Looking at the blood red thread fade away, Azrael was curious. "I wonder what the other one was." Azrael swings the sword in a horizontal manner ejecting the blood left on the sword. In the distance, howls can be heard. Azrael guessed it must be the dead wolf's pack. He inspects himself and realizes that he's not that far from another Ascension. So, although it was dangerous to fight when you're outnumbered, Azrael decided to take that risk. "Ragnar, watch my back alright?'

Ragnar nods in affirmation before slipping behind a tree. Suddenly, five white dire wolves surrounded Azrael. Their bodies just slightly towering over him. They growl at him, knowing it is this being that killed their kin. Their weakest aura is green, while their strongest has a sapphire blue aura. With a calm face, Azrael rushed at the weakest link. He was much faster than before and in no time, he was beside the wolf.

The wolf was even weaker than the one Azrael fought before. He slashed at its neck, slicing it clean open. Blood splashed, spraying all over Azrael's clothing. A colorless thread soon appeared from the wolf and went into Azrael's body automatically. Azrael had no time to look at the skill; however, he still needed to deal with the other four dire wolves.

Luckily, the rejuvenating feeling enveloped Azrael once more and his body felt even stronger. With his power boosted, he charged at the second weakest among them. But the strongest wolf was one step ahead and blocked his path while the other three wolves moved to pincer attack him.

With the increased vigor came an increase in mana capacity. Unable to dodge, Azrael enhanced his legs, and coated his sword with mana. What came next was a flurry of claw attacks headed his way. He parried all but the strongest one. Before the blow hit, Azrael redirected the mana from his legs to his chest. The claw attack bashed into him, flinging Azrael to a nearby boulder slightly imprinting himself on it. Blood erupts from his mouth. Azrael, Bearing the brunt of the attack, was not angry at all, in fact he threw a wicked smile at the wolf.

Seventy-five percent of the attack was mitigated thanks to his mana. Unfortunately, a sizable chunk of the reserves is gone. He takes out the dagger that Finn treasured greatly and pulls himself off the boulder. Celeste, the maiden name of Finn's mother. Putting his attention back to the wolves, he notices that they had closed in and cornered him. Using the rest of his mana reserves he splits it in two. One is used to enhance Celeste, while the other is used to enhance the short sword.

As a result of the depleted mana reserves, the short sword's once flawless coating has diminished, no longer encompassing its entirety. Instead, the coating now selectively clings to the keen edges of the blade, leaving the rest exposed. The dagger shares a similar fate, remaining unaffected by the mana scarcity. Yet, none of this matters to Azrael as he launches towards the wolves for round two. Dashing towards the strongest wolf first Azrael slashes the sword in its eyes. The wolf easily evades, Azrael expects this exact reaction and without missing a beat attacks the wolf beside him with Celeste.

The dagger, was so sharp due to the enhancement of mana, effortlessly pierced through the beast's thick fur and skin. Mercilessly splitting open the wolf's head. "That's two down, three more to go." Azrael thought. The remaining dire wolves began to grow cautious, this human managed to kill two of their kind with ease and seems to still have a lot of energy left.

Azrael gave them no time to regroup and while they were slightly separated, he dashed at the closest one. Knowing its death was near, the wolf attacked with all its might at Azrael. Quickly going from offense to defense, he blocks the wolf's vicious teeth from clamping down on his shoulders. The other wolf rushes at Azrael but instead of trying to attack him it reaches for his short sword.

Caught off guard from the beast's intelligence, Azrael hastily increased his grip on the short sword. The wolf clamped down as hard as it could on the base of the sword and ripped it from Azrael's hands. Knowing things will get more dangerous as the battle continues, Azrael decided to take a risk. Removing Celeste from the mouth of the wolf in front of it, he allowed the wolf to chow down onto his shoulder. In return, Azrael thrusted the dagger directly in its throat, killing it.

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Removing the wolf's jaws from his shoulder, He rushed at the other wolf that stole his sword. Catching up to it he used the effect of dash to forcefully collide his leg with the wolf's jaw. Azrael's tibia creaked in pain. However, the wolf was much worse off. Although it wasn't killed, the wolf was incapacitated and had let go of the sword.

