Wolf Hunt

“Do you think we can just disqualify her for cheating?” Sato asked, walking alongside Idalec,

“Did you not see her smelling the air?”

“Ahhh! That’s what she was doing?" Sato said, astonished by the fact,

“What did you think she was doing?” Idalec regretted asking right after,

“I thought she wanted to cough but just couldn't do it,” Sato replied with something a lot more benign than Idalec expected. They wandered around for another half-hour, not so much as spotting a squirrel. “Where are these god damn wolves at!”

“Why did you run off in this direction?”

“Gut read.” Sato shrugged. “Anyway, if we’re alone, do you think you can teach me some more magic? Like when I was fighting the Calamity, I said fire, fire- like normal but then instead of saying molten I said fire again, and I actually made a real fireball!” Sato said excitedly, “And it fired right at him!”

“And what happened once it hit him?” Idalec asked knowingly,

“It did nothing!” Sato said just as excitedly,

‘I wish I was still as enthusiastic as him; the joys of youth.’ Idalec reflected,

“LOOK!” Sato yelled, pointing at a deer which dashed off at breakneck speed, “Look, Nokotan ran off.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s a white-tailed deer and not a Nokotan.”

“No, Nokotan is like this girl with deer antlers,” Sato said, spreading his hand and putting his thumbs to his temples to emulate antlers. “You're not convinced,” Sato said as Idalec looked at him blankly,

“No, I could believe you. Does tend not to have antlers, that's all.” Idalec said, noticing the sun starting to get lower in the sky,

“Whatever, we’re wolf hunting,” Sato said, determined. They kept walking around so far that they came across another village,

“This must be the wolf factory.” Sato said, which almost sounded plausible since a couple of beast folk children were running around, “Do you think it’d count if…” Sato trailed off, “Actually, I can just buy my slave girl here, cuz that Erik cuck probably doesn't have any.”

‘The wolf factory.’ Idalec wiped a tear from his eye, chuckling a little,

“Sup cubs!” Sato waved over to the kids who instantly fled, “Damn… Kids these days, am I right?” Sato bumped Idalec’s shoulder,

“Who are you!” a cat folk demanded of Sato,

“Chill out pussy cat.” Sato raised his hands as the cat folk instantly cast the ground liquefaction spell. “Hey! I just bought these clothes today?!” Sato added indistinctly as he sank in; Idalec, of course, didn’t sink one bit. “Is there a clothes-cleaning spell, Idalec?” Sato asked, looking up, while the cat folk pulled out a sling and shot a stone at Idalec,

“Have you ever heard the saying-” Idalec rubbed the bridge of his nose as the stone refracted off his Pure Shield. “There’s a reason why the man didn’t sink.” Idalec looked at the cat folk as she took another shot at him, which again bounced off his Pure Shield.

“I’ve never heard that quote before,” Sato said,

‘No wonder he hasn’t heard that quote before.’ Idalec pulled Sato out by the collar of his shirt,

“Are you here to raid us?” the cat folk tried a third time. She aimed for Sato, hitting him in the shoulder,

“Damn it!” Sato clutched at his shoulder and stumbled back into the liquefied ground, sinking back in.

“Well, Sato, maybe you should tell her why we’re here?” Idalec suggested that Sato manage to climb out of the mud by himself.

“Fire, fire, fire ball, pleeeeeze!” Sato pointed at the cat folk, who cast a spell dissipating the spell before it hit.

“BROOOO!” Sato fell to his knees. “This can’t be fr fr? Like what’s the point of learning magic if some cat chick can just cast the anti-fireball spell?” Sato complained to Idalec. The cat folk whistled, and a few more arrived, some of them holding spears. “Nah, I ain’t dying here!” Sato took one look at the five cat folk before sprinting back into the trees,

“Shame. They’d make great training for you.” Idalec started walking back with a relaxed pace, ‘I’ve lived a hundred… oh, it’s a hundred and one by now years… I’ve lived long enough if they cast Magic Suppression.’

“Run! Idalec, they’re going to catch you!” Sato shouted as a few of the cat folk with spears tried stabbing the walking Idalec in the back, just to have the tips of the spears slide off. “Oh… Well sniff you later!” Sato ran off out of sight,

“What great allies do we have nowadays?” Idalec turned to face the two cat folk who tried to throw a punch imbued with magic to no effect.

“He can’t keep up that shield forever!” the cat girl who had initially shot at Idalec yelled out, slowly approaching,

“Technically that is true.” Idalec agreed half heartedly, “When I croak of old age.” Idalec then started walking again at a leisurely pace,

“As if. Keep hitting him!” she called out. “That shield requires a lot of mana to maintain!”

‘Of course they’d be obsessed with mana.’ Idalec laughed as he kept walking very slowly; four cat folk had decided to try and break his shield. ‘I guess it makes sense to believe that you can only use however much mana you have to cast magic. But do they never think about where mana comes from and where it goes after you cast a spell?’ A few minutes passed with all the beast folk starting to get exhausted from trying to continuously break Idalec’s shield.

“Who are you?” the cat girl demanded,

“I’ll say my name if you say yours?” Idalec suggested disinterestedly, ‘Nowhere did Sato run off to?’

“Shelee,” the cat girl said, motioning for a spear. Once she got it, she motioned them to fall back,

‘Maybe she figured out that this is pointless.’ Idalec guessed before she tried to strike him, “You cat folks all think you're so sneaky, don’t you?”

“What’s your name? I gave you mine!” Shelee said angrily, walking around Idalec and trying to poke at him,

“Idalec Yeve,” Idalec said,

“What did you want from us?” Shelee snarled

“Me? Nothing, I was just following that guy who you so uncouthly scared off.” Idalec paused to look around. ‘What a pain.’

“You definitely wanted something from us! Why else would you invade us?”

“Do you have nothing else to do with your time?” Idalec asked Shelee, who tried to cast the ground liquefaction spell again,

“You must be running out of time.” Shelee laughed, which Idalec didn’t look at all amused.

‘If she really has nothing better to do, I might as well wait here until she gets bored.’ Idalec thought, just standing there as Shelee tried to dig under Idalec’s feet to find that she just floated above the pit; she tried throwing stones at him just for them to bounce off. “Are you happy now?” Idalec asked as Shelee took to just sitting back against a rock and prodding at Idalec with a stick.

“How could you possibly have this much mana?”

“I don’t, and goodbye.” Idalec spat before slowly ascending.