Still, despite the situation Nick found himself in, he wasn't nearly as nervous or despairing as he had been in his encounter with the Awakened White Ox.
For one, this Sabertooth Wolf was only a Mundane beast, so the danger was much lower than his fight with the Awakened White Ox.
But the danger of death was still there. The Sabertooth Wolves might have lower strength and defence than the average Mundane beasts, but their speed was on par with that of an Awakened beast.
One slip up could be all it takes for Nick to gain a life threatening injury from the beast.
All of a sudden, Nick snapped out of his messy thoughts as the Sabertooth Wolf compressed it's hind legs and lunged upwards, snapping its jaws open in preparation to take a bite out of Nick.
Not wanting to succumb to such an injury, Nick jumped off the branch and landed on the ground below, narrowly avoiding the wolf's strike.
'Nice!'
Nick felt good, as he had managed to dodge something with the speed of an Awakened Beast.
However, things had barely gotten started.
The wolf seemed to have anticipated Nick dodging, and it corrected its trajectory to land directly on top of him, extending its terrifying claws and teeth in preparation to tear him to shreds.
'Crap!'
Nick couldn't afford any more time to think as he awkwardly shifted to the side. Unfortunately, his speed was nothing compared to gravity sending a 50kg lump of meat his way.
Clack.
A loud sound reverberated as the wolf's jaws clenched down with all the strength it could muster, accompanied by squelching and crunching.
"Arrrghh! Fuck…"
Nick screamed as an intense pain assaulted his mind. He looked over at his wrist, where the wolf's jaws were currently clenched around, and saw as it bent at an odd angle with blood quickly pooling on the grass below.
His bone was clearly broken in half, with even his artery pierced by the wolf's razor sharp teeth.
Nick winced as he felt his head start to become dizzy from the rapid loss of blood.
'I have to end this quickly before I actually die!'
Nick didn't think things would come to this, since the Sabertooth Wolf was only a Mundane beast, but it was clear he had underestimated it.
Or perhaps he had overestimated himself.
Or both.
Regardless, he needed to do something, quickly.
He unsummoned his dagger as it sat in the hand of his injured arm, before quickly summoning it again, into his other hand this time.
Filled with panic and rage, Nick seized the opportunity and cut into the neck of the Sabertooth Wolf with a determined stab.
His dagger sliced through the beast's jugular, and the wolf involuntarily winced and loosened its vice-like grip on his hand.
Nick quickly pulled his injured hand away from the beast's grasp, and took a hurried step backwards.
He expected a counterattack from the Sabertooth Wolf to come at any moment, but it seemed he wouldn't have to worry about that.
The beast was quickly losing blood, at an even faster rate than Nick himself.
The wound the wolf had inflicted on his wrist only cut a small hole in his artery, which while still life threatening, the speed of his blood loss wasn't too much for him to handle by putting pressure on it.
The wolf, on the other hand, wasn't so lucky.
Nick's dagger had sliced clean through the jugular, separating it into two halves.
Without some sort of life saving healing ability, the wolf would be done for, and it quickly the advantage of speed as the seconds ticked by, as all energy seemed to have been sapped out its body.
Nick followed it from what seemed like a safe distance as he watched the beast gradually slow down, and eventually take its last breath.
[Awakened Beast Sabertooth Wolf killed.]
[Beast Armament of the Awakened Sabertooth Wolf acquired.]
[Consume the beast core to gain up to 50 Soul Seeds.]
'A beast Armamant! Fuck yes!'
The words affirming his triumph over the Sabertooth Wolf whispered in his ear and appeared in his mind.
Nick heaved a sigh of relief when he saw that.
Things were never truly over until the Beast Domain itself confirmed it.
For all he knew, the wolf could have faked the weakness, or even its death, in a desperate attempt to lure Nick in and take him with it in death.
But when the Beast Domain itself said so, its death was 100% confirmed.
'Wait a minute…'
However, when Nick felt some life force enter his body and gradually begin to heal the wounds to his wrist, his mind stopped functioning for a split second.
Nick hadn't received any life force from his previous kills of Mundane beasts…
Only from killing an Awakened beast did he feel it.
Which meant…
Nick hurriedly summoned the last message the Beast Domain had said to him, and felt shock reverberating through his system.
'An awakened beast…'
Considering the evidence was laid out in front of him by the Beast Domain's words, it was irrefutable.
Nick had killed yet another Awakened beast.
But he felt like his mind had short circuited yet again.
'I've never heard of an Awakened Sabertooth Wolf before?'
There was no chatter in the sanctuary about anything like an Awakened Sabertooth Wolf existing. Nothing in his education in school had mentioned such a thing either.
Not all beasts had stronger counterparts, or so it was widely accepted.
But from what Nick was seeing, that clearly wasn't the case with the Sabertooth Wolves.
'This doesn't make sense…'
'Does this mean that my information wasn't wrong? It's just… nobody has encountered an Awakened Sabertooth wolf before?'
Suddenly, Nick's eyes widened.
'No! It's not that nobody has encountered one before! But perhaps that nobody has survived an encounter with one!'
The more he thought, the more fear Nick felt.
If his thoughts turned out to be true, then that would be a terrifying revelation for the War Beast Sanctuary.
In fact, the more he thought about it, the more it made sense.
Anyone with mostly Awakened Soul Seeds in their Soul Core wouldn't bother to venture into Vaylan forest to hunt Sabertooth Wolves, as it just wasn't worth it in their eyes.
Sure, Sabertooth Wolf corpses were worth about two times as much as a normal Mundane beast corpse. But so what? That was still nothing compared to what even weak Awakened beast corpses were worth.
It just wasn't economical for them to do so.
Only weak people like Nick dared to enter Vaylan forest. Not only were the Sabertooth Wolves more profitable for people like him, but if they were lucky enough to obtain a Beast Armament, that would give them the chance to claw their way up from the bottom.
But with only weak people entering Vaylan forest…
That would explain why nobody had heard of Awakened Sabertooth Wolves.
Because nobody was strong enough to kill one.
Until now.
'Wait, speaking of beast armaments…'
Nick felt his pulse quicken as he remembered a crucial piece of information.
Didn't he acquire a beast armament from this?…
If Mundane Sabertooth Wolves gave him the speed of an Awakened beast…
What would the Beast Armament of an Awakened Sabertooth Wolf give him??