Chapter 188: You See The Smile of A Wolf

The Alpha did not understand what was happening. Inside this place, it had never faced prey like this that could resist the power of its runes, and Elias, now that he was in a focused state, used this confusion for his advantage as he deliberately left an opening; it was a feint that exposed his left side.

Conditioned by years of hunting prey that bled and died, the Alpha took the bait and lunged towards Elias, its supernaturally sharp claws extended, aiming for the gap between his ribs where a single strike could pierce heart or lung.

Elias, before now, would never have imagined that he would be using the same move that would work for a man on a wolf, but the power of Lumina changes everything.

The beast struck, but Elias was no longer in that position; he had dropped, spun, and driven both claws upward into the Alpha’s exposed belly as it passed over him.

If this were a strange beast, Elias would be worried about how to find its weakness, but this was a wolf, and whether it was supercharged as a Rune Beast, the basic physiology still remained the same.

He knew enough of these weaknesses that he could anticipate some of the moveset of this creature, and the only difficulty he had was adding its intelligence into the picture.

Elias’s bladed fingers sank deep into the Alpha’s stomach, and this was a bad thing for the wolf because these were not normal blades, with a mental command, his claws further extended deep into the wolf, tearing through internal organs and muscles, and when the blades were stopped by bones, Elias unleashed Blood Dominion Lash inside the body of the Alpha using his claws as an extension of this ability.

It was hard to describe the sound made by the Rune Beast in this moment, and the closest Elias would say was that it was a scream that sounded almost human.

Crimson tendrils burrowed into its flesh, draining vitality and weakening it from within, and there was a horrifying sight as its stomach bulged and shook, and it was as if a dozen pythons were fighting inside its stomach.

Any other creature would have perished in this instant, but this Alpha was not just at the Mist Phantom level; it was a Rune Beast, and that meant that its Vitality and tenacity were quite ridiculous, and it was possible to cut off its head, and that head would survive for hours before dying.

The beast twisted, trying to shake him off, but Elias held on, his claws anchored in its flesh and bones, and to ensure that the draining was still ongoing, Elias wrapped his legs around its torso.

Screaming with pain and frustration, the wolf crashed into a tree, shattering it, and then continued on to smash into another, trying to crush him against the bark.

“BOOM BOOM BOOM…”

The Alpha crashed into dozens of trees, and Elias felt his ribs crack, and his armor dent and crumple, but he did not let go. No matter the damage he was suffering, the Beast was experiencing many times more, and a quick glance to confirm showed him he could still hold on

Vitality: 4321 / 4517

Also, it was a good chance for Inverse Reflection to be working as it continuously 1% of each impact back at the Alpha; they appeared to be tiny fractions of damage, but these were rapidly accumulating, as everything he was doing was wearing it down.

This creature may have unknown abilities, and sparring with it for long was foolish. Elias would be like a snake that wrapped around its prey and slowly suffocated it to death; in this manner, all of the weapons of the beast would be useless against him.

What happened next would be an experience that would leave a profound mark on Elias’s psyche, as the Alpha, realizing it could not shake him, chose to adopt a tactic that Elias did not see coming because it defeated any knowledge that he had in mind about how the bodies of wolves were supposed to work.

The Alpha stopped running, no longer trying to crush him against the silent trees. Elias heard a loud crack as if the bones of the creature were changing, and it suddenly reached back with both forelegs, claws extended, and grabbed him.

Its claws were eerily human-like and now like the paws of a wolf, and Elias could barely comprehend what just happened when he felt those claws close around his arms, shoulders, and chest.

With the size of the wolf, without Elias’s blocky armor, its claws would have circled nearly all of his body, and what multiplied the danger that Elias was now in was that the claws were extremely sharp

Elias grunted as he could feel them cutting through his armor like it was paper, then through his inner clothing, and finally through his skin. The Profound Iron plates that had not even served him for long crumpled like foil under that grip.

Before now, Elias had thought he would use this armor for a while, but without the Art of Stone, this glorious piece of metalworking had collapsed. The cuirass was pierced in three places, and it fell to the ground with dull thuds, followed by his crushed pauldrons and shattered vambraces.

The body of the Alpha rose until it stood on two feet, standing for more than fourteen feet, and Elias was brought up before it, his legs dangling away from the ground. In that moment, Elias’s eyes met the Alpha’s, and in its bright red eyes, he saw pain, fury, and mockery, and in this moment, Elias fully understood that he should never for an instant treat this creature with the same guidebook as a normal beast.

Its hot breath washed over his face, and then the Alpha squeezed, and Elias could do nothing but scream.

The claws of the Alpha were designed to kill, and they punched through his chest and lungs. Elias had only a moment to gasp before they pierced through the space where his heart beat like a war drum, and he could feel them grinding against his ribs, before the painful chill as his bones began to splinter.

His Status Screen flashed before his eyes, showing him his Vitality: 3892 / 4517, which was falling fast like a punctured balloon; his blood, which should never flow out of his body, began to slowly drip to the ground.

With the claws of the beast inside of him, it was difficult for him to resist the power of the Rune Beast, and although Elias knew it should be hard, if the Beast tried enough, it should be able to rip him in two, why was it not doing this?

Elias could no longer scream, and his eyes looked at the Beast and he saw that it was enjoying his pain, and it was at that moment that Elias remembered that his claws were still inside the beast, although the Blood Dominion Lash had ended due to the shock and damage Elias was experiencing.

It was as if his Heaven Legacy was being occupied with keeping Elias’s blood inside his body and could no longer be used for offensive purposes.

Elias looked up at the smiling wolf, and he gave a grin of his own, because in this moment, he knew that the Beast had lost, and its intelligence had become its weakness.

Instead of gloating over his pain, he should have long been ripped apart.

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