Teia ran. Though she bore the weight of tens of thousands of lives, she paid it no mind and ran for herself. Teia was a myth in racing history, where even stepping on her shadow was praised as an achievement. As if the plains of Ende were too narrow, she surged forward, leaving all the world's scenery rushing past behind her.
But her opponent was the king of beasts. The sound of paws striking the ground desperately closed the distance with Teia. She could almost feel hot breath on the back of her neck.
Teia knew not through sensation but through instinct. Though she was being caught up to, the gap was not growing any wider.
Was Fenrir, trying to catch the Teia who wrote the myth of racing history, truly remarkable? Or was Teia, a mere human trying to flee from the king of beasts, the extraordinary one?
Both were certainly remarkable, but Teia and Fenrir ran without caring for others' evaluations. To survive. To kill.
There was no one ahead. A fierce presence chased from behind. The goal was nowhere in sight. In contrast, the pressure gradually closed in.
Is this the fear of the one who runs at the very front? Teia finally understood why racers disliked running in the lead. Fleeing from an unseen opponent while enduring that pressure was that difficult.
However, there are times when even difficult things must be done.
For the first time in her life, Teia 'fled.'
"Oh, they're coming! The wolves are swarming in!"
The guard dogs who felt the rumbling of paws cried out. The beastmen who had been haphazardly scattering bear traps that wouldn't even work quickly assembled. In their eyes, tense and aiming their spears, an unfamiliar scene unfolded.
"My god..."
Two figures running, churning up clouds of dust. Teia, galloping with clenched teeth, and the wolf king fiercely pursuing her came into view. Objectively, the distance between the two was quite far, but their running speed was so fast that they appeared to be practically on top of each other. Distance is relative; to those two, it was probably mere inches apart.
Seeing the fierce aura trailing behind Teia, the guard dogs murmured.
"Is that... the wolf king?"
And a little later, hundreds of wolves appeared over the ridge, following their king.
Wolves form packs. But without a political system in place, their numbers cannot exceed a certain level. Social issues like hierarchy and food increase exponentially, and a mere beast cannot solve all those problems.
That should be the case, but the number of wolves gathered under the powerful force of the beast king was truly appalling.
The wolves that had run following their king fiercely barked, exuding wildness. Perhaps because they were the king's pack, each one was large and fast. The wolf pack advanced at a speed comparable to cavalry, howling fiercely.
[Awoooooo--.]
[Awoooo--.]
Howling gradually spread throughout the surroundings. Not just the king's pack, but the wolves that had been prowling around our encampment all approached at once. The Obeli guard dogs, frightened by the sudden increase in wolves, cried out.
"The wolves are swarming in! There are too many of them! We need to retreat for now...!"
The guard dog who was about to attempt a belated retreat looked back and was terrified.
"They're coming from behind too!"
"What, from behind?"
"The wolves flanked us?"
From the other direction as well, hundreds of beasts were fiercely charging, pounding the ground. It was hard enough just to flee, but now they were surrounded. If they stayed like this, there would only be death.
A situation besieged on all sides. The Obeli guard dogs cried out desperately.
"Magician, Kito! Don't you have some way?!"
They're coming. But before that.
I waved the flag vigorously. This place was the finish line. Everything would begin once Teia arrived here.
Having found the finish line, Teia gritted her teeth and gave her final spurt.
She had run at full power from start to finish. Teia's legs, having reached their limits, were trembling. However, having reached the extreme attainable by a human body and human qi channels, she barely shook off the wolf king and thrust herself forward.
"She's arrived!"
Thud. Teia, having reached the finish line, staggered. Almost collapsing from the relief of victory, she gritted her teeth and took one more step. Slowing down slightly, she panted heavily and looked back.
"Fenrir?!"
The fact that this was the finish line was something we decided among ourselves. The wolf had no obligation to comply. Worried that the wolf might follow her all the way to the end, she tracked it with her eyes... but the wolf king had stopped well before her.
The wolf king had an appearance as if Aji had been dipped in different dye and pulled out. The facial features, the shape of the fur, the build were all exactly the same as Aji. The only differences were the fur color and the aura. The wolf king, which had been running while exuding a vicious energy, had stopped its steps and was staring intently beyond us.
Teia panted and spoke.
"Where... are you looking?"
Her other half, I suppose. I followed the wolf king's gaze and looked at the pack of beasts approaching from behind us.
"Woof! Woof!"
"Arf!"
"Grrrr!"
Movements that seemed less coordinated than the wolves. Curiously varied appearances. But beasts united by a single will were running in a pack.
And the king of dogs, Aji, was leading that pack from the forefront.
"Those are Matthew's fluffy dogs, aren't they? Not wolves... but dogs?"
You figured it out. What's coming from behind us aren't wolves. They're reinforcements.
Ende is a city of beastmen. But beastmen also eat meat and raise animals. Just as some beastmen raise pigs for meat, many beastmen raise dogs. And in Ende, where thievery was also free, most of the dogs raised were guard dogs protecting homes and property.
The beasts that were insufficient to be treated as full military force due to their inability to execute tactics, Aji had commanded with the power of a king and led them running.
