Chapter 519: The Hour of the Dog and Wolf - 7
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 519: The Hour of the Dog and Wolf - 7
Theia ran. She carried the lives of tens of thousands, but she paid them no mind and ran for herself. Theia was a legend in the history of horse racing, a myth whose shadow others were honored just to step on. She galloped as if the plains of Ende were too small for her, leaving the landscapes of the world blurring in her wake.
But her opponent was the Beast King. The sound of paws pounding the earth was closing in on her, just barely keeping pace. She could almost feel hot breath on the back of her neck.
Theia knew it not through her senses, but through instinct. She might be caught, but she wasn't pulling away.
Who was more remarkable? Fenrir, for managing to catch up to Theia, the living legend of racing history? Or Theia, a mere human, for managing to flee from the Beast King?
Both were incredible, but Theia and Fenrir themselves paid no mind to the judgment of others. They ran to live, and to kill.
There was no one ahead. An Ominous Star was chasing her from behind. Her destination was not yet in sight. The pressure, however, was steadily drawing closer.
Is this the fear of the one in the lead? Theia finally understood why the racehorse-kin were so reluctant to run at the very front. It was an incredibly difficult thing to endure the pressure and flee from an unseen opponent.
But there are times when one must do what is difficult.
For the first time in her life, Theia fled.
“H-here they come! The wolves are coming!” shouted the guard dogs who felt the tremors. The beastkin, who had been carelessly scattering bear traps that wouldn't even work, quickly gathered. As they nervously aimed their spears, a strange sight unfolded before their eyes.
“My god…”
The two of them, running so fast they kicked up a cloud of dust, came into view. There was Theia, sprinting with her teeth clenched, and the Wolf King, chasing her relentlessly from behind. Objectively, the distance between them was considerable, but they were moving so fast that they appeared to be right on top of each other. Distance was relative; to those two, it must have felt like they were neck and neck.
The guard dogs muttered as they saw the Ominous Star hot on Theia’s heels.
“Is that… the Wolf King?”
A moment later, hundreds of wolves appeared over the ridge, following their king.
Wolves form packs. But unless they have a political system, their numbers cannot exceed a certain level. Social problems like hierarchy and food supply increase exponentially, and a mere beast cannot solve them all.
That’s how it should have been, but the number of wolves gathered under the mighty power of the Beast King was truly staggering.
The wolves that followed their king barked fiercely, exuding wildness. As befitting the king’s pack, every one of them was large and swift. The wolf pack advanced with the speed of cavalry, howling furiously.
[Awooooooo—.]
[Awooooo—.]
The howling gradually spread. Besides the king’s pack, the wolves that had been roaming our perimeter all began to converge on our position. A frightened Obeli guard dog shouted at the sight of the suddenly increased numbers.
“The wolves are swarming us! There are too many! We have to retreat—!”
The guard dog, about to attempt a belated retreat, turned around and froze in terror.
“They’re coming from behind, too!”
“What? From behind?”
“The wolves flanked us?”
From the other side, hundreds of beasts were charging, pounding the earth. It would be hard enough to just run away, but now they were surrounded. At this rate, death was certain.
They were trapped. An Obeli guard dog yelled desperately.
“Magician, Kito! Do you have a plan?!”
They’re coming. But before that.
I waved the flag high. This was the finish line. Theia’s arrival would set everything in motion.
Spotting the finish line, Theia gritted her teeth and spurred herself on for one last burst of speed.
She had run at full tilt from start to finish. Her legs, having reached their limit, were trembling. But having reached the absolute peak of what a human body and human Qi could achieve, she barely managed to shake off the Wolf King and threw her body forward.
“I made it—!”
Thud. Theia staggered as she crossed the finish line. She nearly collapsed in relief, but she clenched her jaw and took one final step. Slowing down slightly, she gasped for breath and looked back.
“Where’s Fenrir?!”
We had arbitrarily decided this was the finish line; the wolf had no reason to comply. Worried that the wolf might pursue her to the end, she scanned for him, but… the Wolf King had stopped long before reaching her.
The Wolf King looked as if someone had dipped Azzy in different paint and pulled her out. Its features, the shape of its fur, its build—all were identical to Azzy’s. The only differences were its fur color and its aura. The Wolf King, which had been charging with a vicious energy, had stopped and was staring intently past us.
Theia panted.
“What… is it looking at?”
Its other half, probably. I followed the Wolf King’s gaze to the pack of beasts approaching from behind us.
“Woof! Woof!”
“Arf!”
“Grrrrrr!”
Their movements were less coordinated than the wolves’. Their appearances were strangely varied. But they were beasts united by a single purpose, charging forward as a pack.
And the Dog King, Azzy, was leading them from the front.
“Isn’t that Matthew’s Fluffy? Not wolves… but dogs?”
So you noticed. The ones coming from behind us aren’t wolves. They’re reinforcements.
Ende is a city of beastkin. But beastkin also eat meat and raise animals. Just as there are beastkin who raise pigs for meat, there are many who keep dogs. And in Ende, where theft is rampant, most of those dogs were guard dogs, protecting homes and property.
Azzy had used her power as king to command these beasts, which were normally not considered a military force due to their inability to execute tactics, and led them here.
“Awooooooo!”
