Chapter 36: A Bit Greedy
Chapter 36
’Crap, Megumi! When the hell did you suddenly become greedy?’
The boy’s heart was racing as he lay under the shade of the tree, the thought of his very own words repeating in his mind. He clenched his fists and tried to remain as calm as he could in front of Yuki.
He wasn’t worried about their ability to take out one of the giant beasts in the distance—or even both of them if need be; this was what they had always trained for, after all.
What he was most afraid of right now was the effect his words would have on Yuki. No matter how he tried to look at it—even if he tried so hard to convince himself that they were genuine friends—he was selfish.
Every relationship he had at this point either benefited both him and the other party or one person alone: him. And his words just now, though intended with a little selfishness, were bound to be misinterpreted at any moment.
And even if that wasn’t a problem enough, none of them—even though they had both trained rigorously for the past week—possessed the experience for a fight like this one. Things could go wrong at any moment, and if that beast was just as greedy as he was, then chances were it wouldn’t just let them and the other creatures roaming the woods currently leave alive, though he doubted it.
Earlier, he had moved ahead of Yuki so he could discern what the source of the annoying vines was, dancing through the vines and trees as fast as he could. He ended up having to tear up a few, and it wasn’t long before he encountered his first troubles.
After running through the woods for at least a minute, he stood atop one of the inclined trees, peering into the distance in an attempt to discover the dark beast causing their current problems, and it wasn’t long before he managed to discover a single hulking silhouette viciously devouring some of its unlucky prey.
... Well, he was only able to discover what the beast’s strange actions were after he had gotten close.
But before he could get close, though, he caught sight of a vine slithering past him, and at its end, a monstrous wolf-like beast was helplessly ensnared. The creature was nothing short of a twisted parody, a grotesque exaggeration standing at a height of over 2 meters.
Its dark fur was matted and mangled, barely covering the massive muscles rippling beneath, and from its paws, claws like curved daggers protruded, each nail as long as the palm of his hand.