But the Wolf did not get to its position with cowardice.
It pushed aside its primal fear and analyzed the situation with more rationale. That strange aura of malice had suddenly dissipated from the boy.
Perhaps it was merely a side effect of one of his skills.
The boy's physical capability now was nothing to be scoffed at, yet it did not ascend to an impossible-to-match degree.
In fact, the boy and the Wolf were now matched in raw strength, it noticed.
The more the Wolf thought about the situation, the more it calmed down.
Even as Asher's suit stained with blood, and corrupted fairies sprung from the ground, the Wolf found its rationality take over.
Little Red simultaneously had the same thoughts as the Wolf, though she became even more collected than it was.
That aura must be from the skill Asher told her about a few days ago, she thought. The way his suit changed in appearance also supported her assumption.
And so the outburst of malice from the boy's future self was all but forgotten, attributed to his skills instead.
Soon the atmosphere reignited with tension as the pair of Abnormalities locked eyes with each other once again.
Little Red blinked to Asher's side, swiftly applying a tourniquet to the boy's arm with a bit of fabric from his torn uniform.
Asher winced as he felt his blood vessels squeeze shut, nodding at Little Red with gratitude.
She ignored him, a hint of dark envy surfacing in her eye at his new strength.
She was the weakest of the three now.
Wasn't this unfair?
In front of them, the Wolf stared at Little Red petulantly. The situation was not looking good.
The boy now had similar stats to itself, and with the addition of Little Red's brutal fighting style that more than made up for her lack of raw power...
Its mind raced for a plan as Little Red's blade flashed to its eye level.
The tip of the weapon pointed at its forehead, with the intent to carve its brains out.
The Wolf growled, and the glow in its eyes brightened.
Perhaps it could yield a partial victory from this conundrum.
Blackish char began to snake around Asher's skin as his joints quivered with strain.
Another skill, the Wolf realized. The fairies melted back into the floor, and his suit faded away in favor of a crimson, now char covered, cloak.
Yet that sudden spike of strength remained.
The Wolf heightened its guard.
It was Asher who made the first move, propelling himself forward faster than a bullet.
A perk courtesy to [Puppet Movements], which made each of his tendons more spring-like than actual flesh.
Even the Wolf could only see a blur shoot toward it.
Instinct pulled his claws forward, slicing toward the approaching figure's chest.
Yet Asher's instincts were better.
Just as the Wolf felt his claw touch Asher's ribs, the boy leaned backwards, sliding underneath its claws with his body nearly parallel to the ground.
As the boy swept around its attack, he used the knife in his hand to lacerate the Wolf's back tendons with two swift slashes.
The Wolf felt a stinging pain in his flank.
Whirling backwards, it saw Asher flick the blood off his knife, a languid expression resting on his face.
In a match of equal physical strength, Asher's [Puppet Movements] would never allow him to lose. This display confirmed it.
The Wolf snarled, melting into the shadows as Little Red's blade cut the air where it used to stand.
Why...?
Why could the Wolf dodge her attacks, while Asher wounded it with ease?
Envy.
The sky darkened once again as the sparks from the buckshot-on-blade fizzled away.
"Little Red, stick close to me!" Asher's newfound strength gave him a surge of confidence.
He called out for Little Red, eager to prove himself.
He wanted to protect her. He wanted her praise.
For her to say 'thank you for helping me'.
...
'Why could the Wolf dodge my attacks, while that... kid... wounded it with ease?'
A sense of disgust and fury bloomed in Little Red's soul. Asher's protective tone echoed in her mind.
She replayed the voice in her mind.
"Little Red, stick close to me!"
Again.
"Stick close to me!"
Again.
"Close to me!"
Again.
"To me!"
'...'
After so many centuries of suffering in this hellhole, facing the Wolf in an eternity's battle, a mere boy passes me in an instant?
Now he wants to protect... me?
The Abnormality's molars cracked as she grit her teeth.
What are my efforts, my pain, my loss, my wounds to him, a mere joke?
I was the one who took care of him, saved him, kept him alive... What right does he have to be stronger than me?!
A tear touched her eye. It was one of madness.
To look so relaxed, while facing the monster who took everything away from me-!
Her hand clenched her blade's leather grip.
A sickening emotion rose in the depths of the woman's mind.
What about me? What about my misery, my agony, everything my life has come to?
Hate twisted her soul, casting away any shred of goodwill she had toward the boy in an instant.
