Chapter 14

I’d sprinted through the forest, weaving between the trees, making sure that they slow down the direwolf since it's so massive.

However, I look back at the Dire wolf to see it was gradually catching up.

I hadn't led it far enough away from Ned and the others, so I stopped my sprinting by a big tree, then faced the dire wolf. It jumped and pounced with its mouth wide open for a bite. I moved out of the way at the last second, letting it crash into the tree behind me, then I began to run away again.

It should buy me some time while it gets up.

I took out a yellow glass vial out of one of my pouches, it was poison that I had asked Maria to make.

Using poisons is pretty common with adventurers, so it didn't really cause any concern when I asked Maria to make it.

I never thought I had to use it so soon, it cost a pretty penny. Who knew making poison is expensive, however I’d better use it, I need all the advantages I can get.

Uncorking the vial, I poured half of it on my sword. Then I pour the rest directly into my holsters where my spikes and knives are. I'm probably going to have to throw out these clothes after this, which is a shame, but I could always buy some more.

After I was done, I threw the empty glass vial at the direwolf. It didn’t seem too happy about that though.

The poison is a low grade one but it will have to do.

Throwing 3 spikes that are now covered in poison, hoping to take out its other eye. I missed it but it still hit the direwolf, causing it to momentarily stop for a bit.

I began throwing them each time it got a bit too close. When I finally threw the last one, all of them hit it, though I wasn’t able to take out the other eye.

If you squint, its head looks like a porcupine with the amount of spikes I threw at it.

I switched to my knives hoping to take out its left eye but couldn’t. I should really practice more on my throwing if I manage to get out of this alive.

I grin slightly bigger and had a small chuckle thinking about it, excited to see which one of us is coming out of this alive.

Not having any more things to throw, I’ll just have to fight it directly and I think I’ve run far away enough so it doesn’t go after Ned and the others.

I slowed down my running so the dire wolf could catch up.

Expecting the direwolf to pounce at me, I took off my cloak and moved out of the way at the last moment to cover its face as it was in the middle of its pounce, temporarily blinding it for a second.

It crashed onto the ground, so I took the opportunity to attack the direwolf before it got back up.

I bash its head with my sword as hard as I could then move several steps back. I looked at my sword because it felt like I just hit a rock, to see that there was a dent on my sword

It shook its head to get my cloak off it to reveal that I did some damage. It looked a bit wobbly as there was blood coming out of a long gash across its head.

I grinned even bigger as it stared at me with fury in its one good eye, it looks like I could do some decent damage to it.

It began charging at me, so I did the same. Since I took out its right eye, I dashed to the right and took a quick stab at its underbelly.

A bit of blood came out of its underbelly but it didn’t seem to bother it. The direwolf continued to try to bite me with its giant jaws, then another, and another.

I keep moving out of the way from its jaw, being centimeters away from its jaws, trying to not get bitten.

Seeing it up closed it could definitely could swallow me whole and crush every bone in my body

I wasn't helpless though since I was counter attacking whenever I could, mostly aiming for the under belly, hoping to hit one of its organs, or legs to limit its mobility.

Occasionally it would lunge and crash into some trees but due to its size, some of the smaller trees were knocked down.

I thought to myself that this can’t last forever, I’ll be the one who will be exhausted first if this continues, I need to find a way to finish this quickly.

As I was focusing on coming up with a plan, in addition to fighting the direwolf, I wasn’t paying attention to where I stepped and it caused me to fall.

The dire wolf saw the opportunity and immediately lunged in for a bite, this time it was definitely going to bite me.

Seeing that I was going to be bitten as I was falling, time slowed down for a bit and without thinking, my body moved on its own. I twisted my body out of the way, barely managing to get most of my body out of the way from its jaw, however it managed to bite into my left arm.

I heard a loud crunch as it bit down on my left arm just like with Zack, then I felt an unbelievable amount of pain on my left arm as it was being crushed.

“aaargh!”

