To Save or Not to Save

Back in the town of Reilly, the gang had been given a rundown of what was going on with the monster wolves and were then sent on their way. As they walked down the road heading to the farms on the outskirts of town, Lena went over the game plan for the night. “We’ll split into two teams. I’ll take Yuna and Maxim. Victoria will take Sarah. We’ll communicate via telepathy the best we can, but we may end up going out of range, especially on Victoria’s end. If we find a giant monster wolf, we need to call each other for help before anything else. Killing one of those will need all of us to contribute in some way. Now, as for where to go, I’ll go to the east once we reach the fork in the road that Baron Reiss talked about. Victoria will go to the west. Once we’re far enough away, we’ll pull out those red rock bottles the Baron gave us to detect the wolves, and we’ll just go from there.”

“Sounds good to me,” Sarah nodded.

“Me too,” replied Maxim with a thumbs-up as they approached the aforementioned fork in the road. “So we go right?”

“Correct,” Lena replied as she, Maxim, and Yuna separated from Victoria and Sarah, who went to the left. “We’ll see you guys later!”

“Bye,” Victoria waved as she and Sarah got further and further away. Once they were out of earshot, Victoria sighed and said to Sarah, “I don’t fully agree with separating like this.”

Sarah, wondering why, asked her, “Why’s that? Won’t it mean we can cover more ground?”

“Well, yes, it does,” Victoria conceded. “However, now it means I have to watch you and fight monsters by myself.” She then pulled out a small glass bottle that contained a red rock inside. “Let’s see if these detectors the Baron gave us actually work.” She shook the small rock around a bit inside the bottle, remarking, “The townsfolk swear up and down that this really does detect monsters just like a spell would, but I’m not so sure about that.”

“Let me guess. Are there similar myths about similar things in other small towns and remote villages?”

“Correct,” Victoria replied. “Humanity has feared the monsters for tens of thousands of years, so we’ve come up with many ways to deal with them. Superstitions and myths surrounding them have existed for just as long. Some places would offer sacrifices to attacking monsters in the hopes they would go away, which had rather mixed results. Others would use objects they thought had properties that scared monsters and even some regular animals they didn’t like away.”

“Honestly, it’s all really fascinating. Ever since I became friends with Lena, I’ve really thought about giving monster hunting a try. I’m hoping tonight I can get started.”

“It’s not all fun,” Victoria pointed out. “It’s actually pretty fucking dangerous when you think about it. Too many monster hunters die every year doing what me and Lena are doing right now. You’ll spend many hours combing through areas ranging from these small towns to the largest cities in Tamara looking for these bastards. You can make good money, but not every hunt results in payment. Sometimes, the only payment you get is gratitude from those who’ve been hurt by the monsters, whether it’s directly or indirectly.”

“So why do you do it?”

Victoria then stopped in her tracks, keeping her back turned to Sarah as she answered her question. “Because somebody has to. If it weren’t for us, this whole empire… No, this whole world would collapse. We may not be organized or operate with government support, but we keep society running by keeping these bastards at bay. It does lead to competition amongst us. There are times where me and Lena have had to fight other monster hunters. I don’t really give a shit if I gotta get my hands dirty by pummeling some punk who gets in our way, but Lena prefers not to have to do it.”

“I see… How noble.”

“It’s whatever,” Victoria dismissed her compliment. “I don’t really think of myself as a hero.”

“You know, speaking of Lena, I got one more question about her.” Sarah had been wanting to ask Lena the following question herself, but had not been brave enough to do so. “So… What exactly happened to Lena’s parents? I know they were killed, but I was pretty young when it happened. I never really paid attention to the news as a little girl, after all.”