Azzy ran on all fours. Just as the Wolf King had chased Theia to kill her, Azzy had sensed that murderous intent and rushed to save her. Her speed was a match for the Wolf King’s.
Azzy’s Ominous Star aura doesn't affect humans. It can affect non-humans, but as the Dog King has a gentle nature, it rarely manifests.
“Wolf…!”
But when faced with her fated adversary, the embodiment of wildness itself, the Wolf King? Azzy, too, would be swept up by her Ominous Star and fight.
Crack. Crackle. A crown began to form on Azzy’s head. Facing her nemesis, Azzy was now preparing to fight the wolf on behalf of all dogs.
And the Wolf King, as well.
“Dog…!”
Flames danced in the Wolf King’s eyes. It unleashed its full Ominous Star aura as it looked upon its other half, a being more hateful than any human. Crackle. A fissure appeared in the air about a hand’s breadth from its head, and a crown began to grow for the Wolf King, too.
It was a half-crown, looking as though it had been torn from Azzy’s own.
“Awoooooooooooooo----!!”
The Wolf King changed its target. The Beast King, which had been charging at a human, now howled on behalf of all wolves. The world trembled, hearing the fury of the wolves.
Even other wolves hesitated in fear. A few dogs tumbled, their momentum broken, but Azzy’s eyes blazed as she charged even faster.
And in the final moment, Azzy, now a brown bullet, shot forward and collided with the Wolf King.
Thump, thump, thump. The two beasts tumbled across the ground, rolling over dozens of times. They pinned each other with clawed forepaws and aimed for the neck with sharp teeth. In a flurry of flying blood and bruising blows, the two beasts exchanged dozens of attacks before they had even rolled over twice. Finally, as they both tried to tear out each other’s throats, their heads smashed together.
The half-crowns collided. A shockwave spread out like black branches. The girl’s body was too light for such immense power. The two Beast Kings were thrown back in opposite directions.
Azzy’s body rolled and tumbled, coming to a stop near me. Covered in dust, she scrambled to her feet, looking disheveled. In contrast, the Wolf King quickly regained its footing and charged again.
Sensing danger, Azzy’s fur stood on end. She looked a little frantic.
“Azzy. Take it easy. You don’t have to win this alone.”
“Woof!”
Azzy barked bravely and shot forward again. Whether she heard me or not, she charged with gritted teeth and leaped at the Wolf King.
But perhaps her attack was too predictable. The Wolf King, which had been staring intently at Azzy, slammed its forepaw down in a single motion. CRASH! The wolf’s paw struck the crown of Azzy’s head squarely. Azzy’s body was driven into the ground, and clouds of dust rose like wings on either side of her, a testament to the force of the impact.
“A…woooo!”
But even as she was slammed into the earth, Azzy shot back up and pounced on the Wolf King. Dragging the fight back into a dogfight, she relentlessly pushed the Wolf King back, sustaining wound after wound.
“The Dog King is being pushed back…!”
“It’s not just that she’s being pushed back. Azzy is trying to protect us.”
Even while being wounded by the wolf, she was trying to keep it as far away from the humans as possible. By starting the fight in the middle of the wolf pack, she had somewhat checked their momentum. During that time, the dogs of Ende and the Obeli guard dogs joined forces to fight back against the wolves. The wolves’ ferocity was terrifying, but the alliance of dogs and humans held a much firmer line against their assault.
Dogs and wolves were originally one and the same: the wolf. Then, for some reason, they were split in two. The dog, friendly to humans, and the wolf, dangerous to humans.
But dogs can bite humans, and wolves can form bonds with them. They were one and the same, after all. No beast unconditionally obeys or unconditionally despises humans. Beasts are not phenomena.
That’s how it should be.
“Someone artificially divided dogs and wolves.”
They forced all the wildness into the ‘wolf,’ and all the tameness into the ‘dog.’ Using the fact that they originated from a single lineage, they turned the two beasts into phenomena, rather than species.
That is why they are identical yet complete opposites. They became the ferocious wolf and the domesticated dog, fated to fight to the death over their differences.
“There’s only one being who could do something like this… but I’ll think about that later.”
The front line was being pushed back. Dogs were being bitten by wolves one after another. The Obeli guard dogs tried to help by thrusting their spears whenever they could, but the wolves exploited the broken formation to rush in, biting and clawing at them.
“Aargh! My arm! My arm!”
“Throw the nets!”
They were somehow holding their ground, inflicting damage on each other, but even this stalemate would be over the moment the Wolf King’s main pack descended upon them. The situation was precarious.
It was then that two groups appeared on either flank. From the direction of Ende came the main beastkin force led by Obelisk, and from the opposite side came the warriors of the Beast Faction, led by Grul.
“Magician, you crazy bastard! Who gave you permission to use my people as bait?!”
“Hmph. It wasn’t part of the plan, but we’ve managed to surround them. Now! Warriors! Charge before your blood runs cold!”
Both Sapien and Grul, having weathered the initial assault, were regrouping and approaching. The same was likely true for the humans on the wolves’ side.
This was the battlefield. The stage was set.
I looked up at the sky where someone was hiding far away and shouted.
“Shei! Now! Do it!”
Even if it was the plan of an unreliable Regressor, right now, we had no choice but to rely on it. Let’s see what you can do.