"My Lord, how adept are you in the art of combat?" The voices asked anxiously.

"Gray, White, and a bit of Blue." I replied in brief.

"Mhm, yes, we see." The wind then raged, "And what do colors have to do with our question!?"

"A simple demonstration will give you the answer." I went from walking to running towards the two beasts, "Hup! Materialize!"

A dastardly duo of beasts, a Stray Wolf and a Snair. Needless to say it's already rare enough to see two beasts work together, but to have this friendship blossom between prey and predator... Yes, the Snair should be gulping the Stray Wolf whole by now, but they attacked at the same time, and it seems they plan to do the same for defense.

"But I am human—I think in three dimensions!" I shouted as the Materialized large stick hit the ground in front of me, "Boys are known to make sticks take the shape of anything their imagination allows, so I choose a vaulting pole!"

"Ingenious, my Lord!" The voices hyped up the maneuver, "You've got the high ground now! Ack, but still no weapon to deal with them!"

"Hup! Now for White!" I smirked, "Tsk, no luck! Gotta retreat!"

The very moment I realized this, I had kicked myself off the Snair's hastily opening jaw. Neither side took any damage, but that is just perfect for me. To review—The White Iro's Ability, Sinus Wave, gives me a visual representation of my chances of success. In other words, a Sinus Wave of Luck. Using it as I was falling straight at my opponents, I had accurately surmised that my chances were unfavorable, so I cancelled the attack midway through to "wait for my luck to turn back around".

"A fake out!" The voices did not quite get this, though, "Brilliant, my Lord!"

"Hiss!" The Snair looked at its companion.

"Awoo!" The Stray Wolf nodded before biting its companion's tail.

"Eh? Infighting?" I thought.

"Wrong! A combo attack!" The voices warned, "Evade! Dodge!"

Without enough time to react, I had failed to evade this rather crafty plan of theirs. I had assumed the Stray Wolf had gone rogue and attacked its teammate, but instead it had just gently grabbed the Snair in its mouth and flung it at me at incredible speeds. Chances are, I could not have dodged it even if I had enough time to prepare. That is just how fast and precise this move was.

"My Lord!" The voices screamed.

"Not good!" I said as the Snair's drool dripped onto my face, "I cannot escape!"

"As a God, he was immortal, but what does his life as a human being mean?" The voices muttered, "Let's not find out, okay!? Do it!"

With yet another strong gust of wind, both me and the Snair that was tightly wrapped around me were sent flying to the nearby tree, banging against it so much we actually broke the trunk in half and toppled it over. Coughing up blood, I had realized the impact made me accidentally bite my tongue. That is good, yes, very good! Because it means I only took that much damage due to the Snair's body taking in most of the impact!

"Yes! It's releasing its grip on you!" The voices sounded thrilled.

"Hup!" I barely managed to free my hand in time and grab a rock to chuck at the incoming Stray Wolf's follow up attack, "Cannot rest yet."

"Ack, sorry, our bad! We forgot that thing was still there!" They apologized.

"Please help me out with the info!" I said as my vision grew Gray, "I have a plan!"

As I just said, my vision going Gray could only mean one thing—Going Solipsistic. Essentially, this term meant that for the next moment in time, at the cost of a lot of my Focus, I can bend the present time to my will. I could not afford stopping time fully for now, because I was far from any signs of civilization. If I lost too much Focus and fell unconscious, regardless of this battle's outcome, I will die from any other beast that finds me. Besides, I still had alternatives, like just slowing time down so that I can comfortably reposition myself.

"Hup." I picked up the slow yet feisty Snair, though just barely, "Time to, huff! Go on a trip!"

Making sure to run in unpredictable directions between the trees, I had essentially left the Stray Wolf with the voices. Right now, in slowed down time, they could still hear me, though it would probably be a bit difficult to understand, so I will make sure to speak slower to compensate.

"Staaaaall the Straaaaaay Wooooolf!" I shouted behind me, "Alright, now that it is a fair 1v1, the true battle can commence! Resume!"

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***

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"Hiss!" The Snair cussed, now tossed high into the air while time was still slowed down.

"Hup! Materialize!" I took another tree branch and a rock to sharpen it with, "Impaling is said to be the most effective way to deal with a Snair, so let us begin with that!"

"Hississ!"

Wiggling in the air like a limp noodle, the Snair tried its best to evade this stick of death, but it found no floor to wriggle off of, so it had fallen right where I had expected it to. That being the case, these beasts are crafty. They might trick you into thinking they are dead, but end up biting you and condemning you to a slow and painful death by venom. I need to prepare a countermeasure for this possibility as well, otherwise I will not be satisfied!

"But what does a forest have in it that can be used as a weapon?" I thought before running at the spike that was about to impale the beast, "But of course, it has me!"

