Chapter 5: Not Exactly a Walk in the Park

Chapter 5:
Not Exactly a Walk in the Park

 

FLUM’S BODY was cut to shreds, limbs and chunks of her body flying off in all directions.

Milkit screamed at the sight. “Master?!”

It was the first time the cool and collected girl had showed such emotion. Arms, legs, head, torso… Flum’s body was split into six distinct pieces that all slammed into the ground with a wet thud. The thick blood that poured from her wounds was hungrily sucked up by the moist earth beneath her.

“Aaaaaaaaah!!!”

Milkit stood locked in place. The shock of seeing Flum die so easily right in front of her eyes was too much to bear.

The anzu gave a loud snort, as if pleased with its work, before turning its black eyes to the lone survivor. Its mouth curled up into a sinister grin as it spied its prey, exposed fangs still soaked in the blood of the fallen werewolves.

It seemed to be telling Milkit that this was where she would die.

She didn’t particularly care about death, whether another’s or her own. Her life, after all, carried no real value. The beast sitting across the clearing from her stood at least four meters tall and sported claws that looked like they could rip right through any armor, massive fangs, and powerful magic. Any attack it made would prove fatal to Milkit, making it pointless to even bother to fight.

It wasn’t even the will to live that screamed at her to run, just the desire to get out of this place. Milkit willed her body to move, but it was to no avail.

“Groooooooooar!!” The anzu let out a mighty roar and dove straight toward its prey. The ground shook as each paw slammed down with immense force. All Milkit could do in the face of the monstrosity closing in on her was pull her arms in front of her head and duck down.

THWUMP!

It barely missed her as it ran past. She could feel its fur graze her arms. The ground groaned beneath the immense weight of the beast as it landed and screeched to a halt.

Milkit’s heart was now racing in her chest, and her ears were ringing. She began to hyperventilate from the shock of it all. She was still terrified, but her body seemed to be responding again. The odds of her being able to escape were miniscule at best, but it was better than nothing. She had to at least try.

She stumbled over the moist ground of the forest, struggling to keep from falling as she ran as fast as she could. With almost no practice at running to draw on, she struggled to keep her movements and breathing under control, with the end result that she moved at little more than a fast jog.

The anzu seemed to pick up on this, realizing that she posed no threat. No, she was a snack—or possibly, a plaything. A sinister grin once again graced its lips. Rather than attacking her outright, it began to slowly close in on her.

Milkit collapsed to the ground with a shout and resorted to crawling. The anzu reached out with its claw, swiping just close enough to rip her clothes. The young slave girl let out an ear-piercing scream. Her whole body trembled in terror.

Like a bully torturing ants, the anzu seemed to take great pleasure in her fear. If it were human, it would almost certainly be cackling right now.

Alas, Milkit had very little stamina to begin with, and it was only a matter of time until the exertion laid her out. The anzu watched, growing increasingly bored as her strength drained from her body. It was about time that she went from plaything to lunch.

It readied itself to lunge forward.

“That hurt, ya know.”

Someone grabbed the anzu’s tail.

“Seriously, that really, really hurt. But I guess I should be awed by the power of Epic equipment. With my head and my heart still intact, it had me back to normal in just a matter of time.”

The anzu’s tail was incredibly sensitive. The creature bared its fangs, but before it could turn to face whoever was holding it, they acted first.

“And now here you are, toying with a weak little girl?”

Flum brought her sword down in one quick motion, cleanly severing the anzu’s tail from its body.

“Grooooooooaaaar!!!!” The beast dove forward as the agony spread through its tailbone. It landed with a heavy thud and fell over onto its side, its legs kicking pathetically at the air.

Flum was instantly next to it, her sword raised high in the air. Her shoulders still weren’t fully healed; blood pumped from the open wounds where her arms were loosely connected to her body. Her face contorted in pain as she expelled a heavy breath and bit her lip hard, bringing the sword down on the anzu’s hind legs.

