Brother Wolf, Can We Part on Good Terms?

"Homeless people live around here — the kind who never make it into police population records. This One-Eyed Demon Wolf is clever: it hid in an abandoned construction site and fed off people no one would ever notice were missing. If we hadn't found it, god knows how many more would've ended up as its next meal." Mo Fan let out a cold snort.

Zhou Min was too frightened to speak. She had come here with nothing more than a desire to find the source of those tremors — she never imagined she'd come face to face with a man-eating Demon-Beast. Even with Bo City's population of nearly a million, even accounting for the people who died every day, that didn't mean the living were supposed to be devoured by something lurking in a place like this. It was horrifying. All of it was absolutely horrifying.

"Come to think of it, Zhou Min — don't you think this One-Eyed Demon Wolf looks a bit different from what our teachers described?" Mo Fan said, eyes fixed on the vile creature in the distance.

Zhou Min had absolutely no mental bandwidth for that kind of question. The only thought in her head was how to slip out of this construction site undetected and immediately report this nightmare to the Hunters' Alliance.

"Its body looks about two sizes bigger than what the teachers mentioned. This isn't an ordinary One-Eyed Demon Wolf." Mo Fan continued.

Zhou Min felt herself going insane.

*Can we figure out how to escape first? How is this guy possibly this calm?!*

Mo Fan himself quickly realized that Zhou Min was just a proud schoolgirl — someone with zero interest in analyzing a horror scene like this.

"Get out of here. Call the City Demon-Hunting Squad hotline. While you're at it, have the police clear the residents and any homeless people from the surrounding area." He told her.

"What about you?" Zhou Min asked.

"I'll stay and keep an eye on it." Mo Fan said.

Zhou Min stared at him like he was a freak of nature.

They were both third-years. How was he looking at this scene with absolutely zero reaction? A normal person would've already wet themselves.

Then it hit her — this absolute lunatic had actually killed a Gloom Wolf Beast before. Demon-Beasts apparently didn't inspire much fear in him anymore.

What a weirdo. What a complete weirdo.

"I… I already notified them," Zhou Min said quietly.

Mo Fan was baffled, and asked without thinking, "How did you — oh, SHIT!!"

In that instant, he understood exactly how badly they'd just messed up.

**"Grrrrowl——"**

Not far away, beneath the floor slab, the One-Eyed Demon Wolf slowly turned its head. That single lantern-like eye locked directly onto the spot where Mo Fan and Zhou Min were crouching.

The air froze solid.

Even pressed behind the brick wall, both of them could feel the bone-chilling killing intent radiating off the creature.

A gust of night wind swept through, carrying a thick, suffocating stench of blood — and it hit them both square in the face.

Zhou Min went blank. She could never have imagined the wolf would find them so suddenly. Meeting that single eye was like plunging headlong into an abyss of pure terror; her body refused to move.

"For the love of — did nobody ever teach you that Demon-Beasts can sense mobile signal transmissions?!" Mo Fan seized her wrist and bolted for the construction site exit at a dead sprint.

In this world, the most unpredictable thing about magical creatures was exactly this — their ability to detect signals from magical-technology devices. Sending a distress text to the City Demon-Hunting Squad with your phone on silent was as good as broadcasting your GPS coordinates directly into the creature's skull. One second flat — and you're caught.

**"GRAAAOOOWL——!!!!"**

The One-Eyed Demon Wolf realized it had been exposed. Its body coiled instantly, and like a coyote lunging at prey, it launched itself toward Mo Fan and Zhou Min at terrifying speed.

Fortunately they'd kept their distance from the creature — had they been any closer, they would've been the wolf's midnight snack the moment it spotted them.

Mo Fan ran flat out, connecting Star Trails as he went.

He'd learned this technique during his previous hunts with the squad. A Mage who stood frozen in place to form Star Trails was asking for a chunk of rubble to come flying at their skull — and that would be that.

"Fire Burst: Char Bone!"

One hand clamped around Zhou Min's wrist as he sprinted; the other drew together a blazing fist of fire.

He vaulted over a pile of cement bags, and at the peak of the jump, sent the flame hurtling back at the wolf thundering close behind.

**Whoooosh——**

The blaze from Fire Burst: Char Bone tore across the ground at ferocious speed, igniting a stack of waste timber in an instant. The wall of heat that erupted forced the One-Eyed Demon Wolf to pull up short rather than charge straight through.

The fire was never meant for the wolf itself — Mo Fan knew better. A One-Eyed Demon Wolf's agility was in the same league as a Giant-Eyed Ape-Rat; those powerful limbs let it spring effortlessly among the ruins. His skills weren't nearly precise enough to land a clean hit on something moving that fast.

The point of the Char Bone blaze was simple: build a wall of fire and cut off the wolf's pursuit.

**"Grrrowl——!!!"**

But the wolf's raw mobility far exceeded his expectations. Its powerful hind legs found purchase in the rubble — and it launched itself clean over the roaring wall of flame.

**THUD.**

The One-Eyed Demon Wolf landed hard, a cloud of dust billowing around it.

Its single eye found them again immediately. Hind legs hammered the ground, body coiling low — and then it was a cannonball, barreling straight at them, sending construction timber, mounds of sand, and hauling carts flying in all directions as it tore through the site.

Mo Fan glanced back and swore under his breath.

This One-Eyed Demon Wolf was something else entirely. Not just fast — its body was built like a wrecking ball. One direct hit and you'd be finished. It was easily the most powerful Demon-Beast he had ever faced.

Good thing they'd been keeping their distance when this started.

The construction site boundary was just ahead. Once they were out in the open, they'd at least have more options.

**CRASH!! CRASH!! CRASH!!!**

The temporary outer wall of the construction site exploded like cardboard, smashed flat by the wolf's bulk. Mo Fan and Zhou Min had just made it onto the old residential streets when they spun around — and found the One-Eyed Demon Wolf still coming.

*Are you serious? We're out of bounds and you're STILL chasing us?!*

Mo Fan had figured the wolf had some degree of intelligence — smart enough to hide in an uninhabited site and quietly prey on homeless people. He'd reasoned it wouldn't dare follow them into the streets, where it would immediately become a citywide target the moment someone spotted it. He'd been dead wrong. This wolf had the strategic instincts of a rock. It had just crashed right out after them without a second thought.

*Look, Brother Wolf. Hunting people out in the open like this — sure, it's night, and the old district's basically deserted, but someone will still see it eventually. Someone will make a call. How about we both just walk away right now? We turn that corner up ahead, we part ways, and neither of us looks back.*

*You're still coming?! Fine — keep chasing, and don't blame me for what happens next!!*