Chapter 203 Nailed Dead

There was no room left to retreat.

Or rather, a blind retreat without a plan would only make the situation far more dangerous.

Right now, faced with the ambush of the wolf pack, the Sea Thorn Squad's only option was to fight.

"You two, hold off the big one."

Xia Nan's expression remained calm as he stared at the pack of Nightwalker Wolves ahead.

"Leave the rest to me."

Combat was unavoidable, and their enemies were fully exposed before them.

Naturally, they couldn't let the wild wolves deploy their tactics and pick them off one by one like before.

They had to firmly grasp the initiative of this battle.

Xia Nan's mind raced, analyzing the situation on the field.

The newly appeared giant alpha wolf's strength was unknown, but it was clearly much stronger than an ordinary Nightwalker Wolf—it was the wildcard of the battlefield.

However, after the brief exchange just now, he had roughly gauged the strength of the remaining five wild wolves.

They were entirely within his ability to handle.

Though there were a few more of them, with Xia Nan's combat style, there really wasn't much difference between facing one and facing five.

To pose a genuine threat to him, they would probably need to add another zero to that number.

Therefore, he would have his teammates stall the alpha wolf whose exact strength remained unclear, while he used that time to eliminate the other wolves.

That way, their squad could focus all their attention on dealing with the pack leader without interference.

"There's something wrong with this alpha. It might have special abilities, so be careful," Xia Nan warned, recalling the strange gravitational ripples he had observed while in the state of [Heart-Guided Vision].

Without realizing it, he had already taken over command of the squad.

"Mint, stay in the back and support us as the situation demands. Help me or help them, either is fine."

"Those wild wolves won't be able to get past me, but keep an eye on the alpha and stay far away from it."

He spoke extremely fast.

Facing off against the wolf pack across the moonlight, he quickly outlined the key points to the group.

Despite whatever thoughts the squad members might have harbored previously, under these circumstances, no one voiced any objections.

This held true even though Veris and Cash both flashed a stunned 'Wait, I have to fight the alpha?' expression when Xia Nan asked them to stall the pack leader.

They quickly reined it in and genuinely began to consider the feasibility of the plan.

As for Mint, true to the timid personality she had displayed before, she simply retreated to open up some distance while softly agreeing with a pale face.

The situation was urgent. Even though Xia Nan had deliberately lowered his voice, his commands still sounded somewhat abrupt and clear in the silent, high-pressure environment of the forest.

Most of the time, when facing non-human beast enemies, this wouldn't be a problem.

After all, they couldn't understand Common.

But right now, the situation seemed a bit different.

Xia Nan noticed that the moment his voice faded, a highly human-like expression of amusement actually surfaced on the heavily maned face of the giant, silver-white alpha wolf ahead.

He instantly realized what it meant.

'Wait, you can even understand Common!?'

"Do it!" Xia Nan growled in a low voice, making a prompt decision.

At the same time, his left hand—which had already crept to his waist during the standoff—swiftly swept across his pouch. In the next second, three Fire Oil Bombs appeared in his grasp.

He hurled them fiercely!

Boom—tangerine flames violently erupted in the dim forest.

The alpha wolf's reaction was remarkably swift. Pushing off the ground lightly with its slender legs, its massive body executed a rather elegant leap, easily dodging the scorching flames.

But the other Nightwalker Wolves clearly lacked its reaction speed and coping ability.

The deep-seated fear of fire in their bloodlines sent them howling and scattering in all directions.

Their formation was instantly broken.

Immediately following that was a sharp, air-tearing shriek.

The grey Stone Spear practically blurred into a phantom, leaving a straight trail through the thick fog as it shot directly toward the alpha wolf.

It still missed.

In that split second, the giant silver wolf displayed a level of agility that far exceeded what its massive frame should possess.

Its pointed, furry long ears perked up the very moment the Stone Spear left Cash's hand.

With a shift of its paws and a slight adjustment of its body, the spear that should have pierced its flesh merely brushed past its swaying mane and landed in the empty dirt nearby.

"Bang!"

The fog abruptly exploded outwards.

Moving at high speed, a blurred human figure churned the mist. With a speed far beyond normal human reaction times, his toes left the ground as he shot forward like a projectile.

At that moment, the Stone Spear buried deep into the ground acted like a long magnet, pulling its master from the other side of the battlefield.

Whoosh—The turbulent airflow from the high-speed movement made Cash narrow his eyes. A short blade had already appeared in his right hand.

He held it in a reverse grip, the edge facing outward.

