Chapter 48. Catching a Wolf the Size of a House With Bare Hands (Do Not Try This)

Chapter 48: 48. Catching a Wolf the Size of a House With Bare Hands (Do Not Try This)

[Host’s will exceeds threshold.]

[Apex Physique: Limiter Release (Temporary).]

[Warning: Lust Energy will be consumed rapidly.]

I felt it start in my chest, a slow, rising heat that spread outward through my arms and legs. Every muscle in my body tightened and burned.

The edges of my vision went sharp and bright. I could see every flake of falling snow, every flicker of movement in the corner of my eye, and every twitch of a monster’s claw.

I drew Gate Junior, and the sword weighed nothing at all.

I’m going to be honest with you about what happened next... because I think it matters.

I’m not going to tell you it was heroic. And well... It wasn’t.

It was ugly and fast and loud, and I lost track of the order of it almost immediately.

But I remember the important parts...

Two of the new beasts charged me first.

One was a huge, gray, ice-furred thing with a dozen crystal shards jutting from its back, and the other was smaller and faster, with a long, snapping jaw.

They came from opposite sides. I’d never have dodged them before.

Now, for ninety seconds, I could see them coming a full heartbeat before they moved.

I slid under the first one’s lunge and slammed my shoulder into its ribs. It staggered.

I felt a pressure settle over my body like armor as the second one’s claws came down, and my Bulwark Instinct took the blow, a heavy, muffled impact that threw me ten feet but didn’t break a bone.

Not the first time, I thought. Not like this.

I was moving too fast for them. I stopped trying to hit the whole body because I’d noticed something.

Every monster had a crystal ridge down its spine, and at the base of its skull, at the nape of the neck, there was a bigger shard than the others.

A knot of blue light that was brighter than the rest. It pulsed with the same four-second beat I’d counted earlier.

That was the master stone. That was the thing holding them together.

I went for it.

Behind me, Elsbeth had caught a huge beast with chains of ice and was holding it in place with sheer force of will, her whole body shaking with the effort.

Velora cut through the air in a long silver flash, and the tendons of another beast’s leg parted in a clean line, and it crashed to the ground.

They fought like two halves of the same blade, one wild, one precise, and neither one gave an inch.

Sylvara hurled a wall of violet light in front of the wounded riders and Millie and Bonette, holding it with her bare hands while it cracked and flared under the impact of claws.

Bonette stood in front of it with her knives out and blood running down her arm. She did not move.

Then the biggest of them turned its head toward Velora.

It was Torunn.

She had been standing at the back, with Maldric on her shoulders, doing nothing, just watching, and just waiting like a fucking pussy.

But now... a son of a bitch finally lifted his staff, and a pulse of blue light flashed down the shaft, and the giant wolf surged forward with a roar that shook the ground.

Velora had been fighting for ten minutes straight. Holding back with every blow, never using the edge, was taking a toll that I could see in the way her shoulders trembled.

She’d just cut down a beast and was turning, and she wasn’t fast enough.

Torunn’s paw came down like a falling tree.

I threw myself into it.

I don’t know how I crossed the distance.

I know I crashed into Velora’s side and drove her out of the way with my shoulder, and that I turned and crossed my arms over my head as the claws came down. I felt Bulwark Instinct flare around me, bright and hard, a shell of force that took the blow like a wall.

CRAACCKKK!

It cracked.

I felt it go.

The pressure collapsed all at once, and the claws ripped across my arms and shoulder, shredding the leather and the flesh beneath, and I flew through the air and slammed into the cliff wall hard enough to see stars.

I slid down it and landed in a heap, with warm blood running down my arm and a high, ringing sound in my ears.

I lay there for a second, looking at the sky. A thin line of stars was just beginning to show.

’Okay,’ I thought. ’That one actually fucking hurt.’

Velora was on her hands and knees ten feet away, staring at me. Her golden eyes were wide, wider than I’d ever seen them.

Her mouth was open. She didn’t understand what just happened.

I could see it all over her face. She’d looked at me for days like I was something she wanted to scrape off her boot, and here I was... bleeding on the ground, having thrown myself in front of a monster for her.

