Although Leonard kept saying it was time for medicine, he had no intention of feeding the giant wolf leader anything weird. He was not some kind of devil, after all.
This giant wolf leader could talk, and its brain worked pretty well. It did not exactly look smart, but at least it was straightforward and lacked any real scheming nature.
Leonard actually wanted to bring it and its giant wolves under his command.
So he could not go too far and cripple the giant wolf leader.
Still, a beating was a beating. Wolves only listened to the alpha, and if he did not beat the alpha into submission, how was he supposed to control the pack?
What came next depended on whether this giant wolf leader was smart enough to know when to bow.
Leonard turned and walked to the southeast corner of the botanical garden. This was where the garden had first developed, the place where the Chomping Cabbages and all the precious medicinal herbs were planted.
There was only one thing in the whole botanical garden that could have a special effect on werewolves, and that was Wolfsbane, the aconite planted in section 417 of the herb garden.
Other than that, Leonard could not think of anything that would attract the giant wolf leader.
The twice-enhanced aconite fruits in the soil were not ripe yet, but Leonard's talent was still incredibly useful. With a light touch, he instantly ripened one of the green fruits.
The moment the aconite fruit ripened, the giant wolves outside the botanical garden, who had been getting beaten half to death by the furious unicorns and letting out one miserable scream after another, suddenly fell silent.
Then the tightly bound giant wolf leader began struggling with all its strength, as if it had sensed something.
"That's it! That's it!" it shouted excitedly. "Give it to me! That's what I need!"
"Shut up."
Leonard flicked a stone right into the giant wolf leader's nose. It let out a pained whine and instantly went limp, panting on the ground.
But the moment it saw Leonard walking over slowly with the aconite fruit in his hand, it perked up again at once. It stuck out its tongue like a husky, and its tail was practically wagging like a fan.
The giant wolf leader's reaction amused Leonard. He tossed the aconite fruit up and down in his hand and asked, "You want it?"
"I want it!" the giant wolf leader barked. "Give it to me!"
"Why should I?" Leonard gave it a wicked smile. "I worked hard to grow this. Why should I hand it over just because you asked?"
"Uh..." The giant wolf leader froze for two seconds, then asked weakly, "But how do you prove it's yours? Does it have your name written on it?"
"The hell? You can argue semantics now?" Leonard slapped it across the face. "You really don't want that hide anymore, huh?"
"Sorry, sorry!" The giant wolf leader caved instantly, lowering its head and asking meekly, "Then what are you planning to do?"
"You're asking me?" Leonard glanced at Midgard. "How about you and your pack join us?"
"Join you?" The giant wolf leader's eyes widened immediately. "Aha, so you and this werewolf want to enslave us. I'm telling you right now, absolutely not."
"Absolutely not?" Leonard smiled, then with a sharp motion pulled out the skinning knife. "I'll give you one chance to rephrase that."
"Sorry, I was wrong!" The giant wolf leader surrendered with impressive speed. "I agree. From now on, me and my wolf cubs will follow you."
"That's better." Leonard smiled and shot Midgard a look.
Midgard tilted her head, thought for a moment, and quietly took a few steps back.
"So... can I have that thing now?" The giant wolf leader, not noticing Leonard's look at all, asked cautiously.
"You can."
As he spoke, Leonard tossed the aconite fruit to the giant wolf leader.
The giant wolf leader did not bother with manners. It opened its mouth, caught the aconite fruit, and swallowed it whole without even chewing.
A deeply satisfied expression spread across its face. Even though it was still tied up, it clearly did not care, and simply rolled onto the ground in contentment.
"How does it feel?" Leonard asked.
"A little full," the giant wolf leader said lazily.
"Full?" The aconite fruit was only about the size of two fists. How could something that small make a giant wolf more than three meters long feel full?
"I don't know. It just feels... satisfying." The giant wolf leader yawned, but then its wolf face suddenly froze and turned serious.
Which only made it look even more like a husky.
"Something's wrong."
It shouted, trying to roll over and stand up, but forgot it was still tied up. Before it could rise, it flopped back down and started rolling around like a caterpillar.
"Ah! It burns! My stomach's burning!"
The giant wolf leader screamed as it rolled across the ground.
Leonard quietly stepped back a few paces, silver whirlpools surfacing in his eyes as he watched the caterpillar thrashing on the ground.
His magic sight activated, and everything happening inside the giant wolf leader turned into waves of magical fluctuations before his eyes.
"The flow of magic inside its body is speeding up. The changes are pretty intense," Leonard said.
"Will it die?" Midgard asked.
"Probably not. This thing was drawn here by its own instincts. It would be strange if its instincts led it here just to die." Leonard shook his head.
"But it looks like it's in a lot of pain."
"A complete rebirth like this is never painless." Leonard narrowed his eyes.
In his vision, as the magical flow inside the giant wolf leader changed, it gradually became more stable, while at the same time starting to affect its muscles and bones.
"Grrr..." A suppressed growl came from deep in the giant wolf leader's throat. Its body began to grow larger, and the vines tied around it started to creak under the strain.
Snap!
One vine broke first with a sharp crack. Then the rest began snapping one after another like a string of firecrackers.
Gray-white claws hit the ground.
The giant wolf leader rose to its feet. Its body had now reached a terrifying length of five meters, and even standing normally it was over two meters tall.
"Awoooo!"
The giant wolf leader threw back its head and let out a long howl, and a terrifying aura spread through the botanical garden.
Outside the botanical garden, the unicorns that had been beating up the wolf pack suddenly stopped. Panic flashed in their eyes, and under the direction of the Unicorn leader and Claudia, they quickly abandoned the giant wolves they had been pounding black and blue and fled into the botanical garden.
The giant wolves that had been beaten senseless staggered to their feet. When they heard the commanding howl of their leader, they became wildly excited, as if they had been injected with something.
From that powerful cry, they could hear the exhilaration and excitement in their leader's voice.
Their leader had transformed.
Inside the botanical garden, the giant wolf leader lowered its head and looked at Leonard, whose size was pitifully small compared to its own.
Excitement spread across its wolf face.
At that moment, it could feel a powerful force surging through its body. Even the magic its kind rarely used had become far more active. In this state, it no longer felt any need to honor its promise and submit to the two people standing before it.
Put simply, it had gotten cocky again.