The Champion's Return

by Hyougetsu

  “You’re not going anywhere,” she growled. As she kept my movements in check, she shouted, “You guys, be careful around him!”

  “We know, granny!”

  “Don’t worry, we’ll beat the shit out of him!”

  Oh, you don’t know anything. Though I wanted to taunt them out loud, the truth was that I wasn’t much stronger than the average werewolf, at least physically. Even with strengthening magic, I couldn’t take on four werewolves at once. I needed to be creative with my magic and fight defensively if I wanted to win. Injecting some confidence into my voice, I grinned wickedly and said in my best supervillain voice, “Bring it on.”

  Everyone but Volka rushed at me simultaneously.

  “You’re mine!”

  “Take this!”

  Their punches and kicks came from all directions, so I was forced to guard instead of dodge. Man, werewolves really are fast.

  “Wow, this guy’s a pushover!”

  “We can take him, granny!”

  Though it looked like I was getting beaten down, I was grinning to myself. These guys used only simple attacks and had no follow-up combos. Their plan was to surround me and chip me down with hit-and-run tactics.

  Volka had mentioned that her ancestors had grown up hunting giant monsters. Their style must have revolved around darting in for a blow or two, then retreating to safety before they could get hit with a counterattack, just like how normal wolves hunted big game like moose. I was relieved to learn that ancient fighting style of theirs was the same even now.

  Volka’s werewolves were definitely coordinated, and they knew how to target my blind spots. Guarding against all their attacks was certainly difficult. However, because their style was hit-and-run, they’d always back off after a single blow. Meanwhile, I’d enhanced myself with pain-numbing magic and regeneration magic. The time in between attacks was more than enough to recover from all the damage I’d received in the previous assault.

  “You’re going down!”

  “Uryaaaaaah!”

  The three people attacking me were likely Volka’s grandchildren. Or if not hers, at least from that generation. They were awfully young, and their inexperience was beginning to show. Because I wasn’t fighting back, their attacks slowly got sloppier, and they started dropping their guard.

  “U-Ugh...” I groaned in pain and staggered two steps backward. The moment I did, the young werewolves rushed in, confident of their victory. In their haste to finish me off, their coordination broke down.

  “We’ve got you now!”

  Volka hurriedly shouted, “Stop, get back!”

  Too late. I watched the werewolves’ footwork, then took a calculated step backwards. A punch came flying at my face, but because I’d moved back it’d hit me without much force behind it. In fact, it didn’t hurt at all even though it landed squarely on my nose. Now then, I think I’ll take that arm. I grabbed the young werewolf’s arm and yanked him forward. At the same time, I swept his feet out from under him. This was a trick I’d used quite often in duels. Back then, I’d had to make it work without the help of my werewolf strength to aid me, so now pulling it off was a piece of cake. As the werewolf pitched forward I circled around behind him. I placed a palm against his defenseless back and cast the opposite of the pain-numbing spell on him. Instead of deadening his nerves, it heightened their sensitivity, multiplying all pain he felt. Once that was done, I kicked him in the ass.

  “Uyaaaaaaa!”

  As he screamed, another werewolf tried to charge me from behind.

  “Damn you!”

  This one was more skilled than the last. With exquisite footwork, he got past my guard and launched a roundhouse kick at my head. I’d be concussed at the very least if that hit, so I ducked underneath the werewolf’s leg a split-second before it connected. He was good, but nowhere near as good as Volka. Still hunched low to the ground, I tackled the leg he was using as a pivot, and threw him off-balance. Before I could capitalize on my advantage though, the third werewolf charged at me.

  “Don’t you daaaare!”

  The third werewolf came at me with his claws, but he picked a bad direction to charge from. The second werewolf’s body was blocking him from reaching me. Before the third werewolf could circle around, I shoved the second werewolf as hard as I could, sending him barreling into the third. I was expecting him to dodge easily enough, but the third werewolf just stood there, seemingly losing the will to fight.

  “S-Sister!”

