“Silver Spear” wasn’t just the name of the tavern — it was also the emblem of Wendell’s mercenary company.
Most of its members weren’t local.
A large portion were refugees or soldiers who had drifted up from the Southern Nations, and to save on expenses, during the time they were waiting in port for their next job, most of them would choose to camp out beyond the city walls.
The company numbered some dozens of men in total, making their living as mercenaries along this southern coast.
Whenever they took on a job escorting ships, each of them would carry their iconic weapon — a harpoon — in hand.
That was the origin of the name “Silver Spear.” Lara followed Wendell to the north side of the port.
Not far outside the city gate, a scattering of tents dotted the area.
A few men were gathered on the outskirts chatting, while two more were tending a fire to cook a meal off to one side.
That morning, Wendell had told Lara that the fastest way for her to improve, given her current situation, was real combat.
No matter who the opponent was, as long as she knew herself well enough and felt confident enough in her judgment of the opponent’s strength, she could break through the fear and confusion in her heart.
The time he could give her wasn’t long.
The Silver Spear’s next escort job was only two days away.
The cargo ship that had brought her here was, under normal circumstances, supposed to depart the very next day — but at the moment it remained moored at the port, because that broken railing had to be inspected and repaired in order to head off any more dangerous incidents.
Once the repairs were finished, Nina and the others would be setting out together with the Silver Spear Mercenary Company.
Lara, however, was bound in a different direction and couldn’t continue on the same journey with them, so all she could do was try her best to learn as much as she could in these two days.
On the way to the camp, Wendell had also made a side trip with her to the Mercenary Guild, where they had taken on a monster-hunting job.
The target: a stray demon wolf.
In front of the camp, Wendell pointed out at the woods ahead, marking out a vast stretch of land in front of Lara that ran from the trees all the way to the more distant mountain range: “This port has a first-rank magic user, and the surrounding towns regularly mount extermination sweeps, so the monster-hunting jobs that show up at the Guild are mostly simple ones — perfect for building up your nerve.
The tricky part of these jobs is usually just finding the stray monster in the first place.” With that, he strode off into the camp to find Olla.
“Where’s Olla?
Those things I had him prepare yesterday — where’d he put them?” The off-duty company members were mostly clustered together chatting, and the moment they noticed Lara and Wendell approaching, it was as if they’d discovered some fresh source of amusement.
Lara instinctively stopped some distance from the camp.
The feeling of being gawked at by a crowd didn’t sit well with her.
Standing off to the side, she watched Wendell speak with his men, and after only a short while she saw him walking back over with a longsword and a few pieces of armor in hand, which he held out to her, gesturing for her to put them on.
She took the gear.
The longsword was about a meter and a half long — when stood on end, it came up directly to Lara’s shoulder.
The blade wasn’t especially thick, so it felt much lighter in her hands than she had expected.
As for the armor, there were only the arm guards and leg guards.
On Wendell’s recommendation, her long jet-black hair was also tied up into a high ponytail.
Once it was all on, she did at least look somewhat the part of a warrior.
“There’s no breastplate in your size, but you’ve still got to wear something — at the critical moment, armor is the kind of thing that saves your life.
Same goes for the longsword.
Your strength is greater than the average person’s, so picking a longer weapon will let you make better use of your advantage.
The reason I’m not giving you a greatsword is that I’m taking into account how little combat experience you have.
A more agile weapon makes it easier for you to think while you’re fighting.” “If you come up with your own ideas later, feel free to make adjustments on your own.” While Lara was sorting out her gear, Wendell walked her through the reasoning behind his equipment choices and laid out what would come next.
“You don’t need to return this gear afterward.
In exchange, this job carries no pay.
I’ll lead you to the target and make sure you’re safe, but until you’re in real danger, the fighting will be left entirely in your hands.” Lara gave a slight nod to show she understood.
The pay she’d earned helping Uncle Haiven with his fishing had been quite good, and at this point she had likely already saved up enough for travel expenses — payment wasn’t a critical concern for her.
