On the chaotic battlefield, Hulim locked eyes with the Forest Direwolf in the distance.
The beast stood tall and proud, as if convinced of Hulim’s inevitable death, its gaze once again full of arrogance.
“…Isn’t the breakthrough right here?”
From an outsider’s perspective, Hulim’s idea might seem insane. After all, that was the Forest Direwolf, a creature at the peak of C-rank! Ordinary people wouldn’t even dare to challenge it.
In fact, Hulim herself hadn’t planned on confronting the Forest Direwolf directly at first. When she saw it hold back, she’d actually breathed a sigh of relief. But now, if forced to choose between the wolf pack and the Forest Direwolf, she would pick the latter without hesitation…
“Huu—!”
Taking a deep breath, Hulim steadied herself. Seizing the moment while the wolf pack, caught up in their hunting rhythm, let their guard down, she launched her magic in a certain direction.
The wolves “guarding” the Goblin Lord tensed for a moment, but seeing that the magic wasn’t flying their way, they relaxed again.
But then, a furious roar echoed through the air.
“Awooooo——!!!”
The wolf pack froze, and the entire forest fell into a strange, eerie silence.
All eyes locked onto the owner of that furious roar—the Forest Direwolf leading the pack.
But unlike before, its body was now scorched black, with a large patch of burnt fur.
Because it hadn’t been on guard, by the time it saw the blazing fireball flying toward it, it was already too late to dodge. It took the full brunt of the fireball’s impact.
And due to its weakness to fire, its appearance was even more wretched than the Goblin Lord, who’d also taken a fireball to the face.
“ROAR——!!!”
Feeling the cool air on its now-exposed head, the Forest Direwolf let out an enraged roar at Hulim.
Yet Hulim thought it wasn’t angry enough, not fully driven mad yet, so she opened her mouth and launched a verbal barrage.
“What’s wrong, angry? Baldy Wolf? Look at yourself, do you call that a Wolf King? All you do is hide in the back and shout, and you can’t even dodge a single fireball! Did you swindle your way to the Wolf King’s throne with your big mouth?! Nyeh nyeh nyeh~! Baldy Wolf! Trash! Small fry! Even a dog could do a better job than you as the Wolf King…”
The Forest Direwolf suddenly realized that sometimes, being too smart wasn’t a good thing. Because you could actually understand the insults being hurled at you. The other wolves might not be very clever—they could only tell they were being insulted, but not grasp the details, so they wouldn’t get this angry.
Of course, the most infuriating thing was, it couldn’t speak back!
Assaulted by Hulim’s tirade, the Forest Direwolf was left reeling, its rage rising rapidly until it was on the verge of losing control.
“ROAR——!!!”
When had the Forest Direwolf ever been subjected to such provocation!
It roared furiously at Hulim, then, like a hurricane, charged toward her. It would kill her itself—kill this insolent wretch who dared insult it!
“…I just tried copying how Fran usually insults people, but I didn’t expect it to work this well. It’s really furious now…”
The Forest Direwolf was incredibly fast—it could cross the distance between them in the blink of an eye. So as it lunged, Hulim immediately began chanting a spell…
“Awoo!”
“Awooo!!”
“Awooo…”
With the Wolf King leading the charge, the whole wolf pack grew wildly excited, following in its wake. Wherever the Wolf King ran, more wolves joined in.
“ROAR——!”
The Forest Direwolf leapt into the air, its enormous maw capable of swallowing an adult whole, opening wide as it lunged for Hulim.
And at that moment, Hulim unleashed her spell.
“Stone Lance!”
A massive spear of rock shot out from the ground, thrusting straight toward the Forest Direwolf’s open jaws.
She had expected the strike to pierce its throat, but the Forest Direwolf, twisting violently midair, snapped its jaws shut, shattering the stone lance with its teeth.
After crushing the lance, it landed, braced itself, and launched its huge body at Hulim again, its gleaming claws targeting her directly.
“Water Leap!”
Hulim cast magic at her feet, and a surging wave appeared beneath her, lifting her into the air and swiftly propelling her backward.
Bang!
The Forest Direwolf’s pounce missed, landing where Hulim had just been. The ground shook from the force of its landing.
“Pfft—!”
The Forest Direwolf spat out a mouthful of stone fragments, its huge eyes glaring intently at Hulim.
“ROAR!”
“ROAR!”
“Roar…”
Meanwhile, the wolf pack surged past it, attacking Hulim from all directions.
Hulim immediately dispelled the Water Leap and quickly chanted a new spell.
“Ring of Repulsion!” BOOM——!
A massive ring of fire erupted, expanding outward from Hulim and instantly blasting away and igniting seven or eight wolves.
Yet as the ring continued to expand, a gigantic head thrust forward, mouth gaping wide to bite down on the fire ring.
BAM!
The ring, made entirely of flames, was actually bitten apart, and the ring wavered before collapsing in on itself.
“Ooo——!”
The Forest Direwolf exhaled a puff of white smoke, its lips still singed in places.
Boom!
Its massive body sprang forward again, soaring above Hulim’s head. This time, remembering its earlier mistake, it didn’t try to bite, but instead slashed downward with its deadly claws.
So fast that only afterimages remained in the air.
“Stone Barrier!”
Hulim hastily cast a barrier spell, and a wall of stone rose up to block the Forest Direwolf’s strike.
But…
BOOM——!
The moment claw met stone, the barrier was smashed apart, and the gigantic claw—thicker than Hulim herself—continued forward, slamming into her.
BANG——!
Hulim’s body was sent flying, crashing through two wooden goblin houses before finally coming to a stop.
“Ugh! Cough, cough…”
Blood seeped from the corner of her mouth. Using her staff for support, Hulim struggled to her feet.
She wiped the blood from her lips, then glanced at the faint white glow around her body—likely the worst injury she’d suffered since today began…
“【ᛃᛒᚺᛏבᛤᛜᛈᚠᛞᛃᛡᚪᛚᛏᛗᚠᚺᛜᛖᛄᚠᚳᛜᛓᚠᛃᛖᛚᛜᛖᚢᛋᛜᚪᚠᛖהᛤ】”
“Fortify.”
She recast the third-tier attribute-less defensive magic, using the pause to pull herself together.
About thirty percent of her mana remained…
She’d have to conserve it and finish this quickly!
Thinking this, Hulim calmly activated another spell.
“【ᚪᛒᛜᚻᛏᛋᛡᛓᚠᚢᛒᚳᛓᛖᛜᛃᚾᚪᛜᛚᚲᛜᛓᚠᛏᚱוᚠᛃᛖᛜᛃᛓᚾיᛃᛗᛞᛜᛖᚪᛏᛗᛜᛃᛄᛚᛜᚾᚠᛃᛈᛏ】”
Crack! Crack! A greatsword of condensed ice appeared before Hulim, falling to the ground and stabbing into the earth at her feet.
Third-tier ice magic—Weapon Construction!
Then, Hulim released her tightly gripped staff, slinging it back over her shoulder. Taking a deep breath, she gripped the hilt of the icy sword, and with the power granted by Strengthen and Warcry, she easily drew it from the ground.
“Strengthen ready, Warcry ready, Lightness ready, Fortify ready…”
Strength, speed, and defense—she had them all.
So…
“If you like close combat so much, then let’s settle this up close—!”
…