V2Ch49-The Last Word

A battle was waged between James’s Will and the Alpha Forest Wolf King’s. In the arena of their minds, thousands of soldiers modeled on the two combatants fought and killed and died.

The struggle lasted for less than a second, and it was a decisive victory for James.

In the next moment, the Ego Antler Spear stabbed deep into the furthest right neck of the Wolf King. The blade pierced through to the place where the head met the neck, and James felt the spinal cord break. And the spear broke too. He felt the tip of it break off on contact with the wolf bone.

Damn, he thought.

As James pulled the weapon from the Wolf King’s dead head, the remaining two heads howled and writhed violently, but the King’s four paws remained firmly planted in place.

Then James stepped back, and finally, the Wolf King broke free of the paralyzing effect he had created. The second head snapped its jaw at him, but it was slow. Stunned. Easily avoided.

For his part, James felt a strange sentimentality. He wondered if the spear had some way of recovering from this. It had been with him through the Spider Queen fight, and now it had scored a decisive blow against the Wolf King. And he knew it had personality, to some degree. Intelligence. It had moved in his defense and returned to his hand more than once.

Looking down at the broken spear tip, he felt almost as if he was about to lose a friend.

The two remaining sets of jaws snapped at James. He refocused himself and jumped backward, narrowly avoiding the gnashing teeth. The fight was the important thing. The faster he won, the better off his group would be. He had no real weapon now. He wasn’t going to use the spear.

As his feet landed, he released it. It hovered indecisively beside him, looking for an opening to help, but clearly aware that it couldn’t do much without either its pointed tip or James’s Strength.

But James wasn’t going to rely on the weapon. He’d learned something with the last few exchanges.

Even though his elemental powers did no damage, his fists did plenty. Every one of his physical attacks was dangerous to the Wolf King.  He was stronger than this monster. Stronger, faster, tougher. With at least equal healing abilities.

He didn’t need to use his limited Mana for any more experimental attacks. He just needed to get his hands dirty.

The Wolf King lunged in for another bite with its left head. James threw a heavy punch and knocked the head away. It smacked into the central head, and James saw that the two heads looked disoriented. He put his hands together and made a club with his interlaced fingers.

Then he bludgeoned the leftmost head again. And again. Again.

Little spurts of blood spattered on James’s face from the still bleeding dead head as well as the one he was bludgeoning, but he ignored them.

The central head tried to snap at him and stop the assault, but James kicked out. He was dimly aware that his foot striking the central head knocked one of the teeth from the wolf’s jaw.

After a few more punches, the left head finally looked concussed. It dropped, as if the beast was ashamed. Its eyes became unfocused. When the head was able to rise from the slump, it snapped feebly at places where James wasn’t, as if it was seeing double. Then it fell back into its slumped position.

In the few key seconds while the left head was disoriented, James balled his right hand into a fist. Predator’s Strike.

He punched his fist down at the lowered left head once more, and it struck with terrible, brutal impact. The neck made a sickening snapping sound. Then the head twisted and slumped, lifeless.

The central head tried to snap at James, but it moved more slowly now, weakened and off-balance.

James ducked underneath it and used another Predator’s Strike. His fingernails hardened, and he aimed just under the rib cage. His right hand penetrated deep into the Wolf King’s body.

Hot blood and guts enveloped his arm, but James ignored them.

The Wolf King tried to charge a shot of lightning breath, but James used his left hand and squeezed its throat until the lightning dissipated. The King’s claws scratched at James’s armor, but they couldn’t find purchase, let alone deal damage.

James pushed his right hand forward and reached further into the wolf’s chest. Grabbed hold of the heart. Squeezed. Crushed it like an orange until he felt the juice pulsating through his fingers.

This feels familiar, he thought. Though the heart was bigger and tougher this time, and the individual it belonged to wasn’t human, this wasn’t so different from his execution of Officer Ross.

A moment later, he could tell that it was over. There wasn’t a ding quite yet. But he felt all the tension leave the King’s body.

“You’ve won,” croaked the Wolf King, voice damaged from the injuries to his throat. “Congratulations.” The last word was followed by several coughs and a trickle of blood from between the King’s lips.

James didn’t detect any hint of resentment in his tone.

Remarkable. The purity of this creature’s heart. Have I ever seen something face death with such dignity?

James felt a twinge of regret. I wish I hadn’t needed to kill you. But it was inevitable, wasn’t it? Yes, it must have been. Just like all the others.

“Children!” the Wolf King barked with surprising force and volume. The fight in the other part of the swamp, which James had barely been paying attention to, seemed to quiet down suddenly. James realized he could hear the sound of charging wolf paws.

He swallowed. I don’t think I’m in good enough condition to fight the whole pack now. I’m not really injured—he had hardly a scratch at this point, since his injuries had healed throughout the fight—but my Stamina’s taken a pretty severe hit.

“Human, you must lead my pack now,” the Wolf King whispered, staring into James’s eyes beseechingly.

“What?” James was stunned.

“Well, they need a leader. You’re strong. Members of your Race follow you willingly. Please don’t slaughter them. They’re loyal. Well behaved.” The Wolf King’s tone turned pleading.

“We were just trying to kill each other,” James said.

“I forgive you. Will you forgive us?”

Easy for you to say. You’re dying!

[You have been offered the Title of “Pack Leader.” Accept? Y/N]

James wanted to discuss this further with the Wolf King, but then he heard a ding. He didn’t need to look down to know the King was dead.

That’s one way of having the last word, he thought a little sourly. But it wasn’t as if this was really a bad thing. Right?

You know you want this, his dark inner voice said. You wanted something like this even before you knew it was a possibility.

“Yeah,” James muttered to himself. I do like power. The form it takes, less important.

He selected “Y” without further thought.

