Chapter 65

The trees closest to them shuddered as the group spun on their heels and ran toward Pura’s wall.

“What are we running from?” Hert said from behind Leon and Red. Trouble ran in front, having refused the inventory.

“That,” Leon said, “is the wolf king.”

Hert increased his speed and started panting harder. “You sure?”

“Yes!” Red said, glancing over her shoulder. Her foot caught a root, and she fell. “Shit!”

She scrambled up on her feet with the help of Hert’s outstretched hand. The tree crowns rustled, and close by, a tree splintered.

“It’s caught our scent,” Leon said. “How far are we from the barrier?”

“The barrier actually exists?” Hert asked.

“I think we’re midway through the Slums,” Red huffed. “It will take a while.”

“So what is it doing here?” Leon said. “It got created much further away.”

He looked into the crowns, following the movement of disturbed nature. The beast was closing in.

“Does it matter?” Red asked. “Do you think you could trap it again?”

“That was luck. These trees are full of vines, but they don’t seem to stop it. Not up there, anyway.”

Red glanced up. “What if we climb a tree?”

“You mean like the ones it’s ripping apart?” Hert asked. “Even if we found a big one, I don’t think I’d come up it.”

An idea popped into Leon’s head, and he almost discarded it. It would involve him doing something stupid again. Something really stupid. But it would allow Red, Hert and Trouble some more time to get out.

He stopped short, and the others followed suit.

“Trouble, come here,” Leon said. He met her halfway. “Now, listen very closely. This is really important.” He didn’t wait for a reaction. “Stay with Hert and Red. They’ll lead you away from here, and I’ll catch up as soon as I can.”

“What are you going to do?” Hert asked.

“Go!” Leon turned around and ran toward the sound.

He glanced back to see his group, with Trouble, further down the path along the wall. He scanned his surroundings, looking at the trees around him. He picked one out and started climbing, ignoring the insects that fell or were crushed where he placed his hands and feet.

A tree rustled, and Leon increased his efforts. He reached a branch just as the king came running into view. It stopped a couple of feet away.

As before, the massive wolf stood on two legs. It lifted its snout and sniffed the air. With something akin to a grin, it approached Leon’s tree, the paws creating in deep tracks in the soft moss beneath it. It flung its arms up and clawed at the bark, shaking the trunk. Had it been a few feet taller, its head would have reached Leon.

Leon climbed until he got hold of a vine. The tree emitted a crack underneath him, the vine snapped, and Leon clung onto it as it swung him over the beast’s head. The other vines holding it up broke above him, sending him plummeting toward the wolf’s chest. Shrieks sounded above him. A quick glance showed a blur of bats flapping their wings, then dropping to fly directly at him.

Leon smacked into the king’s furry stomach and dropped the vine. He landed on his back on the moss below.

The bats flew into the beast, clawing at it as Leon scrambled to get up on his feet. The creatures, finding Leon wasn’t there anymore, stomped off from the king and came toward him in a flurry of wings.

Leon had hoped to ensnare the king, but had instead woken five more enemies, all level eight bats. Level eight?

He covered his head and neck with his arms and sprinted toward the wolf, which in moved away from the falling tree Leon had been in. It swooped its arms toward him, trying to catch him in a bearhug.

Leon dove between its legs and landed on stones on the other side. He swore. The king’s tail swooped over him, barely missing his head. A high-pitched sound echoed through the area as the king hit one of the bats that had tried to follow Leon under the body. It smacked into a tree, fell to the ground with a wet noise, and shook its mouse-like head. The others swarmed around the wolf, trying to pass it to get at Leon. The wolf stomped around to stare down at him and readied itself for another strike.

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Leon scrambled up on his feet and drew his weapons. His plan had only made things worse.

The initial idea had been to get the wolf king to attack the vines above, hoping it would get stuck in too many of them. Leon had thought that the worst-case scenario would be that he’d fall to the ground and the wolf would be distracted for a bit. He never imagined swinging from it, awakening multiple high-level bats. Why were they level eight in the first place? This was the tutorial forest.

He ran between two trees and racked his brain for ideas, trying to avoid any more stupid ones. A gush of air passed his ear, and he ducked. The bat’s clawed feet barely missed his neck.

The king roared behind him and stomped after Leon into the forest. Leon swore to himself. This was bad. Really, really bad. He increased his speed as much as he dared with the slippery ground.

Something hard hit his back, sending him flying forward and landing on the path through the forest. “Ouf!”

The offending bat flapped its wings twice, then dove for him. He rolled to the side, but the other four were already launching their attacks. With his mind standing still, he repeated his skills in his mind. He had to have something that let him come out of this alive.

Leon stumbled up on his feet, but got pummeled face-first into the ground again with more force than before. Two bats ripped at his hair and neck, and he rolled around, forcing them to let go. He turned and tried to get up again, but before he could, a paw came at him, hitting the side of his stomach. The impact of the king’s attack sent him into a nearby tree, and his weapons fell onto the ground. Leon gasped for air. He had about half of his health left, and he didn’t have many options. He held his hand over the lower part of his ribcage, staring at the weapons laying a few feet away.

