Tutorial (2)
The enemies were drawing closer.
I could make out their shapes clearly now. Two small, dark-green monsters were leading the pack.
Those look like goblins...?
The goblins were closing in at a brisk clip, eyes locked on us, one armed with a spear and the other with a sword. The one with the sword was carrying a little shield as well.
Clack. Clack.
Wait. What the hell is THAT?!
Behind them, a skeleton was walking toward us, bones knocking together with every step. The way it dragged a tower shield as tall as itself was genuinely grotesque. And behind that, a big one came strolling along at a leisurely pace, a two-handed axe slung over its shoulder.
A f-furry...?
It was a fluffy-ass furry. It walked on two legs like a person, but brown fur covered it from head to toe. Looking closer at the face, it was more wolf than man.
A werewolf...
I was actually looking at a real-life furry. Needless to say, I did not find it cute, and I sure as hell did not want to pet it. The thing was tall, and the way it sauntered toward us with that mocking look on its face was just fucking terrifying.
My hands were shaking from the tension. We were one breath away from colliding.
Fuck... when am I supposed to engage?
If I charged in first, I would get dogpiled and die. I was stuck, unable to move either way.
And then—
ZZZZT!! BOOM!
"KYAAAAAAK!!!"
A glowing blue mass flew in from behind me and detonated at the feet of the two goblins. I whipped around. The black-haired doll girl had both hands thrust forward, eyes locked on the enemy. Crackling blue lightning danced at her fingertips.
Magic...?
That's right! Magic! She just used magic! She's already drop-dead gorgeous, and she can throw lightning too?! Well — we've got a furry and a walking skeleton, so magic isn't exactly the weirdest thing on the field. Nice. Our team luck is looking really, really good.
The two goblins were writhing like they'd been electrocuted, which, to be fair, they had. A hugely advantageous situation.
"The enemies are strong! Everyone, be careful!"
The doll girl's shout snapped me back to my senses.
"KRARARARARARAK!!!!!!"
Our team's red kid-monster let out a battle cry and charged. A truly valiant sight.
Ah, fuck it!
I gripped my spear and charged out with him. My target was the skeleton with the tower shield. The kid-monster had gone for the werewolf, so strategically I was going for the skeleton. It was absolutely not because the werewolf was huge and scary-looking and I was picking the easier target.
Clang!
I thrust at the skeleton. The tower shield ate it. Clang, clang, clang! I kept thrusting, and the skeleton just shifted that slab of metal this way and that and shut down every single attempt.
How is its reaction speed this fast?
It didn't even have muscles. How the hell was it moving that quickly? I couldn't understand it at all. I was considering whether I needed to sever the nerve bundle inside its spine when—
Huh...?
The skeleton shoved the tower shield forward and started closing in. The thing that had only been defending suddenly went on the offensive, and I hesitated.
Wait... maybe I should just close the distance and try to overpower it...?
It was already charging at full speed. No more time to think.
CRASH!!!
I slammed a shoulder tackle into the tower shield.
This bastard's holding?!
I couldn't wrap my head around how a thing that was nothing but bones was holding its ground, but I kept slamming into it. CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
"Just fall over already!!!!"
The skeleton keeping its feet so stubbornly was driving me insane. No — this was because I wasn't putting my power into it properly. Whether it's squats or deadlifts, the leg drive is what matters most. The force of driving your feet into the ground. Even on bench press, an upper-body lift, you need a hard leg drive to stabilize your torso.
I forgot about that... that's not very gym-bro of me...
This time I dropped my stance low and packed power into my legs. Then I drove off the ground and slammed the tower shield upward, like I was throwing it into the sky.
KWAANG!!
"YES!!! It went over!!!"
The tower shield, loaded with the force of a 450-kilo big three, lurched up and the skeleton toppled over backward with it. I kept my grip on the spear and just kept stabbing the thing on the ground. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.
"Oh, for fuck's sake!!"
I kept stabbing, but there were so many gaps between the bones that the spear wouldn't stick — it just slid through and came out the other side. If you thought about it for half a second, that was obvious. I tossed the spear aside and drew my sword, gripped it with both hands, and started chopping down like I was splitting firewood.
CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
After a thorough beating, everything from the skeleton's ribs to its skull was smashed to pieces. The power of my lats, forged by weighted pull-ups, absolutely demolished it. The sword's edge wasn't just chipped — the whole blade had warped.
"Hah... hah... you cheap-ass piece of shit...!!!"
I'd gotten too worked up and failed to pace myself, and now I was gasping for air. I tossed the ruined sword and focused on steadying my breathing.
Then something felt off.
I turned my head. The werewolf was already right in my face, axe coming around.
"AAAH!!!!!"
Whoosh—
I ducked just in time. That was almost really fucking bad. I scrambled backward, scanning my surroundings.
What happened to the kid-monster?
Behind the werewolf, I could see it — both legs cleanly severed above the knees. It was still twitching and bleeding, so it wasn't dead yet, but it was pretty much out of the fight.
...What the hell is everyone else doing?
The doll girl was already locked in a fierce scrap with the two goblins, who'd gotten back up. She had a dagger in one hand and lightning wreathed around the other, and she was holding her own just fine. Skinny Archer, on the other hand, was hopping from foot to foot with his bow in his hands, unable to do a damn thing. And Young Forty hyung was clutching his sword, trembling, glued to the crystal.
"Hey!!! What is everyone doing?! We need to fight together!!!!"
The doll girl couldn't join us because she was already fighting. The other two were completely useless. Our cute kid-monster had ended up like that because of those two.
Fwoosh—!
The werewolf started charging again.
"AAAH!!!!"
I bolted, running for where the skeleton had been. Got it.