[Required conditions met. You acquired the Title “Pack Leader”!]

[Required conditions met. You acquired the Title “Usurper”!]

James wanted to examine those Titles more closely, but he swiped the notifications away. He could see the wolves were gathered around him now. They sat, patiently waiting for him to acknowledge them.

James reached out with his mind and realized he now had the same telepathic connection to these creatures that he had with the monsters he generated himself.

“Hello,” he said both telepathically and aloud.

The wolves stared back at him silently, waiting.

“Your, uh, father has named me the new Pack Leader,” he continued.

The wolves responded to that with a long, sustained collective howl, noses pointed to the sky.

He felt an undertone of grief in the long, unbroken sound. But was there also acceptance? Resigned awareness of the natural order? A respectful acknowledgment of the previous King’s decision? Or was James trying to read too much subtext into what was, after all, an animalistic sound that even non-System-altered wolves made?

“Hey, James, are you alright?” Cliff yelled.

James turned and realized the squad he’d brought with him was staring at him.

“Just fine, I’m talking to the wolves!” James shouted back.

“Oh, of course!” Harry said in a tone of bewildered resignation.

“What the fuck?” Amalia said under her breath.

“He is a beast,” Damien commented. “Killed the Wolf King with his bare hands, and now he’s taken over the pack. Damn.”

“It is most impressive,” Jeremiah agreed.

Mitzi was just laughing.

“Right on, sir! You keep on doing interspecies diplomacy!” Cliff shouted back.

James was fairly certain that besides Cliff, the others didn’t realize he could hear them. He shifted his full attention back to the wolf pack that eagerly awaited him. They were even wagging their tails.

Well, I’ve always liked dogs.

“So, I’d like to lay down some ground rules for you all. The main rule is that you won’t harm any humans without my permission. If one of them tries to harm one of you, I want you to report that to me immediately. The other main rule is that you will follow my commands and hunt with me. In my world, there is a long and noble history of humans and dogs, which are cousins of wolves, hunting other species together successfully. I would like to replicate that with you.”

He created a mental image of a man who looked like him hunting alongside a wolf, then sent it telepathically. He followed this with an image of man and wolf eating meat together.

The wolves seemed to take well to his rules and his telepathic communications. The tail wagging increased in speed and enthusiasm. He got telepathic communications back as well, although most of the responses were fairly simple. Things like, Hunt together, yes! and Follow you to next prey! as well as a general wave of positive emotionality.

“If none of you have any problems or concerns, we should rejoin the others and return to the larger group of humans. I will explain to them that we are all working together now. If there are any wolves wounded but still alive now that the battle is over, I can heal them.”

James waited a moment. Then a single wolf rose to its feet. It was distinct from the others by having two heads. A Command Forest Wolf, then.

As it walked out from among the others, James realized that this was a female wolf. He’d passively noticed the presence of male genitalia on a few other wolves. This was the first time he noticed its absence. He wondered for a moment if the other Command Forest Wolves were also female.

The female stepped forward and approached James. He watched without a hint of nervousness, knowing how much stronger he was than any wolf in this forest. And if she was hostile, he thought he’d be able to sense it.

Sure enough, as she approached, she lowered her heads almost to ground level. If she was a human, he would interpret it as a posture of shame or fear. When she drew close to him, she raised her heads back up and licked his hand with both.

A lot like a dog, he thought.

“Is this how you express affection?” James asked quietly.

The wolf stopped licking him with one head and looked up at his face.

“Yes,” she replied in a strong, steady voice. “Affection and loyalty. You are the new leader. As the highest level member of the pack remaining, I am conveying my submission. The rest should follow suit if they don’t wish to be left behind or killed.”

One of her heads turned sharply and looked at the other wolves, while the other maintained eye contact with James. Most of them were already rising, but the rest got to their feet, as if their mother had caught them doing something wrong.

James showed no reaction to the sound of her talking. He’d half-expected it, from the Wolf King. But he was quite curious about the social dynamics of the wolf pack. Perhaps something to explore later.

“I accept your submission,” James said diplomatically. “Would it be inappropriate if I engaged in a physical gesture of affection as well?”

“Not at all,” she said. “Please do.” Her tail began to wag again after a few moments of being still, James noticed.

James did what he typically did to show affection to a dog. He scratched her behind the ears. She made an expression in response that James thought was probably enjoyment.

“Do you have a name?” he asked.

“No,” she replied. “Low level creatures such as myself may have nicknames, but we must achieve a certain level to earn a true name. Either that, or we must be named by a higher level organism that has earned its own name.”

“I see,” he said, not really understanding. Did the Spider Queen have a name? Did the Wolf King? He realized he didn’t know. How high level do they have to be?

“If you want to call me something, most of the pack refers to me as Luna. Ever since my mother died.”

“I’m sorry for your loss,” James said reflexively.

She tilted her head slightly. James understood her body language easily this time. Confusion.

“It was some time ago,” she said after a long pause. “Two dozen days. It has become much less painful.”

James’s expression must have registered surprise.

“Is that not a long time for a human?” she asked.

“No, it’s really not,” James said. He thought of his father’s death. In some ways, he still wasn’t quite over it, two decades later.

“Fortunately for you, wolves mourn more quickly than humans. We will remember our father.” She tilted one of her heads in the direction of the Wolf King. “But we will not spend years thinking of his death. Speaking of which, as you are not a wolf, you should eat his flesh. Cannibalism is taboo for us, but we know that the meat of a strong enemy will make you strong.”

“Right,” James said softly. He was going to get along with Luna, he could tell.

He pointed a hand at the dead Wolf King. Pillage!

He chose to steal a Talent from the dead.

And as the items levitated into his magic satchel, the rest of the wolves came around and began taking turns licking his hands.