Demon Wolf

The gooey ink stuck to Wolf like a barnacle, painting him a dark shade of violet-blue.

Gah! This is disgusting! With the kraken’s murderous intent gone, Wolf focused on more trivial aspects of his situation. I bet it reeks.

Wolf suffered from momentary disorientation, but in two strokes he left the cloud of black ooze. The gigantic cephalopod had disappeared, but Wolf’s lip twisted at what resembled a chorus of chattering underwater parrots mocking him.

As expected, this shit stuck to me. Wolf sighed inwardly, staring at his midnight indigo colored arm. He silently cursed the cackling oversized squids and swam up to regain his bearings.

He surfaced, snorting the ink from his nose before assessing the scene. Tentacles flailed around, tossing the trial participants about with non-lethal ordinance, but they inconspicuously drifted away from Wolf.

After a moment, he found his destination and sank like a rock, continuing his dive towards the other shore. Leaving the playful krakens behind, Wolf entered a patch of calm water where he overtook the frontmost boats.

Two minutes of swimming later, the aquatic weeds below became visible once more. Then the gently swaying underwater grassland sloped upward, sprouting occasional sharp, towering stalagmites, which almost touched the gentle waves above.

These rocks look manmade, purposefully placed to sink boats. Wolf avoided the artificial rock formations, which grew denser the closer he drew to the shore. Finally, the ever-rising lush vegetation began brushing against his paddling toes, forcing him to surface.

He instinctively regretted sucking in a deep breath, but then his mind caught up.

I don’t stink? I expected squid ink would stink. Wolf’s lip twisted in a one sided smirk, and he swam forward, once more kicking up foamy sprays of icy lake-water.

This should be the Lightning Eels territory. These fifth order Qi Gathering ambush predators favor murky, shallow waters, but I guess dense underwater vegetation also suits them. Now, the question is whether I should plow through them, ignoring the shocks just because I can, or should I use these convenient rocky platforms jutting from the water.

The answer was obvious. Wolf approached the nearest column, climbed it and skipped to the next one, following them until he reached the shore, not once spotting a Lightning Eel.

The trailing crowd saw an inky-black outline hopping along the tiny plateaus and then land on the bank. Then, instead of rushing in his chosen direction, he sat down and looked across the water. After a few moments, the eccentric man stood and pulled a barrel from his holdingring. He scooped water with it and disrobed, revealing his painted body. Before anyone could see clear details, he jumped into the improvised tub, and started rubbing himself with soap.

Fucking octopus ink. I wish I had Clean. It would’ve made life so much simpler. Wolf scrubbed himself with zeal, gradually blackening his bathwater.

He ignored the curious looks of elves and dwarves who disembarked first. First group of human women numbered surprisingly few, equaling the elves. Unlike the inquisitive, yet silent minority races, humans were louder and freer in their observations.. Some, like Atlanta, gasped and shied away their looks while others leered, ogling the beautiful bather and his elegant neckline. Despite their bold fronts, Wolf noted each of them had at least a tinge of red to her cheeks, while the quiet ones had burning scarlet faces.

Wolf learned modesty and propriety late, forsaking them for practicality. As long as he broke no law or sensitive social norms, he acted without inhibition; and even that smidgeon of restraint he developed through painful experiences; from people hurt by his carelessness and self-centeredness.

Recalling the despicable, two-faced hypocrites judging him, Wolf grit his teeth and redoubled his scrubbing effort. Under the force which would flay normal human skin, the dark paint came off. While taking out his frustration on ink and his impenetrable skin, Wolf noted nobody had headed straight into the forest.

Elves circled to the left, the fuzzy knee-choppers to the right; as for the humans, they took either. However, none hesitated with their decision and, other than wasting time watching the male taking a public bath, they chose their directions immediately.

By the time the last of the boaters departed, Wolf found himself sufficiently clean. He jumped out of the water and a towel appeared in his hands. He dried himself, as the girls, whose ships River Krakens had sank, skipped from stone to stone, balancing on the slick surfaces.

Despite starting late, Jakob caught up, but he kept to the rear, afraid someone might push him into an unpleasant, if not lethal, electrocution.

The leading young woman gaped at Wolf’s bare butt. The scandalous sight robbed her of her concentration mid-jump. She slipped on the rock and fell into the lake.

