A tall man with armor from head to toe.

Herietta was a little nervous as she wondered if the man might be someone from Kustan, but she soon gave up on that idea. Unlike the garbs of a Kustan knight, who is known to wear a green cape over silver armor, the man's armor was all black.

Moreover, with common sense, there was no way that a knight from Kustan could have entered far deep into this forest alone without a particular reason.

Grrrr.

The man was alone, but he's actually not alone. Three huge wolves surrounded him. It was the gray wolf, known as the fiercest and most violent of wolves.

The wolves showed their hostility toward the man by baring their sharp teeth. They were all so big that if people were to see them from a distance they might have mistaken them for a tiger rather than a wolf.

'Oh my God.'

Herietta was silently shocked.

'Could it be that he took care of all those wolves by himself?'

Wolf carcasses were strewn about as far as the eye could see. Like the wolves surrounding the man, they were also very large. There were so many of them that it was difficult for her to count them individually.

'To think he survived being attacked by a pack of wolves of that size.'

Herietta lost her words. She didn't know what that man was, but one thing was certain: he was an incredibly talented person. A hunter may be skilled, but they will have a hard time defeating a dozen gray wolves on their own.

All around the forest, it is full of green light, but all around the man is red. The contrast colors made her shudder. There was a sharp, unpleasant smell of iron mixed in the air full of the smell of grass.

'If it's someone with such skill, I don't have to step in and help.'

Even if she offered to help anyway, she wouldn't be of much help. She was about to turn around, thinking that she should go her own way without interfering unnecessarily, but the wolves growling and tensing their fur all at once rushed at the man.

Oh !

A shrill voice flowed from between Herrietta's lips, startled. As the wolf's massive body leaped high into the air, the recoil dug grooves in the ground and splashed dirt.

She was subconsciously trying to shout at the man to be careful, but before that, the man's sword moved first.

The sharpened sword drew a silver curve in the air. It was so fast it was hard to follow with the eyes. With each movement of his sword, a terrifying sound rang out and blood gushed out of the wolf's body.

Simple, clean movements.

But at the same time, each one was precise and effective.

With a scream of pain, the wolves that had attacked the man fell one after another. One seemed to have died on the spot, probably from a vital cut, while the other wriggled on the floor and soon stopped moving. And the last wolf, who was alive until the end, was cut in half by the sword he swung once again.

Thud.

The wolf collapsed onto the floor. A cloud of dust rose with a thud, but it slowly settled down due to the force of gravity.

That was the last. There were no wolves whining pathetically, no wolves growling menacingly. After a terrible struggle between man and beast, the only one who survived was the man in black armor.

Harrieta covered her mouth. What did she just witness now? She couldn't believe it even when she saw it with her own eyes.

Following Bernard, she had often watched the best knights in Velicia sparring swords against each other, but none of them wielded swords like that man.

No. It seemed that even Jonathan, who was considered one of the top in Velicia, would have a hard time following that man's strength and speed.

Herietta held her breath. Even after defeating more than a dozen gray wolves, the man showed no signs of getting tired. He obviously had a hard time, but not a single breathing of his was disturbed.

Is he really the same human as her? An ominous and eerie feeling. Standing tall in a place where the aura of death was thick, it was as if the man was the god of death, Hyterous, had appeared.

Leaving the wolves' corpses cooling down behind him, the man wiped the blood from his sword. The red-painted blade of the sword returned to its original color with a silver tint. Then he put it into the scabbard he wore around his waist. He then looked like he was about to leave.

Realizing that the man was heading in the opposite direction to where she was hiding, Herietta sighed in relief.

She couldn't be sure he would hurt her, but she couldn't be sure he wouldn't either. It was better not to take unnecessary risks from the beginning. She waited for that man to disappear, and then she decided to leave this place.

As she thought so.

Grrrr.

One of the wolves she thought was dead opened its eyes. A long cut was visible in the middle of the body, but luckily it seemed to have avoided the vital point. The wolf's bright yellow eyes turned to the man with his back to the wolf. Its eyes blazed fiercely at the one who had brutally cut down the wolf and the group.

Rooaarr!

The wolf opened its mouth and charged at the man. The wolf was really trying to bite him, even if it had to use up its last strength. Dozens of sharp teeth were exposed between the gaping muzzle.

Watch out!

Herietta, who was watching the scene, automatically shouted at the man. She didn't have time to reconsider if the man knew about her existence. She hurriedly ran through the bush in front. Her body moved before her head.

An opportunity given only once.

Herietta gripped the dagger with both hands. Then she swung it as hard as she could and drove it down into the wolf's torso.

Stab.

The muscles of the predator, which had been running wild in the forest all its life, were as hard as a rock. But even so, it was nothing compared to the dagger in Herietta's hand.

The blade of the dagger sliced through the wolf's skin and muscle, deeply embedded in the middle of the back of the neck. With a tingling sensation, hot blood gushed out from the wolf's body.

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