Chapter 133: The Wolf King's Pursuit and a Sudden Realization

A massive icy disk materialized out of thin air, sucking up the snow from the ground before rolling forward with terrifying speed. A large amount of ice mana gathered around it, causing the temperature above the frost wheel to drop by a shocking extent.

𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Any tree sliced open by the disk had all its moisture frozen instantly, turning into brittle material that crumbled at the slightest touch.

If the attack were to strike a human body...

"Be careful!" Wang Yu warned Edward. "We only survived the last attack because that wolf king hadn't charged it up. If we get hit now, we're done for!"

Both Wang Yu and Edward were darting between the trees before them as they fled.

The disk of frost continuously absorbed more and more ice mana as it shot after its targets. Its destructive power and lingering side effects were only growing more and more potent. Even with Bloodburn Drive active, Wang Yu had no confidence in surviving another hit.

"Yeah, but I'm not doing too well right now," Edward gritted out.

His right hand still bore traces of ice. Though the ice had stopped the bleeding, it also made the cut harder to heal.

Removing the ice would result in heavy bleeding, so Edward chose to leave it in place. However, that also meant that the ice was continuously attempting to seep into his blood and invade his body through his wound.

Edward's fighting spirit was striving to protect him, but fighting spirit wasn't particularly effective against magic. The ice mana was gradually turning his entire arm a bluish-purple.

"A grand knight's strength is truly terrifying," Wang Yu murmured. "Edward, inject that potion I gave you directly into your blood!"

Wang Yu's brows furrowed tightly. The wolf king's strength was so extreme as to be incomprehensible. If the gap between a knight-in-training and an official knight were a ravine, that between an official knight and a grand knight was like an abyss. Just one effective hit from the wolf king had all but crippled Wang Yu and Edward.

"Got it!" Edward pulled out a syringe filled with an amber-red liquid, which Wang Yu had given to both him and Charles during a former gathering. Without hesitation, he jabbed the needle into his neck.

A burning sensation quickly coursed through his entire body. His muscles tingled. There was a slight, biting pain, but swift healing soon negated the discomfort.

"Thanks," Edward gasped. A burning sensation crept over his frost-covered right hand. Edward watched with some shock as tendrils of blood emerged from the wound, melted the ice, and rapidly stitching the wound shut before retreating back into his body.

Edward was shocked by the potency of the potion Wang Yu had given him, though he might have been rather less impressed by its ingredients: the potion was a mixture of Wang Yu's blood, secretions from swamp mosquitoes, and some nutritional supplements. In a sense, it was a living entity.

Swamp mosquitoes were grotesque and repulsive, but their secretions contained a component that bypassed the immune systems of transcendent beings. This allowed the mosquitoes to feed on even transcendent blood without ill effects.

For Wang Yu, their extract allowed him to inject his blood into others who weren't significantly stronger than him as a healing potion of sorts. His blood would even remain in the recipient's body for some time, allowing it to provide long-lasting healing.

With Edward's condition resolved, Wang Yu glanced back to see the wolf king in hot pursuit. It seemed to be in a rather confused state—it constantly crashed into the large boulders and pine trees that Wang Yu and Edward were deliberately placing in its path.

The boulders flew and the trees toppled. Such obstacles could hardly harm a magical beast at the level of a grand knight, though they undeniably slowed the wolf king down. If not for such hindrances, the wolf king's superior physical prowess would already have finished them off for good.

"Wang Yu, get over here! The Professor's on his way. Those two disks of ice are getting faster and faster. We'll be hit at this rate. Let's group them up—I'll deal with them!" Edward called out from the side of the forest.

Without hesitation, Wang Yu leapt forward, kicked off a tree trunk, and flipped through the air. After a few more jumps across the pine branches, he landed beside Edward.

"Can you handle it?" Wang Yu asked, running alongside Edward and glancing back at the two disks of frost that had begun to converge as their targets drew closer.

As far as Wang Yu could tell, even an overloaded third-tier spell from the Spellweaver's Tome might not destroy the durable disks. If Edward could handle it, that would be great.

"No problem. I can guarantee that I'll be able to deflect them once, at least," Edward replied, drawing a finely crafted dagger from his right waist. Its intricate patterns clearly marked it as some kind of tool that Wang Yu didn't comprehend.

"Then I'll lend you a hand." Wang Yu nodded, sending a command to the remnants of his blood within Edward.

The blood began to fight with itself. The death caused by this internal conflict were converted into life force by the Banner of Triumph—after all, killing oneself still counted as "defeating an enemy. Edward could readily absorb the life force, which was an excellent supplement.

At the same time, Edward would also absorb what residue remained from the blood's self-destruction. After "learning" some traits from dragon blood, Wang Yu's blood now contained a component similar to adrenaline, which was naturally as compatible with Edward's body as Wang Yu's.

Edward took a deep breath, his entire body seemed to heat up slightly. The fatigue in his muscles vanished as the life force replenished him, while the "adrenaline" stimulated his organs and brought them to peak condition.

"Lion's Fang!" Edward silently recited the name of the technique. His fighting spirit circulated once through the vortex in his abdomen before rushing through the invisible channels in his body to his heart. After passing through his heart, it took on a faint golden hue before surging through his right arm and into the finely crafted dagger.

Unlike the crude, fragile iron sword he had used, this dagger trembled but showed no signs of breaking. Instead, a blade of light extended from its tip, artificially increasing the dagger's length.

Edward turned, came to an abrupt stop, and slowed down. While maintaining his balance, he continued sliding across the snow due to inertia, though this was little trouble for an official knight like him.

