The Divine Wolf... or?
Chapter 118: Things aren't always that bad!

Seeing the cute little cub lying next to its mother, Ark was a little surprised, did it not notice that she was already gone? He involuntarily walked a little closer, and as he did, he was shocked! This couldn't be, right? For a second, he heard a very faint heartbeat. Ark wasn't sure if his mind was playing tricks on him, or if he actually did hear a heartbeat, and he decided to move a little closer.

As he did, he realised that his mind wasn't playing any tricks on him! There truly was a heartbeat! Albeit so faint that he could barely hear it, Ark was sure that it was there if he concentrated hard enough.

Since there was a chance to save the cub's mother from the jaws of death, Ark didn't dare waste any time. He walked a little closer again, alerting the little cub again. Seeing Ark approach, the cub didn't do anything, from its point of view, Ark had saved them, and he was way stronger than the small cub, so even if the cub wanted to do something, it couldn't, it didn't have the strength.

As Ark walked closer, he started to emit countless amounts of light mana, the light mana that radiated from his body slowly made its way over to the wolf's body, where it converged above its soft fur.

The mana then slowly started burrowing its way into the wolf's body, healing whatever places it could. This first batch of mana permeated throughout the wolf's entire body, which almost immediately resulted in the once faint heartbeat growing a little stronger. As Ark sat down next to the cub and its mother, he first glanced at the cub, before refocusing on the mother again.

The cub felt reassured by Ark's glance and nuzzled up against its mother even more, it didn't want to leave her side.

Ark focused on the long vertical cut on the wolf's back, this was the biggest problem right now. He still constantly released light mana into the wolf's body, to mend whatever was broken on the inside, and to help with the blood loss, but for now, he needed to stop the bleeding. Ark focused to the best of his ability and sent an even larger stream of light mana to converge atop the wolf's back.

The wound, now exposed to countless amounts of light mana, started to slowly mend together.

Since there were no other visible injuries on the outside, Ark diverted some of his attention to focus on some of the internal bleedings inside of the wolf's body. Like this, three wolves sat closely together next to a battered up tree, with radiant light covering all of their figures. Time quickly passed, and half an hour was already gone.

The wound on the wolf's back had already been closed in its entirety, replaced with a scab. When Ark healed her wound, he used the bulk of his mana to spark her own body's regenerative capabilities, which resulted in her wound healing cleanly.

Ark was a little close to fainting himself, and he had to stop himself from sending any more mana into her body since his mana reserves were running dangerously low at the moment. He didn't want a repeat of the situation that happened the last time he had run completely out of mana, and he decided that it was for the best if he stopped, her condition was stabilized for now either way.

The small cub was looking at Ark with a happy expression when it noticed its mother's condition slowly but surely improving.

Ark was very exhausted after using up a large portion of his mana pool, and he just laid down on the ground for a while and rested his body and mind. In all honesty, he really wanted to sleep, but he didn't really think it was safe to just fall asleep here.

Even though he doubted that the cub would do anything, considering what he had done for them, he still needed to be on guard against other magical beasts and animals.

As that thought crossed his mind, Ark's expression darkened a little, and he used a minuscule amount of mana to get rid of the demon's corpse that had been lying on the ground for all this time. He had forgotten about the fact that magical beasts would be attracted by the scent of blood because he was so focused on saving the wolf.

He was almost certain that some magical beast would come sooner or later, he could only hope that he had recovered some of his mana by then, or that it was weak enough for him to defeat it with his physical strength alone.

After nearly half an hour had passed, Ark's worries came to fruition. A fairly large black panther sneakily made its way toward them through the thick underbrush. As it was about to pounce toward them, Ark made his move. Though the panther was supposedly fairly strong, Ark managed to sever it in two without it taking much effort on his part.

Even though his mana was still low, his mind was a lot clearer, and he could use his physical strength to its fullest.

The cub's eyes shone as it looked at the dead panther that laid on the ground next to them. Seeing the small cub salivate while it looked at the panther's corpse, Ark tossed one of the halves to it, before eating the other himself. Eating a magical beast was a good way to recover his mana faster, as its body contained large amounts of mana that he could easily just digest by eating it.

Ark was a little hungry after all the healing too.

The cub was even happier than he was, and it instantly devoured a large portion of the dead panther. When there was only a third of it left, the cub seemed to realise something. After glancing at its mother lying on the ground, the small cub placed the rest of the meat in front of its mother, before it nudged her a little with its head.

Noticing the lack of response, the cub was feeling a little dejected, and it just curled itself up on the ground next to her.

Ark could only smile bitterly upon seeing the cubs antics before he himself laid down on the ground next to them, he made sure to keep some distance though. The cub noticed Ark lying on the ground resting next to them, and it promptly stood up. After everything Ark had done for them, the cub waltzed over to him and just cuddled up next to him.

Though shocked at first when he felt the warmth of the little cub lying next to him, Ark didn't let it disturb the little cub's rest. He couldn't help but feel touched by the cute little cub's actions, and he was happy that he decided to help.

Even though he liked talking to Thufrat as a friend and all that, this felt a little different, it was something Ark had never really felt before, and he couldn't really put his finger on it. Even though he wanted to replace out, he just couldn't be bothered right now, he didn't want to ruin the moment.

Though the little cub appeared collected and fairly calm on the surface, Ark could feel its frantic heartbeat when they laid next to each other, and his own heart started to ache a little as a result. He really liked this cute little cub, and he didn't want it to feel this bad and distressed. Ark would feel a lot more at ease if the little cub could just be happy together with its mother.

After lying next to Ark for a while, the cub started to calm down a little, and its frantic heartbeat started to beat with a more relaxed rhythm as it fell asleep.

When Ark felt the change in the cub's mood, as well as its warmth, Ark slowly slipped into unconsciousness himself. To any outsider, this probably just looked like a small wolf pack resting in the forest, though that wasn't really the case.

Though asleep, Ark could easily notice if any hostile animals or magical beasts showed up since he never really slept too deeply, but fortunately, no magical beasts were attracted by the lingering scent of blood from the panther that Ark had killed earlier.

Possibly because no magical beast was around, but it could also just simply stem from the other magical beasts being afraid of Ark, his bloodline was noble compared to theirs after all.

It took almost two entire hours before Ark actually woke up again. When he did, he mentally scolded himself a little for being careless and just falling asleep like that, but at the same time, he hadn't slept that well in a while! Even if the sleep itself only lasted for two hours, Ark felt oddly at peace during those two hours, and he didn't dream any unpleasant dreams as he would quite often.

When he was held captive for about 5 weeks, not only was his life a living nightmare, he had literal nightmares every single time he fell asleep, and he had just been living in hell.

With a quick glance at his status, Ark could see that his mana had recovered quite a bit, and he decided to use half of what he had recovered to heal the injured mother.

He didn't move away though, as the cub was still happily immersed in its sleep for now, and he didn't want to take that away from it, as its reality wasn't the nicest right now, considering that its mother was almost on the brink of death just a few hours ago.