Easy peasy
It looked like Ryan was worried for no reason. Mark easily dealt with the attacks while standing in the same spot. As the dust settled and the beast roared in annoyance a shiny mana barrier was clearly visible.
"Got 2 more seconds on this." Mark chuckled. He was already preparing another pyroblast to seal the deal. This fight was definitely in their pocket.
After the pyroblast, Mark cast a [Fear] making the wolf slightly muddle-headed. Though the skill did not work as well as it worked for the human player, it still gave him a couple of seconds.
"Easy peasy." Mark howled in a voice louder than the wolf and prepared the last attack, an earthen spike, to directly impale the damn thing right through the throat.
However, all of a sudden something weird happened. The spike came through but the beast was no longer present in the location for it to do any impaling.
A loud howl echoed in all directions making it unable to pinpoint where exactly the beast was. At the last damn minute, it had somehow escaped.
"What the—" Mark's expression shifted from confidence to surprise, his eyes scanning the area for the now-missing beast. The howl, echoing ominously through the trees, seemed to mock their efforts.
Before he could make sense of the situation, the wolf once again appeared on the battleground and this time right behind Mark. It completely threw him off guard because he was not prepared to face the beast in close combat. His barrier skill was also on cool down.
Mark panicked and threw the half-baked pyro blast on the wolf which the creature faced head-on with another loud roar.
The wolf's health dropped to dangerous levels but it did not seem to care. Its eyes were locked on Mark, filled with a ferocious determination that spoke of its desperate resolve. It clawed at him with a desperate frenzy, its agility and strength somehow even higher than before.
Mark was completely unable to retaliate at this close range. He barely had time to dodge the attacks, and very quickly he was not able to do that too.
A bitter smile appeared on his face. It looked like he had been too confident. The rare rank wolf tossed an unexpected skill at him when it was in death's door and now it was going to take him along with it.
The best he could do was brace for the impact. There was a high chance that he was going to die here but he should at least be able to kill it with him.
Just as he was about to ditch dodging the attacks and toss a couple of lightning snakes at the damn thing, out of nowhere streaks of crimson appeared. It was five streaks of red color that emanated faint power like that of mana.
The attack landed precisely on the spot where the beast was grievously injured, making the wolf tremble and shiver.
It snapped its head to look at the new participant in the fight but it was too late. Another couple of attacks consecutively landed and the last bits of its health that remained emptied out. The wolf lifelessly flopped onto Mark.
"Fuck." Mark squeezed himself out of the big beast's corpse, only to see his friend already at work, face buried into a fleshy bloody mess.
Mark couldn't help but gulp as he watched the entire scene. The big grisly wolf was being mauled by a small human being.
While it was quite unsettling that Ryan's eyes turned red in color like a vampire from a teenage chick flick, it was more disturbing to see his friend really go at it.
He was really really into it. He was sucking the blood like a drug addict, like his life depended on it.
The frenzy and desperation in his face and eyes were very similar to the one that he had only just now witnessed on the wolf's face.
There was literally no difference between his friend and the wild animal. It was quite a jarring sight, one that starkly contrasted with the Ryan he knew—the thoughtful, and often reserved friend.
After a few moments, the wolf's corpse disintegrated into light dust and Ryan finally pulled away, his breaths heavy, his face smeared with blood. The wild look in his eyes faded, replaced by the familiar, more composed gaze of his friend.
"Well… that was that." Ryan quickly checked his status to see that one more beast had been crossed off. "One down, two more to go." He gave his friend a thumbs up.
"Right." Mark blankly replied.
"What happened?" Ryan paused for a moment before he realized how he must have looked. "Ughh. Sorry about that." He scratched his head, wondering if he had after all made a mistake involving his friend in this mess.
However, the next second…
Mark squatted next to his friend, his eyes curiously darting around here and there. He then unexpectedly touched a drop of blood that had spilled on the ground and licked it.
"Hmmm. Doesn't taste too bad. Kind of metallic, but there's a weird tang to it. You get used to it?"
Ryan chuckled lightly. It looked like he was worried for nothing.