The way Tatiana's voice trembled gave me goosebumps as I started sweating.
I could feel myself trembling, too; I couldn't pass her words as a simple joke or anything.
No, there's no chance Tatiana would even joke about something like that. She's not the type of person to, so...
What was Tatiana was telling me to run about?
Taking Elric's sense of preservation, I immediately ran in front of Tatiana in my attempt to defend her but I couldn't stop my legs from shaking just from the sheer pressure of it all.
What could be even out in this forest? This forest is way too near to this kingdom for monsters to even step foot on; there are no monsters foolish enough to do so after all.
Beyond the dark trees and shrubs, Tatiana and I saw a massive ominous silhouette
Branches snapped, each describing the weight of this thing, and the rustling of the leaves was enough to send shivers down my spine.
The snarl.
The menacing growls as it stepped out on the light of the morning.
No monster should be stupid enough to hunt, especially in the dead of daylight.
I can feel Tatiana's grip on my polo as if she wanted me to run away but she couldn't say in words.
And it finally stepped out.
A massive wolf with silver fur with stripes of grey tainted by blood seemingly from the many arrows on its back, sharp golden eyes staring at us like we're its meals, sharp claws that could easily tear our limbs apart — its mouth with sharp fangs, drooling like a hungry animal.
And I couldn't be any more correct with my assumption.
Hadn't it been for my breath, I would've been a mess right now from the pressure this creature's presence brings along.
"Tatiana. This is an order." I uttered with sweat dripping from my forehead because what I was about to do might be a death sentence as well.
But I—
No, my pride as a knight cannot let a civilian be in harm's way no matter what.
Even if my survival instincts are telling me to make a run for it, my soul cannot.
I don't have a weapon, nor have we brought anything to harm this wolf aside from simple necessities since I don't intend to practice my sword skills at this time.
How foolish of me.
"B-but... Y-y-young Master! I ca—" I cut her off before she can finish that sentence.
"Don't be stupid right now!" Tatiana looked shocked that I yelled, but there was no time for that; even if it was out of character for Elric, I could not back down on my word.
"Run. Run as fast you can, look for help immediately and I'll stall." This isn't too reassuring coming from the likes of Elric but I'm determined regardless.
Tatiana wanted to object at all costs; clearly, her desire for me to not be in harm's way is making her hesitant.
"Look... we'll both die here if we both stay, someone has to call for help." I added. "You know that one of us has the best stamina and that one isn't me."
I know Tatiana doesn't have the guts to do it and leave her beloved young master but do we even have a choice at this point?
We'll both be a meal for that wolf if no one calls for help.
So even though the sheer thought of leaving her Young Master was a huge blow, this is basically the equivalent of killing him.
That moment only lasted for at least 2 minutes before the wolf ran towards us at frightening speed and pounced.
I was able to push Tatiana from the side but not without receiving a graze on my left cheek.
This damn thing.
"Tatiana! There's no time!" I yelled before pushing her again as I rolled to the right side of the ground to dodge an attack from the wolf intending to slash us both with its claws.
With bitter resolve, Tatiana managed to stand up and make a run for it towards the path where we came from.
The wolf intended to follow her, but I tossed a rock on one of its wounds, not exactly precise, but still enough to catch its attention.
Catching its attention, I did as it immediately, with that frightening speed again, dashed towards me.
This time, I wasn't so lucky as one of its claws managed to completely wound my left arm as I dodged putting it out of commission early.
Holding it with my right arm, I couldn't bear to scream as I bit my lower lip to hold it down.
The sheer pain from this alone is extremely unbearable to Elric's body.
The wolf kept snarling as if questioning how a pesky human like me was still alive.
With Tatiana gone, I can utilize one thing that may help me at this very moment.
But even the luxury of properly calling it wasn't given to me as the wolf attacked once more attempting to bite my head off as it lunged towards me.
But before it could even do that, I simply slid on the ground.
Although Elric's body wasn't pleased by that action I could immediately feel the strain on my legs.
Even with my experience as a knight, I'm still at a disadvantage.
But if there's anything I know that's to my advantage is that this wolf is already desperate.
Wounded meaning it was chased and hunted down by people.
Drooling clearly meant it hasn't eaten anything and the fact that it's out here in the daylight is an obvious sign if I ever saw one.
But I wouldn't last that long either.
With my left arm limp and wounded, my choices were limited, and I couldn't even use my techniques properly.
The wolf immediately regained its composure before launching another attack on me.
But before it could even do that, I gathered the surrounding mana around me — in addition to the fact that I'm in a forest, so more natural mana can flow, I can absorb them better now.
