Forest Frenzy (3)

 Leering over us, the wolf kaiju demanded the attention of everyone in the forest.

“Twenty feet…” it said. “I can’t believe you made me come out while I was still this small…”

“Relax, Old Man!” Tyler yelled from atop its head. “You might not be at full size but it’s still more than enough for now!”

“I suppose I’ll make do…”

Tyler then turned his attention toward me.

“Oh! So now you wanna pay attention, Oliver!!” He yelled. “Now let’s finish what we started!!!”

“Young Ward,” the wolf said. “I believe it may be prudent to begin elsewhere…”

What’s going on right now? I get Tyler having powers of some sort after being reincarnated, but this is…

“Whaddaya mean we’re starting elsewhere!?!” Tyler asked the wolf.

“First we’ll take down the kaiju,” the wolf answered.

“Which one?”

“Only one of them is a kaiju.”

“What!? Then… what’s the other thing!?”

“Just focus!”

“Alright, alright!” Tyler said. “Now, Old Man, Beast Bolt!”

The giant wolf crouched down on its legs. Then it sprang forward, shooting over me and Marion, and hit the skrullbear kaiju in the side with a massive headbutt.

Before the skrullbear could even be knocked over by the impact, the wolf kaiju snaked its head under the skrullbear’s belly and flipped it over.

The wolf kaiju then jumped on the skrullbear, keeping it pinned with its belly up.

“Now, Young Ward!” it yelled.

“I know, Old Man!” Tyler yelled back before pulling out his blades and leaping into the air. “The last slice of pizza is mine!

“Double Blades Style, First Art: X-Slash!”

Coming down, Tyler swung both swords, making an x shaped slice that cut deep into its neck, scraping the bone plating on the other side of it.

The head fell to the ground as the kaiju’s massive body stopped moving.

Tyler, standing atop the remaining stub of the skrullbear kaiju’s neck, began to laugh.

“Hah hah hah!” he yelled. “Who’s next!? We’ll take all of you!!!”

“Young Ward,” the wolf kaiju said. “It may not be prudent to engage them.”

“Huh? Why not?”

As intrigued as I was by the conversation before me, something else caught my eye that I couldn’t ignore.

“Wait, stop!” I yelled.

I activated Accelerate in an instant and ran forward, activating Miracle as I reached out. I barely grabbed Marion’s wrist before she got away from me.

“What are you doing, Oliver!” she shouted back at me while trying to pull her arm forward. “Let me go!”

“Just hold on a second! We don’t need to fight him!”

“What the hell are you talking about?!”

“I know him! He’s from earth, like me!”

“He’s a beastling kaiju shifter who knows how to use sage style to let his kaiju free,” Marion said. “How could he possibly be from earth?”

“Apparently he didn’t lose his memories like I-!”

“And what makes you think I care in the first place!” she interrupted. “He attacked me unprovoked!”

I guess some things don’t change, huh?

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“Huh?”

“Please forgive him, he’s just simple minded. He probably misinterpreted whatever was going on as an invitation to fight. He grew up in the woods and he’s always been like this. Please just let me take care of him…”

I can’t count the number of times I’ve had to apologize on Tyler’s behalf like that… Me and Zero would always have to be actively watching his ass to try and keep him out of trouble, because the second he’s alone it’s always something like this…

I’m not too sure, but it at least seems like the giant wolf doesn’t want to fight. So I’m holding onto that hope for now, but I need to make sure Marion doesn’t provoke either of them.

Since the skrullbear kaiju’s dead I actually have the chance to try and talk Tyler down, but even after my apology Marion doesn’t seem like she’ll stop trying to attack him.

On top of that, I’m using too much of Miracle’s power to hold her back, I think I’m starting to crush her wrist. I still can’t control the output, and even so it’s still difficult to keep her here since she’s struggling so much.

If I do break her wrist, it might be covered by the For The Greater Good Clause, but it’s not exactly a risk I’m willing to take… Can I go a single day without having to test the limits of that damn contract?!

I just need to focus and use less power. Less power. Less…

“Let go!” Marion shouted as she slammed her fist into my torso.

I seem to have forgotten that she can still hit me… Nevertheless, I didn’t let go.

“I… won’t let you-”

“Shut Up!”

Marion then spun around, bringing her claws down faster than I could realize. I prepared to take the damage but was surprised when I didn’t feel anything. I was even more surprised when Marion’s arm stopped struggling against me, although what surprised me most was why.

Marion hadn’t attacked me at all, instead she had cut her own arm off at the elbow to get away from me.

She charged at Tyler before giving her arm a chance to fully regrow.

I quickly dropped Marion’s severed forearm and called out to her one last time. “Marion, wait!”

“I guess we have the first challenger!!” Tyler yelled as he pulled out his swords and ran to clash with Marion.

As they were about to meet the wolf kaiju’s tail slammed into the space between them. Marion cut deep into the tail with her claws and Tyler stumbled back, struggling to keep his balance as he stalled and redirected his blades mid-swing to avoid hitting the wolf.

