Chapter 38: Chapter 38: Victory At All Cost

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

Victory At All Cost

---

 

Before me was a patchwork wolf larger and lordlier than any of the beasts we’d been fighting. Seriously, standing past two meters, this thing was nearly double the size of the gray wolf that Red Beard killed. No wonder it had ripped through half my body in a single bite the last time we’d met.

Bristling patchwork fur of reds and grays and blacks covered muscles that would have made an ogre seem like a lightweight by comparison. Its jaws were filled with sword-sized fangs that I could still recall clamping down on my chest like a phantom pain refusing to go away.

“Vargr,” I shook my head to keep that imagery of dying out of my mind, “what big teeth you have…”

The only part of the monster that resembled the human it had once been was the pair of all-too-human blue eyes. They blazed at me with uncontained rage and malice.

“And what big eyes you have,” I added.

“Are you quoting Red Riding Hood right now?” Liara asked.

“Who better to invoke than the top seven ranked adventurer on today’s charts who’d earned her fame slaying wolves of all kinds,” I reasoned.

“I doubt RRH has faced anything like this patchwork wolf though,” Liara countered.

“Well”—I tightened my grip on my glaive’s handle—“that might just be true… I hope it is. Then we get to keep the name.”

The great wolf took a single step forward, and all three of us drew back in response. Its blue-eyed gaze took in Dess raising her shield, Liara with her glowing spell-saber, and then at me. Yep, it had murder in its eyes when it stared me down.

“Look, strike when he comes for me,” I whispered.

At my urging, both Liara and Dess moved further to the side. Luckily, the ongoing battle around us paid no attention to our fight, leaving us free to engage the great wolf without fear of getting stabbed in the back.

The great wolf and I began to circle each other, with each of us sizing the other up first. It was a stark contrast to the sudden deathmatch we had before which had ended in both of our deaths.

It growled at me, spittle flying my way. In response, I sent it a spit-spewing growl of my own. I think that sufficiently pissed it off.

Despite its all-too-human eyes, a beast was still a beast, and enraged, it struck at me first. The great wolf stretched its head forward with jaws unclenched, and I—recalling the feeling of its fangs on my flesh—managed to dodge its jaws just as they chomped down on the spot I just vacated.

I twirled around and used that momentum to send my glaive streaking down the side of its head, forcing the wolf to draw back in irritation more than pain.

“Face me, monster!” Dess yelled at the top of her lungs.

The fairy was in the air to my left, with her gossamer wings spread out and flapping to keep her aloft. She banged her spear repeatedly against her shield, goading the wolf’s focus onto her.

Dess’s ‘Taunt’ allowed me to back away and ready myself for the next attack, which I knew required the reappearance of my new favorite spell. Also, with the light of my Flameheart dwindling even more with each passing second, I assumed this was the last spell I’d be able to cast with my open grimoire’s help.

In the interim, Dess managed to catch the great wolf’s full attention, skillfully floating out of the way of the beast’s mouth while rising just high enough to catch its left eye with her spear. It was the textbook definition of ‘Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee’.

“Desdemona!” someone cheered behind me. It was a little premature.

While Dess’s spear did manage to pierce into the great wolf’s eye, thereby giving us a huge advantage, her weapon’s wooden handle also snapped in half, leaving the fairy with only her half-broken shield to fight with. Still, Dess made me Hella proud when she flung it at the great wolf’s nose, forcing the beast to shake its head in protest while she caught the shield in the air and set it back onto her left arm.

“She’s finally read chapter seven of Lagertha, the Shieldmaiden,” I chuckled.

Dess must not have been used to fighting while she flew though, as she was beginning to lose altitude while she defended from the great wolf’s repeated attempts to bite her wings off. It might have eventually gotten hold of her too if not for the red-feathered bolts that peppered its face at just the right time to allow Dess a chance to escape.

I glanced over my shoulder and saw Delphine standing on the roof of a shed where the camp’s firewood was kept. Her custom crossbow must have had a burst feature to it because more bolts were flying at the great wolf than there was time for Delphine to mount a single bolt onto her weapon.

“I have to get me one of those,” I whispered.

