After the intruder wolf fled, a heavy silence fell over the battlefield. The sounds of shattering bones and tearing flesh that had previously filled the place disappeared, and all that remained were piles of savagely torn carcasses, whose blood formed a shallow pool.

The remaining wolves maintained silence, standing in their places with bowed heads, submissive, the seconds passed very slowly for them, yet none of them dared to move an inch.

One minute, two, then three, one after another, and because of their powerful senses, the wolves detected the presence of an extremely fast creature heading toward them. They trembled with fear, and at the same time, felt a little excitement.

A strong gust of wind blew and moved the tree leaves, and the blood pool rippled, then in the next moment, a massive white wolf appeared in the distance.

With its arrival, the winds intensified, and leaves and dust flew in every direction. The white wolf stopped in the middle of the battlefield, and with an imposing expression, examined the place around him.

Upon seeing a large number of his followers as lifeless carcasses, his expressions darkened slightly, he directed his gaze toward one of the nearby wolves, and asked calmly:

"Who did this? What is its Rank?"

Unlike the rest of the wolves, the white wolf spoke with greater fluency, and used more expressive language, in addition to that his balanced reactions showed how intelligent he was.

The weak wolf bowed its head further, and after a brief hesitation, answered stammering: "I... intruder, E-Ra... E-Rank."

"E-Rank? That is impossible." The white wolf could not hide his surprise.

The carcasses of E-Rank wolves surrounded him from every direction, and if it were true that the one who killed them was also E-Rank, well, that was a hard thing to comprehend.

The other wolves shook their heads, confirming what their companion had said, the white wolf’s doubts decreased, and he believed his followers, for they would gain nothing from lying to him, and in the first place they were not smart enough to think of lying.

He froze in place in astonishment, and no matter how hard he tried, he could not accept it, because it was simply impossible. There were very strict laws, determining the extent of power of each Rank, and what it could do.

A creature at F-Rank would never be able to defeat a creature at E-Rank, and the same applied to a creature at E-Rank, for it would not defeat a creature at D-Rank no matter what it did.

And not only that, even within the same Rank, a creature of a certain Rank cannot defeat a large number of enemies in the same Rank.

Yes, from a certain angle, there were advantages and many factors that made some creatures stronger than their counterparts in the same Rank, but this still remained within reasonable limits. At most, a creature could face two or three enemies at the same time.

In any case, during the short time the white wolf spent standing in his place, more members of his pack arrived.

From the darkness of the forest dozens of massive wolves appeared, most of them at E-Rank, with a fair number at D-Rank, some of the wolves surpassed the white wolf in terms of size and savage appearance, yet none of them dared to growl, or linger their gaze on him.

They stood in complete submission, and waited for his orders, like subjects in the presence of a king.

After about thirty seconds, the white wolf’s confusion disappeared, replaced by extreme coldness. Without rushing, he followed the tracks left by the intruder wolf during its escape, and found a few drops of its blood that had not mixed with the other wolves’ blood.

He sniffed it, and at that moment, a shiver ran through his bloodline.

His pupils contracted, and his heartbeat quickened, he raised his head and looked in the direction the intruder had fled, with eyes full of disbelief.

He opened his mouth wanting to say something, but the words got stuck in his throat, and even his thoughts became empty for a moment. Little by little he began to comprehend the matter, his lips twisted into a savage smile, and his expressions became very unsettling.

His behavior was very strange, and because of this all the wolves around him felt confused.

He did not care about them, small wind vortexes appeared around his four legs, he took a launching stance, and prepared to chase the intruder at his full speed, now that he knew about the strength of his bloodline, he was not going to let him escape no matter what it cost.

But at the moment he was about to launch, several howling sounds came from a distant place, the moment his followers heard them, they bared their fangs, and growled savagely.

"Enemies."

"Let us kill them."

They wanted to surge toward the source of the howls, but they did not dare do so without their leader’s permission. In addition to that, they were in dire need of him, given the strength of the threat knocking at their door.

The white wolf froze in his place, he strongly wanted to chase the intruder wolf, but doing so meant abandoning his pack, and his territory, and even if he tried to go and return at great speed, he would find many of them dead by the time he returned.

This was a difficult choice, and he had to deal with it with great wisdom. Because he maintained silence for a long time in this critical situation, all his followers fixed him with strange looks, some of them doubting.

In the end he could only grit his fangs, he dismissed the wind vortexes around his legs, then turned around.

He looked at his pack members with extreme coldness, he did not speak directly, he took a small moment to organize his thoughts, even though the circumstances were not in his favor, this did not mean that capturing the intruder wolf was impossible.

He pointed to four D-Rank wolves with his paw, and commanded them with great strictness: "You, chase the intruder, capture it, and bring it to me alive, I repeat do not kill it, now go."

The four wolves immediately executed his commands, they tracked the traces left by the intruder wolf, and gave chase.

"The rest, come with me." Without wasting any more time, the white wolf headed toward the source of the howls, which incidentally were a warning of the presence of enemies.

On the surface, the world of beasts might seem simple, and in many ways, it was. But beneath that facade of chaos, savagery, and the unforgiving laws of predator and prey lay conflicts of remarkable complexity, no different from those of humanity.

...

Several kilometers away from the battlefield, Arthur continued pushing his exhausted body to move, fleeing as fast as he could.

His heart pounded at an unreasonable speed and force, like a sports car engine about to explode at any moment, his muscles tore with every step, and his vitality burned like fast-igniting fuel.

And not only that, blood seeped heavily from his wounds that had not healed, and haziness covered his eyes, he could not see well or think well, yet he did not stop or slow down, quite the contrary.

"More, more, more." He continued muttering this word, as though it were the only thing he knew, and because of his absolute desperation, and his merciless burning of his body, he managed to increase his speed further.

His consciousness dimmed with every kilometer he covered, his reactions slowed, and because of this, he could not dodge many of the obstacles on the way and collided with them, he was like a projectile that only knew how to charge forward.

[ Warning ]

[ HP below 10% ]

The system screen appeared before him, but he paid it no attention, and did the same with many things, he ignored the monsters that were in his path, and passed through harsh terrain that it would have been better to go around.

Seconds passed, and minutes, then hours, sunlight returned to illuminate the sky, and bird chirping filled the forest again, and finally after three hours of continuous running, during which he did not know what distance he had covered, Arthur reached his limit.

[ Warning ]

[ HP below 5% ]

[ Death risk ]

His speed had slowed long before, and instead of running, he was stumbling along at a trot, the flower crown that had been on his head withered and lost its effectiveness, and his massive muscular body had become very emaciated.

His appearance was truly wretched, and he was no different from a walking corpse, then suddenly, he stumbled on a small rock, lost his balance, and fell to the ground.

His dull eyes slowly closed, and without the ability to think, or move an inch, he lost consciousness. At that moment the system screen appeared before him.

[...]

But unlike before, it contained no text. Then it was followed by the appearance of another screen, also empty, then a third, and a fourth, until finally a large red screen appeared.

[ Error ]

[ Insufficient data ]

Even this screen flickered shortly after appearing, and the system continued to behave in an extremely strange manner. In contrast, the Primal Predator bloodline was operating at peak efficiency, as one of its hidden life-saving effects appeared.