Using this burst of mana, although foolish, I made it burst within my proximity causing me to be launched away from the wolf's path.
However, it resulted in me getting sent my back flying toward a tree.
Added to the impact from the explosion and from the tree, I coughed a few times before trying to catch my breath as I knelt on the ground.
I wouldn't even dare myself to do that again.
But from the looks of it, the wolf was already exhausted from dashing here and there to catch one human prey.
This wolf got the advantage over me because of that stupid stunt I just performed.
What else can I do to buy more time? It's not like Tatiana would be able to find someone just from this very little amount of time.
I can't even fight back even if I want to; should I use my techniques, then that'll compromise my safety.
With premature mana roots like this, forcing the use of more of it might damage the mana veins that are currently in the state of repair.
Is there something I can use around here?
As much as I wanted to grab that wolf's arrow—
It seemed impossible right now as I dodged one of its lunged attacks by a thread of hair, thankfully slower thanks to its exhaustion.
But I don't have any juice left in me either.
Just moving along in this body is extremely difficult and I shouldn't be even able to stay conscious right now.
Maybe it's the adrenaline that's kicking in keeping me awake in this encounter.
If you'd ask me this is the longest 3 minutes of my entire life.
I should've considered taking the vials Tatiana prepared, and sure, there's still some in the baggage, but who am I kidding?
I barely have enough strength and stamina to dodge the next attack, and that wolf knows it; I should've considered it before engaging in a stupid fight with this dying mutt.
This couldn't be the end of the line for me already!?
The wolf did its final lunge, roaring as it finally had the chance to devour my head off completely; it earned its reward as I closed my eyes, bracing myself for my imminent death.
But nothing came.
Aside from the sound of the wolf suddenly dropping dead on the ground.
And looking at it, the bastard was cut in half. There was no sound before that, the wolf was simply cut in half.
Shifting my gaze to my left, I saw a man or a woman. Wearing the black variant uniform of the Academy sheathing back a blade that shined like the moonlight.
I couldn't make out their facial features due to my body finally relaxing now that the beast had been slain; my vision blurred even— all I saw was the midnight hair flowing.
As I fell down on my knees, I saw them walking towards me and before I knew it...
"I can't have you dying yet, Dear Elric." A garbled voice said I'm not sure if it's a woman's or a man's.
What the hell do they even mean by that?
...
"Young Master... please wake up..." That voice, Tatiana?
I groaned with my head aching, reaching to squeeze it with my hand as I slowly regained my consciousness.
Tatiana hugged me tightly as if I was gonna go away; looking at the sky, it seemed that I'd been unconscious for quite a while; it was already afternoon.
And apparently, I'm in a carriage being guarded by what seems to be the kingdom's patrol. It seems that Tatiana succeeded in calling for help.
In addition to that, she was crying a lot as she buried my head on her shoulder, begging for forgiveness as she wouldn't do anything like this ever again.
She thought I was dead by then already but she's thankful I survived.
I had to reassure her that I wouldn't put it against her as we simply had no choice in the matter since it was a do-or-die.
After settling down after a while, I asked her a question, "By the way... what happened to that wolf?" Wondering if that person waited for them to rescue me before taking the corpse by themselves.
Tatiana looked at me straight before replying, "The corpse of the wolf wasn't there... it's as if there's no trace of the wolf there to begin with."
How exactly am I gonna believe that?
I fought that wolf for 3 minutes, well, more like dodged its attacks and stalled so Tatiana could call for rescue.
"All we saw was you unconscious near our belongings and nothing else..." She added in a tone that sounded like she didn't wanna remember seeing me in such a state again.
"Is anyone there, at least?" I followed up wondering if that person did anything to mess with the evidence of the wolf.
Tatiana shook her head, "There's no trace of human footprints there... I'm so sorry, Young Master." This made me wonder, what would be the purpose of hiding evidence?
What would they gain from hiding that incident?
I pondered to myself before Tatiana asked me what actually happened in that encounter.
And I don't think Tatiana would doubt me about this one, so I told her everything from the moment she left and all about that person who easily defeated the wounded wolf.
I even told her about the wound I took from the wolf's claws and now that I've mentioned it, the wound simply vanished from my arm like I never took it.
If it weren't for my torn polo I would've summed it up to being an exaggeration of my memories of it.
Tatiana herself was bewildered by this story as much as I would have if I heard it from another person.
Hiding evidence of a struggle is simply unheard of.
But there's no use prying on it now, and after the patrol interrogated us both, they advised us both to hire a capable bodyguard in the future should we intend to make a similar trip again.
But as soon as we're let go.
We came face to face with a familiar duo.