I lifted my head and... because I’m an idiot, I grinned at her through the blood.

"You told me not to speak to you," I coughed. "You never said anything about pushing, right, panthy?"

Alright... It was a terrible joke and nickname.

It was probably the worst one I’d ever made. But it was the only thing I had, and it came out on its own, and something in her face cracked.

She stood.

She drew her katana with one clean motion, and in the same movement she turned and took off a long, curved claw that had been swinging down at my head.

She didn’t say a word. She stepped in front of me, her blade flashing, and held the line like a queen.

I got up... I don’t know how.

And to my surprise... we fought, side by side. And that’s when I know that a character development is happening right now.

I’ll tell you what I remember about the last part, and I’ll tell it quickly, because it’s still hard to think about.

Velora and I worked together without ever speaking. I’d bait the monster with Bulwark Instinct, taking the swipe on my forearms, and she’d slice the tendons of its leg.

Sylvara, grey-faced, wrapped the beast’s hind legs in threads of light, pinning it for half a heartbeat.

We took one beast down, then another.

And then there was only Torunn.

She came at us, a mountain of ice and fury, and I caught her jaw in both hands.

I want you to understand how stupid that was. I caught the jaws of a wolf the size of a house with my bare hands and held on.

The fangs were an inch from my face. My arms were screaming with lots of blood bursting out.

Every muscle in my body was on fire. The Limiter Release was burning through me like a lit fuse, and I knew I only had seconds left.

"ELSBETH!" I screamed. "I’ve got her...! DO... ITTTT!!!"

She stood frozen ten feet away, her sword in her hand and her face gray. I could see her fighting herself.

"I... cannot," she whispered.

"You have to...! THIS IS URGENCY!!!"

"She... she taught me!"

"I know! But you have to let it go now...!"

Torunn’s jaws strained against my grip. I felt my elbows begin to give.

A thin trickle of blood ran from my nose, and I was dimly aware that the shimmer around my skin was flickering.

"She’s not in there anymore," I gasped. "You said it yourself...! She’d never want this!"

"Please...! Let it... GOOOOOO!!!"

Elsbeth closed her eyes.

When she opened them, they were full of tears, and she was already on the move.

She crossed the distance in a single bound. The ice on her blade bloomed into a long, pale sword of frost, and she leaped, landing on the beast’s shoulder.

For one second, she knelt there, looking down at the glowing blue stone at the base of the wolf’s skull.

"Forgive me," she said. "Teacher..."

She drove the blade down.

CRACKKK!

The crystal shattered. And the glow went out of the beast’s eyes.

For a second the great wolf shuddered, and the jaws in my hands went slack, and I felt her weight settle... Her breath poured out in a long, slow cloud of frost.

And in the cloud... I swear I heard a voice. It was a woman’s voice, old and calm, like someone setting down a heavy load at the end of a long day.

Then it was gone... The huge, frozen body slumped to the ground, and the stone cracked and settled around it.

Elsbeth stayed on her knees on the monster’s shoulder, with her sword still buried in its neck. She didn’t make a sound, but... she just knelt there with her body starting to shake hard.

Maldric hit the ground when Torunn fell. He landed badly, rolled, and came up scrambling, one hand clutching the silver horn.

He had it halfway to his lips when I caught him.

I don’t remember crossing the clearing. I know I hit him with all the weight of my body and drove him into the ice, and the horn went skittering across the stones.

I know I had Gate Junior at his throat before he’d even finished falling, and that the blade was shaking with the force of how hard I was holding it.

I was going to kill him... yeah... I WANT TO FUCKING KILL HIM!

I want you to know that... There wasn’t a single doubt in my mind.

I’d watched a woman scream in my arms and turn into a monster.

I’d felt her fingers go rigid in mine.

I’d heard Torunn breathe out her last breath.

All the weight of it sat in my chest like a stone, and all I wanted was for that smiling, polite bastard to stop breathing.

"A piece of shit like you doesn’t deserve to live another life...!" I said with a threatening gaze before I end his life.

His smile was gone.

For the first time... he looked afraid. And that just pushed my desire to kill him even more.