Three hours had passed since I entered the Great Barrier, following the open pathway that cut directly through the rest of the forest. With trees covering my left and right, and only open walkway in front of and behind me, it seemed as if my "journey" was more fated than I had expected. It was less of a "journey" and more of a "follow the map to the X mark".

Pale Boy: "So cold..."

Despite all pain leaving my body, and having never returned despite the many hours passing by, I could still feel discomfort. The worn-out boots I had kept since before my trek into the snow, the thinness of my brown and black jacket which prevented almost none of the cold air from entering, the humidity of my right hand being unable to breathe through the black glove I wore, and the sharpness of a green gemstone in my right pocket—all of it, compounded with the still freezing atmosphere, had stayed with me. 

Though I was no longer in pain, discomfort was something that seemed impossible to be rid of. Even if the temperature could no longer cut my body's energy in twain, it was nonetheless distracting and annoying to deal with.

So distracting, that the faint sounds of leaves rustling and carnivores snarling had reached my ears far too late to allow me proper time to prepare.

Pale Boy: "Wait—wolves?"

Two, three, four—five sets of eyes had encircled me by the time I realized the true situation. Their gray and white fur, fluttering through the snowy wind, drove a deep sense of fear into my mind. They were far bigger than me—the supposed leader of the pack was certainly double my size, and the rest hovered somewhere in between. Though the path forward was left open for me, the sheer speed of a pack of wolves would prove impossible to outrun. If I played my cards wrong, I would surely—

Pale Boy: "Bad, bad, bad, bad, BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD—!"

Breaking into a sprint, the five wolves surrounding me rushed to close what little distance I could gain. Their varying distances would be the one upper hand I could cling onto until the very end.

Pale Boy: "Come on! Just like she taught me!"

As the first wolf closes in, recite the many tricks that had been bestowed to me. Once I've found the proper technique to use, just—

Pale Boy: "Put it into practice!"

The first wolf's attack aimed straight for the back of my neck, attempting to take me down with one fatal bite. As long as I understood its desire to end the fight in a quick manner, securing a feast with the minimal amount of energy consumption, then I could counter with ease!

The beast jumped high, aiming just as expected, and with a swift turn of the heels, my arm extended a sharp blade of black glass to the exposed neck of the furry monster. The spray of iron-scented red paint quickly covered my shirt and jacket, and then the snowy ground as its body splayed without further movement.

The rest of the wolves have slowed down a bit...they've reconsidered their plan of attack.

They watched a direct strike to the neck fail, so where would they go for next?

Pale Boy: "Right...here!"

Pacing backwards, watching the movements of the remaining four wolves, I prepared for the next attack while the second wolf began its charge. This beast also started its bite with a jump, though its aim was more centered on my empty arm, perhaps trying to drive enough pain into my body and force my weapon out of my other hand.

And so, to retaliate—

Pale Boy: "Come on! Have a bigger taste!"

With its mouth wide open, preparing to bite harshly on my forearm, I directed my elbow into its jaws, shoving my body as deep as I could to distract the wolf from its bite. From then, winding my free arm back for a strike of my own, my black dagger drove forward into the wolf's side and stomach once, twice, thrice—until the beast's already gentle grasp on my arm loosened even further. With that freedom, I shoved the second wolf down to the ground and turned on my heels once more, making a final break for freedom.

Although I could take down the first two wolves, asking me to kill another three is suicide!

There are only so many ways to terminate a horde of enemies before they become aware of your tricks. Even just one more wolf may prove too difficult for me to handle, if they truly pay attention to the way I move.

Pale Boy: "Gotta go, gotta go go go go! If I can just—GHYA!"

The third wolf to attack avoided an initial bite, though my back was turned away from it, open to receive whichever strike it wished to serve. Perhaps it had learned caution from the first wolf, who saw the same open-backed opportunity I had falsified before. This time, however, I had prepared nothing. Despite that, its bite-less strike proved as more than another to take me to the ground. Rather than open its jaws with the intent to draw blood, the wolf rammed its entire body into my back, knocking my balance into the abyss, and striking me onto the ground, defenseless.

With only my blade left to defend from another attack, I had only the intention to buy enough time to stand once more.

Pale Boy: "Give it your best, or I'll just keep running!"

