But behind her, there was a wolf that had luckily managed to survive, and it had its eyes trained on her back.
“Look out!” I shouted.
“Huh?!” Reina exclaimed.
The wolf suddenly leaped at her. I got between the two of them and stuck out my arm to keep it from biting her throat. At the same time, I felt a shock.
“Gah!”
“Arata?!”
“Ow, that...doesn’t hurt? What?”
I had tensed up in fearful anticipation of the imminent pain, but in complete contrast with my expectations, it only felt as if I were being gnawed on by an infant who was still teething. And in front of me, there was a teary-eyed wolf with crumbling teeth.
“Oh, its teeth were already shattered from your spell earlier,” I remarked.
“H-Hey, are you all right?!”
“Yep, it looks like I’m completely fine.”
I wasted my surprise, I thought before wondering what to do with the wolf. It was still biting down on my arm as hard as it could, making no effort to hide its hostility, so I couldn’t very well let it go. I made a fist and wound up for a punch.
“I don’t think an ordinary guy like me hitting it is going to have much of an effect, but...take this!” I hit the wolf, which still had its mouth on my arm, in revenge for biting me.
“Graaah!”
When my fist landed, the wolf went flying, pirouetting rapidly through the air like a figure skater and crashing into a large tree.
“Huh?” I was baffled by the utterly inexplicable sight.
From behind, I could hear Reina say in a mystified voice, “What was that?”
As for the wolf, it was no longer moving. It seemed that it was completely dead. First the rabbit from yesterday, and now this. Could I be—
“Arata, just who are—” Reina said, interrupting my train of thought. But before she finished speaking, she unnaturally cut herself off. Her face was pale, and she looked afraid of something.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“When I give the signal, run as fast as you can in the direction we came.”
“Huh?”
I was confused, unable to comprehend the meaning of what she said. Suddenly, I heard the sound of something stomping through the trees a short distance away. I instinctively turned to look in that direction, and saw a massive wolf with pure white fur glaring at us. It was clear at a glance—this one was on a completely different level from the others.
“Grrr...” it growled, displaying its anger at us. This white wolf was probably the boss of the gray ones, and it seemed ready to attack at any moment.
“Run!” Reina shouted in a strained voice, and at the same time, the white wolf pounced. It was explosively fast. Even though it had been quite far away, it closed the distance in the blink of an eye.
“Why...you!” Reina got between the wolf and me, then mumbled what sounded like some sort of incantation. When she did, an invisible blade of wind accelerated toward the wolf, cutting through a massive tree in its path. This spell had to be much more powerful than the one that had taken down the gray wolves earlier. Even someone like me, who knew nothing about magic, could tell at a glance how incredible it was. However, the moment it made contact with the white wolf, it disappeared as if it had never existed in the first place.
“No way... My magic doesn’t work?!”
“Graaaaahh!”
“Ah.”
“Watch out!” I wrapped my arms around Reina and leaped to the side to protect her from the incoming wolf’s fangs. Luckily, I just barely managed to dodge it, but I doubted the next time would go so well.
“Oh...Arata.”
“Reina, are you hurt?!”
“No, but... I mean, no! What are you doing?! Didn’t I tell you to run?!”
“Yeah, but it would’ve caught up.”
“I was going to hold it back so that didn’t happen!”
Hold it back. In other words, she was trying to help me escape, even at the cost of her own life. She must’ve known from the start that this animal was incredibly dangerous, and that her own powers wouldn’t work against it. Despite that, she had prioritized saving me over herself. She was an immeasurably kind person—maybe even too kind. There was no way I could let someone like her be killed in a place like this.
“Come at me, wolf! I’ll take you on!” I shouted.
“Grrr...”
I was terrified. Getting glared at by an ordinary large dog was scary enough, and this wolf, which looked large enough to swallow a human whole, was clearly trying to kill us. There was no way I wouldn’t feel afraid. And yet, I would live. I had met a god, and I had been given the opportunity to lead a new life. I couldn’t just die here!
“Graaahh!”
“Arata! Run!” Reina screamed behind me.
I wouldn’t let the wolf just get away with killing her. At the very least, I would give her an opening to escape!
“HAAAAAHH! DON’T SCREW WITH US HUMANS!!!” I shouted, loud enough to make myself hoarse. Then, I confronted the wolf head-on.
I balled my hand into a fist, then swung my arm with everything I had, aiming to take the wolf down a peg. The instant my fist collided with its face, it went soaring, flying through the sky until I couldn’t see it anymore, as if it were a golf ball that had been hit at full power.
“Huh?”
“What?!” Reina exclaimed.
At the end of my fully extended fist, the wolf was no longer there. There didn’t seem to be any doubt that the animal that had gone flying was the same white wolf that had just been trying to devour us.
I didn’t say anything. Neither did Reina. There was an unbroken silence in the depths of the forest. By the looks of it, the “strong body” part of the god’s gifts was stronger than my wildest imagination.
Looking up at where the wolf had disappeared into the sky, I remembered the careless god that had sent me here and unconsciously muttered to myself.
“My death might’ve been your fault, but I think you overdid it with this apology.”