A Second Set of Claws
Behind!
Through the spirits' senses, I already knew a monster had appeared at our rear. What stunned me was the speed with which it closed the distance—and the fact that the thing I'd taken for some enormous beast was a werewolf standing more than three meters at the shoulder. That, I hadn't expected at all.
The roar tore out of it, a shriek that rang straight through my skull.
"Ghk!?"
I'd been the first to sense it and was already closing in when that roar made me flinch.
"The bastard!"
The captain of the guards shot past me and swung his greatsword at the werewolf. Steel met forepaw, and the impact cracked like a cannon shot.
In that opening I drove back in and thrust my spear in from the side. The creature snarled—and the forepaw it snapped out caught me clean, spear and all, and sent me skidding sideways.
Kh!
The shock was so fierce that simply not losing my grip felt like a mercy. It hadn't been a wasted try, though. In the same breath the captain closed the gap and carved a long diagonal gash across the thing's torso.
Flesh tore. The werewolf shrieked and bounded back, and the forepaws it whipped around kept the captain from pressing in any farther. By then the rest of the guards had their wits about them and threw a ring around it.
A low growl. Yellow eyes raked the circle, and most of them flinched. In that brief instant the long slash across its torso sealed shut, and every face went dark.
"Everyone! Don't give it time to heal! Charge!"
At the captain's word my body moved on reflex.
Then the werewolf's roar exploded again. In the heartbeat most of us flinched, it blasted two guards off their feet and bolted straight into the trees.
No one had expected it to run. While the rest of us stood stunned, some of the guards sprinted for the fallen.
"Jim! Ray!"
And just like that, the sudden fight was over.
"It used the wolves to draw our eyes, then hit us from the rear. A clever one. Dangerous."
"Agreed. We've still got two more days in the Beast Forest at least. Think it'll come at us again?"
"We killed a lot of the wolves under its command. I doubt it'll rush in again so easily, but..."
"Even so, we ought to prepare. I've heard silver weapons work on werewolves."
"And where are we supposed to find silver weapons out here?"
While the merchant head and the captain of the guards talked through what had happened, the other guards had me surrounded.
"Hey, rookie! You had some moves back there!"
"No kidding. That was real skill."
"Ah, yes. Thank you."
One of the Labyrinth's rules, well known among adventurers: stay wary of the people who live here, but once you're sure they're allies, build goodwill.
Two of their own just died, and they're like this? ...Right. Around here, that's just a mercenary's lot.
I smiled and took the compliments in stride, but the unease sat too heavy for the smile to be real. It wasn't because two guards were dead. It was the quest—above all, the perfect clear.
Is this thing even the fiend? Hard to say.
It was strong, no question. That roar carried a brief paralysis on top of everything else; alone, it was more opponent than I could handle. Yes. Alone.
With the guards—especially Captain Kane—I might have a shot.
That "might have a shot" unsettled me more than the fight had. Even granting that I'd improved a great deal, was a perfect clear really something you could pull off without much trouble just by leaning on Labyrinth locals? After that godforsaken melee on the first floor, I couldn't swallow it so easily.
Still.
No. No, that's wrong. Even on the first floor, if I'd hunted carefully and taken my time, it wouldn't have been that much of a nightmare. Yeah. That's it. And I'm stronger now.
Looked at rationally, that reading was the sound one. More than anything, what the captain said next swept the unease aside.
"Everyone, sort the cargo from the wrecked wagon. From tonight we double the watch. If the werewolf hits us, we hold in a defensive formation and focus on stopping it! We only have to last two days!"
This caravan had no intention of going out of its way to kill the werewolf.
Right. With a penalty like that hanging over them, of course they wouldn't.
Which meant I was the one who had to find a way to kill it—while keeping the rest of the caravan, everyone who wasn't a guard, alive.
But.
No matter how I turn it over, I can't see an opening.
I'd felt it in my bones a moment ago. This wasn't something I could face alone.
Even so.
I have to pull it off somehow.
The first class you earned after clearing the tenth floor mattered more than any amount of emphasis could cover. People said it decided the direction of your future growth, and the ceiling of it.
Especially me. I have to get the best class. No exceptions.
Too few ability slots. Traits that did nothing in a fight. If I was going to overcome all of that and conquer the Labyrinth—if I wanted even a slightly better chance—then other floors could wait. A perfect clear in this novice stretch was nonnegotiable.
So I had no choice but to look for an opening.
"Um, Captain Kane?"
"Oh, rookie! You were impressive back there. Not bad at all."
"Yes, thank you. But I had something to say about that thing from earlier."
"That thing? The werewolf?"
"Yes. Do you really think we can hold off something that cunning just by defending?"
"...Here I was wondering what you wanted. Took a hit and now you're sore about it, that it?"
It wasn't really that. I'd let him think so.
"Yes. That too. But we know there's an attacker out there. Wouldn't killing it put us more at ease than just focusing on holding the line?"
"Sure. You're not wrong. But all this caravan has to do is reach Edelin. Get through the Beast Forest. No need to go looking for a fight."
"What if I had a way to track it?"
"Don't waste my time!"