"Awooooo!"
Aji ran on four legs. Just as the wolf king had chased to kill Teia, Aji had sensed that killing intent and ran to save her. That speed was the same as the wolf king's.
Aji's fierce aura was not manifested toward humans. It could be manifested toward non-human things, but as the king of dogs with a gentle nature, it usually did not appear.
"Wolf...!"
But if that opponent was the mortal enemy and the embodiment of wildness itself—the wolf king. Aji too would fight, enveloped in fierce aura.
Click. Clack. A crown formed on Aji's head. With its mortal enemy before it, Aji was now fighting the wolf on behalf of all dogs.
And so was the wolf king.
"Dog...!"
Flames flickered in the wolf king's eyes. Looking at its other half that was more hateful than humans, it fully revealed its fierce aura. Click, a crack formed a handspan above its head, and a crown began to grow on the wolf king as well.
Likewise, a half-crown that looked as if it had been detached from Aji's crown.
"Awoooooooooo----!!"
The wolf king also changed its target. The beast king that had been running toward humans now howled in place of wolves. The world trembled, hearing the wolf's wrath.
It was enough to make even fellow wolves hesitate in fear. Some dogs collapsed from the very momentum they had been running with, but Aji, with fire in its eyes, charged even faster.
And at the final moment, Aji, having become a brown bullet, tangled with the wolf king.
Thump, thump, thump. The two beasts rolled dozens of times across the ground. Pinning the opponent down with front paws bearing extended claws, aiming for the throat with sharp fangs. Amid the blood-splattered, bruise-forming fight, the two beasts exchanged dozens of attacks before rolling even twice. And at the end, as they both tried to bite each other's throats, they collided head to head.
The half-crowns clashed. Shockwaves spread out like black branches. Compared to the tremendous force, a girl's body was too light. The two beast kings were bounced away in opposite directions.
Aji's body tumbled and rolled, pushed all the way to near me. Covered in dust, Aji stood up abruptly with a disheveled appearance. In contrast, the wolf king quickly steadied its stance and charged.
Sensing danger, Aji's fur stood on end. It looked a bit desperate.
"Aji. Take it easy. You don't need to win alone."
"Woof!"
Aji barked vigorously and leapt out again. Whether it heard my words or not, it gritted its teeth and charged at the wolf king.
However, perhaps because it was too easy to read. The wolf king, which had been staring intently at Aji, slammed its front paw down in a single stroke. Boom. The wolf's paw struck Aji's crown precisely. Aji's body was driven into the ground, and dust flew up on both sides, seemingly showing the impact Aji had received indirectly.
"A...woooo!"
However, even as Aji was slammed into the ground, it burst upward and pounced on the wolf king. Dragging the fight back into a dogfight, Aji relentlessly pressed the wolf king while continuously taking wounds.
"The dog king is being pushed back...!"
"Being pushed back is one thing, but right now Aji is focusing on protecting us."
Even while taking injuries from the wolf, Aji tried to distance itself from the humans as much as possible. Because it started a fight in the midst of the wolves, the wolves' momentum faltered slightly. During that time, Ende's dogs and the Obeli guard dogs joined forces to fight against the wolves. The wolves' momentum was terrifying, but the alliance of dogs and humans blocked the attacks much more solidly.
Dogs and wolves were originally the same species. Then, due to some occasion, they split into two. Dogs friendly to humans, wolves dangerous to humans.
But dogs can also bite humans, and wolves can also share affection with humans. The two were originally one. There is no beast that unconditionally obeys humans or unconditionally opposes them. Beasts are not phenomena.
That should be the case.
"Someone artificially divided dogs and wolves."
Driving wildness into 'wolves,' and domesticity into 'dogs.' Using the characteristic of having split from a single branch, they made the two beasts into phenomena rather than 'species.'
So the two are the same but exact opposites. Becoming ferocious wolves and tamed dogs, they were destined to fight to kill the other.
"The only one who could do such a thing is... but that's a thought for later."
The front line was being pushed back. Dogs bitten by wolves were emerging one after another. The Obeli guard dogs tried to help by thrusting their spears each time, but the wolves exploited the gaps in the broken formation, rushing in and violently biting and clawing at the Obeli guard dogs.
"Agh! My arm! My arm!"
"Throw the nets!"
Somehow maintaining a standoff while inflicting damage on each other, but even this would end if the pack led by the wolf king charged. A situation hanging by a thread.
It was then. Forces appeared on both flanks. From the direction of Ende, the main beastman force led by Obelisk, and from the opposite side, the warriors of the beast faction led by Grull approached.
"Magician, you madman! Who did you use as bait without my permission?!"
"Hmph. It wasn't a tactic, but it's become an encirclement. Now! Warriors! Charge before the blood cools!"
Sapien, who had weathered the offensive, and Grull, who had regrouped their forces, were also approaching. The same must be true for the humans on the wolves' side.
This was the battlefield. The situation was set.
I looked far off, at the sky where someone was hiding, and shouted.
"Shea! Now, do it!"
Even the undependable regressor's plan was something I had to rely on for now. Go ahead and give it a try.