The clearing was drowned in the sounds of snarling growls and ringing steel as Shirou continued to desperately battle against the massive black wolf in front of him.
Each time it lunged, he was forced to desperately dodge back or roll away. His few attempts at parrying a blow felt more like slamming his sword against a wall of moving stone rather than an animal.
The fur or the creature defied all common sense and turned away blow after blow despite still moving and acting like regular hair.
More terrifying than the creature's apparently invulnerable fur were the strength and speed it possessed. Every snap of its jaws shot forward like a massive steel bear trap and thundered shut loud enough to leave Shirous ears ringing. Even worse he was dodging those jaws by narrower and narrower margins.
Shirou was trying everything he could think of but no amount of refined swordsmanship or clever tricks were working.
Low strikes to the legs. Rolls to its side for a blow to the flank. Even trying to aim straight for the tendons on its legs. All of it did little more than earn him annoyed retaliatory blows that would send him skidding several meters back across the dirt.
At the rate things were going the only options Shirou had left to try were a strike to the monster's face, but it was hardly accommodating enough to let him try and land such a blow.
Its mouth was its main weapon and it seemed fully aware of how best to move and strike with it. Any attempt to even get close and land such a strike would be a death sentence for him.
The only other idea that he could come up with was trying to involve Nishka to help him, maybe using the spare amulet she had to let him land a covert strike, or allowing her to do the same. But such a plan didn't last long in Shirou's mind.
The very idea of asking someone else to put their life on the line for him filled his mind with vile revulsion and disgust. He couldn't ask someone else to risk their lives for his sake. Their own lives had far more value than his own did after all which made dealing with this threat something he would have to manage alone.
That left him right back where he started though, desperately and sloppily dodging a beast that would be able to kill him in a single blow when he finally faltered and made a mistake.
He knew all too well that he wouldn't be able to keep up his current pace for long, but as fate would have it the choice of what came next was taken from him.
Yet another pointless strike at the wolf's back leg earned Shirou a tail swipe in reply. For the first time in the brief fight the slow accumulation of injuries made themselves known and Shirou's ducking dodge came just a second too slowly.
The blow slammed into his unarmored chest like a log swung by a giant, lifting him straight off his feet and rocketing him back into one of the trees on the edge of the clearing.
XxXxXxXxXxXxX
The pain from the blow was the worst that Shirou had felt since the nightmare began. White hot barbs of agony tore through his chest and he felt his breaths become wet and grinding.
His patchwork memories were helpful enough to tell him that he had likely broken or perhaps even powdered a few of his ribs given how far he flew. On top of that the grinding and gurgling as he tried to breath likely meant something punctured a lung.
He coughed up a glob of red foam and an involuntary scream wrenched itself out of his throat as a detached part of his mind was working overtime to try and distract itself with anything he could see.
'Perhaps it's a side effect of adrenaline or maybe I'm going into shock? No couldn't be shock, not enough blood loss yet. Then again I've been bleeding this whole time haven't I? Shock might actually be it then.'
Shirou's vision wasn't going dark yet but it seemed that despite that he was still having trouble seeing. One of his eyes was seeing everything through a tinge of red and the other was filled with spots of black and white.
'Ah, I guess I hit my head on the tree then. Strange I didn't black out.' A glance down at his body showed the ragged and damaged underlayment of his armor was getting stained by a rapidly expanding patch of blood.
Already there were bruises forming from the tail swipe, adding themselves to the collection of cuts and gashes on Shirou's borrowed flesh. One part of his state almost made Shirou want to smirk, that is if he'd still had the energy. 'Looks like I didn't drop the sword at least. Not that it will help much though…'
Back in the clearing the great wolf was now still. Its eye looked over the crumpled form of Shirou against the tree with dangerously intelligent eyes for several moments before it began to slowly stalk over to him.
Shirou's vision cleared enough for him to make out the image of the black specter of death cautiously approaching him and let a smirk bloom under his helmet. 'And on top of everything else it's clever and cautious. Is this the effect of the [Distant] attribute then? I certainly feel the lack of love, but I don't see any fairness here.'
