14. Hunt
“I’m out of mana….”
“You crazy son of a bitch.”
Chiding Gaspelt wasn’t going to improve the situation. Silbia knew that too.
But judging by the bastard’s reaction, it was clear he had summoned this Dire Wolf. And now what? He was out of mana?
“A light wind dwells in my feet!”
Silbia quickly chanted. It was an acceleration spell that lightened her body.
Her mind, frozen with terror, was jolted awake by Gaspelt’s pathetic line. She used the summoned wind to lighten her footsteps. She had confidence in her stamina, agility, and speed. If push came to shove, she could at least get herself out.
“Roar!”
The Dire Wolf didn’t just stand there and watch. The distance between them was about three meters. It let out a short roar. When it kicked off the ground, the remaining distance became meaningless. Gaspelt squeezed out his remaining mana and chanted a defensive spell.
“Wall of Protective Mana!”
A thin wall appeared, blocking the space between him and the monster. Giving up on greed and choosing a basic spell, he managed to cast something passable enough.
The Dire Wolf paid it no heed and swung its front paw at the wall of lightning.
“Damn it!”
Gaspelt’s spell was torn away like a sheet of paper. The sloppily chanted magic couldn’t completely block the Dire Wolf’s attack.
Seeing that, Silbia kicked off the ground without hesitation. She leaped onto a high branch in a single bound. If she just turned around and ran now like this…….
“Save me!”
“…Shit.”
Silbia cursed inwardly.
*So one guy takes a shit and another has to clean it up.*
The Dire Wolf was a monster classified as a medium-sized species. Not all were like that, but a monster’s size was proportional to its strength. She was confident in close combat, but she had never faced such a huge thing alone. Could she handle a medium-sized monster?
“Move!”
Action was quicker than thought. She plunged a kick into the neck of the charging Dire Wolf.
*Ugh, shit, it’s like kicking a lump of rock.*
She had no time to voice her complaint out loud. Her one and only mouth had to immediately continue chanting.
Compressed air shot out from her palm. A tearing sonic boom struck the Dire Wolf’s jaw.
“Yelp!”
The creature let out a puppy-like yelp and took a step back. Then it glared at Silbia. She had landed a surprise blow, but it didn’t seem to have dealt a proper wound. Facing the gaze of the thoroughly enraged creature, she realized: this one was on a completely different level from the small-sized monsters.
A low growl. The Dire Wolf lowered its body. It tensed its muscles to the utmost, ready to pounce at any moment. Silbia tried to quickly prepare her next chant.
“Raging… kyah!”
The Dire Wolf took advantage of the gap while she was chanting to ambush her. It was the moment a mage was most vulnerable. Silbia barely evaded the claws. It was an agile ambush dangerous enough that she wouldn’t have made it without her reflexes. A red line was drawn across Silbia’s collarbone.
The monster’s assault didn’t end with a single blow. Silbia was precariously walking a tightrope against the threatening claws that lashed out continuously.
*Someone, anyone, please help me!*
“Binaeril, over there!”
Rike, who was piggybacking on Binaeril with her vision expanded by a head’s height, spotted the scene first. Binaeril climbed onto a low hill and assessed the situation. Gaspelt was panicking, and Silbia was precariously dodging the giant wolf’s attacks.
“Piercing Arrow of Ice!”
Binaeril aimed his magic between the two, thinking to drop the beast for now. The Dire Wolf noticed the attack and took a step back. A spear of ice embedded itself in the spot where it had stood.
“Grrr.”
The creature did not welcome a new interloper. Drool dripped from the corners of its mouth, its ferocity surging.
All strength left Silbia’s body, and she plopped down onto the thicket floor. Both her stamina and mana were at their limits. There was no time to exchange impressions. Rike quickly ran over to Silbia.
“Buy me some time.”
*Medium-sized monster, a Dire Wolf.*
*I know that.*
He felt an intimidating pressure unlike anything from the small-sized monsters they had been hunting just moments ago.
Binaeril chanted the same spell once more. To clearly imprint upon the monster that *your opponent is me*. This time, the attack precisely targeted the space between its eyes.
The Dire Wolf bit into the shaft of the flying ice spear and shattered it into pieces. As if to clearly show who was the predator and who was the prey.
Binaeril felt a light thrill. What the week-long special training had left him wasn’t just stamina. Binaeril could feel that his control over mana—his ability to fine-tune it—had grown compared to before.
‘How much of your mana can you lend me?’
*If it’s magic on that level, several more times is easy.*
There was a great advantage to borrowing mana from Veritas. Binaeril merely had to exercise his imagination and picture an image. Because Veritas would assist with the mana. The fact that he could cast magic close to chantless casting was thanks to that.
Binaeril drew an image in his mind. He formed a plan and applied his imagination, inflated like a balloon. Binaeril kicked off the ground.
“Rise up, burst.”
Binaeril knew that he didn’t need to be constrained by fixed chants. Without any warning, the ground the Dire Wolf was stepping on suddenly rose up in a cylindrical shape. The monster, struck in its abdomen, rolled aside and let out a pained groan. It wasn’t far from the risen stone wall. Binaeril kicked off the ground and charged.
*Boom!*
The rumbling stone wall suddenly erupted with an explosion. Several fragments of the crumbling wall embedded themselves in the monster’s hide.
