45 – Winter Wolves 2

When he heard the wolves, he immediately picked up the pace. With other magic beasts, he wouldn’t have been so worried, but they had encountered winter wolves one other time since getting to the mountains. Igrette slew them all easily, but Jonny had nearly frozen to death in the process, even while hiding a few hundred feet away.

When he sped up, though, Igrette stayed back. In fact, she seemed to be slowing down. Jonny wouldn’t have minded, because that was what she should have done, except this time, her slowing down didn’t seem voluntary. When he turned to look, she was limping harder than ever, taking lurching steps, and her bad arm was flopping limply in its sling.

“Igrette?” he said, slowing down.

“Go ahead,” she said, grimacing in pain. “I’ll take care of them here.”

She slowed to a halt, and Jonny did too. He hesitated for a moment, wavering on whether to say something until she pointed ahead with her sword.

“Go!”

Jonny hesitated a second longer, then nodded.

“Don’t die. Please.”

“I don’t plan to.”

He gave her a look, then turned and continued fleeing, escaping the cold wind that was already starting to catch up to them. After a few seconds, he veered left, going uphill toward a small peak that would give him somewhat of a vantage point. With all the trees, he couldn’t actually see much more Igrette or the wolves than the occasional glance, but he could see the cloud of snowy wind rapidly approaching the place where he had left Igrette behind.

Soon, the cloud nearly covered the forest entirely, and only the treetops were visible. Two minutes passed, and all he could do was tensely watch. He hated the feeling of being so useless, but he knew that doing anything other than waiting would be suicide. The only clues he had as to what was happening was the gradually lessening howling.

He was restless, listening closely until finally, the howling stopped entirely. The wind died down, but the cloud of snow was taking longer to settle, so he still couldn’t see anything. He tapped his foot anxiously on the ground a few times, then took a step forward.

Fuck it.

One step led to another, and soon, he was fully sprinting back down the hill and toward the battle. The further he went, the colder it got, but it was not unbearable, and he couldn’t sense any unusual mana in the air. It seemed that the wolves were dead, but the visibility was still too low to find Igrette.

He looked around frantically until he remembered the lesson from not even twenty-four hours earlier. Closing his eyes, he focused solely on his mana sense, expanding it outward. There were many mana signatures, but he recognized them all as being dead. They had high concentrations of mana, but it was leaking rapidly, and they were not bringing any more mana in. Only one mana signature in the entire area was still drawing it in, and he immediately sprinted toward it.

Igrette was standing alone in front of a wolf corpse almost as large as the previous day’s bear. Its head was split cleanly in two, from bottom left to top right, and there was a wide line in the air following the same trajectory where it was clear of snow, and the sky was visible. Igrette stood at the origin of the line, breathing heavily as she looked up into the sky. Her sword was completely red with blood, and its tip was brushing the snow as she held her arm down.

It was colder here than anywhere else in the woods, to the point that the wolf’s blood was already beginning to freeze, and all the trees around had been covered in frost. The amount of mana still left in the wolf’s body was immense, and Jonny could tell immediately that this had not been an ordinary beast. It had to be at least fourth layer.

Jonny was relieved to see that Igrette was alive, and ran up to her with a relieved smile. Then, he noticed her side, where a dark spot had appeared on her robes, right above her wound.

“I– Igrette?” he said.

Igrette took a deep, shaky breath before responding.

“I don’t think I can go on much longer. I’m sorry.”

“Are you dying?”

“Slowly.”

“But not immediately?”

“No, but at this point, I am only delaying the inevitable. I cannot heal enough to overcome my wounds. Every battle brings me closer to the point of no return. I will not make it out of these mountains.” She turned to look down at Jonny with a smile. “But I won’t let you die here with me. Come, let’s go back to the mana well. Let’s see if we can put it off a little longer.”

She turned back and took a step forward, and her knee immediately buckled. Jonny lunged to catch her, and with his help, she managed to lower herself to the ground and roll over onto her back. She gave a dry, defeated chuckle, her breath fogging up the air above her.

“Or maybe this is it,” she said. “Maybe my time is up now.”

Jonny gritted his teeth, then punched the ground.

“That’s quitter talk.”

“My mind is willing, but my body is not. I’m sorry.”

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“No!” Jonny said. “You’re not dying here!”

“Not yet,” she said. “But when the next scavenger comes around, I won’t be able to move. You should leave me. I’m nothing but dead weight now.”

Jonny clenched his teeth so tightly he felt like they would break, then stood up, drawing his knife.

“You’re not dying here. I won’t let you.”

“I don’t think–”

“Shut up,” he said. “If you don’t move, you’ll be able to heal, right?”

“Yes, but–”

“Then don’t move. I’ll handle everything.”

“I–”

“I don’t care,” he said. “You’re not dying. You hear me? And I’m not leaving these mountains without you. I’ll carry you out myself if I have to.”