Chapter 12. Blood Hunger

  Kara didn't wait even a second and immediately accelerated towards the dire wolf, which was approximately 50 meters away from her. The dire wolf was momentarily surprised by the change in the situation but quickly prepared to attack Kara, aiming its wide-open mouth toward her fragile neck. However, Kara had no intention of ending up in the stomach of a dire wolf and immediately shut its mouth with a strong punch to the chin.

  "Excuse me, dumb dog, but you're not destined to steal my first kiss."

  Perhaps that wasn't the dire wolf's intention when it turned its head towards Kara's face, but Kara had long concluded that the entire forest was full of perverse beasts, as being completely naked made her much more sensitive to their gazes.

  Maybe the blow to the chin made the dire wolf bite its tongue and become dazed for a fraction of a second, but it was far from enough to kill it. It quickly regained consciousness and directed its mouth towards Kara again, who was prepared with clenched fists to counter its attack.

  When the dire wolf's mouth was only 10 centimeters away from her throat, Kara evaded to the side, and with a powerful punch that left a crater in the wolf's face, she destroyed one of its eyes.

  "Aawwoooooooooo!!!"

  Since she didn't have time to waste because the other two dire wolves were already rushing towards the location of the fight, Kara had no choice but to resort to a less elegant solution. Thus, when the dire wolf rose on its hind legs, trying to keep its head up to prevent Kara from taking out its other eye, Kara immediately accelerated and with a well-placed kick, left the dire wolf unable to have offspring.

  'That was more effective than I expected. It seems it has fainted. Let's make sure it will never wake up again.'

  Kara then began to pummel the dire wolf's skull with her fists until one of her punches entered its brain.

But the joy of victory was short-lived because the two dire wolves that had been following Kara from a distance arrived at the scene of the battle. Dire wolves are intelligent creatures, so after seeing their comrade being killed, they had no intention of underestimating Kara. So, the two dire wolves immediately activated their magical powers, one of them being covered in lightning armor, while the other transformed its fur into a suit of metal armor.

  'With the first one, I can say I got lucky. The real battle is just beginning...'

  The first to attack was the dire wolf clad in lightning armor, opening its mouth and unleashing a bolt of lightning toward Kara's position. But Kara had no intention of facing its attack head-on; instead, she accelerated towards the dire wolf in metal armor at top speed, leaving behind afterimages. Yes, the dire wolves were faster than Kara, but she could accelerate more rapidly than them over short distances. Once she reached the dire wolf, Kara leaped into the air to avoid its bite and, after two rotations, struck its back with her leg, hoping to break its spine.

  "Bang!!"

  Unfortunately, the dire wolf in the metal armor was incredibly resilient, and the desired outcome couldn't be achieved.

  'After such a kick, I barely managed to make it bend a few centimeters. I think I ended up hurting myself more with that blow. It felt like kicking a piece of rock. This isn't good. I feel like I've fractured a bone.'

  But it seemed that the dire wolf felt the blow quite strongly, and suddenly its smooth metallic fur became filled with spikes, approximately 10 centimeters long.

  "Perfect. Just what I needed..."

  But Kara didn't have time to lament, as the two dire wolves immediately decided to attack her with all they had. Although Kara managed to evade their fangs, she was pierced and electrocuted every second during the exchange of blows.

  After almost a minute of enduring the relentless attack from the two dire wolves, Kara finally managed to take a few steps back, increasing the distance between her and her opponents to approximately 10 meters.

  'This isn't good. Not good at all. Damn it! I don't think I can defeat them. I won't be able to withstand another round of blows like this. I can barely stay on my feet. Escaping is no longer an option. What can I do? If I don't do something, I'll die here. Yes, I'll die. I'll end up in their damned stomachs... No, I can't accept that. It's not over... It's not over until I say it's over...'

  "Ha! Ha ha! HaHaHaHa...! Do you think it's over? Do you think you can devour me? No, I'll be the one devouring you. I'll be the one devouring the whole world. Nobles! Warriors! Beasts! All will tremble at the sound of my name! Anyone who opposes my will shall die! I hate it! I've always hated the gaze of those who consider themselves superior to me! The fact that there are beings who can decide my fate is an insult to me! Yes, I must be above all! I must be the strongest! Yes, this is the truth!"

  Madness. That's the word that best describes Kara's state. She completely abandoned rationality and surrendered herself entirely to her fury. For the first time in her life, she let her greed and pride come to the surface, things she had always tried to control. But in the face of death, is it necessary? Is it necessary to pretend, to control oneself? Why waste energy on these things?

  As she looked at the dire wolves staring at her as if she were a freak, without understanding her declaration, Kara's fury grew even more.

  "I will kill you wretched beasts. No. I will make you wish for death... Haha, I will consume you alive..."

