"This is... Blaze!"
Noticing the changes in his body, Zeng Tian's eyes suddenly lit up.
He had almost forgotten that the Ability of his current Charmander body was Blaze!
Blaze was an Ability that certain Fire-type Pokémon could trigger only when pushed to their limits.
In the games, it boosted the power of Fire-type moves by fifty percent. In reality, it was even more like adrenaline, temporarily blocking out pain.
"Awooo!"
With a wolf's howl, the Gale Demon Wolf unleashed the fully charged Razor Wind from its mouth.
The instant the Gale Demon Wolf attacked, Zeng Tian leaped up, opened his mouth, and spat out streams of orange-red flame.
There were fifteen flames again, but this time, each was noticeably more than a size larger than before. The scorching heat rippling around them proved that their power could not be mentioned in the same breath.
One, two, three...
One orange-red flame after another met the Gale Demon Wolf's blue-green wind blade. With every flame from Zeng Tian's Ember that it struck, the blade's color faded a little more.
Finally, after the tenth flame, the Gale Demon Wolf's blue-green wind blade could hold out no longer and exploded.
The blast was powerful, but not enough to alter Ember's trajectory. The remaining flames pierced the mingling red and blue-green smoke and dust, hurtling toward the Gale Demon Wolf.
"Awooo!"
Seeing its strongest attack defeated, the Gale Demon Wolf's eyes filled with shock and confusion.
This orange, fire-breathing lizard had not been this strong just moments ago!
That moment of shock slowed the Gale Demon Wolf's movements by half a beat. It failed to evade all of Zeng Tian's remaining flames, and one struck its hind leg.
At the same time, an orange figure suddenly burst out of the smoke. White claw streaks flashed through the night, aimed straight at the Gale Demon Wolf's most vulnerable spot-its belly.
Startled, the Gale Demon Wolf leaped aside, raising its right forepaw to swat at Zeng Tian.
Rather than take the blow head-on, Zeng Tian unleashed Ember again, targeting that right forepaw.
Seeing this, the Gale Demon Wolf immediately pulled its right foreleg back and twisted aside.
But how could Zeng Tian let it have its way? He immediately adjusted his aim, fixing on the Gale Demon Wolf again.
With Blaze boosting the current power of Zeng Tian's Ember, even though the Gale Demon Wolf had a stronger body than his, a single hit would leave it badly wounded.
The Gale Demon Wolf naturally knew this too, so it shifted its body again, unwilling to take Zeng Tian's attack.
But the distance between them was too short. Even with the Gale Demon Wolf's renowned speed, it could not completely evade a multihit attack like Ember.
The next instant, the Gale Demon Wolf let out an agonized howl. Ember was stronger than it had expected; just a few flames nearly punched straight through its body.
Blood gushed from the blackened wounds and splashed onto the ground, adding another trace of bloodshed and horror to a place already littered with the dead and wounded.
After suffering such a grievous injury, the Gale Demon Wolf lost all desire to fight. It turned and fled into the distance.
"Trying to escape? Not a chance!"
Entering the Blaze state was equivalent to tapping into a hidden reserve of energy. Once it wore off, Zeng Tian would once again be a gravely wounded Charmander, his oil spent and his lamp guttering out.
He and this Gale Demon Wolf had already become mortal enemies. If he let it go and it returned for revenge after Blaze wore off, he would have no strength left to resist.
He had to seize this chance while Blaze was still surging and kill the Gale Demon Wolf in one stroke!
Zeng Tian's gaze sharpened. As he pursued it, he let out an angry roar at the top of his lungs!
"Char!!"
Sound waves spread outward in rings. The fleeing Gale Demon Wolf felt its head swim, and its body struggled to muster strength, slowing it considerably.
Seeing that it worked, Zeng Tian's eyes lit up. He stirred the energy within him and kept roaring at full volume.
"Char!!"
"Char!!"
"Char!!"
Dragon roars rang out one after another. Though his lv2 Growl was not high-level, its effects were very real.
The Gale Demon Wolf had been extremely fast, but first Ember had wounded its hind leg, and now Zeng Tian's Growl was affecting it. Having strength it could not use was excruciating.
Ember!
Streams of orange-red flame shot from Zeng Tian's mouth, flying like arrows toward the Gale Demon Wolf ahead.
Normally, given the Gale Demon Wolf's speed, Zeng Tian would have struggled to aim Ember and land a hit when it was on guard.
But now, under the combined effects of several factors, the Gale Demon Wolf's speed and reactions had plummeted. It had already lost the ability to evade Zeng Tian's Ember.
Sss, sss~
The orange-red flames touched the Gale Demon Wolf's fur, setting it ablaze instantly. Its powerful flesh could not withstand the flames, and more than a dozen large holes appeared across its body.
The searing pain wrung a shrill howl from the Gale Demon Wolf. Its body could no longer hold out, and it crashed to the ground.
Wolf blood poured from the Gale Demon Wolf's wounds as its breathing grew faint. Soon, it stopped moving altogether, seemingly dead.
Yet Zeng Tian did not rush forward. Instead, he stopped thirty meters from the Gale Demon Wolf and unleashed another Ember at its corpse.
Under normal circumstances, after taking two of Zeng Tian's Blaze-boosted Ember attacks, with the second hitting in full, it was only natural that the Gale Demon Wolf would die. But Zeng Tian was not reassured.
The Gale Demon Wolf had taught him that even an opponent cornered in utter desperation could turn the tables at any moment.
"Awooo!"
Just as he unleashed Ember, the Gale Demon Wolf, whose breathing had already stopped, suddenly opened its eyes. It turned toward Zeng Tian and fired another Razor Wind.
But even its fully charged Razor Wind at peak strength had been no match for Zeng Tian's Ember, let alone this instantly fired, uncharged wind blade.
Just four of Zeng Tian's flames shattered the Gale Demon Wolf's Razor Wind. All the remaining flames struck the wolf.
Bang!
This time, the Gale Demon Wolf did not even howl before its body collapsed like a stack of blocks with its central piece pulled out.
Next, Zeng Tian subjected the Gale Demon Wolf to utterly ruthless treatment, raining Ember on it without pause. Only when yellow motes drifted from its body and gathered into a pale yellow Soul Ring did he stop attacking.
"Huff, huff..."
Zeng Tian panted heavily, staring at the mangled corpse of the Gale Demon Wolf not far away, and fell silent.
By all rights, Zeng Tian should have hated it, because it had nearly taken his life.
But for some reason, he could not summon that feeling. He felt only a jumble of conflicting emotions.
This Gale Demon Wolf had used tactics. After discovering him, it had not attacked immediately, instead choosing to surround him and launch a simultaneous attack.
It had hidden in the shadows itself, ready to deliver a fatal blow at any moment.
Facing him when he was already gravely wounded, his oil spent and his lamp guttering out, it had not advanced recklessly. Instead, it had fully exploited its advantages and tried to finish him off from a distance.
If his Charmander body had not grown so quickly, breaking through repeatedly and triggering Blaze, he would already have been dead.
After this battle, the little pride Zeng Tian had harbored as a transmigrator had completely dissipated.
This was a real world. Even low-level Soul Beasts like these wolves possessed tremendous intelligence. They were not creatures he could casually look down on.