The essence of combat between adversaries of similar capabilities was enabling yourself to use your advantages while preventing your opponent from using theirs.
In this case, Reivan’s advantage was his physical strength, while the bear-sized wolf’s advantage against Reivan in particular was its [Ice] elemental attacks. It was a bit ironic how the smaller creature was much stronger than the larger one, but that's just how it was in the world he ended up in. It wouldn't be the first irony he'd encounter, that was for sure.
“Raaah!” Reivan suddenly stopped mid-charge and threw a fist-sized ball of steel right at the beast’s head. Given his current strength, the ball more than rivaled a destroyer's cannon fire in pure velocity, easily breaking the sound barrier.
'I hope for both our sakes that you don't die from this!'
The majestic beast dodged out of the way with apparent ease, its calculating eyes stained with a hint of mocking. But it suddenly yelped in pain when the ball came back to hit it right in the back of the head. It staggered from the strike to its cranium and seemed ready to fall over.
'Gotcha.'
His improvised plan succeeded but it wasn’t over until the beast was subdued. Reivan quickly summoned another fifteen balls that floated around him through [Formless Will]. Then he kicked the ground, closing the distance in a flash with an iron club in each hand. Exerting nigh unstoppable force, his weapons swung down upon the unsteady beast’s head as the swarm of metal spheres simultaneously aimed to crash into its joints with bone-shattering force.
Just before Reivan's attack connected though, the wolf vanished into a cloud of cold mist, letting Reivan’s attack pass through and hit the ground — which promptly exploded from the force of his strike, sending snow and debris everywhere.
The beast's massive form then reappeared in a distant mountain peak, its maw wide open as it sucked in a deep breath.
‘Shit! This bastard even knows how to act and feint, huh?’
Reivan instinctively prepared to rush toward the wolf's new location, but stopped, wincing underneath his armor when the wolf released a deafening howl that echoed across the peaks. He tried to shake off the ringing in his ears — and even his soul — but he could hardly even think in his current state, leaving him incapable of reacting to anything else.
By the time he recovered, it was clear that the beast had already finished preparing for its next attack.
An intense stream of cold air blasted Reivan from every direction, locking him in place. The chilling wind crept into his armor and licked his skin, freezing the flesh underneath and the blood in his veins. Immediately, Reivan could feel his joints lock and his bones shiver from the cold he had always felt comfort in.
His frost resistance nullified, Reivan felt cold just from the weather alone. It was a good thing he was close to Ascendance because otherwise, just the ice and snow would have had a significant effect on him.
But this?
This was on another level — this was a cold that could kill him.
‘Damn this motherfucking…’
Just one move.
This one move was enough to completely neutralize Reivan’s physical advantage. And the worst part was he didn’t even land a good hit before getting refrigerated.
Unable to move and surprisingly unable to activate any spellblade arts, Reivan quickly noted that everything around him, even mana and qi, was frozen to a standstill. Left with no choice, he willed one of the floating metal balls to slam into his stomach, shattering the ice that enveloped him and sending his stiff body flying away from the cage of frigid winds.
Not letting the chance to finish him off escape, the large wolf once again turned into a cloud of arctic mist before reappearing where Reivan would land, ready to take a chunk out of his neck — or maybe just rip his head out altogether.
Reivan had anticipated something like this, so he already had another metal sphere ready to hit him from above, slamming him into the ground instead of into the jaws of a feral beast. He then used [Effect Reproduction] to help heal any damage, though it didn't seem to be helping much. Gritting his teeth, he quickly pushed off the ground and summoned a longsword.
As he steadied himself, his eyes searched for his opponent and found it immediately, barely able to hold his sword up in a defensive stance. An overwhelming weight pushed against Reivan as steel clashed with fangs, but he held his ground. Muscles fit to burst, he pushed as hard as he could and sent the beast back, but not before it bit down and shattered his longsword like it was made of glass.
'Fuck, it actually broke it...'
Reivan understood that Soul Armaments weren't indestructible — they just seemed that way because their "Might" was focused on durability and absurdly fast restoration power. But seeing his sword get crushed into useless shards of metal caused his heart to fall. The armament spirit's quiet squeal of agony in the deepest recesses of his soul didn't help alleviate the sinking feeling either.
'Those teeth... are ridiculously dangerous.'
Reivan gulped and hastily stepped to his left, just in time to sidestep another lunge. As it passed by, he slugged it in the head with the pommel of his sword before quickly transitioning into a follow-up strike, driving what was left of his blade into the beast's stomach. The attack didn't cut too deeply, but still resulted in a gash along the beast's side. Luckily undamaged, the steel spheres all around him shot toward the injured beast as if saying Reivan's turn wasn't over yet.
