V2Ch48-Poison

The band of humans standing behind James shifted into battle stances.

Suddenly, though, the numbers they’d brought didn’t seem enough. James couldn’t immediately understand why, but he had a bad feeling that he was leading this team into a defeat.

He shook the feeling off. Whether his intuition was right or wrong about this, if he showed any hint of doubt, it would guarantee his force would lose confidence and run. And that would mean higher casualties regardless of the eventual outcome.

James strode forward, trying to lead by example. As he passed through the mist, he ran across one of the first wolves in the enemy formation, a low-level beast that he crushed underfoot. Then the rest of the front line crashed into him, and he was grateful for the Royal Exoarmor. Wolf after wolf tried to clamp down on his arms and legs, but their fangs could find no purchase and do no damage to the armor. James was able to fling the beasts away.

He strode forward, and the rest of the wolves seemed to scatter from around him, leaving him unable to see through the mist.

Then he heard screams from behind him.

No! He immediately sent a command to the nearest Skin Balloons to fly down and try their best to defend his allies. He could make more of those things any time he shed his skin, after all. But his human comrades were much less replaceable.

There were pained howls following the screams, but James doubted that his group could withstand the wolf pack without him in their midst. The wolves had shown, when attacking James, that they moved as a coordinated body. They should still be under the effects of his Illusion, but somehow they could even find his group through the mist.

He forced himself to think calmly about the situation and run through possible strategies he could employ now that his initial plan had failed.

Go after the big guy? I’ll almost certainly kill their leader, and that would weaken the pack. But how long would that take?

Go and fight the fodder alongside my group? That would win some political points, no doubt, and I’d be keeping the weaker members safe by being near them, so maybe the casualty rate would be lower. But what if the big guy gets involved?

James decided to pull back to where his group was positioned rather than looking for the leader in the mist.

As he came upon his side, he saw the wolves had them surrounded now, but the humans were holding their own. Damien had transformed and was tearing into a wolf in front of him. Cliff was dueling with a Command Forest Wolf using the Ego Spidersword. He moved back and forth with the creature in a dance of fangs, claws, and blade that looked evenly matched. The other wolves were kept at bay by a barrage of fireballs and lightning bolts from a rotating group of Mages led by Mitzi. The humans who had chosen Warrior Classes were having a bit more trouble keeping up with the creatures, but the wolves couldn’t follow up on attacks to land lethal bites on vulnerable areas. The magical attacks kept them from staying in the close range that they needed. The battle seemed to be locked in a stalemate.

Then two more Command Forest Wolves appeared on two less-defended flanks.

They lunged in, leaping through the mist and suddenly pulling people backward with them. Jen Robinson and Victor Rotari, James recalled. Not people James had spent much time with or gotten to know well. And definitely not among his squad’s strongest members.

These were escapees from the Rostov camp who had been held captive for longer than most. They hadn’t gotten many opportunities to level or develop their abilities.

It stung James to see people he had marched into this fight, people he was responsible for, pulled into the mist.

He jumped in after them. He heard the sound of tearing flesh, and then he was next to a Command Forest Wolf that had a young man gripped by the collarbone in one of its two sets of jaws.

James swung the Ego Antler Spear at the head that wasn’t holding the man, and he heard the sound of flesh tearing as he chopped through the neck. The head dropped limp, gushing blood. The beast’s other head dropped the man and began charging a breath attack. Lightning crackled between its jaws.

James simply stabbed the spear into the open mouth, and the tip embedded itself deep in the wolf’s second skull.

“Thank you,” croaked Rotari.

But James was already pulling the spear free and rushing toward the next wolf.

This one loomed out of the mist, its jaws bloody red.

Under its paws, James saw Robinson. She was obviously near death. Her chest rose and fell in ragged breaths.

He glared at the monster that stood above her.

“No,” James hissed. “Fucking sneak attacks. Cowardly son of a bitch!”

He made an angry stab at the Command Forest Wolf’s center of mass. It tried to dodge but only succeeded in moving slightly to the side.

The spear pierced through the beast’s chest and out the other side, and it collapsed instantly. There was a ding.

Oh. I hit it in the heart, he realized dully.

The sound of apparently dying breaths pulled his attention to the ground. He flung the wolf corpse to the side and knelt in front of the woman. He dropped the spear at his side.

Laying On Hands.

The thick green aura surrounded both his palms, and he tried to heal Robinson in the places where she was most wounded. But her condition was even worse than he’d realized. She had wounds in multiple locations. A horrible bite halfway through her chest. Claw slashes through key arteries in her neck and left thigh. She was gushing blood from a dozen places.

There were too many fatal wounds. After thirty seconds of him trying to repair her broken body, he sensed that she had passed away.

James groaned in frustration, then picked up the spear and turned around. He sensed that something big was coming, and fast.

Even through the mist, it was easy to see it once he turned. The Alpha Forest Wolf King was too large to conceal. The size of James’s own car.

It charged in at great speed, then leaped into the air ten feet from the humans. James realized it would kill whoever it struck as it landed.

Time seemed to slow down. James could process what everyone else was doing. Cliff, Mitzi, Harry, Amalia, everyone—even Damien!—looked terrified of the beast.

James made an instant decision, and his body moved to execute at superhuman speed.

Lightning Strike!

He hit the Wolf King with an impossible momentum. It wasn’t quite enough to stop the beast’s forward movement. With James’s size, he felt almost like a deer striking a car. Completely outmatched in weight and size. But it was enough. He deflected the monstrous body a few feet to the left, so it skidded past the group harmlessly.