Aiming at the narrow gap between the two nearly overlapping disks of frost, Edward thrust the dagger forward. It collided with them as they rapidly closed in.

No loud collision ensued, only a crisp sound like ice shattering on the ground. The extended blade of light and the two frost disks exploded into fragments in mid-air.

Edward sheathed the dagger and continued to flee through the forest with Wang Yu.

While Edward's attack had seemed rather unremarkable, Wang Yu knew full well that the extended blade was fighting spirit compressed to its limit. If that dagger had been thrust into another knight's abdomen, bringing two conflicting sources of fighting spirit together, a devastating explosion would have ensued.

The wolf king, noticing that its disks of frost had been destroyed, suddenly let out a deafening roar. A wave of cold air exploded from its body as everything in its path froze stiff. Trees snapped as their now-brittle trunks failed to withstand their own weight.

As the sudden burst of cold air passed over Wang Yu and Edward, Edward's Steel Sunlight and Wang Yu's Barrier both flickered and vanished. Immediately, a numbing sensation spread through their joints and muscles.

"Damn it!" Wang Yu cursed inwardly. The power of the wolf king was truly terrifying. If not for its current unstable state, it would probably have killed Edward and him in an instant.

"Don't worry. Jump!" Edward shouted beside Wang Yu. Without hesitation, Wang Yu leaped into the air, fighting against the numbness in his body.

Near the edge of the forest was a dirt slope. Wang Yu and Edward's momentum from their jump allowed them to avoid maneuvering with their stiff legs and to successfully maintain their speed as they burst out of the forest.

Their bodies slammed into the dirt, at which point they propelled themselves forward with kicks and quickly rolled down.

Behind them, the wolf king's piercing roar echoed again. From the corner of his eye, Wang Yu saw a massive white figure soaring out of the forest, with a storm of snow and ice crystals that cascaded toward him and Edward.

"Damn it!" Wang Yu couldn't help but curse aloud. What grudge did this Wolf King have against them? It seemed determined to leave them no way out. Fortunately, they no longer needed to fight for their lives.

A figure rushed up from the bottom of the slope and collided with the descending wolf king. Snow and ice exploded into the air as the wolf king and Sieg staggered back, each retreating a few steps.

Sieg had arrived.

Neither party seemed injured by the collision. Sieg's clothes were slightly frosted over, while the wolf king merely shook its head vigorously.

Wang Yu frowned. Wasn't that strange? Wang Yu's eyes remained fixed on the battlefield as an idea formed in his mind. "Professor, try hitting its head!"

Sieg nodded and charged toward the wolf king. Meanwhile, Wang Yu quickly activated his Spellweaver's Tome, overloading his Resonant Vibration spell and casting it on Sieg.

The spell was originally designed for magicians to enchant their staffs and strike enemies in close range. It would work on Sieg just as well.

The wolf king's condition seemed to be deteriorating. While it could easily suppress Edward and Wang Yu, against an opponent of equal strength like Sieg, even the slightest irregularity was a significant vulnerability.

With a sudden dash, Sieg closed the distance and delivered a powerful punch to the wolf king's head. The wolf twisted its head, but only managed to reduce the impact by positioning the hardest part of its skull against Sieg's fist.

A dull sound echoed as the wolf king was sent staggering backwards. However, it showed no signs of serious injury or bleeding.

"Indeed, without my draconic powers, I'm not strong enough to finish this quickly..." Sieg muttered, watching the Wolf King rise. He dared not reveal his draconic traits easily, fearing that the king of dragons would take notice.

Although Sieg hadn't inflicted a fatal wound, the Resonant Vibration spell attached to his fist had already penetrated the wolf king's skull.

Given the Wolf King's formidable physique, a second-tier spell like Resonant Vibration stood no chance of harming it. However, the parasitic entity Wang Yu had discovered in the wolf king's brain might not.

After being struck and forced back, the wolf king shook its head vigorously. The bloodshot eyes gradually cleared, and its gaze turned wary as it looked at Sieg. Instead of launching another frenzied attack, it slowly retreated into the forest and eventually disappeared.

"What just happened?" Sieg was puzzled. He had noticed the spell Wang Yu had cast on his hand, but its power was too weak to be of note. After the wolf king was forced back by his punch, however, he quickly realized that there had to be more to it than met the eye.

"These winter wolves are acting this way because there's something in their brains..." Wang Yu stood up, brushing the dirt off his clothes. He was about to explain when he noticed a red glow rising in the distance.

"Huh?" Wang Yu turned his gaze toward the source of the red light. Within the capital, a crimson barrier was rising to envelop Stevenson Academy of Magic and its surroundings..

At that moment, all those doubts and hidden clues that Wang Yu had subconsciously registered were linked together to form a clear, resonant piece of the truth. There was only one possible reason for the anomaly at Stevenson Academy.

When investigating the orphanage, Wang Yu and Edward had relied on methods to detect transcendent forces. Similarly, when meeting Avia's professor, Wang Yu had used the same approach.

However, the non-supernatural entity discovered inside the winter wolves' brains had exposed a critical flaw in their investigation.

Wang Yu's mind raced as he recalled past events. The list of names from the orphanage resurfaced in his memory, and he quickly scanned through them. With this new clue, he soon identified the missing piece of the puzzle.

On the night the Smoke Demon Knight Hugin had slain the Source of Life, Edward and Charles had rescued a girl, an orphan...

Even so, her name was missing from the orphanage's list. At the time, they had been too focused on investigating the suspicious traces of energy in the vicinity to go through the list.

"Vanessa... or rather, Erphine." Wang Yu gritted his teeth. The missing girl was at the heart of this mystery.