As the Nature-Blessed Wolves were still gauging their adversaries--Two weird-looking creatures they had no knowledge of whatsoever--Edrick made his move. He swiftly picked Mumin up and launched her high up into the air.
She was so light that it barely required him to even try to send her high up.
Just as she was thrown upward, Anoteros tightened his grip upon the Kanabo, circulating the weapon cultivation technique related to it. Immediately, the wolf pack felt nervous. Their instincts were screaming for them to take off running before it was too late.
The hold the Laughing Fox had upon them overpowered their natural instincts. They could not retreat, and they could not move much backwards. They had to face the enemy and kill to be freed. However, knowing that getting close now was too dangerous, they could only stand still like scarecrows.
Stomping down upon the ground with his full strength, Edrick arched his body to the side, muscles bulging and twisting as the Kanabo was raised aloft. He poured all of his might alongside every ounce of his mastery into this Oni Smash, and in quick succession delivered six powerful blows to the ground all around him.
The forest’s soil trembled strongly, cracks forming upon its surface as the ten wolves scrambled to evade, but the shaking was throwing them off balance, resulting in several of them being struck by the attack.
They survived the blow without drastic damage, but they knew very well that this was merely an appetiser... Now that their pack was in disarray, with several of their members injured and unable to flee- Whatever was coming next was something they couldn’t do anything about.
Edrick’s Kanabo cracked, held together only by the steel reinforcements and his own hands, but it didn’t matter. His arms were aching from forcefully unleashing Oni Smash in quick succession, but his physique could handle it without a problem.
His weapon was shattered into splinters, his clothes torn apart all at once as his form bulged... He had transformed into a mixture of a skunk sasquatch and the sasquatch lord, the result being larger than both of those creatures.
Covered in long black fur, Edrick towered over the wolves.
His bloodline, perfectly fused with that of the sasquatch lord, seemed to be boiling as he exerted his full force into the transformation.
Although the Nature-Blessed Wolves had nothing to do with sasquatch, feeling the presence of a beast lord wash over them- They froze in fear. But it was far from over.
In the next instant, their senses were assaulted, a horrifying stench struck them. As wolves, they had a sharp sense of smell, and under the olfactory attack, it was like that sense of theirs was paralysed, further throwing them off before their hearing was targeted as well.
Gathering air into his lungs, Anoteros unleashed the sasquatch lord’s signature roar, now far more powerful than it once was. The strength of the late lord and that of Edrick were now perfectly fused, resulting in a destructive sonic attack for the unprepared canines. That was the last straw. Their stance faltered as their eardrums were damaged.
The leader, who was right in front of Edrick, had it the worst. The roar was directed at him specifically, and his eardrums were completely burst, knocking him out on the spot.
None of the wolves was even capable of making use of their elemental ability to heal. They were effectively dazed from multiple sources at the same time.
Panicked by the Kanabo strikes, shocked by the transformation, their will crushed by the lordly presence, their sense of smell paralysed, and now, their sense of hearing had been rendered useless...
They might have stood a chance if they had not hesitated at first. They could have prevented Anoteros from going through with his plan had they not chosen to observe their opponent.
But now it was too late.
They barely saw it coming.
The nearly three-and-a-half-meter-tall ape rushed forward, slamming his fists into them. Each wolf was sent flying into tree trunks, killed on the spot as their spines and a collection of other bones were snapped by the brutal attacks.
In just a few moments, the wolf pack was wiped out.
Edrick looked up, catching the falling Mumin into his palms before she hit the ground. Thankfully, he had thrown her hard enough that she had remained airborne for long enough. Anoteros had exerted himself to pull all of this off in the shortest amount of time possible.
Mumin had been a fair distance away when the roar occurred and had been covering her ears. Still, although it didn’t hurt her much, her ears were ringing a bit. The roar had simply been that powerful.
Though, since it was an ability that came from the sasquatch lord’s bloodline, Edrick had to pull on its strength just now. It was easier than before since it was fused with his own bloodline seamlessly, but it was tiring nonetheless.
He undid the transformation to save some strength after putting the inner disciple down.
At the moment, she was naturally looking at him a bit weird.
“Are you a wereape or something like that?! That was-” she had a lot of questions, but her words were interrupted as the noble scion regained human form. Obviously, since things were not so convenient in real life, none of his clothes had been spared by the transformation, leaving him stark naked.
The limp wyrm hung between his legs, its full glory exposed to the eyes of anyone and everything around.
Mumin’s jaw was agape. She had just seen someone transform into a giant ape, but all that shock and surprise was instantly redirected toward the man-tool.
She swallowed her saliva and took her head out of the gutter. Still, all the questions she had seemed to have left her mind.
Anoteros walked toward his bag, which he had thrown to the side before transforming. He had spare sets of clothes, so ripping a few into tatters was alright. But he only had one bag, so ruining it would be a bit problematic, not to mention that it was filled with snacks Linmin had prepared for him.
As he had tested before, the ring he wore on his right hand could adapt to his transformations, so it was not shattered either.
He got himself dressed back up, offering Mumin a small vial he had received from Ku Xing that could heal minor injuries to treat her slightly damaged eardrums, not saying a thing about the fact that Mumin had stared at his sceptre for a solid twenty seconds.
He went and gathered the corpses of the Nature-Blessed Wolves.
It was a shame that he had damaged many of their bones and internal organs, but the meat tended to be what was most sought out, and even after a beating, it remained in fairly good condition.
“Alright, let’s get out of here before that Laughing Fox comes back” he said.
Those mischievous creatures were not known to particularly care whether the initial target died or not. As long as something died as a result, it would be satisfied... But since Anoteros had shown a beast lord bloodline, it wasn’t out of the question that its interest might have been piqued.
Not to mention, his roar might attract some daring sect disciples here, and he would rather not have to explain why he was standing exactly where that roar had come from.
“Ah…! Yes, yes, of course!”
And thus, this was how they ended up around a campfire in the woods while looking a bit worn out…