V2Ch24-Alpha Male

James shook his head, irritated.

My dream was just getting to the good part, he thought. He hadn’t been able to visit anyone else’s dreams this time. It seemed everyone he knew was awake, and he’d had a problem when he tried to find Mina’s dream.

Where the dreams of people he knew in this Orientation were like flickering flames in the darkness, Mina and Yulia’s dreams seemed to be blocked off somewhere. Perhaps he needed Anansi’s help to cross the barrier between different Orientations. Or needed to be near that void.

So he’d just been enjoying a normal nap, until a tinny voice in his ear awakened him.

“What’s up, Hester?” he asked groggily.

“Sorry to wake you, sir, but I thought you might want to see what we’re approaching.”

“What is it, giant birds?” James blinked his eyes open and shut, and then saw a large plateau ahead of him. “Oh, scenery.” Behind the plateau, he could see some greenery on the horizon, which he guessed meant the Dead Marsh was pretty close.

“Uh, I meant down below that,” Hester said.

James saw what she meant, and he immediately sent a mental command to his Skin Balloons to stop moving forward.

A couple hundred feet below James, there was a party of around a dozen people as well as what appeared to be almost the same number of corpses. They were besieged by a small pack of coyotes, and James could see in the distance that more coyotes were rushing to join them.

Most interesting, though, was the identity of the lead fighter of the besieged group. Standing in front of the body of one of his fallen comrades—perhaps not actually dead, given how forcefully the fighter was guarding him—Damien Rousseau stood, wielding a long spear.

James wouldn’t have recognized him, since he wasn’t covered in fur this time, but Identify had been reliable so far.

And Damien seemed almost as fierce as James remembered, despite wearing a human face this time.

When one of the beasts got close, he would swing the spear in a wide arc designed to force some distance. The other living members of the group huddled behind him, occasionally providing backup with their weapons when Damien’s wide swings left openings.

With their backs up against the plateau, they almost had the coyotes stalemated. Almost. Except that the humans looked worn down, as if they’d already tried to stand their ground and been defeated. The coyotes looked much fresher. And reinforcements were coming for the coyote side quickly. Including a big, two-headed beast that Identify labeled as the Alpha Desert Coyote. It had attained level 14.

Not bad, but still not a threat, James thought. Well, not a threat to me. I wouldn’t want to be one of them in about two minutes.

The only reason he felt hesitant to rush in was the memory of his last encounter with Damien Rousseau. The monstrous werewolf who had ripped a more normal-sized wolf to pieces in front of him. Why was he standing there in human form now? Surely he’d tear these creatures apart as his werewolf self.

Was he unable to transform at will? Only at night? Only with the full moon? Or maybe he was just too weakened. In any case, he looked battered. If he could change shape now, James doubted he’d still be holding it in reserve.

“Um, sir, are you going to do something or move on?” Hester asked. “I don’t mean to question your decision-making, I just figured sitting still in the sky was more or less the worst of all possible options.”

“Yes, I’m doing something, Hester, thank you,” James said. Hester had no way of observing what James was doing. He’d sent a mental command to the Skin Balloons to move him slowly closer to the besieged humans. They were to hover just above the humans, so James would be able to face outward at all of the enemies at once.

This would need to be a quick rescue; people were probably waiting on him.

He began charging his new Skill, Solar Ray. The sunlight was still bright and strong, sundown perhaps another hour away. He could feel the Skill pull in energy from the sun, gathering it impossibly quickly, as if every inch of his skin and clothing had become hyper efficient solar paneling.

The only apparent catch was that just like the Monarch that had wielded the technique before him, he felt his body stiffen and immobilize while he charged the attack. He couldn’t move, he sensed, or the energy would dissipate.

Not a very practical ability if you’re not a king with royal guards, he thought, recalling the method the final group of centipedes had used to fight him. But James was out of reach of his enemies, hovering out of likely jumping range, which was a somewhat better advantage in this case.