Eight bolts later, the great wolf sent its fluffy tail to smash against Delphine’s shed, forcing the redheaded dwarf to jump to safety.

The beast might have gone after Delphine next were it not for the daggers that struck its neck only to blink out of existence once they’d hit their target.

Lohgan was now running parallel to the great wolf’s stride, and he continued to harass the beast from mid-range while scrawny little Morph yelled infernal obscenities at the monster which forced it to turn around and face him. The infernal’s ‘Black Speech’ looked to be physically hurting the Great Wolf too. Seriously, I was watching it wince in pain with each curse erupting from Morph’s lips.

“Talk about a hellish rebuke,” I whispered.

With Morph holding the beast’s one-eyed gaze, Liara was able to run straight at it with her glowing spell-saber in one hand and an ice sword in the other. She leaped forward and attacked the great wolf’s side, embedding both her blades into its flesh which she then slid down across its shoulder. As with all her new spells, the ‘Ice Sword’ had the secondary effect of coating the beast’s side in a sheet of frost which also exploded in a shower of spikes that made the great wolf howl in pain.

Was that enough to kill the beast? Well, no. Duh. But, no worries. As I’d already finished casting Nova Stella, and with the golden ball of flame floating in my palm, I decided that it was time to end this.

However, while I was distracted by my large prey, a hobgoblin came into view just to my right. He had a fireball prepped to fling at me, but a half-giant shadow appeared behind it to pierce the hobgoblin’s back with her twin blades.

Brunhilde and I exchanged nods of greeting, and I left her to deal with the few foes aiming for my back while I moved on to end the battle.

“Time to end this!” I said it out loud because this was such a groovy line that it didn’t deserve to remain just in my head. And~~d, boom, catchphrase acquired. Maybe.

Even with just one eye, the great wolf caught sight of the miniature sun in my palm. Then, with a pained expression flashing across its wolfish face, almost as if it could remember the pain my spell had caused it in my previous life, the beast lunged for me with jaws wide open. It was the worst thing the monster could have done, bringing itself closer to a spell that was meant to be fired at short range.

Just as its jaws snapped toward me, I plunged my glowing ball of fire into the great wolf’s open mouth and then rolled out of the way as an explosion erupted inside of it.

You are reading story Adventure Academy at novel35.com

Nova Stella’s fire didn’t just burn the inside of its mouth either. Golden flames trailed down the length and breadth of its body, exploding out of the many wounds my teammates had already given it, including the eye socket Dess pierced earlier. Finally, the great wolf—its body still burning from the inside—toppled over, and it lay unmoving on the burnt ground.

I would have yelled in triumph but I’d put a lot of juice into that last spell, and so I found myself falling to my knees and out of breath. Even worse, Flameheart’s light finally fizzled out, which meant my grimoire had forcefully closed itself to ensure I didn’t die from its magical aura spilling out and out of my control. Soon enough, I would feel the side effects of this erstwhile doping method, which I assumed would be the sort of physical and mental pain one got from the overuse of stimulants. I only hoped it wouldn’t happen during the victory speeches because a seizure in front of everyone would be embarrassing.

“That was… a very… tough fight,” I said between breaths. “Thankfully… didn’t even need… to rain fire—”

“Will!” Dess and Delphine yelled together.

“What”—I glanced forward—“holy Hel!”

The great wolf wasn’t dead. It was already beginning to rise from the ground—albeit, much slower than before—and was moving its head in my general direction.

A pair of all-too-human blue eyes glared at me with unrestrained rage, and I knew I was up shit creek without a paddle.

“Vargr…” I was nearly resigned to having to redo this battle for the third time. Nearly. But, just as its head snapped toward me, a cannonball struck it from above and exploded like a fireball against the beast’s spine.

Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win… These were Sun Tzu’s words that I’d taken to heart, which meant each stage of this battle had a contingency plan.

In the case of a giant wolf appearing somewhere on the battlefield, the Red Pearl was instructed to fire on it from above regardless of people being nearby. This danger-close bombardment was only possible because Red Beard had full faith that his gunners could pull it off, and I had faith in him.

Plus, having experienced their accurate aim only a short time ago, it was no surprise that despite my proximity to the great wolf none of the Red Pearl’s shells struck the spot where I’d just gotten back to my feet. Even as more and more fire elemental shells came raining down on the beast’s head. The splash damage was a real concern, but being the successor to the Elemental King of Fire’s will made me highly resistant to fire damage. It was another thing I’d taken into consideration when I reminded Red Beard to make sure only fire shells were used for this third bombardment.

“I call this the ‘Rain fire’ maneuver…” I coughed. Then I coughed some more. “G-groovy, right—”

I guess Liara didn’t know Red Beard enough to trust his assertions, which was understandable considering that they’d only met tonight. I assumed this lack of trust was the reason the she-elf tackled me out of the way so that we rolled on the earth and away from the bombardment’s area of effect.

When we stumbled to a stop on the ground about five yards away, I came out on top with Liara pinned underneath me and our noses nearly touching as we gazed into each other’s eyes.

“You are beyond reckless,” she complained.

“Fire resistant,” I reminded her.

“Doesn’t mean you won’t get blown away or die from stray shrapnel piercing into your flesh,” she argued.

Okay, I concede that she had a fair point, which is why I flashed her a sheepish grin. To my surprise, Liara returned my grin with a warm smile of her own, and inside my brain, the caveboy in me was screaming in joy.

The battle continued around us, our party mates were yelling our names, and the sounds of explosions mixed with the cries of a dying wolf reverberated in the air, but none of that seemed to matter as much as the face that was looking up at me in admiration. And maybe a bit of something else too.

All kinds of warm feelings sprung up from my chest that I had no clue how to handle, feelings that Liara would quickly snuff out with a single phrase.

“Are you going to stay there all day with that sappy look on your face?” She asked in a teasing tone. “Get off me already.”

I barely felt any force when her hands pushed out at my chest, although I was embarrassed enough to quickly get off of her, and I was still blushing by the time I helped Liara to her feet.

“Hey, your tiara…” I began, to which she said, “I put the chameleon charm back on it after it closed… Do you feel anything?”

I shook my head. “I expect the after-effects of our doping will come soon enough though.”

“I know conventional wisdom recommends not leaving one’s grimoire open for too long, but this method of enhancing our magic with our grimoires’ auras is too efficient to just set aside,” Liara insisted.

“This cheat was probably more effective for us because our grimoires are legendary-ranked,” I reasoned.

“Well, what’s the point of having legendary grimoires if we can’t overuse them now and again?” she challenged.

Look at you sounding all reckless,” I winked at her. “I’m rubbing off on you, aren’t I?”

Liara bit her lower lip in what I assumed was an effort to keep herself from smiling at me. Her eyes were sparkling though. “Maybe a little,” she conceded.

By the time Liara and I finished our brief conversation, the Red Pearl’s bombardment ended. The great wolf had vanished too. Dying in its place at the bottom of a shallow crater was the blue-eyed emissary. He had lost both his legs and one of his arms in the bombardment, and there was a wound on his chest that not even his seriously high regenerative powers could heal.

Moreover, both Mistress Lorelai and Red Beard were standing over him with our party mates and Lieutenant Doyle’s group encircling the two gold-ranked adventurers, removing any chance that the emissary could escape.

Our teacher who’d arrived too late looked up as she saw me and Liara limping over to the lip of the crater.

“Come here, Mr. Wisdom,” Mistress Lorelai motioned me over with her hand. “You too, Ms. Lockwood.”

Liara and I spared each other a glance, and then we slid down the crater to get to where they held their vigil over the dying shapeshifter whose origins we still didn’t know anything about. There was no chance to interrogate him though.

At my approach, the emissary spoke. Blood gurgled out of his mouth so that not even Dess could understand what he was saying. Strangely enough, I did.

‘Memento Mori’—these were the unspoken words that had escaped his lips just before the emissary let out his final breath.

The status bar in my pocket vibrated, possibly suggesting that I had leveled up in this boss fight, which was groovy, but my mind was far more concerned with his words for me to check my bar just then and there.

“Memento Mori…” I frowned. It was the same phrase that Doctor Faustus had whispered to me yesterday. “What does it mean?”