At the same time, in the village inn…

「Hey! There's trouble!… There's really big trouble!」

A man runs in through the door with two-pronged pitchfork in hand. A few more follow him in, all wielding farming implements or tools, and visibly shaken.

「What? I heard some really loud noise, but I figured that was just thunder. What's going on?」

The bulky innkeeper asks, furrowing his brows. The men run past a sleeping old man's table, and the one holding a pitchfork points in the general direction of the village center.

「There's this guy fighting this huge fucking thing! It's a werewolf, or something! It's kicking his ass!」

He explains with huge, terrified eyes.

「It's glowing like a candle, but blue! It's fucking scary!」

A man with a sickle chimes in, then glances over his shoulder at the door.

「We gotta barricade ourselves in here! If the entire village comes and defends the inn, we should be fine!」

Another man suggests and points at the door. Deeply confused and unnerved, the innekeeper looks at the group. His eyes widen.

「Myria…」

He utters out, then reaches under his counter. He pulls out a wood axe and vaults over, shoving the men aside.

「Hey! Where are you going!? It's dangerous!」

The man with the pitchfork asks while quizzically spreading his arms.

「Myria is out there! I have to get her back!」

The innkeeper shouts back as he rushes for the door. He runs out, disappearing beyond it. The group of men exchange nervous glances, then begin shifting the chairs and tables…

…

Around the same time, near the village center…

Every building around Straf and the werewolf is rapidly deteriorating. The walls are smashed, the windows shattered, and the ground all around is ripped up and upturned.

「You're already a piece of magic-resisting equipment, you just don't know it yet.」

With his fists up, Straf smirks at his giant opponent. With only a few paces between them, the beast only needs to lunge forward to reach him.

CRACK!

After letting out a low growl, it jabs its claws at his face with an accompanying supersonic crack. Straf bobs his head out of the way.

CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!

The beast tries again. A flurry of blows comes Straf's way, all aiming to rip out his throat or tear his face apart, each claw sweeping through the air like a gigantic cleaver.

Straf ducks, weaves, and bobs out of the way. Not only that, he actively steps in with each missed blow. When the werewolf cocks its arm back for another attack, Straf lunges forward.

TFWAP!

He takes the initiative and delivers a hammering blow to the side of its shaggy body. It lets out a high-pitched yelp like a pained dog, recoiling and stumbling sideways.

「So a werewolf liver is in the same place as mine! Sucks for you!」

Straf grins and chuckles, readjusting his stance. The werewolf's face is covered in folds while it winces, and its slavering teeth are bared with its jaw wide open as it clutches at its side.

「What? You thought you're big and savage, so you get an easy win? Think again, dumbshit! Wait until I try the wobbly arms!」

Further taunting the beast, Straf spreads his hands before returning back to his boxing stance. The werewolf recovers, and enters a vastly different stand too.

It holds its hands out, palms downward, fingers splayed and slightly angled, back lightly hunched, and knees just a little bent. It almost appears like a very generic and cliched zombie pose.

「Seconds? Go on. There's more where that came from, asshole.」

Watching the werewolf, Straf tightens his fists and lowers his stance.

Without a warning, the beast's hand snaps back to prepare for a claw sweep.

「Heh. Not so fast!-」

Straf moves his hand up to intercept the strike and prepares to riposte, but the claw sweep never comes.

Thwup.

「Eh?…」

He utters out when he feels his legs fly out from underneath him with a forceful impact. His entire vision spins, and he notices the werewolf apparently recovering from a pirouette.

《…Did I just get feinted by a fucking werewolf!?》

Thud!

「Ugh!」

Straf lands on his back after the sudden legsweep. With a growl, the werewolf brings its clawed hand high up, its claws pointed directly at him.

「Oh shit!」

Fwsh!

Straf rolls out of the way just barely in time as its hand digs into the dirt like a piledriver. Stumbling, panting heavily, Straf gets back up to his feet.

《Shit. That stamina penalty is really letting itself be known…》

He catches his breath while the beast violently tugs at its hand stuck in the ground. After one more forceful pull, it frees itself and bares its teeth at him.

《…It's kind of big, but let's see if the bear trick works on it too.》

While looking at the werewolf's shaggy neck, Straf straightens out and takes his fighting stance again.

