EP.20.5 Returning Home -3
EP.20.5 Returning Home -3
The wolf lunged.
It closed in at a speed the eye couldn't follow and brought its paw down where I stood.
This was what would happen in exactly five seconds.
Before that moment arrived, I stepped forward one pace at a time, closing the distance.
And at the same time, the massive wolf charged in exactly as I had foreseen.
I ducked swiftly to evade the wolf's paw and slipped inside its guard, into its chest.
Most quadrupedal animals had limited options once you got under their belly, but...
The Great Divine Beast I was facing responded by springing lightly in place and whipping its body around midair.
Now its razor claws were hurtling toward me, so I slid my body to the floor and used the wind to move myself, escaping the strike.
The moment it landed, the wolf lunged to tear into me — I slammed its mouth shut with a single blow.
And kicked off another platform of air to evade.
At the same instant, to keep it from flipping over onto me, I drove the wooden sword down onto the crown of its skull.
Then I landed squarely on the wolf's torso and, without hesitation, threw myself off its body and rolled across the ground.
'That was close.'
A tenth of a second slower and I might have been impaled on fur bristled sharper than an awl and died...
While that thought was still in my mind, the wolf came at my back and tried to skewer me with its pointed tail.
To counter it, I poured all my strength into the wrist gripping the wooden sword and parried the tail aside, then immediately hurled myself sideways — dodging even the tail as it whipped around like a lash.
Up to that point, I'd evaded without trouble, but the next irregular tail strikes were difficult to avoid.
So I created several tiny embers, imbued them with the Concept of Death, and placed them beforehand where Fenrir's tail would reach.
The wolf's razor tail, which had been slashing dazzlingly, touched the embers I had created and suffered a 0.5-second rigidity.
An extremely brief moment, but to me, 0.5 seconds was more than enough time.
Thanks to that, I could dodge the raging tail attacks one by one or smoothly deflect them with my sword.
"Hmph, now you're finally getting somewhat useful."
"You think so?"
"What? Don't tell me you can't even feel your own growth?"
"No way."
After passing through thousands of deaths, now approaching tens of thousands, I could perceive my own growth to some extent.
My physical condition hadn't changed, but I definitely felt improvement in my senses and abilities.
First, the time it took me to think about how to respond to the wolf's attacks had become extremely short, and I had the breathing room to think several moves ahead.
It was a world of difference from the beginning, when I'd floundered and gotten hit.
Next, my abilities had shown marked development as well.
The Future Sight that had been limited to three seconds had stretched to five, and the gap between observing the present and the future point — that opening — was now entirely gone.
I could see the future one second ahead and immediately move in the present.
That was also a huge leap.
Beyond that: controlling air, imbuing fire with death, creating elaborate illusions, and so on.
I'd achieved growth in several abilities. Even so...
"I don't feel the slightest bit capable of beating my father-in-law."
"Pfft! You crazy bastard...!! Have you finally lost your damn mind?"
"Well, a man can dream big, can't he? Kinda embarrassing, though..."
"Yeah, you're not wrong, but... pfft...! Sssp!!"
"Just laugh. It's more annoying watching you hold it in."
"Hahahahahaha!!"
Fenrir threw his head back and roared with laughter loud enough to sweep the training grounds away.
Try as I might to like him, he was a wolf I simply couldn't like.
"Don't get ahead of yourself. A human who's only lived a few dozen years, beating me, who has lived through boundless time? Even if I'm out of active service, it's utterly impossible."
"That's how it is, huh...?"
"Of course! Even your great-great-grandfather couldn't beat me!"
"That's a dead-relative burn..."
"Given my age, I'm talking about pups whose heads are still wet. What kind of dead-relative burn is that?"
Technically he wasn't wrong, but still, dragging my ancestors into it was...
Whatever. I'd just tip off Kor about it later.
Right now, there was something else that demanded every ounce of my attention.
The fact that we were chatting this leisurely with nearly a minute gone meant it was about to begin.
The wolves' hunt that started when exactly ten seconds remained.
"Let's see you run for your life this time."
"Haha... I'll give it my best shot."
I set down the wooden sword I was holding.
Against Fenrir in those final ten seconds, the wooden sword was meaningless anyway.
Because blocking or deflecting his attacks was impossible.
Four wolves pouncing from separate directions — they had substance, and yet they didn't.
Even if I tried to block with my sword, the wolves ignored the blade and tore into me. Just like Alice's ability.
So the concept of blocking with something didn't apply to these wolves.
Dodging was the only option.
"Hoo..."
I took a light breath and watched the wolves lunging at me from four directions at once.
One with claws, one with fangs, one with its tail, the last one with its hulking body.
All of them charging to kill me in entirely different ways.
I couldn't outrun them on the ground.
Then there was only one path.
I stomped the foot I had raised straight down and released all the Air Threads I had bundled beneath me.
The compressed air burst out all at once, launching my body high into the sky.
The four wolves all looked up at the same moment.
Without the slightest hesitation, all four leaped toward where I was — an equally chilling sight.
'What the...'
I'd figured they'd follow me into the air, but I'd never imagined all four would come at once.
The four wolves were never clones created by some ability — they were simply afterimages generated by Fenrir moving at incredible speed.
As a Great Divine Beast wolf, naturally he could pull off such feats.
But to maintain his afterimages even in the air, where you can't move freely...
"Good lord..."
"Human, how long do you plan to stand there gawking? I won't be responsible if I accidentally bite your groin."
"Ghk...!! I know!"
This, too, I had foreseen. I'd zoned out for a moment at the absurd spectacle, but I hadn't failed to prepare a countermeasure.