Two enemies to kill, to slash apart, to tear into pieces.
She seethed in the silence of darkness.
...
Asher fell silent. He couldn't see through the darkness, so he had no idea why she didn't respond to his call.
Then the leaves began to crackle around him, giving Asher no time to ponder about the silence.
Asher readied his guard, spreading out his senses to all but sight and taste.
His skin crackled in the light wind, as if it was made of bamboo paper. He stood still, his posture mimicking a puppet with its strings cut.
Waiting silently.
"-!" His head shot to the side as he sensed a movement a few meters from him.
A metallic ringing, another surge of sparks, and Asher could see that the Wolf did not plan to attack him.
Its target was Little Red.
But as the sparklight illuminated her face-
The world stilled.
The Abnormality's cloak had darkened with such writhing hatred that it was dyed nearly black.
Her eye dripped with savage, manic tears.
Even the Wolf froze for an instant as she shifted her broken gaze to it, her expression mixed with crushing despair and unfathomable wrath.
Her soul had shattered into shards of glass.
And with this glass, the world shall see pain.
Little Red's gun fell from her grip, clattering to the ground.
She blinked forward, gripping the Wolf's snout, crushing it in her first.
"You will be first."
As she spoke, the sky burst into a crimson dawn, and glistening red hatred swept away the darkness, purging it to nothingness.
Hung above the sky, a bloodshot eye pulsed with festered emotion.
...
Asher gulped as the stifling atmosphere squeezed the air out of his lungs.
[Hatred bends reality, condensing into physical form! Little Red has declared you a target to be killed!]
Asher's confusion at the second statement was overridden by just how urgent the System's prompt looked.
After all, when was the last time the words flashed with red in warning?
Then he read the glaring red prompt again.
'Hm...?'
She shouldn't hate him, right?
[Little Red's hatred consumes her rationality!]
[The Abnormality condenses her emotions, gaining a skill: 'Mark'!]
[You have been marked! Status 'Mark' has been applied!]
[Mark: Only applicable to a target the user hates dearly. In the event of an altercation with a marked target, increase the users statistics to a maximum of x1.7. The exact multiplication value depends on the intensity of the emotion the user holds toward the target.]
'W-Wait wait wait, what do you mean?'
[The description gives enough explanation.]
[...Prepare yourself.]
It only gave a grim warning.
An Abnormality gaining a completely new skill inside its own punishment mission... the System knew just how rare that was.
And considering the nature of the skill she gained, the System had a vague sense of what occurred in the Abnormality's mind for her rage to bubble over like this.
The boy had made a mistake in his wording.
'Then, h-how long do I have with my effect durations?'
['Last Chance', No.6 (x2), and Frenzy currently have 76 seconds left.]
'A bit over one minute...'
[73.]
Asher turned his attention to Little Red, who was currently whispering something in the Wolf's ear.
...
Compared to Asher, the Wolf was relatively calm. Even as its bones fractured under Little Red's grip, it simply made a taunting smirk through its teeth.
This was more like it.
No strange kid interfering, no hidden emotions in its prey's gaze.
In front of her, Little Red only saw one thing. A creature to be killed.
Now this, this was like the old times. Before their souls were shackled, becoming glorified slaves to be given away.
The Wolf melted into the ground before Little Red could crush its bones, appearing on the opposite side of Asher.
The boy seemed to be processing some thoughts, which slightly relieved the Wolf. After all, it wanted a one on one, not a brawl that included the 'chosen' freak of God.
"Just like old times, eh? Red."
The Wolf shook itself, clearing the ache in its nose. That hurt.
But that only drove it to another mocking remark.
"Heh, so twitchy~ What, did something good happen to you?"
Little Red stood there, silent.
Within the red mist billowing from her cloak, the forest began to melt into blood.
The prey had undeniably gotten stronger; the murky glow from her cloak tore past the Wolf's artificial darkness.
With this, she was also as strong as it was.
The Wolf let go of any hope that it could win this time.
But a partial victory...
A plan raced through its mind.
It could see the divided hatred seething inside Little Red's soul, with the 'chosen' boy sharing a large portion of that hate.
The Wolf didn't care for why the woman suddenly changed sentiment, but if it could redirect some of that hate...
"Ah... I see it now."
The Wolf snarled, half laughing at the same time.
What if Red murdered her own chance at freedom?
That boy, strangled within her own gloves?
All she needed was a little...
Push.