#7. The Monster Wolf of Jirisan (4)
#7. The Monster Wolf of Jirisan (4)
It took barely a minute to reach the source of the presence.
In that brief window, I studied the skills I could call up through Observation and ran through every possible scenario.
It was only a matter of time before the fallen monster Wolf woke up. Beating a Black Wolf that was clearly far stronger than me within that window was the kind of thing only possible inside a video game.
But the odds weren't exactly zero. A chance existed. And that chance would be decided in the first surprise strike. One shot was all I'd get.
I waited in the trees, erasing my presence with Stealth and curling my body as tightly as possible into a ball with Transformation. The moment I added Weak Hardening and turned myself into a living iron cannonball, I used Elasticity to pull myself taut like a drawn bowstring and launched myself.
I became a massive cannonball, shot straight at the Black Wolf. An attack it couldn't dodge... or so I thought, but it evaded easily. Not only did it evade — it even managed a counterattack.
I'd erased my presence and attacked from a blind spot, yet it hadn't worked. Hearing? Sight? Or maybe a Sixth Sense? Whatever hyper-sharp sense it was, it had avoided my strike without much trouble.
Losing that first surprise hit was bad enough. The counterattack was worse.
The one piece of luck was that it seemed to consider me a genuine threat and wasn't charging in recklessly — but that wouldn't last long.
I'd hoped for support, but a quick glance confirmed the woman was already down. Out of nowhere, a thought I'd sworn never to entertain surfaced again and threw my head into chaos.
No. A useless thought. Even if that were the case, there hadn't been enough time to evolve. I forced my focus forward and faced the Black Wolf.
Could I run? —Impossible. Even if I grabbed every related skill, its speed would run me down in seconds. Not coming here in the first place was one thing, but now that I was here, fighting was the only option.
'.......'
[Warg (Warg)]
[Body Length 3.79m] [Shoulder Height 1.42m] [Weight 390kg]
I examined it with my Level 8 Observation. Monster or not, those dimensions were simply not allowed for any Wolf. I couldn't see its Status window, but even the most generous guess couldn't place it lower than me. Maybe Vitality was the only stat where I had a shot.
A real monster. Not like me.
And beyond it, that fallen monster Wolf — I couldn't even bring myself to try Observing it. Just then, the Black Wolf finished sizing me up as well. It began licking its chops.
I pulled up the list of acquirable skills immediately.
[Acquirable Skill List]
1. Tentacle (F)
...
367. Weak Sight (E)
[Remaining Skill Points 6]
Six skill points, untouched since Level 10. There was no room for a wrong choice. I grabbed the most urgent ones.
[Weak Sight (E) Lv.1 skill acquired.]
[Faint Eyesight (F) Lv.4 has been integrated into Weak Sight (E) Lv.1.]
[Weak Sight (E) Lv.1 proficiency at maximum. Weak Sight (E) Lv.1 → Weak Sight (E) Lv.2]
My vision sharpened and the world flooded with color. Weak my ass — I could see as clearly as when I was human. No, better than that. Staring the thing down with newly crisp eyes sent a fresh wave of fear rolling through me.
Could I really fight a monster like that, faster and stronger than me?
No. Don't doubt it. Running's not an option, so fighting's all there is.
To resist it, I first needed to see.
[Discernment (E) Lv.1 skill acquired.]
[Remaining Skill Points 2]
[Linkable with Faint Sixth Sense (F) Lv.5. Link?]
A notification I hadn't expected followed. I gave the faintest possible nod, keeping it out of the monster's sight.
[Temporarily acquired Intuition (E) Lv.1 skill.]
Temporary was plenty. The instant E-rank Intuition kicked in, I saw the Black Wolf lunging — knees bending, closing the gap in one explosive burst! I flinched, but immediately realized my mistake. It hadn't moved yet. I had only felt that it was about to.
'......!'
It wasn't real. And at the same time, it was.
Because the Black Wolf moved exactly as I'd seen it in that flash, copying the phantom motion without deviation. If I saw it coming, I could dodge.
Its huge paw skimmed past my head by a hair's breadth — and the monster bared its fangs. As if the mere fact that I'd dodged was an insult. It came in deeper this time, determined not to make the same mistake.
For something supposedly angry, its approach was unnervingly cold-blooded. It had read that I might dodge and committed an extra step to trap me. Backing off was just as hopeless as staying put.
So I decided to do the opposite.
