Near the flower slept a Night Wolf. Night Wolves were pitch black in color, and hunted mostly during the night. They ranged anywhere from early mist creation to late mist creation, depending on their age. The wolf in front of John was at the early Mist Creation level.
Although beasts didn't cultivate the way humans did, they emanated a natural aura that made it easy to judge what level their strength was at.
John stood as still as possible, fearing that any sound would alert the beast. He stood there for several minutes, neither moving forward nor retreating. The beast, unaware of his presence, slept soundly.
"Although I'm much stronger than when I fought the Dark Spotted Panther, there's still no way I can beat this beast" thought John. A conflicted look appeared on his face as he debated about what to do.
"I can't beat the Night Wolf, but on the other hand, that Mist Essence Sunflower is extremely important to me." John stared at the wolf for quite some time before clenching his fists tightly.
"I need this flower. If I end up in danger, I'll just teleport away" thought John as he started to slowly sneak towards the flower.
After sneaking forward slowly for several minutes, John started to approach the flower from the side opposite the wolf.
"I'm almost there. Just a few more yards."
Each second was agonizingly stressful as John slowly approached the flower. Just as he was about to reach out and store away the flower, the Night Wolf quickly opened its eyes.
"ROAR!"
An extremely loud and furious roar echoed throughout the entire cavern. The Night Wolf had felt John's presence right as he was about to take the flower, and as such had woken up in a furious rage.
"Shit" yelled John as he hastily retreated and dashed towards the cave exit with all his speed, abandoning all thought of obtaining the flower.
John came to a sudden halt as he was ten yards from the cavern exit. The Night Wolf had obviously sensed his intention of retreat and had ran to the only exit to block his path.
John stared at the Night Wolf in front of him as he thought about what to do.
"Should I crush the talisman now?" He pulled out the talisman and held it in his hand for a moment before storing it once again.
"No, I can only use this as a last resort. Once I crush it, my adventure is over and I have to go home. I'll see if I can fight my way out of here, maybe the wolf won't want to leave the cave if I reach the exit."
John hastily took out his blue greatsword and steadied it in front of his body. Breathing in deeply, John took the most defensive stance he knew and prepared for the Wolf's attack.
Noticing that John was daring to challenge it, the Wolf howled in rage once again before dashing rapidly towards him.
John barely had time to react before the wolf was right in front of him, its massive paw swinging powerfully towards him. Based on his fight with the Dark Spotted Panther, John knew that he couldn't block this attack head on without taking serious damage.
Right as the giant paw was about to smash into his body, John twisted his shoulders to the side and brought up his greatsword. The paw made a glancing strike against John's sword as it barely missed gravely injuring him.
As the wolf lunged past him, John raised his other hand and punched out with all his strength. The wolf was knocked back slightly, but other than that had taken no damage. John felt his hand trembling slightly in pain from the punch.
"How tough" John cursed as he rapidly dashed backwards, narrowly avoiding the follow up strike from the wolf.
After narrowly dodging the strike, John used the slight opening and dashed forward and swung his sword down with all his might.
"Peng!"
A metallic sound rang out as the wolf's paw blocked John's sword with ease. John was sent flying backwards, eventually crashing into the cavern wall. He sluggishly stood up and wiped the blood off his lips. He quickly looked up saw the Night Wolf rapidly approaching him, trying to deliver the finishing blow.
"Boom!"
A loud boom echoed through the cavern as the wolf's paw slammed against the cavern wall.
John had just narrowly dodged the wolf's powerful attack at the last possible moment. After dodging the wolf's paw attack, John lunged forward and slashed his sword towards the wolf with all his might.
"Roar!"
The wolf roared in anger as a slightly deep cut was opened up on its side. It had never regarded the human in front of it as a threat, and in its carelessness had been wounded.
"Shit" John exclaimed as he hastily backed up, narrowly dodging the wolf's paw swipe.
"That was the best opportunity I'm going to get, and all I could do was slightly injure the wolf" thought John as he hastily swung his sword out again, blocking the follow up attack from the wolf.
"Gah!" John screamed out in pain as he was flung back dozens of yards, tumbling head over heels multiple times. He eventually came to a stop and rose to his feet as fast as he could, his legs shaking and blood covering his entire body. All his bones felt like they had almost shattered, but he knew that the wolf wouldn't give him time to recover. Panting in pain, John stared at the rapidly approaching wolf.
