The air in the cabin was frigid. Even with her thick coat of fur, Elise was shivering. That wasn’t supposed to be happening. The cabin had no climate control, so getting colder at night was normal, but as far as she could tell, it was spring, and the days were getting longer. Even an unusually cold night wouldn’t be this drastic.

There was ice forming on the edges of the window, and her breath was fogging up the air. Thankfully, she wasn’t alone. Sophie and Bianca were still in the bed, fast asleep, but clinging tightly to each other for warmth. Still, she needed to do something.

The normal sounds of the night were gone. There were no crickets chirping, no owls hooting, no small rodents rooting through the brush, and no wind rustling the leaves in the distance. The only sounds she could hear were the breaths of the ones in the house, and the breathing of something else outside.

She jumped up on the bed, landing on Sophie, hoping to wake her up. This didn’t work. Sophie was a deep sleeper, and she had gone to bed late. She tried Bianca instead, and had better luck. The young woman opened her bleary gray eyes and for a few seconds just stared at Elise. A few seconds later, she seemed to realize that something was wrong, and opened her mouth, but Elise put her paws on her lips. Whatever was outside hadn’t tried to get in yet. She didn’t want to make too much noise.

Bianca’s eyes widened in surprise, but she understood Elise’s meaning, thankfully. Elise hopped off the bed, landing as softly as she could and then put her paw on the door. If they weren’t awake already, she needed to warn Corwin and Sylvanna. Bianca sat up, and started shaking Sophie awake. Sophie moaned and mumbled something, but when Bianca clamped her hand down on her mouth, she gasped and started struggling.

It took longer for her to catch on to the situation, but not by much. Whatever was waiting outside, and probably causing the cold, hadn’t made any moves yet. It was still standing in place, somewhere to the north, taking long, deep breaths.

Once out of the room, they split up. Bianca went into Nick’s room, and Sophie went to her parents’ room. Five minutes later, the six of them were huddled in the hallway, clutching weapons and frantically making hand signs at each other. The thing outside still had yet to move.

Elise was beginning to think that maybe it was benign. Maybe something powerful had just stopped by out of curiosity and would be on its way soon. As long as they didn’t draw too much attention to themselves, it might lose interest and go away. She should have known better.

It took a step forward, and then another, and then another, until it was right by the back door. Based on its strides, Elise could tell it was massive. Hopefully too big to fit in the house. But then again, if it was strong enough to freeze an entire area just with its presence, a few logs weren’t going to stop it if it really wanted to get in.

Elise hopped up and down in the center of the group to get their attention, since they didn’t seem to have heard it moving. She tried to point toward the door at the end of the hallway that the monster was standing outside of, but being a rabbit, pointing wasn’t the easiest. It took a few seconds to get them all to look where she wanted, and by then, it didn’t matter. There was a burst of mana, followed by a high-pitched yelp, and the monster jumped back. Then, it howled.

Elise’s blood ran cold as she realized what it was. It was the {Greater Frost Direwolf} that had tried to dig her out of her burrow. And if it was willing to tear apart a hill to get at a single rabbit, there was no chance it would just give up when there were 5 humans and elves, and that very same rabbit waiting for it inside.

“____!” said Sylvanna, giving up on silence. “We can’t fight that.”

“Is it that _____?” asked Nick.

“Sixth _______. At least.”

Everyone’s faces grew pale.

“Nick,” said Corwin, pulling something from the pocket of his nightclothes. “I need you to take your Bianca and your sister and leave.”

“Leave? But h-?” He stopped when he saw what his father was handing him. “Where did you get this?”

Nick looked down at the scroll in Corwin’s hand, but made no move to grab it.

“I bought it from a _______. It can take 3. It was the best I could afford.”

“Dad, no. I’ll stay. You and-”

He was cut off when there was another burst of mana, and the wolf yelped again.

“Take it,” said Corwin.

“Daddy, what’s going on?” asked Sophie. “W-what is that? What’s-?”

“Shhhhh,” said Sylvanna, hugging her. “It’ll be alright. Nicholas, listen to your father. Take Bianca and Sophie and leave.”

“No, Mom, you go. I’ll stay. I’m strong. I can fight.”

“Not against that you can’t. Go.”

“Mommy, what’s going on?”

“Mom, just go. I’ll stay.”

“Do you know what the worst pain a parent can experience is? Do you want to put me through that?”

“At least you’ll be alive to feel it!”

There was a crash and the entire cabin shook as it discharged more mana than Elise thought was possible to gather in one place. The wolf yelped again, but hardly faltered, and seconds later, it was pacing around the side of the house.