Yes!
I scooped up the tower shield and the spear I'd thrown earlier, one in each hand, and squared off against the werewolf. I raised the shield with my left and tightened my grip on the spear in my right. If it charged, I would block first and then counter.
But can I even block an axe swung by something that size?
If I could redirect the force, maybe. The problem was I didn't have that kind of technique.
This is too dangerous as-is.
I couldn't do this alone. A gang-up was the only play.
"Hey, mister!!! Get over here already!!! You said you did kendo!!!"
"Uh, uh..."
Young Forty-ham's brain had apparently blue-screened. He couldn't move either way. Looking at that pathetic display, I genuinely wanted to beat him to death, but I needed bodies on this werewolf first, so I held it in.
"If I die, you guys are next, you know that? Get over here already!!!!"
"Ah... uh... UAAAAAAAH!!!"
Skinny Archer suddenly screamed and drew his bow. And he shot.
Ping—
Clang!
The arrow drifted over in a lazy arc and bounced off my tower shield.
"You fucking idiot!!! Where are you even aiming?! I said come over here, why are you shooting arrows?! You can't even hit anything!!"
"H-hiiik!"
Skinny Archer just turned his head away entirely. This son of a bitch...
I was about to explode when I saw Young Forty-ham running this way.
"Oh!! Hyung! I believed in you!"
I had not, in fact, believed in him. Still, it was a relief he'd finally gotten his head on straight.
"Grrrrr..."
The werewolf growled with a grinning face. Then it started swinging that axe like it wanted to take my head off. Clang! Clang! Clang!
"Ugh!!"
I was somehow blocking with the tower shield, but the impact was no joke. It felt like it was ringing through my bones. But I had to hold. That way Young Forty-ham could get some damage in.
I was holding on somehow. There was no sign of the werewolf's attacks letting up.
What the hell is this guy even doing?
I peeked out from behind the tower shield to find him.
You've got to be kidding me!!!
Young Forty-ham was standing several steps away from the werewolf, one arm stretched all the way out, waving his sword around in the air. He was too scared to get close, so he was swinging from a distance — of course he wasn't hitting anything. His legs were even turned the other way so he could bolt at any moment. It looked exactly like someone poking the tagger in Red Light, Green Light and immediately trying to run.
"Get in here! What are you doing?! Don't be scared, get close and stab it or slash it!"
"You need to block properly first before I can attack! If you're holding a shield, you should be protecting your teammates properly!"
Wow. He's blaming me? The werewolf is only attacking me. I was so stunned by Young Forty's sheer audacity that I couldn't even speak.
CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
"Block it properly already! Parry it! Parry and go for the legs!"
This useless bastard was now giving me a running commentary. I wanted to kill him before the werewolf.
Whip—!
Maybe his backseat coaching was too loud. The werewolf's head turned toward Young Forty. Then it raised its axe.
"Huk!"
Young Forty locked eyes with the werewolf and couldn't even run. His whole body froze. He just stood there with his sword held out at arm's length.
"DODGE!!!"
Thud—!
I sprinted over and kicked Young Forty out of the way, then hoisted the tower shield high and took the werewolf's attack.
KRAANG!!!!
"Urgh...!"
A massive shock traveled through my elbow all the way to my shoulder. A tearing pain ripped through my left rotator cuff. But it was fine. Rotator cuff pain is very familiar to a gym guy. I'd already suffered through impingement syndrome for over a year. If I used my scapular mobility, I could shake off pain like this no problem.
"Uh... UAAAAAAAAAH!!!!"
Young Forty, who'd nearly been hit, screamed and started running. The sound must have drawn aggro again, because the werewolf immediately gave chase. The distance closed in an instant. There was no way a muscle-deficient, pot-bellied middle-aged guy was going to outrun a werewolf.
Whoosh—!
It swung the axe in a huge overhead arc.
KWAACK!
"Guhhhh..."
The werewolf's axe punched through Young Forty's right trapezius and buried itself deep near his solar plexus. His body was nearly cleaved in half.
"S... save... save me... ghk... ghk...."
Black blood kept pouring from Young Forty's mouth. A ghastly sound rattled from his throat.
"Uh, uh..."
It was the first time I had ever watched someone die, and the shock hit me hard. When I'd smashed the skeleton earlier, I hadn't felt much of anything, because it hadn't registered as human. But the person impaled on that axe was a real human being.
His first impression hadn't been great. Still — in his own life, he would have been the protagonist. He would have had his own dreams. People he loved. He might even have been well-regarded at work. And unlike me, he probably had parents who loved him.
That ordinary person's life. More than forty years of living. Snuffed out in an instant.
I took a few deep breaths and clenched my teeth.
Alright... get a grip!
This was not the time to get sentimental. I did not have the luxury of being shocked and losing my mind.
Every time the werewolf tried to yank the axe free from Young Forty's body, the corpse came along with it, limp. Its weapon was stuck. This was my chance.
I threw the shield aside and gripped the spear with both hands. The werewolf was still completely preoccupied with the axe that wouldn't come loose. I sprinted toward it.
I'd never formally learned any martial arts, of course.
No... wait. There was exactly one martial technique I knew. It just came to me.
I gritted my teeth and used it on the werewolf, who was still focused on pulling out that axe.
The move I had repeated in the army until I was sick of it.
This is where the kiai counts.
"AK!!"
KWAACK!!!
My twisting thrust punched into the werewolf's throat.
"KREUGH!!"
"Pulling it out is part of the Thrust!"
Just like they taught us in the army, I twisted my feet and hips and ripped the spear back out.
SHLAAK!
The werewolf's artery tore open, and blood erupted in a mad spray.