"I guess it really is too much to expect that I can fight this wolf. After all, jumping realms is basically impossible" thought John as he took out a small disk from his storage ring.
Gritting his teeth in frustration at having to use his spatial talisman this early, John was about to crush the talisman when he suddenly stopped.
"This is just like before" thought John as he examined what was going on inside of him.
John felt his blood boiling and his energy rising, just like it had when he was about to clash with the Dark Spotted Panther one final time. A wild thought appeared in John's mind as he stowed away the disk and raised his sword in front of him.
Gripping his sword as tightly as possible, John slashed down with all his might as the wolf's paw swiped towards him.
"Peng!"
Another loud metallic sound rang out as the sword and paw collided. Unlike last time however, John was not sent flying back hopelessly. John excitedly stared at his sword which had successfully blocked the wolf's paw. Pushing out with all his strength, John managed to force the wolf back a dozen yards.
Surprised by the sudden increase in strength, the wolf stared at John with more caution than before, not daring to attack right away.
"Haha, come!" shouted John as he quickly dashed towards the wolf. "I need to do something different this time however."
As he neared the wolf, John once again swung his sword down. The wolf raised its paw to block the sword, and having faced this attack before, put even more power in the counter attack.
Just as sword and paw were about to collide, John hastily changed the trajectory of his sword attack, narrowly missing the paw. The wolf had expected a full power attack from John, and as such had not considered that John would throw in a feint attack. Since John had not put much power into his initial swing, he was able to change the trajectory at the last moment, causing the wolf's paw to hit nothing but air.
"Boom!"
John's sword struck the side of the wolf, carving a large wound across its side. The wolf howled in pain as it quickly turned around, sending a massive paw towards John. John hastily blocked the paw and was thrown backwards dozens of yards, his blood tumbling inside his body.
Although John had managed to maintain his balance, he was still shaken from blocking that attack. Coughing out a small amount of blood, John wiped the blood of his chin as he stared at the wolf.
"That was my strongest attack, and all I managed to do was wound it. I won't be able to kill it at this rate." John stared at the wolf as he considered his options before his eyes widened in shock and fear.
"What's happening?" said John
He suddenly felt like all the energy in his body was rapidly leaving. A huge wave of weariness started washing over him as John felt the energy surge slowly start to leave his body.
John was worrying about his sudden predicament when all of a sudden he looked up to see a massive paw swiping towards his head.
"Gah!"
John cried out in pain as he was sent flying backwards by the attack. Although he had managed to block the attack at the last possible moment, his hasty defense was not enough to prevent any damage.
John tumbled over a few times before coming to a stop. After struggling for a few seconds, John stood up as fast as he could. He looked up to see the wolf once again dashing towards him, looking to end the fight.
"What can I do? I feel as if I only have enough energy for one more attack before I collapse. Either I crush the talisman or I attack, but my last full power attack wasn't powerful enough to kill it"
John's mind was racing as he desperately thought of something to turn the tide of this battle. His eyes suddenly brightened as he thought of something.
Watching the wolf approach, John feigned weakness, acting as if he could barely stand up. Seeing its prey was on its last legs, the wolf prepared to put all its power into its final blow.
"Boom!" The large cavern shook as the wolf's paw violently slammed into the ground, upheaving earth and creating a small crater. The wolf had not expected its prey to be able to move quickly, and as such had attacked with all its might to deliver a finishing blow.
The Night Wolf looked to its side but saw nothing. It suddenly looked upwards, at which point it saw the human above it, lunging downwards with a pitch black weapon in hand.
After dodging to the side at the last possible moment, John jumped high into the air above the wolf. Putting his greatsword away, John took out his scythe from his storage ring as he fell towards the beast. His arm muscles strained with all their might as John was just barely able to control the trajectory of the scythe. He swung the scythe will every last shred of energy he had. If this attack failed, he didn't know if he would have enough energy to take out his spatial talisman and crush it.
"Roar"
The wolf howled in anger as it raised its paw to block the attack, but having put all its power into its previous attack, it was just a moment too slow to recover in time.
"Slice!"
John violently crashed into the ground and tumbled over a few times. With his last remaining strength, John slightly lifted his head to look behind him.
John stared at the beast for a second before darkness washed over him.
…
A pair of eyes slowly opened.