Tsutsutsu-
Elric could feel the icicle he had been holding melting in his hand.
'Thankfully... Did it pierce through the windpipe?'
The plan was to pretend to fall and lead the dire wolf to attack from above, and then stab him based on what he had read using mind's eye in advance.
If there had been even a slight mistake, he would have been the one attacked.
Since being chased to death was inevitable anyway, it seemed the strategy he attempted in desperation was effective.
The exhausted dire wolf rested its head on Elric's chest.
Being this close made Elric realize just how large the creature was.
"Ugh!"
Pushing the creature away, Elric managed to get up.
"Argh, darn it! It's darn heavy."
But the problem was the wound on his hand.
Elric ended up getting frostbite because he grabbed the frozen icicles with his hands without any protection.
And with the weight of the dire wolf added, it tore his hand open.
Fearing death if he let go, Elric endured the pain, his hand already covered in blood.
His wrist felt strained, and it throbbed with pain.
But Elric didn't pay it any mind.
There was still another creature prowling nearby.
"...This is insane."
Growl!
The creature, perhaps aware that one of its kind had died, showed no hesitation to attack.
But its bloodshot eyes and drooling mouth indicated its readiness to pounce at any moment.
'He won't charge in the same way again... So, I need to come up with another plan.'
Never with full strength. Not even with stamina.
'Darn it. If I knew this would happen, I would've trained harder.'
Body Strengthening Art.
The technique he had already perfected theoretically couldn't be more urgent now.
Although he had mimicked Body Strengthening Art through magic armament before.
Now that mana manipulation was impossible, he realized he had been too careless.
There might be more crises ahead.
He felt he needed to prepare some hidden tricks to protect himself.
Kwaang!
At that moment, the dire wolf, which had been observing quietly, moved.
Instead of trying to move reflexively, Elric straightened his back as a thought passed through his mind.
'Wait.'
His eyes widened.
'I already know all the key elements of Body Strengthening Art, right? So why not just mimic it?'
Body Strengthening Art was most effective in enhancing the body, but it also contained martial arts utilizing it.
Mana could be drawn in through breathing, and weaknesses of the enemy could be discerned through insight.
Then couldn't he mimic it as much as possible?
Even if his skill was lacking, he might still be able to handle one dire wolf somehow... Those thoughts crossed his mind in succession.
And then.
Thunk!
Elric, too, sprung forward just like the dire wolf.
The king of the beastmen, Tigermen, was incredibly brave, and as such, he never hesitated to showcase his martial prowess.
Passages from an unpublished paper he had written long ago flashed through his mind one by one.
They perceive their bodies as a world "crafted by the god in small size," within which lies the essence of all natural phenomena.
The dire wolf was initially surprised that Elric stood his ground instead of fleeing, but soon dismissed it with a snort.
Confirming Elric had no other abilities, it regarded his defiance as mere resistance.
Just as mana streams flow through mother nature, breath flows within the body.
But Elric's gaze was tranquil.
He was so focused that one might doubt if he had been chased by wolves at all.
Unconsciously, an icicle found its place in his right hand.
He believed that by controlling his breath and focusing his determination, he could alter his physical state.
While his eyes remained fixed on the dire wolf, his mind was entirely focused on the icicle, or more precisely, its sharp tip.
And then, he took a deep breath.
In just one breath, the world portrayed by his mind's eye drastically changed.
A single-minded focus like that often brought forth countless unconscious impulses. The Tigermen would instinctively select one from among them and act on it.
Though his mind's eye still depicted many options, Elric instinctively knew which one to choose.
Thud!
Following that decision, he stepped forward.
There was no sound, but as his ankle tensed, his body rotated sharply.
There was no telling how the dire wolf would attack from here.
It could aim for his legs, bite his side, or even attempt a sweeping attack from behind.
Yet Elric moved without any specific anticipation, purely on instinct.
And miraculously, the dire wolf's snout narrowly missed where he had been standing.
Instead, it revealed the left side of its neck.
The dire wolf seemed somewhat surprised that Elric would evade so easily.
'Now!'
As if not wanting to miss the opportunity, Elric thrust the icicle he held in his right hand directly into the side of the dire wolf's neck.
Breath and intuition.
The fighting style that emerged from the precarious balance between the two was the martial arts of the Ho tribe.
Thud!
Crunch!
'Oh no!'
However, whether it didn't pierce directly or for some other reason, the icicle didn't withstand the weight and broke midway.
Blood spurted out.
The dire wolf let out a cry of pain, but then turned around and charged again.
All he showed was his will to kill Elric somehow.
'As expected... purely instinctive!'
Even as the attack failed, Elric retreated without any signs of panic, extending his left hand forward.
There was no plan, no reasoning behind it.
He just felt it was the right thing to do.
Crunch!
Of course, the dire wolf, not willing to miss such an opportunity, promptly bit down hard on that extended left arm.
Elric, gritting his teeth against the excruciating pain, shoved the icicle he had grasped back into the creature's eye without hesitation.
