Demon Wolf

“Something strong lurks ahead.” Wolf whispered, motioning Jakob to stop. “It should be an ambush hunter.”

Wolf touched his ear, making the movement obvious for Jakob. He waited a moment, but the youth did not understand the clue.

“You can’t hear the birds. Something spooked them.” Wolf winked, and Jakob gulped in realization.

“Shouldn’t we sneak around this place?” he asked, looking left and right, trying to find the invisible attacker.

Wolf shook his head. “No. It has already noticed us. Otherwise, I wouldn’t feel a predator’s gaze locked onto me. We’re still outside its striking range, but not by much. The Monster Beast is immobile, or has low intelligence. Otherwise, it would’ve attacked already.”

“So, what do we do?” Jakob asked, his voice so quiet, he nearly subvocalized his question.

“You retreat twenty-thirty meters, and I’ll spring the trap.” Jakob nodded and followed the order, moving as stealthily as possible.

Meanwhile, Wolf peered in the direction from which he sensed the expectant blood-thirst. Nope, can’t see it; no weird smells, either, and the forest is deathly quiet. It’s perfectly still and flawlessly blends with the surroundings, or it’s a plant Monster Beast I’m unfamiliar with.

While he appeared relaxed, Wolf’s nerves grew taut. He felt threatened for the first time since that Lindworm, and he only had one Lonely Eagle’s talisman left. He exhaled, realizing he had been holding his breath.

Relax. Be vigilant. Now, the Monster Beast could be underground, or out of my line of sight…

Wolf swallowed. Maybe I should find some bait? Nah. That would take too long, and I can’t force it to run in the right direction…

His mind raced. By the time he heard Jakob stop his half-decent, amateurish sneaking, Wolf had formed a rough plan. He took out a sack of black apples and moved twenty into a smaller bag. He had planned to use them as bombs, but with his Anima deficiency, they got demoted to succulent bait.

Sudden movement combined with scent and aura of Qi apples should draw its attention. Wolf flicked the pouch and awakened his perception to follow its flight.

Wolf’s nose flared, catching the intoxicating fragrance mixed with the jungle’s familiar, musty scent. With taut nerves, he followed the shuffling apples’ trajectory. Finally, the bag reached its destination, snagging on a sturdy branch Wolf chose as his target.

Nothing? I guess the next five meters are safe as well. Either that, or the enemy is an immobile plant. Wolf once again scanned the area for hook-like thorns, barbed tendrils or anything else he knew plant Monster Beasts used to capture prey. Nothing. I can see cobwebs of large jungle spiders, but they are mundane animals and pose no threat to me.

Wolf skulked forward, his heart thumping in his ears like a drum, the oppressive silence further overdramatized his racing heartbeat. He kept darting his eyes left and right, watching for any movement. His outstretched hand crept towards the bag. As two beads of sweat welled on his forehead, he snatched it.

Nothing happened. Wolf grinned foolishly, then caught a flash of shimmering green.

The sense of danger intensified tenfold. The air screamed, and Wolf’s eyes went wide. Time slowed while he ducked. Book appeared in his hand just in time to block the moss-colored jagged scythe.

The serrated blade struck the rusty sword with a metallic clang. The Monster Beast’s blow staggered Wolf three steps back. While that sudden strike could sever an adult man’s torso, Wolf was strong and heavy enough to resist its force. Still, he yielded ground, using the impact to open distance.

Wolf locked his gaze onto his attacker. The alien quadruped refracted light, camouflaging its true form. A pair of near-invisible giant scythes rippled in the air, their supplicating outline difficult to notice even from three paces away.

Chameleon Slayermantis. Wolf named the assailant just as the Monster Beast shot towards him once more. Its movements were lightning-quick. Even in his dilated perception of time, Wolf barely had the time to recall its characteristics.

Shit. He tossed the sack of apples into the air.

While Wolf jumped away, a dark-brown foreleg struck. The scythe-like limb glowed with faint orange Qi, bursting the pouch. Black apples tumbled, drawing yet another attack. Driven by instinct, the gargantuan mantis lashed out at the moving targets near its head, the sudden storm of Qi fruits driving it into a frenzy.

Not quite what I planned.

