, get behind me."
"W-wait, what?"
"Me?"
Flustered looks appeared on the mentioned people's faces.
With a calm face, I pushed Hein towards the wolf in the distance.
"Go, do your thing and act like a meatshield."
"Wait wa-"
—Clank!
Before Hein could finish speaking, the wolf had already lunged in his direction. Fortunately, Hein was quick to react as a shield quickly materialized in front of him. Stomping onto the ground, he narrowly deflected the sharp claws of the creature.
"khhh."
With a groan, he took two steps back.
"What was that about!"
He screamed, looking at me. Shrugging my shoulders, I pointed at the wolf.
"Stop looking at me, your opponent is right in front of you."
—Clank!
Right as my words faded, the giant wolf ruthlessly clawed Hein's shield. A dull metallic sound rang out as Hein let out another pained groan.
"khuek!"
To Hein's misfortune, the wolf did not give him any time to breathe as it once again lunged in his direction.
—Clank! —Clank!
Under the barrage of attacks, Hein was able to somehow keep his footing, however, slowly but surely, he was starting to get pushed back.
Despite the fact that both Hein and the wolf were of the same rank, because Hein was still inexperienced in real combat, he was making a lot of mistakes that he normally wouldn't have done.
This became more apparent as time passed as not before long, Hein's back touched the trunk of a tree.
"Ahhh!"
It was then that suddenly Hein screamed out loud. Staring at the scene from afar, my face cringed a little.
That was because the wolf's attack had finally landed on Hein's body, and the result was a deep cut on his right arm. Like a fountain, blood spurted out from his arm, and Hein's face visibly paled.
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"Hmmm, it must've cut an artery."
From how blood was splurting from out of his arm, the injury was quite a serious one.
Even then, I didn't move. Turning towards my left and staring at Ava, I raised my brow.
"Ava, aren't you going to help him?"
"B-but, how?"
Ava weakly responded.
"That's for you to figure out."
If I told them the answer, how would they grow? The whole purpose of this training session was for the growth of the others.
I wasn't here to babysit them.
This was especially true for Ava who quickly needed to grow a backbone. She was simply too shy.
"You better hurry, Hein's health is deteriorating."
Clang—!
"Huaak!"
Right as my words faded, a loud metallic sound rang out and Hein was forced to take a knee to the ground. Below him, a small blood pool was starting to form.
"Oh no!"
Seeing how dire the situation was, Ava quickly closed her eyes.
Pressing her arms together in a praying manner, she started chanting some sort of weird spell as a yellow glow enveloped her body, causing her clothes to flutter slightly.
"Chirp! Chirp!
Before long a chirping sound rang out and a small bird appeared in front of her.
Once the bird appeared, pointing towards the wolf in the distance, Ava quickly ordered.
"Quick, Newton, help him!"
"Twit!"
Circling in the air, Newton chirped.
Then, following her command, Newton, Ava's contracted beast, rose in the air. Staring at the red beast that was viciously attacking Hein, folding its wings together, it quickly dove down from the sky.
Shooting down from the sky at extreme speeds, Newton directly aimed for the wolf's eyes.
Since the wolf was busy trying to kill Hein, it was unable to notice the small bird heading down from the sky.
This was probably the biggest mistake of its life as Newton soon appeared right in front of its left eye.
Subsequently.
"Hueeeek!"
Blood splattered everywhere and an enraged howl reverberated across the surroundings as the wolf flayed its body wildly, looking around for the culprit of its injury.
It didn't take long for it to spot Newton who was smugly looking at it from the air.
"Oooooooooooooooowhoo!!"
Staring at the arrogant bird from below, the wolf howled towards the sky. Its blood-red eyes flickering coldly.
Staring at the scene from afar, turning my head and looking at Leopold, l softly muttered.
"Leopold, help them if they are in trouble."
"You go it, boss."
Leopold replied as he lit up a cigarette.
An amused look appeared on his face as he looked at Ava and Hein trying their best to fight the wolf.
