Two wolves charged at him as he brought out his sword.
One of them lunged forward and tried to bite his neck while the other aimed for his leg. It was clear that they were trying to dispose of him in one clean motion. This could only be achieved through perfect coordination, which is something this pack of wolves seemed to have.
However, they were facing someone in the middle stages of the foundation establishment realm after all. Such an attack was not even able to reach him.
He swung his sword upward in a diagonal motion while leaping backwards at the same time. The wolves that were attacking him were only at the late stages of the first rank.
That single slash was enough to sever its head clean off its body.
He then brought down his sword and slashed towards the second wolf, swiftly killing it as well. While all of this seemed to take place over a long period of time, in reality, only a few breaths had passed.
After killing the two wolves, Adrian then swiftly retreated to avoid being encircled by the rest of the wolves. Seeing their companions being killed, the rest of the wolves started growling. Dense killing intent filled their eyes as they wanted nothing than to tear apart the man in front of them.
However, Adrian's thoughts were different. The only wolf that could pose a threat to him was the alpha since they were in similar levels, so he wasn't too worried about the rest of them.
However, facing all of them at the same time wasn't a good idea.
Killing all of them one by one would just exhaust his strength and make his fight with the alpha even harder. He also wanted to avoid sneak attacks and ambushes. He had to either find a way to kill all of them without wasting too much energy or he could go after the alpha.
Part of the reason why the wolves were so coordinated was the presence of a leader. If he could kill the alpha, the other wolves would be relatively easier to kill.
As soon as he landed, he concentrated all his energy on his feet and retreated as far as possible. He then stared at the wolves, which were slowly approaching him. Magical beasts had some intelligence.
They could tell that they were no match for him individually, so they decided to come after him as a whole. Only the alpha, along with two other wolves that stood by his side, were left behind.
'Why do those two seem like bodyguards?' he thought as he got ready to fight again.
He needed to dispatch them as quickly as possible.
First of all, he wanted to catch the alpha off guard. He didn't want to waste time with the other wolves. He was also wary about being ambushed by other magical beasts. The commotion caused by the attack was sure to attract other beasts.
Since he didn't want to be stuck here, he decided to go all out. He leaped at the remaining wolves and started slashing. Since they were all in the first rank, he didn't need to be too careful. Each slash took a life as he demonstrated the prowess of his sword. He was done with all the wolves in an incense stick's worth of time.
He then stepped over their corpses as he approached the alpha and its two guards.
Their ranks were also not low. They were Rank 2 beasts in the initial stage, So Adrian had to take them seriously. Instead of mindlessly charging at him like the rest of the pack, the three wolves tried to encircle him.
They were obviously smarter than the rest and had learned from their mistake.
However, Adrian didn't care. His main focus was on the alpha who stood in front of him while the other two moved to his sides. Even if he was wary of them, he wouldn't run away from a few wolves.
Without waiting for them to take the initiative, he charges towards the alpha. This was his full speed so he arrived in front of it in an instant. He thrust his sword to pierce its skull. He wanted to end it in one move.
However, the alpha moved its head at the last second and avoided being pierced. The sword landed on its front limb and caused a long gash that reached its back.
The alpha howled in pain and tried to swipe Adrian away with its paw. He blocked it with his sword, but was flung away by the power behind it.
The two wolves didn't want to give him a chance and pounced on him straight away. He slashed at them furiously while trying to stabilize himself. One of them blocked his attack with its body while the other tried to bite his head off.
His sword pierced into the body of the wolf, but didn't hit any vital organs. He sidestepped to avoid the wolf trying to bite off his head while retrieving his sword.
He then brought down his sword upon the neck of the injured wolf before it could recover its bearings, effectively ending its life.
'Only two left.' Adrian thought as he stared at the two remaining beasts. The two remaining wolves were already starting to feel fear towards the small creature in front of them.
They had even started to think about escaping. However, the anger they felt towards the one who killed their pack surpassed their fear, which caused them to ultimately abandon that train of thought as they both lunged at him again.
Adrian took a deep breath as he held his sword with both hands. He waited for the wolves to come near him before swinging his sword horizontally while shouting in his mind 'Sword of Flames!'
Flames made up of qi spread out from his sword and attacked the two wolves, who were too close to dodge. The remaining wolf guard was ahead of the alpha, so it took the brunt of the flames. By the time it reached the alpha, it had lost most of its power, but it was still able to injure it severely.
The charred body of the wolf guard fell while the alpha crashed into a boulder. It has lost one of its legs, and there were still flames burning in its body.