  Sister? The second werewolf’s a girl? Well, I guess it doesn’t matter either way. The second werewolf slammed into the third, sending both of them sprawling onto the ground in a tangle of limbs. Weight manipulation magic was one of my specialties, and I was especially good at making myself heavier. I straddled the two collapsed werewolves and increased my weight as much as possible.

  “Gaaaaaah!”

  “Ngh. S-So heavy...”

  The two werewolves struggled underneath me, but they were unable to extricate themselves from my hold. Against humans, brute force would be enough to throw someone off you, but against a fellow werewolf, you actually needed technique. Wild flailing would get you nowhere. Glancing back, I saw that the first werewolf was still rolling around the ground, their hands covering their butt. Pain amplifying magic wasn’t very consistent, but it seemed to have worked out this time. From the looks of it, the first werewolf was hurting quite a bit. He’d be out of commission for at least half a minute or so. Meanwhile, the two werewolves underneath me were reaching their limits.

  “I-I can’t take it anymore...I surrender...”

  “I’m sorry...p-please forgive me...”

  I canceled my weight-increasing magic, and the two werewolves stopped struggling. The whole time I was worried Volka might make a move, but she’d just stood there, watching. Even though she might have been able to beat me while I was occupied, or at the very least rescued her comrades, she kept her distance. Noticing my gaze, Volka sighed, “Marsha, Narsha, Misha, you three still have a lot to learn.”

  The three werewolves canceled their transformations. To my surprise, all of them were girls. They looked to be in their mid to late teens.

  “Owwwwww...”

  “My butt... My poor butt...”

  “Sis, you’re really heavy...”

  I looked down at them, taken aback. I can’t believe I was that rough with them. A sudden wave of guilt washed over me. Granted, I was the one who’d said this was a no-holds-barred brawl, but still. Honestly, I should have been able to tell from their scent and their voices that they were girls, but I’d been too focused on fighting.

  “Are these your grandkids, Volka?”

  “They’re my niece’s kids. But it looks like they’re still far from useful in a fight.”

  True, their movements had been pretty dull. They wouldn’t last five minutes on a real battlefield. I put the three girls out of my thoughts and focused my attention on Volka.

  “Now then, you’re the only one left.”

  Volka took her stance but kept a safe distance between us. She was being uncharacteristically cautious. Sensing my confusion, Volka grinned.

  “The other battles should be over by now. The rest of my clan’ll be here soon. I’m not stupid enough to think me and the three girls would be enough to take you out.”

  Ah, so you were just buying time. Volka had picked three novices to throw at me on purpose. They were just disposable pawns meant to slow me down. Though she was sorely overestimating me, that had tactically been the right move. But now that I knew what she was up to, there was nothing to worry about. I smiled confidently at Volka and said, “Are you sure it’s your werewolves who’ll be coming back victorious?”

  Just then, the first werewolf appeared from the darkness. He was one of Volka’s. Hang on, did my guys lose? Noticing my hostile gaze, the Rolmund werewolf hurriedly waved his hand.

  “H-Hold on, I’ve already surrendered. That bitch dislocated my shoulder.”

  Thank
god, I was worried there for a second. After that more Rolmund werewolves started filing back, but they’d all surrendered. A few minutes later, Jerrick and Monza returned with their squads.

  “Yo boss, we’re back. It was tough, but we won.”

  “Heh, you too, Jerrick? That was a fun fight.”

  Monza’s squad had gone down to three, while Jerrick’s squad only had two people left. And those who were still in fighting shape were covered in wounds. So there’s just three guys who’re out of commission. As expected, Monza’s squad had excelled in a forest fight. Meanwhile, Jerrick’s squad was made up entirely of craftsmen and engineers, so they’d had it tough.

  Still, they’d succeeded, which meant I wouldn’t have to burn all my mana on a full-power Soul Shaker. I was confident that would have been enough to win, but I wanted to preserve some strength for our confrontation with Lord Bolshevik. My wounded werewolves spread out around Volka, surrounding her.

