*STRIKE*
Jumping high up into the air with his immense speed, Marko strikes at the injured eight-legged wolf, cleanly slicing up a wound in its side.

Seeing this both wolves chase after him, seeing him as the biggest threat to them right now, which is what he banked on. Looking at his party members he shouted out. “Run to the town! I’ll catch up to you later!”
“What!? That’s suicide kid!” The heavy warrior shouted back, concerned at the young talent’s demand.

“That archer has a plan! You three ran back, I’ll distract them!” He yelled back not wanting any opposition. “You three will just get killed staying here! You’re useless being that exhausted! You’ll just slow me down!”

“I-!” Before he could argue back at the young man in peril and tried to aid him, Dane blocked him.

“We need to trust him…” He said to the two, in his eyes is the conviction in his childhood friend, or rather as much conviction he can have while worried sick, something that the two can tell.

“...Fine! You better not die on this first request!” The heavy warrior yelled back before the three ran in the direction of the town, leaving him to deal with the two massive beasts in front of him, while one is severely weakened and the other only by a little, they are still two powerful monsters that he had to contend with and stay alive.

The two wolves immediately tried attacking him. The eight-legged’s attacks were easy for him to dodge while the agile bipedal wolf were giving him a lot of trouble. The incoming kicks and fists were slightly clumsy for the somewhat humanoid monster, which is to Marko’s fortune.
“(If I didn’t spend all my mana doing all those spells I could’ve dodge these things easily… My head is throbbing too…)” His earlier reckless use of spells is coming to haunt him as the two beasts target him as its remaining prey.

He was left without magic to aid him. Now left to dodging all the incoming attacks and stall for time, leaving him without much room for error or time to think. “(Good thing one of them is bleeding the fuck out… Actually…)”
Finally noticing how gravely injured one of them actually is, he immediately ran off from the two wolves, which pursued him relentlessly, and also proving his hypothesis.

The bleeding wolf can barely move as it almost looks like it crumple under its own weight, unable to catch up to him after just a minute, leaving Marko to deal with its remaining companion.

“(Sucks that Dane can’t get any crippling blows on this one as well.)” Marko lamented as he saw the bipedal wolf about to catch him, as he turned around and ready to dodge. “Hup!”

The wolf’s unnaturally long arms all attempted to shred him to pieces, digging into the ground as he jumped away. “(Those are some clear patterns in the ground. If even one of those hit me I sure as hell won’t be in one piece.)”

The giant wolf standing on its two feet towers over him even when it’s hunched down, creating a nightmarish scene with the sun behind it creating a large shadow over the worldcrosser. “(How long do I have to stall for exactly? And how close to town? Should’ve asked that before now…)”
Regardless of whatever blunder he made, now there is only one thing to do, survive.

The wolf is relentless in its attacks, continuing to swing at the adventurer recklessly even as he continues to dodge its predictable attacks, learning its pattern while trying to keep a safe distance.

“(Quite predictable so far. Just a long jump does the trick.)” He thinks to himself as he keeps up the defensive. Trying to not move around too much unless needed to preserve his dwindling stamina. “(Honestly I should at least try to kill it myself, but I’m not at my best now am I…)”
*Leap*

Once more evading the incoming attack, jumping in the opposite direction of where the wolf attacks. He keeps doing this over and over, while he can’t dodge forever, it’s at least nowhere as exhausting as trying to run constantly.

*Leap*

One more jump to the side. Things start to get monotonous as it keeps going and going, and unfortunately for Marko it’s barely been a few minutes since this repeating pattern started, and he could be stalling for forever if things go wrong on the other end.

*Slash* *Crash*

In the few seconds of that monotonous pattern somewhat has changed however, and Marko thankfully noticed it in time.

Using its other arms the wolf leans closer in for a second attack while Marko is still in the air, prompting a knee-jerk reaction where he tries to swing his sword at the incoming clawed hand. While he managed to slash its hand and inflict a small wound, he was still hit by it, fortunately not hitting the sharp claw itself, the retaliating strike made the incoming blow wavered and tilted, flinching and weakening.

“*Cough* *Cough* (That was… Way too close.)” He thought to himself. He was still essentially slapped to the ground and barely made distance between the monster. Nothing was grievously harmed but he’s still in pain. “(A miracle that nothing was broken…)”

If he wasn’t sure if he could flat out parry the attack before, now he’s sure that he can’t.

The wolf seeing the exhausted young man and sensing weakness immediately rushed in, without letting him get more time to breathe as a more relentless assault took place.

More incoming claw attacks that are erratic and leave very little room to avoid, which combined with Marko’s lowered agility leaves him with extremely small odds of making it out. The four arms all not attempting to attack at the same place but instead cover as much ground as possible. Despite being nothing more than a monstrous caricature of a simple animal, it clearly has some sort of intelligence or instinct for it to adapt to his gameplan. In other words it’s time for a different plan… “(Time to run!!!)”

