It was pointless to stay in the instance any longer, so Liens left after taking one last look at the instructor.

Originally, he had been somewhat inclined to cause trouble for the Glenbagen Family's examiners, but when he considered that the instructor might have already grown suspicious of him, he lost the mood.

Thus, Liens decided to postpone causing trouble for later, perhaps collecting the "fee" for watching the show if he had the chance to meet them again.

Compared to such matters, continuing to practice his sword was more important; this was his purpose in entering the instance.

The scene shifted.

Liens, back in the white space, instantly entered another instance.

This time, the target he chose for his sword practice was the Wind Wolf.

Since he had suffered a setback from it once, he certainly did not want to continue suffering losses in the future.

Therefore, utilizing the characteristics of the instance to increase his understanding of the Wind Wolf was very necessary.

If he had the chance, he also wanted to test the abilities of other monsters to enhance his understanding of them, preparing himself for encounters with monsters in the wild in the future.

It is better to mend the roof before it rains than to dig a well when one is thirsty.

For example, Alger—it was precisely because he understood him well enough that he could manipulate him, leaving him unaware of how he even died.

And Marvin…

So, preparation is truly important, especially for him.

With the instance, he could repeatedly scout the enemy's intelligence, while the enemy would always remain oblivious to him.

And when he was ready to act in reality, it would mean that the horn of death had already sounded in the enemy's ears.

He would, along a predetermined path, pave the way to death for the opponent and lead him into it.

The scene changed.

Liens once again stood on this blood-soaked land, watching the Wind Wolf, with its ferocious face, charging towards him.

Facing this sight, Liens's choice was also to charge forward.

He leaned slightly forward, his legs pushing off, and using the recoil from the ground, he moved rapidly towards the Wind Wolf.

This time, he did not plan to end the battle by dodging attacks but wanted to play a game of head-on collision with the Wind Wolf.

A large amount of dust flew up behind them, and in just a few seconds, their figures intersected.

"Clang"

A sound similar to metal colliding echoed on the "arena."

Liens blocked the Wind Wolf's pounce, his longsword firmly pressed against its bared fangs.

A stream of crimson blood dripped from the longsword into its mouth.

Evidently, even though the Wind Wolf's teeth were very hard, they could not protect its mouth from being completely unaffected by the sharp blade.

However, although Liens blocked the Wind Wolf's pounce and inflicted a negligible injury on it, the impact carried by its half-ton body charging forward was still not to be ignored.

Liens was pushed back a short distance, his feet even grinding two straight lines into the ground.

"┗|｀O′|┛ Roar~~"

Seeing Liens block its attack in such a way, the Wind Wolf roared, extending its front paw to swipe at Liens's chest.

Upon seeing this, Liens took advantage of the Wind Wolf's roar to quickly draw his longsword, exerting force with his body, and similarly met the Wind Wolf's sharp claws with a slashing motion.

The longsword left a large wound on the sharp claw, and a large amount of blood flowed from the wound.

However, in terms of strength, Liens was no match for the Wind Wolf; even though it was blocked by the longsword, the sharp claws still left several deep scratches on Liens's chest.

"Mm…"

"Howl—"

Liens and the Wind Wolf almost simultaneously let out sounds of pain.

However, Liens was more enduring, so he only let out a muffled groan.

And the Wind Wolf's howl, in addition to indicating pain, was more about anger, so it did not conceal its volume.

***

A tremendous roar echoed in Liens's ears.

Liens ignored the pain of his injuries and the Wind Wolf's roars, swiftly raising his longsword with both hands and putting his strength into a heavy, downward slash at the Wind Wolf before him.

The longsword sliced across its face, splitting open the Wind Wolf's roaring mouth and cutting through its vocal cords from top to bottom.

This time, it finally could no longer roar, and upon being wounded, it quickly leaped away, putting distance between itself and Liens.

Liens let out a small breath, gripping his longsword tightly, his gaze fixed on the Wind Wolf not far away, its face covered in blood, glaring furiously at him.

Although the previous injury looked severe, it was not enough to kill that Wind Wolf.

So Liens did not hesitate and continued his assault.

The injury on his chest was a bit painful and bleeding continuously, but such an injury would not significantly affect his speed and explosiveness in the short term.

He pushed off with his legs again, charging towards the Wind Wolf.

Seeing Liens charge at it with his sword, the Wind Wolf began to activate its ability, and One by one "invisible" Wind Blades sliced towards Liens's body.

Watching the azure light clusters appear beside the Wind Wolf, Liens knew that the Wind Wolf had activated its ability.

So, while trying to maintain his charging speed, he carefully observed his surroundings, and whenever he detected a Wind Blade, he would swing his longsword to deflect or block it.

Liens tried to only use his longsword to scatter the Wind Blades rather than dodging, focusing on protecting his vital body parts in this manner.

As for other non-critical body parts, let them be cut...

As for why Liens would do this?

Besides the idea of a head-on confrontation, he also wanted to train his defensive capabilities this way.

Seeing that Liens did not slow down his approaching speed even when facing its Wind Blades, a hint of panic appeared in the Wind Wolf's eyes.

It had not expected the human before it to be so troublesome, so insane.

Even when attacked by dense Wind Blades, even when various parts of his body continuously sustained wounds, he still did not stop his advance.

That feeling, like death by a thousand cuts, even a thick-skinned magical beast like it could not ignore, let alone a thin-skinned biped.

It was somewhat panicked...

So it decided to unleash its most powerful attack as quickly as possible.

The Wind Wolf moved away from Liens to gain time, while gathering all the azure light clusters around it, forming a larger and deeper-colored light cluster.

That deep azure light cluster appeared above the Wind Wolf's head, then shot rapidly towards Liens.

Like the smaller Wind Blades, that light cluster also disappeared after leaving a certain range from the Wind Wolf.

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And very quickly, a huge distortion appeared in the air in front of Liens, accompanied by an unmistakable whooshing sound.

Facing such an attack, Liens naturally had to dodge.

He was not stupid; he knew he couldn't block it, so he wouldn't foolishly try to take it head-on.

Liens moved to his right, dodging the attack of the "Great Wind Blade."

In fact, dodging the "Great Wind Blade" attack was easier than dodging the "Small Wind Blades."

Perhaps because its power was too strong, even the Wind Wolf itself found it difficult to control, the trajectory of the "Great Wind Blade" was actually very obvious.

Compared to the subtle distortion of a normal Wind Blade, the "Great Wind Blade" was a clearly visible, translucent blade slicing through the air.

The difference was like clear glass and frosted glass; anyone with good eyesight could tell.

This was probably why the Wind Wolf initially used normal Wind Blades as feints and traps.

If Liens hadn't been too close before, he wouldn't have been hit.

The translucent Wind Blade passed through the spot where Liens had been, carving deep gashes into the ground.

Looking at the gashes the strike had left on the ground, a hint of lingering fear flashed in Liens's eyes.

Fortunately, he had still managed to block some of the attack with his longsword at the time.

Otherwise, if he had been directly struck by that Wind Blade, even if he didn't die, he would likely be unable to move.