Ichiro charged straight at an enemy wolf. He landed several meters away from his target. Just as it moved to meet him head-on, he abruptly changed direction. In an instant, Ichiro seemed to vanish, reappearing before another wolf nearly twenty bodies away from the first. As he came to a stop, twin streaks of red light traced back along the path he had taken from his eyes.
Something within Ichiro guided him toward a precise attack. He drew his dominant hind leg back, then fired it forward. The strike he unleashed carried terrifying force, propelled by momentum no ordinary wolf should possess. His blow tore through the head of his next target. Without pause, he swept sideways, cleaving the adjacent wolf in two. In the end, the third enemy's limb was ripped clean from its body.
The enemy wolves faltered, swallowing hard. Their opponent had become even more dangerous.
"Impossible! Impossible!" the leader whispered again in disbelief.
If Ichiro's speed earlier more than rivaled that of his former leader, then his strength now exceeded that of the giant boar, an unmistakable spirit beast.
A devilish grin twisted across Ichiro's face. He confronted the wolf pack without a trace of fear. With every swing of his claws, he harvested more than five lives.
Such was the danger Ichiro posed that some wolves no longer cared about what their leader would think. They fled in sheer terror. Yet every enemy wolf that tried to escape died without putting up a fight. With no way out, the remaining wolves had no choice but to fight for their lives.
Ichiro carved a path of death, the grim reaper in the guise of a wolf.
On the other side, the wolves lashed out in desperation, fighting for their lives. Their attacks grew increasingly ferocious, and the wounds covering Ichiro's body kept piling up.
Yet his condition stood in stark contrast to the power he displayed. Ichiro's body had already gone far beyond its limits, and even his will was beginning to reach its breaking point.
"Just a little more! Just a little more! A few more lives!" chanting under his breath, driven by something beyond himself. He abandoned defense altogether, forcing the battle to end quickly as he felt his limits closing in.
At the same time as his berserker-like fighting style... Ichiro's ability, Cockroach Tenacity, continued to flash relentlessly on Peter's status board.
Ichiro's master, however, was far too busy at the moment. He had just harvested his first batch of crops and claimed the rewards. He even shared some of what he gathered with those close to him. After that, Peter would meet someone unexpected-- someone who would prove to be an important ally in the future.
Ichiro continued his slaughter. The number of lives he claimed kept climbing-- one hundred, two hundred, three hundred, four hundred... and by the fifth hundred, the morale of the strongest pack in the Eternal Forest finally shattered. They scattered all at once. No longer caring if they would be cut down, overwhelming fear had completely taken hold of them.
When the pack leader noticed this, he bolted toward the deeper reaches of the Eternal Forest. There was nothing to gain from trying to stop them now. What could fewer than fifty wolves possibly do when more than five hundred had failed to hold back their monstrous enemy?
Among all the wolves in the forest, none were swifter than the fleeing pack leader. He was confident he could escape his pursuer, and his confidence was not without reason. With every stride, he covered five meters.
Because Ichiro had been momentarily stalled by the enemy's sudden behavior, a significant amount of time was lost.
In that brief span, the distance between them had already stretched to over a kilometer.
The leader would have escaped without trouble... if his opponent had been normal.
Ichiro was a mere wolf who had cut down over five hundred of his own kind in a fair fight, unaided.
Of course... that was anything but normal.
As the leader of the recently defeated pack fled at full speed-- two hundred percent in his desperation-- Ichiro gave chase.
Ichiro broke into a run. His full attention was fixed on the enemy pack leader. If the leader's speed was already astonishing, then Ichiro's was simply out of this world. With every step, Ichiro seemed to float through the air. Each leap carried him thirty meters forward.
In just a few seconds, the fleeing leader felt Ichiro's presence closing in from behind. It could hardly believe it. Pushing itself in desperation, it forced its body past its limits and, for a brief moment, managed to pull ahead.
Ichiro let out a sharp breath. In the next instant, he stepped far beyond his normal stride. The distance the leader had fought so desperately to gain was erased in a heartbeat. As Ichiro landed, he was already beside it-- then, in the same motion, he struck for the head.
The leader crashed to the ground, tumbling violently. Miraculously, it survived the blow from its monstrous foe. There was nothing surprising about that-- Ichiro had deliberately held back his strike. He intended to question it before delivering the final blow.