Three bats darted toward him, and Leon dove for the sword. The bats flapped frantically to stop just before hitting the tree trunk and halted their movement for a few seconds. The wolf king swung again.

“Activate curl-up, block!” a voice shouted behind him. A metal clang sung out, and the sound of dirt spraying came toward him.

Leon took the sword, stumbled up on his feet and spun around. “Hert! Thanks!”

“Stupid, thinking we’d leave you here,” Hert said over his shoulder. The attack, though blocked, had forced Hert’s feet back and had left two lines of scraped dirt on the path. He still held his shield at the ready.

As the wolf moved his arm back for his next attack, a melody sang out.

“Lullaby!” a slight wave rippled through the air as Red played, and the bats and wolf king seemed to slow. Still, the bats kept a respectable speed, and came straight toward Hert and Leon.

Three flew into his shield, while two flew past it to Leon. They aimed for his head, but he ducked just in time. Through the trees came Trouble at an unbelievable speed. She aimed for the bats who laid dazed on the ground from slamming into Hert, and she bit down on them. With some effort, she killed one and ripped one bat’s wing clean off.

“Trouble, duck!” Leon called, and she did.

The wolf’s paw struck Hert’s shield again, pushing him even further back. Leon sprang to the side to avoid a collision with the tank. He grabbed the dagger from the forest floor and turned to face the beast. Trouble sat ducked between the king’s legs. Before anyone had time to react, she launched at the wolf’s leg and bit into its calf.

The wolf roared and swung a paw at her. She was too far back on the leg for it to do something to her, and the wolf bent over even further.

“Rockstar!” Red shouted. She came from nowhere and swung her lute at the back of the king’s other leg. The king roared and stomped around on the ground. Red jumped back, but Trouble’s bite held firm.

Leon ran forward, finishing off the bat with the missing wing. The three remaining bats had shifted their focus and dove toward Red and Trouble, only to stop mid-air to avoid another attack from the wolf king.

Another very stupid idea popped into Leon’s head. “Hert, kneel and raise your shield over your head!”

Without hesitation, Hert did as he asked. Leon ran past him, turned around, and sprinted toward the wolf. He jumped onto the shield and toward the king’s bent neck, swinging his sword and dagger down. In a stroke of luck, they lodged into the wolf’s muscles, leaving Leon hanging over its snout. The king snapped its head back, and Leon found himself sitting over its muzzle. Then it roared.

Leon squeezed his eyes shut, wishing he could shield his ears. The monster flung its head down, and Leon lost the grip around his weapons. He fell to the ground with a grunt. He sat up, dazed, and saw his rabbit, Hert, and Red pummel the creature’s legs with what they had at their disposal. Teeth, lute, and hammer. At another time, it would have looked comical. This wasn’t the behemoth from the tower, so hopefully, it would be enough to take it down soon.

Leon got to his feet as the wolf clawed at its neck, trying to get the weapons out. “Hert, bats!”

Hert looked up and lifted his shield, swatting at the bats who’d taken the chance to attack while the wolf was busy with its wounds. He hit one, but two flew past him, straight at Trouble. She gnawed away at the wolf’s leg and didn’t see them coming.

“Trouble! Watch out!” Leon sprinted forward, grabbed the bat from the ground and squeezed its neck as hard as he could on his way to his rabbit. The bones crunched under his fingers, but the wings kept on flapping. The bats dug their claws into her neck and started pulling on her. With a sound of ripping flesh, Trouble’s teeth opened a gash in the wolf’s leg, and blood sprayed onto the ground. With no more resistance, the bats started lifting the rabbit into the air. She emitted a high-pitched whining sound and thrashed with her head and legs, trying to get loose.

The king roared and spun around, pushing Hert to the ground, and making Leon dodge to the side.

“Rock star!” Red shouted. She swung her lute as hard as she could against one of the bats, hitting a wing. They lost some height. A paw struck her side and flung her into a nearby tree. Leaves fell around her as the bats plummeted with Trouble to the ground, one having a broken wing.

A fire arrow pierced the other bat, and something invisible slashed into the wolf, leaving a long gash in its arm.

Leon rushed toward Trouble together with Hert as a fire ball flew into the king. The smell of zinged fur spread in the area, and a gush of wind passed Leon and hit the king’s back. A spray of solid rocks sharp as daggers followed, and a huge rock sprouted from the ground toward Leon, Hert and Trouble.

A fire arrow hit the bat that still held the rabbit, and it fell immediately. Another gust of wind sliced through the air. The wolf king’s roar cut short.

Leon felt Trouble over as the rock wall behind them disintegrated, and he looked up at the three figures approaching them.

“Hey, we were looking for that,” one of them said, bouncing a fireball in his hand. A pile of pixels formed on the ground.