Chapter 24: Retaliation

[Sophia's POV]

I went and connected my vision to Philo's using one of the abilities of the [Necromancy] because the skill is now not restricted by the thing called distance, I can see what he is seeing as fine as day.

_But I must say, he's going fast... Must be furious with the wolf._

I thought so as I look at the dashing dark and green color that is flashing in the eyes of Philo, signifying how much speed he is giving this command of mine, good thing he have unlimited stamina.

[Master, I am back.]

I hear [Guide] suddenly speak.

Welcome back, I see, did you get maintenance? You were having "BZZZZZ" a while earlier.

[And who's fault is that?]

Geh!

We were having such a conversation while I am still glued to the scenery that Philo is giving me a live feed of as suddenly, I saw a giant red-furred wolf with bloodshot eyes whilst his mouth is dripping with thick saliva that is making a "hiss" sound as its feel and touched the ground.

He is angry that he did not eat me, however, he seems to not be also worried about losing. Why did I say that? He did not pursue me immediately meaning that he thought of me as a lost cause and my "disappearance" is my last ditch effort, of course because it seems like normally, people only have single elemental affinity so he did not consider that I can breathe just fine underground.

So he thought that he will not lose in this "one-sided" situation he have made. Oh if he had known better, maybe he is already saying sorry right now.

"Bite him in the neck and don't let him go no matter what unless I said so."

I made a command to which the also rabid-looking Philo in which he immediately responded with a nod, and in one flashy movement he disappeared from his position and appeared right next to the dog king on top of the sand I am using as a cover.

"YOU COWARD! IF YOU ARE A HERO, THEN AT LEAST HAVE ENOUGH HONOR TO FACE YOUR DEATH AGAINST A PROPER OPPONENT THAN TO JUST DIE BY LACK OF BLOOD!"

The Wolf King tried to taunt me with such words that will not work but was cut off by a flash of grey-colored light on his side with eyes also as bloodshot as the wolf, a slight feeling of being taken aback is visible on the mutt's face as a silent, very silent yet terrifying word came out of Philo's mouth.

"You dare blemish her venerable one's skin."

There is no exclamation, just a period as another flash was seen.

"Hmph! So you are that idiot's subordinate huh? You have the guts how about- GYAAARGH! GET OFF! GET OFF!"

Before the wolf king can finish his recruitment speech, sharp fangs came crashing into his neck, remember that Philo is just as tall as me and thus he is now hanging on the neck of the wolf using his fangs as a hook on his flesh, blood started to drip out as the wolf tried to claw Philo out, causing Philo's skin to be ripped apart, no blood was seen but the grey flesh that came being exposed after the numerous claw attacks of the mutt is the only evidence that the attack came crashing into Philo's back.

And that evidence, as if in instant, disappeared without a trace, causing the eyes of both me and the wolf on top of me to widen.

I know one of Philo's abilities is Ultra Regeneration, but .5 seconds! That's .5 seconds of full fucking recovery!

"I-Impossible! Such regeneration...!"

The wolf started to wave his head like crazy in hope that he will get flung away, damn this King is starting to become a regular dog now, it is hilarious.

[If you did not have that emo girl moment earlier, then you would have seen his antiques earlier.]

I ignored that comment from the creepy guy in my head and continued to watch the pathetic display of the Wolf King(LOL).

"GET OFF FILTHY UNDEAD! YOUR RACE'S ARROGANCE SHALL VANISH FROM THIS FOREST AND I SHALL BE THE ONE TO CULL YOU ALL!"

He tried to intimidate my subordinate whilst he is wagging his head like mad and bashing his head into trees so that Philo can be affected by the impact too, the taunting part did not work, but the bashing part did, at least for a moment because every time Philo got himself injured it will immediately heal and even with broken limbs and almost detached lower half of the body that will take longer to heal, Philo did not stop.

That's already five minutes and the injuries still did not heal, but he is not dead yet actually, the wolf started to bleed like mad in his neck part and some tears can now be seen in his eyes, this tear was noticed by him and like a dumbass goblin, he became angry.

"To make me cry...! You bastard, you will burn into ashes! [Flame Charge]!"

Woah there we're gonna get sued! Was my reaction but because we are in the middle of a fight, I did not voice it out as I continued to command Philo.

"Philo! Don't let go! Just a little longer!"

He then, tightening the already flesh-cutting grip of his jaws towards the flesh of the giant wolf, replied.

"Don't worry my lady! I shall hold into this mutt's neck even for eternity if it so you desired!"

That's some devotion, I said so in my mind as I watched the wolf charge into a tree with his body clad in flames, the tree fell in one shot and was charred on its root up to the half.

"Why won't you let go!"

The Wolf shouted as the flame on his body got extinguished, he then yelled [Flame Charge]! once again and proceeded to tackle a tree, the tree went through the same thing as the last one, except that I ordered Philo to let go of him at once.

I have an idea of using [Observe] on his skill [Flame Charge], but not being a fire-based creature, I will probably get burned.

[Affirmative.] Yes, I know. But hey that's only affirmative when I used it, that means I have time to make a roundabout way of dealing with the backlash, thinking so I activated [Observe].

Anyway, all this while, blood continued to flow out of the wolf's neck whilst Philo's whole body is making bone snapping sound as the realignment of his bones and reestablishing of his flesh is observed, sending chills into the spine of any normal people that can see it. Well, I am not normal.

"Philo! No time to rest!"