As the wolf was about to enter striking distance and no doubt finish Shirou off it was stopped as a melon sized stone sailed forward and crashed into its head. The stone broke uselessly against the beast's sturdy frame, but it still drew its attention away from Shirou and over to the one who threw the stone.
Standing against the edge of the clearing to the left of them was Nishka, another oversized stone held in her slender yet deceptively strong hands as she wound up for another throw.
Just like the last one the rock sailed through the air and smashed into the beast, this time sailing straight into the bone of its temple. Any hope of a wound was still dashed though and all it led to was an annoyed growl from the creature as it turned its head away from Shirou's prone form and looked to Nishka as she started shouting at it.
"That's right you overgrown mutt! I'm right here!" With that shout she pulled her pack off of her waist and threw it over to Shirou before she grabbed another stone and threw it once more at the monster.
From his place slumped against a tree Shirou could only look at the sight in front of him with dread. His mind began to go into a spiral of panic as he understood what she was trying to do which only got worse when her bag landed on his lap and he saw what was inside.
There in the bag was the extra and still unbroken Tamimat Aliaikhtifa. Rather than use it herself to run away and get to safety she had instead given it to him.
But that… that was wrong. Someone sacrificing themselves for him was something Shirou could absolutely never allow to happen. He couldn't remember why but he knew that he couldn't tolerate that.
The great beast looked down at Shirou for a moment longer before it turned and started slowly walking towards Nishka, weathering another thrown stone with no reaction as it tensed its muscles to give chase. There would be no chase though and Nishka instead kept throwing stones at it, not backing down and still trying to draw it away from Shirou's prone form.
The scene in front of him was setting Shirou's soul on fire even as his eyes stayed glued to it. The creatures' sedate pace and Nishka's apparent bravery were dragging things out but the inevitable outcome was still perfectly clear in Shirou's mind and no part of it could be allowed to happen.
Nishka was going to die…
She had given him a way to escape on his own…
She was going to die in order to let him live…
She valued her own life more than his life and was prepared to die to save him…
He was being saved by someone else…
Someone was dying for him…
Shirou felt his body almost convulsing at the thought of her dying for him. The idea of it was something he absolutely knew he could not allow to happen. So much so that despite the grizzly wounds on his body, or the way that his bones were grinding together when moved he clawed himself back up from the tree.
When he stumbled to his feet Shirou almost tumbled back into the dirt, but despite his body's wishes he planted his foot forward and took a step towards the wolf.
With another step he tightened his grip on his sword and drew a slow wet breath in through his lungs.
Another step flowed into an unsteady jog as Shirou clenched the blade in his hand and drew his arm back.
His jog picked up into a run as Nishka's back was pressed into a tree and her last stone futilely crashed against the wolves face.
And as the wolf finally drew back its lips and snapped its jaws at Nishka, Shirou was sprinting at the creature's head, blade drawn and arm outstretched.
XxXxXxXxXxXxX
Before the wolf's jaws could clamp on Nishka's head Shirou's arm shoved her forward and sacrificed itself to the monster's teeth. The wolf's jaws snapped down with all the horrifying strength Shirou feared they might have had, breaking bones and tearing flesh with no resistance.
The only thing that left the arm still attached was the fact the wolf's teeth were not formed to cut like knives but rather tear and rip and so scraps of meat and tendon held the arm together.
None of the nuances of canine dentistry mattered though. The pain flooding Shirou was enough to drown such simple thoughts as that entirely.
But the pain wasn't enough to stop his body from making use of the sacrifice his arm had earned him, or the fleeting moment of confusion on the wolf's face as it bit something unexpected.
Without a moment wasted Shirou chambered back his sword and thrust it straight into the monstrous wolf's eye.
A simple blinding strike would have surely meant the death of him and Nishka both. Even a slowly bleeding wound would have likely given enough time for the both of them to be torn to pieces by the monster in front of them. Instead, for the first time since his nightmare started a bit of luck graced Shirou.
