NOVEL NEXT Chapter 9 - Metamorphosis 8
Chapter 9. Metamorphosis 8
The wolf’s howl echoed through the mountains.
It was such a loud sound that it was hard to believe it came from a human voice.
It was more like the roar of a lion or a tiger than a wolf’s howl.
Just hearing it made my spirit sink.
Goosebumps rose, and my body began to tremble.
I was terrified just by catching a glimpse of that wolf’s gaze.
I wasn’t the only one oppressed by the wolf’s howl.
The chirping birds went silent.
Even the tiny insects stopped their songs, rendering the forest quiet.
─The wolf’s roar suffocated the forest.
Only the sound of leaves rustling against each other as the wind blew could be heard.
Crack!
In the silence, a sound of something shattering rang out.
‘Up in the tree!’
Something was shooting toward the wolf!
How? Since when?! I didn’t sense any presence until the sound came!
After the figure descended, the branch that had been used as a foothold snapped and fell beside me.
“How dare you kill a member of our tribe?!!!”
The real Mountain Lord!
The wolf turned and swung a massive curved blade with rotational force, slicing high into the sky.
Compared to that, the Mountain Lord’s movements were so fast that they were barely visible as he leaped down.
Srrk─!
Even though it was barely visible, the Mountain Lord’s claws had ripped through the wolf’s leather armor.
The curved blade slashed through the air.
The Mountain Lord quickly distanced himself and bared his sharp teeth.
…It was a male Terup.
His body was packed with muscles, and sharp wounds covered him.
He seemed like an entirely different species from the Terup I had healed.
“Get out of here!”
“I’ll take your head with me!”
The wolf swung the curved blade wide as she advanced.
There was a tree as thick as a human head in the blade’s path.
Crack!!!!
With a single slash, the curved blade sliced through the tree.
Shattered sawdust flew in all directions.
It was like a dump truck on a highway.
Anyone who tried to block it would die that day.
The Mountain Lord ducked to dodge the curved blade, then leaped toward the wolf.
The wolf let go of the swinging blade and retrieved her hand.
The Mountain Lord’s sharp fangs aimed for the wolf’s neck.
But the wolf shoved her wrist, covered in bracers, into the Mountain Lord’s mouth.
Thud!
Then, pushing further to prevent the fangs from pulling back, she clung to the Mountain Lord and slammed her fist into his shoulder.
Crunch──!
The sound of bones breaking was distinctly audible.
“Graaah──?!!!”
The Mountain Lord screamed and slashed at the wolf’s neck with his razor-sharp claws.
The wolf deflected with her free arm, but it was slightly off-target, leaving a long gash from her collarbone to her neck.
However, the wolf didn’t seem to care.
Before the next attack could land, she kicked the Mountain Lord in the chest.
Bang━!
‘Does human skin make that kind of sound when hit?!’
It was a brutal impact sound, one you’d never hear in a fight between humans.
The Mountain Lord rolled several meters away.
The kick had been so strong that all of the Mountain Lord’s fangs, which were biting into the wolf’s arm, broke off and lodged in the bracer.
The Mountain Lord got up and charged toward the wolf again.
The wolf had already picked up her curved blade.
Blood was seeping from where the fangs had pierced through the bracer.
The Mountain Lord rushed forward at a terrifying speed.
The wolf stepped up to meet him, swinging the blade wide.
The Mountain Lord deflected the slash, moving as fast as a beam of light.
Clang!!!
When his hand met the blade, sparks flew, and the sound of metal clashing filled the air.
Simultaneously, something shattered and scattered everywhere.
─The Mountain Lord’s claws.
The Mountain Lord and the wolf closed in on each other, engaging in hand-to-hand combat.
If the Mountain Lord gave any distance, he’d be cleaved in two by that blade.
But unlike before, this time, the Mountain Lord, with his broken shoulder and shattered claws, was at a disadvantage.
He began to lose in the battle of strength.
From the start, the Mountain Lord had never won against the wolf in raw power.
The wolf suddenly drew a dagger and slashed diagonally across the Mountain Lord’s chest as he was pushed back in their struggle.
The Mountain Lord bent his head and chest back with incredible flexibility, simultaneously kicking the wolf in the side.
It was a near-acrobatic move.
But the wolf wasn’t pushed back at all.
─Their fundamental strengths were just different.
The wolf seemed to have been waiting for the kick, as she firmly grabbed the Mountain Lord’s leg with her arm as it connected with his side. Then, she collapsed backward.
The Mountain Lord, unable to keep his balance due to the difference in strength and momentum, toppled over with the wolf.
Slash!
“───────!!!”
