บท 28: Me? I'm just passing through
Boom-! Boom-! Boom-!
In the dark forest, only illuminated by moonlight, the sound of loud impacts could be heard.
"Huf, huf, huf!"
And escaping from those impacts were two visibly wounded young men in bad shape being chased by a huge white-furred wolf
"What the hell is a Fenrir doing here!"
Kein shouted as he did his best to keep his legs from collapsing.
The Fenrir were monsters that were only found in snowy and very cold areas, It made no sense for one to walk through a forest like this one
'Is this also part of the test?'
Kein thought, but he was still nervous; bringing a Fenrir for a test was already going overboard!
Boom-!
While he was thinking about it, a bolt of energy hit very close to them, freezing a large part of the area where it landed.
'If that hits me, I'll be toast'.
His condition was extremely bad, and even if he was in perfect condition, he seriously doubted he would be able to face that monster.
'Damn it! What can I do? Think, think!'
"Hold on"
"Eh!?"
Kein's thoughts were cut off when suddenly Ben grabbed him by the waist and pulled out what looked like a handmade bomb.
"Hey, what are you going to do?"
But he couldn't finish his words when Ben threw the bomb towards the Fenrir.
Boom-!
The bomb exploded and Ben jumped up, taking advantage of the explosion to propel himself, It was then that Kein realized.
They were on a cliff
"Hey, you want to kill yourself?!"
While they were falling, Kein could see a river in the background, Understanding Ben's idea at that moment, he prepared for the impact.
SPLASH-!
They fell into the river and after a few seconds, they emerged and swam until they reached the shore.
"Cof! cof!"
Kein coughed up the water he had swallowed and after regulating his breathing, he leaned against a tree to rest.
Looking down at Ben, who was slumped on the ground, Kein asked him
"How did you know there was a river here?"
"I heard it."
"You heard a river that was several meters away as you were running away from a Fenrir firing ice magic?"
"Yes."
Ben replied dryly, and Kein could only be at a loss for words.
'Why does this guy treat that like it's a normal thing!?"
People with mana in their bodies have much better senses compared to ordinary people, but this was already too much!
"Ugh..."
While thinking about that, Kein felt a sudden pain, and when he looked down, he could see that the wound that Ben had inflicted on him had opened up
'I guess I won't last much longer'
Kein sighed inwardly as he put pressure on his wound and closed his eyes.
If he continued to lose blood, the artifact he had on his wrist would teleport him to the safe zone, and he would be disqualified from the test, It was a shame, but there was nothing he could do.
"Here."
"Huh?"
Kein opened his eyes at the sound of Ben's voice, and when he did, he could see him extending a blue-colored weed toward the
"What is this?"
"A Flowering Arcanum"
"No, I know that already; I mean, why are you giving it to me?"
"To heal you, did you hit your head when you fell in the river or something?"
"That's not what I mean!"
Kein shouted, irritated by Ben's comments.
"Why are you helping me? When you threw that bomb at the Fenrir too, why didn't I just jump in and you used me as bait while you escaped?"
Although Kein wasn't one to judge by appearances or first encounters, he was sure this guy wasn't one to care about others
"I need your help."
"My help?"
"Yes, the Fenrir are excellent hunters that don't lose track of their prey even in violent snowstorms, The Fenrir already smelled our blood, so even if he uses you as bait to escape, sooner or later he will find me and eliminate me too and I have neither the strength nor the resources to defend myself."
Kein listened attentively to what Ben said and after looking at him for a few seconds, he reached out his hand towards the flowering arcane in his hand and began to chew on it. The next moment, he could feel the energy returning to his body and his mind awakening, and his wound began to heal
"Well, what's the plan?"
"I don't have one."
"Eh?"
"This situation was very sudden and I still couldn't formulate any effective plan."
"Well, hurry up then; we don't know when that monster will find us."
Crackle-
The instant they said that, they heard something approaching them and quickly got on their guard.
The sound stopped, but neither of them relaxed their guard at all, completely attentive to whatever might come out of those bushes.
Kein tightened his grip on his sword as he felt the sweat trickle down his face.
Voosh-!
