Chapter 19: The Great Battle of Mane and Wolf

Accompanying the sound of beast hooves, all three of Xia Hong tightened their breathing.

On the west side, a behemoth with shoulders two meters high and a body length of over four meters suddenly approached the torch step by step.

Its back was covered in thorns shaped like icicles, and two fangs stood high.

Its fierce eyes, although staring fixedly at the torch, would also turn from time to time to observe the situation around it.

Its massive size made every step it took cause snowflakes to fly.

Xia Hong, hiding in the snow pit, felt his heart tremble with every one of its footsteps.

"An adult Snow-Mane, this must weigh over a thousand jin!"

Compared to the juvenile one last time, this Snow-Mane was clearly a size larger.

And judging by these tentative footsteps.

The intelligence of this adult Snow-Mane was also clearly much higher than the previous one.

The Snow-Mane slowly walked to the side of the torch.

Like the one last time, it first arched its nose close to the torch, feeling the temperature coming from the firelight.

In just a few seconds, it clearly experienced the benefits of the torch; the Snow-Mane's pupils immediately dilated, and its movements became light and relaxed.

This system, what exactly is the thing it gave me?

It can heal cold beasts and make cold beasts stronger.

Xia Hong looked at this scene, feeling slightly heavy in his heart.

If the small torch is like this, what about the small bonfire in the camp?

If cold beasts discovered it, they would probably fall directly into madness.

"Before having strength, the small bonfire must not be exposed."

Xia Hong gave himself a reminder and continued to look over.

That Snow-Mane stood in front of the torch for over ten breaths, its movements becoming more and more excited, and it even placed its chin on the flame.

The hair on its chin was not burned; instead, it became increasingly shiny.

Xia Hong could even clearly feel that the Snow-Mane's momentum was stronger than before it approached the torch.

Afraid of disturbing the intoxicated Snow-Mane, Xia Hong didn't dare to turn his head to look at the east side.

But seeing that the Frostwolf hadn't come over for a long time, he also started to mutter in his heart.

"That Frostwolf, could it be that it's scared and doesn't dare to come?"

He had already tried it before; the torch's burning time was only fifteen minutes.

Now, nearly a third had already passed.

It seemed that today's torch was going to be wasted.

Fortunately, it was the first time, so wasting it was normal.

However, just as this thought emerged.

A sound that shook the earth suddenly came from the snow.

Xia Hong turned his eyes and looked toward the east side, but he didn't find anything.

But the movement in the snow was real.

What was going on?

Beside the torch, the Snow-Mane clearly also felt this vibration; its gaze had become fierce, and its expression had changed from the previous enjoyment to brutality.

It stared fixedly at the direction from which the movement came, its pupils gradually turning red, and the two high-standing fangs looked full of brutality.

Sshhh...

A sound of sharp thorns piercing the air suddenly erupted.

Under the Snow-Mane's feet, a circle of thorns suddenly grew; the thorns rose suddenly from the snow, piercing directly toward the Snow-Mane's most vulnerable abdomen.

Even if it was smart, the Snow-Mane couldn't have imagined that there would be thorns extending from under its feet. Although it reacted quickly and dodged to one side, its abdomen was still slashed with a wound over a meter long.

As the sharp thorns fully extended from under the accumulated snow, their owner also revealed its true form.

Xia Hong saw that familiar cold beast, and his expression instantly stiffened.

That was no special cold beast; it was clearly the Frostwolf he had seen.

Of course, it was an adult.

What had just extended from under the snow to attack the Snow-Mane was the circle of thorns on its neck.

This Frostwolf not only knew how to burrow under the accumulated snow but also knew how to approach slowly without making a sound, and finally deliver a surprise attack.

While Xia Hong was shocked by the Frostwolf's intelligence, the injured Snow-Mane also moved.

Sss... sss...

Dark green blood gushed from its abdomen; the Snow-Mane stood firm, roared crazily toward the location of the thorns, and the sharp sound pierced the night, shaking off quite a few icicles on the surrounding trees.

Its eyes were full of hatred, staring at the Frostwolf's position; its hind legs stomped on the ground, and it put all its strength into bowing its head and charging; its speed was fast, arriving almost in an instant.