The pain was so intense that it seemed to choke the Mountain Lord’s scream, and he let out a silent cry.
The wolf had severed the Mountain Lord’s Achilles tendon with the dagger.
“Aaaah───?!!!”
Immediately, the wolf gathered herself and kicked the screaming Mountain Lord, rolling back onto his feet.
It was a spine-chilling sight that made my own legs ache just watching.
In an instant, he had become a cripple!
“Haaa─?! Aaaah─?!!!!”
The terrified Mountain Lord, seeing the wolf approaching, tried to get up but collapsed again.
The dagger that had severed his leg was still embedded in it.
“Weakling.”
The wolf sneered viciously, picking up her curved blade.
By then, the Mountain Lord, struggling to stand, glared at the wolf, but his spirit had visibly deflated, aware of his disadvantage.
“What the hell are you─!”
Snap─!!!
With a single slash.
Despite the sound of shattering bones, the blade sliced cleanly through the Mountain Lord.
Like he’d been hit by a cannonball, his upper body, lower body, and even his blocking arm were separated, scattering his flesh and blood.
Thud! Thunk!
The dismembered upper body landed near the severed arm.
“Urrrgh─?!!! Aaagh─!!!!!!”
Even with his lower body severed, the Mountain Lord wasn’t dead.
He was screaming.
It was a surreal, nightmarishly realistic scene that brought cognitive dissonance.
My brain felt like it was burning.
“Stop screaming. It’s hurting my ears.”
Blood poured from his severed lower body, and it gushed from his upper spine as if from a burst dam.
The wolf approached the Mountain Lord, retrieved the dagger still stuck in his leg, and grabbed his hair as the Mountain Lord tried to crawl away.
She lifted him up and began cutting his neck, not with a single clean cut, but as if slicing ham, starting from the front.
Slice, slice.
Smack───!
The wolf snapped the Mountain Lord’s spine as if breaking a chicken’s neck, severing his head.
My knees buckled.
Chills ran down my spine, and goosebumps covered my body.
“Say goodbye to your body.”
I thought that once his head was severed, he would die instantly.
But the Mountain Lord, his eyes wide open, seemed to be trying to say something, his mouth moving.
Even that movement faded after a few seconds.
And so, the fight between two monsters ended in less than two minutes.
* * * * * *
Thump! Thump!
Just as my father said, the wolf was a cannibal.
The wolf hummed as she chopped up the Mountain Lord.
She had already eaten the liver and was now gnawing on the heart.
She looked just like a human, yet she was eating raw meat!
‘What is she, an Aztec?!’
Goosebumps spread all over me.
The remaining innards were torn out and tossed aside.
The Mountain Lord’s head was skewered onto the wolf’s belt.
What was even more terrifying was that, despite all the injuries on her body, the wolf showed no signs of fatigue.
At the same time, I couldn’t understand.
‘Why on earth does a human need to eat another human?’
I was too scared to ask.
Though the paralysis had worn off, my body still trembled uncontrollably.
I lay still, pretending to be dead, desperately hoping he would forget about me and just leave.
The wolf glanced around, tilting her head before picking up a fallen sack and stuffing the chopped-up Mountain Lord inside, slinging it over his shoulder.
Drip- Drip─
Blood seeped from the sack.
Even Grandpa Sack would faint in terror if he saw the wolf.
“Kid.”
“…Yes.”
It seems like the wolf hadn’t forgotten about me.
The wolf looked down at me as she adjusted the blood-soaked sack slung over her shoulder.
“I hate guys who rush at me like this one. I’ve always cut off their heads without exception.”
The wolf pointed at the Mountain Lord’s head with her thumb.
It felt like my heart was sinking. Was she planning to kill me too…?
“…Yes.”
“But your father is aiming his bow at me.”
“…What?”
Ah!
A sense of hope mixed with fear surged within me.
My father wasn’t an ordinary person either.
But he couldn’t be compared to this insane wolf.
‘This thing is beyond human limits!’
He was not someone a human could deal with.
What if my father ends up dying in a fight with the wolf?
Bang!
The sound of a bowstring snapping filled the air, and an arrow fiercely closed the distance.
The piercing sound of the arrow ripping through the air made me instinctively shut my eyes tightly.
“…He really wants me to kill him.”
When I opened my eyes again, the wolf was holding the arrow in her hand.
‘She caught the arrow!’
It wasn’t an arrow I had shot but one my father had.
It wasn’t my practice arrow.
This arrow was incomparably faster.
I tried to estimate my father’s position by looking at the direction in which the wolf caught the arrow, but my father was nowhere to be seen.
─As if he had become invisible.
