Chapter 345 Volume V - 63: Brutal Victory

Chapter 345 Volume V - Chapter 63: Brutal Victory

?I just took a deep breath as the dungeon slowly began to change. Then I calmly turned toward Lucia and Sue.

"A- Adrian? You're... okay, right?"

I just smiled. I raised my arm in the air, clenched my fist a few times, and let it go.

"I'm fine, for now."

That wasn't enough, of course. I could see the worry in her eyes, but also the curiosity.

"Let's get through tonight first. We can save the talking for later."

Sue opened her mouth again, but this time it was Lucia who stopped her. When she put her hand on his shoulder, Sue reflexively turned to her, and so did I. But while Sue was busy listening to what he was telling her, I... for a completely different reason... couldn't take my eyes off him for a while.

She was the same, I wouldn't say her looks had changed since the last time I saw her, but... she was also strangely different. She was more noticeable, more beautiful even. She had gone through a much bigger change than the one I had always felt.

But then... the howling of wolves echoed. My eyes, which I had been unable to tear away from her, suddenly flickered, as if the things holding them in place had disappeared.

I didn't even look at Lucia again, I didn't want to fall for her charms again. Instead, I focused on what had gotten me out of this situation in the first place: the howls.

The glow of the river took its place in the sky, the last green dot in the sky faded. Then... the howling of the wolves suddenly intensified.

Red dots appeared far away, near, everywhere. They formed a circle around me, just like the night before. But this time, they were different. Before, they always looked at me with a calm, cold expression. I didn't even think they had feelings. This time... they were strange. They were hesitant, as if... as if they wanted to stay away from me.

A smile appeared on my face.

I completely ignored my mana, I didn't even care about my skills. I just reached out to ordea, which still hadn't left my body, and gently asked it to strengthen me, just as I had just done.

The ordea that was constantly trying to heal me rippled and was absorbed into my body. Then... I felt my muscles fill with a strength I had never felt before.

No, I was definitely not in my strongest form. In fact, if I had used mana, I would have gotten even more strength than I do now, but... the strengthening that the ordea provided was very different from that provided by mana. It seemed to strengthen so many more things than that. Not just speed and strength and stamina, but other things as well.

But I couldn't use mana even if it would help me more than ordea in my current situation, because I had a bet to prove my worth. And to do that... I had to show what I could do.

I didn't even bother to take out my spear, I simply stepped forward. The wolves that surrounded me stepped back nervously for a moment. Even though I was weaker than before, ordea strangely frightened them. And I had no complaints.

"Which one of you will face me?"

I asked sarcastically, deliberately provoking them. But they didn't react much to it. They just... simply opened a space in front of me, a path for the wolf that was going to face me. And so, I saw my opponent for tonight.

The wolf that would be my opponent this time... was different. It was not normal like the wolf I had faced last time, but rather... it was just like the leader I had killed the first time. It was bigger than the other wolves, its eyes were sharper. Its fur... I don't know how it was possible, but it was darker than it should have been. Its teeth and claws reflected the light slightly as if they were metal.

They are determined to kill me this time, huh...?

It closed its jaws so violently that it could have literally torn my arm off. Even the peace I could feel in every part of my body was not enough to drown out the pain this time. It genuinely hurt. Still, ordea managed to hold my arm together.

I tried to lift my knee and put it through the wolf's belly, but the wolf, as if it had known this was going to happen, just let go of my arm and disappeared back into the darkness. At least... he tried to do so.

My lips curled upward as its body started to turn into smoke again, and I completely ignored the pain in my arm.

I reached for the ordea that enveloped my whole body, then... I asked it to stop strengthening me.

This time, the ordea responded quickly to my desires. The ordea that had always supported, healed, and strengthened my body slowly left me. All the suppressed pain returned. For a moment, I felt as if my muscles would spontaneously contract.

But I resisted, because there was a reason why I separated the ordea from myself.

Ordea was the energy of order. It was constructive and healing. And it didn't have the limitation that I could only use it on myself. So... I didn't need to use it only on myself.

Ordea left my body as I asked it to do, and moved toward the wolf who was trying to disappear into the darkness. And then... it surrounded him in an instant.

As the energy that controls order, what I wanted from it was to drag the wolf, whose presence, whose body had become disorganized, back into the physical world. It could heal anything, rebuild anything. Why couldn't it do the same with the wolf?

And... it did.

The wolf's body suddenly appeared in the air. It was completely exposed, with dark dust and smoke billowing from its fur. It was not where it had expected to find itself. It had been forced back into the physical world. And this was my opportunity.

Ignoring the wolf's surprise, I didn't even give it a chance to think. Quickly pulling the ordea back into my body, I grabbed the wolf's tail, then swung its body hard as if I were shaking a sandbag on the ground, not caring how much force I applied to it.

The wolf's body landed so hard on the ground that the rocks trembled and there was even a slight shock and a wave of dust. The groaning sound it made reflected its pain to the fullest.

But I did not stop.

I gripped the wolf's tail tightly, lifted it up into the air again... and this time I swung its body to the other side. And then the other way again, and again.

Every time I swung the wolf to the ground, a trail of blood appeared on the rocks. It was literally beaten to a pulp, the sounds it made diminishing with each swing of its body.

But I didn't care.

I spun it around twice, then, maintaining my momentum, I used all the strength my body and the ordea allowed me.

The wolf's body landed once more on the rocks, but this time... it didn't stay in one piece. Its tail was torn from its body. It had hit the ground so hard that several parts of its body had exploded from the inside. Blood watered the rocks, traveling deeper into the crater. Several of its organs were exposed, and one of its eyes had popped out of its socket.

I only had one wound. My arm, which I had let the wolf bite. It was slightly bruised around the teeth marks, probably getting infected as I looked at it. Blood kept dripping from between my fingers onto the floor.

I squinted and looked around, completely ignoring the wolf on the floor, completely beaten to a pulp. I studied the other wolves.

Unlike the previous time, they were not howling to signal my victory. They were all staring at the lifeless body of my opponent, shocked.

When they realized I was looking at them, they all stepped back in fear. They were much more nervous now, genuinely afraid of me. The red eyes that used to look at me fearlessly now... had lost their sparkle.

But they didn't stay like that forever. Soon, each of them raised their heads to the sky once more. They howled half-heartedly, though not as loudly as before. Then, one by one, they disappeared into the darkness. Taking the body of my beaten opponent with them, of course.