Soul of Searing Steel
chapter-44

The ferocious wolf that went berserk had already lost all of its sanity. However, the skills of battle were retained in the wolf. After a long howl, it lowered its body slightly. The muscles on the three remaining legs seemed to tense up. It was charging its strength. Instantly, a powerful force dispersed the dark purplish air around. A white shadow that flew out like a cannonball was charging towards the young guard at the speed of a thunderbolt.

The wolf and the young guard were standing about ten meters apart from each other. Under that kind of charge, that distance could almost be completely ignored. Raising his shield because of his instincts, Anruya withstood the impact of the strike head on; however, the strength of that wolf was no longer the same as before. He instantly felt like he was being hit by a caravan coming in at high speed. Both of his feet left the ground and his entire body flew into the air. The steel shield in his hand had a deep dent in it. Then, cracks began to spread across the shield.

Landing his back heavily on the solid and cold surface of the ground, the strong recoil impact had made Anruya felt as if his heart was about to come out of his chest. However, before he could even let out a cry due to the pain he had to endure, a raging roar echoed through the entire area of the city gate's surroundings.

"Rawgh!!!"

The white giant wolf shook its head around and took a few steps backward. Its eyes were as red as blood. Dark purple lines began to form across the body of the wolf starting from the head. The wolf had also sustained quite a number of injuries upon charging into the young guard. However, a cleaver that was plunged right into its neck and a deep wound were the real reasons why the wolf let out its raging roar.

It was a sharp meat cleaver which was unimpressive as it was about the size of a palm. Judging from its size, it would not even be enough to battle against another man. It was just too small and inconvenient to be used in a battle. So it would be too absurd to use to against a giant white wolf.

However, that was what happened. During the impact of the strike, Anruya did not just stand there to withstand the wolf's attack. Right at the moment when the wolf charged at him, the young guard succeeded in plunging the only weapon he had in his hand deep into his enemy. When the wolf was charging at lightning speed at him, all he did was to raise his weapon and let the wolf charge at him to wound the wolf.

A large amount of purplish blood began to flow right out from the wolf's wound. Because of its berserk status, it made the blood from the wolf's body flow even faster and stronger which made the wolf sustain even more damage than anticipated.

"Cough… If I didn't stop there when this animal was charging at me, I probably couldn't even touch its fur. It's just too fast…"

The young guard's body was twitching due to the pain he was suffering. His helmet slipped off his head, revealing the white hair on Anruya's head. Anruya spat a mouthful of blood out. He could feel that all his internal organs were twitching intensely. Even though that was the case, he still lifted his body with all his willpower. After getting up, he picked up the dented shield. While the enemy was stalled due to its injuries, Anruya quickly moved over to the corridor of the central tower.

The space of that place was small. So Anruya could use that to his advantage. He could still buy himself some time by going over there.

However, his enemy did not give him that chance.

The muscles of the wolf squeezed the small cleaver out of the wound. The metal cleaver fell to the ground with a clear buzzing sound of a blade. The powerful body of the daemon temporarily closed the ruptured veins. Because the wolf had suffered a tremendous amount of blood loss it was forced to deactivate its berserk mode. However, the power level of that wolf was still far beyond the power level of the internally wounded guard.

Yes, the human before its eyes was the human that caused an excruciating pain on it!

The rage began to burn away the wolf's remaining sanity. The white wolf did not do any fancy roar, nor did it try to test its prey. It opened up its huge mouth, revealing its wretched fangs. After that, it lunged its entire body tens of meters forward and stuck itself in between Anruya and the entrance to the corridor.

The two of them looked at each other. The blue eyes of the human and the dreadful red eyes of the daemon were staring into each other. The young guard could clearly smell the thick scent of blood coming from the wolf. He could also hear the raging growls of the wolf. Saliva of the wolf was dripping out from the space between its teeth. At that moment, Anruya gave up on any thought he had before. Instead, he clenched his teeth and gripped the broken shield tightly. The man knew; the instant they stop staring into each others' eyes meant his death.

Boom!

A loud explosion was heard, shaking the surroundings.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Right after the first explosion, consecutive ones followed. The explosion sounds were coming from the southern gates of the city. More importantly, it sounded like the explosions were approaching nearer and nearer to the spot where Anruya and the wolf were standing.