And he could relax a bit and let the Skill charge while he waited for the coyote reinforcements to arrive.

“Hey, uh, you up there, are you going to help us?!”

It seemed one of the people below him had noticed James’s shadow hovering overhead.

He ignored the speaker for the moment, though. The rest of the coyotes were almost there now, James could see, and he wasn’t going to mess up the charging for Solar Ray just to answer that question.

Doo dee doo, James thought to himself, wishing he could hum. But his body was unmoving, other than the autonomic nervous system, and that included his vocal cords. Just floating here and charging my attack…

The alpha burst onto the scene. It let loose a howl, and the other coyotes moved into a fan-shaped formation around the alpha. The biggest coyote wasn’t at the front. Closer to the middle of the pack. But it felt to James as if the pack had become a more cohesive unit. The other coyotes were limbs, and they now moved with an enhanced coordination.

Whatever that ability is, I want it. He could just see a mass of minions all around him, moving with his mental commands like the Skin Balloons.

James caught motion out of the corner of his eye.

Damien Rousseau had collapsed to the ground. While James was admiring the smoothness of the coyote formation, several of the beasts had been wearing at Damien, biting his arms and legs, weakening him until he couldn’t stand.

It was time.

James’s concentrated solar energy had been focused into a ball that sat just outside his mouth. Now he let go and unleashed it as a beam of light.

James felt the light and heat peripherally, and he felt a quiet astonishment that he had endured a hit from this himself. The intensity reminded him of one of his Apophis-fueled attacks from before he switched to Anansi.

The front and center of the mass of coyotes was struck first, but James fanned the beam from side to side. He couldn’t see the creatures well, because the Solar Ray was directly in his line of sight, blinding white. But he felt the beam blasting through their bodies, leaving little in its wake. He felt where there was resistance, and when that resistance melted away.

James continued killing coyotes until the power of the Solar Ray faded.

As the light died away, he looked down at what remained.

I won’t want to use this Skill when I’m planning to hunt for meat, then.

Scattered pieces of coyote remained where dozens of monsters had stood. A paw here, an ear there. Whatever wasn’t directly in the path of the light.

There were a few coyotes still alive. Two stragglers that had been at the edges of the blast radius at the start and managed to run a short distance away while they waited for it to die down. One coyote half-buried in the sand that was missing almost half its body.

Where’s the alpha? He couldn’t see it. I would at least think he would leave a body that I could Pillage. It made him uneasy. He felt as if the big guy wasn’t dead yet. I could check my alerts.

He decided to descend instead. Even if the alpha was still alive, it was hidden somewhere out of view. He’d have some kind of warning if he was about to be attacked. He needed to finish off these last couple of coyotes and start trying to heal the surviving members of this group, or this stop would just be a waste of time.

James commanded the Skin Balloons to release him and remain hovering where they were.

He dropped in front of the humans, who were staring open mouthed at the carnage in front of them. James turned.

The two able-bodied coyotes were charging him. Foolish. He drew a pair of Wolfbone Daggers from his magic satchel. Predator’s Missile! He threw one blade at the closest coyote as it leaped at him. The blade pierced through the creature’s heart and killed it instantly.

The other coyote saw what had happened and seemed to realize that it was outmatched. It turned to run away, but—Predator’s Missile!—James threw the second dagger. It stabbed so deeply into the coyote’s back that as the creature fell, James could see the tip of the blade poking out of its chest.

James approached. Grabbed the handle. Pulled the blade to the side to cut through the heart that he’d somehow missed with the first throw.

I didn’t have to use up any Mana. Good. The still living humans are going to need a lot of Laying on Hands—

James’s train of thought was interrupted. Mind of the Predator blared a warning and and appropriate course of action. He had time to leap aside while continuing to hold onto the coyote body and the dagger inside it.

James felt a weight brush past him. Something furry brushed his arm.

Something invisible.

