As Karolina sprinted towards the source of the scream, a flurry of thoughts raced through her mind. What if she wasn't fast enough, and whoever screamed was already dead? What if she arrived in time, but she couldn't do anything? What if the screamer wasn't a person at all, but some kind of monster, imitating a human scream in order to draw in prey?

She considered stopping for a moment to examine the situation before running in, but she kept going. If she hesitated and someone died because of it, she would never forgive herself.

Finally, she had arrived near where the scream had originated, but she didn’t see anything. She looked around frantically, but she didn’t see anything through the trees. She needed to hear another sound in order to pick up the trail. As if on cue, she heard a woman yelling.

“Help! Can anyone hear me? Help m—” The voice suddenly cut off with a strangled grunt. Karolina was already moving. As she burst into a clearing at a dead run, she saw the source of the cries for help. She couldn’t help but let out a small gasp. Luckily, the monster was too focused on its next meal to hear her.

A giant direwolf was pressing down on Ada King’s chest with its right paw. The direwolf was far larger than the others Karolina had killed—maybe twice their size. If other direwolves were the size of normal wolves, this one was the size of a horse.

It was pushing down on the abrasive scout's chest, holding her in place while its mouth opened wide, ready to envelop her head. She was clearly trying to scream, but couldn’t take the breath necessary. A droplet of drool fell from its gaping maw onto her cheek, and its mouth loomed ever closer to her head.

It was about to take a bite when Karolina finally reached them, her right fist glowing with red energy. The direwolf noticed her at the last moment somehow, turning a direct hit to the head into a glancing blow off of its shoulder. It still staggered back off of Ada, but it didn’t seem very injured.

Karolina grabbed at Ada’s arms and yanked her to her feet. The direwolf was staying back, but who knew how long that would last. She hurriedly inspected it, hoping to get any helpful information.

[Direwolf] - Level 16

That wasn’t what she was hoping to see. It was more than twice her level, and the only backup she had was a non-combatant. She looked over at Ada, covered in scrapes and scratches, who was still staring at her in wonder.

“You saved me. I can’t believe it. You saved me,” Ada said. She must still be in shock, or something similar, because her eyes definitely weren’t focusing right.

“Not yet I haven’t. What can you tell me about that giant direwolf? Can we escape?” she asked, keeping her eyes on said direwolf. It was clearly losing its fear of them the longer they stood there not attacking it.

“Well, it’s faster than me, even when I’m using my Sprint skill, so I don’t think we can escape. It’s really strong, but I’m sure that you can handle it,” she said, still staring at her.

That wasn’t what she wanted to hear. She wasn’t sure where Ada’s unearned confidence in her was coming from, but she had no confidence in her ability to win this fight. She guessed that didn’t matter, though; it was either kill this monster, or die and let Ada die, and that was no choice at all.

She observed the monster sit strangely still, not moving at all. It just sat there, content to wait for her to make the first move.

She took a single step forward, and as if that step was the signal it had been waiting for, the direwolf exploded into motion, moving straight towards her. It was almost too fast to see.

She barely had time to brace herself before it slammed into her. They both fell to the ground, the direwolf on top of her. It swiped its claw at her face. She tried to activate Combat Perception, but there was nothing to use it on. She managed to get her left arm in front of her face just in time for the direwolf’s claws to slash deep into her forearm.

She hissed in pain and swung back using her right arm, but she didn’t have the proper leverage to get a good hit, and the monster ignored her blow. She tried again, and it brushed her blow aside like an annoying gnat. It then stepped on her arm, forcing it to the ground before she could make another attempt.

It leaned its head down closer to her face, and started opening its mouth wide. Its hot breath was warm and smelled fetid. She saw something in its soul: amusement and sadistic pleasure. It clearly didn’t view her as a significant threat.

That’s stupid of it, she thought, and hopefully a fatal mistake.

She smiled up at it, the red energy of Strong Blow filling her vision as she used it on her head, and then suddenly snapped her head forward in a headbutt. The direwolf reeled back, several of its teeth shattered and its nose smashed inwards.

She quickly got up, ignoring the wounded direwolf for a second to look for Ada. The only reason she wouldn’t have helped out was if she were in trouble. She spotted her across the clearing, using her movement skill to dodge around a goblin attempting to filet her.

She briefly wondered why the goblin was here; was it drawn here by Ada’s screaming, or just the fighting? She then realized that it didn’t matter at all. It was here now, and she had to leave Ada to handle it because the direwolf was still the far greater threat.

As she stepped towards the still recovering direwolf she tried to form her left hand into a fist. She had just started to curl her fingers when she felt a sharp spike of pain from her forearm and her hand spasmed. She couldn’t use her left hand at all; it hurt too much.