*Puff*
Once he lit up the cigarette, taking a quick puff, he muttered.
"If I have to be honest boss, there's a lot of things that they need to work on. As of right now, they are more of a liability than actual companions. They are making too many obvious mistakes."
"...Yeah."
Listening to Leopold's evaluation from the side, I was forced to nod my head.
What he said was correct. Ava and Hein were still far too inexperienced to be called proper companions.
As of right now, they were a liability.
Fortunately, I was planning on changing this right now. This fight was the start of their change.
To make matters better, with Leopold next to me, I wasn't worried about teaching them the wrong thing.
Out of all the people present, Leopold was the person that had the most experience.
Not only that, but he was also very good at coaching and instructing, as he had been a part of a mercenary guild for over a decade.
Having worked therefore such a long time, he had ample experience, and he had a great eye for things.
"Oooooooooooooooowhoo!!"
Disrupting me out of my thoughts was the wolf's desperate howl.
"Oh shit."
Next to me, Leopold's face suddenly changed dramatically as he quickly flicked the cigarette away.
"What's wrong?"
I asked.
Stomping onto the cigarette, Leopold urgently said.
"The wolf just called for its pack. Soon we're going to be surrounded by a bunch of wolves. We should quickly get out of here."
"How strong do you think they are?"
Taking out a large broad sword from his dimensional space, Leopold tied his long hair back.
"Red two-husked wolf can only range between <F> to <E> rank, but that's not the problem. If thirty of them come at us at the same time, things would get really troublesome."
"Thirty <F> and <E> ranks..." Furrowing my brows, I looked into the distance and pondered for a couple of seconds. Then, shaking my head, I put my hand on top of his sword. "Put that away, we won't need it."
"Wait, but it's dangerous!"
Patting Leopold in the shoulder, I reassured him that everything was going to be fine.
"Don't worry, I should still be able to handle that much."
Not that I wanted to sound arrogant or anything, but with me being on the verge of breaking through to <C->, thirty <E> ranks were nothing to me.
In general, it was hard to determine someone's strength based on just rank. This was because things such as skills, experience, artifacts, and arts could help someone breach the difference in ranks.
However, if we exclude those, a rank difference signified a difference in the strength of about 10-20 individuals of the lower rank.
In short, an <E> rank could handle up to at most ten to twenty <F> ranks at the same time.
Although this would become exponentially greater as the ranks increased, with the difference between <S> ranks and <SS> ranks being bigger, in general, this was what difference in ranks amounted to.
At least till <A> rank.
As such, with me being pretty much almost two ranks higher than the beasts that were to come, I wasn't worried about the incoming wolves.
Staring at Hein and Ava who were slightly panicking, I shouted.
"Hurry up you two! A bunch of hungry wolves will be coming for you soon. If you don't want to end up being their dinner, step up your game!"
My words seemed to have had an effect on them as the auras on the bodies of the two quickly shot up.
"Huaa!"
The first one to move was Hein who stomped on the ground with his foot. Once he did that, the mana within his body soared up once more.
The surge of mana was silent but compared to before, it was a lot thicker. The shield in front of him became undoubtedly stronger as a brown glow slowly started to envelop it.
Once the brown glow enveloped the shield, the weight of the shield swiftly rose.
"Oooooooooooooooowhoo!!"
As Hein gathered his strength, the wolf did not stand idle. Howling towards the sky, the wolf's figure disappeared from its spot. Reappearing in front of Hein, the wolf's claws quickly slashed towards Hein's shield.
Clang—!
A dull sound resonated over the area. Immediately after, a small gust of wind swept out in a circular shape whistling like a storm with Hein and the wolf being the focal point.
With the veins on his forehead bulging, Hein looked at Ava and shouted.
"Khhh...Ava now!"
"Newton!"
Without needing to be told what to do, Ava once again pointed at the wolf in the distance.
"Twit!"
Just like before, Newton did a circle in the air before closing its wings and dashing towards the wolf on the ground. This time, Newton aimed for the other eye of the wolf.
