We had been traveling together for almost three hours. Contrary to what I had heard, we were actually quite far from the main location Simon was heading to with Lady Velryna. The journey was pleasant, although turbulent due to the strange roads we were using.
I asked Simon once about it, and he said that this kind of convoy was better to use alternative routes to the main ones to avoid attracting too much attention. I didn't understand at first, after all, I didn't know Velryna's position in the palace. Fortunately, I didn't have any mishaps like bandits or anything like that.
"We'll take a break soon," I heard from outside. In front of me, Velryna still rested with her eyes closed, and Simon read a titleless book, but it seemed quite long from the many pages he flipped through.
"Sigh~" Simon got up and opened the carriage door, looking around to check on how the knights were. They did this every forty minutes.
"You're distracted," I heard in my thoughts Voralith's voice, flying beside me, invisible. Although her powers had been completely taken away, she was still a Dragon, and invisibility with sensory concealment was extremely easy for her, unlike me, who couldn't do anything.
"If it serves as consolation, I've already cast a powerful spell on their hearts. It's impossible for any mortal to guess your existence at this moment," confirmed Voralith. That made me much more relieved.
"One less problem," I replied to her through thoughts, and she waved, entering me again like an intangible ghost.
"It seems we have company," Voralith said, and I opened the carriage, leaving Velryna alone inside it. When I stepped out, I saw Simon and the knights looking ahead.
I approached close enough to stand beside him, and he glanced at me slightly from the corner of his eye. "Do you want to handle this?" he questioned, as a test. There was no denying it.
"With grace or brutality?" I asked, assessing the situation ahead. He didn't answer me, but I just smiled. "You asked for it, old man," I said, taking the spear from my back. It wasn't anything special, but it would do. The challenge wasn't even that great.
Six beasts, probably five stars, all wolves. What a coincidence, isn't it? Damn, I hate wolves so much. My anger was already at its limit just from seeing those bastards.
"Hey, little pests, stay behind your mother," I said to the reasonably terrified knights. Facing so many of them could be a problem for them. I had noticed before, but these were intermediate knights. They weren't kingdom elites. Why were they escorting a princess? I have no idea.
With my heart pounding, hammering in my chest, and my muscles tense, I quickly assessed them. Each one was nearly two meters tall of pure ferocity, but they seemed like just scared little puppies. Their eyes gleamed with intensity, and their not-so-threatening fangs growled at me. But I wasn't intimidated by any of it, I laughed.
Honestly, it was comical to think that such beasts dared to challenge me, an expert in killing wolves.
With the loose grip of my spear, I felt at home. I stepped forward as I saw the first wolf's charge. The attack came fast and fierce, but was futile with my dodge and lateral cut. Dodging, I simply tore through the right side of the wolf, turning it into a sort of meat piece. It was cut in half horizontally. The others began to approach, circling as if hunting a difficult prey.
My posture remained, calculating my movements, the same as my master's. I sliced through the air and struck the second one, who died instantly without even reacting. The others looked at their bodies, horrified.
I turned, laughing at the situation, seeing how idiotic this pack was. Wolves are natural hunters. They should have measured the strength of their target before blindly attacking. This cost them everything.
They resumed, advancing and retreating in a deadly dance, trying to find a gap in my defense, finally acting like hunters. I moved with agility, dodging their attacks and slashing whenever possible. But the fight was a battle of endurance, and they couldn't win alone against me.
"Why does it seem... like they're the ones being hunted?" one of the knights questioned. The others were speechless.
"Because they are," Simon replied to them. In fact, he was completely curious about the girl in front of him. How did she have so much experience? These were his real thoughts. Even veteran knights take time to adapt to fighting against more than one opponent, but this girl, Ziriel, was a talent monster, one of the greatest he had ever seen.
"It seems like you didn't rest very well, Lady Velryna," he said, looking at the girl still with a sleepy face.
"What's going on?" She asked next, yawning, completely out of character for a lady. She kept looking at Ziriel who was giving a real beating to the wolves in front of her.
"I asked if she wanted to deal with them, and she seems quite energetic," he replied to Velryna, and she continued watching the fight.
"Ziriel Azure... how phenomenal," she said, and Simon agreed.
While the others watched, I was ready to finish this battle. I had already seriously injured four of them, and two were fatal. It was just a swing of the blade and they all died. I felt empty. There was no challenge coming from these beasts. It was like rotten grindstones that were good for nothing.
I didn't want to continue this idiotic display of techniques anymore. Finally, after a fight that seemed like an eternity, even without the necessary speed, I cut down the four remaining wolves in one circular stroke, dodging the four advances.
Then, the last wolf gave its final breath, and I stepped back, leaving on the ground a pile of giant wolf corpses bloodied and torn apart by a weak spear, which by the way broke.
Looking at Simon, I just commented. "I told you I didn't need muscles," and he lightly chuckled and apologized. "Truly, it seems I misjudged your skills," he replied. If you knew who I am... maybe you wouldn't praise me like that, old man.
"I think I'll need a new spear," I commented, and Simon nodded. Thus, with the problems solved, we resumed the journey to the aforementioned city, which they didn't even inform me of its name. Not that I could play smart and ask, but the likelihood of being labeled a spy is too high to make any mistakes.