“I figured that question would come up,” Victoria sighed. “I might as well tell you now…”

…

By coincidence, both Yuna and Maxim had also just asked Lena herself about what had happened to her parents. Maxim, of course, already knew, but he still wanted to hear Lena’s answer since Yuna had asked the same question in canon. “My parents were murdered right before I was to turn eleven years old,” Lena explained. “I’m sure you’ve heard of it before. Their assassinations were big news at the time. I can still recall the throngs of reporters crowding the street in front of our Chanan residence as well as the roads leading to our rural residence further north. They all wanted to know the latest info about our family for a few months after the killings, even as we grieved.”

“That sucks,” Maxim replied. “They didn’t even give you privacy after losing your parents, huh?”

“Seeing your crying face plastered on the front pages of newspapers really messes with you when you’re a little girl,” Lena said as she began to get more emotional, choking up as she continued to talk. “And to think, it all happened when we were supposed to be enjoying a nice weekend together.”

“I remember that part,” Yuna then said. “They said you were vacationing in the woods when three men attacked your camp.”

“You got it,” Lena confirmed. “They broke down the door with axes, and when my father tried to stop them with a hunting rifle, he was shot. They killed my parents, the servant that came with us, and another servant who was posted outside for security. I ran away as fast as I could. My mother opened a window and held the three men back by pushing her body against my bedroom door, yelling at me to get out.” She began to cry as she told the other two, “At that moment, I just ran, but as time went on, I began to resent myself for doing that. I felt like a coward. I asked myself why I didn’t stay and fight rather than run away and leave my mother to be slaughtered like a fucking animal?”

Yuna, feeling bad for her, hugged Lena, catching her off-guard. “Lena, I’m so sorry. I can’t imagine what it must be like. I thought losing my uncle and his family was bad enough. I don’t know what I would do with myself if I lost both of my parents.”

“Th- Thank you…”

Maxim then joined in as well, wrapping his hands around both of them. “We’re here for you, Lena.”

“That means so much to me,” Lena replied to both of them as she returned the hug. “I’m sorry I’m getting like this. I don’t talk about it too often.”

Maxim told her, “It’s okay… It’s okay…” His heart was racing at this point. Shortly after this conversation happened in canon, she would go on to fight and die in the ensuing battle. If he did not intervene, this would be the last time he would see Lena alive before she headed into battle.

Lena then split from the trio, telling them as she wiped her eyes, “Alright, that’s enough crying for now. Let’s get these wolves and get back home.”

“You got it,” Yuna and Maxim said at the same time. The trio then began to walk down the road, and after a few steps, the small red rock inside the equally small glass bottle Lena had been given began to glow, perplexing all of them. Yuna asked, “Wait, that worked?”

“Holy shit,” Maxim chuckled. “Looks like the townsfolk were right.”

“And as we continue to walk this way,” Lena pointed out. “It gets more intense. We must be getting closer.” She began to run in the direction the red rock was indicating she should go, prompting Yuna and Maxim to run behind her. “Let’s hurry before it attacks someone!”

Maxim asked her as all three of them ran together, “How will I know to attack?!”

“Huh?!”

“Like, what do I think about or what do I say to actually perform an attack with magic?!”

“It just comes naturally, Maxim! It may come when you least expect it!”

…

Meanwhile, Sarah and Victoria had stumbled upon a monster wolf ripping apart the carcass of a rabbit it had hunted. The creature was exactly as had been described earlier, and as it devoured the body of the dead rabbit, Victoria formed her trademark energy blades in her hands. “I’m gonna jump for it. Stay here.”

“Got it,” Sarah whispered back.

Then, Victoria jumped out from behind the bushes she and Sarah had hidden behind, causing the wolf to immediately growl and lunge at her. She quickly slashed it across the back, but this did not kill the beast. She dodged a bite from the wolf as it ran around her and tried to jump on her after climbing up a nearby tree. When the wolf got back on its feet, it charged at her again, prompting her to dodge it and slash it again, this time going deeper and even setting the monster wolf’s fur on fire. In intense pain, the wolf let out a howl, which caused Victoria to yell, “Fuck, it’s calling for help!”

