“What is this? Day five, six? No, it’s five for sure,” Sam thought as she doused the fire with water from her endless canteen. She broke camp, which consisted of her waving her hand and everything disappearing into her inventory. She had even figured out how to get the fire pit to go into her inventory in one piece by using clay dug from the river's edge as a plaster to connect the stones of the fire pit together, forming a solid ring. Sam completed her morning routine and walked closer to the river's edge; she would try her new skills before continuing her journey.
Sam started with Mana Caster and began channeling Mana into the skill. She immediately discovered that unlike Mana Crafting, where she could start channeling the skill and then form a shape, Mana Caster required her to already have the idea of the projectile shape she would form and cast, or the skill wouldn't activate. Once she got the hang of it, she launched roughly one ten-centimeter-long mana spike per second, using around thirty Mana per spike. The mana caster skill significantly reduced each spike's cost and charge time compared to mana crafting; the same spike and charge took nearly twice as long to form with a cost of over sixty Mana. That and she could only create and fire one every fifteen seconds or so, with it taking her full concentration also.
Sam continued playing around with the skill, sticking spikes in trees where they sank nearly all the way into the trunks. After little while, having done her part in killing the local flora, she eyed a large boulder near the river's edge. She summoned a mana spike over her open palm, fixating exactly where she wanted the magic projectile to hit as she sent the mana spike flying with a thought. The small projectile struck the boulder dead center, within a hair of her bull’s eye. The boulder caused the thin spike to shatter as it chipped off a piece of the rock, leaving a slight indentation where it had struck.
The depth of the indentation was to the first knuckle of her pinky finger when she examined it. Sam decided mana caster would undoubtedly be her go-to ranged skill. She only wished she could change the trajectory of the constructs mid-flight, but she couldn't keep the mental connection to them once she released the spikes. It felt like the constructs she formed with the mana caster were held under great tension. Once she identified a target, the tension was released immediately, causing connection loss. She didn’t think it was too much of an issue at the rate she could fire them. Her best estimate was that and how fast they traveled was that the mana spikes moved faster than an arrow but slower than a bullet at perhaps two hundred meters per second. She wasn't sure she could track them in flight if it wasn't for her higher agility stat. The larger the construct, the longer it took to charge and the slower it traveled. But the additional Mana added weight to the charge, causing a more brutal impact on the target. She experimented with blades, spheres, spikes, and even arrows, each with a different travel speed, impact, and range. She was also limited to how much Mana she could use to create each construct as she could not continuously infuse a construct to make it more powerful like she could with Mana crafting. Each one seemed to have a preset maximum based on its size. Sam hoped that would change as the skill leveled up, allowing her to hit harder from a distance.
Sam spent nearly an hour toying with the Mana Caster skill and then moved on to her favorite skill, Mana Crafting. It was time to make a permanent mana construct! With a thought she activated the skill, not knowing what to expect, and created a harpoon with her Mana flowing into the framework. This time, instead of the skill slowing her mana infusion rate once the harpoon was formed, a floodgate opened, allowing her to pour more Mana into the construct, making the harpoon as solid as steel. The skill told her she still had a long way to go before the permanent construct would be completed, though.
Sam quickly looked at her mana pool and smiled; this would be a cakewalk. "I'm gonna eat some fresh fish I caught with my new harpoon tonight!" She poured her magical energy into the harpoon, feeling the weapon gaining density as the raw energy created compact layers of solid mass inside it. 100 mana, 400 mana; she could feel the harpoon increase in density as she watched arcs of energy running up and down its length. But the skill was still telling her she was still far from being finished with making the weapon permanent. Scrunching her brows in concentration, she kept pushing Mana into the now hot, brightly glowing construct. 900 mana, 1300 Mana; the harpoon started vibrating violently in her hand and was getting hotter. “Is it supposed to do that?” Sam was getting nervous, 1500 mana, 1800 mana. Sam could barely hold the harpoon as it jerked violently. She grabbed it with both hands, using all her new strength to keep it from jerking out of her smoking and sizzling hands. “Something is wrong!” she thought as the searing pain and the violent jerking from the harpoon made her lose concentration, dropping her out of meditation. At 2000, Mana infused, her skill finally told her that something was not just regular wrong but very very wrong. Trusting the skill screaming into her mind to get rid of the construct, Sam jumped up and threw the harpoon as hard as she could into the river, watching it slip below the surface in a burst of steam. It disappeared swiftly, leaving a trail of bubbles in its wake. Only a wisp of steam was left, floating up slowly from where the harpoon struck the water. Sam waited a few more seconds, holding her breath, but nothing happened.