I shouted as my subordinate immediately perked up while the wolf is still staggering because of the blood loss, this king is weak.

"Now, headbutt him, and don't stop until he got debuffed!"

As I commanded that, the wolf king got his bearings back finally as he glared at Philo silently and charged, without the flame this time, which, if not for the stiff soil in my body right now got me laughing out loud that my stomach hurts.

Philo smirked as he muttered: "To be expected from a mutt."

And then used [Ram] to meet the charge of the wolf as he sped up with [Sprint].

Now, you might be wondering, first, why is a wolf headbutting someone? I'm wondering about that too, maybe because the paws of the enormous wolf are not enough to crush the bunny in one go, and the biggest part of the wolf's body that can encompass the whole body of the bunny beside his tail looks fluffy and is fluffy is his head.

In short, this dawg over here wants revenge by one hit deleting my Philo, that will work on a normal bunny, but what about Philo? It was the exact opposite.

"GRRRGK!?"

The two heads collided, and the eyes of the wolf visibly rattled as he was pushed back for about half a meter, audible crack is heard in the collision and an also visible crack in the skull of King Wolf(LOL) can be seen squirting large quantities of blood.

Whimpers of severe pain and probably the shitty feeling of his  brain bouncing like mad inside his head are continuously escaping out of the Blazing Wolf King's mouth.

"Retreat a Little."

I commanded as a sneer appeared in my mouth. Oh, man, let the fun begin.

[3rd Person POV]

The world swirled like the mud of rainbows in the eyes of the one who is hailed as the strongest quadrupedal creature of the second layer as he struggled to wake up, using his snout just to remain to stand and not fall unconscious.

_How... How is that possible..._

He, who is a proud wolf was defeated in a contest of strength and endurance. At first, he thought that it was his lucky day when he heard the notification that the restriction for all the monsters of the Five-Pronged Forest is finally lifted. The notification is not saying that the forest is now free from the chains of the undead. But the notification that a hero test will commence in this forest will happen, which is a sign that the cuffs will also be released.

All monsters who have an intelligence bigger than a goblin will understand the logic, if the hero test is a test to a forest in which monsters cannot roam freely, the hero prospect will not grow, thus all the sentient beings in the first to fifth layer rejoiced as to finally, they will not be restrained in a boring, single layer and immediately made all sorts of moves.

And one such being hasty, without even a second thought went with his pack to conquer the first layer, the first layer's top predators are just goblins, thus he thought it will all be fine, of course at first, like any other crusade, it went well, he even badly injured the hero prospect, in which to his surprise is just a baby girl.

Thus, he commanded to attack the goblins in their settlements as he eat the hero prospect, who knows he might even gain the interest of a god and become the one who will be taking the test.

However, the inconceivable happened, suddenly the hero went under the ground and a bunny with fangs as big as the baby he saw suddenly bit him and won't let go, furthermore, that bunny can regenerate from claws that one shot individuals in the second layer as if it was a scratch made by a mouse.

And as he continued to fight, howls of help is heard in the direction of the cave in which they have scouted the goblin settlement, this tone of the howl is unique to his pack and is used to call him if a member is in need... And he just hears... All of his pack members sing this song of distress with also communication voices in his head.

"Alpha! This is a mistake, we should never have provoked the settlement made by the hero!

"Alpha! Why is it that there is a goblin who can one hit delete a wolf!"

"A-Alpha! We are surrounded, if we tried to escape an arrow that contains a curse will be driven into our chest or our heads will be chopped off our neck!"

"Alpha..."

"Al..."

Several calls of distress that despaired the wolf resounded.

_Damn it! Damn, it!_

He gnashed his teeth and forced himself to stand up.

_It's that baby's fault! Yes! That's right! It is not me..._

Delusions started to whirl in his still-confused mind.

_If only she is not that strong and cunning... Yes... It is not my fault..._

The wolf king is a young genius who became the youngest Alpha at the age of two wolf years, that's why he hardly felt pressure like this in his life before, a pressure that his life is on the line.

One can say Sophia and the King are the same, but the difference is the mental strength of Sophia being so formidable that she even argued with a literal god, whilst the king of the wolves can't even calmly think when being attacked by someone not afraid of him.

As he looked in front of him, he saw a figure on a dust cloud that suddenly appeared, it was small and have little sprouts on the left side of his whole body.

"YOU FUCKING BRAT!"

He shouted and cladded his fangs on fire, the attack is called [Blazing Fangs], his fangs ignited and were completely enshrouded with thick flames as he looked at the figure of Sophia in the unsettled dust cloud that just suddenly appeared out of nowhere and bit on the clone, to hear intense hissing sound out of his mouth.

"W-WATER CLONE!? HOW CAN SOMEONE BE SO REFINED IN MAGIC!?"

He blurted out as the fake Sophia's water of a body slithered through his body, causing smoke to fill up the air and a hissing sound to resound into the night.

"GYAAAAHH! GYAAAAH!"

The wolf king became terrified out of his wits as the thoughts of dying came into his mind, he used [Flame Charge] and ignited his whole body with fire, effectively, after five or so seconds evaporating the water.

The Wolf King just whimpered continuously as his battered and bruised body worsened by being in touch with his nature's most hated element.

He then looked at the surrounding which started to have some blue-colored objects, in these objects a bone-churning and gut-wrenching set of words resonated into the very soul of the Wolf King.

"Hey now, don't whimper like you are already on your deathbed. I did not see you bathe in your blood yet after all."