Another wolf came forward inside the underground, the angry wolf that pounced at Miya was able to push through inside with that moment of weakness in their formation. However, since there was the body of the dead wolf that collapsed near the entrance, it couldn't move carelessly. But that fact was also applicable for Sho and Alpha, they couldn't keep on blocking the entrance anymore.
Miya's body looked more fragile than ever as she struggled to get up. Her eyes were almost squinted to nothingness from the pain she was feeling, however, the stubbornness in her brown eyes didn't vanish. Her long black hair that lost its luster was wet in sweat framed her oval face proudly yet she looked like a very weak teen at that moment as her left arm started to bleed once more.
As what Alpha said, the potion only stopped the bleeding. It didn't heal it at all. Being overly exerted, its effect vanished.
"Grrrrr…." the wolf growled. Its eyes were like a dagger wanting to murder the three of them.
Alpha looked at him, nodded, before he went forward. Looking at this, Sho immediately knew he wanted something out of him. Yet, he knew Alpha wouldn't tell him what the command was. There was a wolf leader behind the wolf pack. Any strategizing would be futile.
*What do you want?*
He silently asked himself while observing Alpha. It was not easy to read someone you barely know. And even though they had spar before, it was not enough for Sho to know every thought Alpha could have.
Their bond wasn't that deep yet.
He trusted the guy, but that didn't mean he could read him. His trust for him was deep enough to put his life on Alpha's hand. Especially with this scenario, he grew to respect and trust him more. Sho knew Alpha could have left him and survived the pack, but instead Alpha stayed with him and Miya. The same could be said for Miya, realizing how her skills work, he knew she could've left both him and Alpha to survive. But neither of the two choose that. They decided they should stick together.
Only he would have certain death if left alone.
He didn't know whether to laugh or be thankful for their naivety. Even in the original Sho's memory, only Asahi has that naivety in him.
Humans usually just take care of themselves. It was pretty common to care for yourself rather than care for others. Sho's memory was crystal clear with that. Hana and his fake friends were just a tiny fraction of those who would use others to make themselves better.
Having met two people who were opposed to those countless people he met was a breath of fresh air for him.
*I'm too weak. But this is not the time to wallow. Does Alpha want me to support him? I can't distract the wolf even if I want to. I'm not as good as Alpha and Miya. And Alpha knows this. He won't send me to my death. Yes, the only thing I can do is offer support whenever Alpha needs it. But this would be tricky.*
Because he wasn't really given luxury to just think, he raised his Soul Crusher in front of him. He saw the paws reach out to scratch him. He wanted to use the wolf's own power to at least hurt it.
He felt joy when he felt the knife finally dug on the wolf's paw. He knew it wasn't fatal, but he still felt proud of his achievement nonetheless.
Sho blinked when something unexpected happened. The wolf visibly paused for five seconds. Five seconds might be short, yet, it was enough for Alpha to deal a heavy blow on its stomach and even reach its tail. The other wolf that wanted to enter was even shocked about the turn of events; it tried to swipe Alpha but failed.
The angry wolf howled upon gaining back its senses. Its voice was different. It has lingering fear on the howl.
It panicked and tried to sway its tail away. The other wolf tried to get inside the underground, yet because of the mess, they couldn't fit inside. Only one wolf could fit, yet was not completely inside either, the rest were just standing outside, growling. The one on the most front was trying to claw to hinder Alpha but when it hit the angry wolf that was inside, it gave up on trying to help.
The angry wolf who got angrier from the shame of being scared couldn't think straight. Instead of making way for its brethren, it unconsciously wanted to hoard the prey to heal its wounded pride. The angry wolf, seeing as its tail whip didn't damage Alpha, tried to claw the guy instead, to stop him from what he was trying to do. But Alpha suddenly increased in speed. After another blink from Sho, Alpha was already successful from cutting the wolf's tail.
Immediately after doing so, the wolf fell down.
Sho felt goosebumps after the realization.
*Cutting the wolf's tail would end their life! Unlike cutting the stomach, cutting their tail was faster in… eliminating them. This… It feels like cutting off a human head!*
He didn't know the logic behind it, but he felt lucky knowing this. Such strong and powerful creatures that have high defense. They weren't able to deal any damage with the body, but one cut on the tail and they're gone.
He realized that in this changing world, Health or HP didn't exist unlike usual games. And that made it more dangerous. Just thinking of it more deeply made him feel sick. There were potions available, but it wasn't a miracle item. Sho was contemplating how easy it was to take a life with this Super Phenomena changing their world.
And although the original Sho was a fan of games, they were after all just games. This was real life. And he thought they should be different. Furthermore if people would throw away their morality and just kill everything, he felt chaos would surely descend on them. If it was so easy to kill someone, wouldn't a minor dispute turn into murder or killing spree?
Those who have thought of massacre would be living in their dreams and those who loved peace would live in a nightmare.
He was certain of it.
He immediately put those thoughts behind him. Even though it was usual for him to have his mind wander, he knew distraction was never a good thing in a fight.
The howling of the wolves continued. But this time, their howl seems different. But he couldn't understand what they meant. Alpha seemed to have noticed the change in their cry. He backed away from the two corpses of wolves. His tense shoulder gave off the feeling that everything grew from worse to worst, immediately infecting Sho and Miya, they also tensed up and back away.
As if in a queue, after the trio tensed up and stepped back, the wolf who was underground with them slowly backed away too. It was baring its teeth on them as it continued to growl. It was a weird thing to see. Sho could clearly see the anger in their eyes, if looks could kill, the three would have suffered a torturous death already. But still, the wolf chose to retreat.
