Chapter 6. Brave as a Lowly Human: A Completely Different Thing From Being Ridiculous

Chapter 6: 6. Brave as a Lowly Human: A Completely Different Thing From Being Ridiculous

She watched me for a while without speaking. Her ears moved slightly, and I got the feeling she was weighing something.

I thought she might have met many men who claimed to be honorable, and most of them probably turned out to be liars...

And here I was, the one and only... admitting to every weakness I had and not even trying to use them against her. Like... what choice do I have?

It’s not like there’s going to be a plot armor protecting my sorry ass.

But honestly... It was strange, like you get that kind of uncomfortable feeling being looked at like that.

"My name is Elsbeth Evershade," she said, after a while.

I looked up in surprise. The anger had mostly drained out of her voice, though it still had that dry, formal edge.

Finally... I get to know her name.

She continued saying. "Elsbeth of the Northern Wolf Clan... a warrior of the third watch."

"Leon Levarion," I said. "Of the ’Please Don’t Kill Me’ Clan."

I HAD to make that joke...

"I am aware."

She shifted her weight, wincing a little, and went on in a lower voice. "I was sent to hunt a creature that had been killing our scouts..."

"A beast of the high glacier, much stronger than the reports suggested... I believed that I could handle it alone."

"And what happens when you think of that?"

"I was... wrong." The words seemed to taste bad in her mouth, and yeah... I know that this’ll happen because it’s my real job to help her so I can bang her.

She continued. "It was faster than anything I have fought... My blade could hardly scratch its hide."

"I landed one clean cut on its left shoulder before it threw me against the ice, and I barely escaped with my life..."

She spoke like someone reciting a report, but I could see those shiny sharp teeth from her mouth when she said it. I’d met enough proud people in my life to know that losing a fight felt worse to them than the injuries did.

Women like her didn’t ask for help, and I had a feeling that nobody had ever offered it in a way that she hadn’t hated.

"I can already tell that you fight alone by a lot," I said.

"I am an SSS-Rank after all... There are very few who can keep up." She said it without arrogance, just as a plain fact. "Most warriors only slow me down... so it’s easier to depend on myself without anyone who stands in my way."

"Still... to me, that sounds lonely and... sad."

"Yeah, from your lowly human’s perspective... but for a wolfkin like me... it sounds efficient enough."

"Sure... Same thing, usually."

She gave me a flat look but didn’t argue. I kept thinking while she spoke, running over what she’d said and what I’d seen outside.

It was a dangerous habit from my old life. I wasn’t smart in any way that mattered, but I’d been excellent at reading people and rooms.

Just because of that... It had saved my ass more than once when I was running from frustrated boyfriends or husbands.

But still... Something about this situation was bothering me.

"Elsbeth... how far did you run before you collapsed?"

"Hmmm... I don’t quite remember about... but if I have to think back about it, probably a few kilometers..."

"And you came straight to the middle of that clearing...?"

She frowned. "I was fleeing... I was not choosing a direction."

"Right... but that’s what’s weird." I pushed myself up a little, ignoring how much my head spun. "When I found you, you were on your knees against a tree, in the open, with nothing around you except snow."

"There was a little stone shelter about fifty meters away... If you’d been picking a place to hide, you’d have gone there."

"But you didn’t, because you couldn’t see it... You were too busy running."

Her ears went flat. "What are you suggesting...?"

"I’m saying you didn’t just lose a fight... You were driven into that clearing!"

"And when I was dragging you here, I noticed many tracks near the trees... Big ones, with a weird dragging pattern, like something was following the blood trail." I lowered my voice. "Whatever attacked you might be tracking your scent..."

She turned toward the entrance so fast that she nearly tore her own stitches. I watched her ears swivel, and her whole body go rigid as she listened to the storm.

"I never... told you that it hunts by blood," she said quietly.

"You didn’t have to... It’s all in the footprints."

She turned to look at me, and this time there was no suspicion in her eyes. It was a more cautious look, similar to how one might examine a tool that was thought to be blunt but is actually sharp.

I wasn’t strong, and I wasn’t fast, but apparently I could read a crime scene from my own experience reading lots of detective cases.

I opened my mouth to say something smug, and from somewhere outside the shelter, a deep, rattling growl rolled across the snow.

GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Both of us froze.

Fuck.

"Please tell me that’s... your stomach," I whispered.

"It’s... not."

"And that’s... what I was afraid of."

Speak of the devil... the monster came.

The monster looked like a behemoth that was bigger than I expected, which is a stupid thing to think when you’ve just been told something called a behemoth is outside.

It had the body of a bear and the head of a nightmare, with a jaw full of crystal-clear fangs that looked like they’d been carved from glacier ice.

Frost covered its fur in thick plates, and it was dragging one forelimb slightly, where a clean, fresh cut ran across the left shoulder. Elsbeth’s work, I realized... It had hurt the damn thing.

It also had the bright, hungry eyes of an animal that was tired of being denied its dinner.

"That’s the monster...!" Elsbeth said and pushed herself to her feet with her sword in hand. "Stay behind me!"

Her legs shook. Fresh blood spread through the cloth around her ribs, and her breathing came in short, painful gasps.

She was still standing, but she wasn’t going to be for much longer. And yes, I HAD to help her because this was my chance to prove how strong and worthy I am of living this second life.

"Absolutely not," I said.

"Leon..."

"You’re going to bleed out in about ninety seconds, and that thing is going to eat both of us alive!" I grabbed her arm. "Think, damn it...! You can’t fight like that even if you force yourself because it’s going to get worse from this on!"

"I have... no other option."

"You have one... me." I smiled. "And I know it sounded crazy, but trust me on this one."

"What...?" She laughed, short and sharp. "You cannot even lift a sword..."

"That’s true, but I can still throw a rock."

"That is not a good plan..."

"It’s a plan if you squint!"

The Behemoth lowered its head and took a step toward the entrance, and the snow compressed under it with a sound like breaking bones. I could smell it, a cold, wet stench like a dead animal at the bottom of a frozen lake.

I swallowed hard and looked back at the woman beside me, who had just told me she preferred fighting alone because it was efficient.

I thought about running, and I thought about it for a long time, almost two whole seconds... Then I remembered the cut on its shoulder. That can be used as its weakness point, I knew it!

"I’m going to lead it away," I said.

"You idiot...! Don’t be ridiculous!"

"I’m not being ridiculous... I’m being brave as a lowly human!" I tried to keep my cool. "It’s a completely different thing, and it feels way worse!"

I pulled my arm out of her grip before she could argue and stumbled out into the blizzard. The wind slapped me in the face like an angry ex, and the cold bit through my thin shirt immediately.

The Behemoth swung its massive head around to look at me, and for a second I swear it smiled.

"Hey, you fucking ugly-ass monster!" I yelled and threw the first rock I could find.

It bounced off the creature’s skull with a pathetic little tink. The Behemoth looked at me, then at the rock, and let out a slow, unimpressed snort.

"Yeah, I know," I said. "I’m working on it, but at least it got your fucking attention!"

Then I turned around and ran AS FAST AS I CAN like my life depended on it... because it did.

I’d love to say I had a clever plan. The truth is that I bounced between trees, threw whatever I could find, banged my rusty sword against a rock to make noise, and screamed insults at the top of my lungs.

I called it a fat sack of frozen shit. I made comments about its mother.

At one point I yelled something about how I’d seen scarier creatures at a petting zoo, and I’m still not sure why.

It worked, which was the worst part...

The Behemoth lumbered after me, snarling, and I led it in a wide, stupid circle that took it farther from the shelter with every step.

I dodged one swipe by diving into a snowbank and another by pure dumb luck when it tripped on a root, or maybe that was my first plot armor.

But then... I can feel my lungs burned, and my legs feel like soggy rope... Every breath felt like inhaling knives.

"HAH! HAH! HAH! SHIT...!"

Then I ran out of trees.

I skidded to a stop at the edge of a steep ravine, and the Behemoth stopped too. It stood there for a moment, almost as if it were savoring the moment, and then it slowly lowered its head and came toward me with that low, rumbling growl.

GRRROOOWWWWGGGHHHHHH!

"Okay, hah... hah..." I said, backing up until my heel hit nothing. "Shit... This is fine, alright..."

"We can... hahhhhh... talk about this shit... maybe?"