With a whistle of torn air, the Corrupted Black Stag lunged at Remedy; its antlers were nothing but a dark, lethal streak closing the distance in the blink of an eye.
Its speed has doubled.
Remedy stepped back instinctively. The two broken daggers materialized in his hands.
Ely.
[Stag bound to the Law of Sharpness.]
The moment the monster was about to collide with him, he pivoted to the side in a whirlwind. The daggers sliced into the beast's neck like butter and tore clean out.
The moment his circular motion ended, a double hoof-strike shot toward his neck.
[ATTACK NEGATED.]
He spun around. The strike exploded against his crossed forearms, which he had braced for protection, shoving him back a few paces. His feet carved twin furrows into the snow. His hands vibrated violently under the impact.
If that had hit my daggers directly, they'd be done for good.
His eyes locked onto the monster through the gap in his crossed arms. The beast was already charging back at him with the fury of a cannonball, the frozen earth hammered by its destructive gallop.
My Action Zone is now 10 meters.
The daggers spun between his fingers. His palms caught the hilts before he hurled them toward the monster's face—they dissolved into pixels just before collision. The beast's crimson vision, momentarily obscured by the pixelated daggers, lost sight of its target. Remedy had already vanished in a blur of movement.
With the same explosive leap from his breakthrough, Remedy spun into the air. The monster shot right beneath him. The daggers reappeared in his hands.
With a wide, circular sweep, he sliced the stag's head clean off. Blood sprayed violently across the white landscape.
He landed in a controlled slide. The monster's headless body collapsed behind him. He flicked the air with both daggers, sending droplets of dark blood splattering onto the snow.
Then, the corpse dissolved and seeped into his shadow.
[LEVEL 10 MONSTER DEVOURING COMPLETE. + 1,000 EXP, + 1,000 MP.]
"Phew..."
Managing my curses is getting to be a pain. Plus, I don't have enough MP to manifest laws on my newer weapons yet.
He resumed his run, his feet touching the ground lightly as he pushed deeper into the corrupted forest.
It's a good thing I prepared yesterday.
The memory of yesterday's prep session flashed through his mind. Him, sitting down, with his daggers, his heavy hammer, and his potions laid out before him.
[YOU DO NOT HAVE SUFFICIENT MP (27,550). NO MANIFESTATION CAN BE UPGRADED TO LEVEL 10. (35,000 REQUIRED FOR FEATHERWEIGHT LAW, 45,000 FOR VIBRATING BLADE LAW.)]
It's a good thing my old daggers were Level 1. I was able to manifest the law on them, and now they possess the cutting edge of a vibrating blade. But in terms of style and durability... He let out a sigh.
As he pushed forward, two more black stags spotted him and charged. Remedy ran in a zigzag pattern to throw off their timing and force them to charge at each other from opposite angles. Then, he vaulted over them. The two beasts collided violently, reeling back dazed and staggering. He dropped between them into a crouch to absorb the landing, then rose in a spinning sweep, slit both their throats.
[TWO LEVEL 10 MONSTERS DEVOURING COMPLETE. + 2,000 EXP, + 2,000 MP.]
He set off again immediately, his feet treading the snow without slowing down.
During his run, his eyes darted toward a patch of grass that had twitched slightly to his left. His right ear twitched imperceptibly. He heard a subtle rustling to his right.
His gaze swept the surroundings, then locked onto a tree ahead of him.
Suddenly, he accelerated. Black blurs detached themselves from the grass behind him, giving chase. Reaching the tree, he pivoted to the side, ducking behind the trunk. The shapes skidded to a halt.
Wolves. Three of them. Lean bodies with portions of their anatomy replaced by gnarled tree roots. Their claws resembled sharpened, petrified wood.
Root Wolf
Two wolves split off to the flanks, stealthily closing in on either side of the tree, bits of bark falling from their bodies. Then they lunged simultaneously toward the rear of the tree, snapping their jaws shut as they met in the middle.
Nothing. Their target wasn't there.
They sniffed around, searching. Then they felt his presence up in the branches and tilted their heads upward.
Their target was falling from above. A massive shadow materialized beneath him.
They didn't have time to react. Remedy slammed down on their skulls with the heavy sledgehammer, exploding their heads against the frozen ground with a dull, sickening thud.
[TWO LEVEL 10 MONSTERS DEVOURING COMPLETE. + 2,000 EXP, + 2,000 MP.]
He gripped the handle. His muscles strained to their absolute limit. The hammer lifted off the ground.
I can lift half a ton with a single hand. But I'm not yet capable of swinging it fluidly like a normal weapon.
Low growls rumbled nearby. He pressed his back against the tree. The hammer vanished in a pixelated shimmer. He peeked around the trunk.
A single wolf remained. It snarled, enraged.
Just you left, huh?
His eyes analyzed it briefly. Thick fur. Wooden armor plating.
My daggers might not deal enough deep damage through that bark.
He stood up tall, pulling his gaze back. Hmm... Bare-handed duel?
The image of the gym floor flashed through his mind.
***
Inside the gym. Remedy, shirtless on the edge of the treadmill, a towel draped over his head, gasping for breath. Beside him, Soren was still running effortlessly on the belt.
"Why do you keep trying to match my intensity? You know we don't have the same endurance."
Remedy panted. Soren shot him a side-glance.
"Anyway, how's it going? Your mastery over the dagger techniques?"
"... I don't know."
"What do you mean?"
"I master the dagger techniques. But..." Remedy's eyes dropped to his hands. He clenched them, then opened them again. "But I have this urge... to create my own style?"
Soren tapped the stop button. The belt slowed, sliding him backward until he stepped off onto the floor.
"You want your own style? I didn't think you'd reach that stage so quickly."
Remedy looked up. "What do you mean?"
A towel appeared in Soren's hand as he wiped the fine sweat from his face. "It's nothing too serious. Just a phase where everyone wants to call a technique 'their own.'" He opened a water bottle. "Do you have any idea what you want?"
Remedy remained silent while Soren drank.
"Something... flexible?" Remedy made a fluid, waving motion with his hand.
"Something flexible and unpredictable, right?"
"Yes. How did you guess?"
The water bottle and towel vanished. His clothes and belt snapped back into place instantly. Then, he tossed Remedy a mysterious box.
"Take this!"
Remedy caught the box. "What is it?"
"You'll see when you open it."
The gym door swung open. Kaela and Myra walked in.
"Oh, you guys are here?" Kaela said.
"You've been getting here earlier and earlier lately," Myra added.
Soren walked over to them, calling back over his shoulder: "If you can't figure out how to use it yet, try practicing with a heavy rope first."
He reached the girls at the door and whispered: "Let's go. Don't disturb him. He's at a crucial tipping point."
The two peeked at Remedy, then said together, "Alright."
As they began to leave the room:
"Haa, I wish I could find a little brother I see myself in so I could teach him my techniques," Kaela sighed.
"Yeah, right. 'Your techniques.'"
"What's that supposed to mean? You wanna go?" they started bickering.
Soren placed his hands on both their heads with a light smile. "No fighting early in the morning, Kaela, Myra."
Both girls blushed, quieted down, and filed out. Soren cast one last look at Remedy, whose eyes were glued to the open box.
He smiled, then stepped out. The door shut behind him.
***
Back in the forest, the remaining wolf snarled.
Its opponent emerged from the shadow of the tree.
Two dark lines hung from his arms, dragging across the snow like dead serpents. The fine links slid over each other with an unnatural fluid grace, emitting a faint, metallic hiss.
Two chains trailed along his arms.
End of chapter 13