Demon Wolf

Wolf whizzed past the shouting reserves. Roughly a quarter of Hare Tribe’s warriors stood below the walls, waiting to climb and fill the gaps. Fortunately for Fiona, fighters rushed over, blocking the stairs for anyone wanting to descend and flee.

While she restored order, Wolf passed rows of empty tents, reaching an open area at camp’s center, where the infirm huddled around a bonfire.

“Kira! We’re leaving!” he yelled as soon as he spotted the young woman.

His shout scared the living daylights out of trembling noncombatants. Men, children and elderly paled, exchanging looks, but nobody dared say anything, save for the ten-odd kids who started wailing unintelligibly.

“No!” Kira exclaimed, stunning Wolf.

“What do you mean ‘no’?” he boomed, advancing through the parting crowd and stopping before her. “I can’t guarantee your safety here.”

“No! Family sticks together!” she screamed in his face. “I won’t leave my family behind!”

He wished to shout at her. To tell her she is spewing drivel. To drive it into her thick skull that her own life was the most important. He wanted— What he did not want was to see that petulant expression. The stupid defiance burning in her eyes, followed by words ringing in his mind, No, my apple! Wanna prune! Daddy bad!

Sky’s moon-eyes overlapped with Kira’s indignant gaze, and Wolf’s heart clenched. I’d never leave my family either. Fuck! Fuck!

He wanted to yell, but could not. He wanted to lie and drag her away, but could not.

Dammit! Wolf gnashed his teeth and awakened his senses, feeling his soul itch from the frustratingly insignificant expenditure, from something which used to be ridiculously negligible.

I’m not ready for meditation yet. The thought flashed and died in his mind before the violent night slowed to a crawl. Bonfire’s blazing light next to him flickered lethargically, like a syrup flowing upwards. The distant torches and brightstones lining the walls became searing beacons, their hesitant flickers and steady glows illuminated the darkness. Even if Wolf lacked keen nightvision, he would see everything with his senses fully awakened.

Stench of blood, shit and piss assaulted his nose with more intensity than Monster Beasts jumping at the defenders. The screams of rage and cries of bloodied and dying filled the world. Cacophony of manlings battled Monster Beasts’ howls and whimpers, which struggled to express the same emotions as the indignant humans.

Wolf sensed his stomach preparing to complain and a seasoned crab cube materialized in his hand. He moved to stuff it into his mouth in front of people whose pupils dilated at a snail’s pace as they saw the shenanigans he pulled.

His feet caught earth’s tremors, which had grown strong enough to be mistaken for real seismic activity. Wolf focused his hearing on the beating of hoofs and paws. His mind raced, processing in seconds information thousands of erudite men would take days to handle.

We have to hold on for fifteen minutes. World continued to move; sensory overload ended; crab meat entered his jaw, and he chomped on it.

“You owe me one,” he mumbled through a mouth-full of tender white flesh, before dashing back towards the wall, leaving stupefied civilians behind.

If I had known this attack was so short, I wouldn’t have run over here. Wolf frowned and furiously chewed. I should stop skimping on Anima. No. Hesitating to spend it when I’m not threatened isn’t bad. The technique I taught father years ago barely produced enough Anima to keep him alive. And I can’t generate Anima normally. It could be because of my wound or because of this world; whatever the case, I can only restore myself with Big Brother’s wine.

Wolf argued with himself, dashing down the aisle of animal-skin tents and reaching the wall in seconds. Once fifteen meters away, he sent a surge of Qi into his legs. The ground beneath Wolf’s feet exploded, and he soared.

He swallowed the crab meat and bellowed, “Fiona! I’ll tackle them outside.”

Passive defense was never my style. I can’t stay in place. It’s inefficient, it’s stifling. Wolf leaped two meters above the wall, landing towards the teaming mass of Monster Beasts. In his left, he held Book. A massive war-ax materialized from his holdingring, weighing down his right. This was the heaviest weapon he looted off Bear Tribe warriors’ corpses back home, an ideal instrument for the hurricane of blood and metal he was about to become.

Wolf eyed a Razortusk, burning yet another wisp of Anima. Monster’s muscles squirmed, propelling the massive beast forward as foam dripped from its half-open maw.

