"Whoosh!"
A claw, shining with a lethal glint, shot past Rex's neck, missing its deadly mark by mere inches. Rex flowed from that dodge into another, abruptly dropping to his knees and leaning back as far as his spine would allow.
"Swooshh!" The second wolf, a mirror image of the first in its dark fury, sped past him, its pounce misjudged.
Rex immediately scrambled to his feet. With a quick backward dash, he created a sliver of distance between himself and the 1.5-meter-tall beasts—still massive and terrifying up close. A grin, sharp and fierce, spread across his mouth—a grin born from an almost euphoric satisfaction that surged with the adrenaline of combat.
His body pulsed with a newfound strength; every fiber of his being was brimming with an almost electric energy. The movements he'd just performed felt smoother, faster, more intuitive than anything he'd envisioned.
As he poised himself for the wolves' next move, he noticed the ink-like markings across his body had thickened, the darkness of the ink deepening, as if drinking in the ambient light. "Looks like these markings have something to do with the energy my body is currently brimming with," Rex thought, a spark of understanding igniting.
"The Overlord Branding can boost innate capability up to 200%."
Rex's face contorted in a brief flash of annoyance; he bore absolutely no warm feelings towards the disembodied announcer. Its delivery felt like that of a grumpy sales assistant forced to market a product they despised.
But its announcement, however grudging, carried an undeniably optimistic message. "The Overlord Branding has a buff-like effect on innate capability... innate capability must refer to my base stats," Rex analyzed, the prior gloom that had almost consumed him vanishing like mist in sunlight.
The Overlord Branding had the potential to double his base abilities. This was a game-changer, a crucial advantage in his current predicament. "I successfully avoided two lethal strikes already. I can do this," Rex affirmed internally, his knuckles tightening as he focused on the two wolves that were slowly, menacingly, repositioning.
It was still the same pair that had attacked him earlier. The third wolf, the one he instinctively felt was the most dangerous, had not yet made a move. It remained a silent, observing statue of rage-filled muscle and fur.
Swoosh! The two wolves lunged again, a coordinated assault. Rex's mind fell into that familiar combat rhythm, and he deftly avoided the snapping jaws and raking claws they launched his way. Unlike their first clumsy attempt, they relentlessly followed up their attacks, a flurry of deadly strikes, lunging, recovering, and launching themselves at him again and again.
Rex's confidence began to solidify with each successful evasion. As the wolves' assault continued, he was beginning to truly appreciate the changes in his abilities. It had felt natural at first, an instinctive flow, but with prolonged exposure, he realized he was reading their movements with uncanny ease, even anticipating their lunges.
His eyesight seemed sharper, his speed undeniably greater than it was in real life. He was effortlessly pulling off exquisite dodges and lightning-fast dashes that would have been impossible before.
He could tell he wasn't yet at the level of the Advanced in the dojo, but if he were to go up against Big Ben right now, the big man would definitely have to take him a bit more seriously.
"Swiish!"
Rex narrowly avoided another swipe aimed at his chest. It had been almost three intense minutes since the two wolves began their fruitless assault. The ferocity of their attacks hadn't diminished one bit, their snarls echoing in the dense forest. But Rex was beginning to find their patterns monotonous; the immediate, heart-stopping danger was lessening.
It was almost laughable that these creatures had filled him with such utter helplessness only moments ago. Rex sidestepped another strike, creating a precious few feet of distance. "Time to switch things up." The thought was a spark igniting a flame.
He exploded forward, dashing towards the two attacking wolves, a sudden, aggressive shift in the ongoing rhythm of defense. One of the wolves, seemingly irritated by its 'snack's' audacious behavior, leaped forward, its powerful jaws stretched wide, aiming to crush.
Rex's knee slid across the damp foliage as he dropped low, putting himself directly beneath the wolf's airborne lunge.
"Boom!" A dull, satisfying thud resounded as Rex's fist, empowered by the Branding, connected with the underside of the wolf's overstretched jaw, sending it careening off its flight path. A sharp "Awlll!" yelped from its throat—a clear response to the shocking pain its prey's fist had just delivered.
