Deities suck. I knew she was going to be challenging me, but I was expecting difficult tasks not magical wolves. How did I know that they were magical? They were the purplish color of Ki and Mana mixed together. They weren't as visible as Artemis had been, who had disappeared by the way, but I could see that the outline of their figures were made of the purple lines of magic.

"Stupid wolves" I grumbled as I pulled myself up onto the top of a nearby pillar. The physical exertion took less of my stamina that I thought it would, but I attributed that to my Ki control. My body handled energy better, I was a bit more efficient. Of course that didn't really help me in my current situation.

I looked down at the wolves as they circled my pillar. Three creatures made of purple energy. What was freaky was that their teeth were visible because the magic lines flowed through them. Just what I needed.

I'd managed to stuff a couple rocks in my pockets before climbing up, but I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do with them, throwing them would do nothing more than piss the wolves off. I pulled out a rock and held it in my palm, moving my Ki into it before watching it fade away again "Damn it!" I grunted as I redoubled my efforts.

I wasn't entirely sure she'd actually kill me with these wolves. It was possible that they were just here to motivate me...unless she could put me back together...

Oh shit. I looked at my Ki and realized something. My Ki was the source of my life, it was possible she could safely contain it and just put it into a new body, perfectly the same as the one I already had.

Yeah, that wasn't happening. I wasn't going to let these wolves tear me apart to satisfy my own curiosity. I buckled down and focused more on making my rock float.

After an hour, especially after a few of the wolves jumped halfway up the pillar, I managed to make it float. Artemis didn't show up then either.

"Am I supposed to...kill them?" that was a new thought. I hadn't really considered that using magic would also mean I would have to kill something. I'd thought that at most I'd learn some magic and use it to amaze people, make some money to fall back on.

The idea of killing another living creature felt a bit wrong to me. I was the type of person who felt bad for catching a fish.

While I was thinking of these things, the pillar began to shake violently. Looking down, I could see the wolves were doing something new. New wasn't good.

They were ramming themselves against the pillar.

'It's solid right? It won't break right?!' I began to panic slightly. These wolves clearly didn't have the same thoughts as me, they didn't have any problem with killing me and they were damn well going to achieve it.

I shivered and held up my rock, focusing the Ki into it. The rock began to float lightly, wobbling a bit as it levitated above my hand. What I could understand about this was that it wasn't really magic, more like moving something with my Ki.

'I wonder if...' I focused on my Ki inside of the rock as it floated around with the mana. Slowly, I focused on changing the mana with my Ki, to stretch and move the rock. I began to see the sparks of purple appear within the rock.

POP!

"Wah!" I almost fell off my pillar when the rock exploded, sending pieces in all directions. I felt a few pieces scratch my face, warm blood beginning to run slightly. They weren't deep, but they hurt. I was lucky they didn't go into my eyes. I could have ended up blind!

I then began to laugh at my own joke, at the absurdness of my current predicament. I was just lucky the rock wasn't bigger or I would have died instead.

I pulled another rock out of my pocket and sat perched. I decided to focus on moving the rock first. The rock exploded because the Ki, Mana, and newly created magic all reacted badly. I'd seen the mana and ki violently expand outwards away from the purple colored magic. It was like oil, water, and fire all compressed into a popcorn kernel.

Maybe there was some kind of conversion rate? Mana turned into Ki when absorbed by the body, but...was there another reaction? Could Ki outside of the body turn Mana into magic?

'I should think about this after I am out of danger' I thought as I felt the pillar shake. The sound of the rock exploding had only temporarily scared the wolves off.

I watched the rock as I used my Ki to gently spin it. It really was like moving a part of my body. At first it had felt like my hand after I'd leaned on it for too long, fuzzy and slow to respond. But after I got better at using the right amount of Ki, it became as easy as breathing.

Spinning and twisting, I could even make it revolve around my hand. It made me think of the way Artemis had used it. She'd thrown the rock hard enough to hurt me, my shoulder still hurt when I touched it.

I began to spin the rock above my palm faster than before. As I spun it, I began to push the rock forward and using my Ki to pull it back at the same time. A feeling of pressure began to build up, like pulling a rubber band taut.

Suddenly a wolf appeared in front of me. My brain kicked into overdrive and I released the Ki that was pulling the rock back. It shot directly into the open maw of the beast. There was a squelching noise and then a crack as the wolf was blown back. I felt a wet warmth hit my face as it dropped towards the ground.

I was breathing heavily as adrenaline rushed through my body, my Ki going wild before I began to suppress it's activity. I slowly calmed down as my Ki did. I'd never known a rock could be so powerful. Looking down, I could see the body of the wolf, the way the magic in it's body was slowly dissipating into the surrounding mana confirmed that it was dead.

The wolves howled. In rage, in mourning, I didn't know, but I did know that they increased their efforts to bring down my pillar.

