In this world, Magic is Everything. All people, all races, are granted with the power to perform mystical and magical feats via grimories, mystical tomes granted to each and every child on their 15th birthday. Those blessed by the mana can have their names written down in legend.
Shattered Grimoires is the work of the mind(s) of Ardere & Shattered Grimoire's staff. All characters and content are copyright their creators, and may not be replicated without their creators' permission. Black Clover is owned by Yuki Tabata and published by Viz Shonen Jump. All images belong to their original owners. The theme you are currently viewing was made by Eliza of ElizaCodes exclusively for Shattered Grimoires.
Even after culling the numbers down, the population growth of the wolves has not slowed and they’ve grown confident in attacking the livestock of the villagers and even bit one of the farmers! Find out what’s driving so many wolves to Hage and get rid of the problem!
[break] [break]Health Limit: Junior [break]Physical Speed: 10 m/s [break]Physical Damage: Junior [break]Magic Element and Types: n/a [break]Combat Style: Attack with a pack mentality, as they tend to attack one right after the other and coordinate, leaving their opponent little room to breathe [break]Additional Information: Average looking wolves.
[break] [break]Health Limit: Intermediate [break]Physical Speed: 15 m/s [break]Physical Damage: Intermediate [break]Magic Element and Types: n/a [break]Combat Style: These wolves are much more vicious and know exactly how to attack in order to disarm humans of their weapons! [break]Additional Information: Larger wolves, much more intelligent, the alphas of the pack.
With the passing of time, there was one thing that seemed to remain a constant no matter what he or anyone else did. Where one issue or problem got resolved through hard work and effort, it seemed another would always arise somewhere else. Where he had just gone out to clean up the mess he had left behind when he had killed a master vampire, Gawain now found himself returning to the village where he had chased away a large pack of wolves not too long ago. It was very much another one of those instances where he had gone about something while expecting to be back sooner so he could probably round up the issues. To say that he had been taking on more than the average human being should, all for the sake of making up for some discrepancies within the Silver Eagles while also pushing for their improvement was therefore quite the understatement.
In little to no time at all, the boy had taken on missions all over the country while closing up dungeons left and right, all while still in the process of settling into the squad itself. Up until now, the amount of people within his own squad that he had actually spoken to could be counted on a single hand. Meanwhile, the amount of golden stars he had earned at this point could not even be counted on sixteen hands anymore. Whether his priorities were on point or not was something that was up for debate, though as it were, there was the body of a dead magic knight being tended to the next town over that could perhaps have been saved if he had pushed himself even harder. Or maybe he had been pushing himself too hard and hadn’t investigated the missions he had been on at the time enough to figure out that there was more to be uncovered. Either way, the man was dead and there was nothing to be done about it.
So now here he was, back at the village that had a wolf problem. A problem he had temporarily fixed by beating them up and reaffirming their fear for humans, as all animals should. And that wasn’t him being an asshole to animals, that was him making sure animals wouldn’t get themselves into trouble with beings that had power over magic and could end their entire bloodlines and living grounds with a single spell on a bad day. As long as animals feared humans and stayed far enough away, all would be well. But their beating hadn’t deterred them from coming back here, and making the situation even more dangerous than it had been before. As it turned out, the wolves had killed some of the local livestock, even biting one of the farmhands that had singlehandedly tried to scare them off. Clearly going against a whole pack of wolves was going to be a dangerous and stupid thing to do for all but the more well-trained and knowledgeable individuals.
While the livestock was something that might be replenished over time if they managed to get some aid from somewhere within the capital, the fact that these wolves were as unthreatened by humans was becoming an issue. Even though he had given them a proper beating before, knowing that he would need to give them a more serious beating was not something he was looking forward to. They were animals after all, and something was making them behave in this fashion, something he would need to root out and see to as quickly as possible. With everything that had happened recently, namely the dungeon underneath the church in Nairn, his eyes had been opened to some of the truths that might have been more obvious to some. The world was a dark and despicable place, and even the people who were meant to stand as shining beacons were at times the ones presenting the greatest issues onto others.
But for all of the darker truths he had learned there, he had also become considerably more powerful. With the aid of Valo, a large number of undead warriors and their superiors had been put to death a second time, thus destroying their plot to overtake the surface world with a weapon of decay. Due to the overall destruction and loss of… unlife, down there, the boy had managed to learn a bit more about what his current limitations were in terms of magic. How much mana he could blow through within a specific frame of time, the exact number of spells he could put out without tiring himself out too much while at the same time pushing the overall damage output of said spells to a level that was far greater than before. At this point in time, it almost felt as though he had hit a certain ceiling when it came to his own blasting power, and that didn’t feel great.
