Demon Wolf

Still nothing. Wolf sent his senses dormant. He had been roaming about for three hours, awakening his senses from time to time, hoping to catch sounds of battle.

This damn world is too large. Even if a quarter of a million of us entered, there would be four to five people per square kilometer in the starting ring. The odds of finding an Earth Pavilion disciple in this jungle are slim.

He glanced at Juliette’s callingjade, noting ten Soaring Dragon Peak’s disciples’ names shining green. Then he checked Delphine’s and found five active Brilliant Gate’s disciples; finally he found three dozen Quickdraw Gate’s and Earth Pavilion’s people, their communication devices likely carried by their murderers.

One Brilliant Gate group, and two Soaring Dragon Peak’s. But they could be anywhere, and I can’t pinpoint them. Unbeknownst to Wolf, he had claimed several mundane cloths and boxes which reduced the callingjade’s radius. However, he had never seen anyone intentionally dampen the device’s signal, and had no idea he could use them to determine whether enemies were near.

Meanwhile, five groups of Brilliant Gate disciples used those techniques, allowing their dispatchers to locate Wolf.

“Capucine, hold position. You should be a thousand meters away from the mark. The remaining squads will take twenty more minutes to reach him. Then you will attack simultaneously.”

“Affirmative.” Capucine, one of the five green names Wolf saw on Delphine’s tablet, motioned her team to follow and hide in the dense bushes.

She moved under the large, damp leaf, disappearing from sight. As the cold wetness brushed against her unprotected nape, Capucine’s lip twisted.

I hate all this skulking around. She rubbed the water from the back of her neck. This place is amazing. I advanced my realm without needing to rely on seniors’ help, nor did I need to spend several months accumulating Qi crystals, which I would have needed to break through the barrier between the realms. But this pervading stench of mold and rot is getting on my nerves.

“He is approaching your position. He’s eight hundred meters away. Stay sharp,” the callingjade echoed from her breast pocket. “I’ll contact you again once the mark leaves the hot zone. Until then, we’re following the communication lockdown procedure.”

The device went mute, and there was no need for Capucine to acknowledge the transmission. She could speak into the jade, but until identified hostile parties drew away, the dispatcher would not answer.

“You heard Senior Apprentice Sister DeCrux, everyone, be quiet, and be ready.”

Her four followers nodded. If the approaching party was half their number or less, they would strike at an opportune moment. If the party was bigger than that, they would wait for reinforcements until they held an overwhelming advantage.

Accumulated successes, careful tactics, and thorough preparation ensured Brilliant Gate’s disciples waited in ambush with expectation, rather than pre-battle anxiety.

When a beautiful lone male appeared in their view, all five women drooled. While noting his bloodstained robe belonged to Earth Pavilion, they did not consider the inconsistency with the report in which they were looking for a Quickdraw Gate’s affiliate. The delicious prey before them stoked their base desires, lowering their guard and prudence.

Seeing the man, whom she estimated a year or two younger than her, look left and right, obvious panic painting his face, Capucine could no longer control her desire.

She dashed out the bushes, and her squad mates followed three steps behind, afraid their juicy prey would escape.

“Capture him alive,” she shouted, yet her order was superfluous, the others shared her vision of the near future.

The quivering man looked at her with wide eyes, and as Capucine pounced to tackle him, the dread in his gaze disappeared, replaced by icy indifference. Capucine realized something had gone wrong. However, she was mid jump, an arms’ length away from the prey turned predator.

Arms’ length was all Wolf needed. His hand shot forth like a viper, catching the jumping woman’s throat. With an unstoppable squeeze, he crushed Capucine’s windpipe and shattered her spine, tossing the terrified woman’s lifeless body to the side.

“The one who stands still may survive this unscathed.” Having left a murderer alive once, Wolf became more open towards the notion. However, there was a notable difference between Juliette and these women.

They reek of blood and resentment. Wolf watched the dilating pupils and quivering chins as confusion, fear, and shock filled the four running towards him as Capucine’s backup. They probably killed people even before entering Corpsewood. I think I won’t spare any of them.

