13 Crisis

Tyrant then felt lighter footsteps coming from the opposite direction of the circling beasts. He recognized it as the long-eared beast he hunted before.

He detected several sets of long-eared beasts, with more of the other beasts right behind them.

It now seemed that they were hunting the long-ears and he just happened to be there.

But on second thought, it might not have been coincidence as he had hunted a long-eared nearby, so it must've been chased by the pack of unknown beasts too, or part of the group they were hunting.

He decided to climb the tree to make himself harder to find, as he wasn't their target in the first place, so there was no need to put himself in danger for no reason.

Even though it was more difficult, he can still tell the overall situation through making use of his honed hearing, he listened tothe sounds of their breath, footsteps, and the airflow.

He hoped to wait for the long-eared beasts to be hunted so their predators would leave or disperse.

he soon heard multiple howls, hurried breathing, and quickened footsteps. The hunt had begun.

He listened to several breaths cut off sharply, as well as the death throes he heard before when he took the throat of a long-ear.

He then scowled, it seemed that in their hunt, they were closing into his destination. What a ridiculous coincidence.

The odds of such a thing happening were minuscule to none, and the only possible way for such chance to occur without a good reason is some mystical fate that sentenced him to crisis for the sake of entertainment.

Very soon he saw multiple long-ears running in his direction, then he turned back to see a vaguely familiar figure hunting them.

He was naturally familiar with the wolves. They too, were proficient predators that were quite strong in the abyss. Their strategic minds, teamwork, and numbers made it easy for them to hunt prey whose packs were smaller compared to theirs.

These wolves were a little different than what he remembered though.

They were noticeably smaller than an mature wolf in the abyss, and their tails were not scaled, as were most denizens of the abyss if they were not of the exoskeleton type.

He found it strange that their tails had no fur, similar to the long-ear, though it had a short tail, it too had fur.

He could only wonder how they defended their backs as he watched the wolves encircle the long-eared beasts and kill them one by one.

He looked for their leader, but he was a distance away, so he couldn't see him behind the wall of trees, because no matter how good his vision was in the dark, he did not have x-ray vision.

Uneventfully, the long-ears were killed. The battle was mostly silent, as they communicated with their eyes. But more eventfully, they did not leave.

The wolves seemed to wander around the area, sniffing incessantly, as if looking for something.

Did they notice Tyrant's traces? He had thought that it was perfect, he had even taken into account the strange vegetation and took care not to disturb it.

Soon Tyrant noticed a slightly bigger wolf that was strangely a shiny color he had never seen before. It reminded him of the strange orb of light in the sky.

He wondered how it hid from enemies, being such a noticeable color.

Unfortunately, had no time to think as the shiny wolf sniffed the air before looking up a tree, in his direction.

Impossible! How could he find him so quickly?!

Tyrant was flabbergasted, and started thinking quickly on what to do.

The shiny wolf barked at him. He had naturally memorized all beast languages in the abyss, including wolves, but this was strange. Although the sounds were similar, the dialect was vastly different from the wolves he remembered. The difference was like Vietnamese and Chinese. Though the roots were the same, the words, accent, and tone were very different. Though Tyrant would obviously not think of this comparison.

With no answer, the wolves began to kick the tree. They looked stupid, and it wasn't very effective, as the tree was not thin. He was thankful that the trees here were much thicker than the ones in the abyss.

Seeing no change, the lackey wolves stepped back, and the shiny wolf did something that shocked Tyrant.

The wolf glowed, then a blade of wind was formed quickly before automatically launching itself at the tree, shearing off half of the trunk.

Tyrant was speechless, not that he spoke much in the first place, but his still petite maw was gaping open like a hanging Christmas stocking.

This was absurd. He didn't notice any pores, wings, organs, or limbs that could possibly grant such control of the air! He didn't even open his mouth, emanating the possibility of something in its throat gathering the wind! How was this possible?!

With no choice, he jumped down to land on the shiny wolf's back before biting fiercely into it's throat. It bled, but the wolf only winced before shaking wildly.

Tyrant knew that his best chance was killing the leader first, to make the pack a headless snake for a short while to allow his escape.

Unfortunately, his fangs weren't too sharp yet, and his small body had little strength.

He had his claws out to dig into the wolf's body so he wasn't flung off. He could not afford to let go.

Some of the lackey wolves jumped at him, attempting to aid their leader, but the blade on his scaled tail shot out like a switch knife. The blade instantly killed an approaching wolf before lashing out wildly, yet terrifyingly accurately, so that a throat was slit everywhere it passed.

But there were many wolves, and his tail could only extend up to a foot, limiting its range, and there was only one tail. Tyrant gained more and more cuts and wounds on its body.

The shiny wolf growled in rage as it's subordinates were reduced at a constant rate by the vicious whip like tail.

It suddenly howled, and its fur began to wave wildly. Tyrant was confused, but then was suddenly forcibly thrown off by a powerful gust, sending him flying dozens of feet into the air.

The shiny wolf had evidently unleashed some wind barrier from its body. It probably hadn't used it before because it must be a trumps card and was likely very consuming.

As expected, not long after using it, blood spurred out the open wound in its neck caused by Tyrant. It then fell to the ground weakly, yet it still gave an order to hunt Tyrant.

Tyrant was overjoyed at being flung so far. This was his chance. He spread his small wings as wide as he could, and glided over the trees into the distance.

The wolves could not keep up and was hard pressed to find him, as they had no idea he had wings, as when they were folded, they weren't very visible.

Tyrant was relieved. He had escaped through sheer luck.

But he felt himself growing weaker at a rapid pace. At first he thought it was his bleeding wounds, but then he noticed that some wounds weren't closing, and others leaked a slight discoloration.

Poison! These wolves unexpectedly had poison! Only a strong wolf through many battles adapted to learn poison, from his experience.

Was this something similar to the mysterious wind blade?

Tyrant wanted to ponder more, but his strength fell too fast, and his body grew weak and limp.

Unfortunately he had not landed.

He then fell from the sky.