The Monster Beast stood a dozen meters away from Wolf. It had the body of a giant dark-red lizard with glowing yellow blotches. It was a meter and a half tall and over ten meters long, with its tail taking up more than half its length.

The air shimmered around that slick body, which radiated enough heat to curl up and wither the leaves of the surrounding trees. The elongated elegance of this Monster Beast’s body was in stark contrast with its head. The Pureflame Salamander’s eyes bulged unnaturally and its ugly mug was broken and twisted, looking like a huge rock had smashed into the giant lizard’s face.

Bloody drool, which steamed and looked like magma, dripped from its deformed jaw, setting the grass and dry leaves of the forest floor on fire for a moment before going out.

Wolf didn’t look much better than his enemy. He was usually lucky in his battles and generally picked on those weaker than him. Thanks to that, his life was rarely in any danger, if you ignored his own foolishness and self-inflicted suffering.

This time, however, Wolf faced a worthy foe. The young Mage lay on his back, a charred claw mark branded onto his chest, while most of his uniform was reduced to ash.

In his hand Wolf gripped his silver-hilted sword, its blade broken a thumb’s width above the hand-guard.

He looked with disbelief at the pitiful slash he’d made on the flank of the Ninth Order Monster Beast. Wolf regretted what he’d done to his poor sword, but he still didn’t think he’d made the wrong choice ever since that bastard screwed them over.

***

“… As for everything else, I’ll handle it,” Wolf promised to his friends before the five of them dashed away from the volcano.

While running, Wayde chanted Clean, but failed to remove all of the yellowish-orange particles covering him.

Wolf observed the whole process with fully awakened senses, but as far as he could tell, Wayde barely removed a third of the dust. Meaning they’d need at least three Cleans per person.

Once the group entered a sparsely forested area, Wolf stopped and used a pinch of Remove Trace. He carefully observed as blades of grass straightened themselves, and yet those tiny stinking flakes on the leaves didn’t budge.

Wolf sighed, but he’d expected this. That Tommy fellow was hateful and crazy. If he’d thrown something at them it wouldn’t be something you could get rid of easily.

Wolf turned around, and after running for a couple of moments, he’d already caught up with his friends. To him this breakneck pace was barely a warmup. However, after half an hour of this warmup, his friends were already gasping for air.

We’re still too close, Wolf thought with a frown as he brought up the rear.

In this half an hour they’d already covered whooping twenty kilometers, however, it still wasn’t enough. Not by a long shot.

Less than two minutes after Wolf’s group entered the forest, a screech boomed in the distance.

“It sounds angry.” Matilda squeezed in between her panting breaths, but then picked up her pace and ran faster.

“Good thing is that there was only one roar. That means there’s only one of them giving chase,” Wolf said, purposefully omitting a ‘probably’.

He didn’t lie, just made reassuring conclusions. But while he could rationalize things for the sake of others, he didn’t have such luxury. His mind raced trying to find a safe way out of this.

Can I really keep them safe from two Ninth Order Monster Beasts? he asked himself, and the answer was a resounding ‘no’.

Wolf sprinted after his friends, running various scenarios through his head. Unfortunately, in all of them there was a chance of Anna and the gang getting hurt if he stayed with them.

After madly sprinting for an hour, Barbara and Anna started faltering, so Wolf cast Subtle Mass Endurance. The spell would last for two to three hours, allowing everyone to run without getting exhausted. The effect was rather lackluster considering it was an Eighth Order spell when cast as a Subtle spell.

The only thing left was the cover-up.

“I think it’s gaining on us,” Wolf said, trying to sound like he was hiding his panic from his friends.

The trick worked. Everyone clenched their teeth and ran as fast as they could. Thanks to the adrenaline rush, they failed to notice the unnatural surge of energy, and Wolf grinned happily.

An hour passed before another rage-filled roar echoed through the forest. It was much closer this time.

It’s catching up, Wolf thought. At this rate it’ll be upon us in an hour at most. I guess having your children stolen from you drives you beyond your limits. Wait…

At that moment Wolf realized he actually had a Salamander egg in his Ring of Holding. Then, another realization dawned on him. Gods! I actually became a kidnapper. I still have the egg in my Ring of Holding…

Well, only if you want to be technical about it, a silvery melodious voice echoed in Wolf’s mind. In fact you saved that egg’s life. It’s just that this dumb commoner doesn’t know up from down, let alone what you did for her-him. But, yeah, you technically did kidnap that person’s child and ran off with her-him.

Wolf frowned as he listened to Silver’s words.

Silver, have you been learning vocabulary from Barbara? Even in this stressful situation the notion was so shocking it immediately grabbed Wolf’s attention. Out of all people, why did it have to be Barbara?

What’s wrong with Barbara? Silver asked. She’s all natural unlike some around you.

Wolf almost tripped from that response. You also mind Anna’s padded bra?

Silver, however, disdained answering such a stupid question and only snorted. Not everything spun around bras.

Wolf didn’t mind the silent treatment and instead asked Silver about the state of the egg in his Ring of Holding. Wolf felt relieved when Silver, an expert on the subject of eggs, explained that for now the egg wasn’t in any danger.

While Wolf and his loyal follower chatted, the party madly dashed forward. They didn’t care about hiding their tracks, and the only times they changed directions was when they ran into obstacles such as trees or rocks.

