Colin looked around.
The whole scene was utter chaos.
As if on cue, the surrounding Wild Wolves pounced on the other Adventurers. The Adventurers, who had been put at a disadvantage by the blast of frost breath, were forced to halt and contend with these enemies. They needed time to regroup.
These damned Wild Wolves knew this was their one chance for a full meal, so they fought desperately, tangling with their foes.
Having lost his weapon, Kase was fighting the White Wolf with his bare fists.
In no time, he was covered in blood, and it was impossible to tell how badly he was injured.
Even from a distance, Colin could see that both Kase's swinging fists and the White Wolf's bared fangs were trembling.
This made the Half-Orc's punches feeble, posing no threat whatsoever to a behemoth like the White Wolf.
Colin gripped his Short Sword in one hand and two torches in the other.
'I hope what I saw on those survival shows works. Let's see if this beast is actually afraid of fire!'
He gritted his teeth and charged at the White Wolf, which was focused on dealing with the Half-Orc.
He shoved the flaming tar Torch directly against the White Wolf's belly. The intense Flame met the white fur, and a harsh sizzling sound filled the air.
The White Wolf let out an exaggerated yowl, shook off Kase, and leaped aside.
The beast snorted twice, its wolven eyes locked onto the two humans before it. The low growl it emitted was even more terrifying than before.
Colin handed one of the torches to Kase.
He glanced around. In this situation, no one would be able to help them.
"This thing's pelt is worth a lot," Kase said, taking the Torch and spitting a mouthful of bloody phlegm onto the ground.
"It probably thinks our meat tastes pretty good, too," Colin replied.
"I'll hold it off. You go somewhere else."
"What's the use of that? If we don't kill this thing, the Wolf Pack won't back down, and everyone in the caravan will die!"
As the two were talking, the White Wolf lunged forward, a frosty chill gathering in its mouth.
Having already seen its breath attack, the two dove to the left and right. The White Wolf's breath swept over the spot where they had been standing and the wagon behind them, instantly freezing a layer of ice over everything.
The wolf's head turned.
In that instant, Colin saw his own reflection in those feral, wolven eyes...
He knew his opponent would probably lunge to bite him in the next moment. What he didn't know was how many bites his small frame could take.
Kase, who had jumped behind the White Wolf, drew the Hand Axe from his waist and slammed it into the creature's flank. With his other hand, he viciously beat the wolf's rump with the Torch.
Hurt by the high heat, the White Wolf whimpered continuously, forced to abandon its attack on Colin.
The fear instilled by the Flame prevented it from using its full strength; its deepest instincts were screaming at it to flee.
The moment the enemy's attention shifted, Colin strode forward.
He focused, trying to activate [Emerald Flame Sword] again, but his mind felt like it had been filled with several barrels of cement; it wouldn't turn.
'To hell with it!'
With a silent roar in his heart, Colin viciously stabbed the Short Sword in his hand into the White Wolf's side. The snow-white fur was instantly dyed red.
The White Wolf, reeling in pain, turned its head.
Colin swung the Torch in a backhand motion, striking its head like a club. The searing light of the Flame was so bright the White Wolf couldn't even open its eyes.
Kase swung his axe at his opponent again.
But this time, the moment the axe blade struck the beast's fur, the Half-Orc's hands trembled violently, and the axe slipped from his grasp, clattering to the ground.
The White Wolf twisted and slammed its body into him again, its shoulder ramming directly into Colin's stomach and sending him flying.
"Catch!" Colin shouted from the ground, throwing the Short Sword in his hand.
Kase let out a roar in the Orcish tongue, reached out to catch the Short Sword, and brought it down on the White Wolf's head.
"ROAR!"
The White Wolf lunged and rammed into Kase again. As it knocked the Half-Orc down, the Short Sword sank into its shoulder.
Lying on the ground, Colin gritted his teeth and tried to get up.
But after such a fierce struggle, he couldn't muster even a shred of strength.
Kase lay where he'd been knocked down, his powerful body trembling uncontrollably.
And the White Wolf collapsed limply to the ground, its massive body heaving as blood from its wounds pooled into a small puddle.
'Did we get it? Is it dead?'
The very next moment, just as Colin was thinking this...
With two weapons still stuck in its body, the White Wolf let out a low growl and got back to its feet. It used a forepaw to pry the Orc Short Sword from its shoulder, then turned to glare viciously at the fallen Colin.