I didn't have time to worry about killing something as I had more pressing concerns. Mainly how the wolf had gotten this high. They'd tried to jump up before, but hadn't managed to reach me.

"Oh shit. Ohshitohshit!" I watched as one of the wolves backed off before taking a running start. Then it jumped onto the back of the other one. The second wolf acted as a spring board and sent the first high into the air...towards me.

I didn't have enough time to build up the speed and pressure to fire another rock as the wolf struck the upper portion of the pillar, it's teeth snapping at me. Fortunately for me, their work towards destroying my pillar worked against them.

The impact caused the pillar to begin tipping. I braced myself as the pillar fell to the ground. Just as it hit, I jumped forwards, rolling across the ground.

"Ow" I groaned as I stood up. No time to lick my wounds, I could hear the wolf coming after me. A quick glanced revealed that the wolf that had been on the pillar with me was pinned under some rubble.

I quickly pulled out a rock from my pocket and began to move away from the wolves, even as one was chasing me. I wasn't going to get far, it was much faster and stronger than me, I just needed the distance to give myself some time to build up the pressure.

It was a bit harder now that I was on he move, but I was able to get the rock to spin just a few inches away from my palm.

By the time I had enough pressure, the wolf was on me. When I turned to fire, the wolf's teeth bit into my arm, causing me to lose control of the rock, sending it flying off into the air.

"Fuck!" I cursed, both in pain and despair. From a distance, the wolves had looked normal. They were large, like flat screen tv large. I was fortunate that my arm wasn't instantly severed by the head that was bigger than my chest.

What made it worse was that the wolf began to swing me around, sending a burst of pain through my body. I couldn't think straight, all I could do was fight like an animal. My free hand's fingers dug into it's face and eyes. My Ki flared up, reacting to my desperation.

My I placed my hand to the top of it's head, Ki surging towards my palm and into it's head. I imagined the rock as it exploded, fought against the magic in the wolf's body.

With a deafening crack, I was blown back away from the wolf as it released my arm in it's own pain. I hit a large rock or pillar, I didn't know. Looking forwards I could see the headless body of the wolf drop to the ground "Oh" it hadn't released my arm, I'd blown it's head up.

I looked down and blinked "Well...that...isn't good" I mumbled, seeing that the Ki I'd grown used to seeing only stopped halfway down my arm. My arm hadn't been released either.

I could feel my body losing strength. I was sure I was going to pass out, the first thing I did was focus my Ki towards my stump of an arm. I focused the Ki around the area where I was losing blood, stopping the flow. It was part of my body, I could at least keep it from losing blood. Then I was gone.

'Adapt. Devour. Grow'

I floated in darkness. That was unusual. I'd gotten so used to seeing blue and yellow that the darkness was actually startling.

My arm hurt, but when I attempted to move I felt that I couldn't. Like all of my energy was completely gone.

'Consume. Hunt!'

What was that? It felt like my thoughts but at the same time it felt like it was coming from outside of me.

'Protect. Defend. Guard.'

This voice, first it was all about attacking and killing, now it was about protecting. Then my arm began to burn, an agonizing pain that blocked out anything else.

'Live. Live. Live. Live.' over and over I could just hear that one word. The voice soon stopped sounding as if it was coming from outside of me, booming in my head with it's repetition. A noise so powerful that it filled my mind, blocking out everything, the pain, my own thoughts.

Then I was awake, staring at the constant blue of the surrounding Mana. I blinked for a few seconds, trying to figure out exactly when I'd woken up. I didn't remember.

Slowly, I sat up and rubbed my head. I'd hit it pretty hard but I couldn't feel any open wound, just dried blood. How long had I been out? I looked towards where I remembered the wolf being but I couldn't see anything. Either something else had taken it's body or the magic in it's body had vanished completely.

"Ow!" I pulled my hand back from my head. One of my nails had scratched me. I needed to clip them when I got the chance.

Wait...

I looked at my hand. It'd definitely been my right arm that had been ripped off. I definitely remembered that. I gently touched my arm with my other one.

"Woah...what the hell?" it felt really fuzzy. That wasn't good.

I focused my Ki, moving more of it into my arm, gasping in surprise as the outline of my arm appeared once more. However, it was different, the yellow outline showed something weird. It was the same size as my other arm, but there was thick...fur. Further down at my hand revealed sharp claws where my nails should have been.

"Seriously, what the hell?" I slowly stood up, feeling better than great. I did a few hops and swung my arms around before walking forwards to where I'd last seen the wolf's body.

It was still here. I could feel the thick fur and it was the same as the fur on my arm. The only thing different was the fact that it was also missing an arm. What happened? Did someone graft it's arm onto me? Was it Artemis? All of the wounds I'd received before were fully healed as well.

I flexed the fingers of my new hand and frowned. It felt exactly the same as my old one, aside from the claws and fur. The wolf's arm had been twice the size of mine and now that it was mine, it was the same size as mine. There were some obvious changes too. An opposable thumb for starters. The fingers moved much better than I imagined a wolf's would.

