Chapter 9: Hunter becomes the hunted
The two humans looked on at the Star Wolf before them, surprised at how quickly it managed to sneak up on them without them even noticing. To the Star Wolf, two tasty morsels had presented themselves for the eating. It quickly began to salivate whilst it's silver eyes focused closely on the movements of the two in front of it.
"Welp, that's our strategy out the drain. What should we do...." Tom readied his sword as he whispered to Luna. He dared not take his eyes off the Wolf in case it suddenly attacked.
"..." Luna
"....Come on Luna, focus. i'm going to try to flank it, meanwhile with your strength i'm sure you can try distracting it long enough for me to get a clean hit in. Luna? Lunaaaa?" Tom was now clearly getting anxious, Luna had her enormous strength and a relatively long staff. He was hoping that she would attack from the mid-range, taking advantage of the staff length to keep the Wolf at bay whilst he would circle around it and attack from it's blindspots. But now it seemed like Luna was frozen in shock! He didn't know what to do now and hoped she'd snap out of it soon. Even if she was too scared to effectively attack, with a combined front at least they'd be able to force it to retreat. He was confident that once the Wolf tasted the sharpness of his blade it wouldn't want to stand around any longer!
"this...this is the Star Wolf everyone keeps talking about? Stand back Tom, i'll handle this" Luna said decisively as she took a few steps forward to deal with the Wolf. Tom was taken aback by her confident reaction because a few moments ago he had thought she was scared stiff. He slowly backed away but instead of moving into position he paused to see just what she had wanted to do. If only he knew the truth.....
LUNA WASN'T EVEN PLANNING ON FIGHTING THE WOLF!
To her, this was just a lost puppy! She had been anxious this whole time thinking she would have to tame a Star Wolf but this... this was a joke to her. The Star Wolfs she had seen at home were at least thrice the size of this dog before her and much softer and fluffier. In fact, they were used as transport by the people who owned them which is why she had always wanted one of her own. Who wouldn't want a cute, giant dog they could ride around town!
This Star Wolf in comparison, was lacking in all fronts. It was skinny, unkempt, it's fur was nowhere near as fluffy and it was absolutely tiny compared to the dogs she had seen at home. That's why she had quickly concluded that it must have been a puppy even though anyone else would plainly see it was a full grown adult. To Luna, the bloodlust this creature was radiating seemed so faint compared to an immortal's killing intent that she couldn't even sense it! That's why in the forest against those beastly cultivators she had been so nice thinking they were clearing a path for her because even with their axes raised she couldn't sense them as a threat AT ALL.
"Who's a good boy, come to Mama" Luna started gesturing towards the Star Wolf to come closer.
"Come here, boy"
"Who's a good little puppy? You are! you are!"
"Heeeere boy"
.....
The Wolf was utterly confused. What was the human trying to do, it cocked it's head sideways trying to gauge what was going on but it couldn't think of anything. Unless..... This human was mocking it!
Enraged, the hind muscles of the of the wolf tensed as it prepared to launch an attack at this brazen girl in front of it. It arched it's body and began to growl whilst looking at Luna.
"~Oh, the little doggy want to play huh~" Luna was now smiling, thinking it wanted to play tag or something. If she could get it's trust and affection, she could make it her own pet. In fact, she was already in the process of thinking up a few names.
SWOOSH! The Wolf leapt up quick as quickly as it could to bite the human in front of it. Before Luna could pull off a dodge, Tom had already jumped to her defense and swung his sword at it. CLANG! dark claws met the edge of the sword and managed to push both of the parties back.
"What are you doing Luna! I thought that you were trying to distract it, but you're not even on guard!" Tom shouted. He had wanted to simply circle around it but Luna's methods of attack seemed to reckless. He knew she was crazy, but he didn't really think she was crazy enough to try and tame it which is why he though it had been some silly ploy to get it to attack them sooner.
Tom jumped up after chastising Luna, and went to attack the wolf again. The Wolf was ready this time and had long prepared it's claws for another encounter. Tom's blade was hard and sharp, but so was the wolf's claws. In fact, there was a reason why Tom had hesitated to take the mission in the first place.
The Wolf in terms of offensive capabilities was Rank 4! The ranking in the kingdom weren't just used for knights and warriors, they were used for a variety of other people and creatures. The ranking were purely meritocratic in that they didn't differentiate between methods or abilites, all the rankings cared about was how dangerous in combat something was. Of course, it wasn't a perfect system, which is why some people would use subsets like close combat, or defense or magical attacks and the like. But even with those technicalities out of the way, one thing was clear. This Wolf would be no easy battle....
Tom quickly put those thoughts out of his head as he rushed towards the wolf. The Wolf lifted itself up and took a swipe straight for Tom's head! Tom quickly slid down, twisting his entire body downwards as if he was doing a 360 on a skateboard. He used the force of the spin to slash at the Wolf...
