The Divine Wolf... or?

Chapter 117: Treacherous forest!

After admiring the sight for a couple of minutes, Ark had already managed to calm down again. As more and more minutes passed, he got calmer and calmer, sleepier and sleepier. It didn't take long for Ark to notice that something was amiss with his situation since he was beginning to have a hard time even standing straight when he was exposed to those flowers.

He quickly left the small clearing, he didn't want to risk staying around any longer, what if another magical beast took advantage of him when he was weak? Then he would only have himself to blame.

After leaving the flowers behind him, Ark quickly returned to his recluse cave again. Once there, he abruptly dozed off into blissful sleep, the effect of the flowers hadn't worn out yet. Waking up the next day, Ark was feeling a little sluggish. His body felt the same as usual, full of vigour and energy, but his mind felt inexplicably heavy at the moment, something which he couldn't explain.

Or at least until he remembered what happened the night before.

Ark conjured up about a bucket's worth of water and poured it directly on his own head. Though it seemed ridiculous and pretty stupid, it worked wonders and Ark almost instantly felt more awake.

After drying himself off with the help of wind, Ark decided to inspect the flowers once more, he wanted to know how these flowers worked, and if they were something he would be able to make use of in the future.

A shocking revelation revealed itself when he arrived at the clearing this time though. Unlike the day before, none of the flowers were anywhere to be seen. In their place, exact copies, yet ordinary green plants, replaced them. Instead of the ghostly and magical glowing blue flower, generic green plants replaced them, though otherwise the exact same in appearance.

Ark didn't notice any effect on his mental state either when he was here today, which was quite odd, he couldn't have hallucinated the day before, right?

Since Ark was sure that he hadn't been hallucinating the day before, he drew the conclusion that the flowers were normal during the day, but special during the night. That was the only hypothesis he could come up with right now, since the only difference between now and the night before was the time of the day. After pondering a little more, Ark decided to not dwell on it, and just go with the flow.

He felt like eating something right now and decided to go for a morning hunt.

As he wandered around the large and tropical forest, there were many new sights. Numerous weird plants and berries filled the entirety of his vision, with some weird types of trees and bushes with purple thorns on them. Ark was mesmerised by all of the different sights, and he almost forgot that he was supposed to go on a hunt.

As he kept walking, the sights around him started to turn from mesmerising to borderline disturbing.

On some trees next to him, Ark managed to spot deep claw marks, he wasn't really sure what kind of animal it belonged to first before he realised something crucial, these reminded him of his own claw marks! As he quickly used his paw to swipe the ground in front of him, numerous lines extended deep into the soft ground.

Ark didn't find many discrepancies between his own claw marks and the one on the trees, which concerned him a little.

Normally he would feel like this, but after his time in the cell, his animal instincts seemed to have grown stronger. His sense of belonging to other wolves had also strengthened on that notion since the pack mentality of a wolf was fairly strong. Of course, Ark was more of a lone wolf, but if he could help someone of his species out, then he probably would, if it wasn't too much trouble.

As he continued walking, he could clearly see copious amounts of blood scattered all over the place, dying the otherwise beautiful scenery an eerie shade of red.

An inexplicable feeling rose within him when he saw this blood scattered about, and he could feel a sense of familiarity stemming from his very soul toward the owner of the blood, whoever or whatever it may be. Though he didn't really know why exactly, a feeling of pensive sadness rose within him. As he continued walking further ahead, Ark started to hear some faint whimpers coming from up ahead.

He was almost entirely sure that this was a wolf now, and he kept walking.

Next to a battered up tree, a fairly large wolf laid on the ground. Covered in soft white fur, with different coloured strands mixed in here and there, the wolf was very beautiful. When Ark saw the familiar fur, he was a little shocked, he didn't expect to run into any one of the same species when he entered this forest!

His heart ached at the sight of the wolf covered in blood lying on the ground, but when he was going to heal it, he was in for another surprise!

"Grrrrrrrr!"

A small figure appeared in front of him, standing in front of the injured wolf. Yet another wolf of the same species as him stood in front of him, but this one was only a cub at the moment and hadn't grown up just yet. When Ark took another look, he realised that the cub wasn't the same species as him after all, since they were as blue as the sky, while Ark's were golden.

This cubs bloodline was only a small step from his own though, and he still felt the same familiarity.

If this was any other wolf, maybe Ark wouldn't have been inclined to help, but the feeling of belonging he felt in his heart wouldn't lessen, and he would probably feel really bad for a while if he didn't give them a helping hand, or well, paw in this case. Unfortunately, Ark didn't get to help the poor wolf before another unexpected occurrence appeared.

"Kukukuku, so this is where you've been hiding huh?"

A rather large man with dark skin walked out from the underbrush and walked toward the two wolves. The man's skin was covered in numerous black tattoos, emanating with a strange sense of power. With two horns adorning his head, it was easy to figure out that this man was a bona fide demon through and through! With a large axe dragging across the ground, the man looked like a very fierce warrior.

With the help of some blood dripping from the axe, as well as the long vertical cut on the large wolf's back, Ark could easily guess what had transpired.

The young wolf cub was scared for just a single second before it proudly stood in front of its mother lying on the ground, as to protect her from the evil demon. The demon was just about to attack when he noticed Ark standing to the side, oozing with thick killing intent. Though he was mad, he wasn't rash and didn't instantly attack the demon. The demon wasn't as rational though.

"Oh, what's this? The father? Its pupils are kind of weird, oh well, I'll just kill it off as well, more money that way!"

As Ark heard the demon mumbling to himself, Ark took the opportunity to attack while he was distracted. With enormous amounts of power accumulated in his hind legs, Ark leapt forward at an almost indiscernible speed and slashed out with his right paw. The demon didn't even get an opportunity to react, but Ark's attack was a little off course, and only ended up sending the demon's arm flying.

Though it wasn't an instant kill, it was disarmed and disoriented. When the demon was just about to react, a wind blade came from behind Ark, cutting the demon's other arm off cleanly.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"

The demon started screaming madly from the excruciating pain, and he fell down to the ground on his knees. Ark's speed was way beyond what this demon could deal with, the only reason he could kill the other elemental wolf was just because of a surprise attack, and Ark was way stronger in comparison.

Ark was a little surprised himself, as the wind blade wasn't his doing, and he eyed the small wolf cub behind him a little. Seeing the ferocious expression in its eyes, Ark only stepped aside, and let it do what it needed to do.

The cub didn't hesitate at all and seeing Ark step aside, it waltzed up to the demon. After staring into the demon's eyes for a couple of seconds, the wolf cub quickly slit his throat, and just watched him bleed to death. After successfully getting rid of the threat, the young cub scurried back to its mother's side and nuzzled up against her body.

Seeing the small cub cuddle lovingly with its mother's lifeless body, Ark's heartstrings were pulled fiercely, and even though he had been through a lot, he almost wanted to cry.

After inspecting the cub's mother's body a little closer, Ark was pretty sure that the wolf had already passed away just now, and there was nothing Ark could do to save it since he wasn't able to detect any breathing from her. Ark glared a little at the demon's body a little, his heart in turmoil. Why did someone always have to fuck someone else's life up for some small benefits?

He felt like people were detestable at times, at almost all times even. The only reason this young cub's mother was dead was because of money, and not even a lot of it.

There was nothing Ark could do now though, he only glanced at the young cub with empathy.