Roar!
The short negotiations between a man and a beast fell through, and it was now time to fight until one side was dead.
The mighty Silverback charged straight at Gerald. His giant body was much stronger than the wolves that Gerald fought before. Not daring to take any risks, Gerald quickly cast another Fist of Wind to keep the distance.
But the wolf leader was heavy and the gust of wind barely pushed him back. It used its mighty paw to swipe at Gerald. Not expecting his spell would have so little effect, Gerald didn't guard in time and a heavy blow landed on his chest.
His leather vest and the cloth shirt under it were both torn apart like they were made of paper. Although Gerald was still using the Unmoving Boulder, the claws still left three deep marks in his flesh. Blood soon dyed his clothes red.
"Oh shit!" Feeling the burning pain, Gerald realized that even with the upgraded defense, his body was still too weak to be able to compete with the enraged Silverback.
After the powerful blow, he took a tumble backward. Luckily Sera realized he was in trouble and so she started throwing her knives at the wolf, giving Gerald enough time to stabilize himself.
"Look's like I will have to destroy this nice pelt… Such a shame." Gerald laughed but then he felt pain in his chest and coughed out some blood. "Ow! Damn… I have probably broken a rib…again. I need to finish this soon. The potions are running out."
Most of the wolves were either dead or too injured to fight. That was the only consolation for Gerald. At least he didn't have to worry about being ambushed from behind.
"Let's go! Stone Bolt! Fist of Wind! Stone Spike, Stone Spike!" that was the sequence in which Gerald cast his spells.
First, he summoned a batch of Stone Bolts, then he utilized the Fist of Wind to keep the wolf in place. Lastly, he used the Stone Spike spell to cut off his escape routes.
The Stone Spikes came from the ground, on the left and right sides. Right after came the Stone Bolts, one half from the front and the other half from the sky. The Silverback was surrounded from all sides. His only option was to move back and try to avoid the Stone Bolts.
Too bad it didn't consider this as an option.
Rage and hate clouded its judgment as it charged forward. Five Stone Bolts hit the mark, two on the shoulders, one took a chunk of meat from the cheek and the last two struck the upper back.
The wounds greatly slowed the animal down, but still, Gerald barely managed to dodge to the side. He could feel his clothes tearing on his waist when the claws came swiping at him.
Gerald knew the time was of the essence and if he missed the opportunity to kill the Silverback now, he would most likely die. The potions almost ran out and as soon as the Swiftness Potion was exhausted, that would be the time of his demise.
Although he was wounded as well, he could fight at the maximum capacity thanks to the Swiftness Potion.
He was also running out of Mana, and the Greater Mana Potion was already over. This was his last chance.
"Fist of Wind, die!" Gerald cast his last spell to break the balance of the wolf and gathered all his strength to chop at the beast's powerful neck with his sword.
The cut was deep and blood gushed out like a fountain.
But it was not the end. The Silverback was a strong creature, an advanced wolf. It would never give up, not when the enemy was so close.
In the last desperate attempt, it gathered the minuscule amount of energy and launched itself on Gerald with a mouth full of sharp teeth.
"Earth Spike!"
Bam!
Amazingly, in the final moment before the collision, Sera managed to cast the one and only proper spell in her life. An Earth Spike grew out of the ground, shielding Gerald and forming an obstacle for the wolf. The latter hit the spike with all that momentum behind it.
That was the last straw that broke the camel's back. The last little push that transferred it to the land of the dead.
Gerald was still in shock from what just happened. He was gasping for air and coughing blood at the same time. His whole body was burning and he was in pain from exhaustion.
"Thank you..." he weakly said.
Every potion had some side effects. Some were mild and barely noticeable, others were harsh and painful.
Swiftness Potion was the former. Although you had unlimited energy for the duration of the potion, the muscles got damaged just the same as if you didn't have the potion.
Gerald was fighting at his max capacity for the entire ten minutes, combined with his mediocre endurance it took quite a toll on him.
"It's finally over…" he whispered and collapsed to the ground. "I'm never leaving my bed again!"
Sera went to finish off the remaining wounded wolves and in the meantime, Gerald bandaged up his wounds. He also drank a Healing Potion to speed up his recovery.
These potions worked on the principle of speeding up metabolism and all bodily functions. That way, the body recovered much faster, but at the same time, after taking it, people would quickly become hungry. Also, the scars would remain.
Gerald decided to meditate, to speed up his Mana recovery. If he could use healing magic, he would be good to go much sooner.
"How are you feeling?" Sera came close and asked him with concern.
Gerald gave a forced smile, "I'll be fine, don't worry about me."
Sera bit her lip and asked, "Can I do something to help?"
"Nah," Gerald shook his head and comforted her, "Don't worry about me, when I gather enough Mana I'll be able to heal myself," he said. "Tell me; what was our haul this time?"
"Well, a few wolves escaped so in total we got twenty-eight hides and five of those were quite damaged. That means we have reached the quota and we can go back."
"Good, good." Gerald closed his eyes and said, "I'll rest for a while; you take care of things in the meantime."
Sera nodded and dragged the dead Silverback away to be skinned.
Now that Gerald was alone again, he convulsed and coughed out more blood. He was holding it in to not worry Sera. Now he was able to cough and curse freely.
"Bloody hell, am I going to cough out my lungs or what? I'm still so terribly weak, it's so annoying!" Although he had Unmoving Boulder active the whole time, the wolf leader still managed to hurt him quite a bit.
Gerald was a person that knew how to find good stuff among the bad. For instance, now he discovered a big weakness in the Unmoving Boulder Art. Although the skin and surface muscles were somewhat protected, that did not apply to internal organs and bones.
Only now did he realize how inferior it was to the original Stone Body Iron Heart. The force behind the paw swipe traveled through the first layer of protection and directly damaged his lungs and broke his already weak ribs. He just recovered from the previous fracture after all.
"Damn it! I really need to get that God's Blood and make a Mana Elixir. I need to get my Mana up to at least one hundred points to be able to use Stone Body".
He drank the Mana Potion and combined with meditation, recovered his Mana quite quickly. He then used healing magic on himself, to speed up the recovery process. He repeated this a few times and it only took him about two hours to heal himself enough to be at about eighty percent.
Now he was getting really hungry so he went to find sera. When he found her, he noticed that to his delight, she already made a fire and was roasting the Silverback. The smells coming off of it really triggered Gerald's appetite.
He took the knife and cut himself a piece. "Mn, delicious," he complimented. He then proceeded to stuff himself as much as he could. It had to be said, the meat of the Silverback was surprisingly tender and sweet for a giant carnivore.
Sera and Gerald chatted for about an hour after the meal, before packing their things and turning back home. Gerald's clothes were in a horrible state, so he used the pelt of the Silverback as a cape and draped it over himself.
They both had a giant bundle of wolfskins on their backs that slowed them down quite a bit. The road back took them two days, twice as long as when they came to the northern hunting grounds.
The forest was gradually getting thinner and they could already see the grassy plains around Geldern.
"Sera, my dear! What a coincidence we would meet here," a high-pitched voice traveled from the shrubs to the side of the road, not far away from them.
Sera's face quickly dimmed and it could be seen that the voice irritated her. Gerald also frowned when he heard the unpleasant voice. He heard it before, but even with his amazing memory, he just couldn't remember when he heard it, or who it belonged to.
A total mystery.