For the panicked women, the time also stretched. During moments of panic and focus, even regular manlings triggered a primal instinct, burning Anima to increase their chances of survival.

Leona twisted her neck, moving her head out of the way of Wolf’s fist. Yet, she was too slow. The steely knuckles clipped her in the eye. They crushed the improvised Qi shield before doing the same to her skull. A kick to Jillian’s midsection failed to shatter her defensive barrier, which clung to her skin. The Qi screen bent, deforming and pressing into the woman’s abdomen.

Unfortunately, her organs were not as pliable as her Qi defense, and the screen meant to protect them squished them into mush.

It took a second of Wolf’s insane flurry of feet and fists to decimate the five attackers, leaving behind only Dorine, who chickened out from her suicidal frontal assault.

“Don’t kill me.” She gaped in terror at the monster which devoured her teammates’ lives with inhuman efficiency.

“Your holdingring.” Wolf’s voice was indifferent as he summoned a rag and wiped the blood from his hands. He scanned the area, never leaving Dorine out of his field of vision.

Brilliant Gate’s sole survivor stood frozen, unable to move or think.

“Please?” Wolf stored the cloth and held out his palm towards the terrified woman.

Confused by the sudden change of tone, Dorine obeyed and offered the ring she had looted from a dead Earth Pavilion’s disciple the day prior.

He nodded. “Thank you. Do you mind telling me how you knew I was coming? Don’t try saying something like you were lucky. I sensed multiple people watching me even before you stood a reasonable chance at spotting me.”

“C-callingjades. Please don’t kill me.” Dorine stuttered as tears streamed down her face.

“Yeah, yeah, I understand the premise. But you guys pinpointed me. That’s different from knowing my general area. I’m interested in how you did that.”

“W-we have seniors doing calculations. Please?”

Wolf rolled his eyes. “Others begged you to spare them, right? Did you?”

“T-they forced me.” Dorine started oozing snot at Wolf’s offhanded questions and their implied meaning.

“You could have resisted. You could have said no.”

“I… They… They would have killed me.”

“You wanted to rape me. All of you did. I saw the lust and hunger in your eyes as you charged towards your defenseless victim.”

Dorine opened and closed her mouth, unable to utter words as she choked on tears.

“You feel regret now, don’t you? Bandits back home were the same. They never respected life. They enjoyed themselves, but when I crushed them, I experienced their regret first hand. I know what you’re feeling better than you do. Now, even with the others calculating locations, how—” Wolf clapped his head. “Silly me. When there’s no absolute map, you can create a relative one.”

Dorine had no idea what Wolf said, but she nodded, still clinging to her last shred of dignity as she clenched her lower self so as not to piss herself.

Wolf rubbed his chin, acting as if he were alone, for in his eyes Dorine already stood in the queue for reincarnation. No. They might have even made an absolute map of Corpsewood ages ago. Then, once you find a point of reference, you can use it to determine directions…

Wolf frowned, overestimating his enemies’ wits and Brilliant Gate’s two decades’ worth of foundation.

Seeing the monster stare off into the distance, Dorine hardened her resolve. The way Wolf acted made it painfully obvious she would die the moment he got all the information from her.

Still fidgeting with her hands, she clasped the concealed knives which she had hidden within her sleeves. Dorine drew a deep breath, circulating Qi through her legs. She had no space for a technique, but at two steps away, she needed little technique, only speed and brute power.

Despite burning to scream ‘Die’, she leaped without uttering a word. Two matte blades pierced towards Wolf, free of any visible edge, whose gleam might betray the desperate gambit.

Dorine saw it. Her daggers sinking into the overconfident pretty boy’s neck, the light in his eyes going out, and her surviving this ordeal.

Then his viselike hands grabbed her wrists. With a squeeze, he pulverized the joints. As Dorine screamed in pain, Wolf head-butted her, crushing her skull and extinguishing her yell, along with her life.

“Well, that was pointlessly stupid.” Wolf frisked the corpse, finding another pair of concealed daggers strapped to Dorine’s cooling ankles.

Brilliant Gate’s disciples all have concealed weapons. Did she think I wasn’t paying attention to her?

Wolf awakened his senses and pricked up his ears. More are running towards me.