The mist thickens as we walk through the forest. The danger feeling keeps tingling my scalp. I can see the others are also feeling something uncomfortable, but nobody says anything. The smell of burned wood permeates the area and Richard says, "We got a really shit luck."

We immediately understand what is happening. This is the worst possible circumstance, the thunder ponds, which gives the forest its name, are in an active state. This is what's burned the ground and some trees which are more susceptible to lightning.

"We should find a cave, the beasts are going to hide for a while." we all agree with Richard's idea, but finding a cave with the mist blocking our line of sight is going to be hard. Therefore, we settle with the next best thing.

In the forest, there are a few clearings, but there's a catch. The clearings are formed by carnivorous plants, camouflaging themselves with their burned black color, trying to eat us whole. If it wasn't for Richard and Doggy this could very well kill us. The both of them quickly cut the plants hiding on the ground and dispose of them. Those things are huge, probably just as deadly as their size implies. Every part of them has spear-like thorns, I'm almost certain there's poison coating. These things are really creepy, they move as if they're intelligent beings, even if Richard says they are not.

Lyra takes a simple Aura Hiding talisman from her new spatial ring, which I'm almost certain she didn't take with her when we went shopping just to have an excuse to torture me. She places it in the center of the clearing's ground and activates it with her Qi.

"This should be enough for now, the beast shouldn't have a better time seeing through the mist than us." we aren't really sure about that, but nobody says otherwise and she continues speaking, "Who's going to watch out for us first?"

We look at each other and Doggy says, "I'll go first, just relax for a while."

How naive of us.

Just as we sat down to cultivate we saw it. Dark, incredibly deep, eyes, preying on us. Jet black fur, it's gigantic mouth open to let us see it's saliva dripping down from its teeth and hear it's rough breathing anticipating a big meal. My body stiffens, refusing to get up, but I need to get up. I'm trembling from head to toe, yet I slowly get up, incentivized by the beast walking towards me.

"Doug, walls," Richard says in a whisper like order, "now."

Walls quickly rise and surround the beast. However, I don't think they are going to last long, the wolf-like creature should be just as powerful as it is big. But this should give us enough time to get in our battle formation.

Everyone's already moving to form a concave formation, protecting Lyra behind us who already is spreading vines and root around the clearing. I take my sword from my scabbard and move it around, getting a feel for it before the battle. Richard and Doggy already have their weapons tight in their hands, only waiting for the moment it breaks the walls.

We wait, for what seemed like hours, the beast doesn't stop breathing roughly, but now it has an annoyed tone to it. The sound resonates with our tingling scalps, only adding to the tension. It starts banging the walls with its body and not long after, he destroys them.

I ignite the Yang Energy in my body, hoping I can keep up with the wolf's attack speed.

We were not going to wait for him to come here and slaughter us. Lyra is already trying to trap the creature with her vines and roots while aiming with her bow. Richard, Doggy and I run towards the wolf wanting to finish this the fastest we can, there's no way in hell we'll be able to win an endurance battle with it.

Unfortunately, the beast got rid of it's binds just before we hack it down. It sweeps with its paw towards me, which I use Dispersing Waves to block. I successfully mitigate the force using the defensive capabilities of this Stance, but my arms are numb because of the sheer strength of the strike. The wolf tries to attack me again when I lost my momentum. However, Richard blocks the strike and counters with a thrust.

His thrust only barely touched the wolf's right cheek, drawing a bit of blood. However, this gave enough space for Doggy, who was deemed as the least threatening by the beast, to bash its nose with his pole, leaving it disoriented.

Lyra, who had been aiming since the start of the fight, fired her first arrow, which met the beast's eye. Blood spurts and dyes our armors in crimson red.

Her archery is even better than I remember, she must have held back in our spar.

With its new handicap, the wolf seems a little dazed but still stands firmly on the ground. The bloody eye makes the bloodthirsty aura around it thicker, almost perceptible to the eye.

