WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

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Chapter 514: Hour of the Dog and the Wolf - 7

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Teia ran.

She carried tens of thousands of lives on her back, but she did not care. She ran for herself. Teia was a legend in racing history; even stepping on her shadow was hailed as an achievement.

The plains of Ende seemed too narrow for her as she raced on, sending every sight in the world flying behind her.

But her opponent was the Beast King.

The sound of paws striking the ground was dangerously close behind Teia. She could almost feel hot breath on the back of her neck.

Teia knew it by instinct rather than sensation. She had not been caught yet, but she was not pulling farther ahead either.

Was Fenrir incredible for chasing down Teia, a legend in racing history? Or was Teia incredible for being only human and still fleeing from the Beast King?

Both were extraordinary, but neither Teia nor Fenrir cared what anyone thought as they ran.

To live. To kill.

There was no one ahead of her. Behind her, savagery gave chase. Her destination was nowhere in sight. Yet the pressure closed in with every passing second.

Was this the fear of leading from the front?

Teia finally understood why horse beastkin racers hated running first. Bearing that pressure while fleeing an unseen opponent was that difficult.

Still, there were times when even difficult things had to be done.

For the first time in her life, Teia fled.

"It's coming! The wolves are coming!"

The Oberli guards, having felt the tremors, shouted. The beastkin who had been carelessly scattering bear traps that would not even work quickly gathered together. Their eyes, tense as they aimed their spears, beheld an unfamiliar sight.

"Good grief..."

Two figures raced forward, kicking up clouds of dust. Teia, gritting her teeth as she sprinted, and the King of Wolves fiercely chasing after her.

Objectively, there was a considerable distance between them, but they were moving so fast that they looked almost on top of each other. Distance was relative. To those two, that gap was probably nothing.

The Oberli guards muttered as they stared at the savage beast behind Teia.

"That's... the King of Wolves?"

Then, a little later, hundreds of wolves appeared over the ridge, following their king.

Wolves formed packs. Yet unless they possessed a political system, their numbers could not surpass a certain point. Issues of hierarchy, food, and social order increased exponentially, and an ordinary beast could not solve all of them.

That should have been the case.

Yet the number of wolves gathered under the powerful force of the Beast King was truly staggering.

The wolves that had run after their king barked fiercely, giving off savagery. Perhaps because they were the king's pack, every one of them was large and swift. They advanced at a speed comparable to cavalry, howling wildly.

[Awoooooo--.]

[Awooooo--.]

The howls gradually spread through the area. Not only the king's pack, but the wolves that had been prowling around us all began approaching at once. An Oberli guard cried out in fear at the sudden increase in wolves.

"The wolves are coming! There are too many! We need to retreat first..."

The guard who tried to order even a belated retreat turned around and froze in terror.

"They're coming from behind too!"

"What, from behind?"

"The wolves went around us?"

Hundreds of beasts were charging in from that direction as well, violently pounding the earth. Escaping would have been difficult enough, and now we were being surrounded. If we stayed here, death was all that awaited us.

It was an utterly hopeless situation. An Oberli guard shouted urgently.

"Magician! Kito! Isn't there anything you can do?!"

They're coming. But before that.

I waved the flag high.

This was the finish line. Everything would begin once Teia arrived here.

Having found the finish line, Teia gritted her teeth and gave one final push.

She had run at full speed from beginning to end. Her legs trembled as she reached her limit. Still, having pushed the human body and human qi arts to their absolute extreme, she barely shook off the King of Wolves and lunged forward.

"I'm hereeeee!"

Tap.

Teia staggered as she crossed the finish line. Relief at having won nearly made her collapse, but she gritted her teeth and took one more step. After slowing down a little and breathing heavily, she turned around.

"Where's Fenrir?!"

We had arbitrarily decided this was the finish line. The wolf had no reason to play along. Worried that Fenrir might chase her all the way here, Teia searched for the wolf with her eyes...

The King of Wolves had stopped long before Teia did.

The King of Wolves looked as if Azzy had been dipped in different paint and pulled back out. Her features, the shape of her fur, and even her build were identical to Azzy's. Only her fur color and aura differed. The King of Wolves, who had been charging forward with a vicious air, stopped and stared intently beyond us.

Teia said between ragged breaths.

"What... is she looking at?"

Her other half, probably.

Following the King of Wolves' gaze, I looked at the beast pack approaching from behind us.

"Woof! Woof!"

"Bark!"

"Grrrrr!"

Their movements were less organized than the wolves'. Their appearances were strangely varied. Yet the beasts ran together as one pack, united by a single purpose.

And at their head was Azzy, the King of Dogs.

"Isn't that Matthew's Bokshil? They're not wolves... they're dogs?"

You figured it out. What was coming from behind us was not wolves.

They were reinforcements.

Ende was a city of beastkin. Still, beastkin ate meat and raised animals. Just as some raised pigs for meat, many raised dogs. In Ende, where even theft was freely permitted, most dogs were guard dogs raised to protect homes and property.

Azzy had used the power of a king to lead beasts that lacked tactical ability and could not ordinarily be counted as military strength.

