Demon Wolf

“Wow.” I’ve struck gold. Looking at the shiny expanse of amber resin, Wolf grinned.

Before him stood a five meters tall and thirty meter wide wall covered in hundreds of hexagonal containers, whose sides spanned half a meter.

Gods, there’s tons of it. I wonder how aged the honey is? The older it is, the more World Energy it has stored. He licked his lips and summoned Book, aiming for the bottommost row of honeycomb cells.

No. Stop. Would you ruin a treasure just to eat a treat? He willed a piece of Lindworm roast into his hand, and furiously chewed on it while examining the giant honeycomb in greater detail.

It’s wide enough for the Honeyeater to fit its head inside, and about a meter deep. He tapped the rock-solid surface with a knuckle and nodded. The walls are about a palm wide. I could carefully cut this into pieces and store all of these in my holdingring. That would take about…

Wolf rolled his eyes and frowned. Seven days. Not worth it. This world is full of riches, wasting even a day means I’m missing opportunities. Once I separate the amber from the earth, I can store them in ten by ten blocks. The lowest, oldest batches of honey have priority…

In several moments, Wolf formed a plan and started draining every eleventh cell in the bottom row.

He pierced a hole in the amber, then stored the honey within his holdingring before replacing the content into a barrel and sealing it. However, when he reached the forty-fourth compartment, Wolf’s lips turned sour.

I only have three barrels. I guess the rest will become mixed honey. With a mischievous smile of a child who had found sweets, Wolf opened the hole at the center of the cell, rather than on the top. An amber-colored stream gushed and he caught it in a mug before storing the rest into his holdingring.

The young man took a sip and smacked his lips. “Mmm! Sweet!”

A moment later, his eyes went wide. This is full of World Energy. It’s not quite as dense as a bloodstone, but it isn’t far off. How long has this sat here?

Wolf tapped his lip, then absentmindedly sucked on the sticky finger. Whiteflame Honeyeaters are obligate hibernators, they sleep when flowering season ends and survive through the rest of the year on the Qi and World Energy infused honey they had refined. However, Corpsewood has no seasons, meaning flowers of various kinds likely bloom all year round, so these giants don’t enter hibernation to avoid famine, however, they still store excess honey they make…

Wolf realized the Whiteflame had refined the honey-syrup he had drunk around the time when it created its burrow lair, gods know how many years or decades ago.

***

While Wolf handled his matters industriously, a group of six young women wearing Soaring Dragon Peak’s emerald disciple uniforms ran into a translucent, golden, resin dome.

Juliette, their leader, raised her hand, clenched into a fist. For a moment, worry flashed in her eyes, but disappeared the next second.

“Everyone, stay sharp. This is the den of a Whiteflame Honeyeater.” Following a moment’s silence, she continued. “Whiteflames are powerful Monster Beasts. Once they reach the peak of Blood Saturating they evolve into Silverflame Honeyeaters. Thankfully, Corpsewood’s laws don’t allow Tendon Strengthening realm Monster Beasts. Another thing they are famous for is their lack of intelligence. Even if this one has reached the peak of Blood Saturating, if I lay the Myriad Directions Spell Formation and bewilder it, we can handle it easily.”

The confident smiles and complacent glint in the rest of her squad’s eyes made Juliette worry.

“Don’t drop your guard. We have eliminated seven Earth Pavilion disciples, but those were groups of up to three combatants, meaning at most they had half our number.” She paused, satisfied with her fellow disciples’ somber expressions. “Myriad Directions will destroy the Whiteflame’s sense of balance and make it unable to move properly, but its limbs are long, its claws sharp. Keep out of its reach as it flails blindly. This is Corpsewood. Corpse. A moment’s inattention may turn you into one, so please pay attention.”

Gods, I feel like a mother hen. Juliette eyed her chicks, noting their rebellious looks. They think I’m just yapping my gums because I hold slight seniority.

Despite the ugly atmosphere, the girls spread out, searching for the den’s entrance.

“Found it.” Rosaline waved her hand, calling them over.

Juliette inspected the well-concealed tunnel, failing to spot the faint tracks Wolf had left in his wake.

“All right. I’ll arrange the Spell Formation in a fifteen meter radius, centered on the entrance. Focus on ranged attacks, but even if you enter the seal, Myriad Directions’s potency drops the stronger your willpower. It’s exceptionally powerful against mindless beasts, less so against intelligent ones. As for manlings, it will just make you dizzy, and you can easily escape its area of effect.”