“Gyaaaaaaugh!!” The blade carved a deep red gash and sent blood shooting through the air. The anzu cried out and kicked furiously, toppling nearby trees in the process.

“See, it hurts, doesn’t it? But that’s just a taste of what you did to me. You sliced and diced me up, you know, and I’m not even fully healed. And it still really hurts, dammit!”

Flum knew that the words probably had no meaning to the anzu, but she couldn’t stop herself from venting her frustration. When the magic had cut her into pieces, Flum was sure she was dead. She could feel consciousness slipping from her and the world growing cold as her blood drained away. She was resigned to her own demise. Now, if Milkit would just run…

Much to her surprise, however, her blood stopped flowing, and she felt a magical connection between her severed body parts. Some invisible force began to pull them together and, before she knew it, the wounds started to heal.

It took quite a bit longer than it had to restore the parts of her body that had been eaten by the ghouls, but regardless, she was still alive. Excepting a mortal wound to her head or heart, Flum figured she couldn’t be killed. At least not by losing her head and limbs.

“Grrrrr…graaaaaaaooooll!”

The anzu slowly stood and turned to face Flum. It moved a lot more gingerly than it had before, and blood soaked its fur from the open wound in its leg. Even for a monster of its size, this was a critical injury.

Behind the anzu, Milkit clasped her hands to her chest, the sense of relief evident on her face. “I’m so glad you’re safe, Master.”

“Get out of here, Milkit!”

“Understood. Please don’t do anything too rash, Master.”

With that, Milkit hurried off in the direction they came from. That took care of one of Flum’s concerns. Now, she could concentrate on the battle at hand.

She laughed darkly and muttered to herself. “Not doing anything rash isn’t really an option. Not against this thing.”

The anzu paid no attention to the fleeing slave girl, its attention now entirely focused on Flum. She evaluated her situation.

“With its leg out of commission, speed’s on my side. I can probably dodge its claws and fangs, so as long as I keep an eye out for its magic attacks…I might just have a chance.”

She figured it would need some time to gather enough wind for another long-distance magic attack like the one it used to chop her up earlier. If she kept that in mind and kept her movements unpredictable, then it shouldn’t be able to land another direct hit on her.

Flum slowly edged to her opponent’s right, being mindful to keep her distance. The anzu matched her pace, slowly adjusting its body to keep facing her, though its strength was draining the longer this went on and more blood gushed from its leg. Her attempts to continue to buy time only served to frustrate the beast.

The monster stabbed its claws deep into the earth, possibly preparing to lunge. Flum steeled herself for the attack.

However…

“Gwaaaaaaaaar!”

It didn’t lunge forward, as she had expected, but up.

A mighty gust of wind blasted past Flum. She looked up to see the anzu soaring high in the sky, its wings beating powerfully.

“It’s flying?!”

Anzu generally couldn’t fly for long periods of time. Rather, they used their wings for gliding and to assist them when jumping. They could however, fly in short bursts.

Flum struggled to keep sight of the anzu through the gaps in the trees as it swooped through the sky. Thanks to its aerial advantage, however, the anzu had a perfect lock on Flum’s position. At what it judged to be just the right timing, it swooped down toward its prey at incredible speed.

Fwoooooooo!

The wind displaced by its steep dive created an ominous sound, which tipped Flum off to the impending strike and allowed her to dive out of the way. The anzu hit the ground with immense force, its claws driving deep into the soil. The blast of air from the impact blew out a shower of leaves, knocked down several rotten trees, and left a massive circular crater in the ground.

And yet, it had completely missed its target.

Having only narrowly escaped the strike zone, Flum lunged back in for another strike at the monster.

Whoooosh! A powerful gust of wind blew out from where the anzu had been.

“No way…”

A chill ran up her spine, but it was too late to stop. She was already committed to her lunge.

