The outer disciples panicked, stumbling into positions.
Two more Ridgebone Wolves emerged from the right and rear, encircling them.
Hunters and the hunted, huh… Astra thought.
From the beasts' perspective, they were hunters.
From the disciples' view—they were prey.
One outer disciple screamed and swung his sword wildly. The wolf dodged with ease and lunged for his throat.
Astra moved.
He didn't use full speed.
Didn't let his bloodline blaze.
He just stepped in with Shadow Dragon Movement, body sliding in an angle that cut off the wolf's path.
His fist struck its jaw.
Not a full Stone-Breaking Fist—just enough power to divert the beast's trajectory.
The Ridgebone Wolf snarled, tumbling sideways, jaws snapping empty air.
The panicked disciple fell back, gasping.
"Th-thank you—!" he stammered.
"Watch your footing next time," Astra said briefly, already moving back into position.
Two more wolves circled closer, hackles raised.
Astra felt it then.
A subtle shiver pulsed from deep within his chest.
Thump.
His inner world trembled. The Spirit Egg pulsed, harder than before.
He heard it—
A faint, clear whisper in the back of his mind:
"…careful…"
His eyes narrowed.
"Above!" he shouted suddenly.
Han Qing reacted instantly, twisting away as a fourth wolf launched from a branch, jaws aimed at his neck.
Han's sword flashed, slashing the beast mid-air, sending it crashing aside with a pained howl.
He glanced back at Astra, surprise in his eyes.
He detected that jump before I did?
No time to question.
"Bai Ruyin!" Han barked.
"On it."
Her fingers moved quickly, and she flicked several glowing paper talismans into the air. Spirit power flowed; the talismans flared and sank into the earth.
A weak but functional Slowing Formation spread under the wolves' paws.
The beasts snarled as their movements became slightly heavier, steps fractionally delayed.
"Focus one at a time!" Han Qing ordered.
The group responded shakily.
A Ridgebone Wolf lunged at Astra directly now, picking him as a target.
He stood his ground.
As it closed in, its red eyes locked with Astra's—
—and something in its feral brain froze.
For an instant, it saw not a weak human boy.
It saw a vast shadow, towering above mountains.
Scales like night.
Eyes like collapsing stars.
Teeth that bit through worlds.
Its forward momentum faltered.
Astra's pupils had taken on a faint, almost imperceptible ring of burning gold-red—
his bloodline humming just enough to leak a taste of predator.
The wolf whimpered—
just slightly.
Astra stepped forward.
Stone-Breaking Fist.