CHAPTER 54: A CRUSHING VICTORY

As the terrain shifted, the Moon Wolf used its final trump card, the Moon’s Grace, growing his attributes by 50% for three minutes, more than enough time to end the battle.

The already towering wolf stood taller, its body leaner and sharper, radiating with spectral light that gleamed off its fur like polished steel.

Its muscles coiled tighter, growing not only his brute strength but also giving him terrifying speed. The air bent faintly around it from the visible aura it radiated, and mist clung to its body like a living shroud.

This was its true form, blessed by the bloodline that gave the beast its name.

But Vlad did not flinch.

The ground beneath them was a fragmented graveyard of shattered ice. The Silver Howl had torn apart the battlefield, flooding the frozen lake with surging, frigid water.

Chunks of broken frost bobbed and shifted, sharp edges rising like the teeth of buried blades. The dense mist reduced vision to mere meters, and breath fogged out instantly, frost biting into lungs like powdered glass.

Any misstep meant falling into the freezing lake and being claimed by the deathly cold.

But Vlad wasn’t looking at the terrain; his eyes were locked on the Moon wolf, who stared right back at him with cold, killing intent.

A moment later, the beast vanished, turning into a silver flicker that appeared only meters away. Its claws slash into the ice, each swipe increasing its already incredible speed.

Vlad barely avoided the first strike, Ghostweave taking hold in time for his form to dissolve into a shadowy blur, the Moon Wolf’s claws slicing through afterimages.

The second strike followed instantly, not a heartbeat apart, a low sweeping strike designed to catch his legs.

Vlad leapt back, higher into the air, his body twisting mid-flight, coat snapping in the wind as the world below blurred. His chain unraveled in one fluid motion, and in that frozen second, he threw his sickle downward. It pierced the shattered ice with a sharp crack, lodging into the ground.

The chain snapped tight, and his body shot downward like a meteor.

He dropped behind the wolf’s arc, boots slamming into a jagged platform of ice just.

The wolf jumped to the platform on his left, his form vanishing into the mist, only to lung at Vlad from behind, an impossible angle that most would not even consider being attacked from after just seeing the wolf a second ago.

But Vlad was not a normal player. His inhuman instincts were currently pushing far past their normal limits, and he could see the wolf attack before it happened, making the vast difference in speed between the two just a minor inconvenience.

However, Vlad also knew that while he was capable of matching the beast in speed, it would not last long, but thankfully, he did need to keep up for long.

Vlad shifted and leaned back, making the Wolf miss by a hair’s breadth. As the great wolf landed, its claws tore into the ice, and its body turned with impossible ease to pounce on him once more.

Vlad jumped back, a smile spreading on his face as he saw the visible tremor that shocked the wolf’s hind leg with a flicker of green light pulsing in the shallow wound on its back right leg.

A subtle, verdant glow spread from within the shallow wound, then turned violent. The poison seed planted by Venomous Bloom had reached maturity.

The Moon Wolf snarled as he landed, missing Vlad by a large margin. In a flash, green tendrils of energy erupted from the mostly closed wound, thin writhing strands that coiled together to form a flower.

In the blink of an eye, pale green petals grow around a core illuminated with a bright, verdant light. The core pulsates with a slow, ominous rhythm, like the heartbeat of something alive.

The flower looked like a water lily. It was small, barely the size of a closed fist, and it appeared both delicate and deadly.

The pain of the Venomous Bloom only stopped the Moon wolf for a moment, and now he was staring back at Vlad, eyes full of murderer’s fury.

But that moment was enough for Vlad to spring his plan into action. The second the wolf recovered from the shock, the sickle curved through the mist and met the small verdant flower.

The Moon wolf ignored the attack and lunged at Vlad, who rushed to the left, not caring that the beast would catch him by the back of his neck in a few seconds.

Vlad hadn’t just suddenly lost his cool, but he knew the poison bloom that had activated using his last attack would trigger in just a few seconds, and when that happened, he needed to be a few meters away from the Moon wolf.

