The Divine Wolf... or?

Atar faced off against the large bundle of vines with cautiousness. His arm hurt pretty badly, but at least it didn't impede his movements in any substantial way. The vine monster did not have a face, but Atar could feel that it was inspecting him and seriously sizing him up.

Before Atar could get ready to make a move, he suddenly heard the strange vine monster make an ominous sound that spread throughout the otherwise quiet jungle. Atar had never heard a similar sound before, so he wasn't sure what it meant, but he had a feeling that it was nothing good.

He could feel his hair stand on end, and when he was contemplating what to do, he heard a similar but slightly higher-pitched sound come back from the distance. Atar quickly realised that there was probably another monster out there and that they were communicating with each other. This was absolutely not a good thing.

If this monster was calling for help, Atar had a feeling that he would likely end up in trouble. He now had two options in front of him, quickly retreat and leave the dungeon, or stay and fight.

If Ark was here, he would've told Atar to run away, and Atar knew this, which was why he hesitated. He looked up to Ark, and he didn't want to go against his wishes, but as his thoughts were quickly surging, Atar made up his mind. He finally realised why Ark was always pushing himself to be stronger, to be better. It was because he didn't want to feel powerless!

He didn't want to watch the people he cared about end up in trouble, whilst being unable to help them. It was a miserable experience.

With determination, Atar quickly let out a deep breath, before he gathered the strength in his legs and tightened his hand into a fist. As if it sensed his surge of fighting spirit, the vine monster suddenly screeched and sent out a vine to attack Atar. The vine's path through the air was nonlinear and very unpredictable, but Atar didn't intend to stay still.

Instead, he rushed to meet the vine head-on. The screeching of the vine monster seemed to grow more excited as Atar rushed to fight it head-on. As the vine approached, Atar used a trick that he had never used before.

By using wind magic on top of his own body, he pushed himself out of the vine's way and propelled himself forward at an astonishing speed towards the mass of tangled vines. This burst of air was very powerful, and it enabled Atar to fly through the air at a rapid pace, but he didn't have much control now that it had already been fired.

The only thing he could do now was make small adjustments to his course with some microbursts of wind explosions.

The vine monster didn't expect Atar to suddenly come flying at him at such a strange speed, and it wasn't able to put up much of a defence before he had already arrived within five meters of its body. The excited screeching from before already contained a race of rage, as the vine monster started sending out more and more vines to attack Atar before he could get any closer.

It still kept most of its vines at the core of its body.

Atar noticed this small detail and he could make a small guess as to why. Ark had told Atar about different creatures like some spirits of nature and some golems. These rare creatures usually had a strange regeneration ability that made them impossible to kill unless you destroyed the source of their powers. For some creatures, it was their soul, whilst for golems, it was their core.

It was a bit similar to the heart of a human, yet also very different.

Since this vine monster was keeping most of its vines close to its main body as if it was protecting something, Atar assumed it was because it had a core or something similar that it had to protect. Keeping that detail in the back of his mind, Atar tried his best to weave through the net of attacks that came flying his way at rapid speeds.

There was only so much he could do to dodge them at the speed he was currently flying at. Eventually, he noticed that he wouldn't be able to dodge the next attack that came flying at him, and he focused immensely.

His right hand was covered in a strangely stable dark red flame. The flame was unbearably hot, yet it was almost completely still a rather strange phenomenon. This was Atar's strongest attack that he could muster up in such a short time. He had been trying to accumulate as much power as possible whilst he was flying through the air, and it all accumulated into this rather strange flame.

Because the vine monster was completely made up of vines, Atar figured that fire was probably the best element to use out of the ones he was currently proficient in.

As the vine drew closer and closer, Atar closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. When he opened his eyes again, his sharp gaze seemed to burn with fierce flames as he suddenly punched out with his right fist. A strange wave of wind swept through his immediate surroundings, blowing up a wave of dust and leaves from the ground, and rustling the leaves in the trees around him fiercely.

The stable flame turned into a stable beam of burning red light that shot straight for the very middle of the vine monster's body. The vine that was about to collide with Atar head-on was caught in the beam of fire and disappeared into dust like it was never there to begin with. The vine monster could only screech in pain and fear as it felt part of its body disintegrating.

It had no time to react and dodge at all, and it could only wait for death as the beam of burning flame suddenly descended right into the mass of vines, burning the entire monster into nothingness.

Although it sounded like a lot of things had happened, in reality, everything happened in the blink of an eye. Atar landed back on the ground and watched the burning pile of ashes in the ground with a weird gaze. He had originally viewed this strange vine monster as a strong adversary, but it was easier to defeat than Atar had thought.

This small battle made him realise not only the importance of magic but also how important it was to exploit the weaknesses of your enemies.

If he had just battled this monster with his body-enhancing magic like he normally did, Atar wasn't even completely sure if he would be the one to come out on top in the end. There were just too many variables. As he was reflecting on the battle and what he had learned, Atar was soon brought back to reality when he heard that familiar ear-piercing screech once more.

He instinctively looked at the pile of ashes, but he realised that it was still there and nothing had changed. The expression on his face soon changed as he realise the blunder he had made.