Sam sighed in relief, "Whew, I guess the water stopped the react—" WUMP! A loud thud sound echoed, shaking the ground beneath her feet. It caused her to stumble slightly as the river exploded in a geyser of pink foam, rising nearly ten meters into the sky around where the harpoon had struck. A pink vapor filled the air before floating with the breeze downriver from the explosion area, now a five-meter-wide circle of pink bubbling water.
Sam stared at the river in awe, “I wonder what I killed,” the words had no more escaped her lips when a notification appeared.
'Bing' You have vaporized Piranha [Levels 16-19] x 28. Experience awarded. Due to the complete annihilation of foes, they have been automatically looted and stored in your inventory.
‘Bing’ Mana Crafting has leveled up to level 11.
‘Bing’ Class Arcane Pathfinder has leveled up to level 14. 10 Free attribute points awarded.
After reading the notification, Sam smiled to herself, relaxing slightly, "Okay…so maybe next time, add the mana slower?" Sam stared at the palms of her charred and black hands, which revealed her bones in places where the skin had burned off. Her mana reserves were entirely depleted, too. Mumbling to herself, she looked back toward her campsite from the previous night, "I'm glad I didn't practice this in the safe zone last night. I wonder if there is a level of attack that permanently stops a safe zone in an area?” She sighed, thinking a little more help with how this magic thing works would be nice because the book the System supplied was extremely vague, which she thought was probably intentional. It was likely so the user could develop magic without another’s influence clouding the path. Still, a guide to a few basic system functions would have been helpful. But beggars couldn't be choosers, so she resolved to continue practicing her magic as she traveled. This time, she used smaller constructs to prevent accidentally blowing herself up until she better understood how the new aspect of the mana crafting skill worked. "I did discover the auto loot function, which is cool. I did wonder what would happen if I ever developed an ability to cause mass destruction; I guess I know now," she mused as she continued her track downriver.
***
For the next three days, Sam continued her slow trek down the river to what she hoped would be civilization. The journey went without incident for the most part. The terrain became rockier the closer she got to her intended destination, along with a higher amount of non-aggressive wildlife, such as the deer, which she had finally managed to identify as a Lightning Cervidae. She saw raccoon-like creatures, which she now knew were called Ringtail Procyon, and some squirrel-like creatures, which, it turned out, were squirrels of the usual variety with a few exceptions.
The squirrels moved so fast Sam wasn’t even sure she had seen anything the first few times she encountered one, thinking her mind was playing tricks on her. She finally managed to identify one of the lightning-fast little bastards on the evening of her seventh day in this new world. She saw it in time to grab it with one of her Mana threads.
Red Squirrel [Level 36]; Neutral; Affinity: Air
Once she was sure the squirrel couldn’t get away, she examined its body closely, making sure to keep out of reach of the thrashing animal’s claws, “this little guy is strangely like a squirrel from Earth,” Sam thought as she examined the terrier sized creature she had trapped, “well, except for the fact that it is bigger, has six legs, and seven eyes, of course. I wonder if all organic life follows the same basic pattern in the universe, if I am even in my universe, or if this is just a coincidence? The wolf looked almost exactly like a wolf from Earth after all…except for the mane on its back, and it was the size of a freaking SUV."
The more she thought about it, the more she realized just how many similarities there were between this planet and Earth. Not only were the flora and fauna similar, but the temperature and gravity were roughly the same. She couldn't leap meters into the air and float slowly back down, nor was the gravity so oppressive she felt like she was weighed down when she first arrived in this place. “Maybe there is more than one System, and the one Earth is in is more basic than this one. Didn't I read something suggesting that our perception of reality was just our brains operating as a basic interface for our true soul to perceive our reality? There may be a System in my universe or verse or whatever it is, but it hasn't developed enough to allow the use of magic. The more I think about it, the more it seems like there must be people or 'things' that have traveled from this universe…verse to mine, there are too many similarities between this world and the fantasy stories and games back on Earth. Did dimensional travelers try to start a basic system in my verse and fail? Maybe they're the true origin of our species? Are they there now, preparing my verse for the coming System through games and books?” Continuing to think about it for a while, Sam finally had to stop herself before her brain fried, "Meh, too deep for me right now," she shook her head at the ridiculousness of her own wandering thoughts, "Look at me, trying to figure out the origin of my species using dimensional travelers from another plane of existence as the catalyst, ha!"
