The Ascension Phase Gloom Wolf Beast (Part One)

"Come on then — call out your Summoned Beast." Li Junwei stepped forward as the representative of this five-person challenge team, his bearing sharp and self-assured.

"Unless yours happens to be a Bone-Eating Demon, we'll make sure you know exactly what we're capable of!"

"This guy seems to be the only one we never managed to gather intel on. No idea what his Summoned Beast actually is."

Mo Fan surveyed the five of them — clearly prepared, clearly coordinated — and let a lazy smile settle across his face.

He was the kind of person who loved a good fight, sure. But right now was the Gloom Wolf Beast's moment to shine.

"Fight for me!"

Moonlit Star Trails bloomed in front of Mo Fan, rippling into a dimensional crack — a bridge between planes — summoning a creature from an unknown world.

From within that rift, a ferocious dark-blue head thrust forward.

Then came the body: powerful, dense with coiled muscle. Sleek fur rippled and billowed in the spatial turbulence as wild beast aura rolled outward in waves. In an instant, the Gloom Wolf Beast became the undeniable focus of the entire arena.

"It's a Gloom Wolf Beast!!"

"That wild, fierce presence — it's nothing like that scrawny little one from earlier. It's practically a different species!"

"Something tells me this one isn't going to be easy to deal with. Who would've thought that this last Summoning student's beast would be a fully grown, prime Gloom Wolf Beast? I wonder if Li Junwei's team can actually handle it."

Backstage, the six Summoning Element students exchanged looks, their mouths falling slightly open in surprise.

"It seems... it seems even stronger than when I last saw it." Instructor Jiang Yunming murmured softly to himself.

**"Fwooooooooo——"**

A surge of bestial wind erupted outward from the Gloom Wolf Beast, rolling in every direction. Dust rose in amber waves, sweeping across the enormous arena floor and washing over the five challengers standing in its path.

For no reason they could name, their legs began to tremble.

The big-headed student at the front of the formation turned and looked back at their leader, Li Junwei.

"What are you scared of? It's just a Gloom Wolf Beast — not a Bone-Eating Demon!" Li Junwei snapped in irritation.

"I don't know... this doesn't feel like an ordinary Gloom Wolf Beast to me."

"Stop feeling and start fighting. Kill it first, talk later."

The five had clearly practiced working together. The moment they faced Mo Fan's Gloom Wolf Beast, they shifted swiftly into a loose but deliberate formation: Wind Element at the vanguard, Water Element at the rear, Lightning and Fire on the flanks, Earth Element anchoring the center.

A five-person unit built on Wind, Water, Lightning, Fire, and Earth made for a sound and well-balanced team. At Pearl Academy, Lightning Element students were hardly a rarity, so fielding this Five-Element Formation wasn't particularly difficult.

Li Junwei's group had clearly come ready for a fight. If Luo Song hadn't appeared out of nowhere, they would have taken on one of the earlier Summoned Beasts with just the five of them.

Now only Mo Fan — the very last Summoning student — remained. They couldn't afford to wait any longer.

"Big Head, your job is disruption and containment. Remember: a Gloom Wolf Beast's burst speed is something else entirely, so if you're going to Flash Step, you move *fast*. Hesitate even a little and it'll swat you dead before you reach your new position." Li Junwei's tone was flat and serious.

"Got it — I'll use Wind Trail · Drifting Shadow instead!" said the large-headed Wind Element student at the front.

"Spotty — don't assume that just because the Gloom Wolf Beast is far away it can't reach you. They have a breath technique: they can fling sand and shrapnel at range. If any of that connects, you'll be half-dead on the spot." Li Junwei turned to address the Water Element Mage standing behind him.

The girl — her face peppered with acne — gave a firm, serious nod.

"Alright. We move. A little Gloom Wolf Beast is not going to stop us from making our mark at Pearl Academy. Let all those disorganized challengers who came before us see what real teamwork actually looks like!" Li Junwei's face was alight with battle confidence.

Treating combat as a one-person affair — that was the failing of every challenger who had come before. At the Basic Level, where every Mage had access to only a single spell, teamwork was everything. Lightning might be the supreme element — king among equals — but not even Lightning could take on a Demon-Beast alone. Water might appear passive and non-threatening, yet its defensive technique — the only one available at the Basic Level — was absolutely vital in any real fight. As far as Li Junwei was concerned, no element was useless from the start. There were only fools who refused to cooperate.

Mo Fan watched their formation take shape and felt a genuine, war-hungry grin tug at his face.

*This is actually interesting.* These five had real tactical instincts — as sharp as anything he'd seen back in the City Demon-Hunting Squad.

"Keep your guard up — they really seem to understand how to—"

**"Awoooooooooo——!!"**

Mo Fan never finished the sentence.

The Gloom Wolf Beast had already decided it was done waiting. It went from a dead standstill to a full cheetah sprint in under a second — an explosive burst that would probably leave even a One-Eyed Demon Wolf feeling inadequate by comparison.

The Gloom Wolf Beast surged forward, aimed directly at the Wind Element student at the vanguard of Li Junwei's formation.

The big-headed Wind Element student's face held a trace of nerves, but his footwork was nimble and practiced.

He activated a level-three Wind Trail. Its shimmering paths threaded and crisscrossed a wide swath of the arena — dozens of overlapping wind corridors stitching together into a high-speed network built for him alone. Within it, he moved light as a swallow...

Wind Trail · Drifting Shadow offered a far broader range of movement than Wind Trail · Flash Step. It scattered afterimages across the entire field — phantoms of a wind-walker flickering at every junction — making the Mage himself as untrackable as a gust of wind. No pattern. No fixed trajectory. No way to pin him down.

The Gloom Wolf Beast's first strike came down hard. Its claws closed on nothing but wind and shadow. The big-headed student had already drifted to a position more than twenty meters away before the impact landed.

**"Fwoo——!"**

The Gloom Wolf Beast snapped its claws back immediately. Its body scraped along the ground in a brief sliding stop — and then, within a single second, it reversed direction and hurled itself straight at the big-headed Wind Element Mage in a second charge.

"Second Burst!" The words left Li Junwei's mouth with a sharp edge of shock.

Under normal circumstances, a Gloom Wolf Beast needed a moment to recover after an all-out burst attack — just like a sprinter who needs to catch their breath after a dead run.

But this one had retracted every ounce of its momentum immediately after the first strike, killed its own inertia at full speed, and launched an even fiercer second burst.

"Spotty — protect him, *now*!" Li Junwei barked.

At second-burst speed, the Gloom Wolf Beast was more than capable of running the Wind Element student down — twenty meters of distance had seemed safe, but not anymore.

Water droplets materialized from thin air, rushing toward each other as though magnetized, bonding and swelling until they had formed a solid wall of water directly between the Wind Element student and the charging beast.

**"Fwoo——"**

Halfway through its charge, the Gloom Wolf Beast spotted the water barrier.

A flicker of contempt crossed its pupils.

It didn't slow down. Heavy claws extended and came tearing toward the Wind Element student all the same.