But regardless of how he felt, he had a job that needed doing. And if all went the way he hoped it would, it wouldn’t need to come down to any kind of blasting power or the use of magic in general. These were wolves, meaning they were nothing he hadn’t faced and beaten before without having to rely on any magical means. All it took was some smarts and a good deal of acrobatics, mixed with a certain degree of martial skill and physical prowess. These creatures were by no means magical, they were just wolves. Malnourished and frightened wolves at that. And these last two factors were by far the most important, as something possessing magical giftedness only did so much to change the situation of what was by all means still just an animal. But it was truly the fact that they were hungry and afraid that made the most impact.
Because when an animal was hungry, they would venture into areas that might pose a threat to their own safety. A risk they would be willing to take and a danger they would be willing to brave if it meant surviving for another day with a somewhat full belly. And when an animal was afraid, they were utterly unpredictable and prone to lash out even at superior opponents, often those larger and stronger than themselves. In nature, this could be something like a grizzly bear, but in these cases, Gawain was thinking more along the lines of people. Because under any normal circumstances, wolves would never attack people. But this case in which it did happen could not be ignored, so the boy felt it was his responsibility to look into the whole deal this time. And if he hurried, the body he was hauling with him wouldn’t even spoil.
No, it was being looked after in a nearby morgue, making it as presentable as was humanly possible for a body that had been through as much as it did. Giving him the time he needed to get all of this over with, the boy headed off from the village towards where the forest started, finding no wolves in the direct vicinity, though he could hear them further up ahead. Pressing further in, he tried making himself as scarce as possible so the wolves wouldn’t directly attack him. This was easier said than done however, as in a place this dense with trees, the wind didn’t blow as strongly, so moving against the wind right now would only do so much when it came down to concealing his scent. But it was what it was, and there was nothing he could do about it, as coming back at a time where the winds were more favorable would risk more civilians getting harmed.
Pushing through the area until the trees gradually started clearing and made way for a more rocky area, it seemed like the kind of place where loggers might at some point have rendered the place mostly inhospitable for trees. Still, there were some saplings throughout the area that had managed to make their way around it. When he thought about it, he knew how there were some trees that naturally held some magical properties, thus making the choice to cut them down and make them into flying brooms a simple one. This however did mean that the trees would need to be cut down. While such a thing would more than likely happen legally in most cases, this far up north, it made sense to believe that there were those who would cut and sell this kind of stuff for the sake of making money. And in all honesty, this seemed to be the result of that.
A region normally filled with trees that meant more space for the local wildlife to thrive and flourish, now reduced to an area filled with ground and soil, barren rock, remnant stumps and small saplings trying to reclaim what was lost. It made sense to him that this would have had a big effect on the way of life within this forest, as the lack of coverage for smaller animals meant that the food source for these wolves would have been cut down tremendously. Knowing this much now, he could at least pin all of this down as being the likely primary source, though there was more to it. He just couldn’t see what it was just yet. But what he could tell was that, likely as the wolves went further into the deep forest, they had likely encountered a whole different kind of animal that was more dangerous than they were, inviting it to take their territory from them and forcing them out of the woods entirely. And that would not stand.
The balance of nature had to be restored in some way or shape, or things would continue to spiral out of control, leading the place to become even more distorted. It would case the more dangerous beasts from deeper in the forest to come further down, pushing more and more creatures out and making life near it as good as impossible without placing the nearby towns under constant supervision from magic knights. And given the amount of knights the country had to spare, that was simply not a realistic approach to the situation. Doing such a thing would also be disturbing the balance, as taking knights from one place meant having to pull them from somewhere else where they might have been needed as well. No, he was here now, so he was going to need to handle it no matter what. He owed these people that much for not seeing things through to the end when he was here last time.
Dashing over the stumps of trees and the rocks in the area, it wasn’t long before he made himself further up and into the woods again. Though there were still since of logging around and gaps in the otherwise thick treeline, the land itself would likely recover from just this much soon enough. But it begged the question: If the logging had been going on this far and deep, what had happened to the loggers when the wolves began descending down. They must have been a threat to them at some point, so maybe they had been capable enough at using magic to protect themselves against them, or just skilled enough to ward them off for a time. Regardless of the matter, he more than likely wasn’t going to be finding them as they were probably long gone by now. But what had not left, were the wolves.