Sam chuckled and released the squirrel as she continued her hike. She decided to start traveling at night on her fifth day in this world after she realized meditation was a more than acceptable alternative to actual sleep. She could keep the skill on constantly so long as she moved slowly, preventing fatigue. Her high recovery stats more than compensated for the energy expended while hiking slowly through the forest as she meditated. After a short mental struggle over the wisdom of her decision, she decided to take her chance at night travel; so far, it had proved to be just as uneventful as traveling during the day. Her mana sight and the two moons' bright light kept the thinning forest well-illuminated for travel even after the sun had long disappeared beneath the horizon.
About an hour after releasing the squirrel, Sam climbed a tree, something she did every three or four kilometers, adding locations to her mini-map. Pushing thick boughs aside and scanning the horizon, her breath caught in her throat; she had to do a doubletake. No more than a few hours' walk from her position was a small tendril of what looked like smoke silhouetted against the vibrant colors of the setting sun. It appeared to be coming from around seven kilometers west of her current position. “That must be a campfire! Please be friendly people!”
Sam was so excited at her discovery her hands were shaking almost too much for her to climb down the tree. She hadn't realized how worried she was that she was alone on this planet until she saw the smoke and realized she might not be alone after all. Scrambling down the tree like a monkey, she impatiently dropped the last five meters to the ground. Her new body barely registered the impact when she landed. That same impact would have crippled her just a week ago, but it didn’t even affect her now.
She decided to head directly toward the smoke trail, breaking off from the river entirely and cutting straight through the forest. She wasn't worried about getting lost because her cartography skill had already updated her mini-map with the location of the smoke or at least a close approximation. Due to the uneven terrain, she couldn't quite get enough detail from her perch in the tree to get its exact location. She lined herself up with the direction of the smoke on her map. She cut through the forest toward it, hacking with vigor and excitement at the underbrush with bladed constructs.
***
Sam traveled almost half the night, hacking and slashing through the thick underbrush. She would have climbed a tree and tried to travel through the branches high off the ground, but the foliage was just as dense as the underbrush and with less secure footing. She even tried using her mana rope construct to swing herself through the forest. Still, after expending a considerable amount of Mana and slamming into a couple of trees, she returned to her slow and steady operation of cutting her way through the underbrush. Now she knew why it was called "bushwhacking." When she was sure she was getting close and was about to climb another tree to check if she could see the glow of a fire, a shrill scream pierced the quiet of the night. It sounded like a human scream.
Sam stopped in her tracks and stood rooted in place by the realization she had just heard a human or, at least, what sounded exactly like a human screaming in either pain or fear. Sam sprinted toward the scream, quickly shaking herself out of the momentary shock of hearing another person for the first time since she woke up on this planet. She paid no mind to the brambles and thorns of the underbrush as they tore at her clothes, hair, and skin. "There is no way I will let the first sapient life I find in this new world die because I was too slow to save them!” Sam sprinted, ignoring the pain of the numerous minor cuts the thorny brambles left on her face and body.
***
Arron stared in disbelief at the giant wolf, knowing he fucked up the second the Alpha arrived at the edge of the large clearing leading a pack of thirty or more wolves. Judging from the oppressive aura it emanated, he already knew the Alpha was likely beyond his party's fighting skills. Nevertheless, out of either habit or the desire to know what was about to kill him, he identified the wolf leader.
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Red Wolf Alpha [Elite]; [Level 50]; Hostile
HP: 7596/7654
MP: 1247/1247
Affinity: Blood, Earth
Strength: Pack Advantage, Advanced Regeneration
Weakness: Magical Damage, Piercing Damage
Attack(s): Howl; Bite; Claw; Blood Feast; ???
“Shit,” Arron cursed under his breath, “why did I take this stupid job?” Of course, he knew why. The job had offered nearly double the pay jobs like this usually did, and now it was obvious why. But what the hell had possessed him to bring Alina and Alice along and not hire a mercenary group? He could have scraped enough coin together to hire a few ex-guardsmen, at the very least.
Arron didn't care what happened to Alice, but Alina was his flesh and blood and the only surviving member of his line. Not that his lineage truly meant much to Arron, but seeing the huge pack of wolves arrayed against them, led by an elite class alpha, made him realize his lineage may end that night, which bothered him more than he thought it should. If only they hadn't been so low on funds when they arrived at Helms Peak. "It's that stupid healer's fault," he mumbled, casting a quick glance toward the frightened woman looking at her with disdain.
