The night in that stone forest was like the inside of a dead creature.
Still, heavy, filled with the smell of iron and ash.
The tall rocks looked like black fangs shining with a faint red line, as if blood from ancient battles had seeped into them and never dried.
In the heart of this darkness, three human figures stood, surrounded by dozens of exhausted soldiers and the torn bodies of the wolves they had killed minutes ago.
There was no time to breathe.
Suddenly, the ground shook, as if a demon under it had begun to wake up.
Doom… Doom…
Footsteps.
But not the footsteps of one body.
When the darkness split open—
they came out.
Two giant blood wolves.
Their bodies glowed with a thick red aura, as if the blood under their skin was boiling.
Five meters of twisted animal flesh, eyes like burning coals, and teeth like blades soaked in the flesh of giants.
The souls of the soldiers trembled.
Even the three leaders felt a weight pressing down on their chests.
The old man said quietly, as if afraid the night would hear him:
"Stay close… we cannot split apart now."
And the battle began.
No one charged first.
The monsters did.
They leapt into the air with terrifying ease despite their size.
It was as if the earth rejected them rather than supported them.
The wolf on the right stepped forward, the ground exploding under its paw.
It raised a claw covered with compressed bloody aura.
In a single moment—
it struck.
It was not an attack.
It was an execution.
The Blood Blade Sect leader raised his hands at the last second.
Two giant blood blades formed in his hands, stabbing upward like they wanted to pierce the sky.
Above his head, two smaller curved blood blades appeared, greatly boosting his aura and strength.
Dozens of blood blades shot around him.
The wolf's strike hit that red storm—
KAAAAAAASH!
A sound like metal being cut from both sides.
The blades flew back dozens of meters, some breaking, others embedding themselves in the rock.
The leader himself was pushed into the ground up to his knees, the bones in his arms creaking under the pressure.
But he shouted:
"Scatter!"
The remaining blades exploded toward the wolf like thunderous arrows.
The monster bent, twisted, its aura spinning around its body…
Even so, two shards ripped into its shoulder.
A deep howl shook the soul before the ear.
On the other side, the second wolf charged.
It opened its mouth—
and a bloody wave shot out, cutting the air like a giant scythe.
The Blood Hands Sect leader did not dodge.
Instead, he stepped forward into it.
He raised his hands, glowing with a bright red light like burning fat on fire.
He blocked the wave with his palms—
and the exploding blood began to decay under his touch.
Tsssssssss… the sound of flesh burning, but it was flesh made of blood.
He shouted:
"Hold him!"
Runic circles appeared around him, releasing dozens of ghostly hands.
They slipped between the waves, grabbed the wolf's neck, legs, and body.
But the wolf did not freeze.
It raised its head—
and howled.
It was not a wolf's voice.
It was a cry that shattered the blood inside the veins.
The ghostly hands scattered like ash.
The leader fell to his knees, screaming from an invisible pain, as if his own blood was trying to escape his body.
Before the monster reached him—
The old man lifted his hand and muttered a short incantation.
There was no exaggeration, no movement, just strange breaths leaving his chest.
Five giant scorpion tails burst behind him, each one like a spear dripping with black poison.
The first tail shot toward the second wolf—
and pierced its side.
The second and third hit its back, slamming the huge body toward the ground.
The fourth wrapped around its neck—
pulling… pulling… pulling…
But the wolf did not fall.
Its bloody aura suddenly expanded like fire drenched in oil.
It bit the tail—
and cut it in half.
The tail recoiled, shaking, spraying black blood like ink.
The old man endured the pain and stepped forward.
Runic circles formed around his hands, turning into liquid, then hardening into two giant scorpion arms.
His scorpion arms struck with brutal speed.
One hit the wolf's jaw.
Another hit its chest.
A third crashed into its spine.
But the monster only staggered a little.
There was no room to retreat.
Both monsters moved at once.
The first rushed toward the Blood Blade leader, its claws extending half a meter more, covered with deadly aura.
It attacked with rapid, impossible speed.
Every strike could cut a man in half.
Every movement could kill a nearby soldier.
The leader dodged, blocked, cut—
but the monster was faster, stronger, and closer to killing him.
He tripped on a rock for a single second.
The wolf saw the opening.
It jumped.
Its mouth opened.
Its teeth glowed with a dark red light.
It almost swallowed the leader—
until the old man's scorpion tails smashed into the wolf's face, pushing it aside.
The alliance became necessary for survival.
The second leader stood up, breathing hard, blood running from his nose and eyes.
He raised his hand toward the sky and shouted with a voice that shook stone:
"Manifest… Blood Arms!"
Hundreds of runic circles appeared around him.
From each one, a ghostly hand emerged, moving like armies born from another world.
They filled the sky above the second wolf.
They wrapped around its legs, neck, jaw, and chest.
The monster tried to break free—
but each hand it destroyed was replaced by another.
If it tore ten, twenty more appeared.
Suddenly—
CRACK!
The wolf pulled its right leg with immense force—
and its joint snapped out of place.
A terrifying howl tore through the air.
But it still did not fall.
The bloody aura around it grew stronger…
then—
turned into threads.
Dozens of dark red threads shot out from its body.
They spread through the air like the net of a hellish hunter.
They wrapped around the Blood Blade leader.
Around the second leader.
Around the old man's neck.
They pulled.
The blood itself tried to drag them…
tear them…
swallow them.
No one could move.
One moment—
one heartbeat of stillness—
was enough to kill them all.
The old man shouted:
"Ignite your blood! Now!"
Without hesitation, they all began reciting a strange spell.
Bloody fire surrounded them.
Each one cut his arm.
Blood flowed out—
but instead of falling, it ignited.
Their blood aura exploded outward.
It destroyed the threads, broke the bindings, and burned the sky with a dark red flame.
The two monsters stepped back.
For the first time, they seemed like they felt pain.
But the three leaders were also at their limit.
Blood dripped from the old man's arm.
The Blood Blade leader's chest shook from fractures.
The Blood Hands leader's eyes were fully red, as if his sight was fading.
None of them had any strength left.
But the wolves were still standing.
The two monsters charged together.
A combined attack strong enough to cut the world in half.
The three leaders charged as well.
Swords, scorpion tails, ghostly hands, blood blades—
everything collided with everything.
KAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!!
A sound like the sky cracking.
Red light filled the forest.
Rocks exploded.
Blood flew everywhere.
Souls trembled.
In one moment—
everyone fell.
The two monsters slid back, panting, their wounds open, their blood steaming from heat.
The three leaders collapsed as well.
They knelt, blood dripping onto the ground.
No one could take another step.
No one could lift an arm.
It was a draw…
a delayed death for both sides.
Suddenly—
everything went silent.
The bloody aura vanished as if erased from the world.
The two monsters froze.
Both looked toward the center of the dark forest, toward a giant rock.
The three leaders felt it too.
An aura… not blood…
but something deeper, older, heavier.
Something crawling across the ground, changing the temperature of the air, making bones shake without reason.
The old man whispered:
"This… is not a beast's aura."
The Blood Blade leader said in a broken voice:
"It is… frightening the monsters."
The two giant wolves bent their heads and stepped back…
as if sensing a coming disaster.
The Blood Hands leader swallowed hard and said:
"The one coming… is not with us or with them."
And just like that…
the night swallowed the last sound.
Everything from the battle disappeared…
except the blood that had no one left to carry it.