It had been almost two hours, and Cole could just barely see the edge of the moon peeking over the horizon. He would have jumped with joy if he had the energy. His body stung all over from repeated pummelling by Thesta’s swirling rune. How much mana did this woman have? He could barely handle doing a few Runic Blasts in quick succession, but she didn’t even seemed to be affected by maintaining a single spell for so long.

The whole time they’d been out here, Thesta had him practicing the Runic Blast over and over and over again. It had taken some time for him to instinctively draw the rune using his whole hand. While it wasn’t quite as fast as it could be, currently at the same speed as using just one finger, Cole could envision how it would eventually let him cast magic far quicker.

Thesta got him to practice casting the Runic Blast a few more times, before holding her hand up for him to stop, dismissing the swirling vortex that had been the bane of Cole’s existence for the past few hours. He couldn’t say he was sad to see it go.

The blue eyed woman summoned her wrist pocket dimension once more, snatching her tome out of the air and dropping it in. The portal closed with a snap, and Thesta began walking back into the forest around Venture.

Cole followed suit, pacing behind her like a puppy following its master. He wondered if he should try start up a conversation, but what would they even talk about? Did she have any hobbies, or did she just kill monsters all day? Cole decided he would go with a classic icebreaker.

“What’s your favourite col-“

“Quiet,” she snapped, spoken more intensely than anything she’d sad to him prior. Thesta held her fist up in the air, standing incredibly still. Cole came to a halt also, straining his ears to try and figure out what was amiss.

He heard it, soft, padding footsteps that would easily blend into the forest soundscape. His companion turned her head, pointing into the trees. Cole followed her gaze, blood curdling in his veins when he saw the source of the sound.

It was an enormous wolf, a Direwolf to be more specific. Its dark brown fur was rough and bristly, mottled in such a way that made it hard to spot, amongst the trees. Its head was enormous, with a jaw to match. Cole guessed it would be able to swallow the entire bottom half his body in one gulp.

Strangely, Thesta seemed to have relaxed somewhat. He supposed such a low rank monster, one that couldn’t be more than E2, wouldn’t pose much of a threat to a sorcerer of her calibre. The woman brought her portal out once more, reaching in to grasp something.

Thesta paused halfway, seemingly having a better idea. She pulled her empty hand out of the pocket dimension, turning to face Cole.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Oh. He thought. He knew exactly what the ‘better idea’ was.

Thesta grabbed his shoulder, turning him to face the Direwolf, which was still a few hundred metres away from them. It hadn’t spotted them yet, but it would be sure to notice Cole crashing through the forest towards it. Why couldn’t Thesta just take it from here? Wouldn’t that be safer?

She nudged him impatiently, as if he was somehow wasting her time. Time for a scheme.

“I can’t kill it, I’m almost completely drained of mana. You did say I’m weaker than I should be…” grinned Cole sheepishly. He thought that was a pretty good excuse, using her own words against her. Unfortunately, it didn’t have much of an effect. Thesta rolled her eyes, quickly tracing a blue rune and slamming into his back. Cole gasped as he felt energy rush into him, leaving him feeling strangely overfull, like a pot of boiling water.

“And now you’re not,” she said with a wicked grin, probably knowing full well that he’d been heavily embellishing just how little mana he had left. “Go and kill it. It’s an E3 ranked monster. You’ll be fine.”

Cole swallowed. It seemed there would be no getting out of this. He began walking towards the wolf. He turned to look back at Thesta, but she made a shooing motion, encouraging him to keep moving. He faced the Direwolf once more, letting out a long breath. He supposed he should get it over and done with. If he couldn’t even defeat a lowly Direwolf, he probably wasn’t long for this world anyway.

Besides, Cole thought. He’d killed hundreds of these things back on Vestria Online. What was one more?

But not like this, a voice whispered in the back of his head as he approached.

That was true. He’d never fought up close and personal, even in the VR world. He’d always picked Mage classes even when the greatest risk to dying was losing his items or gold. Now he was at risk of losing his life.

The Direwolf noticed him, ears pricking up before it turned its snout to face him. Cole felt the same chilling sensation in his body as when he’d stared down the Greatbear, only this was somehow worse. He supposed the huge jaw and rows of sharp teeth didn’t help. The wolf growled, a low noise that seemed to shake Cole’s bones. He was faced with a choice once more. To run or hide. Fight or flight.

Except this time, flight meant running back to Thesta, and he’d rather die than do that.

Cole steeled himself, breathing in and out as fast as he could. The Direwolf was picking up speed.

His finger wobbled as he quickly traced out a rune. The wolf leaped, it’s jaws were open wide…

The beasts jaws snapped shut, on empty air.

Cole had darted to the side, his legs glowing with purple Runic Speed. His whole body was suffused with adrenaline, pushing him to action.

His right hand stretched out, using all five of his trembling fingers to trace out the Runic Blast. As the Direwolf turned to face him, no doubt annoyed at him for not being an easy meal, a purple blast of concussive energy slammed into its head.

The wolf yelped, leaping back. Cole cast the spell once more, smiling with satisfaction as the huge monster was knocked back once more. It wasn’t enough, however. Cole needed more, the Direwolf was being knocked around, but Thesta was right, he just wasn’t putting out enough power to be deadly. What he was doing was the equivalent of a three year old punching you in the stomach. He needed to think outside the box.

Cole danced around the beast, his Runic Speed and Blast working in tandem to keep him away from it. What would he do?

Most monsters beyond the lower ranges had some sort of magical resistance. The Direwolf’s fur was no exception to this, giving it some natural protection against sorcery attacks. The fur was also tough, akin to hardened leather.

Cole would maybe be able to puncture through with one of his spears, but he’d stupidly left them in his Adventurer’s Guild quarters, not expecting to have to actually fight anything on his first training session. Unfortunately Thesta was one to capitalise on unexpected opportunities.

Cole dashed around the wolf once more, blasting it in the side. He looked worriedly at the Runic Speed, which was diminishing. He couldn’t do this forever. Once his supernatural speed ran out he was as good as dead. It was time to finish this.

Hmmm… If he couldn’t blast through the Direwolf’s fur, he’d need a way to bypass it.

The young man watched as the huge animal opened its jaws once more, snapping them shut as he zipped out of its path.

Cole had an awful idea.