The story of Aldorem

Chapter Three; part II: A first fight

From one moment to the other I heard a rustling behind me, I tried spinning around; but it was to late, I was thrown over, through the force behind an incoming ambush. The beast tried to bite me in the neck to kill me, but miscalculated and instead bit my left shoulder. I was fortunately still able to get rid of the beast as I fell and to turn around while falling so that I landed on my back seeing weather the beast attacked again. Which it didn't do, instead, the iwàrt slowly walked around me while keeping a big distance—which it could still cover with one jump. The wound made with its bite was huge and was bleeding like crazy while hurting. Moving my arm was connected with immense pain.

Looking forward I could see the beast that attacked me, it was a Iwàrt, they are a subspecies of wolf; they have sharper teeth, better defence, and are faster. But they have far less HP than a normal wolf. The iwàrt stood about a meter tall, its body covered in a black shell with gaps for movement and breathing. Through these, I could see the crimson colour of its fur.

Gathering my courage, while clearing my mind from my shock, I stood up and made eye contact with the wolf while preparing myself for a second attack. I took my pocket knife in my right hand, extended the blade, and threw the rucksack to the side because it would be in the way while fighting. I again cleared my mind from any unnecessary thoughts, as now it was kill or be killed.

The iwàrt walked in circles around me for what seemed like eternity, but it was no more than some minutes in real. Then he leapt at me with its mouth open wide, his teeth shining from my blood on it, its red fur gleaming like fire, and his eyes sparkling dangerously, showing its madness. I blocked the attack by stabbing with my pocket knife—which lay in my right hand because my left one was demobilized through the wound in the shoulder—into the wolf's left foreleg. There was a little spot with no hard shell, which I hit while at the same time leaping to the right, to avoid his bite. Then I kicked the iwàrt in his side, while extracting my knife from his leg. This sent the iwàrt flying forward and opened a wound in its right foreleg.

The situation was almost equal now, I couldn't use my left arm because of the wound in my shoulder, and the wolf had lost the workability of one leg.

I decided to stay there and not run after the hurt Iwàrt, which now lay on the ground. As I wanted to regain my composure first and relax for a short time.

The iwàrt was fast on his legs again and made his circle around me again. But there was a difference that was immediately apparent: the wolf was limping and walking a little slower.

In the meantime, my situation was not getting any better; I had already lost a lot of blood, and my whole body felt warm and cold at the same time. My headache was getting worse with every drop of blood I lost.

After a long moment to adjust to its own situation, the iwàrt launched another attack. This time it took his last energy reserves and jumped higher than before, I threw myself forward to avoid being hit from above by the incoming attack. Being beneath the Iwàrt was good, because he would just jump past me, but still he tried to hit me with its small legs—with long claws—while being in mid-air. But the surprise attack missed me by a paper width. But I didn't waste my chance to attack the wolf mid-air, where he was vulnerable and nearly defenceless. So I tried to slit the wolf's belly with a cut from my knife while I was underneath it. But the attack was useless and got reflected due to the hard shell of the iwàrt.

After a few more exchanges, each of which ended in a spare, I felt myself getting sloppier and sloppier with each attack, and a slight dizziness set in. Then I realized that I had to get rid of the wolf now or never, as my strength otherwise would dwindle completely.

So I gathered all of my remaining strength and ran towards the wolf, who had the same idea and charged in. We met halfway, and the iwàrt attacked immediately with its right paw aimed at my throat, but I was ready for the attack and ducked away. The moment the wolf towered over me, I stabbed at it from underneath with all my remaining power. I hit the wolf right in the chest, through a slit in its shell, killing it immediately.

The Iwàrt fell down dead over me, taking me down with it. I struggled to get out from under the heavy body, and after finally getting it off me, I sat beside it for the next few minutes.

Judging by the sun, I fought the Iwàrt for 30 minutes, not more, but it felt like days.

My physical condition didn't improve even after the rest; my symptoms were getting worse and worse, and I hadn't much blood left in me, as the bleeding was getting less and less from my shoulder, and some other bruises I got while fighting. So I only had one chance left to survive. That was to eat the strengthening stone my dad gave me for my birthday and hope that it would heal my wound and cleanse it of any infection. Which I didn't believe in, but what chance was there other than hoping?

I'd carried the stone with me every day since my birthday, in case I needed it, and now I think the time has come. So I ate it and just hoped that I would live to see another day and maybe my first day at school, which is getting closer and closer.