Arthur’s heartbeats accelerated at an unreasonable pace, and his warm blood flowed through his body like raging horses, within just one second he regained all his strength and more.

His size grew larger, his surface injuries healed, a good number of his cracked bones were repaired, and temporarily he approached E-Rank.

The effects of the full moon frenzy returned to take control of him, his rationality disappeared, and an intense killing intent emanated from him.

GRRR!

He let out a terrifying growl that made the snake tremble, released his full strength and moved his body violently, and this allowed him to create a small opening that let him move his limbs.

He drove his claws which had grown longer and sharper into the snake’s body, and dug through its flesh reaching its slimy disgusting organs, then without any hesitation began tearing them apart, and at the same time bit and ate its flesh.

Outside the snake screamed from the intensity of the pain, its facial expressions contorted, and desperately it tried to resist and regenerate, but that was useless.

Its remarkable regeneration speed was unable to keep up with the speed at which Arthur ate and tore apart its body.

Within just a few seconds, four to be exact, Arthur managed to dig through its solid body, and pulled his head out completely covered in blood from the other side, carrying one of its spinal bones in his mouth.

With a wicked expression, he spat the bone aside. He took a deep breath, and filled his empty lungs with fresh air, then pushed his head back inside.

Like a parasite, he ate the snake from the inside, and wherever his fangs and claws passed he left a massive cavity of flesh and blood.

The snake was unable to resist or escape, and all it could do was cry out miserably. It lost its strength at a rapid pace, and could no longer feel a large part of its body.

After a short while, the ball it had formed with its body collapsed, having turned into a mass of flesh full of holes.

Its blood and organ fluids fell to the ground, yet it was still alive, the injuries it had sustained were enough to kill any ordinary monster several times over, and this showed just how stubborn and resilient it was.

With the last remnants of its consciousness and strength, the snake’s head, which had separated from the rest of its body, began crawling wanting to escape, but that was useless.

Arthur emerged from the remains of its body, completely red from the blood covering him. He slowly walked toward it and placed his paw on the massive head.

Their eyes met again, but this time the snake’s eyes were filled with terror, while Arthur stared at it with extreme coldness, then without any mercy finished it off.

[ +19XP ]

The snake let out one final hiss, then fell as a lifeless corpse. Arthur continued standing above its carcass proudly, raised his head and howled very loudly celebrating his victory.

Awoooo!

When he fell silent, the system screen appeared before him.

[ Congratulations ]

[ You have acquired the Colossal Boa’s skill: Regeneration ]

[ Alert ]

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

His body trembled, and began to shrink a little, returning to its normal size, the ferocity and savagery disappeared from his face, and his eyes regained their rational and calm gleam.

Slowly he bowed his head and let out a very long sigh. "I survived."

He smiled in exhaustion, and before he found the time to celebrate, he suddenly felt an unbelievable pain spreading throughout his entire body, his ears rang, and his vision became blurry.

"Ugh."

He gritted his fangs, and endured it, he was aware that what was happening to him was normal, for he had sustained severe damage.

Quickly he placed the snake’s carcass in the "Dimensional Storage", then slowly crawled toward some nearby tangled shrubs, and hid inside them.

Once he felt somewhat safe he lost consciousness, in fact his ability to move at all had been a miracle in itself.

And so the bloody night drew to a close. In the sky, the full moon was breathing its last light. Far to the east, the first ray of dawn appeared, the first waking bird began to sing, and the night’s beasts retreated to their dens.

In a very distant part of the forest, where a vast rocky expanse full of bones and dry trees stretched out, dozens of massive wolves surrounded the carcass of an enormous armored boar that stood over seven meters tall.

They tore at its flesh and ate it savagely, growling and fighting among themselves over the good pieces of meat. All their eyes were red, indicating they were under the effects of the full moon frenzy.

Beside the savage wolves, and atop a high rock, a majestic white wolf lay at complete ease. Unlike the rest, his two blue eyes were clear and full of rationality.

While the white wolf watched his pack like a true king, his ears suddenly moved, and a strange frown appeared on his face. He turned his head and looked to the south, for from that direction he heard a very distant howl he had never heard before.

Normally, it would’ve ignored something like this — there were other packs out there, plenty of lone wolves roaming the forest. But there was something different about this howl. Something carrying a tone of challenge that struck a flicker of unease in it.

The white wolf rose with quiet dignity, towering like a mountain. It threw its head back and howled with everything it had.

The sound exploded outward like a war horn tearing through the air, spreading across the vast forest, declaring its command, asserting its absolute presence.

AWOOOOO!

The other wolves froze immediately, and like trained soldiers, they raised their heads one after another, and howled one by one in an imposing harmony. And it was not only them, for from every place and every direction powerful howling sounds began to emerge.

Flocks of birds flew away in terror, while weak monsters hiding in their dens trembled. A fair number of powerful monsters looked toward the wolves’ area, and felt a little curiosity about the monster or thing that had disturbed them.

The white wolf bared his sharp fangs, as though smiling with malice, and with clear killing intent stared in the direction where Arthur was located, for whoever this wolf was whose challenging howl he had heard, it had successfully captured his complete attention.

....

Unaware of the fact that he had caused quite a stir in the monster world, Arthur slept like a small child, and did not wake up, or more precisely, did not regain consciousness until the following day’s sunset approached.

"Ugh." His eyelids trembled, and he opened his dry eyes with difficulty, he shook his head slowly, and let out a muffled groan.

"My head... my chest... Shit, my whole body hurts. What happened? Why do I feel like I got hit by a truck?"