Rosaline and the others rolled their eyes, seemingly asking whether Juliette had to lecture them every time she scribed a Spell Formation.

Disregarding the dissatisfied looks, Juliette got to work. First, she traced a shallow circular outline in the ground, drawing around the den and avoiding trees as much as possible. Then, she placed scrolls with runes she had scribed in advance at strategic locations, completing the seal in three short minutes.

“Now, we climb onto trees and wait. Honeyeaters spend half a day sleeping to refine their honey, while the rest of the time they eat and gather nectar.”

The group obeyed, and after two boring hours, a shape emerged from the den. However, the creature to leave the burrow was not a Whiteflame Honeyeater.

Juliette stared at the beautiful man, his elegant features and greenish-yellow eyes. For a moment she forgot herself, lost in his delicate, pointed ears and demure face.

“Strike!” Rosaline’s shout forced the pink daydream into reality.

Four throwing daggers, glowing in Qi soared towards the confused beauty. Juliette wanted to scream and protest against such a sudden attack, but then noticed the deep-brown robe the man carried.

Enemy? A pity.

She puffed her chest full of air.

“Kill the enemy,” she shouted, ready to jump, then froze.

The enemy snatched a flying dagger, using it to parry another, while at the same time a sword appeared in his other hand, blocking the third attack. The last blade he dodged with a serpentine twist of his hip, letting it whiz by his head.

Juliette stared dumbfounded at the graceful dance at the blade’s edge. She watched the man toss the seized throwing knife back towards gasping Rosaline. The weapon did not glow, yet it tore through the air with a speed she thought no manling could produce without Qi.

Three wet thuds entered Juliette’s ear as Lea, Manon and Antoine touched down, then she heard a panicked scream followed by a sound of a water-skin bursting. She could not see it, but the pitter-patter against the leaves painted the vivid picture of blood spraying from Rosaline’s grievous wound.

What do I do now? Like most intelligent leaders lacking practice, Juliette froze, overwhelmed by the unknown disaster. Her squad, however, knew what to do.

“Kill the whore,” Manon shouted. “He killed Rosaline!”

Right, Manon and Rosaline share a dorm. They are close. Juliette sat, still frozen, watching Manon charge the Earth Pavilion’s disciple when Fleur touched down as well.

The moment Manon entered the Myriad Directions’s seal she leaned to the side, nearly tripping on the feet.

Confused, Juliette blinked, but when she opened her eyes, the stranger had cleaved Manon’s torso in two and held her sword.

What? How is he unaffected? Manon died? How did she die? Questions swarmed Juliette as she observed Manon’s blood spray the man’s dull uniform. In her shock, she forgot to charge the enemy, she forgot to support her fellow disciples. She even forgot to shout or scream in terror.

No! What are you doing? Run away from him! Lea and Antoine rushed over, flanking the Earth Pavilion disciple, however, the man hardly paid them attention.

He flicked Manon’s sword at Lea. Even without looking, he aimed the blade at the dead center of her chest, and with only three meters between them, the stumbling woman had no chance to dodge.

In her despair, Lea screened her chest with a Qi barrier, but the reflexively formed shield shattered before the flying sword’s lightning-like speed. The blade sunk into flesh, followed by the hilt, which then tore a grievous hole in Lea’s torso as Manon’s sword continued its flight behind her.

The look of despair and shock etched itself into Juliette’s memory. As blood sprayed from Lea’s mouth, a fictional accusing glare scalded Juliette’s soul. She covered her lips, suppressing a scream as she watched the tanned woman crumple to the ground.

By the time she tore her eyes away from her deceased comrade, Antoine already lay dead, split in half, and the Earth Pavilion’s disciple pursued the fleeing Fleur.

Juliette did not see it, but the shriek and the wet squelch, which came in mere seconds, told her she was her squad’s sole survivor.

sleepydad88

Random Roll -

Spoiler

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The party’s size, composition and sect of origin.

Juliette’s character. I just wanted a simple, stupid and overconfident leader, yet she scored 90 on the ability chart.

Rather poor perception rolls for the party, and the ramp’s soil is hard-packed, so the girls failed to spot Wolf’s tracks.

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