Tutorial (3)
The werewolf staggered, clutching at its throat, but I forced myself to stay cold about it. A wound that size in a human neck would have meant death in minutes. Maybe a perfect job of packing the bleeding could have changed the odds — but that wasn't happening here. This thing, though, was a werewolf. I had no grounds to assume its vitality was anything like ours.
Don't get careless. Keep attacking!
Were there any other useful options among the nineteen movements of the Bayonet Drill Form? I didn't think so. Did Left Slash and Right Slash even work in a real fight? Probably not. If you thought about the way force traveled up from the ground, landing a clean hit with those movements would be next to impossible.
While I was still turning it over, the werewolf pinned Young Forty's corpse underfoot and wrenched the axe free with its right hand.
"GRAAAAAAAAH!!!"
The enraged werewolf howled and hoisted the axe high.
That's it. Come on!
Having felt firsthand how well the bayonet Thrust held up in actual combat, I'd already lined up the next technique. Right now I was a veteran hero in the flesh. And wouldn't you know it — that furry was right-handed.
The axe came howling down toward me.
I timed it perfectly and took a side step to the right.
"Hah!"
Then I drove the spear in a long, full thrust toward the exposed left flank.
The point sank home.
"GAAAAAHHH!!!"
I ripped the spear back out, and the werewolf lurched in agony, dropping to one knee.
Now!
Thrust! Thrust! Thrust! Thrust! Thrust! Thrust! Thrust! Thrust!
The spear punched in again and again, a frantic, mindless rhythm. Every time the point sank home, the werewolf's stance crumbled a little more.
"GRAAAAAAGH!"
I kept at it for a long stretch, and the werewolf, which had been screaming in pain, suddenly went still. It looked like it had stopped breathing.
I stood there gasping, dragging air into my lungs.
The goblins...?
I looked toward where Doll Girl had been fighting. Two goblins lay sprawled on the ground. She was looking this way too, catching her breath.
We'd won. We'd even taken down a furry that huge. The cost had been brutal, but in the end, victory was ours. I started toward Doll Girl, meaning to tell her she'd done well.
Something hissed past my face, so close it almost kissed the skin, and was gone.
I spun around. Skinny Archer was already toppling backward, an arrow through his skull.
"There's more of them!!!!!!"
I'd frozen at the unexpected turn — then Doll Girl's shout snapped me right back. The arrow had come from the forest off to the left. The other side hadn't been four people. Had this been a five-on-five deathmatch all along? At the very least, there was one more of them out there.
Doll Girl turned and broke into a run, chasing the shot straight into the trees. I sprinted for the tower shield I'd thrown aside earlier, snatched it up, and raised it toward the forest the arrows were coming from.
The instant I set my stance, an arrow slammed into the shield. The head punched all the way through the other side — a shot so powerful it had driven clean through a tower shield. The power and accuracy were in a different dimension from the stray that Skinny Archer had loosed by accident. I hadn't even seen this one coming.
What the hell is this...?
The metal around the impact was turning white. Cold bled off it in waves.
Ice...?
The arrow itself wasn't made of ice. It was more like... an arrow laden with frost. A shot with magic packed into it. Something like that?
I glanced at Skinny Archer's body. The head the arrow had punched through had gone white the same way, frozen solid. The cold was so intense that not a single drop of blood had come out.
So that first shot had been a double kill attempt.
I thought back to the arrow that had grazed my face. He'd lined us up from the start — me and Skinny Archer in the same lane.
I can't stay here.
He'd be moving freely through the trees, loosing arrows at will. There was no blocking shots you couldn't even see coming. Charging straight into the forest the way Doll Girl had done was the smart play.
Catch up. Fast.
I lifted the shield and ran for the trees.
Fortunately, no more arrows came before I reached the treeline. I slipped into the woods in one piece and pulled up short, panting.
"Hah... hah... which way?"
The forest was dense, packed tight with trunks. I had no idea where he was. I couldn't even find a trace of Doll Girl, who'd gone in ahead of me.
Then a chain of explosions rolled through the trees. Judging by the volume, they weren't far. I didn't hesitate — I ran straight toward the sound.
Don't be late. Don't be late.
I couldn't leave this to her alone. I had to get there and help. She'd looked badly worn down after finishing those goblins, and I'd seen her using lightning magic. The enemy, as far as I could tell, was using ice.
Ice is an insulator, right? Doesn't that mean electricity wouldn't conduct?
I had zero knowledge of magic, so I had no idea. I wasn't even sure basic physics applied in this place. If physics worked here, skeletons wouldn't be walking around and spells wouldn't be flying through the air in the first place.
I was still turning that over when two figures finally resolved between the trunks.
The first one I recognized was Doll Girl. She had a dagger in one hand and was hurling lightning in every direction, fighting with everything she had.
Holy shit, that was cool. The lightning cracking off her looked more spectacular than Hollywood CGI. I'd been too busy with my own fight to really see it before, but watching her fight with magic was genuinely incredible. It was an esper battle in the flesh.
Could I ever do something like that?
If I survived this place, maybe someday I'd be able to use magic too. Caught in that strange rush of excitement, I closed the distance, and the other figure came into view.
A bow was slung across his back. He moved like a butterfly, gorgeous and relentless, pressing Doll Girl backward. He had a dagger in hand the same as she did, and his blond hair caught the sunlight and flared.
The closer I got, the more something off about him stood out. Long, pointed ears. Unmistakably not human.
An elf? That's an elf.
No question — that was an elf. A male elf. He looked exactly like the ones you always saw in the media. He wasn't stunningly beautiful, though. If anything, he had a mean, unpleasant look about him.
