Chapter five

“Grrrr,” growled the giant timber wolf.

“Roland!” shouted the female cleric. When she attempted to rush over to the guardian, she was held back by the archer. “What are you doing, Albert?! Let me go, Roland’s in danger!”

“If you go now you’ll only get killed,” he told her. Though his face was emotionless, or rather, inexpressive, it wasn’t as though he was willing to sacrifice his own teammate. The stoic archer drew his weapon, a metallic compound bow, from his back and readied his shot. The various mechanical parts whizzed and clinked as the bowstring reached its maximum draw. The arrow gleamed with a greenish tinge as it was launched from the bow.

As if guided by the god of the winds, the arrow flew straight into the giant wolf’s right eye. It let out a pained bestial roar as it retracted its mouth away from the guardian. Taking this opportunity the guardian attempted to retreat, but instead the wolf recovered quicker than anticipated and pinned him down with its leg. It was clearly maddened by these human’s attempt to stop it that it wouldn’t have been odd if it started to expel fire.

“It didn’t work?” the archer was shocked, “shit!” He readied another shot but he wouldn’t make it in time. Still, he prayed for a miracle to happen… then, at that moment a flurry of flames came crashing into the side of the great wolf and created a massive explosive dust cloud. The steel-like fur of the wolf worked against it as it acted to absorb more of the heat. It staggered back as but did not fall as it planted its feet back into the ground.

Following the sudden explosive inferno, a maid with a silver arm appeared toting an unremarkable short sword in one hand and an arm-sized heater shield in the other. Her movements were quick, almost like she was dancing, and she swiftly slashed at the side of the beast. Unexpectedly, that regular looking short sword managed to draw the blood of the colossal wolf and forced it to retreat even more ground.

The maid pointed her sword towards the giant wolf. “Hmph, the key to fighting wolves is to not show fear,” she said. It was likely advice directed at the guardian who attentively nodded. As expected, even he felt a lot of pressure when his pavis was bent like cheap cardboard. It would’ve been unreasonable for him not to lose his cool after that, but that was why the wolf knew it could easily take them on.

The wolf growled back, but as the maid said, it did not dare approach while she had such a fierce and unmoving aura about her. Suddenly, she let out a scoff and spit something out from her mouth. The mysterious object flew quicker than the eye could see and stabbed the wolf's face. On closer inspection it was a dart. “Spider venom,” she casually explained. The great beast roared once more as it made a frenzied charge for the maid’s petite stature, but while she was indeed small, she was also very swift and ran circles around it. When she got into an advantageous position she delivered a lightning kick to its face and unbelievably it was pushed back.

“What the?!” exclaimed the guardian in surprise. He best understood the wolf’s strength as he had previously wrestled against it, and he knew it wasn’t something that could be casually kicked back like this. Either this maid had some ungodly strength or something else was going on. It was at that moment he realized something about the wolf. Its eyes were less crazed than before and even its legs were shaking. “Is this the work of the venom?” he wondered.

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“I see!” followed the cleric. “But it’s still standing tall!”

“We’ll assist you!” the archer drew back his bow to ready another shot. However he was quickly denied that opportunity.

“I don’t need your help. Just sit back and enjoy the show,” said the maid as she readied her blade for another strike. The wolf, struggling to stand somehow managed oriented itself into an assault posture. It was ready to pounce on her. “Heh,” the maid chuckled as she taunted it, “come try,” she motioned the wolf to attack.

Successfully falling for her taunt the wolf lunged at her face first with its gaping mouth wide open to tear into her tiny body. The maid, without fear and with complete mastery of her own body moved just a bit to the side and managed to avoid the entire attack with very little effort. She used this moment to counter and slash at the beast’s face as she past it. It drew more blood and even tumbled over for a few seconds before picking itself up.

As amazing as the maid’s skill were this wolf was pretty impressive in its own right. The wolf let out a low, spiteful whimper towards its opponent when it realized winning might be impossible. “Shall we end it?” asked the maid towards the wolf as she approached closer. As if to respond to her challenge, the wolf barked loudly. “Liliana, use ‘Flame Burst’!” she suddenly called towards someone.

“Eh? Are you sure? If I do that won’t you be caught in the…” another figure emerged from the back. This time she looked like a noblewoman. She possessed long black hair and carried herself with a haughty aura. She had very womanly proportions and even in the midst of a life-and-death battle, all three of the adventurers, including the cleric girl, had their eyes glued to her beauty.

“It’s fine, just do it.”

“Hmph, I don’t really like taking orders from you but… don’t come whining back to me if you find that my flames are a bit hotter than you expected.”

“Stop yapping and do it already!”

“F-fine!” contrary to her appearance, this noblewoman herself was a complete monster. She pointed her stick-like staff and launched a massive ball of flames bigger than herself towards both the maid and the wolf.

“Something like this I can easily dodge with my ‘mirage step’,” muttered the maid as she too charged straight for the wolf. Taking it as a challenge- or perhaps ‘chicken run’ was more appropriate for this scenario- the lumbering wolf leaped up for a final clash. However, before they could even cross their attacks, the maid suddenly disappeared and all that was left was the wolf jumping straight into a gargantuan ball of flames.

The result was a flash of brilliance rivalling the light of day, as well as heat intense enough to char the nearby trees. As the dust and smog cleared a gigantic figure stood. Its fur had been charred back and half of its body was damaged beyond repair, yet with shaky legs the giant timber wolf remained standing.

“What the hell is that wolf?!” asked the cleric.

“It’s dead,” replied the maid as she appeared on top of it. Her short sword swung down at the immobile wolf and a silvery crescent light shot forward to slash at it. If the previous attack was the power of the sun, this could poetically be referred to as the power of the moon. The silver light rushed through the wolf’s body dead centre. Though it was not sliced in half, it eventually collapsed onto its side and bled out.

“Haaah… If you were going to use ‘mirage step’, then at least tell me,” complained the noble-looking woman.

“Did you really think you could kill me that easily?” the maid shook her head and let out a sigh of disappointment. “Well, whatever. There are more important things to do,” she said as she turned her gaze towards the three flabbergasted adventurers.