Chapter 11: Can you slay a beast?
Emily smiled, she still had the confident expression on her face as she waited for the wolf to come out, I knew she believed another wolf would come out and she would kill it without too much stress like she did the first one.
However I was shaking in shoes, panic shot through my bloodstream and a wave of nausea hit me, this is because due to my acute sense of hearing, I knew it wasn't just one wolf growling, it was two wolves.
Growlllll!!
The sound came again and I tapped Emily feverishly.
"It's not one wolf". I managed to say.
"What?" Emily said, her confident appearance faltered.
"It's two wolves". I repeated even though my tongue was clamming up.
"Two". Emily repeated and I could see some of that panic seep into her expression even though she tried to act unfazed for me.
The reason why we were so worried and terror stricken was simple, If it was one beast monster, Emily could easily take care of it and kill it. Two beast monsters would be a little more difficult for her but she would eventually be able to kill them with minor or no injuries, however my presence there complicated things.
The two wolves would see two targets instead of one and they would split their attacks, one would attack Emily and the other would coke for me, powerless, weaponless, defenseless me.
At that moment I began to wonder why I agreed to follow Emily here in the first place, knowing forests like this, it was more than likely that we would encounter more than one beast monster at a time. I don't know how it managed to slip my mind.
Just then the bushes ruffled and the two wolves jumped out. They took one look at the lifeless wolf on the floor and looked at us.
Oh crap, why didn't we hide the dead wolf or something? I thought franctically.
The wolves growled angrily and began to advance at us. Emily took her knives and threw one to me.
"Take it and try to stay behind me at all times." She said.
I hurriedly caught the knife and brandished it, flames soon coated Emily's knife but as I couldn't control mana , mine remained bare.
The wolves seemed to be drawn by Emily's flame, they focused their attention on her and advanced on her.
I heaved a sigh of relief and stood as still as possible so they wouldn't be reminded of my presence.
The wolf at the front jumped at Emily but she drew a line of flame and leaped back. The wolf balked at the sight of the flame and stopped running.
I marveled at how much muscle control the wolf had to stop all that momentum.
The wolf jumped over the line and leaped for Emily again, the other wolf joined it this time and together they aimed for her. I had my heart in my mouth but Emily jumped back and yelled. "Fire slice!" A sharp curved line of flames flew at the wolves, the wolves were quick as well, they ducked under it and it went over their head and met the tree behind them.
The flames sliced almost cleanly through the tree and it fell.
I looked at the fallen tree in shock, who knew Emily's flame was strong enough to cut down a tree in one slide? To think that she was at the lowest level of mages, I decided then that I was going to do whatever it took to learn magic and become the highest of mages.
The wolves had now seen the extent of Emily's powers, they were reluctant to fight her. One of the wolves, the bigger one rushed at her again, he growled and wind came out of its snout, Emily slashed it with her flaming knife, the wolf shot wind at her again and she slashed again before returning her own flames.
The other wolf however was too cowardly to fight her, it slowly retreated to avoid being noticed, then it turned to me and growled.
Oh crap!
I tried to stand as still as possible to see if it would lose interest in me or think I'm a non living thing and ignore me but the wolf was not to be fooled, it snarled at me and started tensing its legs so it could jump at me.
I sighed and held my knife firm, I had taken a few boxing lessons in my previous life and so I knew the proper stance to hold, I held the knife up, guarded my chin and assumed a fighting stance, I was not going to cower, I was not going to run, I was going to fight this wolf and show it who was boss.
Snarrrlll.
The wolf snarled and jumped at me, I looked the airborne wolf, looked at my knife and back at the wolf, then I turned on my heels and ran.
Fuck not running, fuck showing who was boss, I was not the boss and I wasn't ashamed to admit it, I couldn't afford to die now, I still wanted to learn magic and become the greatest mage, so I ran for my life.
As I ran I shouted Emily's name. "Emily! Emily!!"
I kept running in the forest with the wolf pursuing me hotly, then in my usual badluck, I tripped on a tree branch and tumbled to the ground.
I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead! I thought as I tried and failed to scramble to my feet.
I flipped my body over to see the wolf running towards me with its giant fangs showing, Emily still wasn't anywhere to be found. I gulped in fear and terror.
I couldn't believe my luck, I had just learnt of magic and life was looking up in this new system I got too and I was going to die so soon.
The wolf stopped in front of me and snarled with delight at the prospect of a meal. Then the resolve built in me, I couldn't afford to die now, I finally had the opportunity of a lifetime and I wasn't going to throw it away because of a rabid beast monster.
I cleared my head and studied the wolf before me, as a plumber you're taught that every building has a weak point, a place where the plumbing is at its most delicate and if pressure was to be applied to that place, the whole drainage of the building bursts open.
It is the same with humans and even monsters, they all have weak points and if you can hit those pressure points, you can take them down with minimum effort and strength.
I clenched Emily's knife in my hand and looked at the wolf before me.
"Well come on, don't you wanna eat?" I taunted.
Snarrrlll
The wolf snarled and rushed at me, with all my strength, I slid beneath the wolf and quickly cut one of its balls off, then the other ball followed and the wolf's rod dropped on the ground beside the balls, I had castrated it in three quick moves.
I stood up quickly and faced the wolf, it squealed in pain and it was leaking blood in torrents, in it's pain and confusion it didn't see me as I walked up to it and brought my knife down on its head.
It took seven strikes from my weak hand before the wolf finally stopped moving.
[Ding! You have killed 1 beast monster, you have now earned 10 mana points]
[You have now earned the title, Beast Slayer]