  “We’ve taken out the rest of Rolmund’s werewolves. You’re the only one left now,” Jerrick said with a confident grin. Volka shrugged her shoulders and replied, “Hmm, I thought my boys would win, too... Well, there’s no point in resisting any further. I admit defeat.”

  Volka canceled her transformation and smiled bitterly at me. And thus, my werewolves’ record of consecutive victories grew by one.

  After the battle, I realized what the biggest factor in our victory had been. Though she’d come with twenty or so of her werewolves, they hadn’t all been seasoned fighters, and there were a few children in the group. The reason for that was because they hadn’t been expecting us. But when they’d noticed intruders in their forest, Volka had rounded up everyone who was free and hurried over to see who it was. On the other hand, all of my werewolves had been seasoned soldiers who’d survived numerous battles. We may have been outnumbered, but we’d had the upper hand in quality. I felt kind of bad for trouncing werewolves who weren’t even fighters, so by way of apology, I healed everyone with my magic.

  “Oof, that’s one nasty bruise. That’s gonna leave a scar on your neck. Who did that to you?”

  “Th-That woman over there. The one who’s smiling...” I turned to see Monza smiling and waving at us. The werewolf I was healing started tearing up. “She grabbed me by the throat and threw me headfirst to the ground... I thought I was gonna die...”

  Yeah, Monza’s brutal alright.

  “You really need to learn how to hold back, Monza.”

  “I did hold back.”

  Of course, Rolmund’s werewolves had been plenty strong themselves, and Monza and the others were covered in their fair share of cuts and bruises. They actually took a bit of time for me to heal. Honestly, if I hadn’t used strengthening magic on everyone, we probably would have lost. That was a really close call. Once I finished with everyone else, I finally moved on to the three werewolf girls I’d taken down.

  “Hmmm, yep, looks like you guys’ll be fine.”

  “But my ass still hurts...” The youngest girl, Misha, was still massaging her butt.

  “It’s just a little swollen. Sorry about that, though.”

  The pain magnifying spell should have worn off by now...

  “You were so heavy, sis...”

  “That wasn’t me, that was him!”

  Marsha and Narsha on the other hand were completely unhurt. Volka grinned at them and said, “You three lucked out, you know? You got paired up with the nicest enemy you could get.”

  “Yeah, but it still hurt, Granny!”

  Their complaints might have been petty, but I still felt bad for taking them down like that. Ignoring the girls’ griping, Volka turned to me as the rest of her pack gathered around her.

  “So whaddya think? Any one of them catch your fancy?”

  “What do you take me for?” I shrugged.

  The three of them were still teenagers.

  “If you were willing to marry into my pack I could rest easy knowing Rolmund’s werewolves would be safe but... I guess that’s not happening, huh?”

  Don’t tell me that’s why you made me fight them.

  “Sorry, but I’ve got other responsibilities. Anyway, can you take me to Lord Bolshevik now?”

  The whole reason I was in such a rush was because I wanted to keep my promise to Airia. I couldn’t afford to let anything delay me. Sighing, Volka got to her feet.

  “Alright, alright. I’ll stop getting in your way. Come on, follow me.”

  Finally. Finding that bastard took forever... Since I’d healed everyone, we headed to the Karankov Villa with a full complement of two squads.

  “Watching over this forest is our job, so all of our villages are scattered throughout here. There’s ten or so of them with twenty to thirty people each. I think there are about two hundred Rolmund werewolves in total,” Volka explained as we walked.

  “I see.” I nodded casually, but there was cold sweat pouring down my back. I can’t believe there’s that many...

  Volka and the others didn’t know this, but our Blast Rifles couldn’t fire that many shots in quick succession. Two was the limit. If you lowered the range and firepower of each shot a bit you could increase the amount of bullets in a single “magazine” but even then you’d get half a dozen at most. We didn’t have enough shots to take out 200 werewolves, and once our bullets were depleted we’d be overwhelmed with numbers.

