A blaze erupted from the space a few inches in front of her wand, and zipped towards the direwolf on the left, which was lying down and could not dodge in time. It was engulfed in flame, and collapsed.

As I dashed towards the direwolf on the right, it leapt at me, extending its right paw forwards. I ducked low and to the left, so that its attack passed over my head, and my sword was placed perfectly under its body, allowing me to cut upwards straight through its abdomen with little resistance.

The last direwolf was right in front of me. From this distance, I could see clearly that it was a direwolf and not a normal wolf. It hesitated, as if unsure whether to fight or to flee, and in that hesitation, I attacked.

"Swallowtail Revers—"

"Water Lance!"

Before I could cut through the direwolf's head, a blue laser from behind me shot through its skull, killing it instantly.

KSed again...

Well, either way, the extermination is complete.

Natsuki walked down the slight incline and embraced me from behind. How thankful I am that I didn't get any direwolf blood on my clothes.

"Good work, Yuki. But the only people who are allowed to shout their attack names are the people standing in the back."

"Well, you see... shouting attack names is an important part of zanshin..."

"Oh? So like how you shout men, dou, kote when you're practicing?"

Being watched while practicing is embarrassing. Being told that you were being watched while practicing is even more embarrassing. There's just something about past events, isn't there? So I pointed my reddened face downwards while responding, "...Yes."

"Well, in that case, just make sure not to run out of breath, okay? If you run out of breath, you'll get hurt."

Natsuki poked at my cheek worriedly, and I nodded.

"In that case, should we head back? Oh, do we have to take their heads back as proof that we killed them?

"I don't know... let's take one just to be sure."

I moved over to the upper body of the direwolf I had cleaved in two, cleaved off its head, and put it in a game bag, which I tied tightly. Though the scent of blood did not leak from the bag, the form of blood pooling at the bottom was unmistakable.

I tried to stand up, but, suddenly attacked by a strong sense of nausea, fell down instead. Natsuki rushed over to my side and cautiously lifted my back off the ground.

"Yuki, did you trip somewhere? You didn't twist your ankle or anything, right?"

I took her hand and cautiously rose.

"I'm fine, but... was the commission for only three direwolves?"

Natsuki looked oddly at me, not understanding the question.

"That's right. If your head is hurting or something, let's go back quickly... it's easy to get heat stroke at this time of year, you know? Especially in the afternoon..."

I suppose since I grasped my head and fell over while trying to stand, it must have looked like I was suffering from dehydration. But...

"I felt something coming from the forest... It's way stronger than these. It might be the pack leader, or something, I think..."

"Oh, oh, so you're not dehydrated? That's good. In that case, why don't we take out this pack leader too?"

She smiled and, refusing to let go of my hand, walked towards the boundary of the forest, where we assumed an ambush posture hiding behind trees.

Not long after we took position, the head of a wolf emerged from the thick bushery at the boundary of the forest.

I should probably be more specific. The head was three meters above the ground, its neck and body yet hidden in the forest, and while the contour of the head certainly seemed like a wolf's head, it really could not be a wolf. After all, its pelt was a brilliant vermilion that would outshine even that of a red fox, and from its jaw descended two long fangs, like a warthog except in the opposite direction, or like that picture of an animal called "wollruth" I once saw in a book. And, though from this angle it may very well just have been a trick of the light, I could swear that I saw fire— literal fire— in its eyes.

Though it could not be a wolf, it almost certainly had been a wolf. After all, monsters are just animals that have been mutated by mana or magic. A wolf becomes a direwolf, and thus this is nothing more than a particularly strong direwolf, albeit more mutated than any monster I have seen in my not-very-long travels.

The head was too high for me to reach, so I waited for the direwolf to push a leg out of the shrubbery. Natsuki prepared her magic, but did not fire it.

The direwolf stretched one leg out of the forest, and I leapt at it, aiming for the joint. I brought my sword down with all my force and all gravity's force, but— it ricocheted off, as if it had hit a steel beam. The direwolf's leg was unharmed. I hadn't even cut its fur.

It took notice of me, and unable to launch a proper counterattack with its body bending between trees, simply swung its paw at me. I caught the attack with my sword, but—

"Guahh!"

it was so forceful that I was nonetheless knocked back a few meters, flat onto my back.

I couldn't defeat the direwolf, not with my strength. But Natsuki... I bet Natsuki could defeat it. I looked over to her, and saw her ready to launch her magic. Her magic is far stronger than my swordcraft, so certainly, she could cut through the direwolf's skin.

"Stay back, Yuki. Water Lance!"

From her wand she shot forth a bullet of water, straight at the monster's head. The bullet embedded itself into the monster's skull, and— the monster howled and lept away, crashing into a nearby tree and tangling itself further in undergrowth. It did not die, nor had the attack incapacitated it. But the attack had clearly worked. A few more, and certainly, it would topple over.

But Natsuki did not attack again. Grimacing, she put her wand away, and pulled out the managrapher and a smoke bomb from her bag.

"Yuki, we have to retreat. This is dangerous."

"What? Why?! Can't you beat it?!"

"If it allows me to fire out several more minute-long charged attacks at its skull, I can beat it. Otherwise..."

My blood calmed, and I realized that I had been speaking nonsense. The moment that direwolf pushes its way out of the shrubbery, we will lose. And we don't have enough time to be sure we can defeat it. The only reasonable thing to do in this situation is to retreat.

She pressed the button on the managrapher, and then slid it back into her back. "On three, we run. One, two..."

I tensed my calves.

"Three!"

Putting both the direwolf and Natsuki's smoke bomb behind me, I ran back towards the town.