Brutal slaughter of a beast

Watching Shanteng cry and hop around brought immense satisfaction to Surrdon. No amount of mana from his friends could take away the cold string he was using to inflict pain on the boy. Revenge felt oddly...sweet.

   'A little more,' he told himself and released another ice string.

The second one attacked Shanteng's other foot.

    "Aaaah!"

He thudded on the wooden floor, hugging his knees in an attempt to ease the cold pain. It felt like the nerves in his legs were dying, a painful death.

    "Let's call an elder," one of his four friends cried, panic shrouding his face like the rest of them.

Shanteng's eyes fell on Surrdon but the eye contact lasted only a second. Surrdon chose to leave the hall before any higher disciple or elder appeared. He decided to protect his weak state from any physical confrontation.

  Inner disciples were at least level nine or ten, core disciples were at an early stage of Gold realm and elders had to be above late stage Gold realm or early stage Seal realm.

Compared to them, Surrdon was just a speck of dust that could be blown away.

Outside the small hall, he found Azron waiting for him. "Master, what happened? Did that disciple harm you?"

Surrdon shook his head.

Azron had been forbidden from getting involved with any internal conflicts within the sect or entering buildings without an elder's permission.

"Let's go."

"M!" She smiled and followed Surrdon as he descended the stairs and out of the shade.

-----

Without a teacher or anyone to guide his practice, Surrdon had to fend for himself.

He had to find the scarce natural resources by himself such as specific spots in the forest where there was a thin trace of raw energy. Now his goal was to purchase some condensation pills and raise his level as fast as he could before the tournaments.

The urge to say 'fuck you' to the system and to every person he met was more powerful than his strength, but such a word was like a new vocabulary here as most curse words from earth.

To leave the sect, he needed a release order from either the elders or the chief.

But, he wasn't familiar with the elders and didn't want to face that bitch of a chief unless necessary.

"What to do?" He wondered, lying on a field of purple grass.

He sat up and let out a long sigh.

What could he possibly-

"Outer disciple Surrdon, report to the inner hall!" A loud echo boomed, travelling through the air in powerful waves. It was a transmission, a skill that could be mastered only when one ascended to the Seal realm.

An elder was summoning him, and he didn't sound pleased at all.

"Fuck! More trouble?"

He pushed his body off the ground and dusted his robes.

He turned to face the hill from where the call was coming from and raised his middle finger at it. "Fuck you all old geezers. Making my-"

*Grr!*

A deep growl of an animal interrupted his cursing. It drew his attention to the east where the forest joined the clearing.

His demonic vision immediately activated, helping him detect where the beast was.

It growled once more, this time, coming into Surrdon's vision.

A four-feet tall wolf, its gray coat looked soft to the touch but its claws were terrifying to look at. Standing only a short distance from him, the beast bared its sharp teeth at Surrdon, slimy saliva dropped from the corner of its mouth.

Surrdon took a step back.

His throat ran dry from the shadowy fear creeping into his chest. He calculated all possible outcomes; turn and run--the wolf would pounce on him effortlessly, face and fight it--the beast would devour him like a rabbit.

His heart continued pounding in his chest as the two held their eye contact.

Fleeing was not an option, he knew he stood a better chance fighting the ugly beast standing before him rather than running.

"Anya? Anya?"

Silence.

"Are you serious? I'm on the brink of death and you won't show up?"

"My business is not to protect you, idiot," she answered without bothering to appear.

"I'm busy-" *munch*, "-with something important."

Surrdon only muttered an ugly curse before concentrating back on the threat a distance from him. A mountain wolf.

They lived deep in the forest without ever making contact with humans. This one was miles away from where it should have been, and it smelled like blood.

"I need a weapon. Argh! The damned sword is locked away."

'But I can use the technique, it should help me wound it.'

He concentrated on his body, and directed mana to his right hand while visualizing a strong powerful ice sword.

He started feeling an object form in his hand, causing an internal sigh of relief. Even without any sword techniques, anyone could swing it about and hurt someone. That was all he needed.

The process was complete.

Surrdon raised his weapon to observe but was struck by brutal shock when he set his eyes on a... penknife.

"You got to be-"

*Growl*

The wolf launched itself towards Surrdon in a powerful pounce, its front claws aiming for his face.

Time seemed to slow down, and his body felt like it had been possessed.

This wasn't a possession, no, it was...body memory.

He jumped out of its way by hopping on his right foot, avoiding the cruel attack that would have clawed half his face off.

His demonic vision traced the wolf's weakness, its heart, located just below its neck on the right side above the right limb.

In his eyes, everything was painted red, except living beings and mana sources.

The wolf's heart appeared like a black fruit ready to be picked.

It whirled around, angry at him for evading its strike.

Growling and baring its fangs at Surrdon, it dashed for him before making another pounce.

Surrdon didn't back away, he instead rushed forward, the ice penknife aiming for the wolf's heart. "Hyaa!"

A risky move he had opted to take. But it was all from the body's reaction to danger. His predecessor must have fought too many beasts for his body to have such a natural response to danger.

*Swoosh*

Its right front claw slashed at his left shoulder while his knife stabbed its heart simultaneously.

The two crumbled on the grassy ground, the wolf exacting pressure with its weight on his frame as it fought with the last ray of its life to bite Surrdon's face.

He shielded himself using his left arm, adding more injury to the already wounded arm.

"Aaa!" He cried as his right hand added more stabs to the wolf's neck, spattering red blood all over his face. Some made its way into his open mouth, but that mattered not as to survive the death threat. He ignored the horrible pain pulsing from his shoulder and from his bitten arm and went on a stabbing rampage, losing count after the fiftieth stab.

His mind was so demonized that he failed to notice the wolf was long dead and all he was doing was severing its head from its body using only a penknife made from nothing but ice.

He pushed it off of him, panting like he had just run up and down the mountain without a break. A bloody run.

The wolf's fangs were still boring through his arm, trapping him even in death.

"Argh! Shit!" Surrdon moaned in pain as he tried to pry its mouth open to free his arm. But the teeth had penetrated deep into his bones, making it more painful to remove the grasp the fangs had on him.

His head fell back, his chest rising and falling to how hard his breathing had turned.

For a minute, he used the cloudy sky to calm all his nerves while his mind came up with ideas to stifle the pain.

Once his breathing was regulated, he sat up and brought his right hand to his bleeding shoulder. He could no longer tell which blood belonged to him from how much of the wolf's blood had drilled on him. Everything was just...bloody.

White strands of cold mana came out of his right palm before invading the ugly gash that had bared his shoulder bone.

He grimaced and shut his eyes, biting down the pain by gnawing his teeth.

Never in his life had he experienced this amount of pain. It felt like his chest was about to explode.

But when the strands began closing the flesh, his pain lessened. He felt his breath relax and his muscles loosen. Yet it wasn't enough, the wolf's teeth were still buried in his bones. Another source of deathly pain