A second monster wolf then charged at Sarah from where she was kneeling, causing her to jump up and let out a yell of fright, barely dodging the creature before it had a chance to pounce on her. When the wolf turned around and tried to bite her, she put her hand out to try to shield herself. At that moment, however, a blue light formed around her right hand, which then shot out at the wolf, instantly killing it with a blast that wiped out its head. Sarah had no clue how she had done this, and as she got up and saw a third wolf running towards her, she said to herself, “Did I just unlock powers?! Let’s hope it works again!”

Victoria screamed as she killed the original wolf with a slash to the neck, “Wait, you did what?!”

Sarah then held her right hand out again, and sure enough, another pale blue light formed in her hand that soon shot out at the third wolf. This time, however, the third wolf dodged her first attack. Panicking, she tried it again, and this time, the shot of pale blue light struck the monster wolf on the side and killed it. “I did it!”

“No fucking way,” Victoria said to her. “They actually unlocked?!”

“I had no idea they were going to,” Sarah replied. “It just happened!”

“Yeah, that’s what tends to happen a lot, but… That’s pretty late for someone like you.”

“I mean, I’ve known very basic spells and magic since I was young, but I wouldn’t have guessed I could use any of it offensively.”

“Well, it’s a good thing you can.” Victoria then pulled out a small knife to collect samples from each of the pelts of the three monster wolves. “There’s three down, who knows how many to go. Now we gotta take parts of their pelts as proof of our hunt before anything else.”

Victoria pulled out a second knife and offered it to Sarah, who declined it with, “Ehhhh… I don’t know about that part just yet…”

“Suit yourself,” Victoria shrugged as she began to collect pelt parts, kneeling down to make the first cut on the first monster wolf the two of them had killed. “I bet Yuna’s gonna be really excited to hear you unlocked your powers, Sarah.”

“Oh, she will be. Trust me.”

…

Lena meanwhile was also fighting a small pack of monster wolves, blasting them away with her golden beams of light with relative ease. Yuna and Maxim looked on from a distance, believing that Lena had this battle in the bag. “Hell yeah,” cheered Maxim as Lena killed a fifth monster wolf. “You got this, Lena!” In that moment, he had almost forgotten that Lena was mostly likely about to die, and instead was feeling as though maybe she would pull through with no problem.

Lena smiled at them before turning her head to find a sixth monster wolf coming up from behind her. She dodged its attack and then aimed both of her hands at it, blasting it away where it stood when it tried to jump at her. “And that makes six,” she said. “Baron Reiss told me that they believe the population is at around thirty, so we may have just killed almost a fifth of it.”

“That’s amazing,” Yuna gushed. “You’re really cool, Lena!”

Then, however, all three of them heard a low-pitched moan in the distance that soon turned into a growl. At that moment, reality hit Maxim as he realized that no, things were not so different due to his presence that the following event simply would not take place. He looked in the direction of the growl, and as he did, he pointed at what had made the noise and yelled, “Lo-… Lo-… Look!”

In the distance, a giant monster wolf walked along the country road they were on, his paws making the ground vibrate with every step he took. Even on four legs, the giant wolf was twelve feet tall. It then opened its mouth, its tongue grabbing onto a small tree by the side of the road and ripping it out, roots and all, before tossing it down the road like it was a ball. As it rolled down towards the group, Lena blasted it to pieces with a light beam, causing splinters to fly everywhere and making both Lena and Maxim avert their faces to shield them. The giant monster wolf then roared at Lena, readying its hind legs to charge at her.

Maxim looked over again, and realized that this was the moment where everything would change. If Lena died, the mentor of Yuna and Sarah up to now would no longer exist, forcing them both to have to navigate the rest of the story largely on their own since Victoria would be too depressed and Kana would be too focused on defeating the Order of the Shining Light while protecting Yuna. This was the path the original canon of the story had taken, and although it was a path that hurt, Maxim considered staying on said path.

