Part Eighty-Two

“Oh not again. Why the hell am I always the one who finds this crap?”

I’d just about given up on finding Cameron, when the cloying scent of blood had caught my attention. And upon following the scent deep into the alleys, I’d found the scene of a massacre. I thought I could count at least two bodies among the bloodied mess before me, but it was hard to tell with the condition they were in.

Please, please, please, tell me this is just left over from the previous attack. I really don’t want to deal with a major battle right now. So please, just let me go back, and tell someone else about thi-. Goddamnit!

Survival Instinct blared at me before I could escape the alley, barely giving me the time to roll out of the way as claws scoured the wall adjacent to where my head was just at. I rose to my feet as my assailant whirled around, and we came face-to-snout.

“Why the fuck are you here!?”

“GRRRRRRRRRRR!”

The monster wasted no time in lunging for my throat. I barely avoided a lethal blow, but the wolf’s fangs still clamped down into my shoulder, crushing the bones there. Thankfully for me, and not for the wolf, the sole Skill my coat possessed kicked in, preventing the wolf from dragging me down and killing me.

Dark Wrath activated whenever the coat was struck by an attack, causing a blast of Miasma to erupt away from me. It was similar to the Scaleblade Armor's Skill, but so much more dangerous. Any other monster that ate a face-full of Miasma would’ve been dead, but I knew that the Void Wolf would be alright. I needed to get away from it.

I ran down the alley while cradling my right arm. The wolf's bite had left the limb nearly useless, practically leaving me unable to fight. If I didn’t get away before the wolf recovered, it would rip me to shreds. I couldn’t even use Beast of the Nightmare since I needed to hold one of the Twin Swords to activate it. I was essentially defanged.

Fuck, fuck, fuck! Why the hell is the Void Wolf in the fort! That damn thing shouldn’t have been able to get past the guards. There’s no way they would’ve missed it waltzing into the place, so what the hell happened? No, figure it out later Michael. I need to focus on escaping.

“AWOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooo….”

Not good. If the wolf could howl again, that meant that it was most likely chasing me. Realizing that I needed to do something, I managed to draw a Combustion Bomb from my bag, and I dropped it behind me with a ten-second timer. I figured that even if the Bomb didn’t dissuade the wolf from pursuing me, then the explosion would get some attention.

*FWOOOOOM!*

The bomb exploded behind me, creating a wall of flames between me and wherever the wolf was. I’d nearly reached the mouth of alley by now, and was moments from getting to where there would be backup. But of course, my life was never that easy.

Once again, Survival Instinct warned me only seconds before I would’ve been eviscerated. The wolf burst out in front of me this time, but employed its claws to kill me. I had to sacrifice my good arm to prevent it from slashing my face. The wolf’s claws tore through both the coat's sleeve, and my skin, gouging out chunks of my flesh and snapping my arm like a twig.

I managed to leap backwards before it could follow up, but now I had a bigger problem. I was trapped between the flames I’d created, and the bloodthirsty monster in front of me. With both my arms virtually useless, there was no way I could fight the wolf off by myself.

Ahaha, am I seriously going to die here!? To this fucking mutt!? Hell no! Even if I can’t swing a sword, I’ve still got ways to fight. I’m not dying yet!

The Void Wolf wasn’t in good shape either. The fur around its snout and right foreleg was practically gone, rotted away by the effects of Dark Wrath. Even with the ability to slow the decay caused by Miasma, it wasn’t able to completely stop the effects. If only I could use the black sword! Then I’d be able to kill this damn thing. A [Rot] or two should push it past what it can hold at bay.

Just as I thought our standoff would never end, a fireball struck the wolf in the back. An NPC mage had come to investigate, and had attacked the Void Wolf on sight. The wolf retaliated by whipping around and blasting the mage with a howling shockwave, but it gave me the time to try and slip past the dying flames behind me.

“What the hell!? Where’d that monster come from!?”

A group of mercenaries had arrived, further distracting the beast. With its attention off of me, I took the opportunity to slip away unnoticed. I needed healing before I bled out.

***

[Alicia’s POV]

“Mn-hm, mn-hm. So you think it should be possible!?”

“Based on what you said about Imbuement, I think it’ll work. There’s already a branch of magic that essentially does the same thing, but this might work just as well. You’ll just need to make sure you don’t overload your arrows with mana, or they’ll explode while you’re holding them.”

“Oof, that would hurt.”

If Kalia thinks this’ll work, then that’s all the encouragement I need! Hehehe, I’m gonna get this off the ground and shock Michael.

*Thump*

“Huh? What was that?”

“I don’t know. It came from outside. Did someone run into the door?”

The two women cautiously approached the infirmary’s door and slowly opened it, only to recoil in horror when someone fell through the doorway. The situation was so sudden that it took Alicia a moment to realize who it was.

“Michael!? What, what happened!?”

