George got the report back from the eagle and began preparations.
There were ten wolves, which meant that the party was outnumbered, and if the wolves did, in fact, possess magic like Dan believed, then Goerge might lose some monsters. However, Dan still had hope, as George had a plan in mind.
The wolves were walking toward George and the ape had stopped his party. They had stopped amidst the trees, which would give them some cover in case the enemy had range attacks. Additionally, George placed his group in the same way the other two teams had positioned themselves. The bear and gorilla were up front, with the two baboons on top of the gorilla. Meanwhile, the jaguar was told to climb a tree and wait for George to act before jumping down. However, unlike the other two teams and surprising Dan, George instructed the doe to back off far enough that the incoming wolves couldn’t spot it. Naturally, the stag immediately followed the doe, but another command from George caused the stag to stop in its tracks.
That command, of course, enraged the stag as its role model; Fur always followed Fir. However, Dan had never given any specific instructions for the doe’s and stags to be inseparable. The only reason no one had done so yet was that they mimicked Dan’s commands. However, George was a strategist at heart, and clearly, he knew that there wasn’t such a rule. His team was his to command, and unless a boss-level monster told him otherwise, he would make sure the monsters did as they were told. The stag had even wanted to complain as it snorted, but a simple look from George was all it took to rein in the poor guy.
From what Dan could gather, the plan seemed to be for the gorilla, bear, stag, and baboons to be the contact force while George and the jaguar would be the surprise. The monster group waited in their spot until the eagle finally screeched, alerting them of the incoming wolves.
The greenish-dark brown wolves quickly spotted the team waiting for them. Dan honestly expected the wolves to charge instantly, but the head wolf seemed to be in charge and was looking around. Apparently, that had also been part of George’s plan as the two baboons began picking up rocks and throwing them at the wolf. The stones just bounced off, barely doing anything, but the beast was clearly annoyed and began to slowly approach Dan’s beasts as the baboons hollered.
Oddly enough, the pack of ten stopped around 30 feet in front of his beasts, and then they began to howl in unison as their eyes glowed a brighter green. The sound of their howl seemed to bring nature to life, causing the branches and shrubs to move with unseen wind. However, the most unexpected thing occurred when his beasts started to sway, becoming befuddled. Another surprising thing was that the howl didn’t just stop after a bit but kept going, keeping his beasts and the forest in their current state.
It was at that point that Dan figured George would strike, but he was completely wrong, and the gorilla just watched the happenings from up high. The jaguar and eagle also watched as they waited for George to act.
Sadly, the first to act were the wolves, as half of them stopped howling and began approaching Dan’s befuddled beasts. And Dan had to admit that was one hell of a tactic. They could render their opponents useless with their howls, and after a while, the effect gained enough strength that half of the pack could break off and kill the enemy while the rest kept the effect active.
Thankfully, the wolves were only half away to his beasts before George struck the overconfident idiots who thought they had everything under control.
Well, the rock struck first as the thing was hurled with such strength that it crushed the unsuspecting lead wolf's head. Then, before the rest could react, George dropped down, squishing one of the howling wolves and killing it. Of course, soon after that, the jaguar jumped, unleashing its metal slashes, cutting and biting another howling wolf's head off. Finally, with three wolves down, the eagle struck as it flew under yet another unsuspecting howling wolf, unleashing its Wind Slash right at its throat, also basically decapitating the animal. With four wolves down, the rest finally noticed as their howling stopped while the ones that had been moving forward turned back to look at the commotion.
The problem was that the rest of George’s team was still under the wolves effect, which left them outnumbered. Even so, George quickly rushed a nearby wolf who stood its ground and received a smash-empowered fist, blowing its head off. That set the whole thing off as the rest of the wolves rushed towards the gorilla and jaguar. One quickly tumbled onto the ground as it wrestled the jaguar. The other four, however, jumped George as they bit into the gorilla while it tried to strike at them. Things were looking rough, and Dan believed George and the party would die, at least until the doe appeared with its cleansing aura.
The aura took a few seconds to dispel the howls effects, but soon enough, the rest of the party was back to their senses, and they quickly got into the fight.
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First up was the bear and gorilla, who slammed into the four wolves attacking George, sending all of them tumbling. Next were the baboons, who also began to tumble with the jaguar and wolf, who quickly separated.
