Chapter 28 - The Trek Through Thunder Mountain (1)

The morning sun had barely risen above the horizon and grey clouds still continued to coalesce in the sky while several footsteps could be heard under the shade of red and orange trees. As the over one hundred Magician's and Magical Beast's travelled their way up Thunder Mountain, they all congregated into their own small groups and walked along separately, making sure to keep the group in front of them always in their sight.

In the Wilderwolf party, after walking for one hour in a rather lax manner, a sudden loud growl broke their brief moment of peace.

Instantly, everyone's gaze fixed to the source of the growl and in the dim light of the forest a shadowed predator slowly walked into view. This beast walked on four lean legs and had a long, two meter long sleek, black furred body. Its red eyes glowed in a menacing light.

"Its a Black Hunter!" Uncle Kil shouted out, his eyes turned vigilant as his body rapidly took on a fighting stance. "It seems to be at the Minor Transcendence Rank!"

"Got it!" Jonathan quickly joined Uncle Kil's side while shouting. "Everyone else stand back, me and Uncle have got this!"

The little kitten leapt out of Jonathan's grasp and retreated along with the other soldiers and servants. In a matter of seconds, Uncle Kil and Jonathan are already in a scuffle with this lean predator.

The little kitten watched as the Black Hunter beast weaved and dodged a series of icicle attacks before sucking in a breath of air that it then exhaled outwards in a large, bestial growl!

Boom!

A black flame shot out of the beast's mouth, no larger than a tennis ball and smashed into the ground where Uncle Kil once was. Fortunately, Uncle Kil had reacted quickly and had dodged the black flame, promptly avoiding when that deceptively small flame proceeded to explode into a human sized explosion.

Jonathan took this chance as the Black Hunter beast was distracted with Uncle Kil to make a strike of his own.

Zzzttz!

The sound of electricity buzzed in the air and one could see lightning coalescing around Jonathan's right hand. As quick as lightning, Jonathan's Flash Palm struck down towards the distracted Black Hunter beast!

Despite being distracted, the Black Hunter noticed this dangerous threat in a matter of seconds and quickly rotated its lean body to dodge the brunt of the Flash Palm's attack radius. Yet, the speed of Jonathan's attack was too fast and the beast still suffered from the residual electricity that coursed through the beast's body, forcing the beast to let out a shrill cry. In seconds, the beast leapt back away from its two opponents to save itself from suffering a second blow and to give itself some time to recover from Jonathan's attack.

As that battle continued on, the little kitten and everyone else watched with rapt attention, not noticing another predator sneaking up from their side!

BANG!

The sound of a heavy footstep ringed aloud and broke the little kitten's attention on Jonathan and Uncle Kil's battle. Looking to her left, she found a large shape leaping out from the darkness, its large jagged teeth on display as it came down upon one of the Wilderwolf soldier's.

The wilderwolf soldier, despite his shock, reacted quickly and raised his long, rune empowered spear into the air. He is holding it with one hand holding the far left end and his other hand at the far right, right below the spear's pointed blade.

The attacking beast's mouth is caught by the spear's metallic pole and is held back by the Wilderwolf soldier's impressive strength. Each one of the Wilderwolf soldiers are at the High Stage Foundation Rank while this soldier, the spear wielder is the leader of the six soldiers and is at the Peak of that Stage, nearing his breakthrough into the Inner Haven Rank. All of the Wilderwolf soldier's main asset is their physical prowess and it was clearly put on display here as the spear wielding soldier began pushing the beast that is larger than himself backwards. The large beast's bottom feet began to push into the soft dirt as its large shape was pushed further and further back, helpless against its opponent surprising strength over it.

This beast, which one could see as being a bear like beast with long red fur and a large swirling ivory horn is quickly identified by the little kitten as the Crimson Furred Horned Bear. This was a beast she had seen previously while hunting with Jonathan and was usually around the Major Magical Beast Rank. Obviously, with her only ranking at the Minor Rank, she would avoid someone of this beast's level; so she had not seen one fighting before.

"Attack!" While their leader was holding off the Crimson Furred Bear, one of the soldier's shouted this out. With a flick of his wrists his long blade is drawn and with a single step he is joined by two others as they leap at the Crimson Furred Beast.

"GRUAAR!!" The Crimson Furred Beast's pained voice bellows out as it is stabbed deeply by three blades, all piercing through its tough fur and stabbing into its chest and stomach area. The beast stumbles backwards as it vomits blood a few times before finally succumbing to its death. Its large body kicking up dust as its large frame collapses to the floor.

"Thew..."the Wilderwolf soldier with the spear finally relaxes as his blood pumping muscles recede to their normal state.

The little kitten looked on in amazement. 'Wow, this is my first time seeing the soldiers fighting! Usually its Jonathan and Uncle Kil taking up the reins. What great teamwork and powerful strength! Their blades pierced that bear like it was made out of butter! They were also quick acting, not delaying for a second before acting in unison... The Wilderwolf army sure seems well trained, though I don't have much to compare them too, so who knows.'

BOOM!

A large, explosive sound is heard and then a wave of wind streaks across the surrounding area. The little kitten is forced to close her eyes due to the strong gale force and can only open them once again when it has passed. When her curious eyes open again once more, she finds that Jonathan and Uncle Kil's fight has concluded and the Black Hunter beast is now laying lifeless... And without a head.

"HAHAHA! Did you see that Nephew, that's the power of my fists!" Uncle Kil boasted with a bellowing laugh, his fist waving about animatedly. Strangely, steam seemed to be rising from the fist and his usually white skin had taken on a pink hue around the fist as well.

"Your fist arts are to be truly feared Uncle..." Jonathan could only laugh with a wry smile. "However, those fists didn't stop you from getting cut across the chest!"

"Ah!" Uncle Kil's cheeks turned red in embarrassment and the little kitten turned her gaze to find a large but shallow gash on his chest. "I-I was distracted by your horrible display of what you call your magic!"

"Hah, is that so?" Jonathan asked with a mocking grin. "Uncle truly is shameless, considering all those punches that seemed to always miss. If it wasn't for my lightning paralysing it for a moment, your proud fists looked as if they would never hit."

"That's it, you brat!" Uncle Kil growled and his right fist began to steam up, turning a darker shade of pink, from pink to red.

"Master, Young Master, we have no time for this!" The spear wielding Wilderwolf soldier quickly spoke up with a wry smile. "Look, if we don't move now, we'll lose sight of the other people."

The soldier pointed ahead and everyone could see that the group ahead of them was walking off into the horizon, soon to be out of their range of sight.

"Tch!" Uncle Kil tutted. "We're having another spar tonight!"

"Hehe, you're on Uncle!" Jonathan smirked while cracking his knuckles, which got a short "Humph" out of his Uncle before he began walking ahead.

Despite his grumbling, the little kitten could see the mirth in Uncle Kil's eyes once he turned away from his annoying Nephew. Showing that he wasn't truly angry.

Jonathan joined the soldiers in cutting up the two dead beast's and salvaging all the parts they could before joining Uncle Kil in their journey up Thunder Mountain. The little kitten found her usual perch in Jonathan's hands and her eyes gazed left and right in rapt attention.

'I'm not going to be left out in the next fight!' The little kitten thought with determination.