As swiftly as Ryan regained command of his limbs, he deftly dodged to one side, evading the three-eyed wolf whose paw was already mid-swing, aimed for his head. His movements were as precise as they were urgent.
His landing was anything but graceful. He hit the ground in a tumble, but with an agility born of necessity, he was back on his feet in a heartbeat, racing away without a moment's hesitation.
Ryan didn't need anyone to tell him the stark reality of his situation. He could feel it in his bones, in the unfamiliar rhythm of his heartbeat. This body was not an awakened one. It was ill-equipped, unprepared to face the monstrous three-eyed wolf. He had no chance of victory in this unequal fight.
The wolf, cheated of its prey, howled its fury to the empty sky. Its red eyes glowed with a fit of ferocious anger as it watched Ryan escape.
With a growl that was louder and more savage than the last, the wolf launched itself forward, a blur of motion as it chased after Ryan. It was an enraged predator, and Ryan was its prey.
"Damn it!" Ryan spat out an expletive as he heard the heavy, thudding footfall of the pursuing wolf. It was gaining on him, its speed surpassing his own, closing the distance between them with alarming rapidity.
Ryan's mind was a whirlwind of thoughts as he tried to process his situation, to devise a plan to escape the deadly predator. He had to find a way to fend off the wolf, to survive its relentless pursuit.
One thing was clear: this was no afterlife. There was no reason for him to be facing a beast in what should have been a realm of peace. He had killed several three-eyed wolves in his past life, but he didn't believe that those actions would warrant such a fearsome welcome. And he was not particularly inclined to believe in an afterlife, to begin with.
Having dismissed that possibility, Ryan was left with one conclusion. He had been reborn, but not in his own body. He was inhabiting someone else's form, and the previous owner had not been an awakened one.
Betrayed by his friends, now facing death in the jaws of a ravenous wolf... He couldn't decide which fate was worse.
The wolf was closing in; he could hear its footfalls growing louder and nearer. The beast was at least a corrupted beast and Ryan was in the body of an unawakened. His speed was limited, his options dwindling.
His mind raced, desperate for a solution. He couldn't confront the wolf head-on. A mere graze from its claws would inflict serious injury, let alone a full-on attack. He would be utterly decimated.
His only hope was to trap the wolf. The surrounding area, though mostly in ruins, still had a few standing structures that could be used to his advantage. Most of the buildings had already collapsed, their skeletal remains a testament to their former glory. Some still stood, though they looked precarious as if a light breeze could bring them down and Ryan didn't dare get any closer to it.
There were also robust structures scattered about, their sturdy forms appearing capable of withstanding considerable force. But such durability was not what Ryan sought.
A structure resilient to pressure, one that wouldn't crumble easily, would necessitate a significant amount of force to cause its collapse. Regrettably, such force was beyond Ryan's capability. The three-eyed wolf might possess the necessary strength, but even for it, bringing down such a building would be a time-consuming endeavor. And time was the one commodity Ryan found himself in desperate shortage of.
His plan was relatively straightforward. He aimed to lure the monstrous three-eyed wolf into a precariously-standing building, then provoke it into damaging the internal framework of the already unstable structure. This, he hoped, would trigger the building's collapse. At the critical moment, just as the building teetered on the brink of collapse, Ryan planned to make his escape.
He harbored doubts, however, about whether a collapsing building would indeed be sufficient to kill the three-eyed beast. At the very least, he reasoned, such an event would buy him some time. Even if the wolf survived the building's downfall, it might be temporarily stalled, or better yet, injured and thus slowed down.
While his mind whirled with these plans, and he searched for the most suitable structure to serve as his trap, the three-eyed wolf continued its relentless advance, steadily closing the distance between them. To exacerbate the situation, Ryan felt his energy draining away. His run was slowing to a jog, his breath coming in ragged gasps. The sensation of his lungs burning was becoming increasingly unbearable.
"Damn this frail body I'm trapped in!" he spat out in frustration. His slowing pace stood in stark contrast to the unrelenting speed of the three-eyed wolf, which seemed just as swift as when the chase had begun.
The urgency of his circumstances became all too clear. Time was no longer his ally in the search for the ideal building to serve as his planned trap. He would have to make a decision and make it fast, or risk meeting his end in the jaws of the three-eyed wolf.
His gaze darted around the landscape as he ran, and soon, he spotted a structure that might just be suitable for his purpose.
It wasn't exactly what he'd envisioned when he'd initially drafted his plan, but he was running out of options, and fast. Besides, he wasn't entirely certain what the perfect building for his trap would look like. His unfamiliarity with the locale made it difficult for him to make accurate judgments.
For example, buildings that he had dismissed as weak based on their appearance might have been standing for ages, having weathered numerous storms and still standing despite their frail looks. Conversely, buildings he had deemed too sturdy might have been decaying from the inside, their strong exterior hiding a weak core.
In the end, he realized he would have to make a snap decision and hope for the best. His exhaustion was mounting, and the three-eyed wolf was closing in with alarming speed.
He quickly changed his course, setting his eyes on the building he'd chosen. It appeared to have once been a towering edifice, perhaps even a skyscraper. Now, however, only a few floors remained intact, the rest a pile of ruins.