The Black Wolf's eyes flared red as it saw the mucus mass charging in instead of retreating. It opened its jaws wide to crunch me in one bite, but I drove forward with sudden, spring-loaded acceleration and slipped past.
It had closed in deep, which meant it couldn't easily intercept a head-on rush.
I slammed my hardened body into it and finally landed a hit.
Given the gap in our physical capabilities, this should have been impossible — but Discernment and Intuition made it happen.
The Black Wolf stared at me, dumbfounded. Like it couldn't believe it had been struck.
I, on the other hand, swallowed hard.
By all rights, it had just taken a hit comparable to a 40-kilogram boulder. The shock it absorbed was barely significant. If anything, the opposite.
[Physical Damage Reduction (E) Lv.3 proficiency at maximum. Physical Damage Reduction (E) Lv.3 → Physical Damage Reduction (E) Lv.4]
That was how hard the counter-hit had been — hard enough to finally level a skill that had been stalled for so long. I tried to bounce away with Elasticity, but the Wolf's forepaw caught me mid-flight and tore a huge gash through my body.
I'd seen it coming. It was just faster than me, so I couldn't respond.
Intuition and Discernment let me read its movements like an open book. But even when I held the tactical advantage, my physical limits kept tripping me up. Elasticity helped patch the gap to some degree, but it wasn't infinite.
That wasn't the real problem. The real problem was a lack of offensive tools.
Body-slamming it might work once or twice, but if it counterattacked every time, I'd die first. End of story. Even when I did land a hit, it barely qualified as effective damage.
The only reason I could even fight like this at all was that its condition was poor. Leg and rib fractures. A ruptured eye. Without those penalties, even having both Intuition and Discernment wouldn't have made this a fight in the first place.
And even with them, I was hopelessly outmatched.
A battle with no chance of victory under normal conditions — but also a chance that would never come again.
It was already on guard against me. If I ran now, the Black Wolf would recover and hunt me down, and against a healed version of this thing, I wouldn't have even a sliver of hope.
Not coming here in the first place was one thing. Running now just meant dying later. Running wasn't an option anyway. To avoid that future, I had to kill it here.
Right. I had to.
"Grrrr..."
The Black Wolf rumbled with a growl, all threat. It circled around, calculating how to kill me. It knew too — the longer this dragged on, the more the advantage tipped in its favor.
Clever. Cunning.
I'd hoped it would charge in first so I could make the most of Intuition and Discernment. That didn't seem likely now. Its frenzy and the cold patience of a rational predator had merged into one.
......I had no choice but to make the first move.
I used Transformation to shape my body into something sharp as an awl. The instant I did, Elasticity added a burst of speed. In a flash, my velocity almost doubled, and the monster couldn't react.
The impact crashed through both of us. I lost 20% of my total body surface area. The monster, from the outside, looked nearly untouched.
Did I fail......?
Then — a dark trickle. Blood belatedly streamed down and soaked its paws. I'd pierced its abdomen. Its black fur was staining red.
The first wound I'd dealt. An opening.
I didn't stop. I had to bite down and tear until the very end.
I launched myself at it, and it bared its teeth like it had been waiting. Changing direction mid-air was difficult even with Elasticity. Instead, I spat out the mouthful of dirt I'd been holding and blinded its eyes. The soil and sand grinding into its already-ruptured eye drew a scream of agony, but the monster didn't shut its eyes.
That was enough.
Even if it refused to close them, the dirt had smothered its vision. I attacked, using Elasticity as my springboard. It should have been my window to hit it one-sided, but it wasn't. We traded blows instead. I knew the counterattack was coming, even with its eyes blinded. I just couldn't dodge it.
That was the difference between us.
A beast's focus. Its eyeball was being scraped raw by sand, and it still wouldn't flinch its eyes shut. Nothing but murder in those red pupils — raw killing intent, sheer rabid insistence on death.
Getting this far was nothing but luck.
Discernment alone wouldn't have brought me here. Intuition is what kept me alive. And Intuition was screaming loud and clear. When I fought the Master of Baemsagol, I'd thought I might die... but this was different. Death had never felt this vivid.
But it was the same as back then too.
[Whether to advance or to stop.]
—I chose to advance. That's why I came all this way. Hadn't I steeled myself to walk the razor's edge to survive? That thought surfaced, and I felt a strange relief.
'Still there.'
The fear was still there.
That I still had a part of me that was human — I was grateful for that. I laughed quietly. I could take comfort in not having become a complete monster yet.
That was enough. Forward. Further forward.
