"Shit…!"
A boy clad in the academy uniform cursed as he gripped his shoulder and limped.
He had silver hair and was of a large build bigger than the average teenager. His most notable feature was that he had ears and a tail like a wolf would-- he was a Spiritfolk. A race that had recently come from seclusion and began integrating into society.
His current state was messy, and if one couldn't tell from the descriptive sight, injured. The blood seemed to flow endlessly from his multiple cuts, but they weren’t life-threatening. Despite the Spiritfolk's brass gauntlets being destroyed and his eyes filled with nothing but pain, he wouldn't stop moving. Not now.
"That wasn’t an ordinary gray wolf and you let your fucking guard down, Ashton. What the hell were you doing?"
He couldn't help but berate himself because of his own carelessness. It was his carelessness that had his two friends decide to stay behind to hold it back. For him. He wasn’t given a choice as the two yelled him to run away.
When he scouted the target with his squad, they should have realised how strange it was. His target for subjugation was simply meant to be just a greater gray wolf and yet, it didn’t exude as much mana as a greater wolf would. It was much larger than the average greater wolf and if one took a closer look at the monster, there were red-like veins coursing through it.
The hunt was going well at first. They wore down the monster like every subjugation task beforehand until it collapsed.
It was then that his worst nightmares had come. His intuition was telling him to stay on guard, but his joy of completing the mission to finally become B-rank made him complacent. Indulged and basked in his victory. At least, that was what should have happened.
When he walked up to the wolf and turned around, it was clear his back was defenseless.
That one moment was all it took.
A rising shadow loomed over him. Despair washed over him and the other two as they knew he could not react in time. He was tackled and blasted away into the trees. No amount of mana cushioning could soften the blow.
“--GRUOOOAH”
Ashton was brought out of his thoughts by the large roar and shook his head to rid himself of the despair. He had a job to do. Even if it's the tiniest of chances in this deep forest, he had to find help to save his friends. He continued limping to the entrance. His enhanced hearing as a silver wolf (Spiritfolk) let him know that the two were still fighting and that there were people that had just entered the forest.
“I have to get help,” Ashton constantly told himself. It was his way of keeping himself awake and not succumbing to unconsciousness. At least, not when his friends are still fighting. His last hopes, were placed on the two that entered.
》》《《
“Too quiet,” Fayn said as he took the unnatural happenstance into account. There weren’t any mana signatures around and it didn’t help that the mana signatures of the gray wolves had not moved a single bit either.
“Yeah… I’m getting a bad feeling,” Even Colette could feel the tension in the atmosphere.
The brushes along the trail rustled, alerting the two as they went on guard.
“Help…” The appearance of a wolf-eared person, a student no less, startled Colette as she winced when taking a look at the state of said person.
“Save my friends…” He said, his eyes seemingly trying to grasp at the light of hope at any cost.
“Tsk. I’m going on ahead. Come right after you’ve treated him,” Fayn said with annoyance as he looked to Colette.
“R-right!” Colette immediately took out healing potions from her storage and began applying it onto the wounded student.
Fayn took off and headed in the direction from where the student came from.
‘It hasn’t been long since we’ve entered the forest and yet I’ve already been caught up in trouble.’ Fayn scowled. It was like the world seemed to be out to get at him.
‘He also said the words I hate the most.’
Help. Save. Those words of weakness when begging someone else. That expression of hope that someone would actually do it. He hated it, but there was nothing he could do because he made a promise. It wasn’t a surprise that he would look at the promise now as some sort of curse.
Fayn forcibly circulated his mana within his body faster which in turn allowed him to move his body to another level.
‘Damn it. I still haven’t healed completely from yesterday’s incident.’
He winced as he could feel the pain of exerting his mana. Forcibly circulating mana through the body wasn’t safe by any means since everyone was born with a set circulation speed of mana. By forcing the mana to circulate faster than the body could normally handle, it strained the body and mind significantly more than it normally would.
With the wind cutting and focusing all his attention on running, he could no longer hear the clashes. Trees, sticks, and leaves blew past his vision as he slowly approached a clearing within the forest. His passive mana search seemed to also return as he moved towards it.
Therein was the side profile of a wolf whose fur seemed to be covered in blood that walked towards a tree. Beneath the tree were students that were severely bleeding, yet still holding on to their weapons as the monster faced them down.
Now that he was able to see the monster, he could feel a sinister mana coating the mana of a gray wolf even if it was only a little. The red veins caused the overexertion of impure mana in the body and red eyes were the signs of a demon. In this case, the gray wolf became a demonized monster.
Wasting no time, Fayn immediately released a burst of mana into the surroundings to taunt and launch himself toward the gray wolf. This would normally bring in other monsters, but since Fayn was unable to sense any mana being released until he arrived, it was safe to say that there was a strong mana shroud stopping any sort of mana from being released from the area.
“HAAAH!” The effect was immediate as the wolf turned his attention towards Fayn, only to see the distance between Fayn and the wolf be closed in an instant, as he swung at the wolf. To his surprise, his strike was unable to cut through the wolf so he made a quick decision to blow the wolf away using his momentum instead.
The wolf was sent into the trees, breaking plenty of them as dust clouds appeared from the fall of the destroyed trees.
“Tch, no effect,” The gears within his mind turned as he tried to adjust to the wolf’s strength. He couldn’t do anything but engage the wolf in combat despite the wounded students’ mana levels being reduced to dangerous levels, “You two, stay strong. Help will arrive soon.”
‘My mana needs to be sharper,’ Fayn thought in his mind as he coated Eternal Zero in his mana that went from transparent to being mixed with shadows while ignoring the pleas of his body. He already went past the limits of what his body could handle, but he had no choice to.
‘The worst that could happen to him would be being forced to stay bedridden for a few months.’
“Enhance,” he muttered a spell before chasing after the wolf that was surely recovering from its flight.
“Now, time for the next clash.”