「What's up!? Getting tired!? I'm just getting started!」

Straf briefly spreads his arms, grinning at it.

Crack! Crack-crack-crack! Crack!…

The werewolf lunges at him again, violently sweeping its claws left and right. Straf hops out of the way, maintaining a short distance of separation with each missed blow.

《There it is!》

Straf grins when the werewolf raises its hands high above its head, then brings them down onto him.

FWOMP!

Straf sidesteps inward, dodging the blow as its hands violently pack the dirt he was standing on.

Being just beside the beast and with a lot of forward momentum, Straf wraps his arms around its furry waist then throws it over his shoulder.

「How do you like the script being flipped on you, fucker!?」

Straf shouts, not allowing it to recover from the whiffed blow. He dashes in while it's still flying through the air.

Thud!

It attempts to deftly land on its hands and hind legs, but that only leaves it open and defenseless to Straf swooping in and locking his arms around its neck. He jumps onto its back.

「Shit!… You never skip a meal, do you!?」

Straf remarks when he realizes that he can only just barely secure his arm on the beast's neck due to its sheer size. With his teeth clenched, he forces his arms closer, strangling the beast.

Though it initially seems to work and the werewolf only flails on the ground in panic, throwing its head around and slapping Straf in his face with its ears. It then starts to blindly claw at him.

「Pft! Pfft! Get your smelly fucking ears out of my-!」

Straf sputters, also throwing his head around to avoid the ears. He notices claws coming for his eyes.

「Oh fuck!」

He throws his head back with a heavy grimace on his face. One of the claws very narrowly misses his throat.

「Khh!… Just turn into a fucking rug already! You're the worst raw material I ever had the displeasure of working with!」

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!…

Straf lets out a frustrated gasp through his teeth and begins punching the werewolf in its head, while his other arm continues choking it. Neither of the two methods seem to be very effective.

…Thwack! Thwack!…

「Tsk… If only I kept some fucking silver coins!-」

Straf's head perks up. He looks around, and finds a few villagers watching the fight with nervous eyes. Some are hidden in the crevices between the buildings, one man is hiding in an overturned barrel, and another in a crate. A few children are in a cart full of hay, all are either too scared to run, or those are the best hiding spots that they could find, and the fight simply moved to them.

「…Anyone got any silverware!? A knife? Fork? Spoon? Anything!?」

…Thwack! Thwack!…

He asks the frightened spectators while wrestling with the werewolf, still hitting hammering his fists into its head with a steady rhythm.

Straf looks at the man in a crate, and he shakes his head in response. When he looks at the one in the barrel, he receives the same.

By the time he glances at the children, they are shaking their heads. Straf sighs.

「Tsk… Of course the people in the fucking sticks eat with their hands… Don't make me rub silver sulfide into your fucking eyeballs!」

Thwack!

He shakes his head then delivers another, significantly more frustrated punch.

「Ah?」

He aborts the next one with a surprised utterance, when the werewolf simply decides to get back up along with Straf on his back.

「Riiiiight… I'm not heavy. Lily sure has it nice…」

With his mouth scrunched, Straf looks around and finds himself well within the average level of the homes' rooftops.

「…Myria!…」

A man's distant voice shouts.

「Huh? Dad?…」

In hiding with Cycelia, Myria's head perks up.

「…Myria! Where are you!?」

The voice shouts again, slowly getting closer. She looks at the werewolf and Straf upon its back, then looks up at Cycelia and her nervous grimace.

「This is bad! If he comes here he'll be in danger! I have to go find him first!」

Myria explains to Cycelia, then rushes off, taking her chance with the werewolf seemingly in Straf's control.

「Wait! You'll be in danger too!… Ahhh!…」

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Cycelia tries to stop her, but the young girl slips out far too fast. After a brief moment of hesitation and with a discomforted groan, Cycelia cautiously runs after her.

「Geh!?」

Straf barely hangs on when the werewolf throws its upper body forward, bucking him like a bull.

Tfwap!

「…Not again!」

He exclaims as he realizes the werewolf didn't mean to throw him off, but to catch him.

It grabs him by the waist. With no solid grip on its neck, the werewolf straightens out and throws Straf forward.

「Ah!」

Myria freezes up when she sees Straf fly right past her path.

