Iron-Clad Resolve of the Present

(A Few Hours Ago…

"Finally, it's Yukino-kun's turn to reveal his Magic Affinity!"

"Oh, I'm excited!!"

"Let's hear it, Yukino."

"U-Um…."

With his hesitating stammering being drowned out by the noisy bunch, Yukino nervously smiled, and as he opened his mouth to speak, everyone suddenly grew quiet.

"Magic Affinity of Spirit Arts - [Premonition]. It's an ability to detect a physical attack on my body that could result in major injury or death, before it actually happens. "

)

***

Satou Yukino's soul resided with a split second faster than reality, and flowing within his body, it had been slashed by claws of a beast.

With his mana detecting a sharp burst of pain, his body reacted, and he yelled at the top of his voice.

"D-Danger!!! From the left and right, from within the forest beside us!!"

In the blink of an eye, five dark Timberwolves with hauntingly red eyes emerged and lunged toward the group with unbelievable speed in unison, from all sides.

Yukino jumped out of the way, narrowly missing the knife-like claws of one of the wolves and avoiding the grave impact that his soul had felt.

"Tch."

As another bared its fangs and leapt towards Sencho Neo, a flash of flames swept forward from his palms with immense speed and completely blanketed his opposition as he protected King before he could even react.

"Shit, thanks!"

"Yeah."

The fire speedily burned away at the fur and flesh of the howling menace. The blood, muscle and bones were slowly engulfed and devoured in a ravaging red haze, yet, in a skillful maneuver by Neo, the length and volume of the blaze was just short of reaching the trees, ensuring that they did not catch fire.

Aya summoned the powerful vines on the opposite side of Neo, quickly capturing and immobilising three wolves at a time who were just about to reach her and Kamazaki. With the branched out vines encircling them, she manipulated them into slamming them straight intto the ground.

Shizaki instantly stepped in front of Yukino to shield him from a massive wolf from the opposite direction, as a forceful vibration shook within the half-elf's body once again. 

Larger than the others, and with a crescent on its head, it revealed itself to be the alpha of the pack. Shizaki considered himself pretty weak in terms of fighting, but he had to do something.

As mana was processed and flowed out his Soul Realm with a fraction of his full power, Shizaki clenched his teeth, still fearing that the time was still too short for him to activate his Affinity due to his incident with it before. However, with his arm stretched forward to the threat in front of him, he had no time to think it through, and his instincts took over.

[Turbulence: First Sector]!

The lowest form of his powerful gust of wind and the one that he was accustomed to shot forth from the front of his palm in a pressure-like blast, stunning the wolf and pushing it back.

"Shizaki-kun!"

"Don't worry, Yukino-kun! I got you covered!"

Keeping his eyes forward, he noticed the alpha stumble back but immediately getting back up with a rageful growl. With a low level wind power that [Turbulence: First Sector] contained, it couldn't really provide much lasting damage. Something else had to follow up to finish it off.

With a sharp glint in his eyes and a battle cry, Shizaki fired consecutive small blasts of air at the now far away target as the wolf's amazingly good intelligence and agility came to light as it dodged the first and second blasts before getting stunned again by the third.

D-Damn it, it's fast! And smart!!

Aya assisted with her Affinity of Earth - [Vines], but the alpha had sidestepped the attack by nearly a hairbreadth. It was now looming towards Shizaki with incredible speed.

"D-Dammit….then-!"

Creating a makeshift wall of extremely tough foliage that shot up out of the ground, she made them divide into many tall stems and captured the wolf from all sides, and in a split second, it engulfed it before immobilizing it as it was suspended in the air.

Aya then sighed in frustration.

"Haaah…that was close….I guess you two were right about them going berserk."

"Plant Girl, you're a lifesaver!"

"...If that was meant to be a new nickname meant for me, please refrain from doing so, Kamazaki. It sucks."

Neo simply stayed silent while King turned to him and apologized.

"I…couldn't do anything. Sorry about that."

"Don't apologize. I was just ahead of you in attentiveness and reaction time."

"When you say it like that, I feel even more bad, you know….."

Sencho Neo stooped down to look at the burnt wolf's body, the melted remains of what was once living. It was clear that he was trying to examine something from it, but King glanced away, unable to look at it.

Kamikaze, though, quickly shouted at the group and waved her hands panically.

"Uh, hellooo? Are we forgetting that we can't slack off here? We still gotta get outta here, you know, and quickly!"

"Yes, let's keep moving, and fast this time. Some had already reached us somehow, that's not good."

They all took off again, and Shizaki faced Yukino, who now seemed to be fully recovered.

"Are you alright now, Yukino-kun?"

"-Ah, yes…..yes, I'm alright, thanks….my [Premonition] had a stronger toll on my body than usual, I guess."

"I see…"

[Premonition], the ability to detect imminent physical danger that can injure or kill a person ahead of time. He still had many questions on the complexity of that magic, as it was not even close to any elemental power, but Daizen Shizaki could only marvel at the usefulness of the Soul Skill in silence for now.

If not for that power….

"We could have all gotten seriously injured, or worse if not for your [Premonition]...thank you."

Yukino accepted his thanks with a heartwarming smile.

"I must thank you as well, Shizaki-kun. I'm not that strong physically, but you shielded me from an attack."

"There's no scent."

Shizaki and Yukino simultaneously looked at King with confusion, who muttered those words loudly. 