The previous attack hadn’t been a mere aerial assault, as she’d thought. The anzu had summoned a wind attack as it came down, and as soon as it touched the ground, it let out a massive burst of air in all directions.

Flum stabbed her sword into the ground and held on tight as she weathered this sudden storm. “Gah! I thought I was keeping an eye on its magic, but I didn’t expect this! Gyauuh!”

A large tree toppled over and struck Flum from behind. The pain she felt was intense, almost as if she’d shattered her spine, but by the time she hit the ground and the tree rolled off her, she was fully healed.

As the haze over her vision cleared, she caught sight of the anzu’s claws sweeping a hair’s breadth away from her face. Flum struggled quickly to her feet, only to topple over again.

SMASH!

She heard the sound of a tree being reduced to firewood behind her. If that blow had hit her, there’d be nothing but chunks of meat left—and there’d be no coming back from that one. Having experienced it once, the very idea of death made her sick to her stomach.

Struggling back to her feet, Flum came to the alarming realization that she was no longer holding her sword. She looked down to see that the rune traced on her palm was glowing.

That was right—when an Epic weapon lost contact with its owner, it immediately returned to its parallel dimension.

Flum concentrated on her palm and summoned forth the Souleater again.

“You…you know, I’m r-r-really beginning to love th-this Epic equipment.”

She was still catching her breath as she wrapped both hands around the Souleater’s hilt and faced down the anzu. Flum reminded herself to be careful of its magic, as well as its many other forms of attack. It had short- and long-range options available to it, making it exceedingly unlikely that she was going to get out of this unscathed.

As far as she could see, there was only one opening here for a novice fighter like her: put her own body on the line—flesh, bone, and all.

“My strength is in my…well, my body.”

She balked at the thought of feeling such incredible agony again but knew she would heal from pretty much anything short of a truly mortal wound. All she had to do was take advantage of that.

“I really, really do hate pain. But if I die, Milkit’s pretty much a goner, too. In that case, well…I guess it’s about time to make good on that dream of being a hero, huh?”

Flum closed her eyes, picturing Milkit running through the forest in her mind’s eye. She could feel her anxiety drain away, leaving behind only resolve. The subtle warmth of Milkit’s touch seemed to fill her palm. She knew what she had to do.

The source of Flum’s courage was rather simple: she wanted to protect the young girl she’d only just met this morning. If it weren’t for her, she may well have given up by now.

“All right, let’s get this done, little miss hero!”

Flum let out a final shout to urge herself on before plowing ahead in a mad dash toward the anzu. She could hear the sword bouncing off the occasional rock as she closed the gap. The anzu, also aware of the power differential between them, moved forward to meet her attack head on. It took a step…

There was still quite a bit of distance between them. Flum suppressed the fear welling up within her and kept going.

A second step…

It was practically on her now, but all she needed to do was avoid any attacks that would instantly kill her.

A third step…and contact.

The anzu brought its massive claws down toward Flum’s head. Flum ducked to her right, managing to save her skull from the crushing blow. The claws still caught her in the left shoulder and cut straight through her flesh like a hot knife through butter. Pieces of her shoulder flew everywhere, exposing the white bone underneath.

If felt like her whole arm was on fire. But it was still just heat—her brain hadn’t had time to recognize the sensation as pain. She didn’t slow her stride as she closed in on the anzu and swung her sword clear through its chest as she ran past.

The black steel cut easily through the fur, fat, muscle, and even organs as it slid through the anzu’s body.

“Nnng…gyaaaah!”

“Graoooooor!!”

They both cried out in unison. There was, ultimately, little difference in their injuries…other than the fact that Flum’s were quickly healing while the anzu’s only grew worse.

Flum finally stopped her mad dash, though her sheer momentum made her slide a moment longer on the layer of leaves that blanketed the forest floor. She spun around and the two opponents squared off once again.