The monster's eyes were indeed not as strong as its armor-like fur was and as Shirou's blade shot forward and pierced the grapefruit sized eye of the creature his blade continued on. By a stroke of luck earned with blood and pain the blade slid right into the gap of the optic nerve and pierced the creature's brain through the narrow opening in its mystically hardened skull.
The longsword ended up being pressed almost a meter into the creature's head before Shirou was unable to push it further. His hilt was nearly touching the beast's cheek by the end and the rest of his body was leaning against the still standing monster as well.
All of his own strength was completely spent after the last display and left him with nothing save for an iron clad instinct to keep hold of his sword.
The wolf meanwhile was strangely still, only small twitches across its body signalling it wasn't frozen like a true stature. As Shirou's strength failed him though and he slumped down on his still embedded blade the motion of the sword through its brain broke whatever equilibrium was holding the creature up.
It crumpled to its side like a marionette with its strings cut, limbs still twitching but now entirely uncoordinated. Shirou was dragged down by his still trapped arm and embedded blade until he landed on top of the clearly dead wolf, a cry of agony leaving his lips as his mangled arm was further brutalized.
Through the haze of pain and blood loss clouding his vision, Shirou heard the sound of the spell chime in front of him and saw runes light up in front of his eyes.
[You have slain an Awakened Demon, Adolescent Guardian Wolf]
[You have received a memory…]
Shirou didn't see anything more as his eyes began to close and the siren call of unconsciousness claimed him.
XxXxXxXxXxXxX
Shirou slept a brief and dreamless sleep. It honestly was inappropriate to call such a trauma induced unconsciousness sleep in the first place but even with that in mind he still did not stay deeply unconscious.
As he was drifting in and out of unconsciousness he saw flashes of movement above him, and even felt his body being shifted around. He winced as his mangled arm was moved about and his bruised ribs were jostled but after the initial flashes of pain his entire body felt better.
By the time his eyes opened up properly Shirou was laid out on the ground next to the creature that had nearly killed him.
The night sky above was still black so guessing the time of anything was rather difficult but it can't have been too long since dawn hadn't arrived yet. Or it was somehow so late that a new night had set in.
As Shirou moved he realized that the pain his body should have been feeling was nowhere near as bad as it should have been. His ribs were now aching rather than burning, and even his breaths were coming to him without any trouble. The most shocking thing though was the sight of his left arm, still attached to his body and slung onto him by an improvised sling.
The wounds that should have been twisted and gushing blood were instead replaced by pristine skin. And even more impressive still was the fact that as he twitched his fingers his arm still managed to respond to him. The sight of it almost made him think that he had imagined everything that happened prior, but the body of the beast next to him banished that thought entirely.
Which meant the only possible answer to how he was so miraculously healed was the girl slumped across his legs asleep. Nishka was laid out and resting with her eyebrows scrunched up in a sleeping frown, no doubt dreaming something unpleasant.
Considering how thorough his healing had been Shirou was pretty confident that it was something magic in nature and seemed to have taken a lot of her energy to perform.
He wanted to try and give her as much time as possible to keep sleeping and recover but as his senses returned to him and his thoughts started flowing again he realized the danger they were in staying here. Especially next to so many dead carcases. If there were any scavengers, they would surely be heading here soon.
Shirou gently sat up and shook Nishka's shoulder. "Nishka, wake up. We need to get moving as soon as we can."
The sleeping girl barely opened her eyes as Shirou shook her, her eyelids barely lifting as she looked at him while a trickle of blood ran out her nose. "Ozen… you're ok. Good… I don't want… to lose you…" Her moment of wakefulness was brief before her eyes closed again and she drifted back to sleep, unresponsive even as Shirou shook her more.
He took a moment to look her over and finally noticed that her face was pale as a ghost and when he placed a hand on her forehead he could feel she was running a fever. It seemed like his guess about the toll of whatever she did was on the mark. She had definitely done something extreme to herself if it was taking so much out of her that she was left nearly catatonic.
Not seeing any reason to keep trying to wake her, and knowing that she wouldn't be walking in her condition Shirou decided to focus more on getting ready to leave in the direction Nishka had first come from. He would have preferred to find somewhere to stay the night but given what kind of beasts were around here it was clear that staying put was a mistake.
