Chapter 53

The tree was dead.

I already realized this of course, but the same cannot be said about the wolf since it had run back a few dozen meters the moment it had seen that the tree was beginning to fall, something it did not expect to happen even though it had been shooting at it constantly with the aim to kill me.

In the moment of its distress, I had already run past the broken-down tree and through the dust cloud it had created.

As if I could see everything clearly, I shot toward the wolf that was just coming back to its senses and revealed myself by partially separating the cloud in the wave of my exit.

The dust could still be seen trailing off my body as if it was trying to cling on as I only got closer and closer to the wolf in front of me.

Its eyes quickly changed from surprise and shock to anger and rage. lunging at me without a second thought, something that would end up being its biggest mistake.

With all the energy and strength my feet could muster, I placed the tip of my foot onto the ground to its left, the side with its only remaining eye, before shifting my body to my right, narrowly avoiding the jaw that came for my chest with the intention of ripping me to shreds.

I heard a loud chomp as it snapped its maw shut in the area where my left arm would have been.

An agonizing pain shot through my body originating from my... left arm?

I couldn't understand.

In my moment of confusion, I had been frozen in place unable to move.

The pain was comparable to when I had my entire arm eaten off, but how is that possible?

I don't have a left arm anymore, so that shouldn't be possible, right?

I didn't even feel the same dread that I would have right before being hit.

Maybe the whole dread thing was a lie I had deceived myself into believing?

Maybe I had put too much into a theory I was not even sure was true yet.