The Divine Wolf... or?

Chapter 137: Heartbreak.

Standing face to face with his enemy, Ark stared him straight in his eyes. The only person who was taking Ark serious was Balan. Unlike the others, he was able to feel a sense of danger whenever he looked at Ark, and he had no idea why. As he stared straight into Ark's eyes, his will to fight wavered slightly. Before anything could happen though, he quickly looked away.

A few drops of sweat ran down his back, that was close!

He didn't really know how the wolf did it, but if he had looked too long, he had a feeling that he would just give up the fight. With a hand on the sword on his waist, Balan carefully drew his sword, before he once again stared straight at Ark. This time, his conviction was unwavering, and Ark wasn't able to mess with his head.

He did note that this telepathy skill of his could be really useful in the future, since he was able to influence other's emotions as long as they didn't find out what he was doing. The only downside was that it only worked on people that didn't enough willpower, not that Ark could be completely sure after one try.

The air between them seemed stale, and time seemed to slow down as they both stared at each other, anticipating the other's move. After a couple of minutes had passed, Balan grew impatient, and he decided to attack first. Ark only smirked slightly upon seeing this, it seemed like his opponent was impatient. Not only was Balan impatient, but he also wanted revenge, and he was angry.

These factors combined was going to make the fight easier for Ark, as they would make Balan more prone to making mistakes.

As Balan rushed forward with his sword, he made a simple vertical slash. Seeing the small amount of energy the attack contained, Ark was about to dismiss it with just a casual attack, when he noticed something. Even though it was really hard to notice, the might that was concealed in this one strike was nothing to scoff at, and if he just casually tried to dismiss it, he would get hurt.

Since there were plenty of magical beasts behind him, Ark didn't dodge the attack, just in case something went wrong.

Since he knew his opponent was impatient, Ark suddenly got an idea. When the attack was just about to hit him, he casually destroyed it with a swipe of his claws, only for it to blow up with a devastating amount of energy. Balan smiled with disdain as Ark's face was twisted with fear, an enormous explosion quickly engulfing his entire figure.

What Balan didn't know was that Ark had prepared a mana shield in advance, which he had set up around himself in the last second when no one could see him.

After the explosion "engulfed" him, Ark quickly activated his stealth skill, and erased his presence. Everyone present was quickly surprised. Was the fight really this anticlimactic? Was this what happened when you underestimate someone? The cub and the mother were both silent.

They both panicked on the inside at first when they saw Ark being engulfed by the explosion, but as they had been with him for quite some time now, their bond had grown quite deep, and both of them was able to feel that Ark was still alive. There was also no smell of blood in the air, which only reinforced their assumptions.

Balan felt proud of himself after successfully defeating Ark. This move of his had defeated countless people, as almost anyone he faced fell for the simple illusion of the strength behind the move, and they underestimated it as a result.

With a smirk on his face, he looked at the King of the Forest, almost mocking her, of course, his sense of smell wasn't as good as hers, and even she was able to tell that Ark was still alive. The dust in the air from the previous attack was beginning to settle, but before it could, a loud sound broke the cheers of the humans.

Ark made use of his cellular mana infusion to boost the strength of his body beyond imagination, he then lunged at Balan. Balan barely got a chance to react, but he still managed to barely raise his shield in front of himself.

Ark's attack slammed straight into the shield, which in turn slammed straight into Balan's own chest, as he didn't have enough strength to hold the shield and withstand the attack.

"CRACK!"

Not only did the shield crack, but so did almost every bone in his chest. All that was left was splinters, which in turn were on the verge of puncturing his lungs and other important organs. He was already bleeding profusely internally, and after a few more seconds, his life would be forfeit. That's how long he had until the bone splinters in his body destroyed his lungs beyond repair.

Since he knew the situation of his own condition better than anyone else, Balan knew that he was done for.

The immense pain was nothing when compared to the death of his lover, and instead of resigning himself to fate, he wanted to take Ark to the grave with him. He wanted to do anything he could to make the King of the Forest pay for what she had done, even if it was at the cost of his own life.

Every human present was worried about him, and with them behind his back, Balan rose from the ground and stood up. Ark was still in front of him, since he wasn't sent flying by the force of the attack, and since that was the case, he used up the only strength he had left in his body to swing his sword one last time before he passed away.

Ark could see the attack coming from a mile away, as the swing was very wide, and not very subtle. Since that was the case, Ark made good use of his agility, and swiftly dodged the attack. Like the first attack, this attack also seemed fairly weak and simple, but when it came into contact with the ground behind, the entire ground was ruptured!

Not only that, but the attack kept going, heading straight for the King of the Forest. Maybe this was his whole intent the entire time? To attack the King of the Forest. Maybe he didn't even try to win from the very beginning.

As for Ark, when he narrowly dodged the attack, he decided to be a little merciful and swiftly end Balan's life. Dying by having his internal organs slowly punctured by his own broken bones and then bleed to death seemed like a horrifying way to die, and Ark wasn't going to let him die like that, instead, he simply pierced the man's heart with a long icicle that he conjured out of mana.

The King of the Forest had no problems dealing with Balan's attack, and as he slumped over on the ground, he could see her still standing there, watching him. The fight ended just like that. That day, Balan's heart was broken twice.