James was thrown back by the impact, too, but Way of the Predator kicked in. He released his hold on the spear and instinctively curled into a ball to minimize any possible fall damage.

As James rolled, Mind of the Predator worked through the possibilities in an instant. If James fought alongside his group, and the Wolf King fought alongside his pack, James’s group had a 73% chance of victory. James had a 96% chance of survival personally in this scenario. The group would likely lose around five more people during the fight.

If he managed to distract the Wolf King, however, the group had an 88% chance of victory, they wouldn’t lose more than one other person, and the chance’s of James’s own survival only dropped to 94%.

Easy choice. I need to preserve my assets. I know I can kill this thing anyway. Nothing in this forest can threaten me.

The Wolf King turned to him and growled menacingly.

James pressed his palms to the ground and frog-jumped instantly to his feet. The spear levitated back into his right hand as he landed.

“You and me,” he said, staring at the Wolf King. “One on one, like you wanted earlier.”

Which head do I look at when I’m talking? he thought. I guess it doesn’t matter. I’ll chop them off until there’s only one left.

“Finally,” the Wolf King growled from its middle head. Its mouth twisted into something between a hideous snarl and a smile. Then it launched itself at him.

James threw an Air Strike at the creature as it moved midair. Then he sidestepped where it would land and positioned himself to counter attack with the spear.

The Mana-enhanced wind blade struck the Wolf King’s body but didn’t seem to do much. James saw a small cut on its central maw and chest, but the cuts began closing on their own almost as soon as they opened.

Okay, he thought. This could take a while.

As the creature landed, it pivoted and threw itself at James. He danced back and slashed with the spear. Once. Twice. A third time, this one gouging out a long cut down the creature’s neck.

It didn’t seem to matter. They each began closing as soon as he’d made the injuries. The healing effect came slower the more injuries the Wolf King suffered, certainly, but the rate didn’t make much difference. The cuts just weren’t deep enough to do any meaningful damage.

At the same time, the Wolf King was too slow to land most of its attacks. James had dodged three out of the last four. The bite that landed left deep teeth marks in the armor but only tiny pinprick holes on James’s body. Those healed just as quickly as the injuries he made on the Wolf King.

James thought he would eventually win, but this was looking like a slog. He would have to get creative.

How do I win this fast?

As he had this thought, the head on the right, which had held its jaws clenched tightly during their exchange, opened wide. Green gas began pouring out.

Poison, James realized. He danced backward, trying to get a little further from the other ongoing fight. He didn’t want his people embroiled in this cloud of poison. He had no way of knowing if the wolf pack had resistances to it, but the humans certainly did not.

The Wolf King obliged James by chasing after him, spewing poison more slowly as it went.

Full Body Control!

James jumped back once more from the Wolf King and sucked in breath until his lungs were completely full. He ordered his body to make use of the air he had inside him until the fight was over. And Mind of the Predator took over management of that resource.

Finally, James could stop running and start fighting again.

He used Lightning Strike with the spear, and he left another long cut down the Wolf King’s side. But the monster grinned at him, and then the central head breathed lightning over him. For a moment, he felt stunned. A tiny amount of air escaped his lips.

Then he regained complete control. He sprung backward and wished he could breathe heavily. But his body was obeying him, aside from that momentary slip when he was electrocuted.

Lightning isn’t going to work, James thought. He remembered the last fight he and his original crew had been in with the wolves, back in the early days of Orientation. The Command Forest Wolf that breathed fire could consume the element of fire. And the pelt I got from that one was flame-resistant! The King’s probably resistant to the fire element, too, isn’t it? That’s what I would expect to come out of that third head.

As he had the thought, the leftmost head spewed flames at James, and he leaped out of the way with plenty of room.

Confirmed that the element of fire will also be no use. We really are in a stalemate, eh? Probably immune to poison too.

Just in case, he drew a Wolfbone Dagger from the magic satchel at his hip. Predator’s Venomous Armaments! A greenish-black substance oozed from his skin onto the weapon. Then he threw it.

It bounced harmlessly off the Wolf King’s hide as the monster charged at James. He jumped back again, maintaining his distance.

“Was that a piece of one of my children?” the Wolf King asked, his tone mocking. “Did you think that could harm me?”

James shrugged, as if to say, You never know until you try.

The Wolf King lunged at him again, and James placed his foot in a bit of ground that gave way. He slipped backward as the King fell toward him. Caught slightly off guard this time, he prepared to respond to the attack with a Predator’s Strike.

His spear was pointed the wrong way because he’d slipped, but he could still land a good hit with his fist. The Wolf King landed a bite on James’s shoulder at the same time that his fist struck the King’s rib cage.

James felt a thick pair of ribs fracture under his punch, and the Wolf King’s bite weakened enough for him to pull free.

The King looked staggered for a moment from the blow. Then James saw the ribs beginning to pull themselves back together.

The spear gave off a gentle heat in its hand. Now! It seemed to be insisting on an aggressive attack now, while the beast was healing.

Alright, James thought. The spear hadn’t done much damage to the Wolf King so far, but maybe this moment would be different. Just to make sure the attack lands…

James opened his mouth and made eye contact with the Wolf King. Compulsion!

“Stay!”

The Wolf King’s whole body stiffened involuntarily for a moment.

And James lunged, spear pointed at the poison-spewing right side head of the Wolf King.

Deep Antler Penetration!