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97.43% Lupine Noctem / Chapter 38: Chapter 38- A Small Smile

章 38: Chapter 38- A Small Smile

Hearing Alex's shout, Ash whirled around, his gaze stopping on the burly mercenary who just joined the fray.

'It's him. He's the one-'

The large wolf bolted away from where he'd been driving back the horses, his attention tunneling on the enemy who'd slaughtered his siblings.

^Ash, watch out! He's baiting you in!^

Roth seized control of their body for a split second, lunging left and sending their body tumbling away from Jorg.

'Roth, what the hell?!'

Ash looked up, noticing that Jorg had pulled out a spear at the last moment. Without Roth's intervention, Ash would've ended up as a wolf-kebab.

'Ah. Thanks for the save!'

Ash stood back up, glaring at Jorg's beard-covered neck. The mercenary coughed out a mouthful of phlegm, spitting it to the side.

"Well, if it isn't the rat! Looks like you're nearly big enough to skin now! Old Earl did a great job of takin care of ya!"

A growl escaped Ash's mouth as he searched for an opening. Despite leaning back and speaking with a relaxed look, Jorg kept his spear pointed toward Ash the entire time he spoke.

"Bah, and you are trying to defend him! That's why I hate you stupid animals. A walking pelt thinking it has some other use."

The mercenary's spear waved a bit as he gestured at the wolf, and Ash darted forward.

'Without the spear, I'll rip this bastard to shreds! Roth, pull me away if he tries something again.'

Ash's jaws locked onto the spear just above the bladed tip, before wrenching back and tearing the weapon from his enemy's hands.

Without giving the mercenary a chance to recover, the wolf lunged forwards once more and latched onto Jorg's shin, massive incisors tearing through the merc's flesh.

A bit of panic appeared on Jorg's face as he fell to the ground, desperately swinging his fists to try and dislodge Ash's death grip.

"Damn ankle biter! Trash rat! Get off me!"

Jorg's swinging fish clenched onto a dagger hidden under his coat, but Ash backed off in time to avoid the strike thanks to Roth's early warning.

^Nice! Let's do that again with the other leg! I'll keep an eye out for his weapons, so rip this bastard to shreds!^

In front of Ash, Jorg struggled to his feet. With his left leg now maimed, the merc wouldn't be able to retreat.

"Trash!"

Realizing he couldn't run, the mercenary decided to go on the offensive. Immediately after whipping his dagger at the wolf, Jorg pushed off the ground with his one good leg, launching himself toward his furred enemy.

^Watch out!^

The dagger scraped past the side of Ash's muzzle, drawing a thin line of blood. Startled by the unexpected advance, Ash failed to completely dodge the dagger, and completely missed his chance to avoid Jorg's tackle.

The heavy mercenary crushed Ash's body to the ground, keeping an arm braced against the wolf's neck to keep his snapping teeth away. Jorg drew back his free arm before slamming it into Ash's side, grinning as he felt Ash's ribs creaking under the pressure of his punch.

"Die, rat!"

Stifling Ash's futile attempts to struggle free from his grip, the mercenary's fist repeatedly slammed into Ash's ribs.

The word started to go dark. The arm pressing tightly on Ash's neck. The piston arm hammering away at his side.

Then, a wooshing noise. The same one from earlier, the one that stopped the previous mercenary's attempts at crawling away.

A dull thunk sounded as the pressure was finally relieved from Ash's neck. Jorg staggered back, an arrow having found a gap in his leather armor, sneaking past his coat to pierce the flesh under his arm.

Ignoring the source of the arrow, the pain in his ribs, and the rapidly recovering yet still dark vision, Ash bit forward, his teeth finding the soft tissue of the man's throat.

Terrible ripping sounds were accompanied by a sickly gurgling, masked by vicious, angry growls.

Blood splattered on Ash's face, painting his grey fur a sickly crimson.

From behind Ash, hooves could be heard pounding on the ground.

Shouts rang out from the remaining mercenaries, and they quickly retreated from the carriages, some of them fleeing back to their blockade while another group just surrendered and waited for their enemies to arrive.

Freidrich and fifteen of his men galloped back to the carriages, having easily destroyed Ignar's forces with their charge. Half of the guard remained back at Ignar's camp. After the initial charge, most of the conscripted soldiers surrendered, throwing down their weapons and begging for their lives.

Wanting to end the fight as fast as possible and return to the caravan, Friedrich left behind a few men to sort out Ignar's surrender and returned to help Earl.

"Earl! Ignar has surrendered, and we have no casualties among our men. Three of our horses received minor injuries."

Friedrich's eyes scanned the defensive side of the battlefield. The battle at the caravan hadn't lasted long. There were seven dead mercenaries, and another fifteen who were either too injured to run or surrendered on their own as they saw Friedrich's return.

On the guards' side, four were injured… and two were put to rest for good.

Chris's eyes had already glazed over. Jorg's random throw into the cluster of guards had found the rookie guard's throat, and the guard's life expired before the fight ended.

The second guard to die was Tanya, who'd been the third archer amongst the guards, fell after taking an arrow to the shoulder, then was trampled by a mercenary's horse.

Friedrich bowed his head. If they'd left more guards behind to defend, maybe his companions wouldn't have died.

The returning guards circled around the bodies of their friends, bowing their heads and paying respect.

"Is everyone ok? Dad, did we win?"

The somber moment was interrupted by Alice as she poked her head out from a carriage. Looking up, the girl quickly noticed the depressed look of regret on everyone's faces.

A sinking feeling tore through her gut.

'Dad… no!'

