Surrounded on all sides, Lute surprisingly looked content. Despite not knowing any combat Arts or Techniques, he held no fear for his life, at least not yet. It was not an exaggeration to say that the current Lute look as if he was a seasoned veteran of the battlefield.

He had a maniacal grin on his face; his icy blue eyes seemed to be the eyes of death itself. Underneath the sunlight of the sunset, his crimson hair seemed to be alive, dancing like fire. And he unconsciously put a pressure upon his foes, despite not actually knowing how to emit pressure or intent. But combined with all of this were the many scars of varying lengths and width across Lute’s chest, shoulders and back.

If someone were to see them, two thoughts would come to mind. Either Lute doesn’t have good luck, or he didn’t know how to dodge. He was the former, but that bad luck had led to great fortune, so could it really be called bad luck? Everything put together made Lute look like a person who lived upon the battlefield and breathed only for carnage.

Currently, he was only just beginning to realize this feeling of enjoying fighting. This feeling of wanting to push past your limits and squeeze out more power than you actually had to win. The simple joy of shedding blood to protect your ideals and beliefs, this was all coming to light. Then there was the even more vicious ideology of fighting simply because it was fun and it felt ecstatic to fight on the edge only to survive.

This, this isn’t me thought Lute as he readied himself into his crude amateur stance. Is this… Is this from Master?

Lute finally blinked and sighed in defeat. He understood finally why he was now enjoying combat to such an extent. It wasn’t all from Isla, but a large chunk was. Previously living a life of survival, Lute never had the ability to think about fighting, every action was taken in order to live. Perhaps he already had the seeds of a warrior from the beginning. If he became a cultivator and never met Isla, maybe he still would have these feelings toward combat.

Yes, perhaps that is the most probable cause. It was the soul contract; she did say that a portion of our personalities would merge. And I already knew she had violent tendencies. So I had the seeds already and she caused them to germinate. I can assume I wouldn’t have minded combat even if I never met her. But now… these feeling are hers… no… now they are mine. Master has given me the ability to stand resolute on the battlefield and slaughter when needed, and not feel any guilt over it. For that, I am grateful.

Upon further analysis, it might have been a match determined by fate. Lute, the Mortal who was originally a quiet and reserved person that tried his best to not let emotions control him –Aside from the negative ones that shaped that reserved personality-, and Isla the Divine who was arrogant and haughty, she let her emotions run free and rampant. It was the calm and collected mortal who knew restraint because he had no power and the arrogant and rampant divine who knew no bounds in their actions because they had a degree of power. Fate truly was an ironic trickster.

Perhaps that is the key. I was and still am originally a reserved person. She seems to be an arrogant person that tends to have outbursts of emotions. Maybe I gave her the ability to restrain herself and control herself, while she gave me the ability to let myself go and rampage without a care in the world. Maybe other aspects of our personalities have transferred or merged, but this in and of itself wasn’t actually bad.

"No there was never a problem with the merged personalities from the start; it shall give me the ability to slaughter all of you." Lute said in what appeared to be calm manner. But deep in his eyes, there was a small glimpse into the insanity of living for battle that Lute had come to terms with and accepted was a part of him now.

Even if he was lost in thought for a small degree of time, the Vicious Beasts never actually assaulted him. First they saw the decimated state of the wolf corpse beside Lute, and as he came to terms with his new personality, the more accepting he became towards himself, the stronger the pressure he emitted.

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As for what this pressure was, Lute was beginning to understand how it formed. It was something that he would’ve gained at some point. Perhaps it awakened earlier because he merged personalities with Isla, who no doubt slaughtered many, many beasts and cultivators alike. And that was what he would call battle intent for now. Perhaps the stronger he became and the more he killed, maybe even the stronger the life was that he killed, would cause the pressure to increase.

"Come" Yelled Lute in a frenzy.

