It seems someone was more cautious than I gave him credit for, she thought as she stared the leader, easily twice the size of its brethren at what seemed to be, at first sight, no less than 1.80M.

Anne stared into the eyes of the creature. The beast snarled at her but otherwise didn’t move. Maybe it was scared of her.

She had indeed killed almost all of its pack in less than three minutes. Anyone, even the biggest of monsters, would be forgiven for turning tail at this point.

“There’s no point to this, I’m just going to get killed by something that clearly outclasses me,” a rational person would think something along those lines and promptly excuse himself.

But the devil didn’t. He wouldn’t advance, but he wouldn’t back down either.

It’s up to me now then.

Anne had been taught to create opportunities if they didn’t present themselves.

“Doesn’t matter the foe, you win, there’s always a way to make the big one’s crumble down, there’s always a way to make the fast one’s stumble, to overpower the strong and to crush the smart, you must always be the one in control of the battle”

At moments like these, she tended to remember the words of her teacher.

I’m such an idiot… She berated herself

She used her left leg as leverage, focalizing all her mana on it, the veins filled with energy and bloated, popping on the skin and probably being visible from afar. In a moment she was gone.

Lucius, who had been watching everything was dumbfounded. All he saw was that she disappeared, followed by a small explosion of grime and dust a distance away from both the alpha and Anne’s previous location.

Once the dust cloud dissipated, he located her. She was rising from the ground. Once up, she dusted herself and sheathed the sword.

Huh?!

Luc noticed then, thanks to the change of demeanor in the monster hunter, that the alpha laid on the floor, a third of its body gone, nowhere to be seen.

Joanne’s idea had been to act as a cannonball, to strike as fast as she could and finish the fight before it could start. This had the effect of ending the fight, but also leaving her with a numbing pain on the shoulder and back.

She hadn’t thought about the landing.

Lucius descended the small hill, unafraid of any creatures lurking in the woods, he got close to the corpse of the animal. It laid still on the ground with its belly to the side, blood pouring out from a gaping wound from which Luc could clearly see the insides of the animal.

He felt a strong disgust at the smell emanating from it. He could taste the iron in the air.

Then the devil took a breath. It was still alive.

What?! You have a chunk of your body lost you now? you can’t still be alive, that’s wrong, why didn’t you just die stupid mutt!

Besides the odd gasp and hard-fought breath mixed with a pained growl, it wasn’t doing much, it could try all he wanted, he wasn’t going anywhere.

Poor bastard, surviving that, only to die to your wounds, sucks to be you.

“Why are you just standing there? aren’t you going to finish him?”

“What?”

What’s she saying? Did she hit her head on a rock or something? Why do I have to do anything?

“You’re the one that did this to him, shouldn’t you finish the job?” he barked back

Anne let out a tired breath. “So you only agreed because you wouldn’t get your hands dirty? That’s pretty twisted for a kid, so the sword is just for decoration?”

The elven kid looks at the sword strapped to his left. Alden gave it to him once. He had been very adamant about not accepting anything from his father, but in the end, he relented. To be honest, he truly wanted one.

“I don’t see why do we have to do something about it, he’s going to die either way,”

“So, to you… having a slow and painful death is the same as a quick and painless one? Go on, grab your sword and kill it. He’s suffering, put him out of his misery. You’re as much to blame as me for what happened to him,”

“What? Why? I didn’t do anything?!” Luc’s tone had risen a few decibels, anger seeping, bubbling on the surface.

“You gave the order, I told you I would leave it up to you, it was your choice the one that led us here, so, if you won’t put this animal out of its misery even if it’s out of pity or a sense of responsibility, then… you know? I’ll have you make a choice. Either you kill him now or we stop this. You can keep running every morning until you drop and never get any better, or you can use that thing you have strapped to your waist,”

Bitch, who does she think she is? Getting cocky just cause she’s a little good, Goddammit, everyone is such a pain in the ass.

“Fine,” he said, unsheathing the sword. “What do I do?”

Joanne grabbed his wrist and directed it towards a point on the chest of the creature that was gasping for air. It surprised her just how much fight there was still in him. A normal animal would have died when the sword first struck

“Here, that’s where the heart should be,”

“You’re not sure?”

“I’m not a scholar, smart ass, now push,”

Luc did as he was told, in part directed by the woman.

He looks the devil in the eye. He saw a look beyond dignified, as if saying “be honored, you get to finish me, child”

He grimaced as he felt how the tip of the blade penetrated both hide and meat to land on a soft surface, blood slowly leaking until the eyes of the devil fade to a pale grey and it finally stopped moving.

Silence.

“You’re more sheltered than I thought at first,” That’s all she said.

Lucius didn’t answer.

The pair spent some time looking for the lost cub, but once it was clear their efforts were in vain and that it was probably long gone, Anne threw her arms up in exasperation.

“Guess it didn’t stick around,” she said with a sigh

“Guess not” Luc had been a lot more silent than before.

Guess I was a little too strict with him… but it’s for his own good, that attitude won’t do him any good, one day he might have to do that for a friend, he has to be able to use his sword when needed, else...

“Well, let’s not waste any more time here, it’s clearly not going to be back, sides, we didn’t bury the bodies, nor we can burn them, so something else will come once it smells the blood”

“yeah”

The white-haired wolf kin sat and close her eyes, concentrated on the smell she wanted to locate.

“Let’s go, it’s going towards the village, it’s just a cub but it might cause some trouble,”

Both of them walked at a hurried pace, following the lead of Anne’s nose.

Until they found themselves hearing the cries of a child, a curly-haired boy asking them for help. Lucius felt he knew him, but didn’t care much for him.

“We were playing in the woods when a monster attacked us. Please help, boss, Edwin is still there,”

Joanne asked the kid to lead the way.

They all ran. Joanne paid attention to the quick retelling of events

But once they arrived.

It was too late.

The monster had already been slain.