Before her splash’s first droplets landed back into the lake, the suddenly churning water grew alive with bluish-white tendrils. Wolf heard the crackling of electricity, and while too far away, he clearly imagined the smell of ozone he was so familiar with from casting lightning spells.

The unfortunate girl cannonballed out the lake, slamming her face and torso against the convenient rocky pillar. The meaty thump obscured the sound of bones cracking, but Wolf still caught it.

He looked down between his legs, still toweling his hair. It really isn’t worth a second glance, let alone fracturing a rib. I wish I could reshape my flesh into something better again.

Despite knowing that the nonessential thought was just his silly inferiority complex flaring, Wolf failed to suppress it. Too many years spent under too horrible a renown had left their scar.

The battered girl straightened, and Wolf felt a pang of guilt. He did not know about her ribs, but the landing had mangled her face. Despite being a hundred meters away, he distinctly saw broken teeth and misshapen bloody mess which used to be her nose. The young woman’s gaze was unfocused as she slid back towards the water.

Luckily, a residual electric jolt shocked her feet, awakening her. She scampered up the platform where she rested, sprawled on her back.

That was not my fault. Wolf assured himself, yet moved to conceal his distracting nudity behind the barrel. He looked around, realizing all other trial takers had frozen in their tracks, observing the bloodied warning against inattention.

From the beach, Wolf saw how the Earth Pavillion staff had orchestrated the entire trial, protecting the hopeful applicants as much as possible. And yet, luck also played a factor. That girl could’ve landed on her back, snapping her spine and winding a cripple. She could’ve landed on her head and broken her neck, dying on the spot. Whoever designed this course intentionally left a chance of death for those lacking both luck and caution.

To Wolf, this realization came as a fact, lacking emotions. The Seeker Academy he grew up in shared a similar approach of letting the weak, the foolish and the disagreeable die. It was a harsh reality; especially for those plotted against. However, after weathering several lethal temperings, the survivors would be that much stronger and better equipped for life. As for those who perished, they could only hope for better luck in their next reincarnation.

Thinking of yet another hypocritical aspect of society, Wolf dressed, his skin unmarred by ink and pale as ever, revealing no signs of his violent cleaning. By the time he clad himself, the trial takers finally regained their wits and started hopping from one slippery rock to another. Even the bloodied young woman stood straight and continued jumping.

Wolf scrutinized her. She was terrified. Blood dribbled down her face onto the rocks and into the water; her hands trembled and each of her jumps lacked confidence. And yet, when Wolf heard a splash, it was a young man in the middle of the group who had dunked himself into the lake.

Wolf trained his gaze on the falling spray of water, catching lightning blossoms spreading across the lake’s surface. Two seconds later, nothing happened. The shock launched the lead girl out the water after a second last time. Did something happen? The boy may have fallen in such a way his spasms send him down, rather than up. Maybe the Lightning Eels dragged him away, or they slapped the previous girl up?

Ten seconds passed, and everyone stood still in tense silence, waiting for the youth to surface.

With a gasp, the boy broke the surface. He vaulted out of the water, covered in dancing electrical arcs.

He kept his wits together and coated himself in Qi to resist the lightning. Wolf grinned. He smiled not because the boy had survived, but because he fared better than the young woman. If he had died whereas she survived, it would have left a bitter taste in Wolf’s mouth.

Catching his thoughts, Wolf frowned. Is this what Anna and Barbara felt back home whenever they insisted women weren’t inferior to men? That others shouldn’t boss them around just because of their gender? Did mere weeks in this world make me become as sexist as they were?

Wolf watched the youths jump from rock to rock with renewed vigilance, considering himself, and what he had done in the past to hurt people around him with careless remarks, which he failed to notice back then.

 

sleepydad88

Random Roll - Lucky electrocuted youth. 50% of “The electrical arcs died down. Following a flurry of bubbles, a red blot rose to the surface of the water, spreading before a lifeless body broke the surface. A meter-long serpentine form…”

Author’s note: As someone who suffered multiple electrocutions, I know this isn’t how it works. But saying her muscles clenched and spasmed until the current passed makes for crappy prose.

Author's note: Nearly missed today's deadline for the first time in these eighteen months. I had the chapter ready, but lacked ten minutes to post it on all platforms. Keeping all these balls in the air is starting to become taxing.