  Although Kara didn't notice what was happening to her body, the two dire wolves could clearly see that something was wrong. The blood flowing from Kara's body, nearly from every part after being pierced by the dire wolf covered in metal spikes, began to shimmer in a mixture of red and green, much like the magical formations she had worked on for a month. But this didn't last long as, within seconds, all the blood on the surface of Kara's body transformed into black energy, reentering her body and healing all her external and internal wounds. The only thing that differentiated her from the state she was in before the battle began was her eyes, which were no longer green but a pastel of green, red, and black, constantly undergoing metamorphosis.

  "What's happening? Don't you want to attack anymore? Fine. I'll come to you...", Kara said to the two dire wolves, slowly walking towards them. Well, the two dire wolves would have wanted to attack, but they were too frightened to do so. The energy emanating from Kara and the look in her eyes made them feel that death was near and imminent. Their legs froze; they couldn't even retreat. Kara could see this, but she didn't rush to attack. The sensation of superiority brought by the fear in her opponents' eyes was too captivating, too sweet. Kara didn't want this feeling to end immediately.

  When Kara was about four meters away from the dire wolf in metal armor, it managed to gather itself and began launching all the metal spikes from its fur toward Kara, hoping to make her retreat. But Kara was no longer the same as a few minutes ago. Without consciously understanding the reason behind her transformation, she unconsciously knew that the two dire wolves no longer posed any threat to her. Not only did Kara not retreat, but she also accelerated toward the dire wolf that attacked her, avoiding most of the metal spikes launched at her. With unbelievable speed and dexterity, she sent her fist into the wide-open mouth of the dire wolf, shattering all the bones in its skull. After it fell dead, Kara removed two or three metal spikes from her body that she couldn't avoid when her fist made contact with the dire wolf. They couldn't penetrate more than an inch into her flesh so they didn't represent a great danger. Then, she turned her gaze to the other dire wolf, which had slowly started to retreat but couldn't take its eyes off Kara.

  "Where do you think you're going? Don't you think you should pay for making me dirty? Well, I believe you owe me a refreshing shower..."

  Kara didn't allow the dire wolf to take a step back, and almost instantly, she appeared above the dire wolf. With a well-placed punch, she pierced its spine, disregarding the significantly intensified lightning armor.

  "It seems I found the shower faucet...", Kara said when she saw the dire wolf's white spinal bones.

  Without giving the dire wolf any chance, she thrust her hand into the hole left by her punch. After gripping the dire wolf's spine, she pulled with all her strength to extract it, tearing the flesh and skin from the dire wolf's back, causing it to scream in agony. Once she finished this operation, she grabbed two bones from the dire wolf's back and lifted it above her head, allowing all the blood gushing from its massive wound to flow onto her body, which began to shimmer just like the magic formations. Within seconds, a black energy similar to the one produced by the magic formations started to emanate from the dying dire wolf's body, moving directly toward Kara to be absorbed by her.

  After nearly five minutes, as long as the process lasted, nothing was left of the dire wolf except bones and teeth. All its organs, flesh, and blood had transformed into nutrients for Kara, who, after disposing of the carcass, had not a single blemish on her flawless skin.

  She stood motionless for half an hour, basking in the rays of sunlight that managed to penetrate through the ancient trees. Although her mind was in chaos, this was hard to tell considering her expressionless face. Surrounded by blood-soaked grass, she looked like a goddess of war or, rather, a goddess of death, capable of taking hundreds of lives without remorse at any moment.

  Eventually, Kara managed to gather her thoughts and approached one of the corpses of the previously slain dire wolves, intending to test the new skill she acquired through her previous actions. After thrusting her hand into the carcass, allowing the blood to gush out in all directions, Kara began to shimmer again like a magic formation, absorbing all the energy from the dire wolf's flesh and blood.

  After repeating the process with the third dire wolf, Kara concluded that her new skill allowed her to absorb energy just as efficiently as the magic formations she had created before.

  'It was a close call. Not only was I on the verge of losing my life, but I was also on the brink of losing my sanity. But I can't say that I didn't enjoy it. This sensation of superiority, this power... it's incredibly addictive. But in the future, I should try to retain more of my rationality. I don't want to give up what makes me who I am. I don't want to do things I'll regret later. But the gains were worth the risk. This skill will make things much simpler. However, it's strange that those old papers didn't describe such a situation. I thought I would need to create magic formations throughout the entire ritual. It doesn't matter. I feel like I'm on the right path. No, I'm certain I'm on the right path. And this skill, Blood Hunger, which defies the order of this world, will give me the necessary strength to reach the end.'

*** Author's Thought: Since I was initially not satisfied with how this chapter turned out, I preferred to spend more time editing than releasing it faster. Kara will spend another two or three chapters in the Great Moonshadow Forest, and then she will return to civilization. It would be nice if I could find out your opinion about the action scenes, if they are clear enough or detailed enough. In addition, for those who haven't seen it, I have released another story, Shinobinekoden: A Ninja Catgirl's Tale, which will be updated 3 times a week. It will be more system-oriented and the plot will unfold a little faster.