The silver wolf sprinted towards me without hesitation, eager to finish the fight. Lightning bolts shot out of his horns and quick bites and scratches followed right after. Yet the attacks were slow, it felt like the silver wolf was attacking in slow motion. I sidestepped every attack and countered with a swift strike; producing a shallow cut. Too shallow. But it's working.
In the corner of my eye, I saw Nia slowly getting back up. She was breathing heavily and could barely stand. But she had a big smile on her face.
Why is she smiling like that? Is she having fun? I thought confused.
She looked at me, her expression a mixture of surprise and confusion. Taking a deep breath, she gave me an even bigger smile and a quick signal.
I was not sure what she was planning. Yet I was somehow sure that it could end the fight. Dancing through the cave, while sidestepping attack after attack, I kept the silverwolf's attention on me. But the longer the fight went on, the faster its attacks got. Or rather, I got slower. I realized that the strength boost I got from the power of darkness was slowly leaving me again.
Suddenly, a bolt of pain jolted through my body. I staggered for a moment, allowing the silverwolf to bite me. My body was still strengthened through this dark mist so, its teeth couldn't pierce my flesh. But it still hurt as hell. I rammed my blade inside its eye, forcing the silverwolf to free me, then leaped backward to gain some distance.
The silverwolf howled in pain, blood flowing out of his now lost eye. Yet instead of falling back, it seemed like I enraged it. Its pelt began to crackle. Lightning strikes brightened the dark cave. Then all the electricity began to gather between its horns, creating a small orb of lightning. Without warning, it shot a massive beam of lightning towards me. I quickly held my blade protectively in front of me, managing to block most of it.
But the lightning was too strong. Cracks began to appear all over my blade. And the sheer power of the beam pushed me backward. The electricity that didn't get blocked burned my hands and it looked like I would lose this power struggle. The pressure pushed me against the wall and I could see small pieces of my blade flying away.
Shit! If my blade breaks now I'm as good as dead!
I struggled to deflect the beam but it was no use. Yet, before the blade could break, the whole cave began to shake. The beam of lightning disappeared and I sank to one knee, my whole body was burning like it was on fire and my stamina was fully depleted. Rubble started falling from the ceiling, hitting the silver wolf which looked through the cave in confusion.
Is this Nia's plan? Is she planning to bring down the ceiling?
I noticed Nia who stood there with her arms raised high towards the ceiling. Her face was etched in concentration. But I wasn't the only one who noticed her.
The silver wolf sensing the danger quickly shifted its focus towards her. Fletching its teeth it let out a deep snarl and prepared to attack
I can't let it get to her! I thought, gathering all of my remaining strength. With my burned hand, I gripped the hilt of my sword tightly, ignoring the sharp pain. Then, while gritting my teeth, I forced myself to stand again. After that, with one last heavy step, I put my whole body weight into this one last attack.
I hurled the almost broken sword with everything I had, using every little bit of mana I had still left to boost it with a small gust of wind. It flew through the air, creating a sharp whistling sound, and struck the wolf in the back. Sinking deep inside its flesh. The wolf howled in pain and before it could make another move, the whole ceiling came crashing down towards it, burying it beneath a big pile of rocks with only its head sticking out. It struggled to free itself with blood gushing out of its mouth, and after a short while, It stopped moving, its eyes still open and empty. The other remaining wolves winced and retreated into the darkness.
Silence filled the cave as the black mist slowly began to return to my body. Relief washed over me and all the tension in my body went away. I carefully sat down on the ground and leaned the back of my head against the cave wall. We won. I thought, slowly realizing the immense pain cursing through my whole body.
Nia slowly made her way towards me while holding her right shoulder with her left hand. She was sweating profoundly and was covered in bruises. Yet, even though she was as battered up as me, she had a big smile on her face.
"We did it! We beat it!" she sat down next to me. "And what was that?!" she screamed. Her eyes filled with excitement. "Your whole body was emitting some kind of black mist and then you went whoosh! You were almost on equal footing with the silver wolf! What circle rank are you?!"
I scratched the back of my head, wincing from the pain in my hand. "Well, I don't know either." I looked at my burned hands which were still faintly emitting the black mist. "I just know that I have this power. Please don't tell anyone about it."
"Don't worry about it." She put her fist in front of her chest and told me with a confident smile. " Your secret is safe with me!" her cat-like ears twitched in confidence.
I felt myself smiling. It felt nice to see someone so sincere and nice as her. The only nice person I have met so far was the Guild leader. But as I looked at her more closely, I saw that her hood had come off.
Wait, didn't she wear a hood? I went a little bit closer to inspect her face more closely.