James still couldn’t tell what he’d dodged. But if he had to bet, the alpha must have had some invisibility power. How to catch an invisible beast, he thought.

Mind racing, he began Silent Spellcasting. As he began, he felt a prickle and sense of danger from behind him. James leaped to the side again, and he felt a wind blow past him as the invisible creature leaped past.

He quickly drew the dagger from the dead coyote’s body and tried to throw it where he expected the alpha’s body to be. But it whizzed through empty air.

How do I find you? He already had a plan with Silent Spellcasting, but it was annoying to have to rely on magic when it took longer to work than most of his close range combat abilities. I need some kind of enhanced vision Skill.

James dodged back and forth a few more times, Mind of the Predator reliably warning him of each attack, until his magic was ready.

Then he waited. The creature attacked again, apparently unconcerned or unaware of the implications of the heavy Mana gathered around James’s body.

James felt a sense of warning from his left side this time, and rather than dodging, he planted his feet and punched at where he thought the creature might be leaping from. Impact! His fist struck fur and flesh.

It was only a glancing blow, because the alpha was intelligent enough to try and jump away as soon as James tried to hit it. But James felt and heard the sound of crunching bone even so. His Strength was so far beyond this creature’s that he only needed one good hit to put an end to it. If only the coyote wasn’t so tricky, he’d have finished it already.

James triggered his spell as soon as his fist made contact.

Basic Elemental Magic: Gravity applied crushing weight, and suddenly James knew exactly where the last coyote was. Its body, sent flying by the force of his punch, made a big dent in the sand as it landed.

And James lunged toward the alpha before it could run away. Lightning Strike!

His hand penetrated through fur and flesh into hot, wet vital tissue. James felt the body convulse from the electricity wrapped around his palm. Then he grabbed the precious heart—and tore.

The coyote suddenly reappeared. It was a mess, naturally. One of its two heads had been ripped clean off, and the wound cauterized, by James’s Solar Ray earlier. The rest of the body was covered in blood and sand.

[You killed Alpha Desert Coyote, Lv. 14! You gained 715 exp!]

Poor creature, James thought. Pillage!

He selected Talent as his target.

[Alpha Desert Coyote’s body processed.]

[You obtained Shapechanger’s Cloak, 3x Coyote Meat Bundle, and Trickster’s Dagger!]

[Talent Obtained: Alpha Presence!]

That sounds like exactly what I wanted to get from him earlier, James thought. But now he sort of wished he could have stolen whatever gave the coyote its invisibility in the second part of the fight. I’m really difficult to satisfy. He shook his head. Oh well!

He used Mass Pillage on the other coyotes and selected Stats. He’d decided he would review his new Talent and items later, and he directed the gear into his bag.

Then he turned to the humans. Behind him, three of the people who were still standing had already started healing a few of the more badly wounded survivors.

“Um, thank you for saving us,” said a familiar voice. The same person who had wondered if James was going to save them, he realized. A White guy around James’s age with dark hair beginning to gray at the edges.

“You’re welcome,” James said with a small smile and a nod. He looked down at the bodies on the ground. “Any of those people still alive and need a heal?”

“You can heal too?!” exclaimed one of the Healers working on a broken body. She didn’t stop using Laying on Hands, but James could see her expression morph into one of annoyance. “Fucking unfair!”

“This isn’t a game,” James said loudly. “Nor is it a democracy. Unfairness and imbalance are the rules here, not exceptions to them.”

“Yes, of course you’re right, sir,” said the man who’d spoken first. His tone was obsequious. “And if you’re willing to help out, there are a few people here who could use a heal.” He gestured toward another group of people. James realized they had dragged some of the wounded away from the group of bodies he’d initially noticed.

I guess they weren’t just standing still behind me, he thought, gratified. Maybe they’ll be useful.

He began Laying on Hands.

“While I’m working, why don’t you tell me what brings you guys out here?” James asked.