Chapter 42

42 Loner Vs. The Pack.

After meeting the group of people from Calix city, Valerian had no desire to come across these people again. He was afraid he would lose his mind and beat that girl Conixia.

After a day, Valerian found his sparring partner, Ventus Lupi, in a group of wolves with innate wind attributes. These beasts were completely different from how the wolves were described in the books. They were cunning, fast, and strong.

For the first ten days, Valerian had problems even defending himself. He was really grateful for the armor or his body would have turned to shreds. The speed of the wolves helped him train his sensory responses.

As days passed, Valerian would take lesser damage. His body movements became faster, however, he was still not able to counter the wolves. The attack had no pattern, sometimes the beast will attack with sharp claws, and sometimes it will be deceptive wind magic spells.

It took Valerian twenty days to injure a wolf, but it was nothing serious, in turn, this attack enraged the wolves. These beasts had a strong sense of kinship, their attacks became ruthless. Now, they had started to bite at the limbs of the boys.

Thanks to the quick responses, he was able to dodge the attacks. This did not help him much, and in the end, he would have to flee from the battle. The wolves chased the boy till the edges of their territory, and every time Valerian came seeking a contest, he was pushed back with an even stronger force.

The killing intent of the wolves against him was strong enough to render his armor useless. Gleam would scold him for picking up with the pack of most notorious beasts in the woods. The snake did not dare to trespass the region of the wolves even though she had evolved.

Valerian could not refute or more like he did not care about it. He was able to sense his growth and that was all he cared about. In one of the books he read back in the orphanage, it was said that treasure and trouble exist hand in hand.

His mother also taught him that in order to gain true strength, he will have to overcome a lot of troubles, so this was a small step on the long journey. He refurbished the armor and began to pick fights again.

.....

Sometimes when he was tired of the constant setback, Valerian would fight with the other magical beasts in the forest. However, the fierce nature of the wolves was always missing. Even after a month and a half, Valerian did not know, how many wolves did the pack have.

...

Gleam said, ‘Remember that you have to leave the woods at sunrise, also, tell me one more time. Why are you going to pick a fight with those wolves one more time, and that too at night? I have told you about some beast being stronger at night, right?’

The bonding between the two creatures has become very tight in the past few days, they have become good friends, of sorts. Valerian sharpened the claw knives and said, ‘Can you stop nagging Gleam? You know why I am doing all this?’

The snake stared at his visage and then said, ‘If you manage to survive the night, do not come back to me. I need my sleep. Go away now.’

That said, the snake did not waste a single moment and slithered away at a very fast speed. Valerian cast a gaze to the gradually blurring silhouette and shook his head. The snake did not want to have an emotional farewell and thus it ran away.

Thinking that, they will meet if it was fated, Valerian walked in the direction of the wolves’ territory. His pace was very fast, almost like a blur. During the past two months, Valerian had become some sort of a beast himself.

Now when he moves through the woods, he will not leave any traces. He learned this from being chased by the wolves. They would track him from his smell, and footprints. The degree of alertness these wolves had was something the boy envied.

He had no idea that at least in terms of anti-tracking abilities, he was way ahead of his peers. Even those teenagers he had met in the beginning were nothing compared to the current him.

The consumption of magical beast meet has boosted the physical functions of his body. Ignorant Valerian stood at the edge of the wolf territory, listening to his heart that was beating like a war drum.

These wolves have left a shadow in his mind, to overcome this shadow, he needed to take down at least one of these beasts, but if he did that, the pack will never let him go away. Valerian had modified his armor, it now had a dedicated neck guard.

He could not tell how many times his jugular would have been cut open if not for this piece. During his first battle, the struggle only lasted for five minutes, before he had to run away with cuts on his exposed body parts.

Recalling that incident, the boy decided to move and step inside the territory of the wolves. Valerian cast the spell to enhance his vision. Every magical beast gives off a strong glow of the attribute they use. The shadow attribute will make the surroundings even darker than they usually were.

It had not been long since Valerian stepped inside the wolf territory, and the surrounding had suddenly become deadly silent. The child suddenly took a step to his side, and a strong gust of wind passed the spot he was standing at.

It was an attack, all Valerian saw was a sky blue glow. These Ventus Lupi will use mana to attack their prey, even if it was a rabbit, they will use their complete strength from the first attack only.

Followed by this Valerian began to move all over the place. These wolves had every angle covered, even if the child took the cover of the trees, they will be able to attack him from dead angles.

But after all this time, the child had come to understand that it was not the wolf that attacked him always, sometimes the beasts would cast a spell similar to wind blades to attack him, however, this spell would follow Valerian as if the wind had eyes.

As the night became darker the intensity of the battle increased. Suddenly, Valerian turned around and then the claw knife in his hand flew through the air, followed by a light puffing sound, and then a dull thud.

Valerian caught the sight of a gray-colored beast fallen on the ground, the beast was not breathing. The surroundings immediately echoed with loud howls. It was not only the wolf territory but the whole forest of Acies that heard these dreading howls.

...

Gleam was swallowing the prey from her hunt when she heard the howls, she almost puked the prey from shock. As a magical beast, she could detect the killing intent lingering in the howls. However, she could only pray for his safety and not do anything.

...

Valerian also knew that he has ignited the flames of rage among the pack after he has killed one of them. But he was not going to run away from the battle. Amidst the heart-chilling howls, he walked up to the corpse of the wolf and took out his knife.

Then he cast a spell, ‘Luminare.’

Around him appeared four blobs of light. These blobs floated around him, lighting up the dark woods. Valerian did not want to waste time anymore. The wolves will attack him faster and he needed a better field of vision.

Suddenly, the howls vanished, as if they never existed and only the movement of wind could be heard. Valerian moved half a step to his right and kicked at his left side, he sensed an impact, but now was not the time to celebrate.

He jumped in the air to avoid two wind blades coming at him from behind and while suspended in the air, he punched behind him. The fist was quick and decisive. He sensed another impact.

The battle continued, while sometimes Valerian hit the opponent, sometimes the opponent managed to attack him. The whole scene was chaos. None of the parties had any intention to give up.

Valerian was able to keep up because of the four blobs of light around him, they illuminated the outlines of the wolves attacking him. If anyone else was here to see how intense was the fight and even at that, Valerian had four illumination spells to cast and maintained, they would have captured this boy and experimented on him.

After an hour, Valerian had taken down three wolves. At this point in the battle, the wolves have slowed down. They have developed a slight hesitation in attacking Valerian. This human would just not back off as those annoying flees.

Just when the pack was hesitating, a wolf, twice the size of the others, with silver fur, walked out from the tree, Valerian locked his gaze with the beast and he could tell that this beast is the Alpha and he was challenging himself for a battle.