The constant use of dash and enhancing his body with mana had drained him. The leader of the pack was waiting for this moment and was preparing to strike. Fortunately for Azrael, he still had pills in his storage ring. Popping the soft wooden cork from the pill bottle, he consumes two pills. The efficiency of the pills was immediate. The cracks in Azrael's tibia mended themselves, the multiple holes in his shoulders rapidly closed, and some of the internal bleeding stopped. Noticing the anomaly happening in front of it, the wolf no longer hesitated and rushed at Azrael. The wolf was too fast for him. Azrael could only move to block with the short sword in front of him.

The wolf bit at him, chomping down on the sword. The wolf lifted Azrael into the air then slammed him into the ground. Being slammed into the ground was not pleasant at all for Azrael, but at least the heavy snow cushioned the impact. With a chest that felt a little stuffy, Azrael tried to fight back. But the wolf was not letting up either. A teenage child and a formidable wolf confronted each other, with the latter on top of the former laying at an impasse. Locked in a piercing gaze, understanding that only one of them is leaving here alive. With that tacit understanding both man and wolf made a move at the same time.

The wolf began clawing at Azrael. While dodging he enhanced his right leg with mana and began kicking the belly of the beast. One kick, two kicks, three kicks, yet the beast was still fiercely holding on. Using dash he kicked one final time; the collision was too much for Azrael's leg to bear and shattered. The wolf was faring no better and was barely hanging on. Using the very last slivers of mana within himself, he mixed the blood in his mouth with mana and spit at the eyes of the beast.

Like a bullet, it shattered the wolf's left eye. The wolf could not hold on any longer and let go of the sword in its mouth. Wanting this tiring situation to end, Azrael quickly adjusted his hold of the sword and stabbed the wolf's throat. The vitality of such a fearsome beast should not be underestimated, so he stabbed again and again until the snow was entirely dyed red. An orange thread appeared and was absorbed into Azrael's body. Only then did he stop stabbing.

The concussed wolf had finally woken up. Its gaze fell upon Azrael, perceiving before it a demonic figure fashioned in human form. Despite the wolf's dichromatic vision, the color red remained discernible, saturating the human's attire, and even staining the very ground with a gruesome display of blood. Undeterred by his injured and mangled leg, Azrael defiantly rose to his feet, locking eyes with the lone remaining wolf.

Traumatized from the very sight, the wolf whimpered and tried to scramble away but unfortunately, Ragnar pounced, biting its head clean off. leaving Azrael to stare at Ragnar. "I said watch my back not 'watch me get flinged into a boulder.'" he said to Ragnar who is gorging himself on the corpses.

Dropping some entrails, Ragnar looks up. A voice sounded in Azrael's head, "I did. I watched your back all the way up until that wolf slammed you on the floor." As he stood there dazed for a bit, contemplating what his pet had just said to him. He took out two more pills from the bottle immediately gulping them down. The shattered bones in Azrael's leg slowly combined themselves. Although very painful, Azrael had dealt with worse.

"I'll be more specific next time." Grumbling as he looked down at the short sword still lodged in the wolf's throat. He pulls out the sword. Inspecting it, he notices that there are cracks all over the blade. It seemed it would shatter with just a light tap. Throwing the sword away, he looks through his storage ring to see if there was another sword.

Due to the naivety of Finn, he didn't have much prepared. The storage ring contains only five things: gold, clothing, food, water, and medical supplies. Although the space inside the ring was approximately 100 meters, most of the space was occupied by gold coins. Disappointed by the lack of weapons, Azrael focuses on other matters. His whole body is smeared with blood, he reeks of it and is only a standing target for the wild beasts of this forest. He needed shelter, and he needed it fast.

When his leg finally healed and his mana reserves replenished, he dashed out in search of some kind of shelter. Only a few hours had passed when Azrael finally found a burrow carved in the sides of a hill. Going in, he sees that it's vacant. Putting Celeste away, he finally relaxed his tense nerves and began to clean himself. From changing his clothes to washing his face he did all that in a matter of minutes. Using the branches, he found outside the burrow he even made a campfire. Deciding to rest there for the night, Azrael began cooking the rabbit and wolf meat using the fire. While the meat was cooking Azrael sat down and inspected himself. He thought, "Status."