All that killing had lured out the Snow Wolf Leader. It was a level ten monster of the first stage. It was 98 years old. Its human age was nine years and eight months. It was quite young. It has lived for less than ten human years, but it had reached a stage equivalent to the tenth level of body tempering. Snow wolves weren’t talented. Either it had a fortuitous encounter, or all the resources of this pack were fed to it
Their eyes met.
At this moment, the system’s notification rang in Roy’s mind.
『The Quest “Avenge the Dead” has been Generated』
『Quest Info』
The Snow Wolf Leader is a ferocious beast who has killed dozens of hunters and herbalists ten times that amount. It loves to hunt down the weak, and whenever weaklings enter the depths, it sends out its pack to kill them. It has been terrorizing the herb pickers of the County and the villages at the summit of the snowy Mountains for the past year. Your task is to end this nightmare and avenge your fallen brethren.
『GOALS』
-Kill the Snow Wolf Leader (0/1)
『TIME LIMIT』
-7 Hours
『REWARDS』
-First & Second Page of the Manual of Shadow
-1,000 EXP
-Snow Wolf Leader Slayer Title
All three rewards were splendid.
“AWOOO!”
The Snow Wolf Leader looked down at Roy disdainfully.
Roy looked back at it with an intent to dominate his gaze. “We’re at the same level. Taking you down will be quite a challenge for me. Bad news for you, I am not one to back out. Get down and face my sword.”
It was a boss monster. Killing it might be hard for a party of five level 10. But Roy accepted the quest to kill it, trusting his strength.
They were a good distance away, but Roy’s face and the bloodbath he had created were reflected in its eyes. The Snow Wolf Leader didn’t understand a word of what he said, but It felt deeply insulted by his gaze. The sight of its dead comrades angered it even further.
It roared loudly, proclaiming that it won’t let Roy see the next sunrise.
Leaping forcefully, it nosedived straight towards him from the top of the mountain. Its bones were sturdy, and its hide was thick. It was confident that this plunge wouldn’t injure it.
“That’s more like it.” Roy liked its straightforwardness.
He slammed his leg on the ground, shooting straight at it.
They clashed in mid-air.
“Dang!”
The Giant Sword and the knife-life claw connected, producing a resounding smash that was like a thousand silver needles piercing into one’s eardrums. It felt awful to hear.
The Snow Wolf Leader was quicker than Roy in making the second attack. Its other claw thrust forward, piercing the air and threatening to pierce his heart. Roy was only able to tilt his sword, putting its surface in the trajectory of the vicious beast’s attack.
“Ding, ding!”
Its nails collided with the sword. Roy had dodged its attack, but he was tossed away like a poor little ragdoll. The Snow Wolf Leader came out on top In the first bout, proving it was superior to Roy in terms of combat. Roy’s pride took a hit.
His back crashed to the ground. A weird sense of discomfort raised in his chest, and he tasted a rusty metallic scent. He forced the blood down his throat and stood up, and jumped away as if escaping from an explosion. The Snow Wolf Leader landed where he was, blasting away the snow.
“Awooo!”
Releasing a roar, it activated a skill. Unlike Roy, it had plenty of magic skills up its sleeves. Its snow-like fur released a burst of moonlight, bathing Roy in silvery silence. If Faced with this sudden flash, anyone’s first instinct would be to cover their eyes, but although it hurt so much that his eyes turned red, Roy kept them open.
“Swoosh!”
And so… he witnessed a silvery streak cutting through the air and approaching him like a silent killer.
Without a pause, he raised his sword, whose surface met sharp claws.
Sparks flew between Roy and the Snow Wolf Leader. The darkness took them away a moment later.
In ten breaths, they clashed a total of thirty times, moving all over the mountain. The snow wolves moved back. This wasn’t a battle they could join.
Whoosh!
Roy slashed out with his sword with all his strength; the intent behind this attack was to cut this beast in two halves.
Swiftly turning to the side, the Snow Wolf Leader dodged the sword’s sharp end and then whipped its tail at him.
Roy raised his sword in order to defend against it.
Cold lights flickered in the Snow Wolf Leader’s eyes, not escaping Roy’s, whose red, almost close to bleeding eyes were wide open, notice.
Roy’s eyebrow raised. ‘It’s up to something.’
While on its way to meet his sword, the fur of its silvery fur bristled like thorns, its tail hardening and becoming cold and solid like ice.
Its whipping tail had become too powerful to block.
Although Roy noticed that, it was already too late.
He couldn’t pull back.
Or else, he would be taking the attack head-on.
After the tail clashed with his sword, Roy was thrown back.
His back hit a tree barren of leaves.
It was already struggling to survive. It broke in half and fell in the snow, raising a cloud too white.
This whiteness was not brilliant like the blood trickling down the corner of Roy’s lips.
“Haha,”
It got him; it got him hard.
But he laughed as if he wasn’t the one coughing out blood.
Stabbing his sword in the snow, he stood up and glared fearlessly at the approaching towering beast taller and broader than him. “Come again.”
The huge eyes of the Snow Wolf King revealed utter disdain for the lump of meat that was Roy. It wasn’t looking at him like a hunter would look at its prey. It was looking at him like he was already dead meat.
“Awoo!”
It rushed towards Roy at an amazing speed. In three breaths, he had covered the distance between the two. Roy didn’t move a step away. He stood still as if he had given up. It underestimated the power of the human in front of him and pounced on him, baring its fangs.
That was going to be the biggest mistake of its life.
At the last moment, Roy raised his gloved head as if to meet its fangs and yelled, “Mana Wall!”
One of the two runic symbols of the glove released a flicker.
An instance was all it took for countless blue dots of mana in the air to become visible, gather at the center of his palm, then expand and solidify to take the shape of a Blue Shield, which he held with one hand and smashed on the wolf’s face.
The Snow Wolf Leader completely wasn’t expecting that. It was in a position where it couldn’t change its position. Dodging the shield was out of the question.
Pa! The strike to its entire face left it concussed and shattered its fangs.
Its vision blurred as it fell down like a withered leaf.
“Now’s the time.”
Roy’s hand holding the shield rose and fell again and again.
Pa! Pa! Pa! Pa!
A section of the ground beneath the Snow Wolf Leader ruptured because of Roy’s subsequent strike on its head withhis Giant Sword.
Between his consecutive strike and its concussion, the Snow Wolf Leader failed to put up a fight.
Under Roy’s “gentle” care, It lost face and its face was also disfigured.
“Arrogance caused your downfall.” Roy laughed at it after he turned its brain into a mesh with his shield.
『You’ve killed the Snow Wolf Leader by bashing its head open with your shield.』
『The Shield Bash Skill has been created!』
The Snow Wolves saw the death of their leader and took a step back. No one was threatening them to fight Roy any longer. It was time to escape this scene. They tucked their tails between their legs, and this time they ran away for real. No one was insane enough to avenge the death of their leader. Roy was too much for them to handle.
『You gained 100 EXP for Killing the Snow Wolf Leader. You gained an additional 100 EXP for killing a monster superior to you in terms of combat and skills.』
The death of the Snow Wolf Leader caused Roy’s EXP to increase crazily.