Healers were costly, especially healers like Alice. Arron decided to purchase Alice from the Children of the Light with the idea that he would use her advanced healing abilities in the Great Tournament coming up in a few months. However, the cost of keeping Alice around was beginning to outweigh the benefits of having a healer in their party. Even if they weren't paying her in coin, they still had to feed and house her as they traveled. “If we manage to survive this, I don’t think we’ll be keeping her services in the future," he thought, even though he knew deep down Alice would more than pay for herself once they arrived at Makaria for the tournament. If they survived tonight’s battle. Thinking of Alice, Arron remembered he hadn’t given her the daily mana stipend today, "how did I forget that, and why didn't she remind me? If we survive this blasted ambush, I will have to add more binding orders to her contract."
Arron looked at the two women in his party and grimaced; the chance that all of them survived this was almost zero. He knew he could likely survive, and maybe Alina, if he sacrificed Alice, but even that was a stretch of the imagination. At level 39, he knew he was a competent fighter, but balancing his stat points evenly between his class and occupation's mana, strength, and stamina components meant he was only capable as a fighter, not exceptional. However, he had a few tricks to help him bridge the skill gap in a pinch. Alina, however, was a pure warrior; even at her lower level of 32, she was more powerful than him in physical damage output and defense. Her only downside was her weak mental abilities, which made her susceptible to magical and mental attacks. Their new healer, Alice, was the weakest of them at level 26. She made up for her lack of combat prowess with her ability to heal anything from mortal wounds to curses and poisons, including regenerating lost limbs. Of course, for her to do all of that, she had to be topped off with Mana, which they had forgotten to do for her, today of all days.
Arron hoped what energy Alice did have would be enough to at least give him and Alina a chance to escape. He didn't want to waste such a significant investment by losing Alice. Still, he wouldn't hesitate to use the part of her contract allowing him to force her to act as a self-regenerating meat shield if it meant he and Alina could escape their current predicament.
***
Snapping back to the present, Arron eyed the Alpha, trying to gauge his party’s chances of survival. He thought the three of them, the two women and himself, could take the Alpha down or at least fight it to a draw with proper preparation if it was an outcast. But it wasn't alone; it had a pack. There were at least thirty wolves in the pack arrayed across the clearing. Their thick, blood-red coats looked menacing and rather frightening in the moonlight. The smaller wolves ranged anywhere from level 12 to 32.
Arron sighed; he knew someone would die tonight; there was no way around it. It pained him for financial reasons to sacrifice Alice. Still, he knew Alina's best chance to escape with him would be with Alice supporting her long enough for them to link up and flee.
Arron was not a strictly moral man, far from it, in fact. He was a survivor and knew how to read a situation to his benefit. They had been caught in the open while cutting across a clearing that had once held a stone structure. Local records said it had been homestead or hunting lodge, which once proudly stood where the remaining rubble of old stone walls lay. The ruins had once formed a large enough structure to offer shelter for at least fifty people. Arron knew the Lengwood Forest was once a retreat for wealthy nobles in ages past, so he figured this had probably been a hunting lodge for ancient, pampered nobility. The old legends also said Lengwood had been the location of a great battle that wiped an ancient Elven kingdom off the face of Urceon long ago. The battle results allowed the human kingdom of Orlina to be formed on the ashes of the Elves' infrastructure.
Arron was eyeing the remaining stone wall that still stood as a possible fallback point when an earsplitting scream reverberated through the clearing. Turning quickly, he saw Alina bat away one of the lower-level wolves with her shield that had lunged for Alice, who moved to crouch behind Alina. The unfortunate wolf pup was launched back a meter or so, letting out a sharp yelp when it struck the ground, going limp when it hit.
To Arron's surprise, no other wolves moved toward the pair. Looking around, he quickly realized why, "They're toying with us, letting the lower-level pups get a chance at some experience," the thought hit Arron like a hammer, “the Alpha, she is going to let her young get some experience before killing us. Are we so insignificant that she is comfortable letting her weakest offspring use us for practice?” Arron had never fought an elite beast, but he knew from the stories they were much more powerful than regular beasts of the same level. He remembered something about them being born with rare bloodlines or performing some incredible feat at a young age that allowed them to develop special skills others of their kind didn’t have. He had never paid much attention to the stories, always assuming he would be able to run away if he ever encountered one on a hunt. Which is what he planned to do now.
“Fall back to the ruins!” Arron shouted at Alina and Alice as he pulled out his smithing hammer with one hand and a small disk of steel in the other.
