Yeah, my request was instantly denied.  Our orders were to suicidally sneak onto the mountain, so we didn’t really have a choice.  Obviously Mei and I could fuck-off on our own, but then there was an even higher chance of the other three dying.  Although I didn’t really care about Granny Arin and Johan that much, Liara was basically a friend.  Besides, we didn’t need to kill the Rank-C Lunar Direwolf and we also didn’t have to go all the way up to the peak anyway.

Honestly though, I wasn’t that afraid, because I didn’t have a clear grasp on how powerful a ‘Master’ actually was.  I figured that they must not have been too impressive if even a so-called ‘second-rate’ Faction was able to control one.

With a revolver in my right hand, I took a deep breath and pulled back the hammer.  It wasn’t the kind that would cock itself, so if I wanted to be careful, I needed to keep it ready ahead of time.  In that eerie jungle, a monster could literally jump out at any moment.

We were kind of traveling in an ‘arrow’ formation.  Liara was on the left, Johan to the right and Granny Arin was taking the lead, while Mei and I followed a few meters behind them.  We couldn’t keep up with their pace very easily, but none of us were traveling particularly fast.  Even a basic stride for any of them was like three to five steps for the two of us.

“Careful… Watch out for vipers and poisonous insects.  The Qi is getting a lot thicker, so just consider every animal at least a Rank-G Beast.” The old giantess gave out an ominous warning, as a handful of crimson spectral tiger-skulls started hovering around us.

They growled menacingly and I whispered “Bad kitties… Shoo~, go find some other people to fuck with.” When they noticed me looking at them, they seemed to be frightened a bit and actually flew away.

A few seconds later, there was a blue mosquito that bit my right forearm.  My skin ‘cultivation’ actually did prove to be useful after all.  That nasty glowing bastard couldn’t even drink my blood, so it quickly lost interest and flew away.

Mei on the other hand, wasn’t quite so lucky.  She constantly whined “Wah~, Levi, it itches so much~!  And it’s cold?  Why is it cold?”

Eventually, Granny Arin yelled “Shut the fuck up!  We’re trying to be stealthy, damn it!”

Unfortunately, that loud outburst was enough to attract the attention of a very angry silver panther.  It wasn’t particularly large, but the moment it appeared, Johan shouted “Shit, it’s a Rank-E Beast!  Don’t let your guard down, there might be more!”

However, the kitty-cat almost immediately scurried back into the jungle.  I could also see quite a few white lemurs crawling around in the trees and there was quite a lot of random animals all over the place.  Yet, none of them really tried to attack us, except the occasional pack of angry wolves.

The Rank-F puppy-dogs weren’t too bad, but eventually we ran into some troublesome motherfuckers.  Granny Arin shouted “Silver Direwolves!  Sorry kids, but you’re gonna have ta fight too!” 

They were the same color-scheme and shape as the other ones, but just really goddamn big.  Have you ever seen a wolf that was the size of a rhinoceros?  Well, there were four of them surrounding us.

Not only were they huge and incredibly strong… “Be careful!  They can use Daoist Arts!” Yeah, the one that was closest to Granny Arin howled up towards Thoth and a beam of icy-cold Qi fell straight from the sky.  Her body that was illuminated by an intense pillar of moonlight, was swiftly covered by frost.  It obviously wasn’t enough to deal any real damage, but her movements were dramatically slowed down and she wasn’t able to properly block that enormous right paw-swipe.

Her two-meter tall, bulky figure was sent tumbling across the ground and almost smashed into me.  Fortunately though, she wasn’t weaker than her opponent; just caught off-guard.  After stopping herself, she charged forward and slammed her giant hammer down with both hands.  The Silver Direwolf arrogantly attempted to block the attack with its right paw, but its foreleg actually snapped under the force of that blow.

Meanwhile, both Liara and Johan sprinted off into the forest, while jumping around and dodging the two aggressive dogs that followed after them.  They were Archers, so regardless of their hand-to-hand prowess, their main skillset was kiting and long-rage assaults.

