The Divine Wolf... or?

Except for these knights, there were also two other groups of people. The first group was a group of nobility, and they were the ones who were in charge of the entire operation, while the other group was a group of mages. These mages were currently all pouring their mana into a large golden bell, which emitted a radiant light in response.

What caught Ark\'s interest was not this giant bell, nor was it the knights in silver armour, it was the nobles.

At first, Ark didn\'t believe his eyes, but he quickly accepted reality. These sick bastards were draining the young bear of its blood, while it was still alive! Normally, Ark wouldn\'t be this angry, but seeing the small bear in agony like this… something just didn\'t feel right.

Maybe he was able to sympathize with the mother bear because of the small cub that he had resigned himself to take care of, but either way, what these nobles were doing was inhuman.

Or maybe that was exactly what it was, human! Ark had never seen another animal that was this obsessed with material gains, it was only humans. If this wasn\'t human, then what was? Well, in any case, Ark wasn\'t a human right now, and he wouldn\'t condone this even if he was. Since that was the case, Ark wanted to help the mother bear save her child.

At first, Ark wondered why the bear didn\'t just attack them to save her child, but as he observed, he quickly found the cause.

The bell. No matter what the mother bear did, that large golden bell was not something she could handle. The bell restricted the mother bear\'s physical prowess to the point where it couldn\'t get past the knights with silver armour. This golden bell looked imposing and ethereal as it hovered in the air, suppressing the mother bear with its mere presence. Fortunately for the mother bear, Ark was here.

Even if the golden bell could restrict the mother bear, who was way stronger than Ark, it wasn\'t really able to stop magic in any way.

In the beginning, Ark had no idea how this bell worked, but after careful inspection, he noticed that the magical artefact made use of mana to suppress and restrict its surroundings or a specific target. The only downside to this artefact was that it could easily be handled by a magician, which is why it was normally only used in specific hunts or dungeon raids.

This posed no threat to Ark though, and since he quickly figured out that he was able to take care of the golden bell, he got ready to attack.

Before he could do anything tough, his train of thought was suddenly interrupted.

"Humans, if you release my child right this instant, I can still spare your lives. If not, I WILL END YOU!"

The booming sound of the bear\'s voice echoed throughout not only the human\'s head, but also Ark\'s, and anyone that was close by or in the vicinity. Ark didn\'t even know that such a thing was possible, and the notion of being able to speak to people using his mind was actually kind of cool, and also very convenient for that matter.

If he was hanging out with Thufrat for example, then it wouldn\'t matter if he was in human form or not. Unfortunately, Ark didn\'t have this kind of skill, and it was only something that he could hope to obtain in the future.

As Ark was thinking, his thoughts were suddenly cut off again, this time by one of the nobles.

"What are you going to do to us? That\'s right, there\'s nothing you can do, so just sit back and enjoy the show, you filthy beast!" The wretched voice of a fairly chubby young man broke the silence, before the entire forest seemed to go completely silent. All of a sudden, a preposterous amount of killing intent and bloodlust was released, encapsulating the plains.

The young man wasn\'t even able to stand up for a second before he fell on his behind in complete horror.

Not only was the mother bear mad, the entire forest was mad! If you messed with the king of the forest, or in this case the queen of the forest, then you were messing with the entire forest! Ark didn\'t just stand by and watch any longer, it was obvious that none of the magical beasts present were strong enough to destroy that golden bell using magic, and so he took the task upon himself.

The young bear was still whimpering on the ground, the life in its eyes growing duller by the second.

"DING!!!"

The large golden bell that had suppressed the mother bear suddenly vibrated intensely, a mark engraved deep in its frame. From out of nowhere, a lone wolf was standing opposite of the humans on the plains. Before anyone was able to react, the wolf sent out another attack.

A large javelin conjured out of white fire was sent whistling through the air, hitting the bell squarely on the mark that he had created earlier. Even though the bell was still standing, the mark got even deeper.

"Guards, take care of that wolf quickly!" A panicked yell came from within the circle of nobles, whereupon the silver-armoured guards promptly made their move. As they were in the middle of their charge towards Ark, a sudden sound caught their attention.

"Crash!"

Golden pieces of metal rained from the sky, and the magicians that had originally been taking care of the golden bell all threw up blood from the immense backlash. The silver-armoured guards all stopped dead in their tracks and briefly turned around, their expressions filled with horror as they saw the only thing that was keeping them safe falling out of the sky.

They didn\'t get to feel afraid for long though, as they could already hear the sound of footsteps approaching.

Ark didn\'t wait around, and he quickly infused his cells with large amounts of mana, before using wind magic to become even faster. In the eyes of the humans, Ark was like a phantom, completely fading out of existence. The humans that were busy draining the small bear of blood suddenly all fell to the ground, each with a gaping hole on their backs.

Ark appeared next to the small bear, and used healing magic almost immediately, the rest of the nobles were none of his concern.

If they knew what was best for them then they would stay away, and run for their lives while there still might be an infinitely small chance. Behind him, Ark could hear the screams of the knights in the silver armour. A chill couldn\'t help but run down his spine.