"What do you mean, no scent?"

"When Timberwolves die, they leave a foul scent that disperses immediately, which alerts the pack if they manage to pick it up, right? But there was no foul scent from that burnt carcass that Neo took care of."

At that moment, Daizen Shizaki felt his heartbeat quicken.

"Come to think of it…."

"What is it, Shizaki-kun?"

He pondered for a bit, looking a bit perplexed.

"I assumed that the one that both I and Kamazaki faced also had a foul scent which brought the others to us, but both of us never smelled it, only the smell of fresh blood. We had to kill it and then run as we heard the howling in the distance."

If there was never a foul smell in the first place…

Yukino finally hit the nail on the head.

"Spirit Beasts, Spirit Arts Animals, or more commonly known as Mythical Beasts! They are artificial animals made almost entirely from mana! So, they'd have no smell, right!!?"

"But if what we encountered are not real Timberwolves but Mythical Timberwolves, then, all of them came from…"

Finally, the dots were connecting, and Shizaki was finally able to confidently come to a conclusion based on the hunch that he was trying his best to avoid.

"A Mythical Beast User…someone is trying to harm us."

Sencho Neo, who was ahead of the group, lifted his right hand into the air and clenched his fist, prompting Shizaki to immediately stop talking.

Tension in the air arrived as the four boys listened attentively. Both Aya and Kamazaki looked on as the unusual silence suddenly alerted them.

Further up the trail, there were footsteps.

Growls of vengeance and bloodthirstiness slightly echoed. Shadows loomed in the distance. And then…

Howls of a plentiful roared through the forest.

The group started whispering in excitement and fear.

"You're kidding…that sounds like more than twenty wolves!!!"

"W-We can take them…right? Right?!"

"There's no way. I say we run for it."

"Run where? They're coming from the same place where we are trying to escape to!"

"Ahhh…A-Ahhh…"

Shizaki could feel beads of sweat trickling down his face. Chaos was brewing amongst them.

What do they do? If they decide to run, where would they run to? 

If they were to fight, how would they be able to take on that many opponents?

Suddenly, a chill ran down his spine as he felt eyes on him from the dark depths of the forest, but as he stared around aggressively, he could find nobody but small wolf-like figures advancing slowly.

I'm feeling that same scary feeling when the vision was about to occur…

A dilemma occurred, and time was running out. He could hear them drawing closer. Soon, they would be in contact, but they were already encircled, with no way out.

Think…..think! Think! Think! Think! Think! Thiiiiiinnnnkkk, dammit!!!

Kamazaki held back tears, frightful as to what could happen as she herself faced a painful injury. 

Yukino, King and Aya watched on in a helpless state, unable to formulate a plan.

SAVE THEM, DAIZEN SHIZAKI!!

In that moment-

"BRING IT!!!!!"

Suddenly, in unison, Shizaki and Neo screamed with all their might, with the latter exclaiming with the an iron-clad will, and the latter with a demonic laugh.

"Wha-"

Kamikaze and Aya both couldn't say anything else in time, because a Timberwolves ran at full speed from all directions, and Shizaki and Neo leaped forward without hesitation.

Shizaki's heart was pounding. It felt like it would beat right out of his chest.

What was he doing right now?

What was this unexplainable fear?

Why did he make this split second decision?

At this moment, Daizen Shizaki couldn't think anymore.

The world felt fuzzy.

Time stopped….or did it?

It certainly felt that way, as he was charging into what was basically suicide.

As he peered at the wave of ferocious animals, all he could hear was his heart beating, and his own breath….

"Haaahhh. Haaahhh. Haaaah."

He closed his eyes, just for a second.

"Shizaki."

At that moment….

"Shizaki."

He saw her lips move.

"If you keep the killer waiting, what will happen to our legacy?"

Silvery hair that moved with bloodied chains attached to her thick strands of blue hair.

"You can't sleep forever."

He heard her calm, deadly, intimidating voice echo into the deepest part of his soul.

"GET UP."

Haaaah!!

The world returned to Daizen Shizaki, and color was restored.

With his eyes opening and a deep breath, he aimed his two arms forward, with Neo doing the same.

"[TURBULENCE: FIRST SECTOR]!!!!"

"[FLASH FLAMES]!!!"

A small gust of wind blasted Shizaki just slightly downwards in front of the rapidly advancing wolves, bursting into the soil and kicking up sand and mud that blinded some just for a split second, before using another blast behind his back immediately to propel him forward.

Using a huge blast of flames with compression, Neo capitalized on Shizaki's smokescreen of sand with a follow-up attack, and without mercy, cooking all those that were in the range of fire.

With three that dodged, Shizaki directed a stunning spin kick to their heads at once, sending them flying before he landed on the ground with his left hand bracing his fall elegantly.

Many Mythical Timberwolves came at them from all angles with all of them about his height, and also those who surrounded the other members of the group, with a predatory hunger within them.

However, Shizaki's resolve was set in stone.

He wouldn't let anyone die.

Not again.

With his eyes radiating white, he slowly stood up and took up a battle stance with the masked Sencho Neo by his side doing the same.

Without even looking at each other, they spoke with the utmost confidence and the adrenaline that surged throughout their bodies.

"Shizaki!!"

"Yeah!! Let's do this!!!"

--The climax had begun.

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(Chapter 16: Iron-Clad Resolve of the Present.)