10 Intruder

As she stepped out of the tent, Emily scanned her surroundings carefully, tightly gripping her sword in her hand. 'Where are all the guards?' she wondered, making her way towards the direction in which she had heard the footsteps fading. She walked for some time, but didn't find anything, and decided to turn back, as she was already quite far away from the tents. But just as she was about to head back, she heard the footsteps again.

Emily immediately became alert and decided to follow the source.

.

.

Emily moved slowly, keeping her guard up at all times as she followed the footsteps. Suddenly, the footsteps stopped and then started getting closer and closer.

Emily circulated the mana inside her, ready to fight if necessary. The image of the intruder slowly became clearer as it stepped out of the darkness.

Emily's heartbeat quickened as a fierce, 4-foot-tall demonic wolf appeared before her.

'It's a middle-rank demonic wolf!' Emily exclaimed in her mind, regretting her decision to come out alone.

Demonic beasts were ranked from 1 to 7, each ranking divided into three sub-ranks (initial, middle, late). An initial rank 1 demonic beast could fight head-to-head with an initial 1st-circle mage, and the order continued as such for the other stages.

Although the demonic beasts couldn't use spells like mages, the mana they absorbed was used to strengthen their bodies, which is why a mage would either have to use mana to strengthen their body when fighting or use long-distance attacks while maintaining distance.

Strengthening one's body with mana required a lot of practice and would also cause a lot of pain during training, which is why there were fewer mages who trained their bodies.

.

.

'It's almost on the verge of advancing to the next stage, I can't win.

I have to somehow return back to the camp where the guards can help me.' Emily was just a newly advanced middle 1st-circle mage and knew she couldn't defeat the wolf alone. She didn't want the wolf to lower the distance between them anymore, so she decided to strike first. She casted a spell and a fireball the size of a football formed in her hand which she immediately threw toward the approaching wolf.

Emily didn't even wait for it to reach the wolf as she knew that even if it hit the wolf, it wouldn't cause a major injury to it. Instead, she used it to buy a few more moments of time for her to run away. As she had expected, the wolf dodged the fireball, but the explosion it caused managed to earn Emily a few more seconds.

.

.

Seeing its prey running, the wolf growled and started chasing after Emily.

Emily knew she had to act fast or she would be caught. She conjured two fireballs, her current limit, and threw them towards the wolf while running. The wolf dodged the first fireball but the second one hit it in the leg. The wolf growled in anger and started chasing after Emily again.

Emily was running with all her might but she knew that the wolf was faster and would catch up to her before she could reach the tents. So, she constantly threw fireballs, trying to delay it, but the wolf was dodging every single one of them while closing down the distance between them.

Before Emily could even reach halfway through the distance, she had almost completely depleted her mana.

Emily was about to look behind her when she saw a faint shadow of a claw behind her. A chill ran down her spine, and she instantly rotated her body to dodge.

Although she managed to dodge the claw, she lost her balance and crashed into a nearby tree. "Arrghh!!" Emily groaned in pain, but she still tried to reach out for her sword. But the wolf appeared in front of her, looking at her menacingly.

.

.

Emily suddenly felt a pressure locking onto her, which rendered her incapable of moving.

'A-am I going to die here?

So I am still alone even till my very end.' Emily thought as she saw the wolf leap towards her with its jaw wide open. Emily had accepted her fate and had closed her eyes, waiting for the pain to come, but it didn't.

'Does it not hurt in your final moments?' Emily thought, but a pained growl made her open her eyes.

In front of Emily was someone who had one hand in front of her, as if trying to protect her, while the wolf had ruthlessly bitten into its other hand.

'K-Kevin?' Emily thought, confused and surprised as she recognized the person as the man she had met just a few days ago.

Kevin gritted his teeth in pain as the wolf tried to sink its teeth deeper into his flesh. A spear appeared in his hand, and he thrust it towards the wolf.

The wolf let go of Kevin's arm and tried to back away, but due to the short distance between them, the spear managed to make a cut on the wolf's back. "Grrrrr!!" The wolf growled in anger towards Kevin but didn't attack immediately.

Ignoring the pain in his left arm, Kevin firmly positioned himself in front of Emily. Seeing the wolf circling around them, Kevin said, "Emily, we can't win against it. So, I want you to run towards the tent as fast as you can, while I will try to hold it here."

.

.

Emily felt her heart drop as she heard Kevin's words. He knew just how dangerous the wolf in front of them was, and yet he was willing to put his own life on the line to protect her. She couldn't understand why he would do such a thing.

"Why?" she whispered, her mind a jumbled mess of confusion and fear.

'Because I love you, Emily,' a voice echoed in her mind, and her eyes widened in shock. At first, she thought it was her own inner voice, but then she realized that it was Kevin, speaking to her through mental communication.

Tears welled up in her eyes as she looked at the bloody hand of the man standing before her, willing to sacrifice everything for her safety. "He loves me more than his own life," she muttered, and something inside of her shifted.

All the negative feelings and walls she had built around her heart since childhood suddenly crumbled, replaced with a boundless love and obsession for the man before her.

'I also have someone who loves me more than anything,' she thought.

'I am not alone.'

At that moment, she forgot about the wolf and everything else. The only thing she could see was Kevin.

.

.

Feeling a chill run down his spine, Kevin knew that his plan had been successful.

Everything that had just occurred had been carefully orchestrated by him. He knew that simply telling Emily he loved her would not be enough to break down the walls she had built around her heart. He needed to prove it to her, and what better way to do that than by showing her that he loved her more than his own life?

With the help of his new 'friend' Ron, a second-circle mage, he had arranged for a demonic beast to be captured and set Emily alone with it in the tent.

Ron, with his powerful magic, was able to subdue the beast and keep it under control. Although low-ranking demonic beasts didn't have much intelligence, they were well aware of the survival of the fittest.