He planned to use the powerful momentum generated by the Stone Spear's pull to slice open the enemy's body, like the wings of a glider.

The giant wolf naturally possessed the keen senses to feel the intense danger saturating the whistling air.

But right now, it seemed to have suddenly lost the nimble speed it had just displayed.

Under the moonlight, the shadow its massive body cast upon the ground acted like a forest mire, trapping its long legs deep within.

And from the shadows in its blind spot, a dangerous and alluring tall figure emerged.

Without anyone noticing, the Rogue with Drow blood had already drifted behind the alpha wolf.

Her poison-coated dagger, glowing with a purplish-green halo, transformed into a shadow and thrust straight for the giant wolf's spine.

Pincered from the front and back, its lower limbs were also trapped by Shadow Bind.

If it really took both of these hits, even as the leader of the Nightwalker Wolf pack, it would be severely wounded.

But it was, after all, a powerful monster capable of going back and forth in a melee with an enraged Manticore.

The giant wolf braced its four paws against the dirt, a flash of ferocity gleaming in its cold, bestial eyes.

Swish—

Just like shaking off water droplets after emerging from the water.

It violently shook its body, its thick silver-white mane swaying. Immediately, a silver-white light—sharing the exact same hue as the moon disc overhead—abruptly erupted from the surface of its body.

The Drow Half-Elf, the spear, the fisherman—everything around its body was caught in the moonlight and blasted away.

In just a few hurried seconds, the first exchange had already concluded.

It was only then that the rest of the wolf pack, scattered by the flames, finally reacted.

They barked sharply, rushing over to support their leader.

And what followed was an even higher, longer, and more desolate wolf howl.

"Boom!"

Along with the abruptly snapping Wolf's Maw, iron-grey fangs violently pierced through the prey's fragile fur.

Puncturing vitals, reaping a life.

One down.

Xia Nan's face remained completely devoid of emotion, as if the corpse before him wasn't a living creature, but a plump, golden ear of wheat waiting to be harvested.

Naturally, he had seen how Veris and Cash's performance when flanking the alpha wolf was entirely different from before.

'Were they holding back?' he guessed.

Earlier, when facing the wolf pack's siege, those two hadn't displayed nearly this much capability.

Was it because they genuinely sensed the threat of the alpha and had no choice but to go all out?

But if this was their so-called "all out," it seemed quite far off from what he had expected of Class Grade Adventurers.

Or was it actually because his own stats were too broken, making him overestimate the strength of ordinary Class Holders?

It didn't matter. He would maintain his vigilance for now and consider the rest after the battle was over.

Swish—The mane formed of mist and blood whipped wildly as the illusory, blurred Wolf Head tore through the air.

[Spinning Slash]!

An iron-grey arc flashed fleetingly through the night.

One Temple Nightwalker Wolf had only just reacted, arching its back to turn around.

Its slender, fragile waist was immediately severed by the blade, sliced cleanly in two.

Two down.

As pack-hunting monsters, Nightwalker Wolves actually had decent strength.

They possessed a certain level of tactical ability, and their movements were swift and highly aggressive.

Even if their inherent defenses were slightly weak, they could cover that flaw with their companions' support and their relatively nimble maneuvers.

But when faced with an enemy like Xia Nan—who completely crushed them in defense, speed, and mobility across the board...

Their so-called high attack, high Agility, and low defense...

If even their attack and Agility were inferior to their opponent's...

Then their already fatal weakness would be infinitely magnified.

Weaving back and forth, he broke them one by one.

Fangs and claws sharp enough to pierce flesh could only leave vain scratches on the surface of his iron armor, and their proud speed wasn't even worth mentioning in the face of [Fang Hunt].

The Decapitating Longsword merely needed a light horizontal sweep following the momentum of his body to slice a Nightwalker Wolf in half.

To a certain extent, in front of Xia Nan, they were virtually no different from those clumsy Bugbears.

When the shortest plank of the barrel was too short, it became a point of breakthrough.

They were naturally countered.

Temple Nightwalker Wolves—nothing more than puppy Goblins.

"Whoosh!"

Vines covered in barbs exploded from the soil, entangling the wild wolf's four paws.

Its rapidly moving body suddenly stalled.

An iron-grey sword gleam followed closely behind.

Amidst spurting blood, the ferocious wolf head spun through the air and landed on the ground.

Three down.

From the corner of his eye, he glanced at Mint behind him.

According to the frail girl herself, her class was some variant under the main Druid class.