The first wolf fell as a spike emerged from the ground and pierced its belly. Afterward, George and the other gorilla held off two as the bear grabbed its wolf with its front paws, giving it a bear hug. The hug became a smash as the bear activated its Earth Slam and splattered the wolf against the ground. As that was happening, the wolf that was having the stand-off with the jaguar figured out he was going to die if he stayed and decided to bolt. That shocked Dan, as he believed these invaders were the ones to fight to the death, but apparently not. After that, yet another insane thing happened as the two remaining wolves submitted and Dan got a notification.
🔷 Crystal Notice 🔷
Notice! Two Howling Wood Wolves wish to serve you. Would you like to place the two wolves under your control via your Dungeon God ability and make them a part of your creations?
Yes or No
🔷
Well, that was a first, and Dan quickly accepted. Then he felt as the connection between him and the wolves was created, and they became part of his monster force. The first thing Dan did after recovering from the shock was check the stat blocks of his new monsters.
🔷 Crystal Notice 🔷
🔷 Monster Statblock 🔷
Name: Howling Wood Wolf.
Rank: Common.
Type: Beast-Nature Elemental.
Size: Medium.
Hierarchy: Minion.
Mind: Intelligent.
Arcane Mana: 25/25.
Arcane Mana Regen: +1 (0 Outside of Dungeon)
Pure Arcane Mana: Locked.
Pure Arcane Mana Conversion: Locked.
Order Mana: Locked.
Abilities: 0.
Innate Abilities: 5.
Keen Hearing. Keen Smell. Night Vision. Stealth. Befuddling Howl. Forest Friend. Mental Resistance.
Respawn Timer: 1 Hour (2 Hours if Death is Outside Dungeon.)
Respawn Cost: 11 Mana (22 if Death is Outside Dungeon.)
Original Creation Cost: 11.
🔷
Looking at the wolf's abilities, they were self-explanatory, well, except for Forest Friend. That ability, however, was still relatively straightforward and gave the wolves a small boost to their abilities while they were within a forest. Dan figured it was the reason why the forest felt like it was alive when they howled. The best thing about the wolf however was the fact that since Dan hadn’t made it all its abilities were considered innate which made the monster stronger without needing as much mana. That was the big difference between getting a creatures blue print and Dan making it himself.
After inspecting the wolves, Dan instructed his teams and new members to return to camp. He then looked back at George and asked for an explanation about his incredibly good plan.
It turns out it wasn’t all planned, making Dan feel much better. George explained that he knew they were outnumbered due to the eagle’s scouting. So, he had planned a basic ambush. He had wanted the wolves to engage the team that was making the last stand. He knew the team was well-suited to survive for a while. Then, when the wolves had engaged the team, he and the jaguar, though mainly him, were going to flank.
George knew he could take out at least three wolves with his rock, fall, and smash with the jaguar, taking another one out. From there, they would engage the melee and try to come out alive by having the doe join at the last minute for some heals.
In truth, it had been struck of good luck that the wolves had those specific abilities, and if they had-had more melee-suited capabilities, then the entire team could have died. George also thought it had been stupid that the wolves just stayed still, which let them take out one additional wolf than they had expected via the eagle’s well-placed slash. Then things had gotten even better as the wolves had disengaged the last stand party allowing the doe’s quick thinking to cleanse them from the debuff. Of course, from there, the fight had played out rather well as they gained the upper hand through teamwork and good ability usage.
After hearing the explanation, Dan was even more proud of his animals. They clearly knew how to work together well, and that was not even mentioning their apparent abilities to improvise and react. Dan was also pleased, as he now had 568 mana to play with and could probably finish creating the beasts for his new teams.
However, before doing so, he went to look at some of his abilities. He knew that he needed to gain control of all the monsters in the zone, which would then make them his. The issue was that that transition involved the World Crystal and was just for the monsters inside the zone.
What confused him was that the wolves were not from the zone. Which meant he had something that let him form contracts with other creatures. He had definitely missed something, as he wasn’t perfect and could miss information regardless of how amazing his dungeon mind ability was. After all, the ability lets him process information, but it doesn’t mean he can pay attention to everything, everywhere at once. Effectively, his Dungeon Sense was a radar, and his Dungeon Mind was the computer that processed and stored the information. He was the user who had access to all of it, a rather well integrated user but a user nonetheless.