BXBX NOVEL 114. Shadow Wolf
What the hell? Ike glanced at his ankle. Blood poured out, soaking into the fallen grasses. A bite mark opened on his leg.
Are they too fast? Or… Ike closed his eyes. Standing completely still, he extended his aether all around him, creating a cloud of aether around his body. Like that, he could feel anything that entered his aether, whether his eyes could see it or not.
Aether stirred. Quick motion at his hip.
Ike sliced out, spinning and opening his eyes at the same time. His sword struck something. A yelp sounded out. Blood splashed over the grass. And yet, he saw nothing.
"Invisible wolves?" Ike muttered. He watched the blood splotches quickly retreat cross the grass. The golden strands swallowed up the bright blood.
The shadows darted around him. The grass rustled. Ike kept his eyes open, but paid more attention to the aether field around him. A rapid leap toward his neck. He raised his sword, putting the blade between him and the wolf.
Blood washed over him. Weight sagged down onto his sword. Even after the wolf died, it remained invisible on the exterior. Its organs and meat dripped down, perfectly visible, but from the outside, he saw nothing.
Very interesting. I\'m taking these skins! Hell, not even to sell. If I can refine these skins into furs or leather, I can sneak around anywhere I want, totally invisible!
Ike grinned to himself. He was in the Abyss. If he managed to leave the Abyss with the wolf skins, what were the chances anyone outside the Abyss would know about the invisible wolves? Hell, did the people who lived in Abyssal even know about the monsters this deep in the Abyss?
His brows furrowed again. But wait. There\'s supposed to be terrifying monsters this far in. Is that just a myth? The ravens were pretty scary, but these wolves aren\'t so bad.
Then again, only a few people can maintain their magehood in the Abyss. If I had no magic, the ravens and wolves would have already killed me. Maybe that\'s why the Abyss seems far less scary to me than it is in the legends.
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Well. And I\'m Rank 2, now. There\'s very few Rank 2s in the slums, and it\'s the same in Abyssal. I am the scary monster.
Weird.
His aether stirred again. Snapped back into the present, Ike pivoted and sliced out. Another wolf shrieked and slammed against the ground. He fell still again, waiting.
Something in the grass snarled. A great swathe of aether stirred. Ike turned his blade to meet the attack, only to get lifted off the ground and thrown into the grass. He rolled. Rocks cut into his skin and bumped against his bones. Using his momentum, he threw himself back to his feet.
Another wolf darted in. Unable to turn his sword around in time, Ike threw a punch in its direction. Green shockwaves slammed into an invisible form. The wolf shrieked and tumbled back.
A vast disturbance in his aether swept toward his back. He dashed into the air, lightning chasing after him. The disturbance swept under his feet. From midair, Ike spun around and struck downward. Blood gushed. An enormous growl shuddered past Ike\'s ear.
He swallowed. Spoke too soon. The Abyss is full of monsters, even for a Rank 2 like me.
Something rushed at him from below, closing in on his legs on two sides. If these are wolves, it\'s biting me right now!
Unable to dodge in midair, he yanked his legs up and stabbed downward at the same time. The wolf caught his sword in its mouth. It threw him to the ground, then yipped in pain. Blood dripped from its mouth.
Ike hit the ground hard. He bounced, then laid there a moment, dazed. His bones ached. Blood oozed out of his mouth.
Strings darted down from the sky and hefted him into the air like a puppet. With a flick of her wrist, Wisp set him on his feet.
"Rise and shine," she said, and released him.
Ike barely caught himself. He shook his head and wiped his brow, lifting his sword again. He activated Lightning Clad. Unable to pay too much attention to his individual passages, he simply activated it again and again, forcing his body to get used to the aether. Slowly, the time he could maintain the activation grew longer.
If he couldn\'t do it through brainpower, he\'d just do it through trial and error. Not everything could be overcome through careful adjustments. Some things were better overcome through figuring out what worked and what didn\'t until you only had a bunch of things that worked.
At the same time, he kept the aether field around him active. He backed away slowly, facing the last place he\'d sensed the invisible wolf. Smaller wolves darted around him, pinging his aether field. Sensing a trap, he didn\'t go after them. Instead, he stood in place, waiting. He gathered up lightning on his hands. Extending the shape of Lightning Grasp, he channeled it into his sword.
It all comes down to this next blow. Either the giant wolf injures me enough that its underlings can tear me to bits, or I kill the giant wolf.
That\'s why I have to put it all into this next attack. Everything I have. All my power.
Motion in his aether field. He whipped around, raising his sword. A splatter of blood on the air told him where the wolf\'s tongue was. Ike aimed for that, swinging with all his might. His eyes widened. His whole body tensed, every ounce of muscle and aether put into the swing.
Take this!