Nine Black Grassland Wolves circled around Kyle. His sword already had blood dripping from its tip from when he stabbed one of the wolves in the face. Still, neither party was even close to retreating. The Black Grassland Wolves were all confident in their chances of winning against a lone human, and Kyle had the high ground.

Time slowly ticked past until a Black Grassland Wolf jumped toward the front of the wagon. It planned to leap off the driver’s seat, then bite Kyle in the back. However, in one fluid movement, Kyle swung the Isolator sword and turned around, cutting the Black Grassland Wolf in the mouth just as it began to push off the driver’s seat. The Black Grassland Wolf twisted its body in midair and fell back, bleeding from the mouth.

Two Black Grassland Wolves had been injured, but they weren’t put out of the fight. The leader of the pack saw this and knew he needed to make a tactical decision.

“Wruf!” the leader barked, and three of its underlings jumped toward the wagon at the same time.

Three Black Grassland Wolves at once was too much for Kyle to handle. The sword techniques he learned from the vision were able to make him fast and fluent, but they weren’t enough to allow him to deal with overwhelming numbers. One Black Grassland Wolf came from the driver’s seat of the wagon, and two Black Grassland Wolves came from the entrance to the rear of the wagon.

Kyle chose to first strike against the two Black Grassland Wolves that were coming from the same direction. He swept out with his sword, but he missed the two of them. After feeling his sword hit nothing but air, he felt a brief instance of dread. He knew that a Black Grassland Wolf was right about to bite him from behind.

But, then, that didn’t happen. Instead, a golden light surrounded Kyle’s body, and necklace that he was wearing shattered. A vision of a woman placing something around his neck quickly flashed through his head. “Wear this. If you’re about to sustain a fatal injury, the pendant will absorb the blow. Be careful; it will only work once.”

Kyle solemnly watched the vision, then returned his attention to the two Black Grassland Wolves that were still in front of him. They had backed off when he swung his sword at them, and they retreated to the edge of the wagon when the golden light developed his body. He lunged forward and stabbed at the Black Grassland Wolf on the left. His blade burrowed deep into the Black Grassland Wolf’s neck, from which he then pulled it out. Immediately afterward, he slashed toward the eyes of the next Black Grassland Wolf.

The left Black Grassland Wolf was stabbed inside its throat and out the back of its neck; it was unable to live for much longer. The right Black Grassland Wolf didn’t simply stand around while the left Black Grassland Wolf was attacked. It hesitated for a moment, then bit toward Kyle while Kyle was pulling his sword out of the other Black Grassland Wolf’s mouth. In the middle of its bite, Kyle slashed at the Black Grassland Wolf’s eyes, and the Black Grassland Wolf slightly turned its head. The sword scrapped against one eye of the Black Grassland Wolf, but the second eye was unharmed.

A fatal wound had been dealt to the left Black Grassland Wolf. A small wound had been dealt to the right Black Grassland Wolf. The condition of the rear Black Grassland Wolf was unknown. Kyle stepped onto the wagon bench, entering the blind spot of the Black Grassland Wolf that had one eye destroyed. After doing so, he heavily swung the Isolator sword at the back of the Black Grassland Wolf, intending to cut off its head.

The sword’s arc split open the hide of the Black Grassland Wolf, but it stopped after only a fraction of an inch. The Black Grassland Wolf didn’t have miraculous defences, but its bones were very hard. Instead of stabbing the Black Grassland Wolf through a weak spot, Kyle had hit the Black Grassland Wolf directly above its spine, causing almost no damage.

The Black Grassland Wolf shook its head, then charged at Kyle. It bled from the back of its neck and its right eye, but it was still able to attack. It bit at Kyle’s legs, and it was totally unable to dodge a downward impalement from Kyle’s sword. Kyle thrust his sword into the side of the Black Grassland Wolf’s neck, then pulled it to the side. A large chunk of flesh was cut away, and the second Black Grassland Wolf quickly died. Although the Black Grassland Wolf had gotten close to him, it never actually managed to inflict a wound on his body.

Now that the first two Black Grassland Wolves were dealt with, Kyle turned to look at where the third Black Grassland Wolf should’ve been.

Two Black Grassland Wolves were dead. One was cut in the mouth and staying behind the rest of the group. Near the front of the wagon, another Black Grassland Wolf was lying on the ground, not moving. Four of the nine Black Grassland Wolves were out of the fight, and the five remaining ones were spread out around the wagon.

The largest of the nine Black Grassland Wolves had yet to attack, but it chose this moment to step closer to Kyle. It walked up to the back of the wagon, just outside the range of Kyle’s sword. It had an intelligent look in its eyes - different from the looks of savagery had in the other Black Grassland Wolves.

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“Wruf! Wruf!” The leader of the Black Grassland Wolves barked twice, then turned around and ran away from the wagon. For a short time, while the Black Grassland Wolves were running away, Kyle felt a smidge of relief, thinking that the battle was now over.

But, it wasn’t. After retreating a few hundred feet, the Black Grassland Wolves turned around and stared once more at the wagon. They watched Kyle’s movements for a few seconds, then charged back toward the wagon. They quickly gained speed, reaching a level where Kyle would find it difficult to react to them if they all jumped at him at once.