“Yowl!”
The Dire Wolf fell far away, letting out an unsightly groan. The creature’s groaning amid the chaotically shaking thickets allowed Binaeril to gauge its location.
Binaeril further strengthened his previous imagination and kicked the ground once more. The distance from the Dire Wolf was merely about fifteen meters. When a pile of rocks rose from the direction of its torn wound, the Dire Wolf tried to flee in the opposite direction. But that, too, was within Binaeril’s plan. The four legs it had planted were stuck in the ground, which had become a quagmire, and couldn’t be pulled out easily. It quickly pulled its front paws free, but it couldn’t avoid the next attack. The stone wall struck the creature once more, gouging its wound.
“Whimper!”
A more pitiful scream than before flowed from the creature’s mouth. The Dire Wolf had already lost its will to fight. Having pulled out even its hind legs, the creature tried to flee. But Binaeril had already reached the front of the monster. The Dire Wolf couldn’t even sense his presence due to the pain.
*How could you layer it like this! I can only manage about two more times now.*
‘I have to finish it with this attack.’
Hearing Veritas’s complaint, Binaeril broke off a nearby branch as he ran.
“Spear of Piercing Cold.”
He infused mana into it, creating an ice spearhead at the end of the branch. It seemed more certain to use his own physical strength. From the creature’s blind spot, he plunged it with all his might toward its wounded torso.
The Dire Wolf’s hide was already tattered from its wounds. The spear Binaeril had thrust pierced its flesh and stabbed straight into its organs. It lacked the length to completely penetrate through. But that alone was sufficient to finish it.
The Dire Wolf collapsed without even letting out a final death throe. When its massive body fell, a loud boom echoed.
Silbia, having received treatment from Rike and recovered her strength, watched the entire process of this one-sided hunt with admiration. From the start of the battle to the end, it hadn’t even taken two minutes. Binaeril’s judgment had been that swift.
*Hunt.* It wasn’t a desperate struggle or a close battle. It was a one-sided hunt.
Even after the Dire Wolf fell, the others couldn’t say anything. A silent, quiet state devoid of any victory cheers or anything else.
“Wow…….”
The exclamation quietly uttered by Gaspelt was drowned out by the wind rustling through the thickets.
“Phew….”
Binaeril relaxed his heightened body and mind. A cramp occurred in his calf, and pain came rushing in. He had fought a battle immediately after running here carrying Rike, so it would have been stranger if his stamina hadn’t bottomed out.
“Argh! It hurts!”
All the charisma from just moments ago was nowhere to be seen. Rike and Silbia approached Binaeril, who was rolling on the ground clutching his leg.
“What’s wrong!”
“It cramped! A cramp!”
Silbia grabbed his leg and bent his toes. She added a look of pity to accompany it.
Veritas’s giggling voice was heard. The muscle pain was one thing, but his mental strength was also on the verge of exhaustion. It was the aftermath of consecutively using compound magic in a short time. As his tension released, all the strength in his body drained away.
*Get up, Binaeril. You need to find the magic stone inside the wound you tore open.*
Magic stones weren’t common objects. Not all monsters held a magic stone inside them. It was a high-purity magic stone that could only be rarely obtained even by hunting high-grade monsters….
Binaeril forced himself up.
*I feel something.*
He focused on the sensation at his fingertips and pulled out something hard.
“Gasp!”
It was a clear, ink-colored magic stone, brilliant enough to be called luminous. He had a strong intuition that this was a high-grade item, on a completely different level from what could be found in small-sized monsters.
“What is this?”
“A magic stone!”
The two girls, who had been watching Binaeril’s actions in confusion, opened their mouths in surprise.
“A magic stone?”
Gaspelt, who had been hiding awkwardly, also approached upon hearing that.
“Hand it over!”
“Are you crazy?”
The two girls looked at Gaspelt with dumbfounded eyes. Gaspelt flinched for a moment but soon puffed out his chest and brazenly argued.
“I summoned this guy. You couldn’t have caught it without me. So that thing is mine.”
“What bullshit? While you weren’t any help and were sprawled out in the back, Binaeril caught it all by himself.”
“I-I could have caught it just fine even without his help!”
Silbia narrowed her eyes and sent him a look of contempt.
“You made a fuss begging for your life, and after someone actually helped you, what’s with this attitude?”
Rike also quietly nodded her head in agreement.
“I almost got hurt because of you. No, if Binaeril hadn’t helped, both you and I would have died. Are you still not coming to your senses?”
The sound of the three people arguing didn’t enter Binaeril’s ears at all.
Veritas was sending a powerful voice to Binaeril, who had discovered the magic stone.
*Give that to me.*
*Hand over the magic stone to me.*
‘Why? Why do you want it?’
*A magic stone is a mass of pure mana. If you hand it over to me, I can increase my mana.*
A magic stone in its natural state contained the ferocity of the monster as it was. It was a substance perfectly suited to corrupt the mind. That’s why after undergoing special processing…….
*That’s all bullshit. Hurry up and hand it over!*
It was an atmosphere different from the usual Veritas. Finally, he tried to take control of Binaeril’s body using his assimilated body.
‘Uh, uhhh?’
The magic stone was sucked toward Veritas, whom Binaeril had fastened at his waist.