Shaken from the force of his pommel strike and its newest wound, the wolf was unable to dodge or react, crying out in pain as five metal balls drove themselves into its stomach and legs, one almost hitting it in the head.
Just as it was about to get hit by even more steel balls, it hastily transformed into a cloud of white mist, retreating to a yet-to-be-destroyed mountain peak in the distance, its beastly golden eyes regarding Reivan with rage.
‘Yeah, you beautiful little bitch. That hurt, huh? There's more where that came from.’
Reivan smirked as he tried to even his breathing, his body still feeling sluggish from almost turning into an ice sculpture. He glanced at the sword in his grasp, noting how it finished restoring itself to its original state before taking a deep breath. Gripping his sword handle tightly, Reivan turned his gaze toward the beast once again, determined to end this as soon as possible.
‘You’re too strong to hold back against.’
He’d been using blunt weapons so he could take the beast home in one piece, but if he kept on doing so, he would probably end up on the losing end. Of course, he still couldn’t go too far since killing the beast would be a completely wasted opportunity. But limiting himself to blunt weapons wasn’t looking like the way to go.
‘It’s… not bleeding. Fuck. I already knew it wouldn't, but a man can hope, right?’
No matter how alive they seemed, spirit beasts weren’t ordinary biological creatures. They didn’t need to eat for one thing — which made him wonder why Dippy liked eating so much — and now, Reivan was faced with the fact that they didn’t bleed either.
That meant he had to aim to cut off actual limbs if he wanted to weaken it by even a little.
‘Sorry about this!’
Reivan took out a small necklace with the Sun God Church’s symbol on it, clutching it to his chest. A light shined and soon, a halo appeared on his head as he felt foreign power surge into his body, filling it with additional strength.
He hadn’t thought he’d need to pull [Frey's Blessing] out, but that was before he discovered how formidable his opponent truly was. Initially, he had hoped it would be adept at fighting in close combat but have relatively less formidable proficiency in elementalism. Obviously, that wasn’t the case, so he really had to pull out all the stops — perhaps he even had to use some of the runestones he had in stock.
That probably wasn’t the case since most of the runestones he brought with him were a little too strong for a fight against a mortal, being specifically designed to combat Ascendants in case he got cornered.
‘It feels dirty to borrow power from a god I haven't sworn myself to like this… But whatever! There is no such thing as an honorable defeat — victory is everything!’
Reivan took another deep breath as he gripped his longsword tighter. He couldn’t stack halos on himself because he wasn’t even a priest of Sormon, but with the additional power of just one halo and the constant healing it provided, he was all but assured to rack up small wins over time. His stamina was nearly infinite too because of [Effect Reproduction], so he truly had no excuse to lose.
Prolonging the fight would be good for him.
On the other hand, one wrong move would probably end it all, so there was a risk.
‘Fuck it. I’ll just stick to it like the clingy ex-girlfriend I never had.’
His physical prowess was his greatest asset here, and he couldn’t put it to good use if his opponent was too far away. Even though he placed himself in danger of getting frozen if he was too close, there was no other way to avoid it other than to constantly pressure the opponent, not giving them the leeway to prepare anything big.
Reivan closed the distance in but a few steps as the metal spheres hovering over their battle transformed into sharp blades with serrated edges, aiming to dig into the beast’s flesh from various angles in tandem with his attack. He swung his sword sideward so fast that there wasn’t even a blur left behind, and yet, it hit nothing when the wolf once again transformed into a cloud of mist.
Having expected this, he kicked off from the ground and shot upward just in time to evade the wolf’s extremely dangerous jaws. He then pivoted mid-air before kicking off against one of his floating blades and plummeting downward, his longsword poised to strike.
Though it saw the attack coming, it seemed the wolf couldn’t transform into mist consecutively. Instead, the snow-white beast tried to evade to the side. Fortunately for Reivnan, it was unable to get away in time, almost losing a leg to his strike. Seemingly through pure combat instinct, it forced him to cut off two tails by swinging them at him, saving its leg from the same fate.
‘I could've won right then and there… damn.’
Reivan landed on the ground and glanced at the severed tail that was already dissolving into motes of light. He then broke into a mad dash to close the distance with the beast once again. He couldn’t allow it any breathing room to prepare another ice-based attack, so all he could do was literally run up to its face every time it pulled away.
It was a set of actions that would piss off most people, and the wolf obviously didn't like it either. The beast's golden eyes shone with rage, and with the majestic grace of an apex predator, it raised its head and howled once again.
But how could Reivan fall for the same trick twice? He blocked off his ears with qi and continued forward, closing the distance and almost taking off both of the beast’s front legs before it transformed into mist again.
