Beatitudes

Episode 95.

A flaming wolf was swatted a considerable distance to the side as the flames on its body were put out to a significant level as previously promised, following which the fifth floor sank into silence.

Harry and Hiya stared from Isaac to the wolf and then back to Isaac before taking another glance at the wolf lying still on the ground. The only signs that showed it was still a part of the world of the living were its legs that kept twitching for a while.

Hiya looked at Isaac with an odd light in her eyes, she had been stunned for a while on seeing the result of the wolf’s charge. When she thought back to the whole scene starting from the wolf’s initiating its charge to its current state where it laid on the ground with its status unknown, she couldn’t help but murmur to herself,

“He’s actually able to think so well… looks like he’s not as dumb as he seems…”

If Isaac had just happened to hear the words she had just said, then he probably would have cursed, feeling enough indignation to spoil his current good mood at swatting the imposing and obnoxious wolf king to the side like a fly.

But he hadn’t heard anything of what she said, and so the smug vibes he was feeling remained unspoilt.

His thoughts at the current moment could only be heard by himself and Astral, ‘Now that felt pretty good, you’re not so tough now are you, uhn?’

Astral: You do know that the beast you just supposedly swatted away like a bug is nowhere near as dead as a bug would be right…

The smugness Isaac was feeling at the moment was thus suppressed somewhat as he realized that the wolf was not going to be an easy opponent.

He looked from Hiya, who stared back at him with an odd light that he didn’t notice, to Harry who had a somewhat dazed expression on his face. One could say he was having a slight amount of difficulty in accepting the scene of the wolf being swatted away, the same wolf who had just been pushing him back in their contest of strength.

He knew they were like this because of him, and he couldn’t help but feel smug again. But he couldn’t continue being so for now, so he suppressed the urge to say a few boastful words as he spoke to the two,

“The wolf’s not dead and it’s going to take a little more than that to defeat it, since it’s weak against fire let’s take care of this a- “

ROAR!!!

He was still talking when a vengeful roar sounded out in the fifth floor, full of pain and rage. The source of the roar was naturally the wolf that had managed to come out of its daze at the moment as it stood back up. It stood up slowly with a little imbalance in its movements as it raised its head to stare at Isaac with vengeful eyes.

Isaac felt a peculiar cold wave of air wash over him as he stared back at the wolf that looked set on ripping him apart. The cold wave of air was actually the wolf’s bloodlust, at this current moment, it was of a thick amount that overflowed from its eyes, and it was presently directed at him. “Ah sh*t, this is going to be hard…”

By this time, the other two had snapped out of their reverie as they charged at the wolf from where they stood, Isaac also threw himself forward as he rushed towards the wolf. It was two of them battling the wolf previously and they had still failed to cause any substantial damage to the wolf. Now that they were three, they naturally still shouldn’t be able to cause much damage to the wolf, perhaps being able to fight it to a standstill would not be so hard. But now that Isaac had a means to deal with the wolf, which was the flames he could control, it was no longer as simple as the three of them fighting the wolf to a standstill after they exerted all their efforts. They had a genuine chance of taking the wolf down.

Naturally this feat still couldn’t be achieved by Isaac alone as he needed the strength of Harry and Hiya as well. Hence the need for cooperation was revealed that they naturally understood as well. The teamwork they had been practicing all the way from the first floor to the fifth floor before encountering the wolf king in front of them was now being showcased.

They moved at the same pace as they crossed the similar distance between each of them and the wolf king.

Naturally the three had learned to usually let Harry charge forward ahead of them, having him clear the way with a few swings of his hammer and a few smashed bones. He was undoubtedly the most suited regardless of the advantages the two of them had in their attacks to him, like Isaac’s more penetrative and burning strike and Hiya’s ever efficient slashes.

But this wasn’t going to be the case this time for fairly obvious reasons. Isaac moved at the foremost position as they began to hasten their assault on the wolf to prevent it from quickly healing up and thus lose the only advantage they had.

It was a tacit understanding that was met with no disapproval, Isaac was after all, the only one who could inflict any substantial wound on the wolf and thus create an opening for them as well.

Charging forward, a white sword condensed from its hilt down to the sword tip at a very fast speed. It was a wonder as to how he was able to still easily condense a sword shortly after condensing an object as big as the one he just did minutes ago.

Only he knew that he reached somewhat a new high in his willpower manipulation. The massive fly swatter had disappeared after doing its job, but it actually hadn’t dissipated into the surroundings like how his constructs usually did in the past. He had gotten a flash of inspiration in his fuming state due to haven been tossed out of the fifth floor like a ragdoll earlier, and he finally had a better understanding of the spiral of willpower within him. Forward to release, backwards to recall…