Earl, standing on the opposite side of the gathering, wasn't visible to the girl.

She hopped out of the carriage and ran to where the fighting had occured, pushing through the guards to see the bodies of the fallen guards. A tiny smile appeared on her face, disappearing the next instant.

'At least it wasn't dad… No, what am I thinking?!'


クリエイターの想い
OakFlame OakFlame

Heyo. I'm writing another novel right now, for the spirity awards. The main character is a human, but his frenemy/best buddy is turned into an eagle. It has a lot more comedy than this book, and I'm updating it every day! If any of y'all are looking for something else to read, give it at try, it'd help me out a lot! Spellcrafter's Demise. Thanks!

章 39: Aftermath

The guards slowly reorganized themselves while Earl decided what to do with the captured mercenaries. Most of the more aggressive ones had already died in the battle, including the two who had claimed the lives of Earl's men.

Ash sat back as everyone moved around, gathering up supplies and gear that'd been tossed during the battle.

'I kinda lost it there… if Alex hadn't backed me up, it could've gone terribly.'

Internally, Roth was grinning.

^Yea, but that was great, right? That bastard who killed our family, look at him now!^

Ash's gaze wandered over to the pool of blood surrounding the dead mercenary.

The sight of the corpse would make anyone want to retch, and it was part of the reason the guards had left it sit. All of the captive mercenaries were tired up a short distance from it, the sinister scent of blood wafting up from the torn body enough to drive away any thoughts of trying something stupid.

Just like Ash's own fur, the dead Jorg's once orange beard was starting to turn dark red as the blood dried.

'I almost can't believe I did something like that… ripping out someone's throat. I didn't even hesitate this time.'

While Ash was conversing with Roth inside his mind, someone walked over and patted the large wolf on the top of his head.

"Nice job. We would've been in a lot more danger without you."

Ash looked up to see Alex standing by his side. Despite his words being appreciative, his expression still looked gloomy. It wasn't because of anything Ash had done, but instead because of his duties as one of the leaders of the guards.

Even if he already would've gone around to comfort people on his own, he likely wouldn't have gone to everyone. The people who'd died were his close friends, to the point that they were almost like family.

Instead of mourning with the other guards, he still had to go around and check on everyone else.

"I'd try to wash you off, but I think this is going to take more than just a little bucket of water. Let's wait until we get to a river."

After patting Ash's head one more time, Alex straightened up again and walked over toward where Alice and Earl were standing by each other.

From his position, Ash could just barely overhear their conversation.

"So, Alice, what do you think we should do with the people we captured?"

The girl didn't take very long to answer.

"We can sell them back to their employers for money, right? That way we can make back some money that we lost in the fight, and we can prevent any more bloodshed."

Instead of answering yes or no, Earl instead leaned back against the side of a carriage, then looked up at the sky as if he was wondering about something.

"Hmm… but there seems to be some impending conflict. I wonder which side these men will be on in the future."

Alice's eyebrows furrowed, and she hesitantly raised a finger to point at the men from Ignar.

"They will side with the other people from their hometown… they are our enemies, right? As for the mercenaries… I don't know."

Earl noticed Alex approaching, and nodded his head to the young man.

"Alright, then. What are you going to do about that?"

Alice quickly turned and started questioning the guard leader about the merc groups, and Alex was able to answer most of her questions. He already kept a close eye on any potential problems in Holen, and most of the groups present were from the local area.

"Dad, most of them are hostile or neutral to us, but Alex says that some of them are loyal to Mol. Are they allies?"

"That's for you to decide, but just know that we are indeed working with our home country's interests in mind."

After taking a few more moments to question Alex, the girl listed a few of the less country-bound merc groups, then pointed at Ignar's soldiers, who had been gathered at the camp.

"You are saying… We should execute all of these men? I- it seems a bit too much… but if it will save the lives of the guard…"

Friedrich walked over to their group just in time to overhear Alice's words, and he understood Earl's intent by having her think over the matter.

"Kiddo, who do you think those Ignar soldiers are?"

"... Soldiers?"

The grizzled veteran shook his head.

"Farmers, mine workers. They are all common folk who barely know how to fight, it's why we crushed them so easily. That's what most soldiers are."

Alice turned back to her father, stomping her foot on the ground.

"Dad, if they are just normal people, we can't kill them! They all have families to go back to!"

The aging merchant placed a hand on his daughter's shoulder.

"Kid, you need to be more greedy. Value yourself and your family over anyone else. Just because the enemies have families doesn't mean we should go easy on them."

Alice's expression fell, and her gaze wandered over to where the soldiers had been gathered up. Most of them were sitting or laying on the ground, nursing their wounds or crying over their lost brethren.

They certainly didn't look like a group who would come back to attack their family… but what Earl was saying had to be correct. He wouldn't lie to her about something like this.

Alice steeled her heart.

Before she could say anything, Friedrich's hefty palm patted the girl's back.

"Bah, you shouldn't be needing to worry about this! Just leave it to us older folks to make these kinds of decisions."

The grizzled veteran pushed her toward where Ash was sitting and listening in.

"Go with the other soldiers down to the stream, and wash your wolf off."

Alice looked reluctant to leave the farmer-turned-soldiers to whatever fate awaited them at the hands of her elders, but she still listened to Friedrich.

'If it's what needs to be done, to protect our home and our family… then I guess that's what should happen.'


クリエイターの想い
OakFlame OakFlame

Heh, long time no see!

I was having some writer's block and decided to come write something for this book.

Heh, I still remember the plot I had planned, and it is super fun. Perhaps I'll write some more here today.

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