The next day’s sunrise saw Idelle already awake and packing up her shelter, too restless to try to sleep further. She’d decided to cut back west from there until she approached the foot of the mountains again, and then skirt along the east side of the range as she traveled south. That way she would have an easy landmark to follow despite avoiding the roads, and as a bonus it would increase her chances of finding magic beasts to hunt as she traveled.
Her lips curled at the thought of hunting, a shiver of joy running through her despite her nerves. A chance to cut loose and use her power to grow stronger, at last. She could hardly wait for some monster to appear from behind the trees, unaware of just who it was up against.
Let them come. She’d killed with nothing more than rocks last time, but with her sword…
She glanced down at the sword as she prepared to sling the pack over her shoulders. Actually, tied as it was, she wasn’t sure she’d actually be able to have it ready to fight in time. Ugh. Why was it so long? She begrudgingly untied it and laid it on her shoulder after putting the pack on. It was inconvenient, but that was better than fiddling around with knots if something did show up.
Considering herself prepared, Idelle started her way back towards the mountains, chewing on another piece of hard bread as she went.
To her vague annoyance, she was once again not interrupted by anything more than a few easily frightened squirrels and a single deer. Without the adrenaline brought on by yesterday’s long day and sudden freedom, she soon found herself bored; and began once again practicing her elemental charms as she walked.
The exercises were quickly becoming routine, and Idelle’s thoughts strayed ahead to her destination. A magic academy… She didn’t honestly know what to expect. Her only real experience with magic was learning from Cecilia, and she wasn’t totally sure anymore how complete that education had actually been.
Adrian had also mentioned a test of some kind being necessary to get in (unless she wanted to impersonate nobility, which just sounded like a bad idea). Well, unless her parents suddenly showed up out of nowhere to explain that she was actually a count’s daughter or something. She was more confident in her abilities after the boost she’d received from drinking the blood of the serpent (or whatever it had been) under Wyrlet, but if there was a written test or something she might be in trouble.
It couldn’t be that hard, though, if it was intended for commoners. After all, most of them only knew the basics of reading and writing in the first place.
Still. It wouldn’t hurt to have something to show off when she arrived there. Idelle decided to try and practice casting two charms at once; she was quickly rewarded with the knowledge that it was fiendishly difficult. Between her practice and her recently increased affinities with magic, she could now maintain the image of her little ball of light without too much effort, but trying to focus on an entirely different visualization at the same time was far trickier than merely maintaining one while mindlessly walking.
The attempts ate up the rest of her morning until she stumbled on something unexpected. It was another road winding down out of the hills, presumably the one that led south out of Wyrlet. She’d thought herself farther east of it, but its presence would definitely help explain the lack of cursed beasts despite her relative proximity to the mountains.
Or she might just be lucky, she’d only encountered two in her time in Perien Forest, after all.
Regardless, she quickly crossed the road and ducked her way into a scattered grove of trees without incident. She didn’t want to risk the small chance of being spotted by other travelers, not while she was still this close to the city.
Idelle continued cutting her way westward towards the foothills. She really wished she could have got her hands on some of those alchemical monster baits, but she hadn’t wanted to push her luck by asking or risk her clean exit by trying to steal them.
It wasn’t until late in the afternoon, as the gentle roll of the hills she walked through gave way to steeper, rockier slopes dotted with evergreens, that she finally got her chance to hunt.
She was distracted as she cut her way across a ridge, wondering if she shouldn’t start more south from her. Instead, she found herself pausing, struck by an odd feeling of something out of place. She glanced around her, but saw nothing strange, and shrugged to herself before continuing on her way —
No. Use your nose. The thought came to her abruptly and she did a double-take as she sniffed the air.
Yes, she could smell something, a faint musky odor with a tinge of a familiar sweetness coming from across the ridge. It was another dire wolf, Idelle was sure of it. Her nose twitched. She could smell a lot when she paid attention, she realized, a complicated medley of mostly inscrutable scents.
Right, speaking of wolves, scents were how they tracked their prey. She thought about the way her nails had curved and grown longer under the city, reminiscent of the claws of a bear. She was ever more certain of it, the peculiarities of her body brought on by her powers weren’t arbitrary. They were related to the things she hunted and fed upon.
In that case, wasn’t this a perfect opportunity to test some things? She sniffed the air again, trying to burn the sensation, the chaotic mess of faint smells and information, into her brain for later comparison. The smell of the wolf was stronger, it was coming closer.
Perfect.
Idelle shrugged off her pack, leaning it against a tall pine, before stepping towards the intruder, looking for a good spot. There — she spotted an opening among the trees. The clearing was a mess of fallen branches and rocks, complete with a tree that had died and fallen to rot across the side, but it would more than do, she just wanted the room to maneuver.
She stepped lightly into the middle, rolling her shoulders experimentally as she hefted her sword. It swung easily, feeling at once light and heavy. Light in that moving it took her almost no effort, but heavy in that she needed to adjust her stance to compensate for the weight. Good, if this wolf was anything like the last two she’d want the weight on her side.
Her opponent appeared a moment later, and her supposition was confirmed; it was definitely huge. Maybe the largest of the three she’d seen so far, though she hadn’t paid close enough attention to the others to make a proper comparison. It snarled at her, but she was surprised to see it take a hesitant step back, looking for all the world like it was nervous. Its smell surrounded her, strong to the point that she wasn’t sure if she could ignore it if she wanted to.
She took a step of her own forward, and it snarled again (louder this time), but still didn’t move. Was it afraid of her?