The wolf's intentions were clear to me again: another bite, this time with the given advantage of jumping being unnecessary. Even saying that were eye-to-eye would be absurd, as the wolf's natural stance was already taller than my being on the ground, leaning slightly backward so as to appear more distant from the following attack.

The third wolf charged forth, mouth open, fangs exposed, and its bite force would surely put an end to my life if it were to reach me.

Pale Boy: "Too slow!"

With a preemptive swing, knowing its full speed would far outmatch mine, I swung my dagger upwards and through the skull of the charging wolf, halting it as its mouth was mere inches away from my face. The light left its eyes almost as quickly as the wolf charged, and I tossed the body to the side before preparing to stand—

Pale Boy: "—W-WHAG!"

The fourth wolf allowed me no time to catch my breath, assuming that the proper time to strike its meal would be directly after its brethren's failed attempt, before I could prepare for the next one. Taking this opportunity without a moment to spare, the fourth wolf pounced over my unbalanced body, forcing me deeper into the snow, now fully on my back without the leverage of height I had managed to scrape together before.

Pale Boy: "What do I—AHH!"

The fourth wolf continued the attack with its jaws, desperately gnawing, snarling, and crunching at the air inches from my face—perhaps closer than the previous wolf had gotten—held back by both of my feeble arms, though only barely.

Pale Boy: "Think, think, think!"

With the strength of both of my arms, I would have just barely enough time to make one single swing with my—

My dagger!

In the chaos of the wolf's pounce, the dagger that was in my right gloved hand had been flung just to the side in the snow, seemingly out of reach. But, if I stretched far enough, perhaps—

Pale Boy: "I have to try...!"

Just two seconds would be enough—two seconds at a time! I released my right arm from the wolf and immediately felt the pressure in my left arm increasing; this was not a stance that would hold for very long—just two seconds longer. With my right hand, I reached around in the snow quickly, tap-tap-tapping across before—

Pale Boy: "Nope!"

—Reaching back for the wolf, resetting the struggle back to square one.  Gather strength, time, and opportunity, and then, when it's all fallen into place, reach again! Tap, tap, tap, tap, tapping once more, and then another failed attempt at finding my blade led my right arm back to the wolf. At this point, either the wolf's sheer hunger had begun to overpower my own strength, or my arms had started to give out. Either way, I only had enough strength to last for one more try.

Gathering up strength, time, and—

Pale Boy: "Oh, what the hell?!"

More forcefully this time, my right arm flung to the side, tap, tap, tap, reaching farther than before!

Pale Boy: "——!"

Until the tip of its hilt could be felt by my fingers, and then with a frantic pull of the grips, my blade swung desperately into the fourth wolf's side once, twice, thrice, four times, five times, six, seven, eight, nine—

Its strength long since disappeared, I pushed the wolf over to the side and straddled on top of it, taking more swings at its freezing body.

Eleven, twelve, thirteen—twenty-four, twenty-five—By then, my mind lost count, and I was solely focused on the death of the animal that had nearly ended my short-lived journey—my fate. If it had any chance of coming back, I needed to take that away from it. 

Pale Boy: "Please, just die! Die! Die!"

But the wolf had long since perished, perhaps since the third or fourth strike. Everything thereafter was a mutilation of its corpse, entirely unnecessary for my survival, and yet, completely necessary for the calming of my nerves. Each swing felt better and better—not in the sense that I began to love killing, but that I felt comfort in hoping for its death, so that it may never attack me again.

My shaky breath steadied, and my hands slowed down until they held frozen above my head. Looking down upon the mutilation I had incurred, it was undoubtable that no more strikes were necessary. It was over. Four of the wolves had perished at my hands, and the fifth was—

Pale Boy: "What is..."

—Cowering in fear just a few feet ahead of me, the smallest of the five wolves would have been the last to attack, perhaps even being the one to wait for scraps after the adults would finish eating. Kill it...If I just killed it, I wouldn't need to worry about dying anymore.

But the soft clink of metal in a leather holster waived away any sense of further death. This beast—this animal, rather, no longer bore any danger to me. It was scared. Terrified. It would never gain the courage to attack me, who had slaughtered four of its elders, despite how much I appeared to have struggled.

Pale Boy: "Are you...hungry?"