The anzu was clearly in pain as it began to beat its wings once more. It was likely about to unleash its wind attack again—the one that had chopped Flum into pieces before. Her body instinctively shuddered at the memory. Fortunately, her previous strike seemed to have shattered its focus, and it was taking much longer to gather enough wind this time. Once it did, however, there’d be nowhere for her to dodge at such close range.

Trying to stop the anzu from launching the spell meant getting in range of its claws or fangs, which would also likely be a fatal blow. Flum had only one real option available to her if she hoped to avoid a gruesome fate: get the anzu to run.

She wasn’t too keen on the idea of letting something that’d put her through such misery get away, but it was pretty clear that the anzu had already used up much of its strength. One more push and it would probably give up and run.

Her mind raced for an idea until she spotted a stand of large trees just within striking distance. She didn’t have time to think about whether it’d work or not. She had to act now.

Flum swung with all her might toward the nearest tree’s trunk.

“Hyaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!”

THWUNK!

The dull sound of the sword’s impact reverberated through the tree before, a second later, the trunk shattered. Thick, ancient fibers of wood snapped one after another as the massive tree started to topple over.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t falling toward the anzu—rather, it was coming right at her.

“Raaaaaaaaaaaah!!” Flum let out another scream and swung back at the rapidly falling trunk, this time with the flat edge of her sword.

Kawhoomp!

The blow knocked the tree back toward the anzu, which was just mere moments from unleashing its spell. The massive trunk landed on the lion-like creature’s torso with a dull, wet thud. The anzu’s legs instantly gave out as it was crushed between the ground and the tree.

It looked like it could probably drag itself free, given time. However, Flum had no intention of letting that happen.

She rushed forward with all she had and thrust her sword deep into the anzu’s skull. “Come get some!!!”

“Gra…oooooor!” The blade effortlessly cleaved bone and slid deep into the anzu’s brain, and yet, it still roared in pain. Clearly, this wasn’t quite the deathblow she had been hoping for.

Flum pushed with all her might, until the sword was buried to the hilt. She then grabbed that hilt and pulled down as hard as she could, as if it were a lever.

“Nnnnnnnnggg…!”

“Go…rrr…”

As she carved through the anzu’s brain, it finally lost consciousness. The massive beast went limp, like a puppet with its strings cut. Flum quickly let go of the sword to avoid getting pulled down with the collapsing creature as it swayed back and forth for a moment before finally tumbling over on one side, hitting the ground with a massive impact that sent up a flurry of leaves in its wake. The sword was still firmly embedded in its skull.

Flum looked at the corpse as she heaved in breaths of cool air.

“Think that was a tough enough challenge for my first time out, do you?”

The anzu lay there motionless. Only once she was sure it was finally dead did Flum let herself relax. She threw out her arms and dropped backward onto the soft ground.

Pwumpf. The cushion of leaves felt surprisingly good, if a bit damp and chilly. But even that felt nice against her flushed skin as her heartbeat struggled to return to normal. High up above, Flum caught a glimpse of the orange sky through the dense tree cover. It was getting late—she really needed to start heading back.

“Even the sky’s working against me here,” she groused to herself.

Though the wounds on her body had long-since healed, she could still feel a stinging sensation, almost like a phantom pain. If anything, her clothes were in worse shape than she was. She’d lost her cloak somewhere, and her white shirt and shorts were nearly unrecognizable as clothing.

Flum felt a deep sense of uncertainty well up within her. “First I get screwed over by that stupid guild, then almost killed by a huge monster… What’s next?”

She really wasn’t excited about returning to the capital. However, the thought of Milkit waiting for her at the entrance to the forest finally inspired her to put that aside and let go of her worries for now. Feeling slightly more motivated, Flum propped up her upper body.

“I guess I can at least be proud that that jerk Dein didn’t get his way.” He’d undoubtedly be beside himself when he learned she’d survived not just an encounter with a werewolf but even a C-Rank monster like the anzu.

Flum slowly dragged herself to her feet, the whole while imagining the surprised expressions of the men when she got back to the guild.