Captain Kane was immovable. So I changed targets.
"Merchant Head?"
"Oh, the rookie from earlier. I saw you do well."
"Thank you. But is it really all right to just keep defending like this?"
"Hm?"
"One of the wagons was already destroyed. If we only hold the line, won't the losses just keep piling up?"
"...What are you getting at?"
"A monster's carcass is worth money, isn't it? If we take it down, we might even make the losses back."
"Oh...?"
"I'm confident I can follow its trail."
"...Is that so?"
The merchant head was interested. The result followed at once.
"Captain Kane. Holding the monster off is well and good, but wouldn't dealing with it outright be safer? What about running a defense team and a strike team together? Tracking down the one that fled, for instance."
At the merchant head's word, the guards' orders changed. The price came due immediately.
"Rookie. Was this your doing?"
I'd clearly fallen out of Captain Kane's good graces.
"Search party's me, the rookie, and Jason. Rookie—you said you could track it. Take point."
Three people to chase a monster the entire guard detail had lost even while they had it surrounded. And I was in front. If things went bad, it looked like he meant to throw me out as the sacrifice—which, for me right now, was actually fortunate.
"Yes! Leave it to me!"
Maybe the answer caught him off guard. Kane's brow twitched, but he waved us on, and our belated pursuit began.
"Captain, it's already been over an hour..."
"Leave him. He stepped up because he's sure of himself."
I ignored the grumbling at my back and quietly focused on the spirits' senses.
That way. The earth spirit made the first pass, sorting for the trail of something enormous. Is this fur? The wind spirit drew in whatever trace remained, however faint. Yes. From those traces the water spirit confirmed blood and moisture and fixed the path, so even with the time that had passed, I knew which way the thing had gone.
Multi-spirit command. Nothing beats it.
It was possible because these weren't ordinary spirits. My consciousness dwelt in them, so I could feel through several at once as if they were one. If this hadn't been an innate ability, wouldn't it have earned a skill name—Spirit Tracking?
On that alone, my companions' opinion of me began to shift.
"Oh? You had a trick like this?"
"He's actually on the trail, isn't he?"
"...Right. So that's why he was so sure."
Even Captain Kane, who'd been against the hunt, started looking at me differently. He went so far as to teach me something.
"You can use mana, right?"
"Huh? Ah. Yes."
"Your resistance to fear looked weak. Don't try to tough it out. If it looks like it's about to roar, plug your ears with mana first. It'll help."
"Ah. Thank you for the advice."
And then he even excused the situation.
"If you're tracking something at night without being seen, fewer bodies is better. Don't take it the wrong way."
"Yes. I understand."
Well... fair enough.
Thinking about it, seeking the threat out and removing it was best for the guards too.
Maybe another thirty minutes of tracking passed.
"There. A wide cave, fifty meters ahead. It went in."
I'd found the werewolf. From there, Captain Kane took over.
"Rookie. Fire spirit out front. You stay on point. Keep scouting."
"Yes."
"Good. From here, hand signals only. Caution. Advance. Engage. Withdraw. Memorize them."
"Yes. Memorized."
"...Move."
I led. Captain Kane with his greatsword and Jason with his longsword followed behind. We hadn't been inside long, the fire spirit lighting the way ahead, when I felt enemies in front of us.
Enemy ahead.
Presences: three or more.
Sources of warmth: four.
The moment I sent the signal, three wolves burst out—bigger than the ones that had hit the caravan. An ambush, of a sort. It did them no good. My spear, Kane's greatsword, and Jason's longsword each took one in the same instant, the impacts wet and final.
In that same moment a huge set of claws came out of the dark without a sound. I'd already read it, so slipping aside wasn't hard. I slid straight back, and Kane shot forward. The werewolf's forepaw came off.
Flesh ripped. The creature yelped. It had meant to ambush us and been ambushed instead, and it bounded back—but Kane stuck right to it. Blow after blow landed, and then a heavy, clean cut. Jason and I closed from either side and drove spear and sword in.
The werewolf's face twisted. Its jaws opened.
The roar!
A low hum. I sealed my ears with the wind spirit. The roar reached me muffled and dull, and the body swinging my spear never locked up.
And so it went. Flesh tore. Steel punched in. The werewolf ate hit after hit and started to come apart. It shrieked and thrashed, and I could see the wounds trying to close even as it flailed—but new ones opened faster than the old ones sealed. Worse for it, the forepaw we'd taken at the start was fatal.
It roared and lashed its limbs out like lightning, but one of them was far too short. Strikes with no sense of distance only opened more gaps. We put the openings to use, one after another.
"End!"
Kane's greatsword sheared the werewolf's head off clean and called the fight finished.
The battle had started like a storm and never given us room to breathe. Even the exhaustion couldn't beat the relief.
Done!
I clenched a fist without thinking—then felt something wrong.
The System...?
It wasn't announcing the end of combat. The instant I felt that gap, a spirit warned me of another enemy.
Behind us?!
"Captain!!"
The shout left my mouth, and in that same moment a massive forepaw exploded out of the dark and clubbed Kane across the head.