The other path forward was one where Maxim intervened and saved Lena from her fate. This one was far more unpredictable. As seen with Serena’s unexpected kidnapping following his intervention to save Paulo from his own canonical death, changes he made to the story could cause something worse to happen later. That said, perhaps if Lena survived, they could better adapt to said changes since she was a rather experienced and powerful monster hunter.

Whatever decision he made, he had to make it fast. Before doing anything else, he asked Yuna, “So, uh, this is a weird question, but do you know if Kana followed you by any chance?”

“She didn’t,” Yuna replied as she grew more fearful of what could happen to Lena. “Why do you ask?”

“Wait… You know for a fact she didn’t?!”

“I do. She went into Chanan to rescue Serena by herself, Maxim.”

“Wha-… No!” This was not supposed to happen. In canon, Kana had secretly followed the gang to Reilly, which allowed her to save Yuna after Lena’s death. Without her, if Lena did die, there was a good chance both Maxim and Yuna would be killed soon after. Regardless of his misgivings and his fear about changing the future storyline, he no longer had a choice to not act. “I have to save Lena!”

“Maxim, wait!”

Yuna was too late to stop Maxim as he ran out to push Lena away. Lena, for her part, was forming a beam of light in her hands to blast the giant monster wolf away, but as she fired it at the beast, it dodged at the worst possible moment for her, the beam only grazing his fur and making him angrier. Horrified that her attack failed, she froze in place, thinking that this was the end for her. What was only a few short seconds felt like hours as the monster got closer and closer with each step.

Then, right as the giant monster wolf was about to trample her, Maxim suddenly crashed into her, pushing both her and himself away from the beast’s large paws and causing them to fall into a drainage ditch on the side of the road. As they fell into the muddy water, the beast roared at them and opened its mouth to devour them. Maxim screamed at the beast as he picked up a large stick that happened to be laying nearby, “GO AWAY!” He had no idea if it would work, but anything was better than nothing.

To both his and Lena’s shock, when he shouted those words, a red light shot out from the end of the stick and then completely enveloped the giant monster wolf. The monster roared into the sky as the light crushed its body down before it then exploded in a giant fireball, prompting Maxim to shield Lena from the blast. The heat was intense as the grass and trees all around the beast caught fire and everyone’s ears were temporarily deafened by the explosion.

When the dust settled, Lena and Maxim opened their eyes to find the latter on top of the former. Both of them blushed very intensely as they got up, Lena asking him, “You… You did that?!”

“I guess I did,” he replied after a brief pause, looking around at the burning brush along the road. “I… Did I just unlock powers?!” He then picked up the stick he had used, only to find that half of it had been burned off by the explosion. “I didn’t… I didn’t even plan for this…”

Yuna, having crouched down to shield herself the best she could, got up from the side of the road and walked over to the duo. “Maxim… You did it!”

“I did… What?”

“There’s not even a single trace of the giant monster wolf anywhere,” Lena said as she looked around. “It’s as if its body banished with that attack itself rather than having to be banished afterwards like usual.” She then turned to Maxim and asked, “Are you sure you haven’t used magic until now?”

“I swear to God, I haven’t.”

“That seems almost impossible… No one who’s a later bloomer could be that powerful. At least… That’s what I thought…” Lena then looked down at herself, finding that her clothes were soaking wet and scratched up from the battle. “Did I… Holy shit… I almost died…”

As the full weight of what had just happened began to hit her, Maxim put a hand on her shoulder to comfort her. “Lena, you’re okay. I saved you right before that monster was able to trample you.”

“Oh my God… I was this close to being killed…” The emotions she felt proved to be too much, and she began to cry, prompting Maxim to hug her. “I… I almost died…”

“There, there,” he told her. “You’re okay, Lena. You’re okay. That monster can’t hurt you anymore.”