Teleporting him to the edge of a precipice in the middle of untamed nature didn't fit Airam's style... she could be theatrical and possessive, but she would never make such a gross error.
If the mirror had spat him out here, it meant that an external force had hijacked the portal's signal...
He looked around.
This land of mountains and winding rivers was beautiful, but it had a primitive savagery that modern society had forgotten centuries ago.
Just a horizon that seemed taken from a 19th-century oil painting or a completely different world.
Crack
The thread of his thoughts was cut abruptly when the violent sound of dead wood breaking resonated from the thick of the forest at his back, followed immediately by the frenetic noise of something or someone crashing through the undergrowth at a desperate speed.
The sound was approaching fast and heavy.
Lief turned on his heels, facing the tree line, and his muscles paradoxically relaxed, adopting a combat stance, ready for anything.
Seconds later, a human figure emerged stumbling from the shadows of the giant ferns.
It was a young woman, of a sharp and warrior-like beauty.
A cascade of wild, dark brown curls framed a face pale from exhaustion, now stained with mud and blood. She wore an embroidered peasant blouse under a tight brown leather corset and a short maroon velvet jacket with gold embroidery, period clothing that, although elegant, was in tatters from the brambles and running.
Her expression was of pure weariness, but upon seeing Lief standing at the edge of the abyss, she didn't stop and shouted at him, using a language that resonated in Lief's memory with an ancient tint.
"Fugi! Pleacă de aici!"
Romanian?
The data was filed in his brain in a fraction of a second, but his attention was claimed immediately by what was coming behind her.
A powerful roar erupted from the thicket, so powerful that it caused a flock of crows to take flight cawing in panic.
The vegetation parted violently and a dark mass of muscle and fury burst through.
It was something like a wolf walking upright.
The creature rose on its two muscular hind legs, easily exceeding two meters in height.
Its body was a mountain of blackish-gray fur and tense muscles moving under the skin.
The head retained its wolf structure, but there was something human in the malice of its yellow eyes and the way its black lips retracted to show two rows of fangs.
Threads of saliva flew from its open jaws as it ran, driven by an insatiable hunger.
"A lycanthrope," stated Lief, observing its anatomy, without moving a single finger. "And a big one."
The beast had lost any trace of humanity.
Seeing that its prey was cornered against the void of the cliff, it didn't hesitate and with a final growl, flexed its powerful hind legs and launched itself into the air in a leap with its front claws extended like scythes.
Feeling the shadow of death fall upon her back and having nowhere to flee, the woman closed her eyes tightly, preparing for her end.
But just in that critical fraction of a second, Lief intervened by simply moving his left hand, as if shooing away a fly.
!
A force instantly wrapped around the woman's body, lifting her off the ground and nullifying gravity for an instant.
She felt the air hit her and, sustained by that invisible current, was displaced horizontally several meters to the right.
And the werewolf found only empty air.
Betrayed by its own massive inertia, it couldn't correct its course in the air and crashed heavily against the edge of the cliff with its claws tearing deep furrows in the earth and rock while skidding to brake before falling into the void.
Recovering quickly, it turned around on all fours, and its eyes locked instantly on the new threat: Lief.
"Grrr... RAAAAGH!"
Swish
With a roar of anger that vibrated in both their chests, the muscles of its hind legs contracted and released violently, propelling its more than three hundred kilos of weight forward like a cannonball.
Faced with that offensive, Lief's expression became bored as he spread his legs and extended his right hand to the side and closed his fingers around the void.
Buzz
The air suffered a violent distortion and instantly thousands of energy particles condensed in his palm.
A great longsword, shining with an immaculate blue light, materialized from nothingness in his grip and its glow illuminated for a second the grotesque and drooling face of the werewolf that was pouncing on him.
Sinking his weight by bending his knees, Lief brought his armed arm back and took a ferocious step forward, invading the beast's guard.
The movement was simple: a frontal thrust.
SHLACK
The frantic advance of the werewolf died.
Its body remained rigid on the spot, frozen less than half a meter from Lief's face and held in the air solely by the blade that now pierced it from side to side.
The tip of the Master Sword had pierced the exact center of its chest and poked cleanly out its back dripping blood, while the immaculate power contained in the blade reacted violently against its cursed nature and the flesh around the wound began to hiss and bubble.
The werewolf lowered its head slowly, looking with disbelief at the shining sword that impaled it.
The murderous light in its eyes flickered and began to dissipate quickly to be replaced by a strange mixture of confusion and relief at the end.
But Lief acted immediately before gravity claimed its prey.
He grabbed the hilt of the sword with both hands and tensed every muscle in his back and arms, and with a roar of effort, exerted a colossal force to lift the beast off the ground.
He twisted his torso with violence and executed a throwing motion, releasing the sword at the peak of the arc.
Swish
The huge body of the werewolf was flung backward, propelled by the inertia of the sword traveling with it.
Boom
It flew several meters until impacting with a crunching noise against the trunk of an old oak and the blade of the Master Sword, conserving all the momentum of the throw, sank deep into the wood and pierced the monster completely, leaving it pinned to the tree half a meter off the ground.
He fought instinctively one last time, and with a final exhale of black smoke, his head tilted to the side, becoming completely inert and lifeless.
"..."
The forest recovered its sepulchral silence almost as quickly as it had lost it, leaving only the subtle sound of blood dripping from the beast's claws.
Clack Clack Clack
The rhythmic sound of Lief's bare feet broke the stillness as he walked with a slow and deliberate pace toward the tree, approaching to examine his work.
He stopped right in front of the corpse and ignoring the stench of wet dog and death, he reached out and ran his fingers through the gray fur of the monster's forearm.
It was thick and rough.
Then, his gaze lowered toward the claws, they were curved, black, and sharp as razor blades.
"The skin is in surprisingly good condition, and the bone structure is impressive…"
He tilted his head slightly, visualizing the potential.
"If I get someone to process the skull and cure the skin properly, this thing's head would look spectacular mounted on the Agency's main wall."
A few meters away, the Romanian beauty who had just been snatched from the jaws of death remained motionless, she was in a state of shock.
Her hazel green eyes were dilated, fixed on the muscular naked back of that strange young man standing in front of the impaled monster.
________
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