For as he had moved across the open space, the wind had carried his scent onwards as far as was needed for them to pick it up, alerting them to his presence and putting them on edge. More so, it seemed that there was another uninvited guest that had come from the deep woodlands and had been harassing the pack of wolves until it too had gotten a whiff of the boy. It was a wolf by the looks of it, though a good deal larger and hairier, with fangs that seemed like they could snap a person in half. He wasn’t sure exactly what species it was, though he had heard stories about these large canines that were called Dire wolves, Wargs and even a species known as Fenris. Knowing the latter to only exist on Skjaergard, this creature here was one of the former two without question. Getting himself ready to dish out some hits, he could pick up from pure body language alone that the large wolf was barking orders at the regular grey wolves.
Whether they could understand one another or just responded to the tone, the wolves lowered their heads as they turned towards Gawain, bearing their fangs at him reluctantly. This same pack knew what it was like when they had to deal with this particular boy, as he had handed them their asses rather promptly when last they met. But with the oversized wolf or warg or whatever it was on one side and him on the other, he imagined it all came down to which of the two they feared most. And as it seemed right now, the wolves feared him a whole lot less. So as they began coming up on him, they moved with careful precision, not wanting to get their asses handed to them a second time and not being willing to have to stand up to the larger wolf creature either. It was a dangerous predicament, one Gawain understood all too well given his upbringing on the islands. In situations like these, there honestly was no good choice, just the less bad one.
But a fair deal had happened since the last time he had faced off against this animals, and he hadn’t been idle in the development department. In fact, he had become considerably faster since the last time he gave these wolves a beating. Believing the best way to handle this situation was to hand them their asses one more time, his focus right now was shifted towards demoralizing them first. Before the wolves realized it, the boy rushed through them at a pace close to forty meters per second, barely kicking up dust as his small frame moved almost like a ghost towards the warg. Knocking it against the jaw in passing, the boy’s strength was enough to cause a potent concussion as the beast more or less just collapsed on itself, barely registering what it had been hit with. But the other wolves saw, and that was what was important right now. Demoralization.
But just as his fist connected with the warg and it fell to the floor, so did he see another one coming up from beyond the trees. There were two of them here, likely a male and a female. Unsure as to which of the two he had just struck down, just taking one of them down would not do anything towards making sure these wolves would stop being a problem. Shrugging his throat and spitting on the ground, he set off, making his way over towards the wolves while using his Ki to try and get an as accurate reading on their movement as possible so that he might bring them all down as quick and as painlessly as was superhumanly possible. And so he kept moving, pushing his body to his natural limits by striking the first of the wolves, then a second, a third, all aiming for their snout so the chance of a concussion was optimized.
Because as much as the people in town wanted someone to go out and kill all of these animals, he was not one of them. He had learned to respect the wolf for all the good it did him, because Griswold would have wanted him to. It was in those particularly selective moments such as these that the boy remembered the things the man had tried to impart upon him, as well as the stories of his family. About the great white wolf that had led their ancestors out of a war-torn region and into the safety of the forests of northern Clover. In a way, it felt like taking a huge dump on his own heritage if he went about murdering wolves left and right. And while there was a solid chance that that part of his ancestry was made up, it was not something he was willing to risk as even his mentor had followed those teachings. And given the difficulty by which he could be made to do or think anything, that was saying something.
And so he kept going, knocking the canines down in a manner that would cause them the least lasting damage. By the end, some of them were starting to retreat, though he could not let that be the end of it. These creatures needed to be re-educated on their fear towards humanity. It was the only way in which they would be able to be safe from those that would harm them because they did not understand them. And though it pained him to have to do it to them, Gawain struck them all down just the same before he would turn towards the warg or dire wolf or whatever it was that had approached. As the beast pulled up to check up on its mate, the boy arrived just as it was about to lick the head of their significant other. Albeit heavily restrained, he hit the creature hard enough to where it let out a squeaky yelp before going unconscious. The sound it made as it got knocked down however, it remained inside of his ears for quite some time.
Unable to get it out of his head as he pushed on deeper into the forest, he just hoped that he would be able to find what was causing this disturbance of the natural balance that existed within this forest region. Both for the sake of all of these wolves, their larger cousins, and the people that were living in the nearby town. For them, every cow or sheep that disappeared made for the kind of costs they would not easily financially recover from, if at all.