"BOOOOMMM"

A muffled explosion occurred, and as Vlad used his sickle to slide to the right, he watched a spray of corrosive miasma tear out from the back leg of the silver wolf. It was a thick, steaming cloud of poison and rot, glowing like an emerald flame.

The Moon Wolf was forced to a halt, a gaping wound the size of a basketball torn into the upper part of its right hind leg. From it oozed thick, sludgy blood, black and bubbling with toxins, dragging strips of torn flesh with every pulse.

The Moon wolf growled through clenched teeth, its back leg all but crippled and its health groping to 43%.

The wolf, feeling the danger, quickly recovered and lunged to its right. Its body was a streak of silver, still faster than most could track. Its jaws snapped, tearing through where Vlad should have been, but he was gone like a ghost.

The wolf turned its head to follow him, but it was already too late. Vlad drove the first sickle through the shallow wound on its neck, tearing it wide open as blood fountained from the rupture.

The Moon wolf, still disoriented by the intense pain, turned and snapped his jaw, missing Vlad once again, who slipped beneath his neck and to the other side.

The Wolf tried to pull back, its open maw snapping to the other side. His front paw moved, aiming to tear Vlad away, but before it could do anything, the second sickle cut into the Moon Wolf’s left eye, slicing through the glowing orb and into the skull beneath.

Vlad wrenched the curved sickle upward, splintering bone and tearing through the flesh. A second later, its tip punched through the top of the Moon Wolf’s skull before halting, buried deep and unmoving no matter how much he tried to just tear it back.

He pulled it back and drove it to the side. The stunned beast finally reacted, snarling as its sharp claw raked across Vlad’s side, failing to tear open the armor, but the blunt force was enough to throw him off his feet.

Half-thrown into the air, Vlad twisted mid-motion, one hand snapping to the chain of his second sickle, ready to drive it into the wolf’s other eye.

The wolf’s jaws closed around his torso, ready to crush him.

But then, the massive silver beast staggered. Its front legs buckled, barely keeping him on his feet. Feeling the shock of having his brain destroyed and seizing the opportunity, Vlad then drove the second sickle into its one remaining eye.

The beast shuddered, its breath caught mid-snarl, and its legs finally gave out, causing it to lose its balance and crash to its side.

Its body hit the shattered ice with a thunderous crash, still struggling but barely functioning, and as a second passed, the two sickles did more and more damage, with poison eating through his inside, and with its health reaching near zero, his eyes began to grow dim.

System Notification:

{Congratulations, Player V.}

{You have defeated the Hidden Boss [Moon Wolf – Ghost Howler] of the Field-type Dungeon [Frostveil Expanse].}

{This boss was previously undiscovered. You are the first to uncover and slay this encounter.}

{Reward Modifier Activated – Discovery Bonus ×2}

{Experience Gained.}

{Level Up}

{Level Up ×8}

Rewards Acquired:

Equipment: Frost Fang (Epic)

Skill Tome: Howl of the Moon – Emit a spectral roar, briefly summoning two phantom wolves for 10 seconds. Scales with player Mind and Endurance.

Unique Crafting Material: Heart of Ice (Legendary)- A rare material that could be forged into a weapon, used to concoct an elixir for frost immunity to strengthen an ice-type spirit.

Unique item: Frigid Star (Quest Item)

Unique item: Frost bane Spirit Shard ×1: A shattered spirit fragment, once belonging to a Sovereign Ice Spirit that ruled the frozen north in the era of chaos.

Currency:

Gold: 13,500

The Moon Wolf was dead, its glowing silver fur slowly faded to pale grey, and the mist slowly began to lift, leaving only silence and blood-steamed frost.

Vlad sighed in relief. After giving the long list of rewards a brief glance, he closed the window and then dismissed the sickles. Then, with a quiet breath, he dropped to one knee and stored the Moon Wolf’s massive corpse in his inventory.