Pain

"Pardon, but I don't have any intention of forming a brotherhood with some mysterious lunatic."

"Brother," the stranger whined, "you're so rude."

"Like I said, I ain't your brother."

The howls grew louder than more than a dozen savage wolves scoured through the surroundings. Worse, these wolves weren't just feral beasts, but they seemed to be in the process of transforming into undead abominations.

The bulging veins and rotten stench were evidence enough.

There's no way for Rin to get away safely without fighting these wolves.

They already caught up to the fella with weird brother notions, who, in retrospect, would catch up to Rin within a few seconds. It seemed Rin wouldn't be able to get out of this without getting injured severely.

Cursing his luck and this guy inwardly, Rin prepared for the fight. The lanky stranger was barely twenty strides away, while the wolves trailing behind. Some of them were even lunging at him.

"Common brother," the fellow shouted, wheezing, "we can do it!"

"You know," Rin yelled back, "it's not nice to bring trouble to someone you just called brother."

Whom he was kidding, Rin would do the exact thing if he got in such trouble, though that didn't make him any bit sympathetic to this fellow. Contrary to sympathy, Rin was furious with him.

It hardly took a moment for the feral wolves to detect the new meat ahead of them as half of their numbers' focus moved from the stranger to Rin.

Great, the new brother of his—which Rin would not admit—brought great joy at their first encounter. Well, to the hungry wolves, at the very least.

Rin drew mana as the warmth of power coursed through him. His will grew stronger, as he imbued the Mana Cloak to his whole body as well as his weapons, narrowing his eyes at his enemies.

Eight of them were on him, while the stranger was in a similar condition.

'Eight, I survived just as much the other day,' Rin mused.

Unfortunately, the situation was grimmer than it looked. Although the other fellow was doing great under pressure, he was already at his wit's end, injured, with blood-soaked all over his dress.

Then there were those deadmen, who would come in any moment now.

'It would be one hell of a survival if we made it out of here in one piece,' Rin thought. Which they would.

"Well, I definitely will," Rin said with certainty. He was prepared to stake the head of this new brother for it.

Rin took position, slumping in his stance. He forced mana downwards into the mark, increasing his weight. His narrowed vision watched over every potential target as they approached him. Although the wolves were out of their minds, their predatory instinct remained.

All eight of them had scattered around him, coming at him from different directions.

Rin was prepared with a clenched jaw, hunched in his stance. He spun at the minute movement in his back, a wolf lunged at him from there.

Rin swung his sword in a wide flash, drawing blood from his first target. However, it was merely a slow cut, barely managing to buy a moment.

But when he was dealing with this one, the others weren't just watching.

Rin had to block the claw coming his way with the wooden shield. Unfortunately, even with his augmented strength, he couldn't contest in raw strength with a freaking wolf. And this one was huge, higher than his waist.

Its claw plunged into his shield like a hammer, nearly breaking it in half. Rin cursed, shoving his shield to shrug off the claw. Rin didn't have raw power, so he made it up with mana.

He barely made it, but he lost his shield on the way as well.

His first target was within arm's reach. He didn't have the shield, and there was no reason to be regretful. Well, if he missed this time, there won't be anything to regret.

The grey wolf was waist high, just as ferocious as any feral beast could get at close, but it didn't make him squirm in horror when it lunged at him.

Wolves are fast, but they are predictable.

Rin slid below it, hacking his sword towards its chest. He didn't make it enough to dodge its lung, demerits of augmenting his weight. But when its lower body fell on him, his thrust already penetrated the mid-region of the wolf.

Blood oozed out of the wound as Rin thrust his sword deeper. With the enforcement of mana, piercing was almost effortless.

The animal howled, now in agony.

Unfortunately, it was not one wolf he was dealing with.

Before he could even finish this one, another one launched itself, trying to take a bite at him. Rin tried to jerk off the one above him to deal with the next. However, his mind jolted in sudden pain as he screamed in an outburst.

The mana cloak crumbled like a scrap of paper, and the power escaped from his grasp.

"AHH, MY FOOT! NOT MY FUCKING FOOT!"

It wasn't just the two he was dealing with. While he was busy killing one and trying to kill the other, another of its companions took the advantage of grabbing a bite of his left foot. Rin couldn't even see with the two wolves on top of her. However, the pain was real.

He squirmed, launching his feet violently. However, the mouth of a wolf was one terrible abomination. It only created more pain as he jerked his feet.

"Don't worry, brother, I got your back."

Rin wasn't sure if he got that clear. Shortly, the pressure of the fangs reduced on his foot. Rin finally managed to free himself.

A notification appeared in the rim of his eyes, but Rin did not have time to check. He triggered the Ring of Healing as his leg helped up slowly. In addition, his mind refreshed with the boost of 100 health points.

He stood up and gave that fellow a deadly glare. But he had no time to be angry at the stranger, as there were still plenty of wolves to deal with.

Hateful and disgusting this fellow might be, he wasn't a complete imbecile. He covered for Rin, keeping half a dozen wolves at bay. Well, he would be out any moment now.

Rin still felt the throbbing pain, putting some pressure on his bitten leg. He drew in mana and ignored the pain. It was quite easy to do that in a panic, to be honest. Besides, pain was an old friend. He was more adapted to it than the average person.

He pushed the mana upwards in the mark and got into the zone. Sharp and Agile.

But this was barely the start.

These wolves were clearly stronger than the ones he dealt with yesterday. Well, Rin grew a little stronger too, absorbing the gems, but not to the degree where he could defeat this many wolves single-handedly.

Thankfully, he wasn't alone.

Thankfully, the other guy had the skills of a pro player.