The second wolf, momentarily startled, dashed forward, slashing twice at Rex with its claws. Rex avoided the blows smoothly, pivoting, and slammed a punch into the side of its head. This rapidly changed the dynamic. Rex was no longer just dodging. He was now a whirlwind of motion, landing blow after blow on his two assailants, nimbly avoiding their retaliatory claws. All his extended, grueling training in the dojo was paying off spectacularly, and the 'Branding of the Overlord' was undeniably amplifying his abilities to an incredible degree.
Then, in the briefest of moments, things shifted again.
He had just sidestepped another swipe and returned the favor with a punch of his own when the second wolf, recovering faster than he anticipated, lunged at his abdomen. Before he could execute a backward dash, the canine teeth of the wolf—long, sharp, and vicious—dug into his stomach.
"Ahhhh!!!" Rex screamed, a raw, agonized sound torn from his throat as searing pain flooded his senses. Maybe instinctively, maybe out of pure, unadulterated rage, his two hands came down in a locked, hammer-fist position, bashing downwards with all his might onto the head of his assailant.
The ink-like markings across his body pulsed, slightly extending further into his hands. He could feel a fresh surge of raw strength pulsing in every fiber of his being. The only thought in his head was to destroy the wolf that had dared to bite him.
The wolf whose head he'd just bashed was still slightly disoriented, its stance wobbly—a state Rex confirmed with a savage satisfaction in his rage-filled mind.
Boom! He shot forward again. For the first time, he leaped, twisting in mid-air, and executed a powerful sweep kick that connected with the disoriented dark wolf, sending it crashing heavily into a thick tree trunk with a sickening thud.
"Huuu–Huu–Huuuu."
Rex breathed out raggedly, his chest heaving. Warm blood was slowly, ominously, leaking from the wound in his stomach. He could feel his knees getting weaker, his newfound strength beginning to ebb.
Swoosshhh!!!
The third wolf, the patient observer, exploded into a blur of motion, finally making its move. Since the onset of Rex's counter-assault, it had been a silent, calculating spectator.
"So you're the hunter," Rex managed to rasp out, each word a struggle against the pain that was madly assaulting his being.
The third wolf's action felt chillingly final, as if it had simply been waiting for Rex to be worn down by the attacks of its pack before delivering the killing blow.
Rex tried to poise his hands, but the most recent injury seemed to have opened the floodgates of exhaustion. He was beginning to feel profoundly weak as blood continued to flow from the deep bite wound.
His current predicament felt terrifyingly real; there was no lingering sense that he was merely in a game. He was beginning to understand why so many people claimed Cosmic Ascendance was a reality of its own.
The burning ache spreading through his body, the piercing pain radiating from his gut, the pure rage he felt towards his assailants, and the slight, cold tension of defeat that was slowly, insidiously, taking hold at the back of his mind—they were all too real, too visceral. He had never experienced the bite of a wolf before, but he was grimly certain it wouldn't be too different from the agony he was currently enduring.
"Howwwwlllll!!!" The third wolf, the alpha, the patient hunter, threw its head back and howled—a long, mournful, yet terrifyingly predatory sound. Its howl seemed to have an immediate effect on the other two.
They instantly created more distance from Rex. The wolf he'd slammed into the tree was now moving with a noticeable limp as it retreated, its eyes still fixed on him with a mixture of pain and fury.
Then, 'Swooshhh!' Leaving mere after-images in its wake, the third wolf shot forward with blinding speed. Its intent was naked, primal: it was going for a lethal pounce. Rex could feel an instinctive, overwhelming sense of foreboding assault his very being.
Even with the potent augmentation of the "Overlord Branding," he could barely follow the third wolf's movements. A chilling realization dawned on Rex in that briefest, heart-stopping instant: if things did not change, if some miracle didn't occur, defeat was not just possible—it was certain.