The sound waves raged wildly, even whipping up a fierce gust of wind.
The nearby wolf pack had received the order to run, but how could they possibly outrun the speed of sound?
They did not even have time to turn around. Some had only just started to move when the sound wave caught up with them, knocking them down one after another, then sending them tumbling again in the gale it stirred up.
The terrifying sonic blast raged for a full half minute. Huge cone-shaped swaths of grass were flattened across the ground. Quite a few trees had been knocked over too, and in some places the bark had been ripped away by the terrible wave, exposing pale tender trunks beneath.
If even the surrounding environment had been wrecked this badly, there was no need to mention the lead wolf. It had nearly been blown into the air. As for the other giant wolves, each one lay sprawled across the ground, foaming at the mouth, seeing stars, and thoroughly wolf-unconscious.
As for the Mandrake, which had just been lively enough to knock out more than a dozen giant wolves with a single scream, it now collapsed limply onto the ground like a noodle. Its dried-out little branches barely held up its body for a moment before it melted into a lump of black mud and slumped there.
"All done."
Leonard was quite satisfied with the Mandrake's power. He turned to look at Midgard and Claudia, only to find both of them staring at him blankly.
Claudia was spinning in place like a roly-poly toy, her eyes practically turning into spirals.
As she swayed, she instinctively stumbled toward Leonard in search of a safe refuge. Her long golden hair, almost puffed up on end, swung around her and flashed with dazzling light.
Leonard caught Claudia just before she fell. She toppled straight into his arms and murmured dizzily, "Leonard, why are you spinning in circles?"
Clearly, plugging their ears was not enough to block the effect of a fully mature enhanced Mandrake. That one scream had nearly knocked Claudia back into infancy. She now looked like a panicked little animal.
Midgard was doing much better. She was an adult, after all, and she had already transformed into a werewolf beforehand, so her magical resistance was high. The Mandrake's scream had only left her a little hard of hearing.
"What did you say?" Midgard shouted.
Leonard sighed and had no choice but to shout back, "I said it's done!"
"Oh!" Midgard answered loudly. She shook her head a few times and finally returned to normal.
A werewolf's recovery ability really was strong. That little bit of time was already enough for her to recover.
"So what do we do with these giant wolves?" Midgard pointed at the werewolves sprawled all over the ground. "Carry all of them into the botanical garden?"
"What would be the point of all that trouble?" Leonard waved a hand and pointed at the brave wolf who had faced the Mandrake head-on. "That one's the alpha of the pack. Just drag him in."
The alpha actually looked rather cute at the moment. Its fur had all puffed up, completely burying its ferocity and making it look like a giant fluffy ball, almost stupidly adorable.
Midgard walked over, grabbed its puffed-up tail, and dragged it along behind her as she followed Leonard and Claudia into the botanical garden.
There was no need for extra guards. Rows of Bitterthorn moved of their own accord, stretching out thornless vines to bind the giant wolf tightly and wait for Leonard's decision.
"What do you think these giant wolves came here for?" Midgard asked, having returned to human form and squatting naked beside the giant wolf.
At present, the transformation of werewolf wizards was still somewhat different from Animagus transformation. They could not preserve their clothes, so every transformation cost them a set of clothing.
"Put some clothes on before asking that." Leonard felt like he had nowhere safe to rest his eyes, so he could only focus on Claudia's dazed little face to distract himself.
"I didn't bring any clothes. What am I supposed to do?" Midgard stood up and said without the slightest concern. The great evil on her chest swayed along with the movement. "Being a werewolf is still pretty inconvenient."
"That just proves werewolf transformation still isn't perfected. Otherwise, according to my theory, it should be exactly the same as Animagus transformation."
As he spoke, Leonard pulled out a spare set of clothes from the storage space of his miniature man-eating flower and tossed them to Midgard.
"Hurry up and put them on. I finally managed to correct Claudia's bad habits. Don't corrupt her again."
"Fine, fine, I get it." Midgard pouted and started wrapping Leonard's clothes around herself.
With Midgard's tall, imposing figure, there was obviously no way Leonard's clothes would actually fit her. So she could only tear them apart and use them as a makeshift tube top and shorts to cover herself.
"All done," Midgard called out.
At last Leonard's line of sight was free again, but the moment he looked at her, his face turned red.
Midgard technically had clothes on now, but the way the fabric tightly outlined her full curves, along with the exposed lines of her toned waist and those long legs, was still striking enough to make Leonard blush involuntarily.
Midgard looked at Leonard's embarrassed face and burst out laughing, jolting Claudia out of her dizzy haze.
"Wow!" Claudia cried out when she saw Midgard's new look. "Big Sister looks so cool!"
"That is not cool at all. Don't copy it, got it?" Leonard cupped Claudia's little face in both hands, turned her toward himself, and said sternly.
"Huh? Really?" Claudia's eyes kept drifting back toward Midgard as she whispered, "But Claudia really does think Big Sister looks cool."
"Good children shouldn't learn that." Midgard cheerfully helped Leonard out. "Don't copy it, okay?"
Since the two people she trusted most were both saying the same thing, Claudia could only nod obediently. But the little way her eyes kept darting around made it obvious she was still thinking about something.
"All right, enough fooling around. Let's take a look at this wolf. What are you planning to do, subdue it?" Midgard pointed at the unconscious fluffy wolf.
"First I want to ask why it came here. These creatures have been around since I first set up this botanical garden. They even tried to break in, but they were pretty stupid. They could not even get past the outer thorn wall."
Leonard walked over to the tightly bound giant wolf.
"I even had the unicorns keep an eye out for them before, but the unicorns never found them. So while I'm at it, I want to ask how they managed to avoid the unicorn herd."
Just as he was speaking, heavy hoofbeats suddenly came from outside the botanical garden.
Leonard instinctively activated Plant Vision and immediately saw a herd of unicorns racing toward them.
Speak of the devil. He had only just mentioned the unicorns, and here they were.
But... what were they here for?