Shirou propped Nishka up against the still warm corpse of the adolescent wolf and made his way through the clearing, taking a moment to collect his armor and loosely clasping it on himself. Given the damage done he was hopeful that repairs wouldn't be too hard once he had a chance to rejoin the refugees.
Beyond that there wasn't anything of value he could find for the time being here. There was a bevy of valuable meat and pelts to be had and honestly Shirou wanted to take some time to break down the corpse of the [Awakened Demon] he had slain.
Its bones were no doubt quite useful not to mention its meat and hide. Sadly he couldn't waste that much time on it now, nor did he have a way to carry everything.
With a look of regret he turned away from the beast and instead focused on the last thing he could think of before heading out, namely figuring out a good way to carry Nishka out of here.
Given she was unconscious the options he had were rather limited.
A princess carry might be the most perfect storybook option but it wouldn't work out for any kind of distance. There was also the option of carrying her on his back but if she wasn't awake he would need to tie her arms around him.
There was a third option though which his mind was telling him would be the most logical choice in this scenario.
The only problem with it was that it was perhaps the least dignified of the three. But on the other hand they were in a survival scenario… and it's not like there was anyone around to be embarrassed about it. Surely she wouldn't be upset about this right?
XxXxXxXxXxXxX
Nishka felt her consciousness start slowly returning to her. She was still disoriented from the strain of pushing her Ȁ̵̱̀ŗ̸̔t̶͔̎s̴̢̊̓ past their limit as she had but it seemed her body and most importantly her brain were beginning to function again.
It would take the medics from the caravan to tell her if she would ever fully recover from what she had just done but at the least it seemed like she didn't suffer a stroke or a fatal aneurysm. As far as she could tell she seemed to be recovering rather well and things with her body felt all right.
Then again, as her sense of balance fought back against her exhaustion to make itself known she did find everything around her was moving and shaking. Not to mention it was all upside down.
As she blinked her eyes clear and regained her bearings she realized that she was being carried through the forest, and if the back and glutes in her face were any indicator it was Ozen doing the carrying.
For one fleeting moment Nishka let her inner princess turned ruler squeal with joy at the thought of her personal prince charming carrying her away to safety. She'd had that fantasy before of him holding her in his arms and whisking her away from all the troubles she faced a number of times.
But that image was ruined once she realized that she was slung over his shoulder like a limp sack of potatoes as he hiked them through the now sunlit woods. The image of it in her mind was enough to make her want to bury her head in her hands in shame only she couldn't considering one of her hands was being held by Ozen as and used as a strap to hold her on his shoulder.
Nishka continued to wallow in the indignity of it all as Ozen kept walking until her mind finally recognized the fact that if she was being held like this that meant that Ozen's face was right next to her…
Her eyes went wide and a blush red enough that it banished all her sickly paleness erupted across her face. "Ozen. OZEN! I… I am awake and I can walk now! So please put me down!"
XxXxXxXxXxXxX
Shirou was happy and relieved when he felt Nishka begin to wake up, and although he was a bit concerned that they still needed to get moving to at least find a safe space he was willing to listen to Nishka's request. She may well need to stretch her legs to start feeling better after all, not to mention carrying someone even as light as her was starting to exhaust him.
After setting the very red faced girl down and studying her as she collected herself Shirou smiled. "I'm glad to see you're looking better Nishka. You were pale as a ghost and burning up. I'd been afraid you were getting sick, and when I saw your nose bleed I feared the worst."
Nishka patted down her blood stained robes and collected herself before coughing and looking to the side, hiding her face as she licked a finger and whipped away the blood
"Yes well, I could hardly let you succumb to your wounds like that. I would say that was the worst bit of Ȁ̵̱̀ŗ̸̔t̶͔̎s̴̢̊̓ feedback I've ever felt though. Then again that was also the first time I've pushed my Ȁ̵̱̀ŗ̸̔t̶͔̎s̴̢̊̓ that severely. Normally I work on very small inanimate objects or only adjust someone's time by a second or two. I've never tried to push back several minutes like that, especially not on a whole person."