“Mommy are we going to die?”

“No, sweetie. We’re not.”

“But you said-!”

“Ignore what I said. Just go over there with your brother. He’ll take you to safety.”

“But what about you?”

“I’ll be fine.”

“I don’t wanna go!”

“Nicholas!” said Corwin. “Take them and go! Stop wasting time!”

Nick hesitated for a moment more, then grabbed the scroll with one hand and Sophie’s arm with the other.

“No!” shouted Sophie. “I don’t wanna! Mommy, I don’t wanna go!”

Sylvanna bit her lip as a tear rolled down her cheek, but she pushed Sophie away and into Nick’s arms. Sophie struggled, but she was no match for her brother’s strength.

“Bianca,” said Nick. “grab my arm.”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“O-okay,” she said. “But what about-?”

“We’ll be fine,” said Corwin. “Go, before it’s too late.”

“Go,” said Sylvanna.

“What about Elise?” asked Sophie.

Corwin grabbed Elise by the scruff of her neck and placed her in Sophie’s arms.

“Take her with you. And go! Get out of here!”

“Mom. Dad,” said Nick, his face steely with resolve. “I love you.”

“We love you too,” said Sylvanna.

“No!” shouted Sophie, but it was too late.

Nick unrolled the scroll with one hand and bit down on it, tearing it in half. Mana swirled around each of them, turning Elise’s vision white as it accelerated. Then, it stopped, and Elise felt her feet hit wood. She was still in the cabin. Corwin was surprised, but Sylvanna gave her a look of knowing pity before turning away.

Just then, there was one final crash and the cabin’s defenses failed. The living room wall caved in and splinters and logs flew past the hallway and the wolf gave a triumphant howl before plodding toward where they were.

Corwin and Sylvanna had not been idle during those few seconds. Corwin was holding an axe, but beneath his feet, he was channeling mana into the wood below, and Sylvanna doing a violent dance that was creating a fireball above her head.

As soon as the wolf rounded the corner, the floorboards warped and wrapped around its legs and the fireball crashed into its snout. When the smoke cleared, it was undamaged, and when it took its next step, the wooden restraints barely slowed it at all.

It was so tall its back was almost brushing against the ceiling, and its jaws were big enough to bite even a man as big as Corwin in half. Beneath its feet, frost spread with every step, and snowflakes drifted around it as it froze the moisture in the nearby air.

[Winter Warg, lvl ???]

[{Inspect} has leveled up. Lvl 19 -> 25]

It locked eyes with her, and its lips curled up in a snarl that looked like a cruel smile. Elise’s panicked brain went into overdrive. Why was it there? Was it drawn to her? Her Charisma was high, but it wasn’t that high. She was still at a low level. And it hadn’t even seen her. There was no way. Was it just by chance that it was there now?

Corwin and Sylvanna’s next round of attacks crashed into it, just as effective as the first, and they readied a third, but the warg was tired of just taking it. It growled, and icicles the size of small trees formed at its shoulders and shot forward. It was so fast that Elise barely had time to react. The other two were a bit faster, but not quite enough. Sylvanna had a long gash across her side, where one brushed past, and Corwin’s left arm was dangling at his side, his shoulder almost completely obliterated.

“S-Sylvie,” he gasped. “I love you.”

He charged forward, swinging his ax with his one remaining arm. He never made it to his target. He dodged the first icicle, but the second hit him square in the chest, and exited through his spine. He fell to the ground and lay unmoving.

Sylvanna screamed his name, and prepared to make a final charge of her own, but before she could even start, another icicle went through her eye, and she too fell, almost landing on Elise.

The shock of seeing death for the first time horrified Elise, but at the same time, it broke her from her paralysis. She needed to escape. But how? It just killed Sylvanna and Corwin. They were dead. They couldn’t even fight back. The warg was so much stronger than her, she didn’t stand a chance. But then why wasn’t it attacking? After killing the others, it just stood still, staring her down, as if waiting for her to make a move.

Was it wary, or just playing with her? Its lips curled up and it made a soft snarl that sounded almost more like a purr. It was definitely playing with her. Why didn’t it play with them? They could have lived longer. They might even have been able to escape. It didn’t matter anymore. They were dead, but Elise was still alive. She could still get away.

She racked her brain trying to think of a solution, and in that short time, there was only one thing she could think of. Her other offensive spell that she had barely gotten to use, {Suggest}, was her only hope.

