Chapter 135: The Wolf Who Tried to Be A Hero

"Stop him!" Hei Yan roared, launching himself forward.

Sha Chen didn’t even bother spinning his spear. He took one look at the absolute behemoth barreling toward Xin Yi and realized a little spear wasn’t going to cut it.

Sha Chen dropped the weapon.

With a sickening, bone-cracking sound, the Arctic Wolf completely shifted into his beast form for the first time since in a long time.

Sha Chen didn’t hesitate. He pushed off his powerful hind legs, soaring through the air, and clamped his massive jaws directly onto Jin Ze’s thick, muscular neck.

CRUNCH.

To any normal beastman, that bite would have been a guaranteed death sentence.

But Jin Ze was completely feral, fueled by pure, corrupted madness. He didn’t even flinch. The monster simply reached up with a hand the size of a dinner plate, grabbed the Arctic Wolf by the scruff of his neck, and violently ripped Sha Chen off his body.

With a terrifying roar, Jin Ze swung his arm and hurled the giant wolf across the clearing.

"No!" Xin Yi screamed.

Sha Chen flew through the air, crashing brutally into one of the newly constructed stone fire pits. CRACK. His head slammed terribly against the jagged rocks.

The majestic wolf slumped into the dirt, entirely motionless, a dark pool of blood beginning to mat his pristine white fur.

Hei Yan bellowed in pure fury, launching his panther form at the feral lion to avenge the wolf. His claws were aimed straight for Jin Ze’s stomach.

But the corrupted lion was too fast. He swatted Hei Yan mid-air with the back of his massive hand. The blow carried so much force it nearly gutted the Panther Alpha. Hei Yan was sent spinning, crashing into the dirt with a pained yelp, clutching a set of deep, terrifying gashes across his chest.

"Oh no," Xin Yi breathed, her heart dropping into her stomach as both her Alphas went down in a matter of seconds.

Jin Ze completely ignored Qing Lin, who was currently hissing and trying to coil his massive python tail around the lion’s legs. The feral monster locked his glowing red eyes entirely on Xin Yi and the bubbling stew pot again.

He lunged.

Xin Yi’s eyes widened in panic as she thought of what to do. System had abandoned her. She couldn’t call upon the goddess.

Well, if she couldn’t, she would do it another way!

"You this bad kitty!!!!!!" Xin Yi shrieked at the top of her lungs.

Without even thinking, she grabbed the glowing blue Bone of Discipline and hurled it through the air like an Olympic javelin.

Thwack!

The massive femur bounced harmlessly right off Jin Ze’s thick forehead. It didn’t even slow him down, but it made the feral lion stop.

He slowly turned his massive head, his drooling jaws snapping as he glared at the tiny, pink-skinned female who had just thrown garbage at him.

He let out a guttural growl, abandoning the stew to charge directly at her.

"Boss, run!" Gou Sheng howled, diving for cover.

[Ding!]

[(⁠๑⁠•⁠﹏⁠•⁠) System Alert! Incoming Death by Rabid Cat! Host, please use your brain!]

Oh, so you’re back, you pathetic excuse of an helper! And I am using it! Xin Yi screamed internally.

She looked around frantically. She didn’t have a weapon. She didn’t have super strength. But she was the Chief Architect, and she knew exactly how light worked.

Xin Yi dove to the dirt, grabbing the polished, completely flat metal lid of the giant iron pot that had fallen to the side.

As Jin Ze barreled toward her, opening his massive jaws to swallow her whole, Xin Yi dropped to one knee. She angled the shiny metal lid directly toward the roaring campfire, catching the bright, flickering orange flames, and reflected the blinding light straight into Jin Ze’s hyper-dilated, blood-red eyes.

"Take this, you flashbang!" Xin Yi yelled.

Jin Ze shrieked.

The sudden, intense flash of light completely blinded the nocturnal-hunting monster. He stumbled backward, throwing his massive hands over his eyes and swiping blindly at the empty air, completely disoriented.

Xin Yi didn’t celebrate.

Her eyes darted across the camp, landing on the unmoving, blood-stained silver wolf lying by the rocks.

Sha Chen hadn’t twitched.

A sharp ache pierced right through Xin Yi’s chest. The arrogant, witty wolf who had spent the entire day drawing architectural plans in the dirt with her was just lying there.

"Sha Chen," Xin Yi whispered, horrifying tears stinging the corners of her eyes. "Wake up, you stubborn wolf... please wake up."

The feral lion roared, shaking his head as his vision began to clear. He locked onto her again, looking ten times more furious than before.

Xin Yi’s sorrow instantly transmuted into a blazing, terrifying wrath.

"You do not get to hurt my wolf!" Xin Yi snarled, her brown eyes completely darkening.

She scrambled across the grass, snatching the discarded glowing Bone of Discipline from the dirt. She didn’t retreat. She ran toward the nearest boulder, using all her momentum to scramble up to the top.

