48 Blood Wolfs Nes (1/2)
Shin Sumi completely ignored what she had gotten herself into. Due to her insane Shinsoo affinity after having opened fifty two Shinsoo apertures, the formless barrier that would normally block any disciple below the Liquid Realm from entering the limited areas had just been felt like a relatively strong pressure for her.
As Patriarch Sen was pulling his hair off his head in anger and anxiety, Shin Sumi was plummeting through the darkness towards the Blood Wolf's Nest, wondering what sort of treasure would be waiting for her.
She also knew that a treasure would not appear unprotected simply waiting on the floor. There would obviously be some form of trial or test which Shin Sumi couldn't wait to discover, with confidence in her strength.
What she had always accounted for in the Rising Star Tournament was that everything had to be designed for Honorary Disciples. In fact it was her main supposition regarding the 'blur' that had saved her from the giant crocodile. Because of the strength of the crocodile, it had been restricted for the safety of the trial-takers.
But in her suppositions, Shin Sumi had not thought that she could go off-limits and put herself in real danger. After all, she was one of the strongest people currently in this dimension!
At a point during her short fall through the black opening in the earth, Shin Sumi felt herself slow down. Light had not quite returned to her yet, but she knew she had lost momentum.
”It is like moving through honey” she thought, ”the Shinsoo pressure just went up a notch! It is good, maybe I'm getting close to the Vein of Hell Fire! Or maybe it's a secret cultivation place!”
Like a feather gently pushed by the wind or a falling leaf, Shin Sumi put her foot on solid ground with grace. Because she had now gotten completely through the barrier preventing access to low level disciples, the Copper Bell suddenly activated, revealing her surroundings.
The grin on Shin Sumi's mouth and the golden sword in her hand instantly froze while all the hair in her body stood up.
”Wha- what is that?!!” she was about to say out loud before the life-saving fear that had overtaken her kicked in and glued her vocal cords shut.
In front of Shin Sumi laid hundreds or thousands of Blood Wolves. It was a whole army currently sleeping soundlessly. But what was even more frightening was the huge mountain of fur in the center of the immense room that rose and fell with the rhythm of a slow and steady breathing.
Shin Sumi realized that the pressure that rendered all her movements sluggish actually came off of the giant beast sleeping in the middle of the pack.
”S-so huge! And strong... Even without the massive Blood Wolf being awake I can hardly move”, she thought.
The unsurmountable power wasn't something Shin Sumi could comprehend with her Shinsoo Gathering strength. It was definitely above the giant crocodile's realm.
”This beast must be at least in the mid-Liquid Realm. It's not something I can handle at all” she now realized with panic!
Shin Sumi was trapped in the middle of an army of sleeping Blood Wolves.
Looking at the darkness above her and feeling the formless pressure on her shoulders she didn't even attempt to jump out of the hole where she came from. No, she would have to find a way out somewhere else. And without awaking the Blood Wolves.
After analyzing her situation, Shin Sumi started to explore the giant cave, carefully treading the beast covered ground.
From the Shinsoo fluctuations of all the creatures around her, Shin Sumi discovered that they were all extremely similar to the five she had fought above the entrance. They all shared the same dark fur and red markings on the length of their powerful bodies and they also were only about red core level fighters.
By themselves, the Blood Wolves posed absolutely no threat to Shin Sumi, even if they ganged up on her with a ten to one ratio.
She scanned the room with her eyes in a futile attempt to count them. With their amount, Shin Sumi had absolutely no chance of victory whatsoever.
And that was of course without counting the white furred mother Blood Wolf. It was clear now to Shin Sumi that this cave was their lair, and all the Blood Wolves were protecting the mother.
Even normal wolves found in the forests of the mortal world were very territorial creatures, always protecting their lair. It wasn't even unusual for them to have a few guards outside of their nest.
Had Shin Sumi been a tad bit slower in defeating the five guards up above, she would have jumped in the middle of an army of alert, enraged and bloodthirsty wolves.
Shin Sumi's face was so pale that she looked like a skeleton.
”This time I really screwed up... I need a miracle to get out of here alive!”
The miracle came when she reached the other side of the wolf mother, after an hour of walking carefully in order to not make any noise or worse, step on a Blood Wolf's tail.
Without any prior indication, her bag of holding started to vibrate. In less than the moment it takes to blink, the Gold Tyrant Flying Sword was flying around her, casting a golden light on the hills of fur around.
”A Vein of Hell Fire? Here?!”
Suddenly it all made sense. Of course the mother Blood Wolf would make her lair close to such a powerful source of Shinsoo. It may even have been what allowed her to grow so big and her pack to number in the thousands.
The sword cut through the air with astonishing speed towards a wall far away. Thankfully it was the furthest possible from the enormous white furred Blood Wolf.
Zzziiiiing.
The weapon was vibrating powerfully, a sign of the Vein of Hell Fire being really close, and in less than half a breath of time it had disappeared through a large crack in the wall.
Shin Sumi followed the golden arc cautiously, glad that she could escape this hellish place.
She had gone only a quarter of the way when she realized that the ground felt like it was vibrating.
”No, it's not the ground... It's a growl!”
She turned around faster than a bolt of lightning, right on time to see the mountain of white fur slowly grow bigger and bigger. From under the fur, a powerful leg appeared, then two. The legs were slender and aerodynamic. A red streak of hair ran along the muscles, stopping in between the claws of the beast, making them look like blood was dripping from them.
Each one of the claws was bigger than a two-handed sword and probably sharper.
After the legs came what was the biggest animal head Shin Sumi had ever seen. Compared to the mother Blood Wolf, the giant crocodile was just a large lizard!
The maw of the beast was large enough to hold a two stories house in it and the sharp teeth were definitely enough to crush it to dust in one bite. But what was even more terrifying were the red eyes of the Blood Wolf, piercing the white fur and scanning the room for the source of the noise that awakened it from its slumber.
Shin Sumi was frozen in place, unable to move under the pressure of the gaze. She could only look in despair at the huge Blood Wolf and the red eyes fixated on her.
Willing herself to move, she soon realized that the Shinsoo emanated from the beast locked her in place, rendering all efforts useless.
”The strength of a Liquid Realm beast. I'm completely powerless against that thing!”
The growl of the mother Blood Wolf soon got picked up my more and more low-level wolves starting to awaken as well.
The white Blood Wolf suddenly lifted its head towards the ceiling of the cave and started to howl. The power of the soundwave reached Shin Sumi the next instant, throwing her in a straight line until she collapsed against the wall, blood spurting from her mouth and dripping down her ears.
She was still conscious albeit stuck in place, faced with thousands of wolves who were now howling too, and their terrifying mother.
Sending a sliver of divine sense into her bag of holding, Shin Sumi summoned a few paper talismans. In her current immobile state it was the only thing she could use.
The talismans ignited a few meters in front of her, forming a blast of white flames that illuminated the entire room, and sent the closest wolves flying. Shin Sumi herself felt the heat of the flames but she endured, closing her jaws tight. Even the mother Blood Wolf seemed affected, not by the blast or the faraway heat but by the light. The red eyes closed for an instant, rupturing the pressure that assaulted Shin Sumi.
All it took was a split second for Shin Sumi to get up and throw more paper talismans. She only had a couple left and the explosions were less powerful than the previous ones but they allowed some distraction to get rid of the mother Blood Wolf's insane pressure.