Subaru was standing near an opening in the forest. The last kid that he needed to save was right in front of him, yet he felt the need to stay back. 'Sense danger' was sending him a slight warning. It was clear that he was being observed, but he didn't know from where. Normally, he could rely on his map for something like this, but unless he had became completely aware of someone or something, they wouldn't be added to the map. The small wolgarm was nowhere near, but that didn't mean others weren't.

"Standing here won't do me any good."

Subaru moved to the girl's side and immediately used 'curse removal.'

"What?"

His skill had failed. Was the curse too strong to remove with a low level skill? If that was the case, then he could only deliver her to Beatrice and hope that she could remove it before the curse was activated. Going after the pup wasn't going to work. It was far deeper in the forest and too dangerous to go after. His best option was to rush back.

Subaru was about to pick the girl up, but stopped when he heard a growling sound behind him. A large wolf with blood red eyes was charging straight at him. Subaru calmly drew his katana and sidestepped the beast, cutting its head off as it passed him.

"Woah, that was way too close."

Subaru panicked once his opponent was finished, but didn't let his guard down. He had felt inexplicably calm when he was in the fight, but he had no option but to let it go. Sense danger didn't turn off, so he knew there were more. The wolgarm had probably come in a pack and were testing his strength.

As he thought that, a whole pack emerged from the forest. His escape was blocked off, so he had no choice but to make a stand. He should be panicking, but he felt a calm wash over him as he saw the beasts close in on him. He cut down the two that were spearheading the assault. They fell lifelessly to the side as the others charged without hesitation at the gruesome ending their fellow wolgarm had faced. Subaru had to hold his ground or the beasts would get to the small girl laying behind him. He dodged one and cut it on the stomach, but another came right after it. It swung it's claws into Subaru's side. It hurt, but it would take more than that to bring him down. Pain resistance was going to have to work overtime in this fight.

Subaru activated 'sprinting' and slashed one approaching him and another's heads off in one fluid motion. The wolgarm were falling faster than his HP was dropping, but for every one he killed, another two took its place. Seeing that he would fall if this went on for too long, he activated one of his trump cards.

Subaru cut down another three before turning his back to the dogs. He dismissed his blade and scooped up the girl in one swift motion. He disappeared from the pack's sight without a trace. Confusion rose around them, but one caught sight of their target running away. The beasts gave chase.

"This night is full of way too many close calls."

Subaru had teleported out of the way right as one was about to close it's jaws on him. He held the girl and began running. He knew from the map that the wolgarm were chasing him closely, but he was going to get backup very soon.

Rem had taken a great amount of time delivering the children back to the village. She didn't want to let Subaru out of her sight for very long, but had no choice to agree. The man himself had gone running off into a forest leaving behind a promise that she I tended to hold him to should he survive. She knew that the man possessed a decent amount of strength along with the ability to use magic. He was a confusing person. His talents were spread everywhere and his growth at everything was abnormal. Nevertheless, she couldn't leave him on his own for too long. She caught the scent of the witch on the air and turned to go find him.

Subaru looked at his map as he was running away. The past few minutes had felt like hours and the chase was quite difficult. Even if he was faster, he had to carry someone at the same time as evading the beasts. They were constantly on his tail. When he saw Rem's pin grow close enough, he teleported again.

"Rem, we need to get back to the village. I can't fight while carrying her."

Rem was surprised when he popped out of nowhere, but quickly complied.

"I'll hold them off while you go back."

"Thanks."

Subaru bounded off while Rem began battling. There were some notifications from his display, but he didn't have time to check more than his level going up to 12. He reached the village and told them to take care of her while he was fighting. The villagers took her in, albeit somewhat confusedly. Subaru didn't have time to ask, so he took off back towards Rem. He knew Rem was strong and that he shouldn't be worrying about her, but he couldn't shake an awful feeling as he ran to her location.

Rem was swinging her flail all over the place. It's next direction was impossible to predict, but it always hit it's mark. It would have been almost graceful if Rem wasn't covered in blood. Her hair and uniform were stained with crimson as the ulgarm charged to their death.

"I'm back Rem. What should we do?"

"The best option would be to kill all the witchbeasts, but that might not be possible. At the very least, we need to make sure they won't come to the village."

"Let's take as many as we can out then."

Subaru had healed himself with magic and was prepared to fight, but he knew that it was limited. Even if he didn't feel exhaustion, he knew that if he ran out of stamina, that would be a wrap. Rather than dodge, he should be relying on his magic more.

Subaru struck down a dog coming at him before teleporting to the side of the other and killing it. He repeated this strategy which conserved stamina until he was almost out of MP as well. He knew there was no more room to fight. There were countless corpses, but the ulgarm showed no sign of slowing down. He called out to Rem who seemed to be in equally poor shape.

"I can't fight for much longer. We should find a way out of here."

"Agreed."

At that moment Subaru checked his map and discovered something good. The pup that had cursed all the children was very close. Subaru remembered what Beatrice had said. If he killed the one that cursed them, then the curse would be rendered useless. He had enough MP to get a couple more teleports off, so if he managed to kill it before retreating, then he wouldn't have to worry about the curse he had failed to remove. He teleported behind it and…

Subaru was greeted with the night sky. He was falling, but everything seemed to be so slow. Reality hit him when his body made contact with the ground. Subaru had the air knocked out of him, it was bad enough to make his pain resistance go up, but that was neither here nor there. He teleported himself away to get some distance from the wolgarm. He heard a loud scream. He was in a daze after this blow he had taken. Everything was hazy, but he could vividly hear a crazy laugh. It was anything but sane.

Once he found his bearings, he saw Rem absolutely massacring the ulgarms. There was no opposing her. Everything that stayed at a distance was smashed by her morning star and anything that came close was beaten with her own fists. Yet what stood out the most was the single brightly glowing horn on her forehead. Subaru was dumbfounded, but came to his senses quickly. Fighting alongside Rem didn't seem possible now, but Rem also didn't seem conscious. She would keep fighting until the ulgarm were all gone, or she fell. He noticed some ulgarm split off to attack from above. Rem was too preoccupied to see them. Subaru ran forward. The ulgarm jumped and…

Subaru activated his other trump card.

"LAST SPELL"

As Subaru shouted that, space distorted around him. He grabbed Rem and the two disappeared. Subaru saw Rem's eyes turn back and her horn disappear, but that was his limit. He was completely utterly drained. With his final teleportation, he brought them back to the village where Subaru's world turned dark.

Natsuki Subaru, Lv. 12, Genius

Job: Sage Candidate

Secondary Job: Locked

Stats: (15 Stat Points)

Attack: 16[+10]

Defense: 16[+5]

Magic Attack: 16

Magic Defence: 16

Speed: 51 [+3][+5]

Skills:

Arithmetic 1, Writing 1, Magic Resist 1, Knife 1, Strategy 1, Last Strike 1, Last Spell 1, Last Defence 1, CQC 1, Boxing 1, Footwork 1

Sense Danger 2, Fear Resist 2, Space Resist 2, Negotiate 2, Healing Magic 2, Lugnica Common Language 2, Curse Resistance 2, Curse Removal 2

Inspect 3, Space Magic 3

Pain Resist 4

Cleaning 5

Madness Resist 6, Swordsmanship 6

Last Stand 10, Hand to hand 10, Musicianship 10

Sprinting 11

Unique: Return by Death

Next chapter, we get to see what Subaru gained from this fight. I have learned just how hard it it to write fights. I hope you all enjoy this as much as I enjoy writing.