Still, she got up close to the direwolf and attempted to hit it with a few Strong Blows using only her right hand. Despite the clear pain that the creature was in from its partially smashed face, it still managed to dodge or mostly deflect all of her attacks. Strangely, it didn’t have the same pure speed that it had used to force her to the ground earlier, but it was still agile enough to mostly avoid her hits. It definitely didn’t help that she couldn’t use her left arm at all.

This wasn’t working. She couldn’t get another direct hit in, and she was wasting a lot of stamina on attacks that were missing. As soon as the direwolf recovered and was able to rush her again, she would be finished, especially if she ran out of stamina. The headbutt would only work once. She needed a new strategy.

She thought furiously as she half-heartedly continued trying to hit the nimble beast. It was definitely moving slower now than it had earlier, and not just because of its relatively minor injury. If she had to guess, then the awe-inspiring speed that it had used earlier had been a skill, probably helping it to move fast in a straight line.

And if that was the case...then as long as she wasn’t a straight shot from the direwolf, it wouldn’t be able to use its skill. And if it couldn’t use its skill, then she had a chance.

She suddenly disengaged from the direwolf and ran towards Ada. The goblin noticed her coming and turned to face her, keeping Ada in its peripheral vision. It carefully timed her approach, and slashed at the air at just the right moment so that she would have to slow down or get hit.

That didn’t work out for the goblin at all, though, as she used her Combat Perception to deftly avoid its slash and then caved in its chest with a single kick.

Ada looked incredibly pleased. “You saved me again. Normally I would run from enemies like that, but I couldn’t leave you—not if there was a chance that I could help you.”

She bent down and picked up the goblin’s rusty dagger, looking at it with disgust. “Unfortunately, fighting enemies when you’re unarmed only seems to work when you’re you,” she said with a smile.

Karolina wondered at Ada’s sudden shift in personality. Where was the spiteful and downright mean woman who had called her “too stupid to even know to use a weapon”? She didn’t really have time to ask now, but she made a mental note to talk about it if they survived this. When they survived this.

“We need to get out of this clearing. I’m pretty sure that the direwolf’s movement skill only works in straight lines, so if we are behind a few trees then that should limit its options,” Karolina said.

Ada looked skeptical, but said nothing and merely nodded. They hurried to get behind two close-together trees that were at the edge of the clearing. Across the way, the direwolf remained focused on Karolina, seeming to consider what to do next. It growled at them, and then slowly crept across the clearing towards them.

Once it was only about ten feet or so from the treeline, it went completely still again, like it had right before it used the charge skill. But why was it doing that, if the skill only worked on straight-line movement? Before she could find the obvious answer to that question, the direwolf was upon her.

As the direwolf forced her to the ground once again, she realized what an idiot she had been. If that skill only worked in a straight line and didn’t allow maneuvering around obstacles, how could the direwolf have caught Ada? She had been so desperate for the direwolf to have some sort of weakness that she had invented one.

She tried to headbutt the direwolf again, but it was ready for that this time. It ducked back away from her attack, and then sliced at her throat in retaliation. She barely managed to wriggle just enough so its blow hit her collarbone instead, and she wouldn’t be able to do it again. She barely even felt the pain, her quota for suffering already almost full. She was going to die here, and then Ada was going to die here. This had all been for nothing. She was never going to see her parents again.

The direwolf’s soul was burning with anger now, none of the amused disdain from earlier present. She tried to think of some other move that she could make, some attack that she could pull off, and came up with nothing. Well, if she died trying to save someone else’s life, at least she had died a good death.

Suddenly, a rusty iron dagger sprouted from the direwolf’s side. It wasn’t thrust with enough force to completely embed the shoddy weapon, but Ada’s attack was certainly enough to distract the direwolf and once again put it on the defensive.

Karolina surged upwards, determined to attack the wounded direwolf with everything she had. Even with a dagger embedded in its side, the monster was still able to mostly avoid her blows. She felt a grudging respect for the creature form; it must be a strong beast even for level sixteen.

She wished that she was able to use Combat Perception on the beast, but it didn’t have a weapon, or any other object that she could use it on. Or did it? Her eyes caught on the dagger still embedded in the side of the direwolf.

She focused her Combat Perception on the embedded dagger and, sure enough, time seemed to slow around her. Now she was able to predict the movements of the dagger, and as the dagger was currently inside of the direwolf, she was able to somewhat predict its movements. It wasn’t perfect, by any means; the skill was meant to be used to avoid weapons, not predict the movements of a complicated living creature. It was enough though, just barely enough.

The first blow she landed was a stamina-infused punch to the wolf’s side. It stumbled over itself a little, and that was its end. She quickly landed another punch, and then a kick, and then another.

The beast stumbled again, and then fell over. She quickly stepped forward and crushed its skull with her boot. It was finally over. They had defeated it. She almost couldn’t believe it.

