Looking toward the trees, John saw four much larger dog-like creatures approaching. They were nearly as tall as he was, with black skin and thick, powerful legs—monsters he had never seen before.

‘Oh, this might be a challenge!’

After quickly jumping toward his sword, he removed it from the corpse, swinging it widely to get rid of the blood. The familiar smell of their blackened blood made him grimace, reminding him of his first time killing these things.

He felt that taking on two of these wargs alone would be fine, but the woman might have to take the last two, although he doubted she would manage.

“Can you take two of them?”

“I’ll try!” she replied, gathering flames between her hands. “Go for the left ones!”

‘Oh, she’s a magic user as well? I might have underestimated her…’

The monsters were approaching quickly, forcing John to take action. He did as she asked, approaching the two to the left and getting out of the way before she fired the spell.

He darted towards the left warg with his sword raised, ready to swing down. It reacted quickly, baring its fangs towards his hands, but John changed directions slightly to hit it in the throat with the hilt. No damage was done, but he at least stopped the beast's advance.

‘Ough, tough bastard! These guys won’t go down easily.’

A flash of light to his right side caught John’s attention as a ball of fire hit the rightmost warg in the chest. A powerful blast sounded out, sending it reeling back a few meters, but without doing any damage.

“You need more penetration!” John yelled. Her fireballs with a larger blast radius seemed suited to smaller targets, but these were sturdier and would be able to tank it.

“Fuck! I need a neutro here!” the woman shouted toward the gate, readying her spear. The failed spell seemed to have made her nervous, but she still stood her ground against the remaining two wargs.

John had to dodge a ferocious paw swipe before yelling at her. “You need to make the spell thinner, like an arrow!”

“Don’t worry about me; just take care of those two!” she replied, slowly backing away from the two monsters before her.

Suddenly, a giant arrow fell from the sky on one of the wargs, penetrating the thick hide on its back and pinning it to the ground. It would not be a threat anymore.

‘God, what kind of arrow was that? They have an archer?’

The woman breathed a sigh of relief and turned to the last warg. “I’ll help you after taking this one out!”

John smirked, doubting she would get the chance to help him. The two wargs were looking at him while trying to surround him, but he would show them why that was a bad idea.

“Let’s have fun, eh?” he said, holding one arm up towards his left side and channeling his essence. John was proficient in many types of spells, but there was only one he had mastered. One that gave him an advantage over all other combatants in the royal tournament.

‘Penetrating their skulls will be hard, but muscle or sinew should be fine. I’ll go for their throats.’

A blast of air appeared from his hand, pushing him straight toward the beast to his right at high speed. His sword was ready, but he could only make minor adjustments since it was harder to control with one arm.

The sword was pointed straight toward the warg’s head, but a slight tilt from John’s hand turned it to aim for its neck. With the full force of his weight behind it, it penetrated the neck deep—a mortal wound.

The warg started choking on its own blood before falling on its side, dying rapidly. The remaining warg had been surprised by the blast of air hitting it, but soon after, it leapt after John, aiming for his back.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

A wide swing came from John as he turned around, hoping to catch the beast off guard. But it was ready, using its claws to parry his slash, sending the sword's tip to the ground.

‘Shit! They’re damn strong!’ John thought, unprepared for such a counter. Unable to use the sword to defend himself, he let go, holding his hands ready to grab the warg’s head.

It approached, fangs ready, going for his neck. John knew his feet would be vulnerable if he simply held its head in place, so he jumped, grabbing the head and avoiding the fangs.

This put him in a precarious position, with the large head nearly between his legs. He wrapped his feet around the neck, attempting to choke the beast while trying to get a grip on its back somehow.

The torso was too large for him to grab around, and the hide too thick to penetrate with only his fists, so all he could do was squeeze his legs together and hope it would do enough damage. A penetrating spell would help him, but he would need focus to make one.

The warg thrashed around forcefully, doing its best to shake John off its back. It was magnitudes stronger than a bull due to its essence, so it was a wild ride. But John stuck to it, determined to decide the fight this way. He was a bit stubborn.

A spear suddenly pierced the beast's side, making a sizeable wound. The spear woman had managed to beat one of the beasts on her own, making the fight a foregone conclusion.

Another few strikes of the spear made the beast fall to the ground, letting John safely get off. It would still take a while before the beast died at this rate. “Do you want me to finish it off?” John asked.

The woman was panting heavily, but she was unhurt. “Sure, be my guest. I’ll claim the other two either way.”

He readied his spell, making it long and sharp and putting a spin on it to increase the penetrative power, and fired at the underside of the head of the beast, killing it instantly. The silence that descended was overbearing, but hopefully, it meant most of the fighting had finished.

“You don’t know how to make penetrative spells?” John asked, trying not to sound smug. Her first spell would have done serious damage if it had been done correctly, saving them a lot of trouble. Or an arrow, it seemed.

She did not seem happy about his question but still replied, “I’m still learning magic. I was just taking advantage of the ranged situation before they approached.”

John nodded, appreciating her honesty. “You’re pretty good with a spear, so it makes sense. Personally, I should have been more careful with my attacks. I’m used to a much heavier sword, so I wasn’t prepared for it to be slapped aside so easily.”

A routine John had practiced for a long time was reviewing his mistakes after a fight. His trainer had told him several times that it was vital to his growth and made it less likely that he would repeat the same mistake.

“Was that all of the enemies, then?” he asked, not quite sure if he wanted there to be more or not.

“I think so; the wargs are usually the last to approach after a displacement. But I guess you don’t know much about anything happening right now, do you?” Under all the exhaustion and skepticism, a hint of empathy was visible on her face.

John laughed, not feeling entirely ready to go back to the questions he still had rustling about in his head. “Oh, I have no idea! But I guess there’s one question I should ask first: what’s your name?”

She sighed with a small smile, putting her hand out for a handshake. “It’s Karin.”

John took her hand, giving her a firm shake. “I’m John, but maybe you already knew that.”

“No, no, Vera just said I would be fighting together with a completely fresh breaker. You took your sweet time, but I guess it’s understandable.”

The guilt slid off of the wall of logic in John’s mind. He felt utterly justified in taking his time, so he just nodded. “What was the arrow, though? Someone like us?” He glanced at the beast with the arrow still sticking out of its corpse.

“Oh, no, he’s an aspecter. The tier above us.”

“... Tier?”

She seemed hesitant to answer. “Uhm, I think you should get back to the company before asking too many questions, sorry. I don’t know what I’m allowed to tell you. Let’s just claim these kills and get out of here.”

John sighed, but he assumed Karin was similar to himself, one of the candidates brought here, so he believed she wasn’t in a position to answer questions. He was excited about claiming the kills and feeling that sense of growing stronger again, though, so he did as she suggested.

Hopefully, the size and power of the wargs meant he would get more essence out of them, so he put his hand on the closest one eagerly, infusing his essence. It loosened all the essence in the beast, bringing it back to his core and filling his spent essence to full.

The increase in his maximum essence was more evident this time, strengthening his theory that this was how they grew stronger. Maybe he would be able to fight Captain Dirk someday soon.

‘Well, I doubt that. He seemed far stronger than me, and this doesn’t help all that much. I would need a lot of beasts. Thousands…’

Feeling the essence settle inside, he walked over to the first corpse with the severed throat, repeating the process. But this time, something remarkable happened.

A mote of bright golden light appeared in his core, slowly drifting around aimlessly. Nothing like this had ever happened before, and his core was an essential part of his soul. It made him feel anxious.

“Hey, Karin, what is this light floating around in my core?”

“What?! You got an enchantment?!”