“Levi, just stay back!  I’ll deal with this stupid mongrel!” Even though I could probably have killed the enormous Beast with a single bullet… Well, I didn’t really want to do it if I didn’t need to.  I only had a limited number of bullets and I was worried that whoever was controlling those canines would feel threatened by me.  Regardless of whether it was an Expert or Master, they would be impossible for me to beat without my guns.  If they didn’t understand how dangerous I was, then I could use that to my advantage.

However, even if I wasn’t going to use my weapons, it didn’t mean that I was going to let Mei face a Rank-E monster by herself.  For fuck’s sake, that thing was basically an Adept!  Luckily, the guy we had to deal with was only level one or two.  Otherwise, I wouldn’t have even tried fighting it fairly.  Well, maybe my fighting style wasn’t really that fair, but you get the point.

The black-robed princess sprinted forward, then swiftly evaded the incoming paw.  She gracefully ‘danced’ around the left side of the Beast and used her blade to slash a deep wound near his lower abdomen.  He let out a furious howl and literally swatted her away with a wave of his tail.  I keep calling it a ‘guy’ or ‘he’, because it wasn’t difficult to tell whether a gigantic wolf-monster has a dick or not.  

“Legion, I’m gonna need your help in a moment… Xiaotong, just calm down and conserve your Qi for now, I might need your help later on.” Although Mei had blood dripping from her lips and her titties were totally exposed, she got up off of the ground, charging towards the rhino-sized doggy like a lunatic.

However, that was good for me, because I was being totally ignored.  Well, to be fair to the foolish puppy, I was a child.  Not only that, but I was also unarmed and it could probably easily tell that I was only level-four.  Most importantly, I was missing my left eye, so it probably thought that I was also a ‘cripple’.  Welp, it wasn’t necessarily wrong.

I gently placed the rifle and shotgun cases onto the ground, next to a big ironwood tree and grumbled “I really should have bought a knife or something at the very least… Oh well, maybe I’ll be able to find one tonight?”

By the time I stealthily returned to the battle between Mei and the Silver Direwolf, both of them were pretty badly wounded.  There were large chunks of fur and meat removed from the doggy’s hips, waist, back and shoulders, while my girlfriend was struggling to get up off of the ground.  She didn’t have any cuts, but she was literally coughing up pints of blood somehow.

What, did you expect me to scream out “Mei~!  You bastard, I’ll slaughter you!  Ragh~!  You’re courting death!” or some cliche bullshit like that?  Yeah, no, I’m not a fucking drama-queen or some kind of heroic warrior.

“You damn mutt!  You’re courting death!  Now stay dead!” Okay, that wasn’t me.  Granny Arin was going nuts and smashing that level-six doggy into meat-paste out of anger.  Although, maybe what I was doing was far more insidious, huh?

As I thrust my right hand into the open wound on the dog’s left waist, I murmured “Legion, devour.” It only took a moment for the massive wolf to howl in agony, then flip over onto his back and use his paws to try and rip my body apart.  However, I was really small and he was enormous, so it wasn’t difficult for me to scurry away.  Yet, instead of chasing after me, he just continued to frantically tear apart his own flesh in order to ease his suffering.

In seconds, the dozens of ‘invisible’ fiery cockroaches were all killed, but the poor puppy managed to rip out his own intestines in the process.  He was wailing in agony, though I didn’t give him time to recover: If that was even possible.  My second target was his ears; both of them at the same time.  The bastard almost managed to bite me, but I quickly kicked him in the snout and launched my tiny body away.

As the Beast was growling and grunting, while rubbing its head against the ground, I snuck up behind him.  No, I didn’t aim for his asshole or balls, even though that would have been fairly effective.  There was a big gash along his right hind leg, so I made sure to deposit a decent amount of bugs inside, before rolling away.