"Awoooooo!"

Azzy ran on all fours. Just as the King of Wolves had chased Teia to kill her, Azzy felt that killing intent and ran to save her.

Her speed was equal to the King of Wolves'.

Azzy's savagery did not manifest against humans. It could manifest against anything other than humans, but as the gentle-natured King of Dogs, she usually did not show it.

"Wolf...!"

But if her opponent was the King of Wolves, her fated enemy and savagery itself, then Azzy too would be consumed by savagery and fight.

Crunch. Crunch.

A crown formed over Azzy's head. Facing her enemy, Azzy was now trying to fight the wolves on behalf of every dog.

And the King of Wolves as well.

"Dog...!"

Flames rippled in the King of Wolves' eyes. Looking upon her other half, whom she hated more than humans, she revealed her savagery in full. Crunch. A crack appeared a handspan above her head, and a crown began growing over the King of Wolves as well.

A half-crown, as though it had been torn from Azzy's crown.

"Awoooooooooooo----!!"

The King of Wolves changed her target too. The Beast King who had been running toward the humans howled on behalf of the wolves. The world trembled as it heard the wolves' rage.

Even the other wolves flinched in fear. Some dogs toppled over mid-charge, but Azzy lit a fire in her eyes and charged even faster.

At the final moment, Azzy shot forward like a brown bullet and tangled with the King of Wolves.

Thump, thump, thump.

The two beasts rolled across the ground dozens of times. They pinned each other down with clawed forepaws and aimed for each other's throats with sharp teeth. Blood splattered and bruises formed. Before they had even rolled twice, the two beasts had exchanged dozens of attacks.

At last, as they both tried to tear out the other's throat, their heads collided.

Their half-crowns crashed together. Shockwaves spread out like black branches. The girls' bodies were far too light for the force of that tremendous impact. The two beast kings were flung apart in opposite directions.

Azzy's body rolled near me. Covered in dirt, Azzy sprang to her feet in a bedraggled state.

The King of Wolves, on the other hand, immediately regained her footing and lunged at her.

Sensing danger, Azzy raised her fur. She looked a little pressed.

"Azzy. Take it easy. You don't need to win alone."

"Woof!"

Azzy barked bravely and charged forward again. Whether she had listened to me or not, she gritted her teeth and leaped at the King of Wolves.

Maybe because Azzy's movements were too easy to read, the King of Wolves, who had been staring directly at her, brought down a forepaw in an instant.

Bang.

The wolf's forepaw struck the crown of Azzy's head squarely. Azzy's body slammed into the ground, while dust burst upward on either side of her like wings. It showed the force of the blow she had taken.

"A... woooo!"

Yet even as she was driven into the ground, Azzy sprang back up and pounced on the King of Wolves. Dragging the fight back into a dogfight, Azzy kept pressing the King of Wolves despite suffering wound after wound.

"The King of Dogs is being pushed back...!"

"She is, but Azzy is also trying to protect us."

Even while being wounded by the wolf, she was trying to draw her as far from the humans as possible. Since the two kings were fighting in the middle of the wolves, the wolves' momentum had faltered a little.

During that time, Ende's dogs and the Oberli guards joined forces to fight the wolves. The wolves' assault was terrifying, but the alliance of dogs and humans held their ground far more firmly.

Dogs and wolves had originally been wolves. Then, for some reason, they split in two.

Dogs, friendly toward humans. Wolves, dangerous to humans.

But dogs could bite humans, and wolves could share affection with them. They had been one from the beginning. No beast unconditionally obeyed humans or unconditionally hated them.

Beasts were not phenomena.

And yet...

"Someone artificially separated dogs and wolves."

They poured savagery into the wolves and inertia into the dogs. Taking advantage of the fact that the two had split from one branch, they turned them into phenomena rather than species.

That was why they were identical, yet opposites. Ferocious wolves and domesticated dogs, fated to fight in order to kill what was different.

"Only one being could do something like this... but I'll think about that later."

The front line was being pushed back. Dogs bitten by wolves were appearing one after another. The Oberli guards tried to help by thrusting their spears whenever they could, but the wolves broke through gaps in the formation and wildly bit and clawed at them.

"Argh! My arm! My arm!"

"Throw the nets!"

Both sides were somehow holding each other off while dealing damage, but if the pack led by the King of Wolves joined the attack, it would be over.

We were hanging by a thread.

Then groups appeared from both sides. From the direction of Ende came the beastkin main force led by the Obelisks. From the opposite direction came Beast Faction warriors led by Gruel.

"Mage, you lunatic! Who did you use as bait without my permission?!"

"Hmph. It wasn't part of the operation, but we've ended up surrounding them. Now's the time! Warriors! Charge before your blood cools!"

Sapien and Gruel, who had held off the offensive, had gathered their forces and come forward. The humans standing with the wolves must have done the same.

This was the battlefield.

Everything was in place.

I shouted toward the distant sky, where someone was hiding.

"Shei! Now! Do it!"

Even if it was the plan of an unreliable regressor, we had no choice but to rely on it now.

Go on, then.

Footnotes:

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