Chapter 96: One and a Half People and a Wolf Vs a Moose
One and a Half People and a Wolf Vs a Moose
As soon as the moose was knocked over, the Alpha didn’t bother with the attack that had done so as it immediately pounced.
A dark energy covered its body as its fur stood on end, and a feeling of power immediately erupted from it. It felt similar to Mike’s aura, but was also distinctly different.
Without hesitation, the Alpha bit into the moose and started rending flesh, causing the larger creature to let out a pained bellow as it struggled to kick the Alpha off it.
Mike snapped out of his reverie and also joined the fray. His aura surged as he shot forward like a blue bullet.
Not a moment too soon either, as the Alpha got kicked away, only for him to give the moose a powerful shoulder check that sent it tumbling backwards.
’It’s sturdy.’ Mike noted as he felt the damage from his attack only damage the localized muscles in that region. He was used to hearing bones breaking under such a heavy charge, but it seems like this moose wasn’t large for show.
As soon as the moose was knocked away, the Alpha returned to its feet and charged forward along with Mike.
As soon as they got close, though, the moose sorted, and hundreds of vines sprouted from the ground before raining down on the two of them.
Both immediately halted their charges as they dealt with the rain of thorny vines respectively. Mike constantly created Haven Rings while slicing them apart, whereas the Alpha just shredded everything with its claws.
However, the moose wasn’t done, and its antlers glowed a verdant light as flowers started sprouting everywhere, and Mike got a bad feeling. But just before he could move to stop it, another horizontal pillar of flames pierced through the vegetation and struck the large creature square in the chest.
The impact was devastating, and the moose was sent rolling as another deep burn appeared on its coat, the old one still healing.
The glow on its antlers sputtered to a stop as whatever attack it had been preparing was ended prematurely.
’Nice.’ Mike grinned at Theresa’s assist, and his aura condensed around his hand as he unleashed a Primal Rend.
The attack shredded the surrounding vines, giving the Alpha a clear path to the moose that it did not squander.
The dark aura around its body suddenly condensed, and for a moment, the Alpha looked like a creature of dark energy as it took a step, and its body blasted forward, completely shattering the ground as a sonic boom was created.
The moose barely had time to create a wall of roots before the Alpha arrived. It blasted right through the wall and smashed into the moose, the force taking both of them through several of the large trees.
Mike immediately followed, but the Alpha’s attack had taken them away quite a bit, so he would need a moment to get there. That said, he could still see what was happening with his perception, and what he saw amazed him quite a bit.
The Alpha’s attack had torn right through the additional layer of protection the moose possessed and dealt a gruesome wound in its side, revealing torn-up muscles and flesh.
That said, the moose was healing rapidly. What’s more, it had gotten to its feet and was currently trying to crush the Alpha as it stomped with its hooves while using the surrounding vegetation to try and damage it.
However, despite being on its own, the Alpha was not a pushover at all.
With a wild, yet chilling precision, it avoided all the attacks regardless of the angle they came from, and Mike wondered how it could do so despite not having instincts as good as his.
However, he saw how its tails would twitch occasionally, and he realized that they weren’t just there for communication.
’Vibrations.’ He noted instantly. They could pick up the faintest vibrations, whether from the air or ground, allowing it to pinpoint where the next attack would come from, and coupled with the naturally potent senses of a wolf, it had no issue evading all the attacks.
However, what really hooked him was the way it fought.
Its movements were wild and crude. There was no technique to them, and yet, they were chillingly efficient.
Every part of its body was a weapon, and it didn’t hesitate to attack the right spots. Said spots weren’t always necessarily vital spots, either. It attacked areas that brought immense pain as well, causing the moose to lose its concentration and create an opening.
Furthermore, the way it used its surroundings was simply incredible in a way that Mike could have never guessed would come from a wolf.
More than, once, the wolf used the moose’s own size against it, weaving between trees close together so that the moose couldn’t chase it through them, making its attacks detrimental to it as it made them destroy the base of trees and make them fall, and so on.
It was like he was watching the crude dance of a seasoned hunter. The Alpha knew no combat techniques or special skills, it simply fought with the years of experience it possessed when it came to hunting creatures stronger than it.
