Love Letter From The Future

In a small clearing in the forest, humans and beasts circled each other among the sparse trees. Their gazes crossed in the taut silence.

The male held a sword, but the beast carried nothing. Its body, towering over 2 meters, was already a weapon in itself, so there was no need for anything else.

The man, silently staring at the wolf, looked like he was already battered beyond recognition.

Mud and dried blood were splattered everywhere, and the coarse cloth wrapped around his forearm had long since become filthy. Even just walking caused his breath to become rough, and his eyes occasionally lost focus.

It wouldn’t be strange if he collapsed at any moment. The beast was waiting for this moment.

He was eerily silent for a human. Not even his breath or heartbeat could be heard properly. If he hadn’t felt the ragged breath and frantic heartbeat he experienced now, he would hardly be able to tell if he was still alive.

All the wolves had fallen victim to this man. They had been defeated one by one, and even when a few grouped together, they couldn’t overcome him.

He was among the stronger humans. He was the best hunter among all the prey he had pursued until now.

Seeing him spilling his innards and lying sprawled out would likely be quite the sight.

The wolf, having inherited an artistic temperament despite being a beast, felt quite pleased with that thought. It slightly faltered in its breath.

On the other hand, the man maintained his composure throughout. At least on the surface, he did. Inside, he was at a boiling point, about to crumble.

He briefly lost his sanity. The man—no, I-an thought that way.

No matter how he thought about it, his physical condition was abnormal. Perhaps his muscles had reached their limit; each time he exerted strength, they screamed in agony. His stiff movements proved that.

And the beast in front of him appeared to be of a different caliber than any foe he had faced so far. It must be a leader, and it seemed superior in both physique and intelligence.

That was why he was approaching it cautiously. The monsters he had made into corpses until now had not done so.

They charged in heedlessly with hostility or were caught off guard and killed.

Making a mistake could lead to death. I-an’s steps became cautious, as if walking on thin ice.

It was an opponent that could kill him even without making an error. If he let his guard down for just a moment, he might meet his end in an instant.

Emma’s nemesis was right before him. As a friend, he could not fulfill that revenge, nor could he afford a dismal reunion in the afterlife.

I-an’s golden eyes scanned the wolf’s movements thoroughly.

It was to catch the ‘hint.’ Though it made leisurely strides now, the opponent was a beast. No matter how patient it was, it couldn’t overcome its inherent wildness.

Soon, the limit of its patience would be reached, and that would inevitably change the movement of its muscles.

That fleeting moment was the opportunity. I-an’s body was not in a condition to consider a prolonged battle. He had to strike and bring this to an end in one swift move.

Thus began the tense standoff between I-an and the wolf.

The wolf’s muscles twitched. A virtual trajectory appeared before I-an’s eyes.

Now was the time. Just as I-an thought and twisted his body.

A dull impact struck him.

It felt like he had been hit by a cannonball. No, it was an acceleration that left even an afterimage from that terrifying weight. It could very well have been a cannonball itself.

“Urg, ah…!”

His eyes instinctively widened, and blood spurted from his mouth. His body was flung towards a tree trunk.

Bang! The tree, suddenly hit by the weight of an adult male, trembled violently. Along with it, the man’s field of vision shook roughly.

Guh, I-an groaned instinctively and curled his body. Every part of him ached. He had protected his body with magical power, but even that had its limits.

In the end, he couldn’t see.

To be more precise, he could see something, like an afterimage. It was that which allowed I-an to twist his body.

But that was the end. I-an’s body was too exhausted to evade the charge.

His senses were absurdly sharp. It felt as if he was learning once again how to perceive the world. How the world was so intricate and sending so many different signals.

It was a sharpened sense, incomparable to when he had battled Ceria last time. But his utterly fatigued body could not immediately follow his brain’s commands.

Thus, he allowed a hit. In his current state, this was fatal.

Naturally, the wolf did not give the man a chance to catch his breath.

Perhaps because it had rushed out so fast, there was some delay in its braking, but using that rebound, the wolf charged again at high speed.

The wolf’s jaws opened wide. I-an instinctively infused the sword he held with magical power.

And then, with a swift motion, he threw it. The reaction speed was like a spinal reflex that hadn’t passed through his brain.

The blade, rotating at a fierce speed, was sucked into the wolf’s jaws with that very momentum. As the wolf’s acceleration combined with the blade’s flying speed, the jaws couldn’t even touch I-an.

The bewildered wolf bit down hard and barely stopped the blade. However, the blade infused with magic continued to advance defiantly, scraping against its teeth despite that terrifying biting force.

With a chilling sound, white shards of teeth scattered. It was at that moment that I-an pulled out his hand axe from his waist.

His hand axe came down upon the bridge of the wolf’s nose that had approached before him. With a loud thwack, blood splattered from the black wolf’s snout.

It would have been nice if the wolf’s head had been driven into the ground, but its strength was far beyond that of the wolves he had faced until now.

The beast simply howled in agony and backed away from the sudden impact.

The sword dropped between its open jaws. I-an immediately dashed toward the wolf with his hand axe, but the wolf was no easy opponent.

Clang! The sound of the hand axe clashing with claws rang out. The wolf instinctively swiped its forepaw to block I-an’s advance.

The wolf jumped into the air and twisted in a somersault. If that little bastard were caught, it could earn quite a sum selling it at a circus.

I-an, thinking such absurd thoughts, quickly gathered the sword that had fallen to the ground. Since the distance had widened anyway, a follow-up attack was impossible.

1 win, 1 loss.

The wolf remained hunched low, growling menacingly. Blood dripped from its snout. Blood foam escaped through its nose as it panted raggedly.

Seeing this, I-an curled his lips mockingly.

“Ha, cough… ha, does it hurt?”