For a while, the battle went on in a similar pattern.
He would charge forward like a madman, launching attack after attack after attack. Then the beast would respond by transforming into mist to create distance or dodging via nimble movements. Reivan, in turn, would close the distance without using any aetherblade arts to save resources, relying on his superior physical capabilities.
It was a game of cat and mouse that favored Reivan because he kept on inflicting small cuts on the beast with every other exchange. And since he wasn’t using as much magic power, he could steadily bleed out the beast’s resources while retaining his own. The wolf only used half the normal resources when in cold environments because of its enviable skill, but with this, Reivan could even out the playing field.
All he had to watch out for was not getting caught in the beast's jaws. Also, he had to block off his ears in time with the beast's howls, unblocking it right after so he didn't disable one of his strongest senses. And finally, he had to be careful about being caught in some kind of [Ice] attribute technique, monitoring the slightest change in temperature.
Now that he thought about it, there were actually a lot of things to watch out for. Despite that, his situation was far better than his opponent's.
‘The beautiful thing about this tactic is there’s nothing this majestic mutt can do about it!’
Even though it could probably read his intentions with its skill, there simply wasn’t much it could do now. It needed time and preparation to use a move that could significantly freeze him, as most [Ice] elemental techniques did, but Reivan wasn't about to give him that opportunity for free.
If the beast truly wanted to, it would have to give up three limbs at least.
“Come back here!” Reivan yelled as yet another part of the area was destroyed by the sheer force behind his attacks, and yet, the wolf still managed to dodge it, growing better at doing so as the battle went on, almost managing to take a chunk out of Reivan's arm in a counter-attack.
Suddenly, he sensed the area around him becoming saturated with cold essence so he wasted no effort in leaving the area, the surface of his armor already coated with a layer of frost by the time he got away. Unusually stiff from the exchange, Reivan continued to control his remote blades to put pressure on the white wolf, all while expelling the frost from his body.
Since [Formless Will]’s power was based on his own physical capabilities, the blades were also strengthened by the halo on his head, easily breaking the sound barrier. The beast could dodge a few at a time, but it couldn’t help but allow a number of the dark aura-coated blades to hit, unknowingly transferring a small portion of its energy reserves to Reivan.
And this had been going on for a while now, hundreds, if not thousands of small lacerations all along its body.
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
‘It should start tiring out any time soon… hopefully.’
The once majestic beast had lost an ear, two of its tails, and one of its horns throughout the fight. With no blood, its majestic coat retained the color of fresh virgin snow in spite of its injuries. But even though it had suffered tremendous punishment, Reivan admired the undying fighting spirit in its fierce golden eyes.
It was truly worthy of fighting with all he had.
A normal beast would have considered escaping at this point, but the majestic wolf’s own ability locked it in combat with Reivan. That was why it had no choice but to keep fighting a losing battle.
All that was left was to wait for it to run out of steam before going for the kill with all his might.
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The White King was surprised that the intruder looked so similar to a human and even seemed to bark the same kind of sounds, but was all the same convinced that it wasn't one.
Unlike the humans it knew, its strength was domineering enough that the fur he was so proud of may as well not exist in the face of its brutal strikes. It also surrounded itself with some hard rock like a beetle would, and controlled equally hard teeth that independently flew around it.
It was nothing like the humans he knew and the White King admired the creature’s power.
Even though it was infuriating to admit, this not-human wasn't easy prey.
The White King could feel his defeat approaching with a steady gait, vicious and unstoppable.
Nonetheless, he could tell that the not-human’s intentions were to keep on attacking until he depleted his energy. Freezing the creature seemed the most effective, but the not-human knew that too and obviously didn’t allow the White King any opportunities to do so without sacrifice.
At present, the White King did, in fact, not have a way to win without sacrifice.
He also knew that he probably wouldn't die even if he did lose. The not-human would subdue him and make him a slave through one of those berry-like objects that shined and were akin to a miniature glacier.
A large part of the White King reasoned that it was only natural for the victor to decide what happened to the loser. It was only natural for the strong to impose their will on the weak. This was precisely what the White King had been doing to those around it ever since it could remember.
He could fault no one but himself for the future he would suffer.
But deep inside him, a very small part thought that it would be better to perish than to be at someone else’s mercy. After all, he had lorded over everyone for his entire life, how could he lower his head and serve another? How could he ask them for the mercy of freedom when he never granted it to those he hunted?
Though it was just a tiny and insignificant part of him that thought this, its cries were growing louder and louder in his head as defeat crawled closer and closer.