That voice in my head...what had it been?

I looked at my Ki wisp and saw that it had nearly doubled in size. That was even more surprising than my new arm. I knew how hard it was to increase the size of my Ki. It was now as big as my thumb.

A level up? What defeating monsters made me stronger? That didn't make much sense.

I noticed something and raised my nose, sniffing the air. I could smell everything. I knew increasing my Ki would also enhance my senses, but this was amazing. I turned and followed the scent. I found what it was, the last remaining wolf. It was still alive, pinned under the pillar it had caused to fall.

I flexed my wolf hand slightly as I watched it struggle to free itself. Then it noticed me and began to growl.

Frowning, I pulled out another rock from my pocket as I walked closer to it. Before it could bite me, I grabbed it's head, pressing it towards the ground. It tried to throw me off but given it's position and my sudden increase in strength from my Ki increase, I was able to hold it's head down.

As I began to spin the rock in my palm, I stretched the Ki in my hand towards the wolf's head. The second I touched the lines of magic inside of it, I blinked. It was interesting. I understood some things about it. It wasn't a creature created by magic, it was an actual wolf. The magic I could see was some kind of...controlling energy.

As I followed the energy to the core of the creature, I found a single wisp of yellow energy surrounded by all of the purple. The second I touched, it, it exploded. Energy burned through me and the purple lines seemed to be burned away by the Ki.

I was forced to move away, dropping the rock I'd been spinning, but I noticed that a thread of Ki was still attached to the wolf. No matter what I did, I could move the Ki.

"Master"

A voice. It flowed through the single line of Ki that connected me to the wolf.

"Help. Master" It wasn't entirely articulate. From what I could tell, it could only convey certain words. For a second, I wondered if this was what the Gaian had heard from my mind. Her intelligence was much greater than my own.

Slowly, I walked towards the wolf. It didn't growl at me this time, just watched me with surprisingly intelligent eyes. I looked at the pillar resting on it's body and gripped the edge. Slowly, I focused my Ki into the pillar. It was slow going though. It was much bigger than a rock.

In combination with my Ki control and my own physical strength, I was capable of barely lifting the pillar allowing the wolf to scramble out.

I quickly let the pillar drop and moved away from the wolf, watching it warily. These creatures were smart. Their lack of communication skills aside, they were smart enough to knock down my pillar and use each other as ways to jump up to me.

But it quickly rolled over, presenting it's stomach to me. A sign of submission. I got this from the mental signals it was sending me. I'd seen dogs do this before as well. A quick look confirmed that it was female.

I walked over and stood above the wolf, looking into her eyes before she looked away. I gently knelt down and touched her stomach, gently scratching it.

"Stand" I commanded the wolf and she immediately stood back up. Damn these wolves were huge. Her standing height was just a little less than my full height. Touching her side revealed powerful muscles and a few injuries, mostly from the pillar landing on her. A quick observation revealed that she was already beginning to heal, her Ki was focused around the damaged areas.

It seemed it was an instinctive thing. I'd done the same when my arm had been removed.

The wolf sniffed the air "Not. Home" her thoughts surprised me. I'd thought Artemis had changed them, but then it made sense that she'd bring her own world's creatures here. They were probably easier to control than the animals of Earth, none of which had decent Ki to use.

She seemed to have completely suppressed their will with her power. Deities. Seemed all of them were messed up, even if they acted polite.

I watched as the wolf moved around. She found the body of the first wolf I'd killed and sniffed it.

I sent my feelings of remorse towards her but she disregarded them "Fought well" she said before sending me thoughts of food.

I was sure there was plenty to hunt. No humans, but animals always found a way to places "Go, hunt" I said to her.

With a burst of speed, she took off. Considering that she was still injured, it was impressive how fast she was. I didn't have to worry about losing her. No matter how far she went, the thin thread of Ki showed the direction she was.

"Cool. I'll have to ask about this when Artemis comes back" I said softly as I began to collect more rocks for practice. I had a feeling that the wolves weren't the only creatures I'd be dealing with. If the wolves were the first wave, what was next?

I stubbed my toe against a piece of stone as I was moving about "Damn it...were is my stick?" with all the excitement, I'd dropped my walking stick somewhere. I was actually surprised that I hadn't fallen over anything when I'd been running away from the wolves before.

I decided to not look to closely at my luck and went off in search of my stick, using my Ki to play with the rock in my hand while I did so. Constant practice was necessary. I hoped to be able to move multiple rocks before the next enemies showed up. A cold wind swept past me, causing me to shiver. I'd forgotten that night had been falling when the wolves attacked, I couldn't keep going all night, the more exhausted I got the faster my Ki was used up. The last thing I needed was to be out of energy when I was attacked again.

After I found my walking stick, I'd find a place to stay the night. It was Olympus, so there had to be some buildings around.

In the distance I heard a howl and smiled. It seemed the hunt was a success.