SMASH!

He crashes through an already damaged wall, and stops somewhere deep inside one of the homes with a deafening ruckus.

「Myria!? Where are you!?」

The innkeeper's voice shouts, now very close and only obstructed from a direct line of sight by the buildings. With her intended path now blocked by the unimpeded werewolf, Myria decides to turn around and take a different one. Just as Cycelia catches up, she runs off again. Cycelia abruptly slides to a halt when the werewolf looks at her.

「Don't!」

With her hand outstretched, she calls out to Myria. The young girl doesn't listen, and instead continues running in the general direction of her father's voice, past Straf's point of impact.

「Dad! Get away!」

Myria shouts, running as fast as her legs can take her.

「Myria!? Wait there, I'm coming!」

The innkeeper hears her, and yells in reply.

Cycelia turns her emerald eyes to the werewolf. Shaking and rubbing its aching head, it takes a step towards her. Its head suddenly perks up and its ears swivel, listening for something.

After a moment, it then takes off after Myria, ignoring Cycelia and running past her.

「Dad, no! Stay away!」

She desperately shouts back. Running on all fours, the werewolf slides to a halt as it crosses a corner. It sees Myria's back, and runs its tongue along its drooling teeth.

With an axe in his hand, Myria's father emerges from beyond a building in the distance.

「Myria! Behind you!」

His momentary sense of relief is washed away when he sees the werewolf charging at her, hand outstretched to grasp her, mouth slavering with the thrill of the hunt.

「Eh?」

Running to her father, she looks over her shoulder.

《Eh? Why me?…》

Not vengeful at all, only slightly confused as to why the werewolf has targeted specifically her. Her eyes dart all over its form and pick up minute details. Though she's not aware of it, the flow of time has slowed for her. She remains frozen, though her mind races through unanswerable questions. She looks at the werewolf's dark brown eyes focused on her, then the drool spewing from its mouth, its sharp teeth, its furry arm, the blue glow that surrounds it, its hand reaching for her, and the equally sharp claws tipping it. There are only a few paces of separation between them, easily crossable by the beast in mere seconds with barely any effort.

A few smiling faces flash before her eyes. Mostly villagers, and mostly the regular patrons. Both living, and those already long dead.

Her father's face from many years ago, when she served her first patron all by herself pops up in her mind. A faint smile tries to appear on her face, but her lips remain frozen too.

《…Maybe if it eats me, at least it will leave dad alone.》

There is no fear in Myria's heart, only a small hope as she turns her gaze back to the werewolf's eyes.

FWOOOMMM!

「Get out of my way!…」

In a flash of light, the handsome patron appears out of nowhere right next to her and sweeps her off her feet into his arms the very next instant. His firm grasp on her, his growling voice, and his warmth in the cold autumn night is enough to make her heart skip a beat as he lifts her higher.

「Eh? Mr. Straf?-」

《Why is he lifting me over his head?》

Still processing the situation, she blinks rapidly in confusion. Straf readjusts his grip on her.

「Eep!」

《Eh!? Hand on my-!》

She jumps in wide-eyed shock as a result, and lets out a meek squeal like a terrified mouse.

「…You fuckin' nuisance!」

「Eh!?」

Straf shouts in anger, and Myria realizes that he was not yelling at the werewolf, but at her to begin with. As if she were a basketball, he throws Myria her father's way in a large arc.

「Eh?」

She lets out another surprised utterance when she realizes she's flying, and just above the buildings rooftops.

Her father is caught equally off-guard, but he quickly throws his splitting axe aside and sticks his massive arms out.

Fwap!

「…Got you!」

「Dad?」

Myria lands in his arms, and they snap around her in a tight but gentle grip. Surprised that she didn't just smash into the dirt, she blinks up at her father's relieved face.

「Fuck! I knew it!…」

Straf shouts suddenly, and the innkeeper turns his eyes to him. The werewolf is holding him by both of his legs and smashing him into the dirt.

It then flings him high into the sky, tracking him with its gaze. After a moment of hesitation and with the beast distracted, the innkeeper turns to run back to the inn.

「Eh!? Dad!? We're just leaving him!?」

Myria clutches at his beer-stained apron.

