The Mountain God. (Continued)
If you stay in the mountains and fields...
As if to confirm Maria's idea, a sudden, abrupt sound rang out.
"Help! Someone help me!"
Suddenly, a shrill scream rang in my ears.
Maria naturally heard the cry for help and turned her head slightly...
When Maria arrived at the place where the sound came from, the ground was littered with corpses.
Large numbers of people, killed by unknown wild animals, lay beside the trailers, their fresh blood flowing on the ground.
The low temperature gradually froze it.
Meanwhile, a giant gray wolf, almost half a person's height, was baring its teeth and attacking the last girl present.
His sharp pupils gleamed with restless light.
But soon, the Wolf Pack noticed Maria.
They all turned their heads, revealing hostility towards it.
The other little girls, dressed in similar attire, also noticed this and looked somewhat surprised.
She only instinctively cried out for help, but she never expected... that someone would actually appear?
Seeing that there were no reinforcements behind Maria, she gritted her teeth.
"Run! These beasts are starving; they'll kill anything!"
Although she knew Maria might be her only way out, the girl still didn't want to drag Maria down with her. She used almost all her strength to remind Maria.
These wolves... are extremely dangerous!
In fact, even without the girl saying anything, Maria could tell that the wolves were practically starving.
No one understood the true nature of a wild beast better than her.
Seeing the giant wolf lunging at her head, Maria swung her hand back almost without a word!
"Bang!"
There were no fancy moves, no feints or probing tactics.
Maria slapped that gaping, blood-red mouth so hard that its jaw flew off!
Blood splattered on the ground, the gash a gruesome sight...
"Waaaaah..."
The giant wolf howled.
A long trail of blood stretched across the snow.
Meanwhile, the other giant wolves couldn't sit still any longer.
They growled and roared, surrounding Maria in a circle.
For a moment, they all forgot about the little girl over there.
The little girl who witnessed this was extremely anxious.
She turned around in a panic, only to realize that she still had a small hammer in her hand.
At that moment, she didn't care about anything else and gritted her teeth as she threw it out.
"Catch!"
She called out to Maria.
Maria didn't refuse what the girl had mustered the courage to throw at her; she caught it casually and then tossed it away without looking back!
"Bang!"
The flying hammer shattered the wolf's shadow behind him in the blink of an eye!
Upon seeing this, the surrounding Wolf Pack' originally fierce eyes softened, revealing a hint of shrewdness.
The obvious disparity in strength between the two sides forced them to consider whether to attack.
But clearly, Maria didn't want to give the Wolf Pack a chance to escape.
With a flick of her wrist, she took a step forward!
"Sulfone--!"
With a simple yet powerful punch, he shattered the head of another hungry wolf!
Seeing this, the other Wolf Pack also became ferocious, rushing towards Maria and trying to tear her apart.
But Maria remained silent, continuing to throw punches.
The brutal attack was far more explosive than Wolf Pack tearing a human body apart.
The little girl could only hide her body to the side, staring blankly as Maria tore at the bodies of these beasts with a mixture of amusement and delight.
His small eyes were filled with immense astonishment.
But this carnage didn't last long. A long, booming cry echoed through the woods, the powerful sound seemingly stirring the air and carrying far into the distance...
The little girl was so frightened by the sound that she almost instinctively covered her head and squatted down on the ground, unable to move.
Maria also looked in the direction of the sound.
On a hillside not far away, a huge wolf, as tall as a person, lay there with its snow-white fur raised.
Only when the whistling sound stopped did it lower its bright silver neck.
His eyes, gleaming with a faint blue light, were fixed on Maria...
Its heavy legs pounded into the snow, its body large enough that even with all four limbs on the ground, its vision was not obstructed by the thick snow.
It walked step by step to a spot not far from Maria, its ferocious eyes hiding the malice of a primal beast!
Slaughter, then eat!
Upon seeing the alpha wolf, the surrounding Wolf Pack all retreated, leaving the space to Maria and the giant wolf.
They wandered about, a hint of unease in their eyes.
Maria stood still, looking at the other person sideways.
The low brim of her hat obscured her vision, but the still-uncongealed wolf blood on her body only made her appear more sharp and cold!
The two just stared at each other, neither making the first move.
The wind and snow began to sway restlessly.
The girl held her breath.
The Wolf Pack's roaming bodies.
The dry branches swayed slightly in the air.
Then...
The wind blows and the snow flies...
"Call--!"
The fluttering Shirayuki obscured Maria's eyes for only a moment.
But as soon as it dissipated, the snow-white giant wolf pounced on her!
Its sharp teeth opened, fixed intently on Maria!
Can...
"A beast is still a beast..."
Maria spoke softly, and without any hesitation, suddenly thrust her hand out!
This wolf is big, but in the end, it's still just a wolf.
Once the hind leg pushes off and the front body lifts up, the abdomen will inevitably be exposed!
For any animal, the abdomen is its most vulnerable part...
"Bang!"
First, her slender fingers suddenly pierced into the giant wolf's body. Maria endured the wolf's wild clawing, her right hand gripping its internal organs tightly.
Then...
"Pfft--!"
The heart, mixed with blood vessels, was forcibly ripped out!
One strike, one kill!
"Waaah--!"
Seeing this, the remaining Wolf Pack finally dared not continue the pursuit.
They immediately tucked their tails between their legs, howling in pain, and before they could even check the condition of their own heads, they scattered and fled.
And at this moment, the battle with the beast could finally be considered to be coming to an end.
Maria casually flicked her hand, wiping the blood off, and gradually approached the girl who had already seen something.
The girl stared at Maria in astonishment, her face filled with horror.
But after a brief moment of disbelief, only one thought remained in the girl's mind.
What a fierce older sister!
Are you alright?
Maria looked at the wide-eyed little girl in front of her and asked softly, trying not to frighten her with her demeanor.
But to Maria's surprise, the girl wasn't nervous at all; instead, she looked at Maria with anticipation.
"Sister, are you... someone sent by the Imperial Court to rescue us?"
"The Imperial Court?"
The unfamiliar term startled Maria for a moment, but after a brief pause, she shook her head slightly.
I do not belong to any faction.
"Huh?"
The girl was clearly incredulous. "Then how did you end up here, sister?"
"I was just... passing by."
Maria hesitated for a moment, then silently shook her head.
The girl was also somewhat incredulous after hearing this.
"Sister, are you... from out of town?"
"..."
Did I say something wrong?
The girl lowered her head timidly, glancing at Maria every now and then, as if worried that she had said something wrong.
But after thinking it over, she couldn't figure out that she had offended Maria in any way.
After all, since Maria wasn't a member of the Imperial Court and was dressed in such strange attire, she was clearly from another country, wasn't she?
Isn't this just a stranger from out of town?
Maria gradually came to her senses and looked at the girl in front of her.
"No, it's just... it's been a long time since anyone called me that."
Maria shook her head slightly, then looked away from the matter and gazed around.
"What are you doing? This convoy... is it transporting supplies?"
"Yes."
Hearing that Maria was alright, the girl secretly breathed a sigh of relief. But when Maria asked about the caravan, the girl couldn't help but lower her head, a hint of sadness creeping into her eyes.