Kraaaaw!
The dire wolf opened its mouth again and tried to retreat, but Elric pushed his left hand deeper into its mouth, rendering it unable to move, then proceeded to strike wildly with the icicle.
Thud!
Thud!
Crunch!
The icicle struck the dire wolf's eyes and face repeatedly.
With each strike, blood spurted, flesh flew. The icicle broke several times, but quickly froze again.
The sharp tip of the icicle was soaked in copious amounts of dried blood.
Crack, crack-crack!
The dire wolf, unable to offer any resistance, stumbled backward.
Thud!
With a final blow from Elric, the skull shattered, and the dire wolf collapsed to the ground.
"Ha, ha, ha..."
Elric also sat heavily on top of it, breathing heavily.
His left arm was practically useless, almost torn off below the elbow, and even his relatively intact right arm was torn from gripping the icicle forcibly, leaving his hand shredded.
Yet, instead of showing signs of pain, he grimaced, almost as if...
『You... you are insane.』
Mephisto, silently observing Elric's actions, concluded.
He already suspected Elric wasn't normal, but with each passing moment, it became increasingly apparent.
『Have you finally realized the image of your true nature? Even so, since beastmen are originally wild creatures that have not received the benefits of civilization... How did you become human?』
Even if you open your mind's eye, it will be difficult to do so unless you sharpen your senses and go beyond the realm of 'instinct' and 'intuition'.
Mephisto questioned a situation that he could not understand with his common sense.
『No... Maybe you can. Because it's you.』
Soon, he found an easy answer.
Because he was Elric.
One shouldn't use the average standard for someone like him. That was the conclusion Mephisto had reached long ago.
And it seemed that Augustine shared the same sentiment.
[Heh! Hehe! Truly different, unique. I thought you would just escape with your skills, but to capture both in just one day…]
Mephisto grinned while hearing Augustine's praise.
『I don't think that old man is normal either? He drives people into such a dangerous place and then laughs it off. Have you done something wrong to that old man?』
Elric waved his hand in response, as if he didn't have the energy to answer.
[But if you continue to leave it like that, it will become really dangerous from the next day. Originally, it was a fact that you had to find out yourself while exploring the labyrinth... Still, since you have achieved such high results, I will give you a hint as a reward.]
Throughout Augustine's words, Elric's face was filled with various frustrations.
[If you look at the cliff, you'll see moss thriving where the moonlight shines. Look carefully at that.]
Augustine's words abruptly ended there.
"...He never said anything about letting me go or lowering the difficulty."
Elric gritted his teeth, saying that he would take revenge no matter what if he left this place. He adjusted his left arm and cast a freezing spell.
He had to stop the bleeding for now.
Of course, this wouldn't heal him completely, but it would at least serve as emergency treatment.
"You deranged geezer."
Elric cursed as he forced himself to stand, not forgetting to shout curses at Augustine as well.
If he didn't do this, he felt like he would explode from within.
And of course, he made sure to scream loud enough for Augustine to hear him, causing the echo to reverberate through the narrow canyon.
"Scammer, senile patient, ruined character, old man like Mephisto...!"
『Why are you including me in this!』
He obviously ignored Mephisto's protest.
"Argh! So frustrated, so frustrated, really frustrated!"
But what frustrated him even more was that, despite not wanting to hear Augustine's words at all, he still had to take the bait he threw.
"What the hell is supposed to be in the moss!"
Along the tall cliff, the lower parts of protruding rocks were covered in thick moss.
However, he couldn't figure out what he was supposed to do with them.
Seeing the moss soaked with dew, he thought it might be usable as drinking water, but he had no idea how to use it to treat his wounds.
Would any of them be useful as medicinal herbs? He furrowed his brow as he considered.
'Ah, I have no idea what's what.'
The problem was that among all the courses he had taken so far, there was no course on herbalism.
After all, the Department of Elemental Studies and the Department of Magical Medicine were distinctly different departments.
So Elric thought he might have to painstakingly pluck out the moss and experiment with each type.
『Uh? Why is this here?』
Suddenly, Mephisto touched the moss with startled eyes.
-Why? Do you know?
Elric couldn't muster enough mana to use sound conduction immediately, so he scribbled letters in the air.
『It's called 'Anck-Su-Namum's flower.'』
-Oh, what's that?
『'Anck-Su-Namum's flower.' You probably won't know. It's a creature from the demon world that feeds on demonic energy. It's hardly known to humans... Can it grow in such large clusters like this?』
While Mephisto couldn't comprehend the abundance of the black moss growing along the cliff, he couldn't understand it at all.
But there was only one sentence echoing in Elric's ears.
It feeds on demonic energy!
-If its nutrient is demonic energy, then it must contain demonic or mana, right?
『Hmph! That's unlikely.』
-Huh? So it doesn't?
『No, that's not it. Rather, the problem is that it contains too much pure mana.』
For a moment, Elric forgot about his pain and his eyes sparkled.
That meant one thing.
All this moss could be used for potions!
'This is a gold mine!'