It then swung me in the air like a ragdoll trying to rip my arm off as I screamed in pain.

This wasn't good. In desperation, I thrust my sword at its mouth, trying to make it release my arm. I managed to make a big gash across its mouth, causing it to let go and threw me away.

The air escaped my lungs as I landed hard on the ground, rolling then hitting a tree, which stopped my rolling.

A small pool of my own blood formed where I lay.

Rain’s Perspective

As Rain separated from Nyx, Rain managed to catch up to the guy that was sprinting to get help.

“Hey! Umm… I didn’t get your name but Nyx told me to help you”

The guy Rain caught up to, spoke between his panting.

“Thanks, I’m… Oliver”

“You said you need help right? I'm going to inform the guild, I know some people working there, so can you tell me some more information.”

Oliver proceeded to tell Rain how many are fighting the dire wolf, including his party of 6, and the situation.

Once they reached the gate, Oliver was about to collapse from exhaustion, but with a large amount of determination, got back up and began telling the guards about the direwolf and the situation. As for Rain, she continued running through the town and toward the adventurers guild.

Rain flung the door open, surprising the few people that were in the building as she went directly to Emma’s counter.

Emma was talking with Cade before she was surprised to see Rain getting back so early and looking so desperate.

Cade spoke up first with a sense of familiarity like he knows Rain, asking what’s wrong from seeing Rain’s demeanor.

“Hey Rain, what's wrong?”

“Maybe you should sit down, let me get you some water first”

As Emma was about to get up to get some water for Rain, Rain stopped her.

“Can’t… there’s… a direwolf”

Hearing the words between Rain’s exhausted breaths, Cade, Emma, and everyone else listening in, after seeing Rain barge inside, were surprised by what Rain said.

“Are you sure it’s a direwolf?”

Emma asks to confirm with a surprise but skeptical tone.

“I don’t know but Nyx told me to help Oliver, who is informing the town guards right now”

“Oliver?”

Cade turned his head, indirectly asking Emma on who they were.

“If I remember, I believe Oliver is from the Azure Wind party. There a D rank party that is about to reach C rank”

After Emma was done explaining, Rain began to tell what she knew from Oliver.

“He told me that his party and other adventurers are fighting the direwolf and his party leader told him to get help”

Both of them had a grim expression. Cade turned his body and faced the adventurers in the guild and said

“Sorry to make you work on your day off but as the guild master, I am putting out an emergency quest, anyone that is E rank or higher got to join in. The reward is yet to be determined but you don’t need to worry about the direwolf because I’m going be to fighting it”

Then Cade turned to face Emma.

“I need 15 minutes to get my gear, send the word out that there is a direwolf outside the town and there is an emergency quest out”

“Got it”

Emma was about to get up from her chair and get some of the guilds workers that were still in the building, but a question popped up in her mind.

“Wait, where is Nyx?”

“Sh– he went to help fight the direwolf”

Almost forgetting Nyx wanted to keep the secret that she is a girl due to her exhaustion, Rain caught herself from blurting it out and told Emma what Nyx was doing.

“He did what?!”

As expected Emma was shocked by it,

“Is he crazy to fight that direwolf?"

However Cade had a slight grin on his face.

“If it’s him, then he could buy us some time”

“What do you mean, I doubt that he could deal with the direwolf even if there’s others with him”

“Maybe, maybe not, but I can tell from his skills that he could at least hold his own”

Cade's face went back to a serious one.

“Either way we have to hurry up and tell the rest of the staff about it”

“Already planning on it, I’m going to coordinate with the towns guard”

“Good”

Cade ran upstairs to his office to put on his old equipment before he became a guildmaster.

“Umm… Emma, is there anything I should help?”

“No, just rest up for now. We need you to lead us to them since Oliver told you where they were and I doubt he could continue running anymore so you’ll have to do”

After around 30 minutes, Rain was alongside Cade by the gate with some somewhat competent looking adventurers. They departed once Cade confirmed that they were ready.