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There was not even any need for me to even use Materialize this time, because in my pockets sat the answer to this riddle! A less-lethal yet powerful new self-defense device I had hoped to give to Nelly if ever there came a time Lemmy tried getting a bit too close to her without her consent. Packed with volts instead of bullets, in theory it should only incapacitate anything its tweezers touch, and I have got the perfect test dummy right here in front of me!

***

"Hup!" I pressed the button that fired it off, "Perfect, a direct hit!"

The capsular bullets were essentially their own batteries, packing over a kilovolt to the body and 2 milliamps of electric current. The gun firing them off does so with a tightly coiled up spring system instead of the traditional gunpowder and hammer method. This is to ensure the wound reaches its target at a semi-far range but does not penetrate through the skin. The bullets, fired off within the range of 10 meters, will most certainly get stuck to the body, and for the entire duration that they are, the target will get continually zapped.

"Hissississ hiss!!!!" The Snair thrashed around violently in response to the electric shock.

"Lemmy most certainly will not enjoy this...!" I allowed myself a smirk as I pictured it in my head, "But I was right! There is no blood anywhere, neither on the Snair, the ground nor the stick! It had dodged it!"

The moment I understood this, the little electric pellets had gotten shaken off of the Snair's body, and it had lunged at me with all its might. This time dodging in time, I had sent its face deep into the ground with a powerful punch. Now came one of the most important parts of this battle—The finisher.

"While your head is so neatly placed under my boot, I...!" My Eyes went Gray, "Will not stomp you, since Snair skin is known to be deceptively thick and protective! Timestop!"

Pausing time to allow myself to Materialize a weapon of choice, I had to think about this carefully. As I said, Snairs have extremely thick skin. It would require quite a strong blade in order to get pierced. I can at best use this newfound time to grab the previously sharpened wooden stick and use it as a spear instead of a spike, but chances are it will not kill or even harm it. I need something better.

"Hup! Materialize!" I shouted as I imagined the largest boulder I could carry above my head, "Ow, Focus waning... Throw the rock, quickly-!"

"Graaawr!" The Stray Wolf had appeared just in the nick of time to kick it off course midair before it hit the Snair, "Grawrrur...!"

"Hiss." The Snair quickly squirmed to him as they both watched my next move carefully.

"Sorry! We tried talking to it and impressing it with our wind, but this damned mutt was just way too persistent on saving its friend!" The voices huffed and puffed as they seemingly ran towards me, "How're you doing?"

"Not... good..." I tried to remain conscious as much as I could, "Used up... too much power... Gonna...!"

"Gasp, Ouroboras!" The voices yelled as the two beasts took this chance to rush me.

"Boom, headshot!" A rowdy voice announced as a bullet went straight through the Stray Wolf's head, then soon another one for the Snair, "Boom, headshot! Woo, nice one, girl! Just in time!"

"Who...?" I saw a young man and a deer walk up to me out of the bushes as I fell to the ground.

The young man, I would assume he is a teenager, since his build is akin to a slightly taller Lemmy. He might be the local hunter, but then why is he not shooting the deer? Could he perhaps be prioritizing my safety, so he went to shoot the beasts first? Then why is it not running away from him? Deer are known to be skittish. Sigh, in any case, I am safe now, so I do not mind.

"Y'alright there, bud?" The young hunter ran to prop my head up and interrogate me, "You're not supposed to run into these woods without a fully loaded firearm, y'know?"

"I was... taking a walk." I chuckled, "Apologies, I have... exhausted quite a bit of stamina."

"Naw, don't worry about it!" He grinned, "You held off nicely until I arrived."

Once he said this, the young doe angrily headbutted his shoulder, insisting for him to correct himself. How odd, for him to still not shoo her away, at least.

"Ah right, you ought to thank Bamb here for informing me about your whereabouts." He patted her on the head, "She really knows a lot about traversing the woods, so it really helps to have someone like her around to announce where the beasts are hiding."

"Bamb...?" I looked at the happy little doe, "You talk to your doe, young man? Never mind, you keep a doe as your pet?"

"Partners!" He shouted the more preferred term angrily, "She's my partner in beast-hunting! She understands Entropic too, so mind your manners."

A doe that understands human tongue and can even work closely with a hunter. Just goes to show you will never be able to guess what you will see when out on a walk, I guess...

"Thank you for saving me." I exhaled as my strength left me, "If it would not be a bother, could I rest here for a moment? Please, do not leave me be."

"The hell? We ain't staying here." The hunter laughed, "Rifles are loud, y'know? A buncha beasts are gonna come eat these two I just shot, so we gotta go to my cottage. C'mon, I'll carry ya'!"

I had assumed that would be quite difficult, but he had picked me up like I was light as a feather.

"Whoa, mister! You really need to eat more!" He chuckled, "I feel lighter when you're on me, for Allucius' sake!"

I was just as confused as he was, until I had noticed the barely audible snickers under me. Ah right, my schizo friends here might be helping out with the weight distribution by applying a nice gust of wind under us. What a gang we have assembled.