  Thank god I proposed a brawl instead. We would have been torn apart in a war. According to Volka, about half of them were kids or old people who weren’t really in fighting shape, but even then, 100 werewolves was still a lot. Fortunately, she’d told her clan not to attack us, and we were able to reach the Karankov Villa in one piece.

  “Everything past here’s outside our territory. If you want directions, ask one of their butlers or something,” Volka said dismissively.

  “Gotcha. Thanks.”

  “If you can, try not to be too hard on the kid. We owe his father a lot.”

  It seemed Volka was rather fond of Lord Bolshevik. I nodded and replied, “That depends on how our conversation goes. I want to solve this as peacefully as possible too, but I’m not the one with authority here.”

  Lord Bolshevik was the ringleader of a rebellion, after all. Volka nodded and waved to me. “I know. He’s gotta answer for what he’s done, one way or another...”

  “Yeah... Anyway, I’ll see you later.”

  I waved back to Volka and her three nieces, then walked up to the mansion’s gates.

  For a supposed hunting manor, the Karankov Villa was far too big and had far too many guest rooms. I guess it really was the Doneiks family’s concentration camp. All of the mansion’s first-floor windows had stylized iron bars set into them, and the front door was much heavier than it had any right to be. It looked pleasant enough at first glance, but it was obvious this was a horror house meant to prevent anyone within from escaping. It probably looked even scarier at night. Inside, the atmosphere really solidified it as a place of dread. Cobweb-encrusted chandeliers hung from the dark ceiling, and butlers dressed in all black came out to greet us. There were three in total, one old, two young. The old butler gave me a quick look over, then said politely, “Welcome to Karankov Villa. Are you here to see someone?”

  My werewolves stared warily at the old butler, while I glanced from him to the two younger butlers on either side. After a moment’s consideration I sighed and said, “I’m Veight, from the Meraldian Commonwealth Council. Incidentally, sir, who are those two men to either side of you?”

  The old butler remained silent, but the two younger ones lowered their centers of gravity. I really didn’t want to go through another fight.

  “Rolmundian servants pride themselves on being inconspicuous. I’ve never heard of three butlers all coming out to greet guests. Especially considering those two men behind you seem to be gathering an awful lot of mana.”

  I’d learned a thing or two about Rolmund etiquette in my time here, and as a mage, I could easily sense their mana. Se
eing as no one replied, I decided to make my threats a little more overt.

  “Those two mages behind you certainly have a lot of mana, but they’re complete amateurs when it comes to controlling it. The only people I can think of who might have that much mana without any training are demons.”

  Though I couldn’t be positive, my guess was they were vampires. If nothing else, they had a similar scent to Melaine’s subordinates. The two younger butlers got ready to strike, but the older one held out a hand to restrain them.

  “Don’t, you two.”

  “But...”

  “If he made it through our guard dogs, we won’t be able to stop him. Stand down.”

  As far as I could tell, the older butler was just a human, but the two demons still listened to him. Bowing, the two of them retreated to a corner of the room. The older butler nodded to me and said, “My apologies for the rude greeting. Please, forgive them.”

  “It’s fine. More importantly, Lord Bolshevik’s here, isn’t he?”

  “Yes, he is currently resting at this villa. Allow me to guide you to him.”

  The butler walked down the hall, indicating for us to follow. As we strode deeper into the mansion I asked him, “Who were those two?”

  To my surprise, he gave up their identities pretty easily.

  “Vampires, my lord.”

  “And they’re employed as this manor’s servants?”

  “Oh no, they’re Lord Bolshevik’s personal guards. He has a few more vampires serving directly under him.”

  So he’s a rebel duke who leads a cabal of vampires. That’s actually kinda cool. We crossed a narrow walkway and entered a detached building within the manor.

  “Lord Bolshevik is currently making use of this entire building. I have been ordered to bring any guests to the parlor, where Lord Bolshevik shall receive you.”

  “Thank you.”

  The butler left us at the entrance to the parlor, and I knocked on the door.

  “Come in. I’ve been expecting you,” a familiar voice answered.