The Frostwolf clearly also knew that the Snow-Mane was angry and didn't want to collide with it head-on; it actually shrank back under the snow and then ran wildly straight toward the torch that had just been knocked away.

Good fellow, if one strike didn't hit, it immediately grasped the core contradiction.

How could Xia Hong not see that this Frostwolf was actually trying to grab the torch and run.

It wasn't just him who saw it.

That Snow-Mane, which was in a state of rage, also saw it.

Compared to the wound on its abdomen, the Snow-Mane seemed to value the torch more.

It didn't hesitate in the slightest, quickly changed direction, bowed its head deeply, and then rushed toward the torch.

Xia Hong at first thought that it bowed its head to store power.

Looking again, he realized it wasn't at all.

The Snow-Mane's fangs pierced directly into the snow on the ground, and as it rushed over with the momentum of a thunderbolt, the snow on the ground was also all lifted up.

Plus, as it rushed over, its four limbs stirred intentionally, and countless snow was lifted away, immediately exposing the ground.

This was deliberately not letting the Frostwolf burrow into the snow.

The Frostwolf under the snow hadn't reached the torch before it was picked up by the Snow-Mane's fangs.

The Frostwolf's body wasn't considered large, but the violent force still caused it to crash sideways into a Vermilion Frost Tree behind it.

Even so, the Frostwolf still stood up quickly, its crimson eyes staring at the Snow-Mane, baring a mouth full of fine fangs, its ferocity rising to the peak, its hind legs suddenly kicking the ground, and it pounced toward the Snow-Mane.

The Snow-Mane feared nothing more than this kind of brute force collision; facing the pounce, it didn't dodge in the slightest, charging forward tit-for-tat.

However, the Frostwolf's pounce was just a feint; when it reached in front of the Snow-Mane, it suddenly lowered its body, avoided the Snow-Mane's body, opened its mouth full of fine fangs, and bit fiercely onto its left hind limb.

Sss... sss...

The Frostwolf's bite force was clearly not low.

The Snow-Mane felt the pain, raised its head and let out a sharp, ear-piercing hiss, then turned its head to try to bite the Frostwolf; when it missed, it changed to arching, wanting to arch the Frostwolf away from itself.

But since the Frostwolf had already gotten a bite, how could it be so easy to let go.

While using its flexible body to dodge constantly, it didn't loosen its mouth in the slightest; after just a while, it bit the Snow-Mane's left hind limb until blood flowed incessantly.

Even as it made a tearing motion with its mouth, the white bones inside were vaguely visible.

The Snow-Mane felt more and more pain, and after finding that it couldn't arch it away, its pupils condensed, and it actually fell down sideways.

Then followed a crazy plowing of the ground; its thousand-jin body, plus the terrifying power contained in its body, and the blessing of the will to survive, the Frostwolf was crushed until its nose and mouth bled incessantly after just a few times.

But even so, it still bit down hard and didn't loosen its mouth.

The Snow-Mane's impact happened a full hundred times and was still continuing.

But the Frostwolf just wouldn't loosen its mouth.

Whether it was due to excessive blood loss or exhaustion, the frequency of the Snow-Mane's impact became lower and lower, and the force also became smaller and smaller.

Until the flesh and blood of the left hind limb had been torn from the lower leg to the thigh, and the complete leg bone was almost visible.

That Snow-Mane finally fell down!

And at this time, the area of several dozen meters was a mess.

Even on Xia Hong's side, which was fifty meters away, the snow on the ground was affected; if not for the fact that the snow pit had been dug far away, all three would have been shaken out.

Although Xia Hong was shocked, it was the second time he had seen it, so he could generally maintain calmness on his face.

Beside him, Xia Chuan and Yuan Cheng were dumbfounded at this moment, the two pairs of eyes exposed on the snow full of shock and horror.

They had originally thought that after breaking through to the Woodcutting Realm, not to mention hunting cold beasts, at least self-preservation shouldn't be a problem.

Only now did they realize that they were wrong to an outrageous degree.

However, another scene that happened next.

Made them even more unable to believe their eyes.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 20 =====