His amazement disappeared quickly when he noticed what replaced the wolf.
*Wolf leader!*
He gulped as he wished the wolf wouldn't be able to fit inside the tunnel. One reason he felt assured with the underground passageway was because he thought the wolf leader wouldn't fit in.
But he was proven wrong. Two swipes of its claw and it removed the huge trunk that made it impossible for the wolf to enter freely.
Destroying the obstacle, the paws slowly moved forward as it revealed its gray fur that almost looked like black due to the giant king covering the light with its shadow. When the giant wolf finally became visible to the three, Its chin was up and its amber eyes were looking down on them. Even though they killed two of its wolves, it didn't show distress or fear. Sho felt that the wolf could achieve far better things than that, like squishy two wolves at the same time with just one finger.
*It's looking down on us. It feels like… it is the king!*
That's the only conclusion Sho could come up with as it continued to gracefully go down the underground. It was graceful, scary and noble all at the same time. It felt like one wrong move and it could execute you. One wrong disobedience, and your life is cut off.
Both Sho and Alpha felt themselves slowly getting crushed by its presence alone. But they knew they couldn't back down now. Their only exit is being blocked by the wolf king.
It howled. And before any of them could think of what it would do. It dashed towards Miya. Both Alpha and Sho, realizing what it wants, run to stop the wolf king. But it was too fast for them. In just a few seconds, it was in front of Miya. The only thing that they were glad about was Miya, who the wolf king targeted, didn't panic. Once Miya saw the wolf king enter, she immediately assumed defensive pose. Even when she was visibly weak and hurt, she wasn't going to give up without a fight.
She defended from the claws of the wolf king with her lengthy kubaton. However, the kubaton broke in half, unable to take the force of the wolf king. Even though it was not too successful, it was neither a failure. She did buy them enough time to reach the wolf king and help her fend it off.
Sho and Alpha raced towards Miya and tried to elevate the damage she would take. Sho knowing it was better to leave Alpha the front sided, he went for the back side of the wolf king, Alpha immediately knew Sho's intention and went towards the paw of the wolf king.
But soon, all three of them had their faces darkened. The wolf king just continued to swipe on Miya, it didn't even spare them a glance. The only thing it spared them was its tail that kept both Alpha and Sho unable to help Miya. Miya gritted her teeth and held the two broken parts of kubaton in each hand trying her best to resist the wolf king while not losing her weapon. In the process her body took more damage.
Alpha relentlessly attacked the wolf. It was a scary sight to look at. The slash of the baton echoed throughout the underground. But still, there was no damage at all. No one would think Alpha was weak, though, even if he didn't damage the wolf king.
Despite the fact that the wolf king didn't have the snake-like skin like the rest of the pack, its fur was hard as steel. And when Sho accidentally brushed himself with the fur, he was given surprise to see himself bleed. The fur itself was a weapon already.
The situation was getting grimmer by the second.
"Damn." Sho cursed. He has little damage to the wolf. Even if he aimed for the tail, the tail was too fast for him to do any real damage. Unlike Alpha who can keep up with the wolf king, he was a meager in its paw. He was too weak.
Yet, he couldn't accept his uselessness. He might not have the strength to fight, but he has a skill that could get him out of situations.
Seeing that Alpha was getting faster and stronger while fighting the wolf, and was now starting to be able to lift some weight off Miya. He immediately casted his skill.
*Overview: Winning over Fenrir.*
As soon as he casted his skill, he felt intense pain in his head. It felt like something was crashing his brain inside. He gripped his head in pain. Alpha who saw this immediately knew he was casting his skill.
"Don't overdo it, young man." He could only mutter as he was still busy trying to alleviate Miya's burden against the wolf king's assault. At the same time, he also knew that he had to hope Sho would be successful in knowing the wolf king's weakness. He had been attacking the wolf for quite awhile now, but he only managed to slightly get it off Miya. He wasn't able to find its weakness, it didn't have the same weakness as the other wolves.
*I need "his" help.* Alpha thought. *But he won't give me his help at all. Is he waiting for Sho? He said Sho would be our hope. But he's still young and inexperienced. No matter what he would become in the future, now, he can't fight at all. I still need to guide him.*
Sho screamed internally, grabbing his head, he didn't end the skill even when he felt like dying. He knew the pain was something he had to risk if he wanted to live.
Unlike the first time he casted the skill, the particle of the book wasn't fast at emerging. It took three seconds for it to finally come to life. He didn't browse through the book and focus his attention on how they could survive.
Soon, the image of the chain appeared directly in Sho's mind. The image of the chain was broken, and then… he wasn't able to keep on using the skill anymore. It was automatically disabled.
Sho was in so much mental pain that he was even already slumping on the floor when he opened his eyes. Except he knew it was far from over. When he finally regained the focus of his eyes. He immediately felt despair.
Both Miya and Alpha were heavily wounded.
It only lasted less than a minute, but Alpha had a heavy wound in his right shoulder and his stomach. Sho wasn't sure if it was a vital hit. He was just hoping it wasn't. But even so, Alpha has so many other wounds aside from those two big wounds that it was hard to tell how he could remain standing.
As for Miya, she was far worse than Alpha. Being attacked by the wolf king, she was bleeding profusely and needed medical attention. Sho can only see red from Miya's body. And it was hard to tell which part of her wasn't wounded. She could barely stand, and she was being protected by Alpha most of the time.
Standing up, he felt a new drive to do better.
He can't give up!
He refuses to just die here when everyone is fighting as hard as they could!