Before the full effects of the Primal Predator’s supreme instinct appeared, the wolf that had charged first reached him, bared its fangs and pounced on his neck.

Their eyes met for a fraction of a second, and during that fleeting moment, the wolf felt intense terror, and a sting of pain in its neck, and in the moment that followed, the world around it turned upside down.

With a single swipe of his claws which had grown longer, Arthur separated the wolf’s head from the rest of its body, sending it flying several meters through the air.

Once again, the wolves found themselves before their butcher, and it seemed all the suffering they had gone through to kill him had been useless.

He had not fallen, and had not weakened, quite the contrary, he had grown stronger in an incomprehensible way, within one second, most of his wounds healed, both minor and severe, and an overwhelming aura emanated from him.

Terror returned to overtake all the wolves, and they could no longer deny the bitter truth... no matter what they did they were unable to defeat him.

They lost the desire to fight, and many of them retreated backwards with the intention of fleeing.

When Arthur noticed that, he pounced on them with his full strength without any warning. They had made him suffer greatly, and he was not going to let them leave just like that without paying the price.

[ +20 XP ]

With one bite, he crushed the head of an E-Rank wolf that was nearby, then tore the throat of another at F-Rank, then another, and so on, with every attack he made, another corpse hit the ground, and blood flew into the sky.

"Damn you all, die." He screamed at the top of his voice, trying to release even a little of the hatred and pain locked inside him. Because he was a wolf, what came out of his mouth was not a scream, but a thunderous growl that made every other wolf tremble.

One second, two, three, he counted the time inside his head, even though he was in a bad mental state, he maintained a large proportion of his clarity with the help of the Primal Predator bloodline.

The encirclement around him shattered completely, and the escape route became clear, yet Arthur did not feel even a little happiness. His chest burned with anger, and an intense desire to destroy everything came over him.

He did not allow these negative emotions to possess him, fifteen seconds was a very short time, and he could not afford to waste any second of it.

’When will this end?’ On the surface, Arthur appeared firm and unmoved, which was logical, for he was like a moving disaster, harvesting the wolves’ lives without stopping, but behind this solid facade, there was an exhausted human, psychologically and physically.

He had reached his limit a long time ago, yet he worked hard to delay the appearance of the Primal Predator’s supreme instinct effect for as long as possible, for it was his trump card, and his last hope.

Desperate situations required desperate solutions, and from the beginning of the fight Arthur had followed an utterly desperate plan, enduring the pain of his body being torn, fighting madly, and at the same time distributing the Evolution Points he gained to Vitality and Endurance.

This led to raising the maximum of his HP bar at a steady pace, and also reduced the speed of its decline, in addition to that, there was another important factor, which was the flower crown he had taken from the statue of the human woman.

In any case, the fifteen seconds passed very slowly, and by the seventh second, Arthur had killed many wolves, and made twice that number flee.

Only a few remained who watched him from afar, maintaining a safe distance between themselves and him. Their eyes carried intense hatred, and their howls rose carrying different meanings, some were lamentation, some were calls for help, while most were summons.

Throughout the previous seconds, Arthur could have fled, and he was certain they would not be able to match his speed, but this idea was not as good as it seemed.

He would not be able to run for a long time, the only thing keeping him standing was the effect of the Primal Predator’s supreme instinct, and the moment it disappeared, he would fall to the ground, and perhaps lose consciousness.

And even if some miracle happened, and he got far from the wolves within the little time he had, there was something that must not be overlooked, wolves are skilled trackers, and would find him easily.

At that point he would be helpless, and unable to defend himself, the only solution he had was to crush them completely, so that none of them would dare chase him, and fortunately he succeeded in that.

"Finally." He took a deep breath, and on his wretched face completely stained with blood a tiny glimmer of relief appeared, but unfortunately it did not last long.

Awoooooo!

Suddenly, a powerful howl came from a somewhat distant place, and from its tone, it was clear that whoever released it was intensely angry.

At that moment, all of Arthur’s instincts reacted, and alarm bells rang inside his head, informing him of the approach of a wolf that greatly outranked him.

’No, no, why, is there no end to this hell?’ The urge to scream came over him.

’It is useless, I will not survive.’ An overwhelming feeling of frustration and despair came over him.

For a moment he thought about giving up and letting them kill him, he lost the strength in his legs, and his determination began to disappear. All he wanted was for this torture and suffering that he had been thrown into against his will to stop.

He had not chosen to be transported to this world, and had not chosen to become a wolf, and most certainly had not chosen for every day of his new life to be a battle for survival.

Yet, was giving up truly the solution? Death, disappearing from existence, yes, it meant the end of pain, the end of suffering, but, why in the first place should he willingly comply with the desires of this cursed forest that wanted to turn him into fertilizer to feed on?

"No." He said suddenly.

’I will not die a coward, I will not die afraid, I will not let the monsters eat me just so I can rest, damn the pain, damn everything, I will survive no matter what it costs.’ He gritted his fangs.

The effects of the Iron Will skill appeared, and nullified the light mental attack he had been subjected to, for the howl he had heard was not just a loud cry, but an attack carrying the other wolf’s dominance.

Under normal circumstances, a weak attack like this would not have affected him, it would not have even made him blink, but, given everything he had gone through during the past half hour, he was on the verge of collapse, and this howl, was the straw that broke the camel’s back, no, more precisely, the straw that almost broke the camel’s back.

Arthur did not collapse, his body tensed and determination returned to fill his eyes.

Three seconds, that was the time that passed from the moment he heard the howl, to the moment he regained his composure, and unfortunately that was far too long.

He took a quick look at his surroundings, and found the wolves beginning to gather around him again.

’It seems that howl restored their courage, tsk, everything I did was useless.’ He did not feel regret, and did not lament the wasted time, for there was no point in that.

Without any hesitation, he distributed most of his Evolution Points to Speed, and the rest to Endurance, and fled at his maximum speed. He touched the wolf carcasses that were in his path, and stored as many of them as possible inside the Dimensional Storage.

He had taken the carcasses as a kind of precaution only, for who knows how he might benefit from them later. For now, Arthur was not thinking about consuming members of his new species, and felt no desire to do so, but he might be forced to if circumstances compelled him.

Upon seeing him flee, all the wolves felt a complex mixture of emotions, tension, relief, and most importantly fear, not of him, but of their leader who would arrive at any moment.

After a little hesitation, some of them chased him, or rather chased the cloud of dust he had left behind, for because of his great speed, he disappeared from their sight within moments.

He surged forward like a projectile. His steps dug into the ground, sending dirt flying. He dodged obstacles as though he were a breath of wind, and within just seconds, he covered a great distance.

But, since when had things gone according to his wishes? For after exactly four seconds, his strength suddenly gave out, and he felt an extremely intense pain, at that moment the notification he did not want to see appeared.

[ Alert ]

[ The Primal Predator’s supreme instinct effect has ended, all Attributes have returned to their normal state ]

"No... not now. I can’t stop." He gritted his fangs and fought the overwhelming urge to collapse. With great difficulty, he regained his balance and forced his exhausted legs to keep moving, continuing his sprint.