11. Vermell

Waldina held her shortsword in her left hand as she stepped with determination towards the red coated Vermell in front of her. It was still standing in the middle of the square and it hadn’t given any signs of noticing Waldina. That still didn’t calm her down. The closer she got to Vermell, the more it reminded her of a giant. Vermell really wasn’t comparable in size to its graywolf underlings.

The square around Vermell was far bigger than it had seemed at first. It was surrounded by trees and a small cliff. There weren’t any other apparent paths leading towards it, other than the one Waldina was currently walking on. Of course it was always possible to escape to the surrounding forest anywhere from the square, though traveling without a path would cause its own difficulties. Besides, she really wished she wouldn’t have to worry about possible escape routes. Yet it didn’t hurt to be too careful, right?

She closed her eyes for a nanosecond. She calmed down both her body and mind before stepping on to Vermell’s square. The very instance her feet touched the ground on the square, Vermell turned to look at her.

Then its aura hit her.

Obviously in the game she had never experienced Vermell’s aura - she wasn’t even sure whether she’d really known about its existence. But here. In this reality. The aura was overwhelmingly strong and all-powerful. She couldn’t sense anything else. Vermell was so full of confidence - that which only dumber small villains had. That type of confidence only people dumb enough to think they’d be world’s strongest just because they were stronger than the people they knew.

Dumb wolfie, Waldina thought as a small smile spread to her lips. Dumbness gave her better chances of victory. After all, pure power often lost to intelligence.

That was all the time she had to dwell in her thoughts before Vermell charged towards her. Its huge pawns - and especially the enormous claws attached to them - were starting to reach Waldina at an alarming rate. Claw-hit was Vermell’s most used attack type. Waldina knew it like the back of her hand.

She changed into her ninja-run-posture and elegantly evaded Vermell’s attack. Then she charged towards the cliff by the square and ran up on its wall. After reaching her ideal height Waldina jumped off the wall for momentum. As she flew across the air she reached Vermell’s back. She climbed to its neck.

Her sword struck deep in the red wolf’s neck eliciting a nasty cry from it. The sound was deafeningly loud and Waldina realized she was biting her lip tightly because of the volume. Yet it didn’t stop her from pushing her sword deeper into Vermell’s flesh.

She quickly drew her sword out of Vermell, ready for the next attack, but then the redwolf turned around so suddenly Waldina fell to the ground from its back. The crash on the ground hurt nastily yet she just had to grit her teeth and rise up again. She began biting her lip to distract herself from the pain she was feeling. Pain is just a feeling, she told herself.

Vermell headed again towards Waldina, this time showing its teeth. She was confident in the fact that she didn’t want to end up between those teeth. She went through multiple possible strategies in her head.

As a test she used her beloved smokescreen and tried escaping. But Vermell was essentially a wolf - meaning: an animal with a great sense of smell and smokescreen didn’t distract it. It would just use its nose instead to track her down.

“Tsk,” Waldina snorted and reached for her thigh belt. She took a couple of shurikens and aimed them towards Vermell’s weak points. It screamed nastily again. As the sound was ringing in her ears she began wondering how much more it would take to bring Vermell down. Unlike in games, this world didn’t offer a nice view of hp bars so she’d just have to hope she was doing actual damage. Yet without that crucial piece of information she couldn’t rest nor waste all her best skills mindlessly. She’d have to fight like there was no tomorrow until finally one of them - she or Vermell - would fall to the ground.

Sighing Waldina charged again towards Vermell. She readied her sword into a deadly position. Then she felt bloodlust behind her back.

She stopped dead in her tracks and turned to look behind her. About ten graywolves had appeared from the forest right behind her. They were circling her at a fast pace. Fearful panic started creeping in her back.

Vermell’s scream had to have called the wolves here. After all, nature here worked like nature worked: The leader was a must protect being.

Fucking fuck, Waldina cursed and glanced around. She was looking for her lifeline. Anything she could use to her advantage.

Yet there was just a forest and a small cliff.

The question was, could she focus on Vermell when the graywolves were preying on her.

There was no time to think. Waldina leaped backwards from the ground. She landed on the closest graywolf’s back. She gained momentum from it and jumped higher up. In the air she tried her very best to stay high enough until she’d reach Vermell.

Just as she reached Vermell she slammed her sword into its skin and left behind a nasty cut in its throat. Quickly she launched herself up and onto Vermell’s back. Without hesitation she slashed it with both her shortsword and dagger.

Vermell’s scream once again slashed through the air, stopping the angry graywolves. Waldina didn’t dare stop her movements. She struck with her weapons again and again, deeper and deeper in Vermell, just waiting for it to disappear into manadust. Waiting for hope.

Finally, Vermell, tormented by the pain, leaned to one side throwing Waldina from its back up in the air. Waldina looked triumphantly as Vermell slowly began to disappear, leaving behind only a couple of objects she didn’t recognize. She sighed in relief and closed her eyes.

The howling of the wolves beneath her snapped her mind back to reality. She looked to the ground and saw she was flying straight towards the angry wolves. She couldn’t change her direction up in the air so at this rate she’d have to take at least one hit from the wolves. The thought darkened her momentary happiness over winning Vermell.

Suddenly, blue light warped around her, drawing her to it. The light created a water slide beneath her, guiding her to the other side of the square, far away from the graywolves. Waldina didn’t have time to question the sudden spell that saved her. Instead she took the chance gratefully.

After she’d reached the ground she pointed her sword towards the wolves. A couple of quick slashes and thrown shurikens later the graywolves disappeared like their leader just a moment ago. Waldina sighed in relief and stepped to gather the objects Vermell had dropped.

“Kiandra?” she called out, letting her eyes look around her surroundings. She didn’t see anyone, but usually giant waterslides didn’t appear from thin air just because one needed a savior.

Yet she received no reply. Waldina sighed and turned her attention to the drops she got from defeating Vermell. It included Vermell’s tooth, which could make for a nice sword; a piece of Vermell’s coat which in turn could become a protective cloak; and last but not least, a small mirror-like object.

Waldina put the coat and tooth into her inventory before checking the mirror more closely. It seemed like just a normal mirror, yet she was sure it was much more. It had to be the one thing offering her information from this world.

At the edge of the square, hidden behind trees, Kiandra looked at Waldina, indecisively. She wanted to talk to her purplehaired ninja friend; after all Waldina had made it clear she had realized she was closeby. But on the other hand, she didn’t want to bother her friend. During the whole day she’d managed to keep a nice distance to Waldina and the ninja hadn’t shown any signs of needing aid. Perhaps the ninja was better off without her. And so Kiandra couldn’t find the courage to ask to join Waldina’s journey.