Watching this, Mike felt... inspired, and a part of him, his wolf side, wanted to give it a go.
He wanted to try and fight in such a way, too.
And so he did.
***
Just like Mike, Theresa chased after the Alpha and moose when they got thrown so far away, hopping from tree branch to tree branch. However, her pace wasn’t as fast because she didn’t intend to get too close, just close enough to ensure she wouldn’t waste too much time aiming at her target.
When she felt like she was close enough, she closed one eye, and the aiming reticle made of flames appeared around her open eye.
It was her adapted version of Thermal Gaze. Essentially, other than aiming, the thing ’burned’ the best possible path for her arrow to follow into her mind allowing her to make exceptionally accurate shots.
One might ask why she didn’t just control them like she always did, but it was harder to control the flight paths of her arrows the farther away they went. She could, however, still influence them somewhat, allowing her to perform some pretty absurd shots.
She exhaled and began to draw her bow. As she did, flames coalesced into an arrow on the string. But it didn’t stop there, as the flames condensed around the arrow more and more, and the sheer heat it gave off was so intense that the branch she stood on started to burn and blacken while the surrounding air warped from the heat.
She was about to let go when she saw something that made her pause.
Mike had slowed down, which wasn’t strange, as she had assumed him to be looking for an opening, similar to her. But what he did next surprised her.
He went on all fours.
Before she could even begin to wonder what was going through his mind, he suddenly shot forward.
However, as soon as he got close, several vines appeared and shot at him, but instead of evading or destroying them, he actually grabbed few with his hands and dived under the moose.
She watched with amazement as Mike proceeded to use the moose’s own vines to bind its feet, causing the creature to stagger and create another opening for the Alpha as it landed attack after attack on the moose.
Mike didn’t sit still, either.
As though he were mimicking it, Mike suddenly started moving with the same primal efficiency of the Alpha. However, unlike it, his movements weren’t crude or without technique.
Instead, it seemed to be a mix of both, and he moved like a whirlwind as every part of his body was used as a weapon. From conventional punches and kicks to wild clawing and ripping, it was like watching a wolf in human skin, and it was both beautiful as well as terrifying.
Theresa was enamored, but she couldn’t just watch, either.
With an exhale, she felt the power building in her arrow reach a crescendo, and she let it fly with a powerful shockwave that turned the recounting tree branch beneath her into splinters, the arrow moving forward with a tide of immolating heat that made it resemble a horizontal pillar.
However, she grabbed unto another one, and her eyes trailed the arrow as she subtly directed its flight path, making it weave through trees until it arrived at its target.
Mike had just dished out a point-blank Primal Rend on the moose’s chest, drawing out a waterfall of blood and sending it reeling. But before it could counter, another one of those devastating arrows struck it in the head and directly blew off one of its antlers in a shower of blood.
A horrific cry of pain tore through its throat as it’s senses were blinded by the overwhelming agony, preventing it from concentrating on anything else.
Big mistake.
Mike abruptly went from being on all-fours to standing upright in a stance.
Crimson Ladder, which had been active all this time, had reached a boiling point, and Mike could feel the unbelievabl power coursing through his veins and muscles.
He recalled an attack he’d endured during one of his matches on Fighter’s.Inc, and like a printer, he perfectly mimicked the stance and motion his opponent made as he kicked off the ground and crossed the distance between himself and the moose in a blink.
He appeared before its reeling figure, and his sensing instantly focused on its body, specifically its chest, where he heard the thumping of a powerful heart.
He twisted his body in addition to all the momentum, and with a yell, he poured all his accumulated power into his fist as he threw a punch into the chest of the moose.
It struck, and all the energy was directly transfered as a hole was blown into the creature, showering its back in a rain of blood.
Blood and organs spewed from the wound, and the moose let out one last gurgling bellow before it collapsed.
Mike took a deep breath, then exhaled a torrent of steam as he gradually relaxed his body
[Ding. Host has leveled up.]
Mike stared at the notification for a moment before smiling.
’That was pretty fun.’