First point. I kicked off a platform I'd pre-made from air and changed my trajectory.
I managed to escape the pursuing wolves, but they used the ceiling as a springboard and came after me again.
Second point. Just like at the start, I stepped on a bundle of compressed Air Threads and launched myself into the air once more.
The wolves swiped at nothing again. As if realizing they couldn't chase me this way, they all leaped in different directions and closed in on me.
'Isn't this way too unfair?!'
I knew Fenrir was going relatively easy on me, but for wolves — supposedly existing as a single body — to converge on me in midair from entirely different angles...
It was a level of mastery I could never comprehend.
But what could I do? This, too, was reality...
The air, which had once constrained the wolves' movements, was no longer a safe zone.
Time left: five seconds. My only remaining option was all or nothing.
A single wolf stood on the path I had preset.
If I could somehow evade just that one wolf's attack, I'd manage.
Steeling myself for injury, I kicked off an air platform again and hurled my body toward the ground.
The wolf, realizing I was flying into its assigned zone, opened its jaws toward me. I shoved my left arm into its mouth.
Then I cast an illusion over my inserted left arm, making it register as my torso.
With only my left arm cleanly bitten off, I barely managed to land on the floor.
I cauterized the endlessly bleeding wound with fire — a makeshift emergency measure.
'About two seconds, huh...'
Subjectively, it felt like well over a minute, but only eight seconds had truly passed.
That meant I'd been that intensely focused...
If this were the end, I couldn't ask for more — but regretfully, it still wasn't over.
The remaining three wolves, excluding the one that had ripped off my left arm, were all lunging at my position at once.
I had no more prepared air platforms left, and no stamina left to leap and flee.
"The tedious game of tag ends now, human."
"Looks that way."
I had landed exactly where I'd set down the wooden sword. I picked it up off the ground.
Then, channeling every last ounce of strength I could muster into one arm, I drove the sword into the crack etched into the floor.
During all that practice with Fenrir, the interior of the training grounds had gotten battered here and there.
Among those spots, the floor where I stood had accumulated damage from Fenrir's stomps time and time again.
In other words, I had delivered one more shock to a floor that was ready to cave in at any moment.
And so, my body sank through the floor into the level below — and I succeeded in enduring that final second.
"That makes it my victory. Father-in-law!"
"Crossing the line..."
***
Five days had passed since I'd miraculously managed to survive one minute, dying countless times over.
I'd succeeded in the previous En Varg trial, and I'd passed this trial with flying colors too.
So why...
"Why am I still here?"
"What, you got a problem with it?"
"I was just wondering if it's really okay for a Great Divine Beast to stay this long in human territory."
"It's no problem at all. I plan to stay here for the next several years!"
"Ughhh...!!"
Having Fenrir around was, in theory, the most reliable thing imaginable — but it was still unpleasant and uncomfortable.
A house where you live with your father-in-law — what son-in-law in the world would like that?
"Hey, fix your face. You hate having me here that much?"
"Yes."
"Ah~ you shit! You little punk, I honed you that much and you repay my kindness with shit? Look at this master alchemist we've got here!"
Honed, he called it. From Fenrir's perspective, it was practically unlimited fun: son-in-law killing.
Living harmoniously with a being who'd killed you over ten thousand times...
I considered it a miracle I hadn't developed PTSD.
Anyway, how was I supposed to send this stubborn wolf back home...?
As luck would have it, Kor — Fenrir's only restraining mechanism — was away running an errand for Yata.
I might as well accept there was no way to send Fenrir off.
"Dear husband, shall I bring you another bowl?"
"Hm? Ah! Please!"
"Okaaay~♡"
Miho took my empty bowl and filled it as full as her affection.
Normally I'd find it overwhelming, but lately — maybe because I'd been using my abilities so heavily — hunger struck fast, so I actually welcomed it.
Something about fighting on a full stomach? That kind of thing was exactly right for the situation.
"Tch! A man grinning like an idiot over another woman's kindness, when he's got my lovely daughter!"
To Fenrir's eyes, it was understandably an offensive sight.
But I had no intention of favoring Miho or Kor over the other.
I loved them both equally, and each was too precious to me to ever give up.
In human society it'd be called two-timing, the lowest of the low, but...
In the world of wild animals it was common — Yata had told me that before and said not to worry about it.
So I'd tried not to worry about it, as best I could...
But having a wolf — fundamentally monogamous — point it out really stung.
"You cheeky, irritating wretch! The sin of taking your eyes off my daughter and chasing another bitch, I'll make your flesh pay...!!"
—Shnnnk!
The sound of something sharp piercing flesh.
A fork was driven deep into Fenrir's paw, which had been about to snatch away my meat side dish.
"Hwuh...?"
"That's quite enough, don't you think? I've let it slide until now because you're Kor's father, but if you're going to keep causing dear husband trouble beyond that..."
The force driving the fork embedded in Fenrir's paw grew steadily stronger, boring deeper into his flesh.
"...I won't forgive you, you know?"
"O-Okay...!!"
Faced with Miho's murderous smile, the Great Divine Beast wolf began trembling.
I'd never imagined another being existed in this world whom he feared besides Kor in a state of absolute fury.
"And, while we're at it — would you mind stepping aside with me for just a moment?"
"Wh-What for?"
"I have a favor to ask. That's all right, isn't it?"
"If it's something simple, ask a human..."
"That's all right, isn't it?"
"Y-Yeah..."
The day after that happened, Fenrir — as if by a lie — went back to his own territory.
And the sight I witnessed last, the wolf's shoulders trembling violently, had seared itself vividly into my memory.
Why did it feel so relatable, and why did I feel a twinge of sympathy...?
I have no idea.