And the abilities she had demonstrated so far roughly covered the two aspects of crowd control and healing.

Xia Nan was almost certain she was definitely hiding something. After all, even a melee class like his required mastering three combat techniques just to obtain a Class Level.

A Spellcaster would only have more, never less!

And in his impression, aside from being guardians of nature, the image of a Druid was always tied to "shapeshifting."

Even though Mint hadn't displayed anything extra during the dangerous moment of the wolf pack's ambush earlier, Xia Nan had constantly maintained his guard against her.

From the looks of it, this seemingly frail girl might be hiding even deeper than the other two in the squad.

Of course, from the perspective of hiding one's strength, he didn't exactly have the right to judge her.

"Bang!"

Leather boots struck the earth, and a faint ripple surfaced on the bone leg armor.

The deterrence effect triggered once again.

The ferocious, growling Nightwalker Wolf before him suddenly revealed a look of clear stupidity in its bestial eyes, its low, coiled body freezing in place.

The iron sword swung.

The wolf's head was cleaved in two.

Four down.

Without pausing, the illusory wolf phantom condensed by [Fang Hunt] materialized once more.

Striking later but arriving first.

The Wolf's Maw snapped shut, swallowing the final Nightwalker Wolf.

Chewing and slicing, the scattered chunks of meat and splattering blood dyed the meadow red.

The riddle-holed wild wolf collapsed to the ground, devoid of life.

Five down.

They had been stripped of their ambush advantage and no longer possessed the numbers to lay siege.

Once their strength was thoroughly figured out, all five Nightwalker Wolves were cleanly purged in under two minutes amid the wolf howls from the Ice Plains.

Xia Nan turned around, shifting his gaze to the final enemy on the field.

He furrowed his brows slightly.

The alpha wolf's strength seemed to be much greater than everyone had anticipated.

Veris and Cash must have been old teammates; they coordinated with decent tacit understanding.

With a spear in hand, one took the front, utilizing his reach advantage to kite and draw the alpha's attention.

The other roamed through the giant wolf's blind spots, seizing opportunities to abruptly carve a few wounds into its body.

However, it had very little effect.

That white light floating over the alpha's body not only multiplied its speed, but also seemed to possess some kind of healing property.

The wounds from the dagger and spear barely shed a few drops of blood before they were instantly healed, and even the poison was immediately purged.

On the contrary, Cash and Veris looked rather disheveled trying to fend off the alpha's pounces.

As they dodged hastily, several blood-seeping cuts appeared on their bodies.

Had Mint not provided crowd control support at critical moments, the two of them likely wouldn't have been able to hold on.

"Screech!"

Accompanied by an ear-piercing screech and dancing sparks, razor-sharp claws gouged a deep scratch into the surface of the metal Scale Armor.

Jaws snapped open, ready to bite down on the fragile prey before it.

But the next second, an inexplicable threat from behind forced it to halt. Its long legs pushed off into a sideways leap, dodging the two vicious slashes that were meant for its abdomen.

Its cold, bestial eyes reflected the tall figure fading back into the darkness.

It panted slightly.

The silver-white light radiating from its swaying mane shrouded its body. Its depleted stamina and surface wounds completely recovered at a visible rate.

The howls of its pack had already faded away.

It naturally knew what that meant.

An unprecedented, inexplicable emotion welled up in its heart.

Distinct from the instinctual cravings of hunger and mating, it was a completely different, much deeper and more bitter taste.

As the alpha of the pack, it possessed the largest body among its kind, as well as an intelligence uncommon for ordinary beasts.

It had eaten quite a few of those humans wrapped in hard shells and wielding sharp fangs and claws, and had even grasped some hunting techniques from them.

That was exactly why it had recognized the strangeness of the carrion stench in the air and led the pack to lie in ambush outside.

It was just that...

Wolf eyes turning slightly, its gaze bypassed Cash and Veris, lingering briefly on the wolf corpses on the distant ground.

Finally, its eyes landed on the frail, short-haired girl wrapped in a plain robe on the far side of the battlefield.

It growled lowly, seemingly expressing some vague meaning only a beast could understand.

But the only response it received was a fleeting flash of coldness deep within the girl's eyes, and a long, whistling wolf howl soaring from overhead.

An iron-grey longsword plunged from above, stinging downward like a wasp's stinger.

Sliding through the gaps between the vertebrae, it pierced through flesh and blood, punching straight out from its soft lower jaw.

Nailing the giant wolf dead to the ground.