"Who does he think he is?" Her thoughts were cold with irritation. "I gave up my own hunt to carry him. I analyzed the pack, calculated the risk, and offered my knowledge... and he treated me like background noise."
From the cradle, Lisa had been the gravitational center of everyone around her.
Her parents, magnates of the family Group, silenced meetings to hear her. Her brothers, geniuses in their own right, sought her advice. Sycophants begged for a second of her attention... Being ignored was an unprecedented experience.
’He doesn’t know who I am, which makes his insolence genuine... and annoying,’ she thought, watching the two Level 1 Gray Wolves and the Level 2 leader surround the Slime. ’If he’s so self-sufficient that he ignores my analysis, he can certainly handle an unexpected bonus in difficulty.’
In that group, there were two Level 01 Gray Wolves and one Level 02 Gray Wolf.
She knew Halon was strong for his level, but she wanted to see how far the "stability" of that Slime would hold up. If he could handle it, she would talk to him again. If not... she could wait for him to learn a little lesson for ignoring her, and then she would help him.
She didn’t know that even though he got stronger as he leveled up, Lohan’s combat power didn’t increase proportionally to that.
Fortunately, he had several useful evolutions.
-xXx-
Lisa watched from the top of a branch, her tail motionless and her eyes half-closed in cold slits.
She noticed that even before the first growl echoed, Lohan had already acted.
With experience dealing with Kobolds, his Clone was already stationed under a twisted root, remaining motionless, camouflaged by the shadows and configured with such high [Selective Viscosity] that the air around it seemed dense.
When the wolves broke through the line of trees, Lohan’s strategy was tested by the brutal reality of combat.
The first Level 01 Wolf leaped forward, foaming at the mouth with ferocity, but Lohan lured it right into the trap.
A sharp crack sounded, not from bones, but from the wolf’s flesh colliding with the clone’s ultra-sticky mass.
The creature was brought to a sudden halt, its front paws sinking to the bone into the green slime, which, upon suffering damage, activated [Hemolymphatic Tissue], increasing the efficiency of digestion and beginning to corrode the monster’s fur and flesh, turning the predator into a living anchor that whined desperately as it tried to break free from the ground.
However, the Level 02 leader was not stupid.
He figured there was another trap and diverted his route in midair, using the remaining flankers as cannon fodder.
Lohan felt the violent impact when the second Level 01 wolf hit him from the side. The force was so great that Lohan’s [Structural Stability] failed for an instant, and he was thrown against a rock, feeling his core vibrate dangerously.
The leader gave no respite.
Before Lohan could recover, the jaws of the Level 02 wolf closed on his exoskeleton.
Lisa saw the Slime being lifted up and shaken violently. The sound of suction and gelatinous tissue being torn was visceral.
’I think I overdid it.’ She realized too late, regretful and ready to join the fight and help Halon.
Wolf blood and blue fluid mixed on the ground as Lohan lost biomass every second, but the idea of biting such a corrosive creature was not smart.
Instead of trying to escape, Lohan used the pain itself as an anchor. He used [Efficient Digestion Lv 15] and [Hemolymphatic Tissue Lv 7] at maximum intensity only on the part that was inside the wolf’s mouth, while transforming the exoskeleton into hardened spines that pierced the creature’s palate and tongue while corroding its jaw.
The leader let out a muffled howl, with blood gushing from his mouth, but Lohan did not back down. He extended tentacles that were veritable whips of acid and wrapped them around the leader’s neck.
The smell of burning flesh rose, and the fight turned into a chaotic tangle of claws and teeth trying to tear through the gelatin and acid melting fur and flesh.
Lohan was being torn apart. He was visibly smaller, his mass being torn to pieces by the coordinated attacks, but his aggressiveness was even greater.
While the wolf dealt 10 damage to him, he retaliated with 40 or 50 damage!
With his large stock of Biomass, Lohan already had the capacity to endure a prolonged fight while recovering, not to mention the biomass he consumed from the wolf itself.
On the other hand, the wolf had no means of recovery; all damage it received was permanent.
Lohan took advantage of a moment of hesitation from the leader to extend a tentacle into the animal’s open throat, expanding violently to suffocate it from within while widening and destroying its throat.
"Aooooooooo..."
The wolf screamed desperately in pain.
Lisa, who was preparing to help in the battle, tilted her head back and kept her distance.
She saw the small blue creature being chewed and almost destroyed, but at no point did she hesitate or intend to call for help.
Halon fought with confidence and desperation like someone who had already passed through the gates of death and survived.
The battle was bloody and frightening for the faint of heart, but it was over in a short time.
When silence finally returned to the clearing, the scene was a disaster of disintegrated flesh and acrid smoke.
Lisa jumped from the branch, landing silently on the stained grass.
Her eyes, once cold with irritation, now carried a shadow of guilt that she tried to hide behind her upright posture.
She approached slowly, watching the Slime reduced to half its size, feeling a strange tightness in her chest as she saw its core pulsing so exposed and vulnerable. The pride of having been "ignored" now seemed futile in the face of the real risk he had taken.
"You... were reckless, Halon," she said, but the "ice princess" tone failed slightly, sounding more like a sigh of relief than a judgment. "Your trap was brilliant, but it took my breath away to see you ignore your own limits like that. Please, next time, heed my warnings... I didn’t bring you here to see your gelatin wasted by a miscalculation we could have avoided together."
Lohan didn’t respond immediately, too focused on his own regeneration, but this time she didn’t blame him.
Lisa stood motionless there, acting as a silent guard while he recovered.
Finally, after a few minutes of digesting the wolves’ bodies, Lohan commented. "Girl, has anyone ever told you that you’re very vindictive?"
Hearing that, a slight blush appeared on the little white fox’s cheeks, but she just snorted and looked away.
Lohan didn’t worry too much about it, even though he was in a tense battle, when the situation became really desperate, he saw with his 360-degree vision that she was ready to interfere and help him.
And with the notification that appeared when he digested the Lv 02 wolf, his mood improved even more.
///NunuNote///
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