After a brief rest at the camp, Wendell led Lara down a forest path, sweeping aside the branches and underbrush that blocked their way.
The occasional rabbit darted out from inside the trees, until at last a tree streaked with bloodstains came into view in front of them.
“Lucky for us — the blood trail’s still fairly clear.
Looks like that monster had already been wounded before this, which means its position shouldn’t be too far from here.” The blood on the tree had already turned black, and on the surrounding grass you could also make out streaks where blood had brushed past.
Going by what the scene told him, Wendell judged that the monster must have been driven toward the edge of town by either another monster or by humans.
Following the trail, it didn’t take them long to find a cave nearby.
Before they could so much as draw close, a deep-indigo demon wolf slowly padded out from the depths of the cave, baring its fangs and letting out a low growl as it tried to drive off the two humans who had intruded on its territory.
Without waiting for Wendell’s instruction, Lara stepped up to stand in front of the demon wolf, locking the two of them into a standoff.
‘Master, based on preliminary appraisal, the target’s bite force is roughly 500 kg.
So long as you avoid its jaws, you can overwhelm it through sheer strength.’ Lara concentrated her focus on the demon wolf’s movements.
Unable to summon the status panel, 83 could only convey key information to Lara through thought-transmission.
With the intel to back her up, Lara’s nerves eased a little.
She tightened her grip on the longsword and drew a deep breath.
“Grrr—!” The demon wolf didn’t act rashly.
It simply kept up its low growling, trying to scare Lara off.
On its hind leg there was a scarred-over claw wound, evidence that it had been in another fight before this one.
The standoff between the girl and the wolf lasted no more than thirty seconds, but in Lara’s perception it stretched on impossibly long.
Without warning, the demon wolf suddenly launched its attack.
It leapt up, intent on pouncing on Lara — but to her, already braced and ready, the motion appeared somewhat slow.
She simply pressed the longsword crosswise in front of her body and blocked the strike, then took two steps back to open up the distance.
A single strike having failed, the demon wolf adjusted its stance and leapt at her from a different angle, only to be blocked by Lara again.
The girl and the wolf settled back into a stalemate.
For Lara, the longer this fight dragged on, the more she had to gain from it.
The tension in her chest was steadily fading, and she was slowly adapting to the rhythm of combat.
The demon wolf had also learned from its earlier attempts and now launched its next attack from the ground.
It dropped low and lunged forward to close the gap with Lara, but in the face of the longsword sweeping in at it head-on, all it had to do was hop lightly to the side to dodge.
Lara kept driving the demon wolf back while maintaining her distance, making sure she had enough time to react to its attacks.
As the demon wolf kept attacking, the wound on its hind leg was torn open further, and blood began dripping onto the ground again.
In Lara’s eyes, its reactions were growing slower.
After driving the demon wolf back yet again, it didn’t press in for another lunge.
Instead, it stayed where it stood and barked at Lara twice.
For some reason, Lara felt that she had already read the demon wolf’s mind — it was going to flee.
Lara saw cowardice in the demon wolf.
Once this fight had turned into a war of attrition, the demon wolf — its old wound still unhealed — was effectively on a death countdown.
Running was, for it, a perfectly routine means of survival.
Right in front of Lara, the demon wolf wheeled around at top speed — but its intent had already been seen through completely by her.
Lara stepped forward, and in the instant the demon wolf turned, her longsword drove straight into its body.
She planted a foot on the demon wolf’s head and twisted the blade with force, and amid its thrashing the demon wolf crumbled into drifting ash.
“Hssss…
whew…” A deep breath, eyes closed — Lara took stock of what she had gained from this battle.
In the midst of combat, she always had this illusion that she could see into the future.
Although it had been nothing more than a simple, straightforward mission, Wendell had noticed that Lara had already grasped the rudimentary form of combat’s highest technique — Sen no Sen.
Time slipped by, and Wendell and Lara made their way back to the camp.
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