He immediately ran away seeing how dire the situation was. The monster was simply too strong and himself too weak, soon he’ll slip up again and die.

He ran as fast as he could, with the wolf just behind him that would catch him if he didn't run with everything he had. His lungs are burning hot, his breath erratic, and his legs feeling numb.

Suddenly he feels a chill down his spine. A terrible premonition that he can’t shake as he looks back for a second to see a large ball of light behind the bipedal wolf. He could barely make out what was causing it, another massive wolf that was charging the attack, gathering power into its mouth, forming an attack. “(How can that dying thing cast something like-! No I need to-!)”

*BLAST*
Before he could gather all of his thoughts however, he jumped to the side to avoid the incoming beam of energy that would obliterate him, jumping really high up as he saw the town within view.

*Grab*

“Wha-!?” Unfortunately he didn’t notice something else in the air, the other thing that jumped out of the way of the blast. A giant hand full of fur that grabbed onto him tightly, even violently. The one that was chasing after him, jumped after him and grabbed him at his most vulnerable. Two of its hands clutching tight on the slippery adventurer. “(Dammit… Let me go…!)”

He was left helpless, completely immobile while the giant wolf stared him down with killing intent. Using all of his remaining strength he can only barely budge, with no real hope of escaping death’s grip.

“Ahh- AGHHH!!!” He keeps struggling to no avail as his body is slowly crushed, with his bones starting to crack and crumble as he feels like his insides are turning into paste, his vision turned blurry as he can barely tell what is really happening, screaming in pain.

“HAAAAH!!!” He could hear a scream. It wasn’t his, and obviously not the wolf’s. His vision was going dark and unable to tell what was happening at that moment, but it was a scream he heard quite often throughout this life.

*SLASH* *CRACK*
He could feel himself falling onto the ground, his body too weak to even try to move, helplessly falling down, not knowing why the grips loosen on him or why his body is smeared with blood that isn’t his own. Rather, it was almost like the wolf’s two hands were falling down with him.

Instead of landing on the ground however, something catched him and greatly softened the blow. “Gotcha! Let’s move! Quick!”

He could feel himself being carried away somewhere, his eyes starting to refocus as he was carried further away from the agitated wolves. He groaned as he could barely feel his body yet still felt the pain coursing through, as if his entire body had been dislocated.

“You sure we can outrun this thing now!?” The man carrying him asked the other rescuer.

“We can and will dammit!” He replied, sounding his emotion loud and clear, both relieved and worried. Turning his head back he can see the furious wolf run towards them faster than ever. “Go faster dammit!”
It looks as if it’ll catch up to both of them and render this rescue attempt with more lives lost instead of gain.

*Creak* *Squeak* *CRASH*
Unexpectedly however the bipedal wolf fell down unexpectedly, tripping and hitting the ground unceremoniously as the heavy warrior and Dane turned around to look, dumbfounded at what happened.

The wolf tried to stand back up on its two feet, but was unable to as its arms are tied to the ground, out of nothing but the strands of grass on the plain field, extended and strengthened to hold down the massive beast.

“W-Who did this?” Dane sounded his bewilderment, it’s as if the earth itself prevented them from being caught.

“Thank fuck I made it in time…” The archer commented as she came to look at the spectacle herself, or rather was forced here, and besides her was the spearman and Pira.

“One hell of a plan…” The spearman commented while Pira nodded along while Dane and the heavy warrior were left confused.

*PIERCE*

Suddenly the ground beneath the restrained wolf shot up its entire body, spikes manifested from the ground and pierced its body, looking to leave no part of its body spared from the painful execution, leaving its body barely recognizable as its torn apart into small pieces as what almost look like a mountain of spikes emerges from its corpse, painted red with blood and flesh. Eyes, intestines, and so on almost looked like they’re put on display as some were sitting atop the large sea of spikes.

Dane looks sick while Marko can barely see past the blood, delirious as he is. Dane finds it in himself to ask a question, lacking his usual overly enthusiastic tone. “W-What is this?”

“Level of power that one would think of in a fairytale, but not in reality.” Pira answered. The wolf that was giving them the most trouble died a brutal death, leaving its crippled but very much still living eight-legged companion to avenge it, starting by once more inhaling all the mana it can muster. “Even beyond what these monsters could do.”

*Fwip* *BANG*

Suddenly a small black projectile was launched at the massive beast. It was the size of a small pebble, that much Dane could tell as it moved towards the giant beast that shouldn’t be affected by it, and it seems that was at first as it came into contact with its head and buried itself deep in the monster’s skull. Then its attempt to attack stopped as it seemed to stop moving altogether. “W-What now?”