The situation was grim but he still hadn't given up, for he knew that if his heart surrendered, that would spell his defeat right then and there. He would hold out for as long as he could, as there was always a chance that his opponent would show an opening.
An opportunity to turn things around.
The White King involuntarily gnashed his teeth when two of the not-human's flying fangs cut into his body again. With a snarl, he finally decided to abandon what remained of his pride, raising his head and howling.
Anticipating an attack on its soul like earlier, the not-human tensed and blocked off its tiny little ears with qi as it charged forward.
But it was wrong — the White King had conditioned it to think this way by using the same howl over and over.
And it was all for this moment.
‘Come to me.’
The not-human could not possibly hear it, but in the White King’s mind, dozens of howls echoed out to answer his call. With how strong the enemy was, he only wanted the strongest members of its pack to answer because the weaker ones would be utterly useless. But he never figured out how to summon his kin in such a selective way.
Hence, all of the pups would answer the call.
‘Come.’
Another series of howls resonated throughout his soul, combining into one that resonated deeply in his mind and awoke something feral inside him. It had been a while since he heard a howl that wasn’t his own, and he noticed that some of the howls came from brethren who were smaller than his paw the last time he saw them.
Now, they were big enough to hunt; big enough to have their own packs.
And with any hope, big enough to matter in this fight.
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Reivan frowned under his helm as he noticed dozens of presences appear out of nowhere from everywhere around him.
‘What the fuck is happening…?’
He wanted to continue his assault on the large wolf but was forced to stop when another wolf — albeit slightly smaller and without horns — showed up right in front of him, fangs bared and claws primed to rip him to shreds. It wasn’t as large as the other one, but that didn’t mean he was in the mood to get bitten. Its fangs looked as equally dangerous as the first wolf, and surely, he wouldn't enjoy finding out how it felt to have your flesh shredded off.
Reivan quickly stepped to the side and kicked the incoming beast in the stomach, sending it flying toward a group of similar-looking wolves.
‘Okay, what the hell is going on!? It just had babies right in front of me! Even though it's a dude!’
Reivan quickly examined the newcomers through [Supreme Insight] while being careful of another attack.
~^+— Unit's Statistics —+^~
Name: N/A
Species: Spirit Beast - Winter Ghostwolf α
Realm: Mortal
Age: 134
Sex: Male
Special Abilities None
Might: 1250 Extra Skills Elemental Affinities: [Ice] [Darkness] [Qi: Unleashed]
[Alpha's Authority]
Favor: (Hostility) -60 / 100 Threat Level: D
‘It’s… It’s also an alpha? How does that make sense...? I thought each wolf pack had one alpha...'
Reivan hastily examined the few dozen wolves slowly circling him and confirmed that they were all alphas, with similar Might ratings too.
Other than the alpha group, the majority of the wolves stood far away. And Reivan saw that they had "β" sign on their status pages, meaning they were betas. Much weaker than the alphas, they stood back and released cold mist from their bodies, all while glaring at Reivan hungrily.
‘That’s crazy…’
Gulping down a mouthful of saliva as dozens of powerful beasts filled his ears with growls, Reivan’s eyes flitted back to the only wolf with horns and examined what the [Alpha’s Authority] extra skill did. He had been about to look at it earlier before the beast attacked him, temporarily blowing it out of his mind.
[Alpha's Authority]
Where the Alpha goes, the pack follows
Active:
This unit can unconditionally call members of its pack to its location and return them at will. This authority cannot be resisted by members of the pack.
Passive:
This unit's presence empowers the pack, increasing their capabilities and enhancing resource regeneration.
This skill can be revoked depending on the unit's position in the pack.
‘So it was some kind of summoning skill, huh?’
It suddenly occurred to him how there were so many alpha's in one pack — because it wasn't a pack at all. Rather, it was more of a clan, composed of multiple packs with one special alpha at the top.
'That's... actually metal as fuck. I want him even more now.'
Reivan's mind kicked into high gear, trying to come up with a solution. Despite the vast gulf in physical prowess between himself and any one of the new wolves, he was slightly troubled. Though he could kill one rather easily, it would also expose his back to danger.
Of course, he had a reusable get-out-of-jail-free card by turning intangible for a moment, but doing that every time he killed one of the wolves — of which there were dozens — would consume far too much of his essence reserves.
It would be slightly sustainable if he had the leeway to suck out his victim’s resources, but being completely surrounded didn’t exactly provide a safe space for that.
‘Luckily for me, I have friends too.’
Reivan reached deep inside his soul and called out to the large scaly creature sleeping inside.
‘Wake up, bud. I think I’m gonna need some help. Deep breath, just like we practiced! Don't eat any of them though! They'll be our friends after I'm done with them.’