The muscles on his jaw visibly tense up, and he refuses to look at her. His grip on her shoulder tightens. He continues staring ahead as he runs, silent.

Cartwheeling through the air, Straf briefly deactivates [Freedom of Movement] to halt his wild rotation. He looks down and winces, then glances at his healthbar.

[|||||||||||||||||||||||--------]

He remarks as he reaches the top of his trajectory and feels his velocity decrease. He begins descending, and deactivates [Freedom of Movement] again to slow down, even if by a little.

「Cooldown, huh? Great… Think! I don't want to recreate the fucked up parachute test!-」

As he's rapidly falling, Straf's brows rise.

Snap!

He snaps his fingers, smirking.

「Craft!… Parachute!」

He exclaims, opening the crafting screen.

「…Any of 'em! Just give me a fuckin' 'chute!」

He very briefly glances at the list of parachutes available, then picks a random available one and presses [Craft].

「Agh! Fuck!」

Quickly remembering the quirk of crafted items, he grabs onto the flat square box with rounded corners as it appears in front of him.

The glowing object hangs in the air high above, and he hangs off of it. Straf glances downward. The werewolf flung him higher than an apartment building, and he still has some floors to go.

「Wait, it's not going to fuse with my fucking hands or something when it's ready, right!?- Gah!」

Straf looks up at the parachute with furrowed brows, and before he can finish his sentence, he begins plummeting again with a packed parachute in his hands.

「Fuckfuckfuckfuck!」

He pulls the ripcord, opening the parachute. He watches the small pilot chute fly out and flap in the air above him, slowly gaining distance.

「…I don't have the fucking time for that!」

Instead of waiting for the parachute to deploy, he tugs at the pilot chute's string in an effort to get the main parachute out. After a few tugs, he frees it from its container.

Fffwwwwwoppp!

Straf nearly loses his grip on the parachute when it deploys with a noisy flutter. He looks down, and the rooftops are much closer than anticipated.

「Ahhh… That 2.5 is going to suck so fucking bad…」

Hugging his parachute close, Straf lets out a large sigh and looks at the inn's roof with a troubled, resigned grimace. Cycelia and the villagers watch him descend with a bated breath.

Crash!

「Ow! Shit!…」

He crashes into the inn's wooden roof. A portion of it collapses, and Straf bounces off.

Thud!

「…Fuck!…」

He lands on another, lower roof of a nearby house, and loses grip of his parachute. He once again bounces slightly, then rolls off to the ground.

Thud!

「…Shit! Fuckgggnhh!… Gahhhh!…」

Straf drops down by the house and rolls a few paces, all the while groaning out pained curses. After a moment, he manages to get up to his knees and elbows.

「…Ahhh… At least I'm not dead- Well, again.」

He remarks, glancing at the parachute draped over the building's roof next to him. When he turns his head forward, he notices furry animal legs.

「…For now?」

Straf looks up, and sees the werewolf lifting its hands for an overhead swipe. [Contextual Time Perception] activates.

FWOOP!

「Come on, at least give me a minute you fuck!…」

Straf catches both the werewolf's forearms, sinking slightly into the dirt from the force. Instead of trying to pull away, the beast applies even more force in an effort to overpower him.

「…Don't you know it's illegal to try and kill parachutists!? And before you say it only applies to pilots, you threw me, so you technically count as a vehicle! Fuck you!」

He adds, grinning at the werewolf while wrestling with it. Though Straf is slightly stronger, the beast has him in a disadvantageous position and Straf is unable to leverage enough force.

「Nnnghhh!… Come on. Timeout? Bell? Commercial break?… You know the network's gonna be mad if we don't have one, right?-」

Straf shrugs his shoulders, forcing the werewolf's hands aside. It opens its saliva-dripping maw and snaps it at his head.

Clack!

「Woah! Hey! Ad break! Ad break! Fuck!」

Just barely in time, Straf throws his head aside as the beast's teeth snap shut right next to his ear. It retracts its head and bares its teeth once more.

Clack! Clack! Clack! Clack!…

「Hey! Stop! Fuckin'!… Bad dog! Bad dog! And your breath fucking stinks! Fuck off!… Come on, think of the advertisers! Ad break!」

Narrowly evading the snapping jaws and still wrestling with the beast, Straf continues shouting and trying to reason with the werewolf…