Langtian twisted desperately, every nerve in his body screaming, every muscle burning.
He ducked beneath the beast’s snapping jaws, feeling the scorching heat of its breath graze his cheek, its fangs mere inches from tearing through his throat.
Sliding under the monster’s hulking frame, he roared, dragging his sword in a savage arc across the exposed flesh of its belly.
This time, he poured most of his remaining spiritual energy into the blade.
A wet, tearing sound echoed out.
Black blood exploded from the beast’s stomach, hot and foul. It sprayed across Langtian’s face, soaking into his chest.
He dropped to one knee, gasping, struggling to breathe.
He felt his body breaking down.
But then, he looked up—
And horror seized his chest.
The wolf’s guts spilled out, a tangled mass of steaming organs trailing from its torn belly...
Yet still, it kept moving.
It didn’t even flinch!
Its eyes flared with twin suns of pure madness.
It snarled, blood and foam bubbling between its teeth. The muscles in its shoulders rippled with unnatural strength.
Then it charged again—
Faster than anything of such size had any right to move!
The ground quaked with each thundering step.
Langtian tried to dodge, forcing his legs to move—
A bolt of agony shot up his spine as his battered leg buckled beneath him.
The beast was nearly upon him.
Desperation surged through his chest.
The wolf’s massive jaws crushed it like dried wood, shards scattering through the air.
It slammed into him with full, unstoppable force.
Langtian was hurled backward, his spine cracking brutally against the cold stone floor. The air exploded from his lungs in a violent blast.
Blood erupted from his mouth.
Then the crushing weight of the beast pressed down onto him.
He let out a hoarse cry, blood bubbling over his lips.
The beast loomed above, towering, bloody, snarling.
Its breath washed over him, hot and rancid; thick strands of saliva dripped onto Langtian’s face.
Pinned beneath the monster, Langtian struggled weakly.
The wolf opened its jaws wide—
It lunged to bite—to crush his skull!
Acting on pure instinct, Langtian threw up his hands, gripping the wolf’s massive jaws—one hand against the upper jaw, the other braced desperately against the lower. Razor-sharp fangs glinted like guillotine blades mere inches from his face, and Langtian’s arms trembled violently as he strained to hold them apart.
His bones creaked under the impossible crushing force.
Hot, fetid breath blasted his face, thick with the stench of rotting meat.
Foaming saliva spewed across his cheeks, into his eyes, soaking his robes in sour, stinking slime. The foulness nearly made him retch.
The beast thrashed violently, snarling, head jerking wildly, desperate to break free—to bite down. Langtian held on, fingers digging into the wolf’s sharp teeth and gums, blood slipping between his knuckles.
"No..." he snarled, veins bulging in his neck.
With a desperate roar, he twisted his hips and kicked upward—
His boot smashed into the wolf’s lower jaw, forcing its mouth shut mere inches from his face.
Now his arms were free.
He reached out frantically, fingers scraping across the stone floor—
His fingers closed around something—the broken hilt of his shattered sword.
Snatching it up, Langtian jammed the blade deep into the wolf’s throat!
The beast let out a choking gurgle. Black blood spilled out, hot and foul.
Langtian roared, plunging the jagged steel again and again into the beast’s throat, pouring the final remnants of his spiritual energy into each savage thrust.
Blood sprayed in thick arcs, coating his face, flooding his chest, soaking the ground beneath him.
The wolf howled, spasming wildly, limbs thrashing as though electrocuted. Claws gouged deep grooves into stone. Muscles twitched violently, yet still it couldn’t throw him off.
Langtian didn’t stop.
He just kept stabbing!
And with one final, maddened cry, he drove the jagged blade upward—straight through the beast’s jaw!
Into the roof of its skull!
Something snapped loudly.
The wolf’s eyes widened, then froze in place.
Its body gave one last violent jerk and collapsed heavily on top of him like a fallen boulder.
The weight crushed the remaining air from Langtian’s lungs.
And then, for a long, heavy moment, there was only silence.
Only the sound of Langtian’s ragged, wet gasps beneath the blood-soaked corpse.
________________________
Langtian lay pinned beneath the beast’s massive corpse, gasping for breath. His entire body throbbed in agony, muscles torn, robes sticky and soaked through with blood.
The stone beneath him was slick with black blood. His chest rose and fell in ragged bursts, arms trembling and barely able to move.
He laughed loudly, wildly, like a madman drunk on pain and victory.
"Hah... Haha... HAHAHA!"
"I... I did it..." he gasped, eyes wide and gleaming. "I actually did it... I fucking killed a Rank 3 Demonic Beast!"
Something else shifted in the darkness. Langtian’s ears caught the faint rustle of movement.
Still trapped beneath the beast’s crushing weight, he slowly turned his head—and what he saw next made his heart nearly stop.
From the edge of the mist, a single pair of glowing red eyes blinked open in the darkness.
Three... four... five...
Five pairs of crimson eyes now stared directly at him through the gloom.
Slowly, they stepped forward.
Each one equally monstrous, equally deadly. Their massive forms were coated in black fur, shrouded in demonic mist, their bodies grotesquely mutated, just like the beast Langtian had barely managed to defeat.
Five more Rank 3 Demonic Wolves.
Langtian’s throat tightened painfully. A cold, sinking dread spilled into his chest like ice water.
"Shit. Are you fucking kidding me?"