Ch.194Overtime

The werewolf was dead.

Its chest pierced by a Wolfsbane bullet, with both its heart and mana stone destroyed simultaneously.

The culmination of firearms technology and magical science, designed to take a lycanthrope’s life with a single shot, had once again fulfilled its purpose with devastating effectiveness.

“It’s over.”

“I’d heard rumors about guns that work well against lycanthropes, but I didn’t know they were this effective.”

“It’s not just the gun’s performance. That adventurer fought the werewolf quite skillfully. While the fire-breathing and explosions might be attributed to his tools, evading the werewolf’s close-range attacks with such dexterity isn’t something just anyone could do.”

Cyrus, who had been watching Will’s battle from start to finish, couldn’t help but honestly express his admiration for the man’s skill.

Even though Will possessed a gun with tremendous power against lycanthropes, it was undeniably his own skill that allowed him to create the opportunity to accurately pierce the creature’s heart.

Mag was well aware of this too, but his reluctance to give a generous evaluation stemmed from a slight competitiveness toward the pioneer, the pride of a silver wolf warrior who could face werewolves with pure strength, and the somewhat disappointing combat abilities of this particular werewolf.

“To be honest, I’m not inclined to give that fellow 100% recognition. After all, this werewolf was unusually weak.”

“I certainly can’t deny that. This werewolf didn’t seem to possess any notable combat skills.”

“That’s what’s strange. Yesterday was a full moon, so that beast must have fallen into lunar madness at least once, yet why didn’t it use any combat skills?”

“Perhaps it had skills that required special conditions to use, or maybe it was defeated before it could activate them… hmm.”

Werewolves, or rather monsters of the lycanthrope family, had one troublesome characteristic.

This wasn’t referring to their “berserk” ability that triggered when they saw a full moon, but rather the fact that when they first fell into a berserk state, they invariably awakened powerful combat skills.

For example, the werewolf deployed in the previous test possessed a defensive skill that hardened its fur like metal.

The werewolf from the test before that had become a dangerous specimen that secreted deadly poison from its claws and fangs.

Though unrelated to the Emperor’s Trial, there were also legends of a weretiger that had awakened an “invisibility” ability and caused numerous casualties.

It was impossible to know how many years this particular werewolf had lived, but given that yesterday was the 15th, it couldn’t have been a specimen that had never experienced berserk state.

Yet this werewolf had never once activated any special attacks or defensive abilities that could be considered skills during its fight with Will.

Was it as Cyrus suggested—that its skills had such strict activation conditions that it never got the chance to use them?

If so, that adventurer was incredibly lucky.

Just as Mag was thinking this, something impossible happened.

‘GRAAAAAAWL~~!!’

Another lycanthrope’s howl echoed from the lower part of the ravine, which should have been wrapped in silence.

The fact that only one werewolf was placed in the testing grounds was something both Cyrus and Mag had confirmed multiple times.

If that was the case, there was only one possibility to consider.

“…Oh no! A resurrection skill!?”

That adventurer was incredibly unlucky.

Mag couldn’t help but sincerely think so.

~ ~ ~ Emperor’s Trial, Final Gate ~ ~ ~

“GRAAAAAAWL~~!!”

“What!?”

It might sound like an excuse, but I had remained vigilant until the very end.

I had confirmed that Wolfsbane had completely destroyed the area around the werewolf’s heart, and I had verified that the fallen werewolf wasn’t moving at all.

The fragments of the mana stone, shattered by the silver scatter shot, were still glittering where they had been scattered.

The possibility of this werewolf reviving and attacking me was literally zero—and yet it actually happened.

‘Damn it all!’

If I had let my guard down and was already heading into the temple, I could have quickly detected the werewolf’s ambush through my automatically activated danger perception skill and dealt with it comfortably.

But I was approaching the werewolf to confirm its definite death, my gaze fixed intently on the hole in its chest.

I barely managed to activate my skill in time to catch the werewolf rising like a spring and swinging its claws at me.

All while still holding the loaded single-action revolver in my right hand.

‘I should have holstered it…!!’

The skill activated, time slowed down, and my gun hand moved the barrel toward the werewolf’s head at a speed that would normally be impossible.

But since this wasn’t a quick draw from a ready position, it didn’t reach the level of transcending time.

‘Bang! Bang!’

I could only fire two magical bullets before the werewolf’s claws would reach me.

I placed a precise headshot between its eyes while twisting my body to avoid the werewolf’s attack, but my body’s reaction speed couldn’t keep up.

‘Thud!’

“Urgh!?”

‘Crash!’

I was hit by the werewolf’s heavy arm and flung against a temple pillar.

A heavy bruise spread across my shoulder and back, and a burning laceration seeped into my upper arm.

But this was no time to writhe in pain and roll on the ground.

If this creature could revive even with its heart completely destroyed, I couldn’t feel safe even if I put all six headshots into it.

“Ugh… where’s my revolver…?”

As I struggled to my feet and looked down at my right hand, I couldn’t see my faithful partner.

It seemed I had lost my grip on the gun when my right arm was hit earlier.

‘The werewolf…!?’

“GRAAAAAAW~!!”