After she cleaned herself off and turned back around Nishka gave Shirou a reassuring smile "All the same, I think I'll avoid rolling the dice like that anytime soon. I don't want to leave myself crippled if I end up burning my brain out next time. Now let's get going, I know the way back so I'll take the lead."
Shirou nodded and, seeing that Nishka was moving without a major issue, decided not to make any issue out of it. There was one thing he wanted to ensure before they continued on though. "All right then, I won't press you any more, but just to help keep you safe go ahead and put this on." Shirou tossed Nishka the still functioning amulet and then reached behind his back and manifested the memory he had received earlier.
Memory: [Guardian's Mantle]
Memory Rank: [Awakened]
Memory Tier: [3]
Memory Description: ["Where two worlds meet great beasts roam. Among their number some were chosen by the gods to serve as bulwarks against the consequences of a terrible sin. These beasts were made to hunt those who must not be, growing stronger as they age. Despite their gifted strength, the absentee gods care little for these creatures, and do not answer their prayers."]
The memory itself was rather simple in design, being a large traveling cloak with a thick hood and well tailored sleeves. The whole thing seemed to be made of the same material as the wolf's own armored fur had been and yet despite that it was not too thick or warm to wear.
The coat only had a single enchantment attached to it, named [Enhanced Durability] which seemed to make the coat stronger and harder to damage. So whatever qualities made it comfortable to wear seemed to be the result of its mystical origins.
As Shirou pulled out the coat from his back and threw it on over his armor, Nishka got the amulet clasped around her neck. As soon as the clasp of the necklace clicked closed around her Nishka vanished from Shirou's sight.
For a moment Shirou was worried that he may have made a mistake giving his guide that artifact if he would be unable to see her but soon she reappeared in front of him, grabbing him by his now cloak covered shoulders. "Ozen! Where in the world did you manage to get this! It's so comfy~!" Nishka ran her hands over the mantle with a massive smile on her face as she rubbed the fur.
It seemed like that amulet lived up to its name but could be circumvented by contact. That revelation almost made him consider holding her hand as they walked to try and extend the protection of it, but something told him that it wouldn't actually hide more people. Hand holding would let him still see her though…
"Ah, it was nothing much. I collected that from the wolf after I woke up. It was a shame to let it go to waste after all." Shirou easily spun that lie hoping that Nishka wouldn't poke the obvious holes through it but still more concerned that they were properly protected. That mantle should be enough to ensure he was protected if something came up, and from what he just saw of the amulet's effects he was confident she would be safe. "That aside, seeing that amulet from the other side is eerie. You actually disappeared just now when you put it on. We might have to hold hands the rest of the way if you keep wearing that."
Nishka stopped her inspection of the mantle at the mention of hand holding and turned back towards Shirou with stars in her eyes. Rather than immediately say yes though she cleared her throat and shrugged. "Well it is rather scandalous for a Padishah to be holding hands with her bodyguard but suppose if you can't see me we don't really have any other choice then. Indeed the only way is for you to hold my hand as we hike through these woods."
She closed her eyes with a smile on her face, confident that she had managed to perfectly maintain her dignity while also getting a golden opportunity to hold Ozen's hand for many hours. It was a hard thing balancing a crush on someone with her own noble dignity but her show of reluctance was no doubt perfect.
As she was thinking about how clever she was Nishka felt a bit of rope land in her free hand.
She blinked her eyes in confusion and saw Shirou now standing a few steps away holding the other end of his improvised rope. "Oh! Splendid. It looks like that works as well. Isn't this great Nishka, now you can lead the way and won't have to worry about anything improper."
The girl looked at the rope held in her hand and back to the helmeted visage of her guard. The eyes she saw through his helmet visor were pressed shut by a wide smile, clearly happy at his own cleverness.
Her own eyes scrunched down into a frown as she looked at the rope in her hands like a treacherous snake. She grumbled some muffled words of self recriminating and whispers of stupid boys before she turned around and walked away.
If anyone else had happened to follow the pair though the woods and saw her repeatedly tugging the rope as hard as she could, she would have told them they were imagining things.