After a few seconds, whatever was hiding in the bushes came out quickly, and Kein also charged forward, about to attack with his sword.
Clank-!
With the sound of two swords clashing, Kein got a better look at the attacker and instantly stopped.
"Leticia?"
"Kein?"
Kein saw with surprise how it was Leticia he had encountered, but he was also very happy.
'She could help us against Fenrir!'
"Wow, what happened to you? you look terrible."
"Well, a lot of things happened."
"Friend of yours?"
Seeing that the new person was not hostile, Ben approached.
"Yeah, this is Leticia; I usually train with her and we're good friends."
"Ben"
"Nice to meet you."
After introducing herself, Leticia noticed the state Ben was in and asked again.
"What happened to them? Did you run into a super strong monster or something?"
"Ah, right!"
Kein remembered that monster was still chasing them and quickly turned to Leticia.
"Leticia. We need your help!"
"Eh? Sure, but what do you want me to help you with?"
"We ran into a-!"
Boom-!
His words were cut off when suddenly, from the sky, a huge white-furred wolf landed behind Leticia a huge white furred wolf, Leticia slowly turned around and looked at the huge wolf, who was growling as he bared his sharp teeth
"Fenrir..."
"GROOOOOW!!!"
The Fenrir let out a roar and quickly the three of them backed away and regrouped.
"What the hell is a Fenrir doing in this forest!?"
Leticia asked in bewilderment as she looked at the huge wolf that easily reached 10 meters.
The Fenrir opened its jaws and the mana began to condense rapidly
"Watch out!"
The Fenrir fired a bolt of energy that, upon impacting the ground, instantly froze it.
Leticia, Kein and Ben barely dodged him and prepared to counterattack.
Rushing towards the Fenrir, Leticia firmly gripped her sword and concentrated her mana on the blade.
"Pendragon Style: Wind Fang!"
Swinging her sword, she fired an energy slash directly towards Fenrir, who was recovering from his previous attack.
Boom-!
The attack made a direct hit, raising a cloud of smoke; however, the Fenrir emerged moments later, completely unharmed.
"It didn't do anything to him!?"
Leticia was surprised by the result; her attack had clearly hit and she put a lot of power into it, but it didn't even make a scratch?
The Fenrir although undamaged seemed visibly annoyed, and an icy aura began to surround him, The air turned cold and the next moment, several ice spikes began to emerge from the ground.
Several trees were pierced and the river next to him froze over, completely changing the landscape from before
"Ha...ha...are you okay?"
"Yes..."
Fortunately, they were able to avoid the ice spikes but that didn't improve their situation
"How are we supposed to beat this monster?"
Leticia was doubting if they would be able to take down a monster capable of causing so much destruction in a single attack.
"I think I have a plan."
Kein said and Leticia and Ben turned to look at him.
"But I need you to hold it still."
"How long?"
"About 10 minutes"
"That doesn't seem possible."
Leticia complained at the absurd idea of immobilizing that monster for 10 minutes, Even immobilizing him for 3 minutes would be a complicated task, but 10? Totally impossible
"I have eight daggers and 10 meters of thread left; if we do it right, we could stop it for 5 minutes at most."
"...Good! That's enough!"
After discussing their strategy, Leticia came out of the hiding place where they were and threw a Fang of wind at Fenrir but it was much weaker than the previous one.
Boom-!
"Grrr..."
The energy cut hit Fenrir's face and he turned angrily towards Leticia.
"This way, mangy dog!"
Leticia ran into the forest, and the furious Fenrir chased after her.
Dodging trees, roots, and stones, Leticia ran without stopping, even when she enhanced her body with mana to go faster. The Fenrir was on her heels.
The Fenrir started to condense energy in its maw like the last time and shot it towards Leticia.
Boom-!
The beam hit very close to Leticia, and she flew away from the explosion. She had several wounds, and some parts of her body were partially frozen.
The Fenrir, who saw his wounded prey, wasted no time and rushed to finish Leticia off.
But when she saw the Fenrir approaching her, she was not frightened, but a smile formed on her lips.
Just as planned
The Fenrir that rushed towards Leticia stopped abruptly when some threads caught him.
"Good job."
