The Bone Shield Saves the Day

"Mo Fan… Mo Fan… what do we do? We can't outrun it."

Zhou Min's face had gone chalk-white with fright, her whole body pressed tight against Mo Fan's back.

The old neighborhood lay silent in the dead of night. The nearby construction ruins had driven most residents away long ago, leaving the street nearly empty. The One-Eyed Demon Wolf had already burst through the site's outer wall and was charging straight down the mud-slicked road. Beneath the long sweep of shadow cast by a row of old banyan trees, all that could be made out was a dark shape tearing through the darkness.

"Take your grandmother and run — I'll hold it here!" Mo Fan called back to her.

No matter how fast a human could sprint, they couldn't outpace a One-Eyed Demon Wolf on four legs at full tilt. Once again, Mo Fan was acutely aware of just how badly he needed a movement skill.

"How are you going to hold it—"

"Stop wasting time," Mo Fan cut her off.

Zhou Min was a Fire Element Mage herself, but her Fire Burst: Scorch would do nothing against a One-Eyed Demon Wolf of this size. His signal device had already indicated that a Demon-Hunting Squad teammate was nearby — he just had to hold on long enough for backup to arrive.

Zhou Min finally stopped hesitating and sprinted toward the houses of the old district.

But Mo Fan had underestimated the girl's heart. She didn't just go to warn her grandmother — she was making her way through the neighborhood to rouse every elderly resident still living there.

When Mo Fan realized how many old people were still in the area, his brow furrowed.

*If we hadn't exposed this thing tonight, every one of them could have ended up as its next meal.*

Here it comes.

The One-Eyed Demon Wolf charged at last — twenty meters between them.

Twenty meters the wolf could close in under a second.

Demon-Beasts were far more terrifying than any textbook description. The wolf bearing down on him at full sprint exerted a pressure on the mind no different from a car hurtling toward you at speed. An ordinary person would have been rooted to the spot.

"Told you to stop chasing me, you dumb bastard!" Mo Fan glared at the oncoming mass of muscle and teeth, fury spilling out freely. "What, am I going to drop legendary loot when I die?!"

But cursing was all it was — he had no intention of going down without a fight.

His Mental Intent locked onto the sickle-shaped seal in his Inner World, and in an instant, an ethereal light bloomed from his body.

Right before him, the pale glow traced an outline at blinding speed, sketching a three-dimensional diamond-shaped shield that stood a full head taller than a man.

At the peak of the light's intensity, something solidified within the glow — a shield of dark-tinged bone, sharply edged and solid.

Enchanted Gear: the Sickle-Bone Shield.

The Sickle-Bone Shield, shimmering with that ghostly light, materialized and hung suspended in the air before him — shockingly sudden.

The hulking wolf never anticipated its appearance. It had been aiming to smash Mo Fan into paste, and by the time the shield solidified in front of him, there was no stopping its momentum—

**BOOM!**

Because the wolf had been lunging low, its skull connected squarely with the Sickle-Bone Shield. The shield let out a violent shudder, then launched the massive creature backward more than ten meters — and sent Mo Fan, sheltered behind it, skidding away just as violently.

The Sickle-Bone Shield shattered into fragments of light the moment it absorbed the blow, vanishing into thin air. Mo Fan went sliding backward along the concrete road as if he were on roller skates.

A dull ache spread through his chest.

The urge to retch hit him almost immediately. Even with the Sickle-Bone Shield absorbing the brunt of the collision, it felt as though something had hammered directly into his sternum.

*That beast is a monster.*

Mo Fan's shock was genuine.

The Sickle-Bone Shield was top-quality gear — tanking a Demon-Beast's full-force blow without breaking should have been trivial. Yet the impact had still reached him through the shield. If that force had landed directly on his body, every bone would have been shattered into dust.

The One-Eyed Demon Wolf crashed down onto the street, blood streaming from the gash on its skull where it had rammed the shield. It hauled itself upright with a slow shake of its massive head, one clawed paw pressed against its dazed skull like someone nursing a splitting headache.

*It's standing up? Is this thing made of iron?*

Watching the wolf show not the slightest sign of losing mobility, Mo Fan's jaw nearly hit the ground.

Were the Demon-Beasts he'd faced before just that weak, or was this One-Eyed Demon Wolf genuinely in a class of its own? A Gloom Wolf Beast or a Giant-Eyed Ape-Rat would have been in pieces after a hit like that.

*Run. Move, now.*

While it was still staggering, this was the moment to put distance between them.

But just running wouldn't cut it — the wolf would close the gap in seconds. He needed to hit it with Lightning Seal right now, strip away its mobility while he had the chance.

He couldn't afford to hide his abilities any longer. If Zhou Min saw the Lightning Element, so be it — keeping her quiet afterward wouldn't be too difficult.

He drew a slow breath to ease the ache in his chest and began to Control his Lightning Element Star Trail.

"Ice Vine: Coagulate!"

Just as Mo Fan brought two Lightning Element Star Motes under Control, a woman's sharp cry rang out from somewhere down the street.

A wave of cold air flooded the old road in an instant. Frost began falling from the still air without warning—

The frost obeyed a single command, sweeping together beneath the One-Eyed Demon Wolf's feet and freezing every inch of ground around it into solid ice.

Then it began to climb. Creeping steadily up along the wolf's powerful legs, the frost spread higher, and within seconds its lower limbs had been encased completely.

Had the wolf still been moving at full speed, Ice Vine: Coagulate might not have taken hold in time — but the creature was still reeling from the collision. By the time its head cleared, its legs were already frozen solid, and every attempt to move them met with immovable resistance.

Mo Fan's spirits soared. He turned to find a woman standing at the entrance to the street — long legs on full display in dark purple jeans, the white Star Trail of her Ice Element still glowing faintly around her body, the soft light making the Ice Element Mage look all the more strikingly beautiful.

*Caitang!!*

The relief was immediate. He hadn't forgotten that he'd once saved her life with Lightning Seal — now she'd repaid the favor, and in doing so, spared him from revealing his trump card: the Lightning Element.

"You little troublemaker — what are you doing here?" Guo Caitang stared at him with evident surprise.

How could she not recognize Mo Fan? She would never forget the incident where he'd led a pack of little brats to spy on her in the bath — she despised him for it with every fiber of her being.

Had she known it was this little pest who'd stirred up a One-Eyed Demon Wolf in the first place, she definitely would have hesitated before intervening. Theoretically, perverts and demon wolves alike deserved to be eliminated in the name of the moon.

"I… I was here on a secret rendezvous with a female classmate," Mo Fan said quickly. "Good timing." He was already backing away across the street, making his way toward Zhou Min and her grandmother.

"Get lost," Guo Caitang said, not a trace of warmth in her voice. "The rest of the Demon-Hunting Squad is already in the area."