A menacing atmosphere soon filled the empty chambers that surrounded Max. Sensing something flying toward him, he quickly dodged.
Whoosh!
Accompanied by the sound of air splitting, sharp claws brushed past where Max had stood mere seconds ago. As if it was angry that it had missed its prey, the colossal wolf growled. Then, it roared, its cry resonating throughout the vacant basement and shaking the ground. The noise was frightening enough to make an ordinary person fall to their knees, but Max stood still and glared at his opponent.
Ouch, my ears, he thought to himself. He could tell the beast possessed a great amount of energy. Still, it was nothing compared to that of his master. This was going to be fun.
The crown prince's blade shone faintly in the darkness. He hadn’t reached perfection yet, but the luminescence was proof that he was a first-class swordsman who could inflict a critical blow on the creature.
Glaring, the beast slowly started to move while Max began to search for his opponent's weakness. Even in the dark, however, the beast kept its attention riveted on Max.
Realizing the wolf had an excellent sense of smell, Max decided to use an herb. He opened the pouch at his waist and took out a poisonous plant that was known to paralyze an animal or a human's sense of smell. The moment he tried to grab it, however, the dire wolf violently shook its massive body. Yelping, it backed away, baring its teeth. Noticing that something was off, Max wondered if the beast had finished scanning the environment and was now ready to attack.
With his left hand on the hilt of his sword, he straightened his stance. He would just have to win this contest by killing this beast, he decided.
What happened next caught him by surprise, however. The beast began to run away. Taken aback, Max stared blankly into the empty space it left behind. Eventually, he gathered himself together and, gritting his teeth, started chasing after the fleeing beast.
He didn’t know why it was running away, but he still had to kill it. Once the distance between them narrowed, Max tried to attack it. However…
Thud!
The wolf started banging its body against the wall as if frightened by something. Debris rained from the old ceiling, which Max was forced to evade.
Max cursed, frustrated. He attempted to continue his chase, but the beast kept pounding its body against the walls. Now the underground chamber was half-collapsed and he was unable to move forward. Why was it doing this all of a sudden?
He frowned, glaring at the destroyed walls before him. He took out what was in his pouch and then furrowed his brows. The flower had lost its shape, but it still gave off a faint light. This was... the lunariel Jubelian gave him.
Max recalled what Count Pyrex had said: "There will be silver flowers on the railing of the balcony where His Majesty is seated. The beast won't attack as long as he is guarded by them."
Only then did Max realize the silver flower the count was talking about was the lunariel. So, it could drive off this magical beast...
After dwelling on the strange validity of the northerners’ superstitions for a moment, he came to a realization: that was the direction to the arena.
Realizing the situation he was in spurred Max into action.
"Damn it to hell!” he muttered underneath his breath. "Jubelian!"
Yawning, I gazed at the empty arena. No one had returned yet. Hunting competitions usually had a time limit and required participants to achieve a high score within the restriction. It was advantageous to capture rare prey for more points, so that was likely why no one had returned yet. I squinted at the sundial towering over us on the stadium’s center stage. There was only about an hour left now.
Thud!
Suddenly, I felt the ground shake. Startled, I grabbed Dad's hand.
Huh? Normally, he would ask what was wrong, but he just stared back at me with a blank face. Embarrassed that I might have acted too childish, I let go of his hand and came up with an excuse.
"Oh, I just thought your hands looked cold,” I said.
He remained silent. I was struck by that strange feeling again. He had been acting this way since we returned from wherever he had gone.
Thud!
Another roar sounded, accompanied by the ground shaking. Frightened, I grabbed my dad's hand again. There was a small frown atop his lips he called for me.
"Jubel... ian…”
He sounded a little distressed. I was about to ask him if anything was wrong, but then he stood up.
"Dad, where are you going?"
Ignoring me, he turned away and headed somewhere. What was happening to him? Did he receive some bad news or something?
Suddenly, a knight came running in covered in blood and screaming. He had emerged from the passage leading to the basement of the stadium. I inhaled sharply once I noticed that he was missing an arm.
"Everyone, run away!" he shouted, but the people remained in their places despite his desperate cries.
Not long after, however, something appeared in the arena, snarling.
At the appearance of a giant wolf—the dire wolf, which had only existed in fiction—the people began to panic. One after another, they ran away. I clenched my jaw tightly. I was hoping this wouldn't happen, but now events were unfolding in accordance with the original story.
The knights standing guard quickly surrounded the dire wolf, but I knew they would be useless unless there was a first-class swordsman among them who could use mana. Turning to look at the entrance, I tried to estimate the distance between it and where I sat. The special seats we occupied faced the direction opposite the entrance. We would have no choice but to pass the field where the dire wolf was raging.
"What do we do?" Bea muttered despairingly.
I turned to her to realize that the color had completely drained from her face and her hands were shaking.
Everything was going to be okay. I still had one silver flower. That wolf wouldn’t be able to come near us. I didn’t want to aggravate the beast by running away, so instead, I held Bea's hands. "Don't worry, Your Highness. The wolf won't even come close to us—"
Before I could finish, however, I saw the beast rapidly approach us from the periphery of my eyes. I dropped what I was saying and immediately shouted, "Everyone, run!"
The emperor was more than startled by the beast's sudden appearance. He hadn’t given the order yet. Why was it out there already?