The Iron-Hide Wolf towered in the middle of the wasteland like a monolith of rusted steel and fury. Its breath escaped from its jaws in clouds of yellowish vapor that instantly dissolved in the cold air of the Rotten Sector. Sebastian felt a chill run down his spine, for before him stood an opponent whose level sixteen made it nearly invulnerable to an ordinary Rank F hunter. The eight-level difference and an entire rank created an invisible mana pressure around the beast that made Sebastian's [Stone Skin] vibrate with tension even before physical contact began.
The boy took a cautious step to the left, trying not to take his eyes off the yellow fires in the monster's pupils. He knew his mother was sleeping in the apartment behind his back, and this thought was the only thing keeping him from the instinctive urge to bolt. His Strength of sixteen units seemed meager to him now, yet he gripped the handle of the "Black Star" tightly, preparing for the hardest fight of his life.
The wolf attacked instantly. Its massive body turned into a blurred shadow that crossed the wasteland in a fraction of a second. Sebastian barely had time to activate [Shadow Step], diving into the thick shadow of an old mailbox. He appeared three meters to the side just as the wolf's claws shattered a concrete slab with a roar where he had stood a moment ago. The impact was so powerful that stone chips flew like shrapnel, painfully hitting Sebastian in the face.
"Fast, too fast," he rasped, trying to catch his breath.
The beast-like Rank E gave him not a second of respite. The wolf spun in place, and its tail, resembling a flexible steel whip, sliced through the air with a loud whistle. Sebastian tried to block the blow by crossing his arms in front of him. The [Stone Skin] skill worked at full capacity, yet the level sixteen momentum was merciless. The boy was thrown back and flew several meters before hitting the rusted body of an abandoned van hard.
The van's metal crumpled under his weight, and his eyes momentarily darkened. The System issued a red warning about internal organ damage, but this was where his Luck of thirty-six units began to act. While the wolf prepared for the final leap to tear the throat of the disoriented prey, an old advertising structure unexpectedly collapsed onto it from above. It had been rusting on the roof of a neighboring building for years and should have fallen last winter, yet right now the fastening failed, and the heavy metal frame pinned the beast with a crash.
This didn't cause serious damage to the wolf, but it gave Sebastian those few seconds that were vital to him. He stood up, spitting out blood, and activated [Mana Resonance]. Now he saw the wolf not as a beast, but as a complex system of mana flows. Luck suggested to him that during the fall of the structure, one of the sharp metal beams had accidentally pierced the armored plate on the wolf's left side, leaving a small but deep wound there.
The wolf broke free from the debris, enraged and even more dangerous. It let out a roar that made the air tremble and lunged into the attack again. This time Sebastian did not run. He waited until the last moment, feeling how Luck was literally whispering the correct angle of his head tilt to him.
The beast made a lunge with its jaws, but Sebastian used [Shadow Step] again. This time he moved not to the side, but directly under the beast's belly. It was a suicidal maneuver, as any movement of the monster's paw could crush him. But at that exact moment, the wolf's back paw slipped on spilled oil from the punctured van. The beast momentarily lost its balance, and its belly was suddenly very close to Sebastian's blade.
The boy struck with the "Black Star" with all the strength his organism could produce. The mana-conducting threads in the knife flared with a bright purple light, and at that moment the [Critical Surge] skill responded in his mind with a short flash. The combination of high Luck and the passive ability worked perfectly. The blade passed through the soft tissues, and a magical discharge struck directly into the wolf's internal organs.
The beast let out a painful shriek and threw Sebastian away with a kick of its back paw. The boy rolled across the concrete, feeling his ribs crack, yet he saw that the wolf was now seriously wounded. Black mana blood flowed from the wound on its belly, and the yellow light in its eyes began to dim, giving way to frantic, animalistic malice.
Sebastian stood up with difficulty, leaning on the knife. His Mana was almost at zero, and his body begged for rest, yet the fight was not over yet. A Rank E wolf was too resilient to die from one strike, even a critical one. The beast crouched to the ground, preparing for the last, most desperate attack.
An unnatural silence fell around, broken only by the heavy breathing of the human and the wheeze of the wounded monster.