She had practiced it for a little while in the woods on one of her days out. She wouldn’t call herself proficient with it, but she at least had a solid understanding of what it could and couldn’t do. {Suggest} essentially planted an idea in the subconscious of the target’s mind. Since it was in the subconscious, that meant she couldn’t directly force her target to do anything, and if she suggested something too outlandish, it would just dismiss it as an intrusive thought. However, if she suggested it do something that it already might want to do, there was a much higher chance of it working.

She activated her skill, and focused on the wolf.

Give the weak rabbit a head start, she thought.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then, the wolf turned around and walked away. It didn’t go far– it stopped just around the corner– but it was enough. Elise had a lane to get out of the house. She hopped to the destroyed living room, trying not to look at the corpses, took a deep breath, then stepped outside.

The warg’s idea of a “head start” needed some work. It pounced almost as soon as she stepped outside. It was only because she could hear it waiting for her that she was able to use {Dart} to get out of the way. From there, the chase was on.

It was much faster than her, but it was also too big to maneuver through forest well, and with well-timed uses of {Dart} and {Leap}, Elise was able to stay just ahead of its snapping jaws. She had never been more thankful to be a rabbit. If she hadn’t been able to see behind her so well, she would have certainly mistimed it.

She fled deeper and deeper into the forest, looking for anything that could help her. Trees wouldn’t slow it down enough. It had already knocked two over chasing her and it wasn’t hurt at all. She needed a cave or something similar where it couldn’t follow her.

Behind her, the warg took a mighty leap and its jaws closed around the air where she had just been before using {Dart}. The skill had leveled twice already since they started, and her legs were screaming in agony, but she couldn’t stop. She looked around during her brief reprieve while her pursuer recovered its footing, and saw something that gave her a glimmer of hope. There was a bush with a small, oddly round hole, going through its center. New leaves were growing in from the edges, but it was still obvious that the hole wasn’t natural. Elise made a sharp left toward it, and saw a second bush a bit further off with the same kind of hole.

Let it run itself to death, she thought back to the warg.

She wasn’t sure if it was placebo or if it had actually worked, but she did feel that it was easier to evade after that.

She followed the trail of bushes with holes and fresh grass as it went on, and was rewarded with exactly what she was hoping to find. The trees grew sparser, and the ground sloped up. She was nearing the cliff.

She did have a plan for once she got there. It was an insane plan, but she couldn’t keep running forever, so it was her only option. The wolf wasn’t as dumb as a slime, so it wouldn’t be as easy, but she wasn’t as helpless as she was at level one. She had more tools at her disposal now.

She reached the end of the treeline with the wolf hot on her heels, and used {Suggest} once more.

It’s getting away! she thought.

That one definitely worked. The wolf snarled and accelerated toward her. Perfect.

She enacted the second part of her plan: jumping off the cliff. She paused for just a split second at the edge, then used {Dart} to go straight out off the edge. The warg pounced after her, not taking any time to look where it was going. It didn’t realize its mistake until it saw Elise suddenly pulled downward and back toward the cliff. Its eyes widened in surprise, but it had no way to turn around midair.

Elise reeled herself in using the {Prehensile Vines} she had cast just before jumping, and just as she made it back to solid ground, there was a heavy thud far below, and a loud yelp of pain from the wolf. But there was no System message. It was still alive, and no doubt very angry. Hopefully, it would be too injured to do anything for the time being.

Elise didn’t stick around to find out. She turned around and made a beeline back through the woods. It looked different at night, but she recognized this area, and soon, she managed to locate what she was looking for. It was her first burrow, where she had first encountered the monster, back when it was still just a Direwolf.

The wolf had done a number on the outside, and there was nothing left of the original burrow, but the dirt was still loose, and it didn’t take her long to find her way back to the Wyrm’s tunnel. Once inside, she finally took time to stop and breath and relax her overworked leg muscles. She kept her ears open, but just as she suspected, nothing had moved into the Wyrm’s old haunts. As far as she could tell, the only two entrances were the ones she had dug herself, and one was near the cabin and the other near the warg’s territory, so it was unlikely anything would be poking around too much.

[You have survived an encounter with, and inflicted a wound on an attacker whose level far exceeded your own. Lvl 4 -> 14]

With the arrival of the System message came the departure of her adrenaline, and the reality of her situation crashed down on her. Sylvanna took an icicle to the head. Corwin had a hole through him big enough to see to the other side. They were dead. Completely, unquestionably, helplessly dead.

And Elise couldn’t do a thing to stop it.

She curled up into a ball and cried herself to sleep.