Alicia could see that there were multiple bloodstains on Michael’s coat, and that the left sleeve had been mangled by something sharp. He’d most likely just been in a fight if his condition was anything to go by.

“Alicia, help me get him into a bed. He needs treatment right now.”

Before Alicia could even think of what to do next, Kalia had already snapped into motion. Together, the two of them managed to get Michael upright again, and guided him to a vacant bed. He was still conscious, but his mind seemed hazy and unfocused. He speaking, but neither of them could understand what he was saying.

“He’s becoming anemic, and the blood loss seems to be making him delirious. Alicia, could you go get the lead healer and tell him to bring some Blood Tonic? He’s the only one with a key to the medicine room.”

“Okay, I’ll be right back.”

The other healers in the infirmary had gathered once they knew there was an emergency, but the lead healer had gone to the officer quarters earlier to rest. Considering that he was the only person with a key, maybe he shouldn’t have done so, but it was hard to blame someone who worked as hard as he did. The ideal solution would be for more NPCs to have keys, but that wasn’t her problem right now.

Alicia ran out the door, and began heading straight for the central headquarters. For whatever reason, the infirmary was closer to the walls than the headquarters, though there was two avenues which were basically straight shots connected to it. If she hurried, she could get there in a minute or two, though finding the lead healer was sure to take longer.

But just before she could get halfway, an explosion of force blew several mercenaries out of one of the connecting alleyways. They rolled across the ground, but seemed to still be alive, though Alicia wasn’t able to focus on them for long. A massive black wolf emerged from the mouth of the alley, snarling at the mercenaries crawling away from it.

Alicia instinctively used Analyze on it, and gasped once she read the description. This was the same monster that Michael had told her about last night, the Mid-boss his squad had been unlucky enough to encounter. And it was staring at her, ready to pounce.

She wouldn’t have enough time to draw her bow, nor could she avoid or block the wolf's attack. She only had one option. As the Void Wolf crouched and readied itself, she brought her right arm up and pulled the switch hidden in the bottom of the bracer she wore. With two clicks and a thunk, an arrow shot out of the top of the bracer, kind of like the way Spider-Man shot his webs. The short distance and suddenness of the attack caught the wolf completely off-guard, and the arrow caught it in the chest.

Of course, there was no way that a simple arrow, which hadn’t even been fired properly, could deal enough damage to kill this powerful monster. So it was a good thing that this wasn’t a normal arrow.

*BOOOM!*

What she’d fired had in fact been one of her Grenade Arrows, which she’d hidden inside of the Hidden-Shot Bracer she’d gotten as a quest reward. She took off running the second the explosion hit the wolf, and drew her bow from a magic bag before spinning around while nocking an arrow.

“ARRWOOOOOO!!”

The Void Wolf was enraged that a creature it considered inferior had injured it, and so it gave chase. Alicia began launching arrow after arrow at it, all the while running backwards towards the central tower. She hoped that by moving towards such a central location, that other mercenaries or NPCs would appear to aid her.

The wolf meanwhile, was busy dodging her arrows. It was more cautious of them than necessary since one had exploded, damaging its wounded body further. This led to the wolf doing some extreme acrobatics to avoid the onslaught of arrows that Alicia sent its way, slowing it down just enough that she could stay ahead of it.

Can I make it? I think I can, but I’ll be dead if it realizes that I don’t have any more Grenade Arrows. They’re too volatile and hard to make to keep a bunch around me. I just need to make it a bit furth-.

“Haha! Mach Punch!”

Someone shot out of a nearby alley, and punched the wolf hard, sending it rolling across the ground. The wolf's focus on Alicia, combined with its injuries, had led to the monster completely missing the man's presence.

“Grrrrr. Growl!”

The wolf, which was most likely concussed, tried to shake its head to clear the cobwebs away, but still couldn’t find its footing. It quickly took stock of the situation. Not only was Alicia and the idiot ready to keep fighting, but there were more mercenaries on the way. It would quickly get dragged down in its current state.

Void Wolves are cunning creatures, and one of the biggest issues with hunting them is that they always seem to know when to pull back from a fight, just as this one was about to. It dived into its own shadow before either of them could react, and used its abilities to head back to the forest. It needed time to recover from its various injuries.

But Alicia, who had fought Shadow Wolves numerous times, knew that it could pop back out at any moment. If she let her guard down, it would rip her throat out in an instant. So it was quite shocking when the System spoke to her.

::Individual has acquired Title: Razor’s Edge. Acquired Normal Skill: Survival Instinct.::

Words she thought she’d never hear were spoken one after the other. She’d developed a complex about that specific Title long ago, but now she finally had it. She wanted to go tell Michael immediately, but knew that he needed treatment before she could. She had to find the lead healer.

Okay, I should thank whoever that was befo-. Huh!? W-where’d he go!? There was no sign of the mysterious helper, though Alicia had an inkling of who it was. But since she still needed to hurry, she turned around without a second glance, and headed for the central tower.