"More?" asked the bemused Silverwind as she watched Richard drag another gladius lupin over to the larger wolf, more annoyed than anything else.

"Mhmm. Fifth one this week. You have to tell them to stop attacking me you know. They're quite annoying."

Silverwind shrugged. "I told them not to, but you know how youths are. Prideful, ignorant. They think they can take you on. The elders of the pack have always believed in personal responsibility. If they had died trying to hunt you, than that would have been on them. The fact that you've been sparing all of them up to this point has been quite generous of you."

Richard shrugged. "It's no problem. Honestly? Most of them are far weaker than your son, and with Panda around, he's been more than capable of fighting them off."

Yeah, Panda had also gone up a few levels, and just as before, in spite of his slow growth, his stats had compensated.

Species: Screecher squirrel

Bloodlines: Ratatoskr(active) Screecher squirrel (active)

Level: 10/100

Health:2000/1000

Spd: 210

ATK: 220

Mana: 290/290

Def: 300

Skills: Mock, shriek, sharpen, gnaw, erode, camouflage, tail whip,

The problem wasn't really fighting them. It was how pointless fighting them was. For one thing, every single time he'd went off to hunt, a gladius lupin had jumped him, distracting him.

And since he wasn't killing them, he didn't get any experience, no manastone, nada. It was a lose-lose situation.

They were just annoying.

"Miss Silverwind, I was hoping to propose something."

Silverwind looked at him, her curiosity seemingly invited. "Ver well, Richards. What is it you want to propose?"

----------------------------------------

"... So I proposed to miss Silverwind that I go over to her part of the forest and allow them to challenge me there once a week, instead of being a huge pain in my ass every other day."

Sister Alexandria nodded thoughtfully. "That's probably for the best. The elders won't fight you not only because you're not worth their time, but they're also aware enough to not pick fights with you to encourage my wrath. But children..." She sighed.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"They're usually young and stupid around this age, and usually, it's around this age the stupid get culled. They're probably seeking glory, and if they can kill you, dragon blood is quite valuable, and they could even make blades out of you."

Richard felt uncomfortable for sure. Talking so casually about making blades out of their body is weird to say the least. On the other hand, since he was confident he could fend them off, it remained uncomfortable, rather than actually worrying.

Hopefully this'll get those wolves to stop bothering him.

----------------------------------------

The plan was to have a challenger's ring in the middle of the area where the wolves had gathered, so that they could challenge Richard under the supervision of the elders, as well as sister Alexandria, who drew a great deal of attention as she slithered through the area where the pack coalesced.

The area where the pack gathered was rather bare, which was likely due to the wolves individualistic nature. None of them wanted to become builders, or load mules, not in a pack like this.

Funnily enough, there were some tents, seemingly created by a Gladius Lupin who had taken up the sowing needle instead of the knife, which sounded like a fun story to hear. Variants were quite rare after all.

The elders were a group of Gladius Lupin who had grown too old to hunt on their own, so they had retired their blades, and now sat amongst the younglings, seemingly too be teachers to the next generation.

Unlike the youth, who oohed and awed over the arrival of the wyrm, the elders seemed better at keeping straight faces.

One of them stepped forward, one who wielded two blades within its maw, unlike the rest, preferring double-sided blade. His fur was a rustic red, with streaks of grey.

Richard had recently learned that there was a separate muscle in the wolf's body, completely devoted to holding blades, so the two blades had to be a unique evolution.

"It is a pleasure as usual to meet the empress of lightning." He nodded his head in submission, his voice almost as rusty as his fur, yet was satisfying, like nails over the right surface.

"And it is my honor to meet you once more, elder Rusticfur."

The elder turned his eyes towards Richard, and despite his seeming age, his eyes had not softened. They were fierce, sharp like blades as he looked Richard up and down.

"And this is your protege. hmm? You've managed to defeat many of the youth, and I must thank you. Humility is good for the youth, and so rarely do they get to learn such a valuable lesson without suffering a higher cost."

Richard bowed his head in respect to the wolf. "It was my honor to train with my fellow youth. Though," he added, "I hope that since we're doing this that they'll stop bothering me mid-hunt."

The elder nodded, with indifference. "Indeed, interruption during a hunt can get quite annoying. Follow me" he indicated as he began walking.

Soon they reached the arena, a circle drawn into the ground. Simple, but it would do.

----------------------------------------

The elders watched on as the fight raged on, and while the clouds could block out the sight of young wolves, it did not affect the elderly, who still had sharp eyes.

Rusticfur watched on critically. "He is far more methodical than you are empress."

Alexandria nodded as she watched on, clearly proud of the child. "Yes, I believe he will become far greater than me one day."

Silverwind nodded in clear agreement. "Of course, I doubt you could ever think of something like this. A challengers ring? You're too hot-headed for that."

Alexandria shrugged, helpless to disagree.

Thwack

A young wolf went flying out of the clouds, as he was whipped out by Richard's tail. He flopped around helplessly, as the static had clearly affected him.

The others were not faring much better, for in the shroud of clouds, despite their best efforts, they could not locate Richard until he was ready. Every opponent a cloud golem, until it wasn't, and Richard was ready to take them out.

A simple whip, bolts of lightning, a rain of spears, all at a moment's notice, leaving them no chance to react.

In this maze of clouds, even when they saw bolts of lightning, they arrived too late, only arriving at the scene of the battle, minus participants.

Richard had allowed 10 of them to go at a time, because what did numbers matter, if they could not even use numbers?