Chương 45: Winter Wolves 2

When he heard the wolves, he immediately picked up the pace. With other magic beasts, he wouldn't have been so worried, but they had encountered winter wolves one other time since getting to the mountains. Igrette slew them all easily, but Jonny had nearly frozen to death in the process, even while hiding a few hundred feet away. When he sped up, though, Igrette stayed back. In fact, she seemed to be slowing down.

Jonny wouldn't have minded, because that was what she should have done, except this time, her slowing down didn't seem voluntary. When he turned to look, she was limping harder than ever, taking lurching steps, and her bad arm was flopping limply in its sling.

"Igrette?" he said, slowing down.

"Go ahead," she said, grimacing in pain.

"I'll take care of them here." She slowed to a halt, and Jonny did too. He hesitated for a moment, wavering on whether to say something until she pointed ahead with her sword.

"Go!" Jonny hesitated a second longer, then nodded.

"Don't die. Please."

"I don't plan to." He gave her a look, then turned and continued fleeing, escaping the cold wind that was already starting to catch up to them. After a few seconds, he veered left, going uphill toward a small peak that would give him somewhat of a vantage point. With all the trees, he couldn't actually see much more Igrette or the wolves than the occasional glance, but he could see the cloud of snowy wind rapidly approaching the place where he had left Igrette behind.

Soon, the cloud nearly covered the forest entirely, and only the treetops were visible. Two minutes passed, and all he could do was tensely watch. He hated the feeling of being so useless, but he knew that doing anything other than waiting would be suicide. The only clues he had as to what was happening was the gradually lessening howling. He was restless, listening closely until finally, the howling stopped entirely.

The wind died down, but the cloud of snow was taking longer to settle, so he still couldn't see anything. He tapped his foot anxiously on the ground a few times, then took a step forward. Fuck it. One step led to another, and soon, he was fully sprinting back down the hill and toward the battle. The further he went, the colder it got, but it was not unbearable, and he couldn't sense any unusual mana in the air. It seemed that the wolves were dead, but the visibility was still too low to find Igrette.

He looked around frantically until he remembered the lesson from not even twenty-four hours earlier. Closing his eyes, he focused solely on his mana sense, expanding it outward. There were many mana signatures, but he recognized them all as being dead. They had high concentrations of mana, but it was leaking rapidly, and they were not bringing any more mana in. Only one mana signature in the entire area was still drawing it in, and he immediately sprinted toward it.

Igrette was standing alone in front of a wolf corpse almost as large as the previous day's bear. Its head was split cleanly in two, from bottom left to top right, and there was a wide line in the air following the same trajectory where it was clear of snow, and the sky was visible. Igrette stood at the origin of the line, breathing heavily as she looked up into the sky. Her sword was completely red with blood, and its tip was brushing the snow as she held her arm down.

It was colder here than anywhere else in the woods, to the point that the wolf's blood was already beginning to freeze, and all the trees around had been covered in frost. The amount of mana still left in the wolf's body was immense, and Jonny could tell immediately that this had not been an ordinary beast. It had to be at least fourth layer. Jonny was relieved to see that Igrette was alive, and ran up to her with a relieved smile.

Then, he noticed her side, where a dark spot had appeared on her robes, right above her wound.

"I– Igrette?" he said. Igrette took a deep, shaky breath before responding.

"I don't think I can go on much longer. I'm sorry."

"Are you dying?"

"Slowly."

"But not immediately?"

"No, but at this point, I am only delaying the inevitable. I cannot heal enough to overcome my wounds. Every battle brings me closer to the point of no return. I will not make it out of these mountains." She turned to look down at Jonny with a smile.

"But I won't let you die here with me. Come, let's go back to the mana well. Let's see if we can put it off a little longer." She turned back and took a step forward, and her knee immediately buckled. Jonny lunged to catch her, and with his help, she managed to lower herself to the ground and roll over onto her back. She gave a dry, defeated chuckle, her breath fogging up the air above her.

"Or maybe this is it," she said.

"Maybe my time is up now." Jonny gritted his teeth, then punched the ground.

"That's quitter talk."

"My mind is willing, but my body is not. I'm sorry." Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"No!" Jonny said.

"You're not dying here!"

"Not yet," she said.

"But when the next scavenger comes around, I won't be able to move. You should leave me. I'm nothing but dead weight now." Jonny clenched his teeth so tightly he felt like they would break, then stood up, drawing his knife.

"You're not dying here. I won't let you."

"I don't think–""Shut up," he said.

"If you don't move, you'll be able to heal, right?"

"Yes, but–""Then don't move. I'll handle everything."

"I–""I don't care," he said.

"You're not dying. You hear me? And I'm not leaving these mountains without you. I'll carry you out myself if I have to."

"You can't–""I can!" Jonny declared.

