Demon Wolf

“He passed the first nine stages,” one of Elder Dread’s attendants commented. “Just one more and he will pass the trial.”

Eleanor shrugged, “Most disciples fail at the tenth wave, the difficulty spikes too suddenly.”

She looked towards the closed door beyond which Wolf’s test took place, focusing on the luminous nine and the subtle half-hourglass below it. The sand trickled down, but the timer had no upper half, signifying the task’s endless nature. I wonder how many waves you will clear? Will you manage fifteen? I laughed like crazy when I saw the reward increase for those who passed fifteen waves.

***

Wolf skewered a Brambledrake’s head with his spear. He ignored the motionless quadruped saurian. Its real-world counterpart had a terrifying death throes attack; however, for simplicity’s sake, the illusion stilled after dying instead of lashing out desperately, causing mayhem in its own.

Without focusing on the corpse’s immediate, surreal decomposing, Wolf locked onto the next Brambledrake, moving against the mixed tide of Monster Beasts. Two-thirds of Wolf’s archers cleared Windwargs before they reached him, whittling the softest and most numerous opponents. The remaining third thinned incoming Pillarapes, halving the heavy hitting Monster Beast’s numbers before they reached the melee line.

Wolf himself focused on Brambledrakes, killing any Pillarapes and Forest Rhinos while moving between targets.

It’s over. Wolf noted the dust cloud disappear, signifying the miniature beasttide’s end. The melee warriors haven’t shouted that they had used a quarter of their Qi, so I can still preserve their peak combat state for the next round with meditation between rounds.

Wolf and his army routinely mopped up the ninth wave.

“Rest!” he shouted, jumping to pierce the three-meter-tall orange ape’s brain. He flew into the familiar, replicated attack, dodging the thick, pillar-like arms slamming down to swat him.

The illusion’s reuse makes fighting too simple. I wonder whether they will use it to entrap me at a later stage?

When the final Pillarape dropped dead, Wolf also sat down to rest. He had used little Qi, relying on his enhanced physique to tackle each wave’s strongest enemies.

Mixing Monster Beasts like this is a good way to throw kids into disarray. However, I can easily find an optimal solution even before the two sides clash, and since this illusion is so rigid, there’s no random factor to ruin my plans.

Wolf frowned. Which is stupid. Life screws you every chance it gets. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be down here, doing tests meant for spoiled youths.

The young man kept lamenting the unfairness of it all, but the rising dust cloud snapped him out of his wallowing in self-pity.

Let’s see which new Monster Beast they added, the eighth wave with nothing but Brambledrakes had exhausted the archers— What?

Wolf blinked, then awakened his senses to confirm he was not seeing things.

It really is a bunch of bare-butted men and women? They are kicking up dust just like Monster Beasts, and they even sound like a stampede.

The expected Monster Beast horde did not appear. What charged towards Wolf were nude men and women. Unlike the Monster Beasts, which only used one model, there were twenty different models for men and just as many for women.

What the hells? They have nothing but swords on them? Are they trying to embarrass the trial takers, or distract them with lust?

“Archers, group one, probing volley; wait for instructions after one volley.” Wolf observed the sprinting humans, their hanging bits swinging uncomfortably enough for him to mouth an “ouch”.

Once the attackers entered the archers’ range, a hail of wood and steel flew towards them. Wolf awakened his senses just before the first arrows reached the nudists, keeping his eyes open for any helpful details.

As the first arrow neared the demure leading male’s head, he moved his longsword. The weapon glowed with Qi, the light’s intensity perfectly matching the incoming arrow’s halo.

Wolf watched in slow motion as the sword and arrow collided, and the projectile exploded into harmless splinters.

The blow didn’t even stagger him, Wolf thought with a frown, observing the identical scene play out with other inbound attackers, all of which ran without pause, regardless of whether the arrows had low, medium, or large amounts of Qi.

This is bullshit. You can deflect regular arrows without breaking stride, but the Qi burst should cause some backlash.

