The wolf saw Ken coming in hot. It instantly reacted with a loud growl, and then charged ahead, teeth bared, ready to go. It pounced at Ken.

’Frontal attack, it’s confident, I can use that to my advantage, get in close, dodge to the side, land a clean punch to the body’

Ken dodged to the side.

His feet planted into the ground, he twisted his body fast, his hands already swinging.

BANG

The fist collided with the side of the body, and it sounded like a gunshot.

The wolf was hurled through the air. It slammed into the ground, several bones had been shattered from that punch, it couldn’t get up fast.

Ken stood there, he knew the level of damage that he had done, the ribs had been shattered, and too much rough movement would puncture the lungs. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

His family, who were in panic, saw the scene, they were stunned. They witnessed the weak and constantly sick brother and son of theirs land a clean and powerful punch to the side of a shadow wolf.

If they had not seen this themselves, they would have sworn that it was impossible, but now they were seeing it happen before their very eyes.

The wolf struggled back to its feet, limping as it moved, it was clear that the attack it just took had completely disrupted its normal body processes.

It rushed at Ken again, it was fast, but it did its best to not place weight on that leg or side of its body, that alone took a lot from its speed and also took a lot of concentration.

’Coming in straight, it knows better than to try a frontal attack, what happened before won’t happen again, it won’t pounce, it will probably go low’

The wolf lunged at Ken’s leg, not going high enough to be hit with the previous attack, it figured that this was the best method that it could use to take Ken down, but Ken already knew this, and so he already had a plan in mind.

He pulled back his leg immediately, and that caused the wolf to hit the ground hard. Now the wolf was right at his feet, the best position to land a punch that would end everything, but instead Ken kicked the wolf hard and threw it back, it hit the ground hard and skidded across the floor.

The wolf struggled back to its feet, staggering and barely being able to stand, just two solid hits and its body was already refusing to respond.

Ken walked towards it, the closer that he got, the more the wolf panicked, scared that it was about to die, it whimpered and moved backwards, trying to get away, but Ken didn’t have time for that, he flash-stepped and kneed the wolf right in the head and into a tree, a loud crack followed and the wolf collapsed to the ground after dying.

[You have leveled up, +4 to all stats]

[Impossible Occurrence, Host has leveled up in an extremely short period of time]

[Host has forced a reward]

[Purity pill has been dropped in inventory]

Notifications sprung up when the wolf died, Ken looked at them with the same blank expression that he always had, but what he was feeling inside was complete excitement.

He had forced the system into giving him a reward, if that wasn’t the biggest flex, he didn’t know what was.

While he was busy looking at the screen, his mother rushed to meet him, she grabbed him from behind and turned him around.

"Are you hurt?" she asked, checking his body all around, then she looked him right in the face, Ken could see her anger, but what followed was hesitation, she had watched her son take down a wolf so easily, she knew that he could handle himself, but even then the instincts of a mother were hard to leave.

"I told you, mum, I’ll be fine here," he said, a voice so confident it could convince a man to sell his own soul.

She took a deep breath to calm herself, and then she spoke.

"I don’t even know what to say, you were sick only yesterday, and now you are taking on these powerful beasts, it’s like you aren’t the son I know."

Ken panicked when he heard that, but then she stretched her hands and placed them on his cheek. "But I can tell that you are him, I’d never not know my son."

In that moment, Ken’s heart broke for her.

’I’m not your son, he died, killed by your own son. But I can’t tell you that, for my sake and for yours, but I’ll avenge him.’ Ken looked at his brother, a stare that meant one thing, I’ll come for you.

Since his mother had genuinely seen that her son was strong enough, she left after discussing with him, she promised to come check on him and bring him good food, Ken wanted to refuse, but his eldest brother insisted.

So after a long talk with them, they left, and Ken was finally free to get back to work.

He headed back to his clearing and was about to start working, but then he sensed someone, he looked up and he saw Luna walking from behind the rock, but her expression wasn’t the same as before, she tried to make it look normal, but there was a hidden frown.

"Who was that?" she asked before Ken could even utter a word.

"Uhm, who?" he asked.

"The woman that hugged you!" she asked, this was the first time that he had heard her speak so clearly and straight to the point.

’What the hell is going on? She looks like she wants to bash my head in or something.’

"Oh, that’s my mum, she was worried about me and came to check on me," Ken explained.

Instantly, her face lit up again, all the evil that had covered her face vanished.

"Oh, that’s fine," she said eagerly and then rushed to meet him.

’What the hell is happening, why did she act that way?’ He wondered, something about how she reacted felt off, but he didn’t think about it much, he just forgot it,

She grabbed his hands and she reached him, leaned in with bright eyes.