As if it had been waiting for him to say so, Zouros appeared high in the sky, nearly covering the entire Hexagon with the shadow of its massive form and expansive wings. The fragment of the World Devouring Serpent opened its maw and inhaled, giving everyone below it a glimpse into what an endless void looked like.
'Do it.'
Not even a full second after Reivan sent his thoughts to his scaly friend, it started sucking in the air in front of its mouth. And when such a massive creature did that, the resulting consequences weren't too hard to imagine. Rocks, glaciers, and frozen trees were pulled out of their icy home and slowly pulled upward as if gravity was a thing of the past.
Reivan, of course, was somehow unaffected but the white wolves all around him had to brace themselves, digging their claws into the frozen ground. Perhaps because they were physically stronger than the current Zouros, it didn’t look like they would get sucked up any time soon.
‘Good thing I’m here.’
Not wanting to waste the opportunity, Reivan ran around and punched each of the alpha wolves’ heads in, knocking them all out while leaving the weaker ones alone. He then strongly reminded Zouros not to kill them since they might be potential allies in the future, all while the normal alpha wolves' bodies floated up to the sky. As for the beta wolves, Reivan didn't even bother with them since they couldn't resist Zouros' suction force at all.
The only one that remained was the big bad wolf he’d been fighting from the very start, who looked completely unaffected by Zouros. It merely stared at the giant serpent with calm and clarity.
Reivan chuckled as he strode toward it, his longsword resting on his shoulder. “I’m still here, and you’re looking at someone else? I’m hurt.”
Just as injured as it had been earlier, the large bear-sized wolf turned its attention back to Reivan, lowering its body and baring its fangs for what seemed like a last stand.
Reivan took one long look at the beast and contemplated fighting it until it dropped, but he shook his head. His helm disappeared to reveal his face as he spoke to the majestic beast.
“It’s over. You should know it too.”
The large wolf snarled, its only remaining tail standing up. It seemed about ready to pounce on him, as if to say that the fight was, in fact, not over yet.
“Stubborn motherfucker… Fine. Have it your way.”
Reivan’s helm returned to cover his head as his entire body transformed into a bolt of lightning that shot for the wolf, closing the distance between them in a fraction of a second, he then swung his sword and slashed downward. When the wolf once again transformed into mist, he followed after it by becoming a cloud of darkness.
They both rematerialized at the same time, only this time, Reivan was primed and in position for a quick strike, producing a deep gash on the beast’s face. He then kicked its front leg, breaking it instantly as the dull crack of shattered bone filled the air.
The wolf tried to fight back despite the pain, but Reivan’s turn wasn’t over. He once again transformed into a flash of lightning, reappearing at the beast’s other flank, slashing horizontally to open up the beast’s right side. It was such a gruesome wound that if it had any innards, they would have all fallen out right now.
Reivan kicked it in the stomach where the injury was, sending it soaring into the distance before chasing after it as a cloud of darkness and grabbing its last remaining tail. With a grunt of exertion, he mercilessly slammed the massive beast into the ground.
Again, and again, and again.
Reivan released a breath as he let go of the beast's tail and circled around it to get a look at its enchanting golden eyes. “You’re out of mana. Guess calling your pack costs a lot, huh? Too bad I have backup too."
The wolf growled powerlessly, utterly spent and suffering from all of its wounds. Still, the light in its eyes hadn’t dissipated, as if it was still searching for a way to win.
‘I like it.’
Reivan really liked its attitude.
This was the type of willpower a king of beasts needed to have.
Reivan didn’t mean to mock or degrade its effort with his words at all. Rather, he understood its thought process. Whether it was because of experience, intelligence, or pure intuition, the beast knew that it had to take a gamble to win, spending all its remaining energy to call its allies.
Unfortunately for the beast, Reivan had better dice.
“You can understand me, can’t you?” Reivan asked, stabbing his sword into the ground and leaning against it to support himself. “Or at least, you have a vague understanding of what I’m saying. My intentions or whatever, right?”
The wolf didn’t answer in any way other than to snarl and bare its fangs, but Reivan smiled. Somehow, he could feel that the wolf just confirmed it.
Reivan took out the purple orb he was given, taking a moment to roll it around his palm before deciding on something. He tossed it tossed the orb aside and it fell on the snowy ground with a dull thud before rolling off to who knew where. His actions must have confused the wolf too because he saw its brows twitch, and noted the way the beast stared at the orb, as if it knew exactly what the object did.
"I don't really wanna force you."
With a smile, he knelt down and spoke to the majestic white wolf.
“But you should come with me. I promise that I'll show you a whole new world.”