Wolves

I took a moment to analyze the wolves, circulating my manna through my eyes. The comparison and math were easy enough to make. Basically speaking, they had enough strength left to easily overpower me if I didn't use magic.

I wasn't skilled enough to use multiple spells at once, so I had no idea how tough my magic actually made me, but if I wanted to win, and that was the only variable, my constitution would have likely needed to increase from 63… all the way to 100… Which was about as high as my sisters. Even if it was only half of my brothers, it was still more than a 50% increase.

The wolves' hunger quickly overpowered what little fear they still had of me, and they charged, their caution being thrown to the howling wind above the pit.

As they leapt at me I froze time. 'So fast.'

I could see their movements, and predict them perfectly, but it didn't matter. There was no way I could dodge.

'I hate fighting like this… But it looks like I'm just going to have to brawl…' There was no plan, no parry, and strike, no counterattack or faint. All I could do was take some damage and dish some back. In the end, it was a numbers game. I just had to hope my stats were good enough.

The moment time continued my skin hardened and the wolves gnawed at me, tearing my clothes and ripping my flesh.

Only, I felt nothing more than light scrapes and needle pricks. My skin was even tougher than last time. It was the difference between wood and bronze. 

As they tried to bite at me I continued to fight back, but surviving was hard enough, much less finding an opening.

Once they realized I wasn't easy prey they changed tactics, clawing at me, and then retreating back again.

'I need to bide my time. If I completely ignore one, then maybe I'll be able to at least take the other out and work from there.'

They charged again and I froze time. My position felt the same. 'Why do I always have to resort to this… Allowing myself to get hurt in order to gain the advantage… I hate it… Of all the strategies… It has to be my least favorite…'

A tactical sacrifice. A plan in which you allow your opponent to take a small win, or to harm you in some way, in order to ultimately overtake them in the end… It was a useful concept, but it was never how I played. I hated the idea of losing so much that I forced myself to get good enough I never had to implement something like that. My preferred method was without a doubt total victory, 0 casualties.

I let out an internal sigh, resigning myself to my crude methods, and after reading their movements I resumed time. The wolf's jaws clamped down around my arm and, jerking violently, I slammed it into the wall. It whimpered in pain and crashed to the ground as the other sank its teeth into my side with the opening I gave it.

I ignored the pain, taking whatever it threw at me with gritted teeth. 'I have to finish it!'

Before the downed wolf could get up I placed my knee on its neck and pulled until I heard it crack. 'Too bad for you I know you have weak necks.' The sound sent a shiver down my spine. Sure I knew about monster's weakness's because of Mara's teaching, but I had never actually applied them in a real situation.

The other wolf's teeth were still tearing at me, making my skin stain red with my own blood from the shallow cuts.

I grabbed its jaws, griping its teeth with my bare hands and forcing it open. With its mouth caught it scratched at me with its claws, only leaving more gashes.

I forced it to the ground, taking the hits, and again placed my knee on its neck and pulled until I heard it crack.

As the beast's body fell completely limp in my hands I shuddered. I thought I would be relieved that it was all over, but instead, I felt nauseous.

I staggered back until falling to the ground, unable to stop my hands from shaking as the feeling remained in them. I was alone, surrounded by corpses, and covered in blood. Even if the corpses weren't human, they were creatures that I killed with my bare hands… It wasn't that I felt like I had done something wrong but… I guess I didn't know how I felt…

Unable to stop my stomach from twisting, I threw up. Only then did I start to calm down. I didn't feel bad about what I did, not in the least… It was just a lot to take in.

I sat against the wall, trying not to look at the dead wolves as I caught my breath. 'Somehow they're even more unsettling now.'

I knew it wasn't over. I had to get back to the castle, only then would I have truly passed the test. No matter how hard I tried though, I couldn't bring myself to move.

I was tired and bloodied and wanted nothing more than to forget the feeling of a corpse going limp in my hands. 'I can't fall asleep, not here. The scent of blood will attract more monsters when it's this thick.'

After nearly 15 minutes I finally dragged myself back onto my feet and headed over to the wall with good holds for climbing. 'I'm counting this as one of the times you hit me… That makes 3…' I felt winded just from standing up again, grabbing my knees after making it to the wall. 'No wait, you know what, I didn't like it when you picked me up by my throat either, so that's 4… Does it even matter anymore…'

I quickly checked my wounds to make sure none of them were deep enough to worry, and luckily they weren't. There were just so many of them. 'These bite marks don't look right… These are normal wolves, right? Dire wolves have more teeth, not less.'

My curiosity got the best of me and I hesitantly approached one of the dead wolves. 'It's not going to come back as an undead that fast right?'

 I crept up to it, nudging it with my foot to make sure it was dead, before opening its mouth to look.

'Someone ripped out its fangs. I guess that explains why I wasn't cut up more by the bites…'

I groaned as I forced myself to lift my head to the ridge where I was thrown in. 'No… This still counts as 4…'

I turned back to the wall the wolves weren't quite able to climb out of. 'Still not ideal… But I should be able to climb out with holds like these.' My hands felt weak, and as I got closer to the top I started to become nervous, each hold feeling like it was the last I could manage, one of them finally giving out, my fingers slipping as my nails split and broke against the stone.

I gritted my teeth as I felt, the wind getting knocked clean out of my lungs when I hit the ground. As soon as I could I got back up. 'The blood on my hands is making it hard to grip the wall… I need to dry it somehow...'

Thankfully, I still had some magic left over from the fight. Imagining the anger and rage building inside of me I thought of fire appearing in my hands. Just like before it was weak in comparison to my ice, but it was hot. The intense flame cauterized the wounds on my fingers and dried the blood, making it a bit sticky, working like chalk and adding to my grip instead of making it worse.

'This'll do nicely.'

Waiting for my hands to recover fully, I tried again and made it out of the pit without issue. 'Now then…' I kneeled down. Sure enough, there were several boot prints, two sets arriving and leaving.

'When my father dug the pit this must be how he got out. This means these tracks lead back to the castle… And the other set… Well… I haven't seen Bhaltair around recently...'

"You guys weren't out hunting… were you…"

I heard the sound of a horse's hooves slamming into the ground as it took off. 'So someone was keeping an eye on me after all? Maybe to make sure no other monsters showed up during my "Test."

I brushed the thought from my mind. Leaving the pit behind me I followed the tracks. Thankfully, they weren't exactly small and delicate, considering the size of the men that left them. 

It was easier than tracing the steps of a grown bear. In the end, I made it all the way out of the forest without incident, seemingly worried about other monsters for nothing.

'I guess things can go right every once and a while.'

It was still several miles back to the castle, but I was finally starting to feel a sense of relief. My feet were ice cold from walking through the snow, but because of my training, I knew it would never be serious as long as I didn't twist an ankle again. 

'Of the three techniques, this is the first. I passed the test, so that means there are only two more tests… Two more life or death tests and I'm finally free of this. At this rate, I'll be done before I even have to worry about the ghoul again.'