It didn’t seem like I was the only one feeling this way.
The wolf hesitated slightly, starting to be on guard, scanning his surroundings.
The wolf’s stance lowered with sharp vigilance.
He seemed tense.
“What’s your father?”
“…My father?”
I didn’t know.
My father was like a ghost.
No sound, no sight.
Bang!
Again, the sound of a bowstring snapping echoed.
‘From behind me?!’
The wolf ducked to dodge the arrow and glared at me with burning eyes.
“──────!”
Just meeting her eyes made my body tremble.
I didn’t know what to do, so I raised my hands.
“It wasn’t me!”
I had met many people, but I’d never seen eyes like those.
It wasn’t the shape of her eyes.
There was something in her gaze that overwhelmed people.
“Is your father from Draconia?”
“No?!”
“…Is that so?”
The wolf started striding toward me.
Another arrow flew from beside the wolf.
The wolf dodged the arrow and rolled toward me.
I was suddenly dragged by an overwhelming force, my neck pulled tight.
Rip!
The sound of tearing fabric echoed as my clothes failed to withstand it.
I didn’t know what was happening, but my neck felt cold.
I instinctively knew what it was.
─A blade was pressed against my neck.
It tickled, stung, and burned as it lightly pressed against my skin.
I wasn’t afraid of death, but the process of approaching it terrified me.
My heart ached with fear.
“This should do.”
I could tell by the blade against my neck.
The wolf’s rock-hard muscles were tensed and relaxed.
The moment my father shot the arrow, the wolf would undoubtedly slit my throat—I could sense it.
“Tell your father that if he shoots again, I’ll kill you.”
“She said if you shoot again, she’ll kill me!”
The wolf tilted her head, looking down at me.
“Can your father speak our language too?”
“Y-Yes…? Of course, he can.”
“Human─!!! You don’t want to see your child die, do you──?!!!”
The forest remained silent.
My father didn’t shoot any more arrows.
But the wolf, still pressing the blade against my neck, stood motionless.
Occasionally, she would turn her body toward nothing or hide behind me.
I couldn’t understand it with my limited knowledge, but I knew.
Something was happening that I couldn’t grasp.
Time continued to flow endlessly.
·
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I don’t know how much time passed.
Before I knew it, even the fear and tension had vanished.
The sun was starting to set behind the trees.
It would soon be dark.
I had been stuck in an awkward position for far too long.
At some point, I had started leaning comfortably against the wolf.
When would this strange standoff end?
‘She looks human, so why is she against other humans?’
The blood of the Mountain Lord and the wolf that trickled down her body soaked my pants and underwear.
My back was sticky with the wolf’s blood.
The wolf’s wounds from the Mountain Lord were deeper than they looked.
At this rate, I thought the wolf might collapse first.
Then, something unexpected happened.
The wolf’s ears twitched, and she glanced at me.
The wolf started dragging me backward, slowly retreating.
“Kid.”
“…Yes.”
“Do you have anything you want to say to your parents?”
I had a vague understanding of what she meant.
─The wolf was planning to take me as a hostage and escape.
······Speaking as if talking to my father, who was somewhere out there, I muttered.
“Father. There’s an injured Terup on the mountain. I’ve given her first aid, but she needs to be taken to the bone-setting clinic.”
No response came.
Of course.
If my father responded, his location would be revealed, and the wolf would surely cut him in half.
“Please don’t torment the young terup like yesterday, make sure to treat and care for her.”
“Hurry up.”
How was I supposed to rush my goodbyes…?
I couldn’t even think of what to say. I looked up at the wolf, who seemed tense as if ready to leave at any moment.
“See you later. Send my regards to Mother as well.”
The wolf’s arm slipped under my armpit and wrapped around my chest.
“Are you done?”
“······I’m not sure.”
I knew my father was there.
But since I couldn’t see or hear him, it felt like I was talking to thin air, and it was hard to feel any emotion.
Maybe my father would come to rescue me.
This could be the last time, or maybe not. Of course, it might not work out, but I wasn’t good at speaking.
‘I don’t know what to say or how to reassure him.’
Words are magic, but not everyone can cast spells.
In the end, I didn’t manage to say a proper goodbye.
Once I stopped talking, the wolf dragged me backward.
Then, suddenly, she tucked me under her arm and started running.
─Dad will find you! He’ll save you for sure─!! Just hold on───!!!
My father’s voice echoed from behind like a reverberating cry.
In the distance, I could see lights; it seemed like the villagers had come up to catch the wolf.
‘What a shame.’
It was a chance to see others.
But the wolf’s speed was far beyond human limits, so even the lights soon vanished from view.