He was fighting Doll Girl with a leisurely expression, the attitude of someone killing time with an opponent he considered beneath him.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Doll Girl's lightning was holding off the elf's chunks of ice, but she was being pushed back, inch by inch.
"Haha. Not bad — for a human."
The blond, long-eared elf smiled, utterly at ease. There wasn't a trace of tension in the way he moved. He flung ice around like a child playing with a water gun.
"Is that truly all you can muster? You are so feeble I find myself growing drowsy."
Arrogant as all hell. And the guy would not shut up. I had no idea how he'd managed to keep his mouth shut in the woods this whole time.
Close the gap. Now.
Doll Girl was still losing ground. If this kept up, she was going to get wrecked. I ran hard, shield up, circling in behind the elf. The plan was a surprise attack with my sure-kill Bayonet Drill Form — punch a hole straight through his neck.
I had only a few steps left when the elf's head snapped around and his eyes locked on mine.
"Did you think I would fail to notice a rat creeping up behind me? How typically dull-witted of you inferior humans."
"Fuck!"
There went the ambush. Nothing for it now. Doll Girl and I would have to jump him together. I raised the shield and charged. If I tanked with the tower shield, she'd be able to get damage in somehow.
That was the thought in my head as I ran — and then the elf thrust a hand toward me and cried out.
"O Mother World Tree, grant thy power unto my arrow!"
⟨ Elemental Burst ⟩
The arrow still buried in my shield began to blaze with blue light.
And then the shield exploded.
The blast threw me backward and slammed me into a nearby tree. Shrapnel from the shattered shield raked across my arms and face.
"Ghh—!"
I couldn't even properly hear my own scream. A shrill ringing filled my ears from the roar of the explosion. Maybe it was the adrenaline flooding my system, but I got my head back together fast and checked myself over. No big fragments lodged anywhere, as far as I could tell — but a dozen places stung at once, and blood started welling from all of them.
I grabbed for the spear with trembling arms, trying to get my feet under me and run — and that was when Doll Girl and the elf collided.
Her dagger carved empty air.
"Foolish human! That avails you nothing!"
The elf's kick smashed into the hand holding the dagger. The shock tore the blade from her grip, and her eyes flicked after it on instinct as it flew.
"Ahahaha! And just where do you think you're looking?!"
A front kick drove into her solar plexus. She went stumbling backward and pitched over onto her face.
"Ghhk—!"
She lay there clutching her midsection, shuddering, unable to get up. The elf didn't waste the opening. He drew his bow and nocked an arrow.
No—!
I couldn't let her go down. She was the only one of us who could use magic. If I tried to take this motormouth elf in a duel by myself, my odds of winning were circling the drain.
"You son of a bitch!!!!"
I screamed and charged, driving the spear at him. He flung the bow and arrow aside, spun, and slipped the thrust like it was nothing. Then his right hand closed on the shaft of my spear.
"And what will you do now, human?"
"Kh—"
He had the spear. I couldn't push and I couldn't pull.
Except... something was off. The resistance coming back through the shaft didn't feel that strong.
This bastard... no way.
Had he dumped everything into agility? Was he actually not that strong? Right. Look at that long, stretched-out model physique — how much power could a body like that even have? Functional lean muscle? Yeah, no. This guy didn't have that. Sure, some of the construction guys I'd known were on the skinny side, but one look told you their frames were nothing like his.
I put my back into it and hauled on the spear. The lat pulldown motion I'd repeated more times than I could count. The elf came flying toward me with the shaft, yanked in all at once. The resistance was far lighter than the weight I usually pulled. This wouldn't even make my lats twitch.
I cracked a punch into the jaw of the elf as he came stumbling helplessly in. I'd been hoping for a concussion — for him to just go down. He didn't.
"Kh—!"
His face twisted.
That was when I saw the dagger in his left hand. The only thought in my head was to take that thing out of the fight. I lunged in close, clamped down on his left wrist, and drove both thumbs hard into the webbing between his thumb and forefinger, shaking the hand hard up and down.
"You... wretched human...!"
The dagger popped free, flew, and clattered to the dirt. He was unarmed.
Now what?
Honestly, that last exchange had been luck. He'd come flying in unexpected, and I'd been able to plant a punch because of it — but looking at how fast he was, there was no guarantee another hit would land. I'd put everything I had into that shot to the jaw and still hadn't knocked him out. How was I supposed to put him down?
I had to hold him. Give him space again and this would go to hell for real. He still hadn't recovered — this was the only window I was going to get.
I finished the thought and shifted behind him, going for a rear clinch. I grabbed his left arm and reached to wrap his throat with the other.
His right elbow smashed into my ribs.
"Kh, fuck—"
It felt like something had cracked. I didn't have the luxury of hurting. With the right arm that had been going for his neck, I shoved under his right armpit, then threaded the hand behind his head and locked it down.
"Kh! Unhand me, human!!!"
"Would you let go if you were me, you crazy bastard?!"
Got him. I had the edge in raw strength. I didn't know how long I could hold it, but for now I could keep him tied up. That said, this was just a stalemate. I had no way to land anything that would actually finish it.
Which meant...
I twisted to look back — toward where Doll Girl had gone down. She'd lifted her head a little. She'd come around. Our eyes met, and I poured everything I had into the look I gave her.
Hit this bastard! Please!!!
Had she read it? She nodded, slow.
Yes!
I'd hold him right here and wait for her to put the damage in. She was still groaning, though, still unable to get up — recovery was going to take a little more time.
I need to stall...
This was a guy who'd noticed me coming up behind him. I was going to have to shake his composure. The elf was a talker. Fine. I'd run my mouth right back and take a swing at his head — the one on his shoulders.