They are drugged, or something. While watching the boar’s bloodshot eyes, Wolf spun midair, crouched and prepared for a rough landing with inhuman agility and coordination.

He timed it perfectly. He was half a meter away from the monster when he sprang his legs. Wolf’s half ton weight and all the momentum of his jump gathered into his feet, smashing into the Razortusk’s back. Wet pops and cracks entered Wolf’s ear as the beast’s spine broke. The pig squealed and tumbled back, while Wolf used the impact to jump back, landing on the clearing he opened. His feet touched furry corpses, and he spun like a dervish without pausing.

Book slashed through flesh and the ax smashed ribs, both sprayed blood. Wolf did not care about his appearance. Collecting geysers of blood splashing towards him just to stay clean, wasted too much attention. His very limited attention.

I need to help plug breaches to keep people inside the walls safe. Wolf devastated his way through waves of flesh, blood and bone. Keeping a sliver of his awareness on the defenders, he circled around the camp, regretting his processing speed was down to a third of his peak even when he burned Anima.

In the corner of his eye, Wolf caught a red-maned lion shredding two warriors and jumping into the outpost.

I can’t help with the lion, but they need time.

He turned, rounding back ten meters to plug the hole. The ax smashed into the passing Direwolf’s shoulder, crippling the beast and leaving it to die from trampling.

Ah fuck! He hated killing his mother’s clan’s totem animal, especially in such a cruel way. I have no time to end its suffering.

Book cleaved another Direwolf’s skull in half, granting it swift death, and the ax gleamed with Qi before pulverizing another member of the pack.

The half a minute stretched disgustingly before the defenders behind Wolf’s back reformed their perimeter. In that brief flicker of time, Wolf annihilated the pack and butchered dozens of incoming Razortusks.

Minutes crawled. Wolf was covered in blood, his hands slick from the damn thing and his feet squished in his boots as the hot stickiness squirmed between his toes. Finally, after flailing his arms and weapons like a madman for ages, the pounding of monstrous legs against the ground subsided, then stopped.

Wolf stored his weapons and blew his nose, sending bloody snot flying. He struggled not to swallow the entire time; even though he clenched his mouth shut, some blood still wormed its way in. He licked his lips, then spat everything out. He headed up the ramp of corpses and summoned a rag into his hands.

Qi regenerated as fast as I spent it. I wonder how quickly it would recover if I abused it or executed techniques. Back home, I would’ve burned a tenth of my maximum after fighting like this.

With his hand sufficiently clean, Wolf threw away the cloth and conjured another crab cube. He mechanically crammed it into his mouth and started chewing.

Hare Tribe’s protectors watched a crimson demon ascend the corpse pile. The sky had cleared at some point and they caught a glance of Wolf’s fight. He was a monster; and in the flickering torchlight, they saw him chomping on meat. Warriors shuddered, imagining the demon tore that flesh off a dying Monster Beast.

Liam, Fiona’s sole male lieutenant, led this group of defenders. His courage held up when he faced Wolf, but when the gore-monster jumped over the breastworks and blood fountained into the air from his boots, even he felt his head swim.

“H-how many did you kill?” he asked, swallowing spit.

Wolf shrugged.

“Several hundred, give or take a hundred.” He had not kept track. All attacking Monster Beasts were relatively low order; their nubs piled together were worth less than a single eleventh order Monster Beast’s nub. That was no small amount of wealth, but dragging five hundred corpses, opening them and extracting their nubs would take a day. Even with Hare Tribe’s numbers, cleaning up this massive battlefield and harvesting valuable monster parts would take a long while.

They have to abandon this outpost. This corpse pile is a plague breeding ground.

Wolf scanned the panting women and their reinforcements downstairs. Only thirty died on this side.

The losses were a lot less horrible than Wolf initially expected, when he believed the assault endless, and Monster Beasts’ numbers limitless. It was a reasonable mistake. Monster Beast migrations back home last months or years, but they aren’t as intense, nor are our monsters as suicidal as these fellows here.

“You! Fucking idiot piece of ass!” Fiona screamed, stomping over with the intensity of a thunderstorm.

Random Roll - fairly lucky Liam, he could’ve lost a hundred people.