“Lifelink, simulate a counter move against these wolves!” Kyle immediately asked his Lifelink Chip for assistance. In an instant, the Lifelink Chip simulated thousands of outcomes, then played a simulated video of Kyle defending against the Black Grassland Wolves.

Based on the speed of the Black Grassland Wolves, they couldn’t be planning anything other than directly jumping toward Kyle. In that scenario, there wasn’t anything Kyle could hide behind. His best bet would be to estimate where the leader of the Black Grassland Wolves would jump to, then have his sword awaiting the leader’s mouth. Of course, the estimations would be done by the Lifelink Chip, and they would be extremely accurate.

In the past, Kyle had taken the Lifelink Chip’s estimations on faith, and it had never let him down. As he saw the leader of the Black Grassland Wolves running straight toward him, he made up his mind to act exactly according to how the Lifelink Chip suggested. When the leader of the Black Grassland Wolves reached just a few feet away from him, he thrust the Isolator sword into the air.

A satisfying pressure pushed against Kyle’s hands, immediately followed by two roaring pains from his shoulders. The leader of the Black Grassland Wolves had jumped exactly where the Lifelink Chip had estimated, and Kyle’s sword went right through its skull. Two Black Grassland Wolves had jumped beside it, but the leader’s large body prevented them from getting too close to Kyle. They ended up scratching his shoulders, then continuing into the back of the wagon. Another two Black Grassland Wolves ran to the sides of the wagon, where they climbed up the sides.

Kyle pulled the Isolator sword out from the skull of the leader of the Black Grassland Wolves, then slashed toward the Black Grassland Wolf on his left. He swept across the snout of the Black Grassland Wolf, then stabbed toward the Black Grassland Wolf that had jumped past him and hurt his shoulder. He stabbed his sword into the side of the Black Grassland Wolf’s chest and pushed the sword down. Along with Kyle’s sword came a myriad of guts flowing out of the Black Grassland Wolf’s body.

The leader of the Black Grassland Wolves and the two Black Grassland Wolves on Kyle’s left side were all dealt with, leaving only the two Black Grassland Wolves that were on his right side. He quickly twisted to the side, only to have one of the Black Grassland Wolves bite his left arm. He cleaved his sword against the Black Grassland Wolf’s head, hitting it directly above an eye. The Black Grassland Wolf didn’t let go, so Kyle hit it above its other eye. After being blinded, the Black Grassland Wolf shook its head even more viciously, tearing the flesh from Kyle’s arm.

“[Warning! User injured! Seek medical attention immediately!]” The Lifelink Chip chimed a useless warning.

The second Black Grassland Wolf didn’t stand around while the other attacked. It jumped off the wagon, circled around to the area that was now behind Kyle, and checked on the injury of the Black Grassland Wolf that had been cut across the snout. Once it determined that the injured Black Grassland Wolf was fine, it turned toward Kyle and jumped onto the wagon.

Kyle had watched the Black Grassland Wolf circle around the wagon, but he was unable to remove the Black Grassland Wolf that was attached to his arm. He stabbed several more times into its body, but the Black Grassland Wolf wouldn’t let go. He ended up turning around, still having the Black Grassland Wolf clamped onto his arm.

Kyle’s strength surprised him. The Black Grassland Wolf attached to his arm had to weight at least a hundred pounds, but he was able to swing it around like a damp towel. Kyle slammed the Black Grassland Wolf on his arm into the Black Grassland Wolf that was climbing the side of the wagon, then stabbed it with his sword. He pushed the Black Grassland Wolf away using his sword, and he eventually succeeded in freeing the mangled remains of his left arm.

The blinded Black Grassland Wolf was unable to continue fighting. All that remained was one uninjured Black Grassland Wolf and a few injured Black Grassland Wolves. Instead of continuing to fight their losing battle, the surviving Black Grassland Wolves fled from Kyle. They left behind the ones who were either blind or immobile, numbering more than half of the group that had originally attacked.

Kyle’s adrenaline still coursed through his body. He watched the surviving Black Grassland Wolves retreat over the horizon, then dropped the sword from his hand.

“[Warning! User injured! Seek medical attention immediately!]” The Lifelink Chip chimed another warning. In response, Kyle looked down at his bloody left arm, then grimaced and turned away. He had no idea where the nearest hospital was, and he had a feeling that his current world didn’t even have hospitals.

“Where’s the nearest hospital?” he asked, but no vision came to supply an answer.

The adrenaline throughout Kyle’s body slowly made its way out of his system. As it did, he began to feel fatigue and tiredness. His arm and shoulders started to hurt more and more, until he couldn’t do anything except put pressure on them.

“There has to be something I can do about this,” he thought. He looked down at the corpses of the passengers of the wagon, quickly said a prayer, and began to search through their clothes. After having killed several Black Grassland Wolves, Kyle wasn’t so sensitive as he might’ve thought about rummaging through the clothes of a dead man. He avoided touching the bare skin of the corpses, but he plundered whatever he could from the pockets of the clothes, along with whatever scraps of cloth he could pull off.