“Roar!” As the third hour of the mad dash came to an end, the Monster Beast finally caught up.

About a kilometer behind them the Salamander let out another screech. Even though it was full of rage, the sound wasn’t strong enough to shake the heavens and earth, but it still boomed through the forest, sending shivers down everyone’s spines and causing other Monster Beasts to scramble in panic.

“You guys run ahead. I’ll hold it off,” Wolf said calmly as he slowed his sprint down to a trot.

Compared to that dragonblooded bear which had appeared when he was a boy, this situation was fairly straightforward. There was no self-sacrificing father—

At that thought Wolf choked up and bit the inside of his cheek. What he wouldn’t give to have that self-sacrificing father with him now.

However, even though Archibald was gone, someone else was ready to cause trouble.

“No way!” Anna and Matilda said at the same time.

A moment later Barbara and Wayde shouted their disagreements. They didn’t sound as flustered, but they didn’t run away either and instead stopped running and prepared for a last stand.

“Guys, relax,” Wolf said with a smile on his face and tears in his eyes. “I’m not sacrificing myself for you. I can run faster than you and I can even outrun that Salamander. I’ll just stall it and maybe have it run after me in a different direction. Now hurry and run, it’s slowly gaining on us. I reckon we have about a minute before it's upon us. So, does anyone have any ideas on how to make life easier for myself.”

“Stop going— to brothels.” Matilda said bluntly, doing her best to regulate her breathing. “Life will be much— easier for everyone.”

“You drink too much—” Anna added, struggling for breath. “We’ve seen you— sneak drinks in— the morning and in— the evening. At least skip— the morning drink. It makes you look— like an alcoholic.“

“I meant about the fight with the Pureflame Salamander chasing our asses.” Wolf grumbled, but it didn’t have much effect.

“You eat— too much— meat. I’m not saying— you should— stop. But consider— having days— when you— only eat— vegetables— or cheese— or eggs.” Barbara happily added, not missing her chance to tease Wolf, even though her lungs were on fire.

“Guys, can you be a bit serious? That's a Ninth Order Monster Beast I’m about to fight. These could be the last words we exchange,” Wolf said awkwardly.

He tried to play the hero, but was treated like a butt end of a joke.

“You just said you’re confident you can escape. Why should we worry about you? You’re just trying to paint yourself a hero,” Wayde said savagely, seeing right through his roommate’s intentions.

To make matters worse, even the girls nodded their agreement.

Wolf’s smile broadened, and the melancholic thoughts evaporated like morning dew.

Do they really trust me that much? Since when? he thought, not realizing that for this group he was a pillar of support. For them, he was a man who could do anything he set his mind to.

His occasional tutoring was better than Mage Academy classes. Wolf’s tips on tactics and combat training made the four of them cooperate like veterans, while his senses and battlefield awareness were inhuman. That’s why the entire team had unconditional faith in his bold declaration and analysis.

“In that case, I guess I can’t disappoint you, now can I?” Wolf laughed proudly, but then went back on topic. “Keep running down the same path we took to get here. It should be free of monsters. If you run into one just use Walk Unseen and keep running. Maybe toss some pieces of meat to the side, so that they eat that instead of you. I’ll meet you guys where we made camp before we entered the forest. I may take an extra day or two, but I’ll meet up with you, even if it kills me.”

“Wolf,” Anna suddenly shouted. “Make sure you come back. If you do… I’ll forgive you.”

Wolf turned back and wanted to smile like the dashing young playboy that he was. But he saw shame and anger written all over Anna’s face. His smile died instantly, making it look like Wolf had a twitch. Instead, he seriously nodded.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “Now, run. That Salamander’s almost here.”

Wolf then turned around and started chanting a spell, while behind him he heard four sets of feet beating against the ground as his friends hurriedly ran away.

Several moments later, a barely visible purple sheet appeared three meters in front of Wolf. It was larger than Mage Shield, but still smaller than a full blown Wall spell. Instead it was just enough to completely protect Wolf from something.

Wolf heard the approaching crashes and smashes. He hurriedly chanted Mirage, a Seventh Order terrain obscuring illusion. As Wolf finished his spell the wall completely disappeared, swallowed by the Mirage.

The crackling and booming was almost in front of him, and Wolf started the chant for Elemental Weapon to turn his sword into ice. However, before he was half-way through, the Pureflame Salamander dashed over, smashing innocent trees with a slam of its tail.

Wolf didn’t stop the chant and traced his fingers against the blade’s edge, slowly turning his sword into a sharp icicle. He calmly watched as the giant saurian with bloodshot eyes shot towards him much faster than Wolf’s friends could run.

The Monster Beast was five meters away from him when it pounced. It opened its crocodile-like maw filled with two rows of obsidian-black teeth.

*Boom! Crack!*

Before it fully opened its jaw, the Pureflame Salamander crashed into the Wall of Soul Force. The monster moved so fast that its skull broke when it smashed into the wall.

Dozens of palm-sized black teeth sprayed all over the place as the Monster Beast bounced back from the rebound and slammed heavily onto the ground. At the same time the allegedly indestructible wall shattered with the sound of glass cracking.

Wolf originally planned to stall for time, then run. But seeing the opportunity in front of him, he finished his spell then dashed forward. A counterattack could cut this fight short and remove the threat of this Pureflame Salamander.