And as I had expected, the werewolf that had taken a headshot was standing on two legs, clutching its head and howling despite the bullet hole in the center of its skull.

Its skin, horribly burned by fire breath and flame explosions, was cracking and crumbling, revealing bones in various places across its body.

It looked more like a skeleton or zombie than a lycanthrope.

I’ve never heard of a werewolf turning into a zombie!

“Shit…! This is an emergency.”

At this rate, I was going to die.

It would take 10 minutes to reload Wolfsbane, and I didn’t have time to search for where my revolver had bounced off to.

That werewolf, neither clearly alive nor dead, was charging at me again.

In the slowed time, I barely managed to throw myself out of the way of the attacking werewolf, then pulled out the remaining two emergency potions from my waist with my left hand and poured them into my mouth.

Whether I decided to abandon the trial and flee or find my revolver and fight back, I needed to heal my injured body first.

Just as a surge of energy spread throughout my body and the pain in my right arm began to rapidly subside, the werewolf kicked the dirt floor with its bare feet, flinging soil toward my face.

“Ugh!?”

Perhaps because it wasn’t an attack that would cause injury, or because I had momentarily taken my eyes off it to drink the potion, my danger perception ability didn’t react to the dirt-throwing.

In reality, the amount of soil thrown at my face wasn’t much, and it didn’t interfere with my consumption of the potion, so the damage from that attack could be said to be nonexistent.

However, the sensation of dirt suddenly hitting my face was impossible to ignore, and I reflexively brushed away the soil around my eyes, momentarily forgetting that the werewolf was at close range.

And that was exactly what the werewolf had been aiming for.

‘Whoa…!’

Once again, the werewolf’s massive body lunged at me.

But this time, it wasn’t trying to slash me with its claws or bite my neck.

The werewolf, which had pounced at a timing where I could neither lie down to avoid it nor throw myself sideways, grabbed my left arm and face—around my mouth—with its large hands and pinned me to the ground.

“Grrrr…!!”

‘This is… countermeasures against Wolfsbane and breath!’

It restrained my left arm to prevent me from firing Wolfsbane, and covered my mouth to prevent me from using fire breath.

This werewolf probably mistook my drinking of the emergency potion as preparation for another fire breath.

Its plan was to neutralize my means of attack and then bite my neck.

‘Pretty smart. But you’ve got it wrong!’

What I had just poured into my mouth were a superior healing potion and a strength enhancement potion.

The wounds on my blood-soaked right arm had already healed completely, and the difference in strength between the werewolf and me favored me overwhelmingly.

I could lift my left arm and shake off the werewolf’s hand, but if possible, I should seize the maximum opportunity with my free right arm.

“Hup!”

‘Thwack!’

“Kya-ang!?”

When I struck the werewolf’s face with a full-force punch as it approached my neck, its body, over two meters tall, flew off like a fragile maiden.

The effect of the strength enhancement potion was much stronger than I had expected, and I couldn’t miss this golden opportunity.

“Heave-ho!”

“Kyaak!?”

I rushed at the werewolf, which had been knocked back by the unexpected attack, grabbed one of its legs, and twisted my body sideways.

An unconventional giant swing.

It should have been impossible given the weight difference between the werewolf and me, but the strength enhancement potion made it possible.

‘Crash!’

“Kyaak!”

The werewolf’s massive body, swung with all my might, slammed violently against the temple wall.

If it weren’t a monster with physical resistance, this werewolf would have died as a bloody pulp from that single blow.

Just like Rick, who was caught by the Minotaur in that cave back then.

“Hyaaah!”

‘Crash!’

“Kuhurk…!!”

Feeling like a grappler character in a fighting game, I swung the werewolf’s body and slammed it down once more.

This time onto the solid stone floor of the temple, not the dirt ground that the werewolf had dug up.

I knew well that no matter how many times I repeated such attacks, I couldn’t defeat the werewolf.

Monsters have resistance to physical damage, and moreover, werewolves can only be killed with silver weapons.

But as I learned during the orc subjugation operation, a monster’s physical resistance doesn’t nullify the impact itself; it merely prevents injury.

The shock of being slammed down with overwhelming force naturally causes pain even to monsters and stiffens their movements.

The proof was right there—the werewolf, sprawled out, couldn’t move a finger and was trembling all over.

‘Stab’

A glowing white blade penetrated the throat of the werewolf, which lay with its tongue hanging out.

Silver, the weakness of lycanthropes, combined with elven arcane magic said to be capable of defeating even incorporeal ghosts.

“Grrrk…keh…keeeng…!”

“For Phyllis’s sake, please die. If you survive this too, I truly have no other options.”

If this didn’t work, I would have no choice but to abandon the trial and run for my life.

Just as I thought that, a dazzling light leaked from the deeply embedded knife, and the werewolf’s entire body began to crumble like dust.

It was like watching a monster in a dungeon decompose and disappear instantly after being defeated, except that the disappearing werewolf’s body was glowing with a soft white light.

I couldn’t help but worry that it might suddenly howl and lunge to bite my neck at any moment.

But fortunately, the werewolf completely vanished into light, leaving no trace behind.

This was truly the moment when the Emperor’s Trial finally ended.