Shadow Beast 2

A horse galloped through the forest, a young man on black rode in it. He headed deeper into the forest.

When Evan reached the boundary of the dire wolves territory, he stopped, coming down from the horse. He tied it on a tree, then he carried his bag and slung it on. He walked into the territory of the dire wolves.

Walking for some time, Evan didn't come across any wolves, so he went deeper. Half an hour passed, and he finally saw a pack of five dire wolves. "Finally." He pulled out his dagger, holding it in a reverse grip. "Let's get started."

The wolves noticed the intruder, and began growling. The took attacking positions, ready to bring down Evan.

'i can't take them five at once, so I will just have to use all my tricks to fight them.' Evan thought to himself.

He shot out towards the wolf that had the strongest aura, it was probably in mid rank 2, while the others were in low rank 2.

The other wolves saw that Evan was heading for their Alpha, so the all ran to protect him. When Evan was a short distance from the leader, he braked abruptly, then changing his direction unexpectedly, he faced a low rank 2 wolf. The wolf did not expect such a move, and was caught off guard. The blade in Evan's hand landed on his neck, killing it swiftly.

Evan did not stop after that. He shot out two tendrills of Shadow, holding two wolves in place. The third wolf ran towards him to protect it's Alpha. Evan used Dread on the wolf, causing fear which made it lose composure. Evan stabbed the wolf, killing it.

He released the two wolves, who immediately ran in his direction. The alpha made it's move as well running behind the two. Evan casted a spell he had been preparing since the fight's start. Shadow hands sprung up from the shadows of the two wolves, holding them by their necks, and crushing it.

Now only the alpha remained. Evan looked at it and spoke. "Now I'll fight you head on, so don't disappoint me."

They wolf shot towards Evan, his speed was greater than that of the other wolves. When it was near it leaped towards Evan, it's mouth opened ready to bite.

Evan readied himself. When the wolf was near, he side stepped, dodging the attack, then following up to grab it's neck, using it's momentum he slammed it into the ground.

The wolf struggled back on his feet, but this time he did not rush at Evan again.

"If you won't come, I will." Evan said before running towards the wolf. The wolf reading himself, but Evan was to good for it. Evan shot out tendrills, the wolf struggled to avoid them.

Distracted by the tendrills, the wolf could not focus on Evan. Soon Evan reached the wolf, swinging his blade. The wolf manage to kick back, causing the blade to only cut his face, avoiding a fatal blow.

Evan did not allow the wolf breathing space, he added his speed, then used his tendrill to catch the wolf, he pulled it to him plunging his dagger into it's heart. The wolf fell lifeless in the ground.

"Phew, that went well." Evan picked all the bodies, he set them side by side. He picked up the alpha first.

Evan dug out the heart. He took a small bowl from his bag, draining the blood of the wolf, then using his dagger he cut his palm, pouring his blood into the bowl, mixing the two.

He drew the circle and set the heart in the center. He recited the icanatations. When he finished the incantation, he felt a foreign consciousness inside of him trying to attack his core. Evan quickly began battling with the soul of the wolf. An hour later, he was finally able to supress it. When he did, he felt a connection to the soul. Evan summoned the soul, and a completely black wolf with red eyes appeared.

The exhaustion he felt from the soul battle seemed to disappear when he saw the shadow beast.

"Awesome, simply awesome." Evan was happy with the results of his endeavor.

Evan proceeded to carry out the ritual in the remaining wolves. When he finished, he finally understood what the scroll meant when it said the amount was relative to the casters strength. His soul was carrying the burden of the five shadow beasts. His soul had been tempered over the years, if not he would not have been able to carry these souls.

While he was still in an excited mood from gaining 5 shadow beasts, he suddenly felt a pressure on him. Evan turned to see what it was, and he saw something he was hoping not to come across.

The bordering territory to the wolves was that of the horned Phantom Tiger. A rank three beast. Rank three was not just a simple increase in rank, but at this point a beast would evolve and get an ability. The ability of the horned phantom tiger was that it could turn ethereal, making physical attacks to pass through it. It was indeed dreadful ability.

The horned Phantom tiger stood looking straight at Evan.

"Fuck me side ways."

The tiger lunged at Evan at full speed. Evan readied himself. "Bring it on asshole." He roared as he summoned all wolves at once. Compared to the wolves that stood at a little over one meter, the tiger was two meters.

The shadow beasts attacked the tiger. It was a one sided beat up. The tiger turn ethereal when it was in the defensive, the it would turn back solid to attack the wolves.

Evan knew the wolves could not die, but if they are ripped apart, he would suffer a backlash and they would need sometime before they can be summoned again, but he didn't have a choice.

Just as expected the tiger ripped all the wolves apart, but not without getting badly beat up as well. The wolves had managed to land some fatal wounds, but they were not enough.

When the last wolf was killed, Evan could not hold it in anymore, he vomited a mouthful of blood from the backlash. He wiped his mouth and looked at the tiger.

"It's you and me now."