SLASH! A small cut was now on the ribs of the wolf, with small amounts of blood trickling down. Tom was dumbfounded. The blade Luna had given him was as sharp as any good sword yet it barely damaged the wolf. The fur seemed to have absorbed some of the attack but the muscles of the wolf were no joke! They seemed to have been made of metal themselves. Tom began to move in earnest now, releasing a flurry of attacks to overwhelm the Wolf whilst expectantly looking at Luna. (Anytime now Luna....It's open! Just look for a weak spot and hit it! Come on do something! Anything!)
Luna just stood there confused, she had thought all this while that this dog was just a lost puppy looking to play a game but now it seemed locked in a deadly clash with tom. Every sword stroke from Tom was met with an equally powerful swipe from the wolf. Tom was fighting valiantly but she could see he was struggling to keep up. Luna could taste her pet ownership days slowly ending second by second.
"Come on boy" Luna said with a trembling in her voice "Just stop fighting for a second and come to Mama. I even have a name for you... Starry" Luna started taking one step after another....approaching the battle seen ever so slowly. Neither of the two parties fighting wanted to stop and they continued clashing as fiercely as before...
...a few more seconds passed. Both Tom and the Wolf now had a few bloody cuts from the fighting. If Tom had been by himself, he would have never attacked the Wolf directly like this. In a normal hunt, an ambush is set and the hunter strikes the blind-spot of the prey. The entire game of survival is won or lost in a few quick moves, with cunning and swiftness being the tricks of the game. But now it had become a direct conflict, with the winner being the one that had both the strength and the endurance to keep on going. The Wolf might have been tiring but it still had both amounts in spades compared to Tom's valiant spirit which was now starting to slowly wane.
Luna had tears in her eyes now. This isn't how she had expected this to go. Her pet, her dream seemed to be out of her reach... with only this mangy looking puppy (by her standards of course) threatening her only friend in this world. With one last attempt she shouted with all her might, hoping to redeem the wayward dog.
"STAAARRRRYYYYY!!!!!"
A powerful female voice echoed, shaking the trees nearby and chasing away all the critters within the radius of the battle. Both the Wolf and Tom stopped their battle and looked at Luna stunned. Luna inched ever closer to her Wolf. "Come on boy, you're better than this. Put your paws down and just listen to me..." The Wolf put it's claws down slowly and looked at Luna.
"See there you are boy, i'll be a good Mama to you okay? We can have roast duck, fish and i'll even let you borrow Dad's magical super stone when we get home so you can grow up to be big and strong, how do you like that?" Luna had now inched close enough to touch it.
"Here, just lemme scratch your ears, i know all doggos love that....." SWIIISH! A upward swing aimed directly at Luna came from the wolf with all it's might! She simply turned her head sideways and looked at the Wolf with a confused expression. The Wolf was stunned yet again. No ordinary human could dodge so swiftly with their guard down like that! All it had managed to do was cut off a bit of the humans hair.....
.........Luna saw a piece of her hair stuck on the Wolf's paw and checked her hair. Part of her hair was a few centimeters shorter than the other.......
".........."
".........."
".....MY HAIR! WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY HAIR! BAD DOG, YOU'RE NOTHING BUT A STUPID MANGY MUTT! NOW GET OUT OF HERE!!"
Luna grabbed her staff and she was fuming. The killing intent emanating from her was so oppressive that instead of finishing off the Wolf all Tom could think of was to get away. (GET AWAY, GET AWAY, FIND SOMEWHERE TO HIDE) Was all Tom could think of as he ran from the seen and hid at a nearby tree, looking at Luna like he had seen a monster. He had almost been killed by the Beastly Cultivators, yet even though Luna didn't look as strong as them at that moment he still felt an even greater fear than that time. (Monster...She's actually a monster or a killing machine sent here to destroy everything)
Meanwhile, the Wolf was in even worse shape. The energy radiating from this girl...no monster in front of it was suffocating. It tried to move, to escape, but all it could do was tuck it's tail between it's legs and submissively lower it's head. But just as quickly as the wave had come, it dissipated. Luna still seemed as angry as before, but it seemed like after a few seconds her powerful aura had dissipated.
Dangerous, This human is dangerous! The Wolf let out a desperate howl and launched an attack.
(Hmm? Did i leak a bit of my reserve power by accident? Must have been that weird medallion, but nevermind. I don't even need my extra power to teach this wolf a lesson!)
Luna quickly dodged the slash released by the Wolf and gripped her staff tightly. In less than a second, she had appeared behind it and swung her staff with all her mind on it's head. BANG! The impact made a small shockwave before a subdued whimper escaped from the Wolf. A few smaller bangs began to emanate, the Wolf being pummeled by Luna's staff.
"Take THAT! and that! and that You stupid Wolf! Next time you'll know better than messing with my hair..."
"Luna" Tom called out
"Stupid Wolf..." another strike hit the Wolf's body
"Luna!"
"What?"
"I think it's dead..."
".......HUH?! But i wasn't even trying to kill it!"
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone