Chapter 3: Chapter 3: Death Game – The First Sign

The Frost Missile volleyed into the skull of the giant wolf. A shower of pulverized ice burst out from the impact as the Missile ricocheted off, and the wolf flinched and howled in anger. A film of frost had formed over the front of its body. Its movement grew stiff and sluggish momentarily. But then it cracked the ice off its fur. Battered but still ferocious, it rampaged straight towards me.

I aimed my palm to fire a second shot. Waves of coldness flowed down my arm into my hand, steadily gathering and condensing. But no Frost Missile appeared before me. I could tell, I needed more time to amass the magic needed for the next Missile. In the meantime, I had to run. I turned my back to dash uphill, back toward where the trail was.

But the wolf was faster. Before I covered real distance, it had already closed the gap, and now sprang at me to bite. Mustering what magical energy I had gathered in my hand, I clenched a fist and swung at the jaws of the lunging wolf.

It didn't even flinch as it closed its fangs around my arm. My magic hadn't enhanced the punch at all.

"Gah!" I screamed, tumbling to the ground as the beast dragged me. Its massive teeth crushed as they pierced, like a jagged vise trying to squeeze my flesh to mush. I cried out in pain and swung jabs at its face, but it held on fast. I was going to die again. For good this time.

As I attempted to claw at its eyes, the blur of a figure darted at us. Hei.

In a leaping strike, he plunged a spear into the flank of the wolf – where did he get a weapon? Time seemed to pause as he hung mid-stride in the air, heroically knocking the massive beast off me. The fur of the beast quivered in ripples from the blow. Thin arcs of electricity wisped along the spear shaft. The sky darkened for an instant, or at least I thought it did.

A shockwave exploded from the spear-tip. It launched the body of the wolf skyward and back, like a ragdoll. A horse-sized, murderous ragdoll, hurtling away like it got flung by a catapult. The wolf sailed away from the mountains at breakneck speed, shrinking into the distance, going somewhere into the forests below, hundreds of feet away. I averted my eyes. Its landing wouldn't be a pretty sight.

"No way," I whispered.

It was hard wrapping my head around what just happened, especially after the concussion I probably suffered from the fall. Hei put my arm over his shoulder to help me walk back up the mountain-slope, back to the trail. He seemed unhurt, thankfully. He still carried the spear. It was made entirely out of metal, gray for the shaft and sterling white for the spearhead. The spearhead was two-edged like a heavy dagger, and at its base was an embedded blue gem. It honestly seemed stronger than my Frost Missile. But who knew, maybe his shockwave attack had an even longer cooldown than my magic.

Wait a second. Was our battle really over? After all, the wolf wasn't alone when it came.

"How are you holding up?" he panted.

"I feel fine. Wait, what about the baby wolf?" I asked. "Did it run away? You said it was scared."

"It attacked you," Hei said.

Of course it did, I knew that already, but that didn't answer my question. We climbed the slope, back up to where the mountainside path was. Not far away, the small wolf's unmoving carcass lay in the dirt. Hei had already killed it. He'd never harm an animal out of cruelty, not the Hei I knew. He must've only wanted to keep himself – and me – safe. Maybe the small wolf had attacked him, while I had fallen off the slopes. I wouldn't know, and didn't want to ask him about the details.

Still, the sight of the wolf's lifeless body sickened me.

"...Thanks," I finally said to Hei. Small streaks of blood striped the back of his neck, but there were no wounds on him. I then realized the blood must've been my own.

As Hei lowered me down onto even ground, I looked at my arm, the one I hung over his shoulders on the way up. Indeed, blood trickled slowly out of several puncture wounds on my forearm. The pain felt surprisingly bearable, and a quick flick of my wrist confirmed that the limb remained functional.

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Hei tightened his lips as he examined my wounds. "Sophia. This is bad."

"I feel fine," I repeated. "Don't worry about it."

Perhaps the wolf was weakened from hunger, or I had been really lucky. I should be fine, as long as no infections happened. There should be a fantasy cleric somewhere around here, right?

…Speaking of here, where exactly were we?

"Hei," I ventured. "It's a weird question, but. Did you die?"

"What? Of course not."

"Then how did you do the spear attack? Didn't you get reincarnated? 'Cause I probably did."

"I don't think you died," Hei said. "Your body looks the same. And you still have your clothes, and even your backpack. Are you still injured from the fall?"

Those were good points. I gingerly rubbed my head. It still hurt, but didn't seem to be bleeding. If I had really died and reincarnated, it'd make sense if I got a new body, without all the injuries that supposedly killed me.

"I don't think so," I replied.

"Here." He took off his shirt and wrapped it tightly around my injured arm to stifle the bleeding. He wore nothing underneath, as expected for a summertime hike. I saw on him lean, compact muscles I never knew he had. I tried not to stare. Were those just granted to him, along with his spear? Or did he have them all along? As for myself, I still did have my magic, right?

Once he finished dressing my wounds, I formed a Frost Missile and test-fired it into the sky. It traveled a fair distance in a straight line, unaffected by gravity. It had excellent range.

"So, about your spear," I said. "How does it work –"

Before I finished my question, a glimmer shone in my peripheral vision. It was the baby wolf's carcass, now breaking apart into motes of white light. And when the glow faded, two wooden chests remained in the wolf's place. Was that loot?

I cautiously approached the chests with Hei. One of them had the symbol of a spear burnt darkly onto its lid. The other lid was decorated with a symbol of my Frost Missile, with a few sparkles drawn around it. I opened that chest. Inside was a bag of food fitting for a charcuterie board: a block of cheese, flatbread, beef jerky, and dried prunes. Digging deeper, I found a bedroll and a filled waterskin. At the bottom, there was a small, metal crossbow, alongside a plain-looking silver ring.

 

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