Receiving the stimulus from his yell, all at once, the four wolves charged from each direction. However the larger wolf hadn’t charged in yet, it still stalked Lute from the shadows of the surrounding forest, watching him, studying him.

Even now, especially after awakening to his love for combat, Lute wasn’t nervous at all. Comparing these four wolves to the one he just slaughtered, there were more of them, but somehow he knew that they were weaker by a substantial margin individually. The only difference, they had numbers for an advantage.

"Tsk, too bad for you, I don’t care about a numbers advantage, If I want you dead, then you ARE DEAD!" Lute said, making sure that even though the words were misunderstood, his intent was unmistakable.

This time, it was no holding back, Lute let his Qi release at maximum strength, and covered his whole body. Charging forward, he slammed a fist directly into the muzzle of the wolf directly in front of him. It didn’t even have a chance to react as it met its demise. The force of Lutes impact slamming into it caused the body to go flying in the opposite direction.

Alas, Lute still hadn’t ever fought more than one opponent before, and here he was now fighting a one versus four. Due to his inexperience, he left many opening for the other three wolves to take advantage.

Not only was he clawed on his back, Lutes right arm was bitten and the left rib area now had a deep gash going down the side. Grunting in pain, he didn’t retreat, rather, the wounds seemed to further increase Lutes anger and bloodlust.

He grabbed the wolf that was still holding his right arm, now with both arms, Lute lifted it up all the while it was still biting harder and harder into his body. Using the struggling wolf as a weapon, Lute basically turned into a berserker who felt no pain. With all his weight and strength, Lute swung the wolf in a sweeping manner and separated the final two from each other.

Once separated, Lute turned his attention to the wolf still biting into his right arm, lifting it up over his head, he slammed it into the ground over, and over, and over until it went limp.

Seeing this sight, the final two wolves actually began to cower and whimper. Finally they actually ran away. These were Vicious Beasts. All were known to fight to death with humans and never retreat, disregarding all wounds. And yet, for the first time in who knew how many years. A single youth, who had no combat Arts or Techniques, fought one versus four with Vicious Beasts and caused two of them to retreat in fear, with only his bare body and Qi alone!

Slowly clarity seemed to return to Lutes eyes. Standing there, he was dripping in blood. He already had scars all over his body. The original scars remained because they were an important symbol for Lute and subconsciously he didn’t want them healed, but perhaps the Divine Chronicle of the Primordial Way would be able to heal these other wounds and prevent them from scarring.

Standing like a warlord, with an indomitable atmosphere, Lute then turned his attention to the final Vicious Beast. Clearly it was the leader of the pack as it was larger and stronger than all the others.

Lute and the leader locked eyes. "Are you next? Shall you encroach upon my territory?" Lute said in an extremely low and dangerous voice.

Despite not knowing his words, the exchange between man and beast was understood. Lute claimed his territory, and the wolf wasn’t stupid, it knew that if it wanted to fight, even if the furless beast was wounded, it still wouldn’t win without paying a hefty and bloody price. The leader of the pack blinked once towards Lute, its bloodshot eyes seeming to lose some of their hatefulness. It bowed its head once and then turned around trotting off back into the shadows away from the direction of Lutes shelter.

Respect, this was respect between a wild man and a wild beast.

Lute felt slightly dizzy from the blood loss, but other than that, he was alright. Without waiting any longer, he gathered the usable corpses that weren’t disfigured and slung them over his back while holding them by their tails.

Ah, that was refreshing; I finally got to blow off some steam and gained clothes and meat. It’s been so long since I had meat for dinner, I can’t wait.

That night, Lute had no fear as he confidently lit a large fire. Tonight was going to be a feast of meat, while the rest of it was smoked to last longer. While the meat smoked, Lute began to skin the wolves with the knife-like rock that he’d been using for days now. It was about time he gained some clothes so Isla didn’t have to stare at his naked body anymore. No matter how much she said it didn’t bother her and said she saw him as a child, Lute still felt uncomfortable about it.