'Is this thing even a carbon-based life form?!'
Colin stared intently at the giant beast not far away, his hand closing around a nearby rock as he prepared for a final, desperate struggle.
Just then, the sound of battle cries came from up the road.
'What's happening?'
Colin turned his head to look.
It was a group of refugees from further ahead. Having seen the chaos here, they had joined the battle, weapons in hand!
When he looked back, Colin clearly saw the White Wolf give him a deep, surprisingly human-like look before turning and dashing toward the side of the road, vanishing in a flash among the ochre cliffs.
The remaining Wild Wolves whimpered a few times.
Those that could still move followed their leader, darting into the piles of rubble.
"Is it over?"
Bob's trembling voice came from under the wagon.
"It's over," Colin said with a sigh. "There's a reason you've survived this long."
"Sorry, little brother. How about this? I'll give you each an extra Gold Coin. I can't afford any more than that." Bob crawled out from under the wagon, wheezing, and began to organize the caravan.
Under his command, the caravan members and refugees began to clean up the battlefield. The Wild Wolves that were too injured to fight were finished off one by one, and a few Adventurers with skinning experience started flaying the fresh pelts on the spot.
A few Adventurers dragged Kase over to Colin's side.
They gave the two of them some simple first aid for their wounds and left two waterskins before leaving.
Colin wasn't seriously injured. He just had a few new bruises from where the White Wolf had slammed into him. They were already swollen and stung painfully. Moreover, the two torches he'd used against the White Wolf were now basically useless.
Although being injured was frustrating, on second thought, beasts always prey on the weak and fear the strong. If he hadn't put on a show of force at the start of the fight, cutting down a few Wild Wolves and intimidating the pack, Colin felt he might have been much more seriously hurt. To still be alive was a stroke of incredible luck.
More than half an hour passed before Colin could finally pull himself up by leaning on a wagon. By then, Kase, who had been unconscious and trembling, slowly came to, staring blankly at the azure sky.
"That was a close call," Colin said with a laugh. "If you'd fought with the same energy you used when you were fighting me a few days ago, that wolf would've been dead long ago."
A moment of silence.
Kase lowered his head. "It's all my fault. We missed out on a lot of money."
His reaction surprised Colin, who had only been teasing.
"Either way, Kase, we're still breathing."
"I wasn't lying to you. I really was the best Hunter in my tribe, the strongest Totem Warrior..."
"I was just joking," Colin said.
And he meant it. Although Kase's performance during the battle had been strange, he was still the only one in the caravan strong enough to face the White Wolf head-on. Without him, the entire caravan would have likely been doomed.
Kase didn't seem to hear him, continuing as if talking to himself.
"I followed the Shaman's guidance and embraced the Path of Nature. A few years ago, through the Essence of Nature, I learned of the coming of the last winter calamity, so I led my people away from the disaster.
"I just never expected Lady Rime to hold a grudge against me for it. Since then, whenever I get into a real, life-or-death battle, a bone-deep chill robs me of my rage, my skills... and my everything."
Colin was speechless for a moment.
He remembered that Lady Rime was another name for the Winter Goddess in this world.
And in the Land of the Far North, Lady Rime was practically Nature itself. Using winter to cow mortals was the Goddess's duty; what Kase did was tantamount to challenging the authority of the Gods.
'That's probably why he's fallen so low,' Colin thought.
"Do you still remember our goal? To become famous Adventurers, then make money. I buy a house in the city, you find a place for your people," Colin said. "Once we're famous, we'll find a way. Like finding a Mage to dispel the Curse or something."
"This is the will of the Gods. No one can defy it." Kase gave a helpless smile, but it seemed he was pulling himself together.
"As your big brother, I don't need you to take care of me, but I appreciate the thought."
"Speaking of which, you keep calling me little brother. How old are you, anyway?"
"Eighteen. A truly independent adult Orc."
Colin stared, stunned, looking at Kase's massive frame and weathered face.
'This is eighteen?'
But he quickly recalled his original self hearing Wandering Poets in a tavern say that Half-Orcs in this world came of age at fourteen. For an eighteen-year-old to look like this didn't seem so strange after all.
"You're probably around twelve, right? I can tell, little brother," Kase said, back to his usual self, a smug look on his face.
"Unfortunately for you, I'm twenty."