Despite being distracted by Gen, the goretusk still noticed the darkish blur coming from its peripherals and instinctively twisted to swing its tusks at it.

Fenris—who, predictably, had charged straight at the beast—reacted to the goretusk’s sudden counterattack by stepping in to make his own swing even faster, a cannon-like crack resounding as his metal gauntlet connected squarely with the goretusk’s face.

Although the impact was enough to make the goretusk recoil back in surprise, dazed by the unexpected weight of the collision, Fenris was equally surprised from being blown backwards.

‘My hand hurts…’ he thought to himself, hurtling through the air with a blank expression.

… Regardless of whether or not Fenris was fine, the party didn't have much leeway to worry about him. Lily sent a [Heal] his way, while Gen and Louis tried to capitalize on the opening he’d created.

“Ara… How troublesome…!” Gen hissed as her blade bounced off of its hide, and quickly pulled her arm back to rebalance herself. She suddenly regretted focusing on her DEX stat instead of strength.

“Don't worry about attacking, Gen! Just keep it busy!”

Louis traced a crescent through the air with his spear as he spun past the goretusk, leaving a long, diagonal gash in its flank. Roaring, it tried to chase after him—only to be forcibly turned back towards Gen as she used her [Provoke] Art.

“That's it—eyes on me…” Gen whispered, circling around to turn the beast away from Lily.

With a grunt, the goretusk charged at Gen. Accelerating faster than she’d expected, Gen was forced to dive out of the way, catching the glancing horn with her buckler.

‘... Perhaps slightly less on me,’ she backpedaled, noticing the scary-looking gash in the shield’s face.

Despite taking surprisingly heavy damage from the goretusk’s repeated attempts to gouge her, even through her blocks, Gen kept her cool; Lily—as panicked as she was—was managing to keep up with the healing, and Louis was doing a good job of annoying the goretusk and taking on some of the heat himself.

However, the party truly hit its stride once Fenris finally reentered the fray.

Flying in from the side, Fenris sucker-punched the goretusk with his full weight behind it, sending the beast reeling yet again; naturally, it hadn't forgotten the first punch Fenris had given it—and now that it had recognized him, the goretusk was furious.

It reared up at Fenris like it had done before—but, no longer committed to an attack, Fenris simply pivoted out of the way and unleashed a string of counters. Whenever he wound up for a haymaker, Gen diverted its attention with a [Provoke], amplifying Fenris’s blow as a ‘surprise attack’.

Whenever the goretusk was focused on Fenris, Gen could also get in some attacks of her own; although her sword couldn't pierce the beast’s hide on its own, Gen could still deal damage if she aimed for the wounds that Louis created.

“Oh yeah!” Louis riled himself up. With two tanks grabbing the goretusk’s attention, he could really let loose. “[Pincushion]!”

Planting his feet, Louis released a barrage of spear thrusts and riddled the beast with puncture wounds. It groaned defiantly, staggering away from the assault.

Like this, their party held impressive control over the fight, chipping away the goretusk’s health at a decent rate despite the level gap—and perhaps they could have won just like that, were it not for one fatal oversight.

Stamina.

Every step, every punch—every single movement drained stamina.

Although Fenris seemed completely at ease while fighting—or perhaps because of how effortlessly he maintained his brutal, unrelenting tempo—the party failed to recognize that Fenris’s stamina was effectively draining twice as fast as theirs from doing double duty as both a tank and an attacker.

*Haah, haah--* However, he took no notice of his growing exhaustion, an intense light instead beginning to smolder within his dull eyes.

“... Fen?”

For Fenris, who usually fought alone, there was no opportunity for him to ‘slow down’ in a fight; to falter was to give his enemies an opportunity to regroup. And so, his response to exhaustion was not to slow down—but rather to accelerate.

No matter how heavy his limbs or short his breath, all he had to do was keep fighting.

A ‘simple’ solution—but one that suited Fenris.

“Hey, Fen! Calm down a bit--"

Unlike reality, however—in a game, the difference between victory and defeat is more often defined by absolute, numerical stat values.

Fenris's SP hit zero.

———

Spoiler

wimbledon

In case you've forgotten, SP stands for 'Stamina Points'.

... I definitely didn't.

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