Seeing his opportunity, Wolf jumped forth, Book glowing gold. The sword slashed at the lightning-quick serrated limb. Yellow ichor sprayed, and the Monster Beast screeched as Book cleaved the backside of its arm.

Wolf’s face twisted. He grunted and his nostrils flared as he exhaled, trying to add whatever last bit of energy he could to his blow. Despite his effort and burning pain in his muscles, Book lodged itself into the chitinous reinforcement of the sawlike front legs.

Fuck! Wolf panicked. He jumped back, attempting to jerk free his sword by abusing his seven hundred kilos of weight.

A nasty crunch entered his ear. In the corner of his eye, the Chameleon Slayermantis’s shoulder snapped and its soft flesh tore.

The agonized insectiod’s screech grew a pitch higher as Wolf ripped its arm off. While the manling struggled to regain balance with his unexpected gain, the Monster Beast made a berserk swipe at him with its one remaining weapon.

It aimed at my carotid, and the scythe will pierce through my torso if I stay still… Wolf watched the strike, calculating his escape paths, finding none free of injury. Backing away or left meant losing his sword-arm. Right sidestep meant offering his head instead of his neck, so he moved the only way he could.

Wolf stepped forward, he walked into the blow. He lifted Book and the dismembered arm, not to block the scythe, but the mandibles which shot towards him when he entered their reach. His pupils narrowed as the meter-long jagged blade slashed his back open, scraping against his reinforced ribs, but Wolf was familiar with pain. Agony followed him ever since he had turned five.

Instead of shouting, dropping his weapon or losing focus, Wolf stabbed Book into the approaching maw. The sword blazed radiant gold, stabbing through the jaws and into the mantis’s head.

The disturbing, out-of-sync eyes rolled and darted about madly as Qi fried their command center. The sawlike limb slashing Wolf’s back clenched, drawing him closer to the body, which spewed reeking yellow fluid from its two wounds.

While the Monster Beast spasmed, grating Wolf, Jakob screamed somewhere off in the distance. 

Oh, grow a pair. I got stabbed, not you. Wolf twisted Book, then hacked off the top part of the Chameleon Slayermantis’s head. Forced by the ruined muscles of his back and shoulder, he switched his sword-arm, and severed the limb dug into his back.

While Wolf labored, the rustling behind him betrayed Jakob’s approach. By the time the terrified boy arrived, Wolf had already extricated himself from the monstrous claw and retrieved a healing potion.

“Do you mind applying this to my wound?” Wolf handed the vial to Jakob. “I can’t reach it well, and it’s a shame to waste it.”

Jakob took the draught, bobbing his head, his face pale.

Wolf turned around, revealing a mangled mess. The laceration was three fingers wide and stretched from shoulders down to Wolf’s hip. Jakob nearly fainted at the sight, biting his cheek to remain conscious.

“It hurt you,” Jakob said, unstopping the potion bottle.

Wolf was at a loss for words from the statement’s stupidity.

“Yes, it did,” he confirmed the obvious, believing he was a superior conversationalist back when he was fourteen.

“I mean, why did you let it hurt you?”

Are you touched in the head? One, two… On the count of four, Wolf realized Jakob had no actual combat experience; that he had no clue how true fights worked and how chaotic and random battles were.

“Even the best battle plans fall apart around step three or four. Unless combatants are highly trained with abundant experience, their fights devolve into messy brawls after exchanging several blows. Monster Beasts are somewhat better. However, they never use imaginative moves and rarely pull anything new. So, when you blindside them, they panic and behave erratically. Now, could you please apply the potion? I’ll get dizzy from the blood loss.”

“Attention all hopeful disciples,” that same voice echoed clearly through the jungle. “There are now ninety-three openings. Good luck to you all.”

“Jakob, you splashed some outside the wound. Once I’m done healing, we have to press forward. I’ll do my best to answer your combat related questions along the way,” Wolf said in a calm manner. While he reflexively worded his promise with Truthspeaker’s noncommittal precision, his mind churned.

How the hells did they get there? Is there a way to cheat, or bribe the proctors? Maybe I should’ve joined that Atlanta girl? She looks like the smug, shifty character who would buy her way in.