“Old Man! What are you-!?!” Tyler’s sentence was interrupted by the tail flicking him back towards the kaiju’s body.

The tail then quickly withdrew from Marion’s reach and she ran to attack Tyler, only to be met with the kaiju’s massive paw pinning her down.

“So you’re one of the infected too, hmm?” The kaiju said as it looked down at Marion struggling in its grasp. “Although I guess they must call you something different nowadays…

“Either way, it’ll be troublesome to deal with you like this. Forgive me.”

It brought its head closer to Marion and extended its massive jaw.

“Wait no! Don’t hurt her!” I yelled as I began to-

“Don’t worry, Oliver. I will not harm her.”

Why does he know my name? And… For some reason, his voice seems… familiar, trustworthy even…

A crimson and magenta energy came out of Marion in streams, flowing into the wolf’s mouth. Its muscles began to swell as though they wanted to grow in size before shrinking back down.

As this was happening, I noticed the energy flowing into the wolf wasn’t only from Marion. The fur covering Tyler began to shrink down as similar streams flowed from him too, causing him to lose his balance.

“Wh-why me, too…?” Tyler asked as he fell on his butt.

After a while the streams stopped. The wolf kaiju closed its mouth and removed its paw from over Marion. I walked towards her as she sat up, holding her forehead.

“Oliver my man!” Jessica yelled down. “What should I be… doing? Is the fight still going or not?”

Good question…

I turned to the wolf and asked, “You’re not gonna attack us, right?”

“As though I could ever betray a comrade such as yourself,” it said. “Why, after all, it was you who-”

“Wait! Old Man! Shut Up! Shut Up!” Tyler interrupted as he jumped to his feet. “Canvas erased his memories of all that and she said we can’t tell him about it!”

“Canvas… It makes sense she wouldn’t reincarnate us without some kind of ulterior motive… but for her to appear while I was in such a weak state… How troublesome…

“So you don’t remember me, Oliver?” the wolf kaiju asked.

“Uh, no… sorry,” I answered.

“Very well then, I shall introduce myself to the lot of you,” he said. “I am Fenrir, the great wolf.”

Fenrir, huh? It seems fitting somehow. It sounds familiar…

“So your name’s Fenrir,” Marion said as she stood up.

“Uh, are you okay?” I asked.

“I feel fine,” Marion answered. “And I don’t feel so angry anymore…”

She then turned to Fenrir and asked. “What did you do to me?”

“You are like Tyler, in that you hold a kaiju inside you,” Fenrir said. “Unlike me and him however, you and your kaiju have not befriended each other. Instead of a bond of trust there is only sorrow and wrath. Your kaiju was increasing these feelings within you using its nightmare core, the same kind as my own, so I syphoned away its mana to make up for the amount I was still recovering, although I fear I went too far…”

“So I do have a kaiju…” Marion muttered in a barely audible voice.

“But why’d you drain me!?!” Tyler yelled.

“I had an all too rational fear you’d try to fight them when there’s no need for it, Young Ward,” Fenrir said.

“Huh!? But what about me and Oliver’s fight!? I wanna know who’s stronger now!!”

“We’ll settle that later,” I said.

“What!? But-!”

“I’m not at one hundred percent right now and you aren’t either!” I shouted. “It’s not even a real match if we can’t fight each other at our fullest!”

Luckily, this line of reasoning actually works with Tyler.

“Oh… I guess you’re right, Oliver,” he said. “It’s not a fair fight if we aren’t both at one hundred percent.”

“So we’ll just have to pick this up later.” If at all.

“Alright, fine! But I still want the spoils of my battle with Marion!”

“Spoils?”

“The reason he attacked me,” Marion said. “Was because he wanted the bag of marshmallows I had.”

“Unfortunately, that sounds about right,” I said. “You really need to get yourself under control, Tyler…”

“What are you talking about!? I control my body perfectly,” Tyler said. “Anyway, I beat her so hand over the marshmallows!!”

“Um…” I look at Marion to find an expression of anger and discontent, but… it’s different from the other times she’s been angry. Usually there’s a sense of bloodlust, but I guess whatever Fenrir did to her is making it so that she can’t go into her demon form.

Marion then took a deep breath and said a single word.

“No.”

“Heh!? What’d you just say to me?!” Tyler yelled.

“I said no!” Marion yelled back. “I’m not giving you anything!”

“What!?! But the deal was that whoever won got the marshma-!”

“I never agreed to that!” Marion interrupted. “You made up that deal yourself and then attacked me assuming I accepted your challenge when I did no such thing! If you just wanted the marshmallows then you should’ve asked and I would’ve gladly given you some! I can’t stand people like you who think of nothing but fighting and ignore the feelings of people around you! I don’t care if you are Oliver’s friend or not, I don’t like you at all!”

Tyler let out a high-pitched whine as the ears on his mask drooped. Wait, what-!?

