My Bugged System Made Me Too OP!-Chapter 39: Red Striped Wolf

Then Noah flicked his wrist forward, and the arrow shot forward.

A violent streak of white-blue light tore across the short distance between them, splitting the air apart with a sharp crack that echoed through the forest.

The Spike Dog growled weakly, frost clinging to its muzzle and chest, but it was too late.

The arrow slammed directly into its head. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

The lightning pierced through skull and brain matter in a blinding flash, exiting the other side in. a burst of shattered bone and scorched fur.

The forest rang with a sharp, electrical detonation.

The beast’s body jerked violently.

The glacial spear embedded in its chest had already done most of the work.

Ice had spread deep within its body, freezing organs, crystallizing blood, stiffening muscle fibers from the inside out.

Its mana flow had been disrupted, its defenses drastically weakened as the cold invaded its core.

The lightning hadn’t needed to fight resistance.

It simply finished what frost had started.

The ice encasing its legs began to dissolve slowly, melting into harmless mist now that Noah’s control over it loosened.

Without support—

The Spike Dog’s corpse collapsed forward.

It hit the ground with a heavy, lifeless thud.

Silence followed.

Only the faint crackle of residual lightning fading from the air remained.

Noah lowered his hand, letting out a low exhale.

Then he began walking toward the corpse.

He stopped a few feet away and looked down at the fallen advanced-grade beast.

A smug smirk tugged at his lips.

His gaze shifted slightly—

Drifting past the dead Spike Dog.

Toward what it had been feeding on earlier.

His eyes narrowed.

The smaller corpse lay partially torn apart, blood darkened and soaking into the earth.

He stepped closer.

And his smirk faded.

It was a young wolf pup.

Its small body was mangled—stomach split open violently, entrails partially exposed and half-frozen from residual frost in the air.

One side of its head had been chomped off entirely, tiny skull fragments scattered near the roots of a tree.

But that wasn’t what made Noah’s breath catch.

The fur.

It was brown, with vivid red stripes running along its sides.

"No fucking way..." he whispered.

"A red-striped wolf pup?!"

His mind raced.

Then—

A sudden sound cut through the silence.

The sound of leaves crushing, branches snapping under something heavy.

Something huge was charging straight at him from behind, and fast.

Noah’s face tightened into a sharp frown.

His body moved on instinct.

He pivoted smoothly, boots grinding against soil as he turned.

And what he saw made his expression darken.

A massive wolf burst through the bushes.

Its fur was the same brown—but darker, thicker.

The red stripes along its body glowed faintly under the dim forest light, streaking from shoulder to flank like slashes of blood.

Its eyes were blazing with fury.

It’s height was about that of an average adult, making it even more terrifying.

It roared, a deep, feral sound filled with rage and grief.

Then it lunged, almost closing the distance them in the blink of an eye.

Noah’s frown deepened, realising he could barely keep up with its speed.

’Ice Mirror.’ he thought, unleashing the first skill that came to his mind at that moment.

Mana burst outward from his core, surging toward the space directly in front of him.

The air temperature plummeted instantly, moisture condensing in a sharp spiral.

Just as the wolf’s jaws were about to close around him—

A thin, reflective wall of ice materialized between them, forming in the fraction of a second.

Its surface gleamed like polished glass, faint frost patterns crawling across it in delicate crystalline veins.

The wolf’s blazing red eyes widened.

Instead of prey, its own furious reflection stared back at it from the mirror’s surface.

For the briefest instant, confusion flickered in its gaze.

But momentum couldn’t be stopped.

It slammed straight into the Ice Mirror.

A sharp, explosive tremor rippled across the entire surface.

Cracks of energy shot through the frozen wall like lightning trapped inside glass.

Then—

The mirror reacted.

A surge of condensed frost mana discharged outward.

The wolf was violently launched backward.

Its massive body lifted off the ground entirely, flipping once midair before being hurled several meters away.

It crashed face-first into the forest floor.

Dirt and leaves exploded outward on impact.

The ground shook faintly.

The wolf roared—an enraged, pained sound that echoed through the trees.

Meanwhile—

The Ice Mirror in front of Noah began to crack.

Fine fractures spread rapidly across its reflective surface.

Within seconds, the wall dissolved into thin mist, fading into the air as if it had never existed.

Noah remained standing in the spot where he had cast it.

He exhaled sharply, feeling a wave of relief wash over him.

Sweat had pooled along his forehead, trickling slowly down his temple.

’That was close...’ he thought.

If he had hesitated even half a second—

His head might have been torn open by the sharp fangs of the mana beast.

His gaze sharpened again as he steadied his breathing.

He knew a few things about Red-Striped Wolves.

They were popular subjects within mana beast books because of their pack mentality, and fortunately, he had read many of those.

They weren’t just advanced-grade because of raw strength.

It was their coordination, intelligence and persistence.

Advanced-grade beasts individually were dangerous.

But Red-Striped Wolves amplified that danger exponentially when together.

And the most terrifying trait—

They could track any dead member of their pack through scent and mana residue.

If one of them died—

The others would know.

And they would hunt relentlessly for whoever they thought killed it.

The bushes rustled again.

The wolf he had flung backward emerged slowly.

Its fur was dirt-streaked now.

One side of its muzzle bled slightly where it had impacted the ground.

But its eyes—

Its eyes burned even brighter.

It glanced toward the dead wolf pup.

Its gaze lingered for a second.

Then it shifted back to Noah.

Roar!

It roared loudly, this time deeper and more furious than the first.