"You might be a quitter, but I don't even know what the word 'quit' means! They said I couldn't be the champion at 23. Well, I did it anyway! They said I couldn't defend two belts at once. Guess what I did for two entire years? They said I couldn't be the champion in a third division, but they were wrong about that too.

"They said I couldn't use mana. They said someone like me would never be able to get stronger. So what? Look at me now. I was the strongest then, and I'll be the strongest again, and you're going to be there to see me do it! You got it?" Igrette pursed her lips.

"Don't try to tell me what's impossible. If it's impossible, I'll just have to make it possible. I didn't get where I am today by giving up!"

"…We can try, but–""No 'buts'! We will make it out."

"…Alright."

"Good. Now, tell me how to skin a wolf. I'm gonna make you a stretcher." Jonny spent the next four hours working on one of the smallest wolves, listening to Igrette's instructions as he worked the skin off and scraped off the largest residual pieces of flesh. When he finished, he layed it out on the ground above Igrette's head, and carefully dragged her onto it, scolding her whenever she tried to move.

By the time he got her onto the pelt and started dragging her back toward the mana well, the sun was starting to rise. They reached the stone circle right at daybreak, and Jonny lifted Igrette off the wolf pelt and placed her gently in the center of the stone table, where the mana concentration was strongest.

"Now, you stay here, rest, and heal," he told her.

"I'll go get some food." He returned a few minutes later with some steaks cut from the back of the wolf he skinned. Igrette was actively working on healing herself, and did not speak as he got the fire going again and started cooking the meat. Jonny himself was glad for this, because he had some thinking of his own to do. Igrette was injured. She needed rest, and she needed to not be fighting. She also needed mana, which was an issue, because fighting and mana went hand in hand.

If they wanted mana they needed a mana well, and to have a mana well, they needed to either defend it, like they just had, or take it, like they had two days before. And any magic beasts that could hold a mana well were beyond what Jonny could handle on his own. For now. The real issue was that he was weak. He was dependent on Igrette for all but the weakest of magic beasts, meaning she had no choice but to fight to defend him. That needed to change.

If he couldn't even take care of himself here, how was he supposed to take care of Igrette? I need to figure out internal gravity magic. Nothing else would work. Even pushing himself, increasing his body's mana tolerance would take a few more weeks at best, and proper internal mana techniques were even further away. The only thing that could help him take a leap in combat prowess in a short time was finally understanding internal gravity magic.

And that made his inability to understand it that much more frustrating. If he could just figure it out, he would be able to do something. Their situation wouldn't be so dire. There were some magic beasts that were just beyond him, like the winter wolves, or the bear, but for many of them, he felt they weren't a whole lot stronger than he was. For example, the glass deer, or the pikas.

He was pretty sure that he would have been able to figure out how to win against even the larger stags when it came to the glass deer. Maybe not if they all attacked at once, but in a one on one, it would be closer. And there were a few other beasts that Igrette had slain along the way that if he was just a little stronger, she wouldn't have been needed. He just needed to take that single step, and it would be within reach. He just needed a bit more time. Dear God, if you're real, please just give us a few days.

Just enough time for me to figure this out. He spent the next quarter hour focusing on his mana until the meat was done, then after feeding Igrette, he immediately got to work. He did everything he had been doing for the past two weeks, but with much more conviction. He was still frustrated, but he didn't let the frustration ruin his focus, and every time he failed, he just took a deep breath and tried again. Hours passed as he trained and Igrette healed.

He made no progress on internal gravity magic, but his progress when it came to his other objectives was good. He pushed his body as far as it could safely go while practicing his breathing, and he staved off the boredom, making it through his entire body while strengthening each individual part. His gravity magic training was just as unorthodox as before, but he was no longer just messing around. He was actively trying to make it work, and while he never succeeded, he felt like he was getting closer.

He was in the middle of repeatedly raising his arms and letting them fall when Igrette's voice snapped his attention back to her.

"Jonny," she said.

"What?"

"Something is coming." Fuck, Jonny thought. Come on? Not even a day?

"What is it?"

"I'm not sure," she said.

"But it's alone. For now. It's near the winter wolves, but it's working its way toward us. I've recovered somewhat, and–""No," said Jonny.

"You said it's only one, right?"

"For now. There could be more."

"Is it something I can beat?"

"I can't tell."

"But it's not super strong?"

"I believe it's only second layer."

"I'll handle it, then."

"But–""I said I'll handle it. You just wait here and keep healing." Igrette looked like she wanted to say more, but Jonny fixed her with a look that kept her quiet. A second layer beast was not weak, but neither was Jonny. It was risky, but not so dangerous that Igrette needed to involve herself. He was certain that if it seemed like he was losing, she would get up and help, though, injury be damned. I'd better not lose, then.