We took a few steps back, so Lyra can use her vines freely. She once again binds the wolf with her vines, also preparing to shoot another arrow at it. The vines feel a little different this time, their aura is almost in an opposite spectrum from the life-filled ones she normally uses in our spars.

It's quite comforting knowing I can trust her to do all these things. Like trusting she will hit the wolf and not me with her arrows. Even if she might hit me on purpose with Qi arrows sometimes when we spar, just for the sake of it.

The wolf's painful roar quickly ends my trance and puts my mind back into the battle.

Futile. Does it think we'll be scared by this roar? Maybe in the beginning, but now we've already understood. Or it's the wolf or it's us, only one will live.

With its body bound by the vines, which seem to drain its vitality, we can just strike as we please. Richard lowers his guan dao and shoots several wind blades in a motion I'm familiar with, cutting the beast's flesh. However, it also cut most of the vines binding it, letting it regain its mobility.

But not for long. His guan dao dances in the air ferociously, the mist outside the barrier diminishes as it's dragged to the guan dao's blade, forming tempest clouds filled with lightning around it. His movement suddenly speeds up, forming a vortex of tempest clouds. Finally, the lightning condensed in the clouds is released in a long thrust like the guan dao is going to fly together with the lightning bolt.

It hits the wolf in a flash and stuns it, also burning its fur greatly.

It gives me an opportunity to use my most powerful Stance, the Rising Dragon.

I circulate my Qi the fastest I can and form a layer of Water-Qi on my sword. My Sword Intent shapes the Qi together with my Will, making it stronger and sharper than ever.

I lower my weapon to the ground and inhale deeply. Concentrating all I can, I release the strike. A jet of water cuts through the air, like a dragon flying in the sky unhindered.

The snake-like water dragon torns its neck brutally. Small pieces of flesh and fur fall, blood paints the surroundings and its body as it roars loudly while struggling to remove the remaining vines of its massive body, almost deafening us.

"Finish it!" Richard screams almost as loudly as the wolf.

Instantly, a spike rises from the ground and impales the wolf through its chest. It's entire body soaked in blood, a spike through its body, burned chunks of skin, eyes bloody, be it by actual wounds or not. All these injuries but its steps don't falter.

We thought it would be over when the spike pierced its body, but like a candle in the wind, its body started burning like hellfire. The flames seem to have a life of its own, flying towards us like bullets of light.

We protect ourselves however we can, be it by blocking or dodging the bullets. However, we couldn't avoid being hit by the bullets anyway.

This fire can corrode our Qi and burn through our skin, reaching even our bones. Possibly even reaching our internal organs if it isn't extinguished.

Thankfully, Lyra quickly used an advanced dispelling technique, one of the multiple variations of healing techniques, to extinguish the flames before it corroded our arms to the bone. However, it still managed to completely destroy our skins where it landed.

Lyra used her enormous amounts of Qi to heal our wounds entirely in a matter of seconds. A truly powerful ability, even I couldn't heal myself like that using Qi with the purpose of healing.

I lie down for a while, trying to regulate my hasty breath and heartbeat, a side effect from using the Yang Energy while being out of shape. Those years of no exercise were not very for my muscles. The others are much better than me, only panting a little.

I know for sure the wolf is dead. That last attack seemed to use its own vitality as fuel to the fire. It would have been more successful if it had been used in the beginning, as it wouldn't have lost so much blood and vitality. It should have been able to use it at least two times.

I can only thank the gods for this beast being dumb and arrogant to think it could defeat us without using its innate ability.

Richard suddenly gets up and says, "Let's get out of here now. If this thing can find us, other ones can as well."

We immediately stand up, Lyra not forgetting to store the wolf's inner core in her spatial ring.

We don't know where we'll go after this battle, resting is not on our list of possible things to do after we got immediately attacked after relaxing just a bit.

Therefore, we got decide to go back to the settlement with a fifth of our mission completed, the first of our group.