The wolf shook its body with uncertainty and let out a low pitched howl. It was as if the wolf had sensed something rather dreadful was coming towards it. However, its simple mind could not register two things at a time. So the monsters ignored the sudden explosions. Instead, it was glaring at the human with its savage eyes and charged towards the human. Now, the only idea in its head was to tear the throat of its enemy to shreds!

On the other side, Anruya did not pay much attention to the explosions that were approaching his location. Predicting how the wolf would attack, he immediately crouched down to the ground and moved his shield to his right arm, shielding his vital spot and the rest of his body. He was ready to withstand the impact of the incoming strike.

No matter if he sustained even more internal injuries or even died on the spot, it would be much better than having his neck bitten off immediately.

Holding his breath and focusing on the strength remaining in his body, Anruya knew that it was the moment of life and death now. He could even feel that deep down inside of him, in the deepest part of him, in the root of his will, there was an unknown source of power lurking about. The young guard had a hunch that if he could survive this strike, he would definitely get raised to another whole new level; of course, the biggest possibility now would be him ending up dead.

However, the attack that he anticipated to receive from the wolf did not happen.

Boom!

An immense explosion shook his the eardrums. Anruya was hit by the sound so hard that he immediately recovered from his thoughts.

At the same time, a man's voice was heard in front of the young guard.

"This animal is not the same as the others. It seems that it has more strength in it… Still alive?"

Without any hint of what was going on at the moment, Anruya looked towards the direction of the man's voice with his puzzled blue eyes. The scene blew his mind for a minute there to the point where Anruya had to keep his sanity intact. Anruya could only drop his jaw and stare. He could not say a word at all.

Right before him was a black-haired man with red eyes in plain clothes. One of his legs was on the head of the giant winter wolf, pressing half of the wolf's head into the solid ground; it seemed that this was the source of the explosions that he kept hearing. Meanwhile, the giant daemon did not give up on struggling. It continued to reach its claws trying to scratch the man above him. However, its attempt did not do any good at all. Even though its claws were so sharp that it could claw through any clothing items, the wolf had no way at all to hurt the man pressing it down from above. The claws could only create dark red gleams, creating sounds of steel rubbing against each other.

"What is going on here?"

That warrior did not bother about Anruya's mental state at that moment. He asked Anruya in a calm tone, "Five Silver-tier winter wolves managed to invade the main city just like that. If I didn't rush over in time, even if only one of them had gotten loose into the city, it could have caused uncountable losses… I need an explanation."

"My liege, it's all my fault! I've neglected my duty!"

After getting his senses back, Anruya definitely recognized that the man standing before him was the new liege that he had sworn to serve. He immediately endured the pain of his wounds and told Joshua everything from the beginning to the end.

"… Because of that, the commander gave the order to close the gate. We managed to prevent more of these monsters from entering the city… The winter wolves could camouflage well in the snow because of their white fur. Furthermore, they seemed to have a strange ability to enhance their power. Their power seem to have increased much more now. So the city guards couldn't stop them. I've been badly injured because I miscalculated."

After reporting to Joshua, Anruya instantly felt an intense pain in his lungs. He coughed twice in a low voice. Meanwhile, Joshua was thinking deeply about something.

"The daemons in the southern region of the north have actually become so ferocious… It seems that the Fort Ural has failed to stop the monsters in the mountains."

With each spoken word, Joshua increased the strength in his leg, pressing the winter wolf harder and harder with his foot. The winter wolf could only let out endless miserable cries. Meanwhile, Joshua did not intend to stop there. He turned his head towards the northwest direction with a worried expression on his face.

"Fort Dark Forest has not reported for three days. First I thought there was nothing to worry about. It seems that the situation is worse than I imagined it to be."

Kachak!

When the strength put into the leg reached a certain limit, along with a miserable cry, the skull of the giant wolf could no longer sustain the pressure. It was crushed completely and got shattered into pieces. A mix of grayish brain matter and purple blood splattered around the surroundings.

Joshua turned around and walked towards Anruya. He observed the young city guard for a while then he shook his head. "Three broken ribs and some serious injuries to your internal organs. You actually attempted to use your mortal body to withstand the attack of a daemon that went berserk… I don't know whether I should praise you for being brave or for being reckless."

Sighing, the black-haired warrior lifted Anruya up by grabbing on his collar with a single hand, lifting him with ease. After that, the two of them began to head towards the church in the middle of the city.