Nia backed away a little bit, her face turning bright red in the Process "W-What is?" Her cat-like ears twitched nervously.
As I noticed her twitching cat ears I was now sure. "You are a beastmen!" I said, my voice dripping with excitement.
Her eyes widened and I could see her nervosity as her gaze wandered around the room. "N-No. I'm just a strong h-human. And I'm also an earth mage! Yeah. Yeah! That's why I'm so strong!" she let out a nervous laugh.
"You are not convincing anyone with those ears," I answered while pointing at her ears.
Nia frantically searched her head for her hood, but the only thing she could feel were her fluffy ears. "Oh no. Oh no no no. Please don't tell anyone." She begged.
I chuckled. "Don't worry, You keep my secret and I keep your secret. Also, it's really exciting to see a beastmen for the first time."
She looked at me with a mixture of surprise and relive." You think it's exciting? You don't feel hate towards me or want to attack me?"
I remembered that I read something about the beastmen and the humans in a book once. It seemed that the humans once tried to invade the forest after the big war. But the elves and beastmen fought back repelling them. Since then, the beastman and the elves resented the humans, and the humans began catching elves and beastmen who wandered outside of the forest to sell them as slaves.
"I don't care about the relationship between beastmen and humans. You saved me, and I'm indebted to you." I answered with sincerity.
Nia let out a sigh of relief and smiled."Thank you! But you are not indebted to me. I just helped because I wanted to fight the silver wolf." she laughed.
"Alright, but I will repay you someday." I stood back up and stretched. The pain was still there but it was bearable. And the darkness seemed to speed up my recovery. "But I need to go. My teacher is waiting for me outside." I looked around the cave in search of my sword and found it lying in the middle of the cave. Relieve washed over me as I went and picked it back up, putting it back in its scabbard.
Nia followed suit and also stood up. "Then I will go back to! There is another exit so I will go that way." She pointed towards the ledge from where the silver wolf came.
I nodded. "I hope we will meet again someday."
"I hope too!" She said with a bright smile on her face while wagging her tail. She then waved me goodbye before jumping up the ledge and vanishing into the darkness.
Before I made my way out too, I collected the horn of the silver wolf and cut off the ears of the wolves I had slain. Then I slowly and carefully made my way out of the cave.
As I left the cave, I saw Jack leaning against a tree, casually eating a piece of bread. He choked on the piece of bread as he saw me leaving the cave and quickly pulled out a small bottle, drinking from it. He then cleared his throat.
"Ya finally back. And ya look like shit." He said while walking towards me.
I took out the pouch in which I put the wolf ears and gave it to Jack. "I had some problems, but I managed to clear the quest."
Jack began counting the ears. "6 ears, so ya have slain 3 wolves. Good job."
"Thank you but one escape." I took out the silver wolf's horn. "But I have slain a silver wolf instead."
He raised a brow while I took out the silver wolf's horn. Then took it out of my hand and closely inspected it. Jack then began to laugh. "It's true. Ya really have slain a silver wolf." He held the horn high like it was some kind of trophy. "I can't believe ya took one down! We must tell Tony. He'll be surprised! Bahahaha!" he slapped me on the back. "Come, let's go back. Ya surely want to treat those wounds."
I agreed. I needed to treat these scratch wounds. But my burned hands were more important.
We then made our way back towards where our horses were, yet before we could get on our horses, a group of adventurers blocked our way.
Jack walked towards them. "I didn't expect a welcoming party. How considerate of you," he said with a slightly annoyed tone.
One of the adventurers stepped forward. He was a big bald guy with regular leather armor and a longsword on his hip. He took a deep breath, seemingly trying to calm himself, and then began to speak. "Jack lantern. We want you to leave now. You are a nuisance and danger to this village."
Jack put his hands up, trying to defuse the situation and lift the tension a little bit. "All right, all right. I'm done here anyway so how about tomorrow? The kid needs some sleep and I need to get the payment for the quest."
The bald man shook his head. "No, you have to leave now."
Jack smirked. "And what If I don't?"
The leaves behind us rustled and out of the depths of the forest came 3 other men. Yet these men were not normal. They had fur and beast-like features. "Then we have to kill you." answered the bald man with confidence.
Jack covered his eyes with his hand and began to laugh. "So it's true! You are hiding beastmen!" He began to smile like a maniac. "I didn't want to fight. But I can't let you live."
Immense bloodlust filled the air. His bloodlust was even greater than the last time. No, it was even greater than the cursed thunderbears.
I staggered backward, searching for support on a tree. My heart began beating like crazy even though the bloodlust wasn't directed toward me. I could feel it sucking the air out of my body. I knew that this would end in a horrifying bloodbath.
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