The wolf did not respond. It only scratched its throat with an even more wary gaze than before.

I-an wanted to shout, “I hurt more, you bastard!” but he couldn’t manage that due to his labored breathing.

He merely panted with a blurred smile.

It felt as though his insides were being crushed. The pain from the impact of that charge still hadn’t subsided. Even after twisting his body to shed some of the shock, and although he had protected himself with magical power, it was still there.

His arm felt raw with a bone-scraping pain. At the very least, it meant that his bones were cracked. A sharp pain coursed through him. I-an’s arm trembled involuntarily.

Things were looking grim. That’s what I-an thought.

His already weakened strength was swiftly diminishing. He was fortunate that the density of his aura had been increasing during the fight; if it hadn’t, even that rough hide would have been impervious.

In fact, the hand axe had hit a softer area like the nose, so it was stuck, but if it had been against a thick hide, it wouldn’t have penetrated at all.

Of course, there were some advantageous aspects.

The wolf’s eyes still burned with hostility, but the confusion and fear it could not hide were also evident.

It was clear to the wolf that by opening its jaw to finish him off, it might threaten its own life. Now it was unlikely to proudly display its sharp teeth.

As evidenced by the jutting snout, the most lethal weapon possessed by most predators were their teeth and the biting force that drove them in. In other words, the wolf had effectively sealed one of its primary weapons.

That was a tolerable enough trade-off. The only problem was that I-an’s stamina had long since reached its limit while the wolf had only sustained one wound.

It was a clever creature. Once its momentum had been dulled by injury, it would use that to its advantage.

And I-an’s expectations were soon proven correct.

The wolf barreled toward the ground. It was the same bone-crunching charge displayed at the start. I-an abandoned his counterattack and threw himself to the side as soon as he sensed it.

I-an’s body rolled on the ground. It was an unavoidable choice. And as he gasped for breath, he showed signs of momentarily lagging.

Bang! The wolf’s claws, which had approached in an instant, struck the ground. Had I-an not rolled at the last moment, those very claws would have pierced into his body.

He tried to raise his sword to counter, but in his grounded position, he couldn’t wield it with proper force. Before the magic could even envelop the sword, the wolf was already retreating.

He needed time to infuse magical power into the sword. Gritting his teeth, I-an staggeringly rose to his feet.

And thus, exchanges continued.

A few times he rolled on the ground to evade, while a few times he raised his sword to block the claws. The wolf didn’t rush at all.

Like a hunter cornering its prey, the wolf relentlessly pressured I-an.

With every moment, I-an’s breath grew increasingly ragged.

Oxygen wasn’t reaching his brain properly, leaving him dizzy. His vision blurred, and the focus of his eyes, which always carried a cool light, was lost.

His body was not responding properly. His muscles had hardened like lead, unable to execute the commands of instinct. The wolf reveled in that sight.

The excitement of the hunt heated the beast’s brain. Pleasure chemicals were released, and blood vessels bulged in its eyes as its breathing grew harsh.

The beast instinctively sensed it. The moment it allowed another hit, that man was finished.

It had inflicted superficial wounds on him. When the jaws opened, he had felt fear for the first time in his life. That sensation both excited and heightened the wolf’s wariness.

It was desperate to kill that man quickly and prove its own strength. The wolf’s instincts urged it to pounce on that human right away.

But the wolf was patient. It believed the fruits of that patience would soon reveal themselves.

The wolf’s judgment was about to be proven correct.

It couldn’t evade I-an’s charge any longer. Bang! The man’s body was sent flying into the sky. No.

Rather than saying he ‘flew,’ it was more appropriate to say he was ‘shot.’ The momentum produced by the wolf’s massive frame was beyond imagination at that moment. It hit him directly.

Boom! The man’s body, once more colliding with the tree trunk, slid down. The sword’s hilt, grasped until the end, looked pitiful. The trees trembled from the shockwave, dropping their leaves.

The man’s breath, which had faintly been felt, was fading. Even his heartbeat was no longer perceptible. A clear signal of death.

The wolf’s heart thumped. Had it finally triumphed?

But the beast was careful until the last moment. It circled around, crouched low as if afraid that it might be a trap.

Even so, the man’s breathing did not return. Neither did his heartbeat. Now the wolf’s patience was reaching its limit.

The wolf stepped closer, admiring the corpse it had created. It was beautiful.

With rapturous eyes, the wolf gazed at I-an, then cautiously pulled out its sharp claws, as if afraid to harm its prize.

If it drew the claw across the belly, the intestines would spill out.

It might be that the internal organs had burst from the accumulation of shock. That was unfortunate, but still, it was the best trophy the wolf had obtained so far.

Just as the wolf raised its claws, carefully positioning them near the belly.

Swoosh.

There was a sound of something piercing. It hadn’t even brought its claws close yet; why?

The wolf’s bewildered gaze fell downward. There stood the man, wearing a cold smile.

“Surprise.”

With a sword now thickly imbued with magic, he pierced its neck.

The wolf’s mind froze. It should have been dead; it had confirmed that multiple times. There were no signs of breath or heartbeat. It hadn’t even noticed the slightest movement.

But the searing pain felt at its neck, the air that didn’t enter its lungs no matter how much it gasped, and its body gradually failing to respond.

All told the wolf that what it was witnessing was reality. The wolf’s pitch-black eyes darted between the smiling man and the blade piercing its neck.

The man, still smiling, gripped the sword’s hilt tightly.

“Actually, I’m still alive.”

And then, with a powerful thrust, the blade drove deeper into the wolf’s neck.

Blood spouted forth like a fountain. It was only then that the beast let out a belated howl. A howl that thundered through the forest, as enormous as its size.

It was the pitiful scream of a dying beast, preyed upon by its hunter.

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