“Oliver…” he whined. “She’s being mean to me…”

“You brought it on yourself, Tyler,” I said. “Maybe if you just listened to people more instead of trying to fight them, then you could avoid situations like this.”

“Old man…”

“I agree with Oliver on this,” Fenrir said. “Although I’m disappointed that I was slumbering at the time, else I could’ve helped you make a wiser decision.”

“Oh man… I messed up, didn’t I?” Tyler said as he curled up into a ball like a dog. “And now everyone’s mad at me…”

“Uh, what’s he doing?” Marion asked.

“On the outside he’s tough,” Fenrir said. “Always wanting to test his strength against others, always ready for a fight. But-”

“Whenever he gets scolded even a little by anyone, he breaks down like a little kid,” I finished.

“Is he going to be okay?” Marion asked.

“I thought you didn’t like him at all.”

“I don’t have to like someone to worry about how my actions affected them,” she said. “Plus, I think I might’ve been a bit too harsh…”

“Really? He did attack you, didn’t he?”

“But, I took out my anger on him-”

“So? You didn’t even hit him or anything. Which means you’re already handling it better than I-”

“But if I can’t even control my anger without the kaiju’s influence, then what hope do I have of ever controlling myself when it has the power to influence me again?”

So she’s worried that because she didn’t stop herself from yelling at Tyler, she’ll never be able to conquer her bloodlust. That’s a bit of a leap if you ask me, but I guess I can understand why this would bother her.

“Even now, I’m still mad,” Marion said. “He looks so pitiful like that, but after what he did? I just… can’t forgive him…”

“Don’t worry yourself with that,” Fenrir said. “What you said was neither false nor out of line. He just needs time to think it over himself, and that’s never been a specialty of his…

“As for forgiving him, well… that’s a choice only you can make. Though I sense you have enough wisdom to make the correct choice.”

Marion looked down in silent contemplation. She then looked up at me, but I don’t have anything to say about any of that.

“So are you guys done with whatever this is?” Jessica asked.

I turned around and saw her standing behind me, the Furnace Titan nowhere in sight.

“Where’d the titan go?” I asked.

“I dismantled it since there’s no longer any danger, my man,” Jessica answered. “But now what are we gonna do?”

“Yeah, that is the question,” I said. “Hey, Fenrir, how many times has Tyler called you out since arriving in Thloria?”

“There was only one other time,” the wolf said. “When we went up against a dangerous foe.”

“Okay, so in that case I’ve figured it all out.”

“Figured what out, my man?” Jessica said.

“Well, it’s less figuring it out and more confirming what I thought was true in the first place,” I said. “So both Tyler and the skrullbear kaiju are the beast mentioned on the quest paper. I came to that conclusion after Tyler fought Marion, but then when he brought out Fenrir I thought it might’ve just been him all along. But since Fenrir says he only came out once before I’m back at my first conclusion.”

“Yeah… I guess that makes sense, Oliver,” Marion said. “They were pretty close to each other, so reports of them must’ve gotten mixed together…”

Exactly what I thought.

“Anyway, since they had no definitive evidence we can probably just report back that it was only the skrullbear kaiju,” I said. “Unless one of you guys have any objections about that?”

“I don’t have any reasons to object,” Jessica answered. “They did help us take down the kaiju after all.”

“I guess I don’t have any objections, either…” Marion said.

“Thank you,” Fenrir said. “I appreciate it.”

“Now we just lug this thing’s body back to town,” Jessica said.

“Huh?” We have to do what?

“Well, we need proof that we killed the kaiju in order to finish the quest,” she continued. “And we can’t just leave it’s body here to decay…”

“I guess that makes sense, but how are we supposed to-”

“If you don’t have another way, just leave that to me,” Fenrir said. “I’ve gained enough mana to become large enough to pick that thing up.”

“Don’t worry about that, wolf kaiju,” Jessica said. “If we work together then I have just the thing to help you carry it without needing to get bigger…”

“Interesting… But whatever the case it’ll have to wait until morning,” Fenrir said. “I can’t stay out like this forever, and I believe a little rest would do us all some good.”

“Yeah, I guess it would,” I agreed. “But… we’re gonna have to remake our little campsite, if enough of it can even be scavenged, that is…”

That battle really did a number on this area, and while our camp may not have had much, what was there is now… scattered, to say the least.

“I guess that can’t be helped,” Jessica said. “You guys deal with that, I need to go get the thing for carrying the kaiju ready.”

“Well, alright,” Marion said. “It’s not like there’s all that much to get anyway… Me and Oliver can manage.”

After hearing that, Tyler sprang up.

“Aha! I’ve got it!” he yelled. “You two don’t need to manage cause I’ll do it for you! See!? Then you can stop being disappointed in me! Ha ha! I knew I was secretly smart!”

Tyler then ran off to go collect the pieces of our campsite.

“I’d better return to keeping an eye on him,” Fenrir said as his body dissipated into a grey and yellow energy that followed after Tyler and seeped into his skin.

“I guess that’s the end of that,” I said.

“Yeah, I guess so…” Marion agreed.