“Archers, another probing volley, this time two arrows per target. Aim the first at the heart an eye-blink before shooting the second one to the head. Melee, shift to spears, when the enemy crashes into you fight two on one; follow the archers’ pattern, the second attack lands with an eye-blink delay.” By the time Wolf finished issuing orders, a new barrage of arrows showered the charging attackers.

In the dilated flow of time, each nude savage smashed apart the first arrow, and screened their head with Qi. The energy conserving arrows bounced off the force field; the medium powered ones stabbed into the flesh, killing the illusory enemies, while the empowered arrows blasted their heads apart.

“Archers, use moderate strength attacks, two shots per target.” Wolf paused. “Clear the males first.”

I don’t know which are freakier; the guys licking their lips, fully erect, or the ones blushing.

Luckily, a volley mowed down the doubt before it further distracted Wolf.

This will burn through archers’ Qi, but they will clear this stage alone and recover for wave twelve. However, that way, I won’t know how humans fight.

“Archers, a quarter of you rest, then every seventy-five seconds another quarter rests, while those who rested take their place. Favor male targets, then evenly thin the female ranks.” During the previous waves, Wolf experimented with the illusory soldiers’ supernatural precision, coordination, and understanding of vague orders. Since the illusion trapped his mind, it understood his thoughts; he even hypothesized the orders were verbal just to filter out random ideas which could trip the trial taker.

Five minutes later, the wave ended. Wolf did not engage the enemy, instead focusing on their moves and attack patterns. The exhibitionist horde’s focus was on preserving their lives, not attacking. Even in melee, they deflected the spear to the head before the second one pierced their hearts without error.

This was easy. Even if they mix these units with the previous ones, they amount to Forest Rhinos in thrice the number.

While Wolf considered the tenth wave, his troops rotated and the tired ones sat to meditate.

The next group was slightly more difficult. The naked men and women wielded two swords, requiring three arrows to kill and three spearmen working together to bring them down. However, Wolf kept observing.

It’s gonna be like with the Monster Beasts, several different ones, then mixing them so they promote each other’s advantages. Will the next group have shields or armors? The dual-wielders should be the attack type, or maybe the first wave was like the Ironbacks, just a preview of what is coming? How do I handle large shields? Should the archers ignore them?

While Wolf considered possible types of attackers, a dust cloud rose from the horizon, signaling the start of the twelfth wave.

“Archers, if the attackers have two swords, use three arrows. If they have one sword use two arrows. If they have shields use three arrows while looking for a gap—” Wolf trailed off as he awakened his senses and observed the nude enemy.

Why do they only have one sword again? No armors, no shields. Wolf frowned. There’s something fishy about this.

Wolf sized up the endless, hundred-human-wide horde, but noticed no difference between them and the first wave. It’s the same models, reused ad nauseam.

Since he failed to spot anything odd, Wolf did not change his orders, and waited for the volley to reveal the surprise he was certain Earth Pavilion had in store for him.

Once the wave entered the archers’ range, Wolf awakened his senses. He watched the two arrows swim through the air, seeking the leader’s head and heart. When they were half a meter above him, the savage red-beard shouted. He raised his sword, and his speed increased as his feet blurred, following a fancy footwork.

To a normal eye, the man’s movement would become indistinct, but Wolf clearly saw the technique and how the attacker dashed forward with double speed, dodging the arrows before slashing with his sword.

Shit! “Archers, shoot in groups of four. Two attack the target, two make the same attack three meters in front of the target.”

But archers aren’t the problem here. About half of them will pass and enter melee. The books on tactics state you can hold your spears braced against horses and Monster Beasts, but it won’t work against manlings. You have to stab them. That means… Wolf ran the numbers in his head and sighed in relief; he still had enough manpower without mobilizing the meditating troops.

“Melee, two stab when the enemy is three meters away, two stab like with the tenth wave.” Wait, I should run ahead and check whether they can only move three meters, or whether they can end their maneuver early.