Jin Ze charged the boulder, his jaws wide open.

Xin Yi didn’t wait for him to reach her. With a battle cry that would have made the Goddess Mán Shū proud, she leaped directly off the rock into the air, raising the massive, glowing femur high above her head.

She swung it with every single ounce of strength, grief, and absolute fury in her tiny human body.

BONK!!!!!

The glowing bone connected squarely with the exact center of Jin Ze’s skull. The massive, corrupted lion’s eyes completely rolled into the back of his head. His forward momentum abruptly died.

He swayed on his feet for one, two, three seconds.

Then, like a towering ancient tree finally giving way to the axe, Jin Ze collapsed face-first into the dirt, completely passed out.

Xin Yi landed in the grass, panting heavily, her chest heaving as the glowing bone slipped from her trembling fingers.

[Ding!]

[(⁠★⁠ω⁠★⁠) CRITICAL STRIKE! Boss Defeated!]

[Host has successfully subdued an Apocalyptic Threat with blunt force trauma!]

The silence that followed the thud of Jin Ze’s massive body hitting the dirt was heavy, broken only by the crackling of the fire and Xin Yi’s ragged breathing.

The glowing Bone of Discipline slipped from her fingers, clattering against a stone as she scrambled toward the motionless pile of white fur near the destroyed fire pit.

"Sha Chen!" Her voice cracked.

She dropped to her knees beside him, her hands hovering over the gash on his head before gently pressing against his neck. A pulse. Faint, thready, but there. Relief washed over her so violently she nearly collapsed, but she forced herself to move.

This wasn’t the time to fall apart. This was the time to be the Boss.

"Qing Lin! Hei Yan!" she shouted, not looking up as she carefully lifted Sha Chen’s head into her lap. "Stop glaring at each other and get over here! We need water, clean cloths, and those herbs I showed you for clotting! Now!"

The Alphas snapped out of their stupor. Qing Lin was at her side in an instant. Hei Yan roared orders at the stunned Lion tribe, mobilizing them to fetch supplies with a speed they had never shown for their own Chief.

Xin Yi ignored them all, her focus entirely on the unconscious wolf. She tore a strip from her own tunic, dipping it into the water Gou Sheng brought, and began gently dabbing the blood from Sha Chen’s fur.

Her touch was feather-light, terrified of causing him more pain.

"You idiot," she whispered, her thumb brushing over his closed eyelids. "You arrogant, stubborn, show-off wolf. You couldn’t just let someone else take the hit, could you? You had to be the hero." Tears finally spilled over, tracking through the dust on her cheeks. "Don’t you dare leave me now. Not after we built all this. Not after I finally.....finally started to trust you."

She worked tirelessly, cleaning the wounds, applying the poultice Qing Lin handed her with shaking hands, and arranging the furs around him to keep him warm.

From the sidelines, a shaky voice broke through the tension. Su Ye, the cheetah beastman, crept forward.

He looked battered, his spots dull with exhaustion, but his golden eyes were wide with awe as he looked at the tiny female cradling the massive, fallen Alpha.

"Thank you," Su Ye rasped, dropping to his knees and bowing his head until his forehead touched the dirt. "You saved us all. You saved... you saved my life. I don’t know how to repay you."

Xin Yi didn’t look up from Sha Chen’s face. She just scoffed, though there was no bite in it, only exhaustion. "Save the gratitude, stripes. Just make sure you don’t lead any more monsters to my camp, and we will call it even."

A chorus of agreement erupted from the shadows. Gou Sheng, Er Gou, and Da Sha pushed their way to the front, their spotted tails tucked between their legs but their eyes fierce with loyalty. They dropped a pile of soft moss and extra pelts at Xin Yi’s feet, forming a protective semi-circle around their injured leader and his caretaker.

"Boss fought the big bad cat!" Da Sha declared, puffing out his chest despite his trembling limbs. "Boss won! Boss is strongest!"

"But Boss is tired now," Gou Sheng added softly, nudging Xin Yi’s arm with his snout. His yellow eyes were filled with concern. "Boss has no energy left. Boss needs sleep."

Er Gou nodded vigorously, snapping his jaws at a approaching lion who looked like he wanted to ask a question. "Go away! Boss must rest! We guard! We bite anyone who wakes Boss!"

Xin Yi looked at the trio of scavengers, then down at the peaceful, breathing face of the Wolf King in her lap. The adrenaline was fading, leaving her bones feeling like lead.

She leaned back against the rock, pulling the furs tighter around Sha Chen, and finally, finally let her eyes close.

"Fine," she murmured, her voice slurring with sleep. "Guard us. Wake me if he... if he wakes up..."

"Boss must rest," the hyenas chanted in a low, rhythmic whisper, settling down like loyal sentinels as the savanna night swallowed them whole.