Alina took his advice and started backing up slowly with Alice behind her, trying to keep the pack in front of them to avoid the snarling animals flanking them.
Arron was separated from the women by a dozen meters. He had been to the side of the clearing scouting ahead when the Alpha had emerged from the tree line. Despite their separation, they should all arrive simultaneously at the one remaining stone wall if they kept the same pace.
"If we can get to the wall, I can make a metal cage around us or at least create a funnel where they can only come at us one at a time," Arron was starting to see the beginning of the plan in his head as he called out to the women. He would have to conserve his Mana as much as possible until he got to the wall if he wanted to create a cage or barrier. Having done it before he knew he could and that made him confident it would hold against most of the wolves except the Alpha.
The Alpha must have realized something was up because it made a low chuffing sound. All the smaller wolves started harassing Alina and Alice, darting in and out, making feints, trying to create an opening, as well as slowing their progress. As Arron watched, the Alpha started to glow red, indicating it was about to use a skill.
"Run!" Arron screamed, throwing his disk. It sliced clean through the neck of one lower-level wolf, decapitating it. The disk continued its path until it lodged into the side of another wolf. As he ran, the disk tore out of the now-injured wolf and started flying around the clearing with a buzzing sound, slicing at the charging wolves drawing closer. Most of the wolves managed to dodge the disk once they knew what it was and could hear it as it spun through the air. But some weren’t fast enough and took grazing hits that were nothing serious. Still, it was enough to slow the pack's pace, and that’s all Arron was hoping. That is until the Alpha howled, and Arron realized this was an alpha-led pack, and they were not to be trifled with.
‘Bing’ You have heard: Alpha’s Howl. You have been inflicted with Slow: all movement speed reduced by 10% for 600 seconds.
***
A wolf bolstered by its leader's howl ran ahead of the pack, managing to get around Alina, who, with her low mental stats, had been slowed more than Arron by the sound attack. The wolf sidestepped a clumsy sword swing from Alina and latched onto Alice's ankle, eliciting a pained scream from the woman. Alina recovered enough to activate a smooth skill-infused swing as she cut the wolf attacking Alice clean in half, her short sword meeting little resistance from the low-level beast. Unfortunately, her move left her back turned to the pack, and a higher-level wolf leaped onto Alina's back, biting down on her helmet. The grating sound of teeth on steel could be heard across the clearing as the wolf shook its head back and forth, trying to break Alina's neck. The sound was so loud Arron was sure the beast managed to bite clean through the steel of the helmet, but Alina was a warrior and reacted quickly; even with the slow debuff, her reaction speed was nothing to be trifled with. Reaching back, she grabbed the wolf by its ears and, leaning forward, flipped it over her head, slamming it to the ground before swiftly thrusting her sword into its exposed chest, ending its life. She had lost her helmet, and a small trickle of blood was coming from her forehead, but otherwise, seemed okay. Alice must have healed herself because she was already back on her feet and nearly to the ruins when Alina extinguished the second wolf.
Arron intercepted her at the entrance to the ruins and, grabbing her shoulder, shouted, "Get to that back wall and be ready to heal us!" He turned back to the clearing just in time to see a circle of wolves close around Alina, cutting her escape off completely. Arron stomach knotted when he realized all he could do was watch in horror as his only daughter was toyed with and eventually killed by the pack.
***
Alina fought back the tears of frustration when the pack closed the circle around her, "I swear if that stupid healer father insisted on paying for survives, and I don't, I will haunt her forever!" She sheathed her sword and pulled a long dagger out instead. This would be a close-quarter fight, and she opted for speed instead of reach. She also didn't want to risk getting her sword lodged in one of the stronger wolves during the fight, which would cause her to waste precious seconds pulling it out.
Looking at the circle of impending death around her, Alina thought, “I’m going to die here!” The thought filled her with regret, but before she let it take hold, she channeled her Warriors Spirit ability, and her eyes hardened. She was a warrior, after all, and if she was going to die in this place, she was going to take as many of these fuckers with her as she could. If she killed enough, her father might be able to find an opening to save her. Maybe he would find an opportunity to send the stupid healer in to act as a distraction so the two of them could escape, "he won't, though; he will barricade himself in with the healer until the pack eventually leaves the coward that he is. He may act all tough, but when it comes down to it, he will always look out for himself over anyone else," she thought bitterly. Alina knew her father all too well to hope for any form of rescue. He would probably try to help her if he could, but it was more for him to feel better about himself, having 'done all he could' to save her. She was on her own, and she knew it.