They shouldn’t have won: if it had treated them as serious threats from the start, then they would have lost. If nothing else, this was a cautionary tale against hubris. There were so many lessons to take from this battle—so many ways to improve, so many ways that she needed to improve. But first, she had to deal with its aftermath.

You have slain [Direwolf] - Level 16. Experience has been awarded.

You have leveled up. You are now a level 8 [Human (F) / Monk].

You have leveled up. You are now a level 9 [Human (F) / Monk].

You have leveled up. You are now a level 10 [Human (F) / Monk].

You have the opportunity to learn a skill. Say or think “Skill Selection” to begin the selection process.

She felt the rush of warmth she had learned to associate with leveling up. She had leveled up three times from that fight. She felt like she deserved more, honestly: the direwolf had been level sixteen and she had beat it as a level seven!

After closing the first two screens, she eyed the last screen. Skill selection, huh? Well, her first three skills had been invaluable to her; she could only imagine how useful getting more skills would be.

Now, while she was in the middle of the most dangerous part of the forest she had ever been in, however, was not the time or place to pick her next skill. It would have to wait until she got back to camp. She closed the last screen regretfully.

She checked her injuries, the slashes on her left arm and her collarbone. Surprisingly, they hurt less than her first injury, the one she had received from the goblins, and seemed to be bleeding less, too. They actually already looked better than when the direwolf had first injured her. Her increasing constitution stat was really having an impact

She looked over at Ada, who had gone over to the direwolf's corpse. She put one foot on it and grabbed the rusty knife, then pushed down with her foot and yanked out the blood-covered knife in one motion. When she was done, she looked up and seemed a little embarrassed that Karolina was staring at her.

Ada held her chin up. “I never want to be unarmed again, and this will have to do until I can get something better."

Karolina nodded, that made sense to her. “We need to get back to camp. I don’t want to run into any more of these things,” she said. Ada nodded, and they started to head back towards camp, walking side by side.

“Thank you again for saving me. I owe you my life,” Ada said emphatically.

“Hey, you saved me too. If you hadn’t hit it with that dagger, then I would have been done for,” Karolina demurred.

“No, I’m sure that you would have found a way out of that situation without my help. I am glad that I could help you, though.”

Karolina was silent for a few moments. She wasn’t sure if she shared Ada’s assessment of her chances in that situation. Ada’s unending confidence in her also raised a troubling possibility.

“Did you know that the direwolf's charge ability didn’t only work in straight lines?” she asked.

“Yes,” Ada replied.

“Why didn’t you tell me that? I could have made a different plan, tried something else, if I didn’t think that the direwolf had a weakness that turned out to be imaginary,” she asked, getting a little angry.

“Well, excuse me for assuming that you actually know what you’re talking about! Which one of us actually fights monsters in their spare time, again? Because it’s not me,” Ada said. She took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. I just assumed that maybe I was mistaken about its capabilities, just like I was mistaken when I believed that I could outrun it,” she said remorsefully.

“Well, in the future, I need you to tell me if I’m wrong about something,” she said. Ada had just been through a traumatic experience, it made sense that she had made a mistake. And it wasn’t like Karolina hadn’t made any mistakes of her own during the fight.

“Of course! And I’m sorry for being rude to you these past few days. I just didn’t think that I needed protection. I was wrong about that, too,” Ada said, looking down.

“It’s fine,” she said. Ada’s insults had never really bothered her that much, anyway.

Ada fell silent, and so did she. They continued walking for a bit in silence. She inspected Ada, curious to see how much she had leveled.

Ada King: [Human (F) / Scout] - Level 9

She hadn’t quite reached level ten, but that was probably because she’s a Scout. If Karolina remembered what the System told her correctly, you gained more experience when you acted in alignment with your class, and she didn’t think that scouts were supposed to kill massive beasts far beyond their level.

They continued to walk in silence for a little bit, and then Ada looked down at her clothes and groaned. “Ugh. I’m going to have to get these clothes repaired by Sam, and I don’t even know how that’s going to work with me not having a replacement outfit,” Ada said.

“Sam?” she questioned.

“Yeah. You know, Sam the Tailor? Shorter man, red hair? I think I might also need him to clean my outfit, too—I don’t think the blood will come out otherwise,” Ada said.

“Wait. You knew that there was a person, this Sam, that had the ability to both repair and clean clothing, and you let me continue wearing this every day?” she asked angrily, gesturing down at her dirty, cut, and bloodstained gi.

“I thought you were making some kind of fashion statement,” Ada said.

“Fashion statement?” she asked incredulously.

“Yeah. Hobo chic or something,” Ada said. She was only able to keep a straight face for a moment before she burst into laughter. Karolina only lasted a few more seconds before she joined in.

As her laughter died down, Karolina thought about Ada. They had had a rocky beginning, but somehow, she thought that she had made another friend.