[Charge (E) Lv.1 skill acquired.]
I spent my last two skill points. What I needed against that frenzy was will. And the stubbornness not to step back.
"―――."
Past the Black Wolf, the monster Wolf's leg twitched. Recovering faster than I'd guessed. I had to take the Black Wolf down as fast as humanly possible.
To do that.
'—An arrow.'
Colliding with it like a boulder won't do it. To kill the Black Wolf, I need an arrow with a razor-sharp tip. I reshaped myself once more, minimizing air resistance. I rebuilt the shaft differently this time. Not an awl. An arrow.
I left the sharpened arrowhead alone and stretched Tentacles out long, twisting them together like braided rope. The strands wove into one another, forming a solid shaft.
The monster, too, began eyeing me with new wariness as I took on this bizarre form. Having already been skewered by an awl once, it would absolutely try to dodge.
The fight would be decided there. Hit or miss.
A shape built for advancing. I added Charge and Elasticity on top of it and drove my speed to its absolute limit. The world blurred. A world-class archer's arrow might break 200 kilometers per hour, but in this moment, I was sure I'd far surpassed that.
I was sure of it.
"―――"
The monster hurled itself sideways and dodged that arrow.
A straight-line attack is fast, but its path is honest. If I'd been moving so fast it couldn't perceive me, maybe — but a monster like this couldn't possibly fail to react to something slower than a bullet.
Yeah. This was expected.
I unfurled the Tentacles I'd twisted and shot them at the nearest tree. I didn't stop and re-launch. I used the tree trunk as a pivot and rebounded. More force, more speed — I came around with both multiplied.
Because I knew from the start it would dodge.
That's why I hadn't used Hardening.
The Black Wolf's eyes went wide. A rebounding arrow coming back with even greater force. The tree shook from the recoil. And then I pierced it — tore through the resistance of its hide in a split second. I shredded through blood vessels and muscle fiber. I finally hit its spine, but that stopped me. Not enough power.
The attack was blocked. A blocked attack meant its win, dodge or no. My remaining body surface was less than 1% of the original. The impact shock was split evenly between us. What was left of me was a scrap, less than 1%.
Still, it wasn't over.
[Devouring: Converts Satiety into Experience Points. Contact with the target alone now enables consumption.]
My first skill. My best skill. I latched onto its spine and devoured it greedily.
An E-rank skill that had reached Level 6 — now it showed its full power from atop an unprotected back.
The half-pierced spine wasn't a mortal wound to this thing. But it was more than enough to crush the ribs that had been exposed when the hide was pierced through.
"―――!"
It thrashed along the ground, desperate for life, trying to scrape me off. For all its monstrousness, it was still a Wolf-based creature. A beast. Hands can't reach the small of the back. Without that range, it couldn't tear me out once I'd burrowed deep against its spine.
The more it rolled, the more it suffered. Dirt and sand worked their way into every wound. What had been less than 1% of a body consumed it and swelled like a snowball. My expanding mass flowed over the spine and spread further, creeping along until I coated its entire interior.
'......!'
I absorbed what composed it and made it mine. It thrashed with the tenacity befitting the name "monster," trying to expel me somehow — but I was already a tumor swelling out of control. I threaded Tentacles through the gaps in its ribs and burrowed into its organs.
Vicious. Stubborn. Relentless.
Slithering deeper and deeper. I devoured its innards. Its heart. Its liver. Its lungs. Its stomach. Its spleen. Its large intestine. Its small intestine.
[Devouring (E) Lv.6 proficiency at maximum. Devouring (E) Lv.6 → Devouring (E) Lv.7]
Its breath had stopped some time ago. Monster or not, it was still just a living thing. No creature survives the destruction of its internal organs.
[Empty Stomach (E) Lv.3 proficiency at maximum. Empty Stomach (E) Lv.3 → Empty Stomach (E) Lv.4]
A hunger with no end in sight. I ate it like pouring water into a bottomless pot. The Food Vacuole kept devouring without pause, and the monster slowly dissolved, becoming part of me.
And when the hunger finally had nothing left to reach for and faded—
[Warg consumed. Experience Points and Satiety increase.]
[Experience Points at maximum. Lv.15 → Lv.16]
A flood of messages appeared and vanished. I'd stood against a powerful enemy, fought, and won. This was the proof. I'd taken another step forward.
But one step was laughably small against an opponent this far beyond me.
"―――."
It loomed over me, letting out a low, rumbling cry.