Like a silver bullet, Newton soon appeared right in front of the wolf's eye.
"Oooooooooooooooowhoo!!"
A desperate howl resounded across the area as the wolf wept in pain. Blood dripped down from both of his eyes.
It had now been completely blinded.
"Huaamm...alright, the fight is pretty much over."
Taking out my sword from my dimensional space, I let out a yawn and walked over towards where Hein and Ava were.
With Ava's contracted beast having taken out both of the wolf's eyes, I no longer needed to spectate the fight.
—Thud!
Sure enough, by the time I arrived next to them, the wolf slumped on the ground dead.
"Haaa..haaa..."
Slumping on the ground, Hein forcefully swallowed a few mouthfuls of oxygen. His curly brown hair was now damp with sweat, and his expression was pale. To make matters worse, his right arm, which was dripping with blood was now spasming.
Looking at the state Hein was in, tapping onto my bracelet, I tossed him a potion.
"Here, drink this."
"Thanks."
Catching the potion, Hein quickly downed it and thanked me.
His reaction caused me to raise my brow as I couldn't help but ask.
"Oh? You not mad about what I've done?"
"I'm too tired for that."
Hein bitterly said as he leaned back on the trunk of a tree.
His response made me involuntarily smile.
"Alright, drink the potion for now. Once you're healed up, go talk to Leopold, he'll brief you on the things that you need to work on. Ava to—"
"Ren."
Cutting me off was Ryan.
Turning my head, and seeing how serious Ryan's face was, the smile on my face faded. Pursing my lips, I asked.
"Has the chip connected?"
Staring at the tablet in his hand, Ryan's face became complicated. Eventually, he nodded his head.
"...Yes."
"Haaaa"
Closing my eyes, I exhaled.
Although I knew that this was coming, I hoped that they would've given me more time.
Unfortunately, my prayers were not answered.
Things were soon going to become troublesome.
—Rumble!
"Hm?"
Disrupting me out of my thoughts, I felt a slight tremble coming from the ground. Following this, multiple howls echoed in the distance as over thirty red blood-thirsty wolves soon appeared in front of my vision.
Coming out from the side of the trees and bushes, the wolves menacingly stared at everyone present.
"Oooooooooooooooowhoo!!" "Oooooooooooooooowhoo!!" "Oooooooooooooooowhoo!!"
Looking back at the thirty wolves in the distance, Hein and Ava's faces vividly paled. Their bodies started to tremble.
Their reaction was understandable though. It took them everything they had to get rid of one wolf.
Now that there were twenty of them, they were beyond scared.
"Get back."
Stepping forward and coldly staring at the wolves in the distance, I placed my hand on the sheath of my sword.
"Hold on Ren! You can't possibly defeat that many wolves."
Smallsnake cried out from behind.
Ignoring Smallsnake, I slowly walked towards the wolves.
At the moment my mind was extremely calm.
Somehow, the prospect of these wolves ever putting me in the danger never crossed my mind. In fact, for some odd reason that I couldn't explain, all my mind thought at the moment was about how to kill these wolves.
It was as though a switch had been flipped and my emotions suddenly calmed down.
Similar to when I was under Monarch indifference, however, contrary to that, this time, I had full control of my body.
"Oooooooooooooooowhoo!!"
Taking one more step towards the wolves, they all simultaneously howled. The mana in the air surged, and they all growled at me.
Following this, a large part of them suddenly lunged at me.
Calmly staring at the horde of wolves that had suddenly appeared before me, I placed my hand on the sheath of the sword.
—Click!
The second movement of the [Keiki style] : Horizon splitting slash
Following this, a subtle clicking sound rang out and the world became dyed in white.
—Thud! —Thud! —Thud!
What came after the light was the sound of bodies repeatedly dropping onto the ground.
Apathetically staring at the wolves on the ground, I looked back towards the others who were all looking at me with shocked expressions.
Ignoring it, I softly said.
"Let's get going. We're going hunting."
