Leo landed face-first in dirt, cold earth pressed into his cheek, damp and sharp with the smell of pine resin and crushed roots. He coughed, spat, and rolled onto his side, blinking as his vision steadied.
"Where the hell am I?"
He pushed himself to his feet, and looked around. Pine trees rose close and tall, their trunks dark and straight, their branches cutting the sky into uneven shapes, in the early morning light.
He was on a mountainside.
Even with the rough entrance, his body felt good. Flexing his hands and legs, rolling his shoulders, there was no stiffness or ache in his joints. His hands flexed easily and strongly; it was as if any microdamage done to his body over time during training had disappeared.
He also noticed he was wearing clothes he had never seen before: a long-sleeved white shirt, sturdy brown trousers, and brown leather boots.
"Axiom?" His voice cracked slightly, swallowed by the trees, then silence, no reply. A chill ran down his spine. The thought of being alone in an unfamiliar place rang true in his mind.
"Come on… answer… please."
Panic started to set in, chest pounding heavily. Every little noise he heard seemed like something would just jump out at him, but at that moment, just at the corner of Leo's eyes, something caught his attention.
He reflexively turned around in his panic, and that's when he saw it.
It was low to the ground, had enormous shoulders just visible through the undergrowth, gray fur that was darker along the spine and twisted together in some areas, and had yellow eyes watching him from between two trees uphill. The fur was thick enough to conceal the shape beneath it.
But Leo knew it was a wolf, a massive wolf, more than three times bigger than any wolf he'd ever seen. The size should be impossible. It stood twenty meters away.
Leo's breath fogged faintly in front of his face. The cold bit deeper now that adrenaline crept in.
"Okay, I have to stay calm," he murmured, hands lifting slightly. "No sudden movement."
"Axiom," Leo said again, quieter now. "Wherever you are, if you can hear me, I really need you right now."
The wolf started to move, circling Leo.
"No response, huh? I really am alone alone here then, fuck!" Leo thought to himself almost angrily.
Leo turned slowly, following the circling wolf, eyes never leaving the animal while backing away slowly, but his foot found a rock, making him lose his balance.
The wolf, noticing this error, lunged at him, fast and low.
His calf was caught by the edge of its fangs as he twisted away. Teeth tore through cloth and skin, a burning line ripping across the muscle before the wolf's jaws snapped shut on empty air.
Every nerve in his body screamed in protest as he fought back the urge to swear. As he pressed down on the injury, attempting to stabilize it, warm blood trickled between his fingertips. Adrenaline drowned most of the pain for now, leaving only a hot throb in his leg. He knew it wouldn't last.
"Focus, Leo, you have to do something, think!" he thought to himself.
The wolf had pulled back, watching.
Adrenaline lessened the intensity of the fire-like sensation in Leo's leg. Every stride now was a negotiation with agony as he pushed his weight forward and tested his footing again.
He knew it could have been worse. His leg would have been gone if it hadn't missed, but a wolf of this size missing at such a range and stopping to watch just after the first strike?
The wolf didn't rush him again immediately, it circled, watching, and testing. Leo felt a chill run down his spine realizing what the wolf was doing. Predators sometimes did this, wearing prey down before the kill, and It definitely was capable of just killing him with that first attack.
Leo was panicking, high on adrenaline, bleeding out and freezing, the perfect conditions that breed bad decisions, but he thought that if the wolf was going to toy with him, then he'd also find a way to take advantage of the situation and try to survive rather than worrying.
Then something happened, he didn't understand: his breath slowed, his vision sharpened, his senses heightened.
The space between the wolf's movements stretched just enough for him to notice details he normally wouldn't.
The wolf favored its right side slightly. Its left rear paw pressed more carefully into the ground, probably from an old injury. Armed with this new information, Leo thought of a plan.
"Alright, Leo, you can do this," Leo whispered. "You can't die again."
The wolf lunged again.Leo moved at the same moment, forcing himself forward instead of back, aiming for the injured side.
The wolf twisted to strike, but its weight shifted slower.
Leo dropped and slid beneath its body, boots tearing through loose dirt as the beast's jaws snapped shut above him.
Leo rolled downhill, skin burning, and slammed into a tree, bark digging into his back.
The wolf was already turning around, swift on his heels.
Leo started into a short sprint, grabbed a stone, turned and threw it. It struck the wolf's shoulder, at the side Leo assumed an old injury to be, in an attempt to trigger a misstep, but the stone simply bounced away. The animal didn't even slow down at all.
Leo ran, cutting sideways, boots sliding on loose earth, making it harder for the wolf to run at him. Each step sent a spike of pain up his leg, but fear kept him moving. Branches tore at his face, roots snagged his feet, muscles burning.
The wolf stayed close though, adjusting to his movement in real time.
Then the forest floor disappeared in front of him.
Leo had reached a cliff, and he twisted at the last second to stop himself and crashed into another tree. Pain flared through his shoulder as he barely kept his footing.
The wolf skidded past him, claws scraping stone near the edge. It recovered instantly, head snapping back toward him, eyes bright.
Leo staggered, out of breath. He now had injuries all over his body. Even high on adrenaline, the pain was still very evident, and he was still bleeding out from the injury he had received earlier.
The wolf lowered itself again, readying to attack.
The forest seemed to have stilled at that moment.
This is definitely it, he thought to himself, trying to find a solution which now felt impossible.
"Come on, Leo," he muttered, breathing heavily. "Think… this cannot be it."
The standstill came to an end as the wolf lunged at him properly this time, aiming to kill.
Suddenly, a shadow cut across the clearing, fast, and struck the wolf. The impact hit like thunder, causing dust to rise, covering where the wolf had been.