A wolf darted in on her left but found only her shield as it was smacked away with the sounds of breaking bones. Another wolf was already lunging at her from her right even as she used her Shield Bash skill on the first. She stabbed the wolf, lunging in from the right in its chest, barely missing its throat when it pivoted to one side, trying to dodge her strike. She spun, yanking the dagger to counter the wolf she sensed lunging at her head from behind, but it had been a feint. She never even saw the high-level wolf dart in, grabbing her left arm in its mouth, biting down with all its might. She felt the punishing pain explode in her mind as the mighty jaws of the wolf bit clean through her armor, flesh, and muscle. The snapping sound of bone breaking as her arm was ripped off was muffled by her blood-curdling scream.
Alina fought through the pain and activated one of her skills, Spin Attack, as she felt her stamina drain precipitously. With her dagger arm outstretched, she spun in a circle several times with magic-infused speed, cutting one lunging wolf's throat and blinding another when the blade raked across its eyes. She fell to her knees as soon as her skill was spent, her stamina exhausted from using two skills so close together. Feeling a healing spell wash over her, stopping the bleeding from her missing arm, she thought, "No, Alice, don't prolong my suffering," and instantly hated herself for thinking it as she continued waving her dagger back and forth in defiance as her vision blurred from stamina exhaustion. “Maybe Father's disk can distract them and open a hole for me to retreat through?" She could barely make out shouts behind her, something about getting up and running, but she couldn’t be sure with the pain from her wound and the exhaustion from staminal drain.
Alina soon realized what the shouts were about. The line of wolves in front of her parted, allowing the Alpha to pass into the circle they had formed around her. Her father's steel disk held in its mouth. The giant red wolf looked at her with disdain. It motioned with its head at several of the smaller wolves, and they approached her cautiously, warily eying the dagger as she waved it.
"I'm not going that easily, you bastards!" She yelled. Alina was determined to take at least two or more of the wolves with her. She focused as best she could on the four approaching wolves spreading out to flank her, growling with their eyes fixed on her as they snarled.
Not surprisingly, the first attack came from her left, as it was her most vulnerable side, with her missing left arm below the shoulder. Alina spun on her knees to intercept the attack with her dagger, but it never came. She was instead met with the sight of the attacking wolf suspended in midair by…nothing. Almost as soon as her mind processed the strange phenomenon of what was happening, the suspended wolf was launched backward, flying meters into the air before it was torn to shreds, blood, and viscera splashing to the ground of the clearing. Then all hell broke loose.
***
Alina pushed herself to her feet but could not move; instead, she stood transfixed as blood began spurting from a dozen wolves around her, tiny holes suddenly appearing in their bodies. Not even the Alpha was spared, a gout of blood spraying from its neck from a hole magically appearing out of nowhere. The Alpha dropped her father's disk and turned, searching for the source of the attacks. Arron must have been waiting for this because the disk began spinning and hovering around her before it was time to strike the ground. Alina could now clearly hear her father screaming for her to run, but she couldn't move. The absolute carnage she witnessed kept her rooted in place for fear the unseen attacker would mistake her for a target. As she watched, two higher-level wolves were cleanly bisected by a gore-covered disk much like her father's but larger. It was made briefly visible when it exited the two wolves before disappearing, letting the gore and blood covering it fall to the ground.
"What is happening?" Alina wondered aloud. The wolves had completely forgotten her in their panic to flee the whirlwind of death all around them. Alina struggled to stay conscious; her stamina was empty, and even standing took its toll on her strength. Her health bar was flashing, and struggling to her feet had made her dizzy. The hope and horror she felt as she watched what was happening pushed her pain-addled mind past its limits.
Falling back to her knees, Alina caught a glimpse of a mostly naked woman with short purple hair and glowing purple eyes sprinting out of the tree line, running directly at the Alpha. She held a purple dagger in each hand, the blades glowing in a way that almost matched her eyes. The woman had a manic grin as she drew closer to the Alpha. The pack leader turned to meet the insane woman with a deep, resonating growl, sending shivers of fear through Alina. The purple-haired woman didn't even flinch as she closed the final few meters at a dead sprint. Her grin was growing wider. The elite monster dug deep furrows in the soil when it pushed off the ground, lunging toward the woman with lightning speed, its jaws open wide, intent on snapping her in half.
The woman went into a slide once the Alpha leaped. Dodging the jaws that snapped shut just centimeters from her head, her momentum brought her under the lunging creature. She thrust both daggers into the wolf's belly as she slid.
Alina fainted.