A few days after its evolution, Chen Xuan watched as the wolf ran around on all fours, faster than it had ever been.
Since its evolution, after getting used to his new strength and size, Fenrir began hunting on its own fully. Occasionally, it came back to Chen Xuan with its prey, trying to offer it to him with its tail wagging.
Every time it brought prey back to Chen Xuan, he would always use a branch to nudge it back to Fenrir while sending a message that he didn't want it. In response to this, Fenrir would always begrudgingly take the prey back to eat it at the base of Chen Xuan's trunk.
Despite this, Fenrir would always come back with something whenever it went out to hunt. On days like this, Chen Xuan progressed quickly, until only about couple days before the next breakthrough.
The day was like any other; the sun was hidden behind the dense clouds, creating a slightly gloomy atmosphere with only a bit of sunlight filtering through the clouds.
It was slightly windy, with the trees rustling in the wind, swaying like dancers on a stage. Fenrir had just gone out to hunt like any other day while Chen Xuan looked around, slightly bored.
As the sky was gloomy, Chen Xuan didn't feel the usual satisfying sensation of sunlight on his leaves.
While Chen Xuan was looking around with slight boredom, he heard a loud roar reverberate from not too far away, along with the sounds of running.
Moments later, Fenrir came running from the forest, behind some trees, frantically sprinting toward Chen Xuan. Through their shared connection, Chen Xuan felt Fenrir's fear and pleading as it ran toward him.
When Chen Xuan saw Fenrir, he tensed, his mind whirring about what to do. It was only after he saw what was chasing Fenrir that he felt shocked and worried.
The creature was another wolf, similar to Fenrir, but far larger. It had a deep gray coat and was about 1 meter tall and about 1.7 meters long, including its tail. Its body had a lot of dense muscles that rippled with each of its movements.
The wolf behind Fenrir was rapidly catching up to him. Evidently, if it weren't for Fenrir being close by, he would have had zero chance of surviving, only able to get this far due to having a large head start.
Just as the large wolf was about to catch Fenrir, it reached just below the tree, within Chen Xuan's striking distance.
Just as the wolf's jaws were about to snap around where Fenrir would have been, Chen Xuan fully activated all of his flowers, sending mixed signals to confuse the large wolf.
Along with the flowers, Chen Xuan coiled a dozen branches together to form a club-like object before repeating the process with some more branches. Once formed, Chen Xuan used both clubs to strike either side of the wolf's body, eliciting a yelp from the large wolf.
Turning back, the wolf clamped down on Xuan's collection of 10 branches, managing to cut off two branches but was unable to fully bite off the dozen branches.
With a wince, Chen Xuan combined all of his branches into 6 bunches of 10 branches, using the remaining 5 to push the wolf away, causing the wolf to rip another branch off.
With a yelp, the wolf was thrown back, but it quickly regained its footing, aggressively staring at Chen Xuan while growling.
The wolf glared at Chen Xuan, hesitating for a second, unsure if the prey was worth the risk. However, when it noticed Fenrir hiding beneath Chen Xuan, it became furious as Fenrir was glaring at it. It had been a long time since the wolf had been glared at, which made it absolutely furious, wanting to rip apart Fenrir.
Furious, the wolf charged back in, lunging towards Fenrir, trying to get to him before Chen Xuan could react.
Swiftly, Chen Xuan lowered half of the bunches of branches to block off Fenrir while using the others to strike at the wolf, using two to strike the side of the wolf.
The wolf dodged the two bunches with agility, jumping over them. However, Chen Xuan was ready, swiftly using his remaining branch to pierce towards the wolf's head.
"Stupid dog," Chen Xuan muttered, not expecting the wolf to be able to evade in the air. The wolf, however, swiftly used both claws to slice at the incoming branches, using it as leverage to send itself higher into the air, evading the branches.
Descending towards Fenrir, the wolf landed, not wasting a second before breaking out into a sprint towards Fenrir.
With intense focus, Chen Xuan activated his flowers to their full capacity, finally managing to affect the wolf as it was closer now, causing it to stumble.
Using the instant that the wolf stumbled, Chen Xuan combined both of the initial branches into one large branch consisting of 20 individual branches.
Using this massive, coiled bunch of branches like a whip, he struck down on the side of the wolf, sending it flying to the side with a slight crack, only barely audible.
"Tough one, eh? But all brawn and no brains."
Now, the wolf was even more furious that a mere tree that wasn't supposed to move had hurt it.
Bounding towards Chen Xuan, the wolf lunged at Fenrir, in response to which Chen Xuan blocked with 3 branch bundles before attempting to slap down on the wolf with another bundle of branches.
Quickly dodging, the wolf avoided the large bundle of branches, not noticing that a smaller number of branches snaked their way beneath the earth, right in the wolf's path.
Like a bear trap, the instant the wolf stepped on Chen Xuan's branches, the branches coiled around the wolf's hind legs, making it trip and stumble over.
Not wasting the opportunity, Chen Xuan combined the remaining 50 branches into one big bundle of branches, looking like a steel cable wound tight, before bringing the large collection of branches down on the head of the wolf.
Due to the hypnotic flowers' effects and the branches wrapped around the wolf's legs, it couldn't react in time, its head shattering into pieces, staining the dirt a deep red.
As life scattered from the wolf, Chen Xuan let out a deep breath. He had been tense throughout the fight, concentrating the entire time, only allowed to relax now that the threat had disappeared.
+ 2.1 Life Energy
Life energy: 11.7 / 11 (100%) (Upgrade?)
"What?"