The beast then convulsed violently, trying to clutch its head as if its in complete agony, its cries that should be that of a roar of a mighty beast feels more like a pathetic yelp. Suddenly a bunch of green stems, roots, and vines appeared, protruding out of its body from the many wounds and holes in its body, violently moving around and tangling it from both inside and outside.

Soon it stopped, permanently. Its body turned lifeless as a flower on top of its head stared at the sun. It’s all over.

“I… What kind of power is this?” Dane muttered, turning to Pira for an answer.

“Honestly, no idea. One thing I’m sure of is that it’s simply not a level of power you and I could achieve… Well, at least not in a hundred years.” She answered confidently.

Unable to fully process the absurdity, he turned to look at Marko instead, checking up on him with a worried look on his face. He could tell that his friend barely cling on to life, unconscious, and might never wake up again if nothing is done.

“Seems someone is at death’s door.” A voice called out. Dane turned to see the one who took down the two monsters in such a brutal fashion. She doesn’t look like she just casted multiple massive spells at all, from what he can see she just looked like she came here to sightsee.

He silently looked at her as she walked over to Marko, still unconscious.

 

“Mhhm…” Marko groaned as he woke up, his body still feeling numb but very much intact.

“H-Heeeyyy… You’re awakeee…” He can hear a tired voice calling out to him, looking at the source of the voice showed a really tired Dane slumping on the table.

“D-Did you carry me all the way here?” Marko asked, assuming that’s why he seems so tired.

“Sure did… Choose to carry you myself. It was no sweat.” Dane answered, giving him a thumbs up.

“Said the guy sweating right now.” Marko snarked back.

“What are you on about? How can I sweat because of something I did like half a week ago?” Dane innocently stated.

“(HALF A WEEK?)” The words ring loudly in his ears. “HOW LONG WAS I ASLEEP!?”
“Jeez lower your voice man, it’s been like four days. Good thing someone healed you extra generously, otherwise you might not have woken up…” Dane explained, sounding more melancholic towards the end. Marko flinched hearing his tone of voice.

“...Sorry about that. So anything I should know?” Marko immediately curbed his panic and asked.

“Well we’ve both been promoted to Iron as compensation for the clusterfuck, and the rest of the wolves are taken care of… excessively. We got pretty decent rewards so we can afford some pretty good gears and tools right now.” Dane began recounting some important facts. “Oh, and I was training instead of doing requests since I don’t wanna get way too ahead of you in adventuring rank, kinda unfair considering what you’ve done.”

“Didn’t have to go that far…” Marko commented. “So that’s why you look so tired. How long were you training? Never seen you this worn down.”

“Not that long… Just that the teacher was… Way too freaking strong, and brutal, and I need a nap.” Dane answered, before walking over to his bed and plop down, basically switching off.

“(…Now what? I guess wait for him to be ready to do more requests? I’m not really sure…)” Marko thought to himself, feeling confused as he missed a few days without knowing or expecting it. “(Well… If it has been days since then… I should take a bath…)”

He silently left the room, figuring out that it’s the same room they rented when they arrived for the first time, checking that he did bring some cash with him and then left the building and walked to the bathhouse. Seeing the sun slowly descending but still shines bright. “(Woke up in the afternoon huh…)”

Soon he found himself relaxing there, washing away in the large public bath. He took a better look at himself and looked back on all that had happened. Inspecting his body everything seemed normal, despite feeling like his body was turned to paste by the end. He saw the monsters taken out in a few seconds flat, but lost his consciousness before he could see their rescuer. He also remembered his party members coming back for him despite what he said, and that saved him in the end. “(So much for my little speech… At least it all ends somewhat well… Right?)”

He checks himself again and sees that there really are no abnormalities. It feels like all that happened never did, despite the feeling of pain being clear as day. A discomfort feeling surrounded him as he thought back on it, so he let that memory be and let his thoughts remain as calm as the silent bathhouse.

“(Just go with the flow, if I can survive this then I should survive any other misfortune… Let’s just think like that, a tad optimistic. Just go along…)” The words echoed in his mind, to keep going with this path he chose, all for the fantasy and miracle, and perhaps something more at the end, if this kind of story had told him anything. “(A hero’s tale, a power fantasy, a dark deconstruction… Well I sure hope it’s not the last one, I would be screwed since I’m the protagonist and all… It would be a shame… But I doubt anything terrible is gonna happen… Well, not again rather, I don’t think anyone would called nearly getting crushed by a giant wolf as good in any way.)”

Just keep going. It may be years, but a tale worth reading will manifest as his journey continues, as long as he continues to fight, become stronger, and find a sense of accomplishment that would leave his past life in the dust. “(Well it already feels that way already… Sadly enough, but hey, it’s progress… Still, I need to continue, adventuring, doing requests… Oh, and I shouldn’t forget about going to the capital either, it’s probably going to be quite an impressive place… Nah probably just a bigger medieval city, but Dane would probably find it cool.)”