The defeated leader could only stare blankly at the spot where its head had been forced down by the impact. Ichiro remained calm.
"So... this is my end?" it muttered to itself.
It gasped sharply after a heavy blow slammed into its side. A wheezing cry escaped it as its ribs cracked under the impact.
"What are you waiting for? Why are you toying with me? Even I never showed such disrespect to your leader. Give me the treatment my status deserves. End my life!" it shouted in anger.
Ichiro removed his foot from the fallen enemy.
The defeated leader struggled to raise himself up.
"What else do you want?" it questioned, its voice filled with doubt.
"I just want to confirm something," Ichiro said in a cold tone.
"And what is that?" the defeated leader snapped in irritation.
"Are they really dead? All of them?" A rare trace of weakness appeared on Ichiro's face, startling the defeated leader. It had not expected the monstrous opponent to show such a side. There was a striking resemblance between him and the black wolf.
"Yes. That is the law of the forest. You should already know that. I'm sure even your own leader would do the same in a similar situation-- just as in ours earlier. There is no such thing as a dirty method for us," the defeated leader said. It groaned in pain as Ichiro kicked it again.
"Don't you dare compare yourself to my leader. You don't even come close to him. He would never deliberately send his subordinates to their deaths like you did," Ichiro said, pressing down harder on his despicable wounded opponent.
At Ichiro's words, the leader's gaze briefly drifted toward the pack he had just lost. Then it returned to Ichiro. As he looked at the wolf who had defeated him and all his companions—the one who had brought down the strongest pack in the Eternal Forest—a burning question lingered in his mind.
"Could he be the son of the black wolf? If I think about it, it protected him until the very end. Even its mate left them behind just to ensure this one survived. And after nearly a year, it returned-- showing the very same way of fighting... and even the same principles..."
"No. That no longer matters in my current state," the leader of the wolf pack said with a bitter smile. He had been utterly defeated and now stood on the brink of death.
"Do you have anything you want to say as your last words?" Ichiro said to the mortal enemy beneath his foot.
The leader, whose confidence had been utterly crushed, was taken aback.
"I didn't expect you to return to this forest for revenge. Even more so, I never thought you could make the impossible possible. I accept our... no, my defeat. Well done, child. Well done. Finish me." Even at the brink of death, he did not lose the dignity befitting a leader.
"YOU FOOL!" Ichiro roared as he struck his mortal enemy from the former pack with his free forepaw. His ears rang at the way it spoke, as if this were nothing more than a game.
"Do you think the slaughter between our packs is just a game?" Ichiro questioned his opponent sharply, his voice laced with accusation. He was seething on behalf of his bereaved pack members, as well as the pitiable pack led by this bastard of a leader.
The opponent stared at Ichiro with a sneer.
"Look at you. You really are disappointing. It seems your leader failed to teach you well," it said with a slow shake of its head.
Ichiro's brows knitted together
Even as he stood on the brink of death, the wolf leader still found the strength to lecture Ichiro.
"For us wild wolves, death is natural-- the act of fighting and killing rival packs is simply part of life. We've grown used to not holding onto hatred. We've become numb to the deaths of our own kind at the hands of others. That's why I can't understand why you're so enraged." it gave Ichiro a strange, bewildered look.
"That's where you're wrong, old fool. You of all wolves should know better that what you're saying is pure nonsense-- that it's nothing but a huge contradiction. Not holding onto hatred? That's bullshit! Could you truly not hate an enemy that wiped out your entire clan? That's sheer madness." Ichiro let out a sharp snarl at the idiotic wolf leader.
"Remember that. That's impossible, old man," Ichiro emphasized.
Their beliefs were fundamentally opposed to each other.
"You are the victor in our battle. Since you are the one who will remain alive, your belief will prevail," the wounded wolf leader said in a dismissive tone.
"But remember this, child. Everything is only just beginning for you. Perhaps you defeated me today because I am weaker than you, just as I once defeated your pack. The time will come when someone stronger than you will end your life. This is the unbreakable law of the jungle."
The leader said this as he watched a distant blur swell toward him in slow motion. In those fleeting seconds, a bitter smile crept across his ugly mug as memories of that fateful encounter-- one that had become a curse-- returned from that somber night.
...