A grin twisted across her face, and she advanced another stride. It wouldn’t run away, magic beasts despised people, she knew that much. Indeed, it growled and paced sideways instead, trying to circle her. She turned with it, the tip of her sword catching the light as it stayed fixed on the creature. Come on, she thought, make the first move. You know you want to…
The soft crunch of paws on needles rang out. Behind you.
Idelle grasped the second threat in an instant, as the first wolf suddenly broke into a quickly accelerating lope towards her. She cursed internally; dragons take her, that’s why the smell had been so strong, there was more than one of them!
Even as the realization passed through her head, she was already twisting around to look behind her. She saw a glimpse of jaw already spread wide and a blur of limbs and reacted without thinking, her feet digging into the ground in a spray of dirt as she threw herself into a sprint to meet it. She was fast too, she’d deal with this one before the other had a chance to reach her —
Her sword swung down with a sickening crunch as they clashed together, the power of the blow forcing the wolf’s head and shoulders into the floor of the clearing. Its momentum sent its body tumbling and skidding towards her. Idelle tried her best to slip around it, but her footwork was too slow and it slammed into her shins sending her stumbling to the side.
For a horrible second, she thought she would fall; but she barely managed to regain her balance, her feet sliding amidst the fallen needles and branches. She realized with horror that there was a third lupine figure slipping out from among the trees, but there was no time to run or look for more, as she desperately turned back to face the first wolf, the big one.
It was already upon her by then and she retreated backward in a mess of shuffling steps, her feet catching awkwardly on the debris of the clearing as she tried to make enough room to swing her sword properly. The great beast snapped at her face, trying to find its way around the blade, and she managed to find a foothold to brace herself as she grabbed her blade to shove its enormous head back with sheer strength. For a moment it stagged away, but she could see that she’d only barely cut its skin through the fur.
It didn’t seem to notice the injury, unrelenting in its advance as it tried to get a bite on one of her limbs. Idelle frantically kept stumbling away as she tried to make an opening for her sword; she had to hurry, if the third wolf got to her as well she would be in huge trouble…
Idiot. The thought was so unexpected she almost laughed. Of course, what was she doing?
She had other weapons too.
The giant dire wolf lunged for her again. This time, she stepped forward to meet it, forcing its face aside with one hand on the flat of her blade. Its shoulders bunched as it tried to knock her down, but she was too strong for that. For a moment they tussled again as her nails extended and curved, and then abruptly her hand slid free of her sword and clawed a series of deep gouges along its neck.
Her enemy cried out and instinctually jerked away, and she pulled away as well, scrabbling to pick up her sword. It came at her again a moment later, desperately yowling, but by then it was too late, and she forced the point of her sword deep into its neck before giving it a violent jerk. Blood spurted, its scent metallic and sweet, and she yanked her sword loose as it pooled on the ground.
The third one had crossed the clearing by now and was almost atop her, but it hesitated and pulled back as she locked eyes with it. It too started to try and circle behind her, but she didn’t hesitate this time to step forward and slash at its face. It howled in pain as blood welled from an ugly gash across its snout then abruptly leapt at her, almost desperately.
That was the last thing it did, as she rammed her sword through the back of its throat and into its brain. Its neck twisted as it fell, nearly pulling her blade from her hands, but she kept a hold on it and forcefully pulled it free.
For a long couple of seconds, she stood there panting, eyes scanning the trees around her as she listened for any sign of further beasts.
There was none, and when she sniffed the air all she could make out was the stench of the three corpses and their blood.
Her panting slowed. Good. That had almost gone poorly, but she’d done it. She’d killed all three of them, despite not having realized their numbers, and done it without receiving so much as a scratch. The monsters were right to fear her.
She carefully laid her sword on the ground and grabbed the closest corpse by the neck. She tried to lift it off the ground, but it was too heavy even for her, so with a huff of annoyance she knelt and bit into its neck. Blood flowed into her mouth, heady with the ever-more-familiar sweetness of magic.
Idelle let herself become lost in the sensation, drowning out any lingering disgust she felt with the joyful taste of it and the knowledge that it would make her stronger again, at last.
When the first corpse had nothing more for her to take, she casually stepped over it and fed on the next, and then the third. Only after that did she reclaim her blade and let herself sit down onto the bloodied floor of the clearing. She took a deep breath of air, catching sight of her reflection in the dirty metal of her sword. Well, maybe there was something to be said of the safety and ease of fighting them in groups with spears.
Then she remembered her thoughts from earlier and took a second breath in through her nose instead. The hodge-podge of smells was clearer, now, a tantalizing array of trails pulling her in a hundred different directions at once. She sat there for a long minute, taking them in, letting her mind sort through them. One or two had that faint tinge of sweetness to them. She tried to follow them, to figure out which direction they were in, but…
Idelle sighed in distaste before leaning over and awkwardly sniffing the ground. None of the sweet smells were strong enough, but she thought she could maybe track one of the others. If only it didn’t feel so demeaning to have to follow them by sniffing the ground like an animal.
She resolved to set the ability aside and see how many magic beasts she managed to run into by chance, at least for now.
After the giant fight under the city, it is nice to see Idelle brought down a notch in what is essentially a much simpler fight. She might have superhuman abilities, but she still lacks the weight of experience. It's nice to see you actually take that into account.
Again, no idea if I'm on to something, but I love to speculate so...
Use your nose / Behind you / Idiot
All three of these thoughts were worded as if they were not Idelle's own, but addressed to her. Either this is a new development, or I missed similar things in previous chapters. If it is new, then the big change is the mysterious entity under the city that Idelle helped.