Ben stood behind the wolf, resting his hands on two daggers firmly stuck in the ground, The next moment, he concentrated his mana and an electric current began to travel through the threads
Tszzzzzzzzzzzz-
The wolf trapped by the wires began to be electrocuted and his muscles contracted, restricting his mobility.
Kein, on the other hand, positioned himself in front of the Fenrir with his eyes closed and clutching his sword with both hands.
'Remember it; remember that feeling.'
Kein was trying to feel what he felt during the attack of the demons on the excursion
He had felt it before, for the first time during his duel against Arthur and then in the confrontation against Leticia.
An unknown energy is inside him, wild, uncontrolled and completely untamable, but also...
Extremely powerful
If only he could draw out a little of that energy, even a fraction, it would be more than enough to finish off the Fenrir.
Kein began to concentrate
When he used that unknown power in those situations, what was it that allowed him to do so?
"Power."
He wanted power
Power to defeat Arthur, power to overcome Leticia, and power to protect Beatrice.
Now he also craved power—the power to be able to kill this Fenrir in front of him
Kein slowly opened his eyes, which had a golden glow in them, The blade of his sword was also shrouded in a golden aura
Looking at the Fenrir in front of him, Kein raised his sword, ready to end this, but when he was about to attack, a sudden voice disconcerted him.
"Oh? A Fenrir?"
Looking back, he could see a man wearing the academy uniform and over it, he was wearing what looked like a lab coat. Instead of shoes, he had sandals covering his feet; he had big dark circles under his inky black eyes and his hair was tousled.
But the weirdest thing was definitely the small, expressionless, red-eyed, white-haired little girl hanging over his shoulder
"GROOOOW!!!"
In that moment of distraction, the Fenrir broke free from his bonds and let out a loud roar, more angry than ever
"Shit!"
The energy he had built up had vanished and he didn't think he would ever be able to gather it back up again
While Kein was despairing of the situation, the man who had just arrived remained calm as he looked at the Fenrir with boredom
"Lili."
"Yes."
The girl on his shoulder took a leap, soaring several meters and heading towards the Fenrir
Boom-!
When she was on top of the Fenrir, she threw a hit to its head, which, when it hit, sent the wolf's face crashing to the ground, knocking it unconscious
Kein, Leticia and Ben could only watch with wide eyes as this girl, who looked to be less than 6 years old, managed to knock out a Fenrir with a single hit.
The girl, after verifying that the Fenrir was unconscious, walked over to the man in the scientist's robe and stood next to him.
" Good job."
The man patted the girl on the head and started walking towards the Fenrir.
"Who are you?"
Kein managed to get out of her stupor and asked the man his identity.
"Me? ah, don't mind me; I'm just passing through."
Approaching the Fenrir, the man bent down and rummaging through his robe pulled out a syringe with a green liquid inside and stuck it into the Fenrir's neck.
"What are you-?"
Leticia wanted to ask the man what he was doing but stopped when she started to feel huge pressure, The same thing happened with Kein and Ben.
Fenrir, who was unconscious on the ground, abruptly opened his bloodshot eyes and veins of a bright green color started to appear on his body
"GROOOOOOOOW!!!!"
Rising up with a roar that shook the surroundings, those present could feel it.
The wolf had become much more stronger!
And not only that, every second the pressure they felt increased, the Fenrir's mana began to overflow and the air became so cold that the trees began to freeze.
'But what the hell did that guy inject him with!'
Kein thought in horror as he watched the Fenrir go berserk.
If they couldn't beat him before, they couldn't beat him now!
Splut-!
However, the pressure he was feeling stopped abruptly and the wolf that was roaring moments ago spurted out a large amount of blood and collapsed.
With blood pouring out of his mouth and eyes, the Fenrir lay completely motionless.
He was dead
"Sigh~ another failure."
The man in the robe sighed with disappointment as the girl next to him was writing in a notebook.
After finishing, the girl climbed back onto the man's shoulder and the two left the scene without saying another word
"..."
Paf-
Kein just dropped to the ground, completely exhausted; he didn't feel like asking questions or having anything explained to him.
He just wanted to sleep, and the hard floor began to feel strangely comfortable.
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