The Villain's Sword Is Sharp

Johan was the first to spot the Sarcevic Wolf. It didn't have a dramatic appearance. No, it arrived silently and without any commotion. In fact, Johan didn't even see it approach; he merely saw the darkness behind Guðmundur meld, morph and rapidly change shape to take the form of a black wolf.

He tried to tap Eva on the shoulder and alert her to the threat, but that was unnecessary. Before his hand could even reach her shoulder, everyone's attention was drawn by Guðmundur's loud cry. The wolf had swiped viciously, cutting across the back of his legs. Guðmundur stumbled and fell to his knees.

As if it had been expecting this, the wolf rose up behind him, orange eyes glinting with menace. Its jaw opened unnaturally wide, almost like a snake's, then snapped shut. Guðmundur's head burst like a watermelon. Fragments of skull and brain flew everywhere.

The headless body fell limply to the ground, and the wolf climbed on top of it. It stood over Guðmundur for a second, observing its handiwork. Then it dipped its snout to munch on what was left of his head. The wolf ate from the open skull as if it were a bowl, mopping up morsels of grey brain matter and crunching on his bones like they were crisps.

However, Johan's sight was pulled away from the wolf when he caught motion in the corner of his eye. Isaac and Abbie were approaching the wolf from behind and just slightly to its left. Abbie stopped about 10 metres from the wolf, but Isaac kept going. It seemed he wanted to ambush the beast whilst it was still eating.

Seeing this, Johan and Abbie moved through the woods to a position ahead of the wolf. If it ran away, it would be coming right towards them.

The wolf twitched, then it looked up. Perhaps it had heard Isaac? No. He had been slowly, silently gliding forwards with his Snowshoe Anima. Maybe it heard the rustle of leaves as Johan moved forwards through the woods? That seemed more likely.

The wolf might have been eating dinner, but it hadn't invited any guests! It sniffed the air to ascertain the position of the unexpected intruder.

Isaac saw this and knew the wolf would smell him. He shot forwards like an arrow, moving as fast as he could while staying in control of the Snowshoe Anima. The Sarcevic Wolf finally noticed him. It spun and bared its teeth, but Isaac was already within 2 metres of it. He raised his hand, created a spirit sword, and slashed at the wolf's exposed flank as he sped by.

The Sarcevic Wolf wasn't known for its defence. Isaac's razor-sharp blade penetrated its skin without difficulty and tore through the wolf's tender flesh. It issued a howl of pain and tried to swipe at Isaac, but he was long gone. The Snowshoe Anima carried him out of the wolf's range and he stopped 5 metres away.

The wolf turned to face him, and Isaac looked at it mockingly. It still hadn't noticed Abbie and it was his job to keep things that way; he had to keep its focus on him.

He approached the wolf again, moving slower this time. The Snowshoe Anima was much easier to control at lower speeds, so it would be easier to evade the wolf's attacks like this.

Isaac closed the distance. 4 metres... 3 metres... 2 metres... without warning, the wolf swung its paw. It was way too far away to hit Isaac, but Isaac felt great danger nonetheless. He tried to stop with his Snowshoe Anima, but it wasn't quick enough. His brain was still screaming at him to get out of the way, so he deactivated the Anima and threw himself to the floor.

Only the others clearly saw what happened. An ominous, 4-pointed claw appeared behind the wolf as it swung. The claw was half a metre wide and just under a metre tall; it was mostly black but the nails of the claws were tipped in a dark, bloody red.

When the wolf reached the apex of its swing, the phantom claw flashed forwards. It took less than half a second to reach Isaac, but he was already falling to the floor by now. The claw sailed over his head and travelled about a metre past him before the it began to fade and disappear into nothingness.

The wolf dashed towards Isaac the moment it saw him on the floor. He tried to scramble back to his feet, but there was only 2 metres between them and wolves were incredibly agile creatures. It took a step forwards and leapt through the air towards Isaac before he could get up.

Isaac desperately raised his sword to defend, though it would be almost impossible to block the powerful wolf. Suddenly, a wall of snow rose up in front of Isaac. The wall shuddered when the wolf cannoned into it and white powder flew everywhere.

Abbie stood with her hands together pointed in Isaac's direction. The wall was her doing; it was the Snow Barrier Anima which created a thick wall of compacted snow. However, snow was still snow. No matter how thickly you packed it, it would never be the toughest of materials.

The wolf's 2 front paws burst through the wall, then came its head. Isaac expected the rest of its body to follow, but the barrier truly was thick. The wolf had lost momentum as it tried to break through and couldn't even make it to the other side.

It had gotten trapped in the snow.

The Sarcevic Wolf unleashed an infuriated howl and tried to burst free using its powerful body. However, Isaac wouldn't give it the time to do so. He slashed at one of the beast's exposed paws. His sword lacerated skin and flesh just as easily as before, cutting all the way to the creature's bone.

The wolf yelped in pain and frantically shook its body to break free from the wall. It quickly freed itself and retreated a few steps, limping as it did so. Isaac couldn't pull his sword back – it was stuck in the wolf's leg. The sword was dragged out of his hand and disappeared the moment it lost contact with his palm. Then he had to waste Qi creating a new blade as he clambered to his feet.

There was a small opening – a short time period where Isaac was unarmed. He was prepared for the wolf to attack him before he could create a new sword, but it didn't. It sniffed once at the air before its eyes became filled with bloodlust. Then it suddenly changed form.

Instead of being a solid wolf made of muscle, bone, flesh and physical things, it quickly changed shape into a mass of writhing black shadows. Before Isaac could react to what was happening, these shadows swiftly melted and disappeared into the floor.

Isaac immediately realised he wasn't the wolf's target. It had smelled Abbie and was trying to take her out first. Isaac couldn't allow that.

He activated his Snowshoe Anima at the max speed he could manage, and bolted forwards in a straight line towards Abbie. However, he wasn't quick enough. A shadowy shape appeared behind Abbie and the wolf began to materialize,

"Behind you!"

Isaac shouted, but Abbie didn't even turn around. She put her hands together and calmly pointed backwards at the floor behind her. Isaac saw a snowflake fly out from between her hands. It seemed to move slowly, but was actually deceptively quick. It burrowed into the ground behind Abbie and a wall of snow shot up from where it landed.

Just as the wall was created, the wolf finished transforming from shadows back into its physical form. It had learnt from its previous mistake and didn't try to jump through the snow. Instead, a black claw phantom appeared behind it as it readied a powerful swing.

Meanwhile, Abbie was running away from the wolf and Isaac was still speeding towards her. Neither of them could see what the wolf was doing since the snow wall blocked their sight.

Everything was silent for a moment, then there was a tremendous *Bam*. The snow barrier exploded as a huge black claw burst through it. The dark red tips of each point shone maliciously as they cut through the air towards Abbie's back.