I sent my focus over to the entrance, to see who would ruin this perfect moment of togetherness, only to find one of the strangest creatures I had seen to date. There were three of the creatures, one larger one followed by two smaller ones. They stood at about 2 feet tall and about 3½ feet long. Their body looked close to a squirrels, but it had the head of a hare. It also had a small pair of antlers and two oversized fangs coming from its mouth. Its front legs belonged to the squirrel but its back legs were those of a bird. It even had wings that were as large as its body, which meant the wingspan was probably twice the length of said body.

They came in cautiously, their heads swiveling around as they spread out in a triangle formation. They did not come in deep, only about a quarter of the way. Never was I more thankful that I had moved my core, as I have no doubt if I had still been there, they may have reached me before my creatures could. I wanted to send my creatures in, but decided to check the description first to see if there was any info I could gain from it.

Wolpertinger Chimera

This creature is the amalgamation of several species into one. Though Chimera were not a native species, the fall of a dungeon long in the past has allowed them to roam into the world. Chimera have a base form that evolve as they either mate or eat new creatures, allowing them to evolve and gain the traits of said creatures. The Wolpertinger is a chimera who has reached the limit to its evolutionary line and can no longer gain new traits. They have settled in the alpine reaches of the world and are known for being voracious hunters of all creatures, unfearful of size or power they may hold. Their appearance is a trait of evolving for an unharmful and soft appearance to hide their more viscous side. Because they have taken these traits, they are known for hunting in larger groups, sending scouting parties to search for hunting grounds.

Tough – Uncommon

Chances to evolve - none

Well it would seem these creatures needed to be killed completely. The thought of them possibly getting back to whatever den they had was terrifying. A stray thought of letting it happen so that I could get more experience did cross my mind, but the possible consequences weren’t worth it. The status said they lived in groups much like the animals they took the form of. While some rabbits did would only live in pairs, other species could form groups of 30 in the same warren. Same goes for squirrels and birds, ranging from solitary to larger groups depending on territory and weather. Not only that, these Wolpertingers were nearly of the same size as my Lesser Kobolds, so having a large hunting party on my doorstep was extremely unsettling. Adding onto that, they had Tough mana cores, meaning they also outclassed every single one of my creatures.

The fight with the Tatzelwurms showed that a core level wasn’t the deciding factor in a fight, but we outnumbered them by quite a bit. If a scouting party had 3 Wolpertingers, what would a hunting party hold? Either way, I could not let them just barge into my cave and try and claim it as new territory.

All this time my creatures had known something was up, as they had felt the shift in my focus and emotions. So I decided to let them know about the threats in our cave. Their reactions were a complete 180 on their current attitude. From loving, caring creatures full of warmth, to angry, ready to fight monster ready to defend their home. Seeing how I wanted no chance of letting them get away, I decided to send nearly everyone to fight. We weren’t weak, but they had already shown that they could work and fight together better and there was no reason not to do the same here.

I kept a pair of guardians, a few bats, and 2 Lesser Kobolds back as a guard for a just in case predicament. The rest followed my Alpha into battle forms, splitting into a few groups in order to fight effectively. They formed 3 groups, each led by the mains from my three battling species. My Alpha had 2 more Kobold, 1 pair of the Guardians, and 2 bats. My female and male bat led another 4 bats and 3 Kobolds. And my Ice guardian and her male led the last 4 bats and 2 Kobolds.

Using the information I had given them, my alpha planned on taking the largest of the 3 Wolpertinger, while my bats took one of the smaller ones and tried to cover the exit. Finally my Guardian was to take on the last of the Wolpertinger and then assist as needed.

Watching them hatch out their plan based on the info I gave them, I could feel our chances were high. Either way though I had no plans on letting anything happen to them if I could, so I created some of the Forget-Me-Nots in the alcove I was staying, so that my back guard could prepare some salves and healing items. I also let the 3 leaders know that if they were able to lead the Wolpertinger toward some stalactites I may be able to drop it on their foe.

I still hadn’t gotten around to making traps of my own, but the frequent events had taken it off my mind. I also kept some spare mana aside, in order to possibly make more creatures if demanded. Already I was thinking on how I could use some of those creepers near the cave holes that led deeper into my dungeon as active traps , now that I had the mana from my recent level ups. In fact I looked to see if it was possible to make one near the crack entrance, so that when the Wolpertinger were distracted, if one tried to get away it stopped them. I could feel the pull on my mana, telling me it was possible to add creatures while I had invaders inside. It seemed to be a broken ability, but maybe there were restrictions I did not know about, that didn’t come into effect here.

Either way, the three teams had made it into position. The Alpha and Guardian team were at the east hole from the middle cavern, while the Foxen team went to the south cavern hole to come in from there. The Wolpertinger hadn’t been just sitting there this whole time, but hunting some of the smaller creatures and mice from my first cavern. They hadn’t let down their guard either, no doubt hearing the movement from my creatures in the deeper caves.

So when the Guardian and Alpha team came racing out of the eastern hole, they had all turned to face them, ready for the fight. The larger Wolpertinger and one of the smaller ones joined up in front, while the smallest made its way towards the northern crack. That stopped when it noticed the Foxen bat team come from around one of the stalagmites, nearly blocking its chance to escape. I didn’t want them to think it was impossible for them to escape, as then they would probably fight more fiercely since they were cornered. It seemed my Foxen female had caught that line of thought and agreed, so she made it seem that they were there to fight, but not stop any escape.

The distraction they made gave me some time to create a crawler at the entrance, in order to snag the small Wolpertinger if it did actually make it to the entrance. The crawler didn’t have a lot of power itself, and since it was an unintelligible plant, it behaved more like a drone would. That meant it would only attack if I told it to, making it the perfect backup trap to stop things from escaping if I needed it to.

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I watched as the alpha and Guardian team came to a stop in front of the Wolpertinger, splitting slightly to either side. The two Wolpertingers also split slightly, the larger one taking Alphas side in with a wary eye. I didn’t know if the Wolpertinger had any skills, but both side just stared at each other. That was until a bat that had split off from the Foxen team, snuck upon the third Wolpertinger and hit it with a Ringing Blast. The sound drew both the Wolpertingers attention to their back, in which both Guardian and Alpha’s team charged in.

Guardian was probably the largest of my creatures in just pure size and weight. Surprisingly though that wasn’t her greatest weapon. That hidden weapon was for all her size she was fast. Regular Amazonian Giant centipedes had been clocked at over 1.3 feet per second. That meant that in a second they were able to travel their body length plus a bit, striking before their prey realized it. Guardian was much larger, but had lost none of that speed, so in just that second, she had crossed over 3 feet in distance to strike the smaller Wolpertinger.

Now the Wolpertinger had been cautious from the start, showing that they had plenty of experience in battles. But even then it was caught off guard by the giant centipede that reached its side so quickly. Unable to do anything it flared its wings and tried pushing back, but Guardian had been to fast to stop and plowed right into it. Tackling it to the ground she wrapped the bulk of her body around it, while digging both of her front fangs into its chest.

At the same time the male Guardian had also raced forward, going around the pile of Guardian and Wolpertinger and struck out with a paralyzing sting. The Wolpertinger struggled, its wings splayed out due to the overwhelming weight and strength of Guardian. It tried to scratch at her using its claws and back legs, while also reaching to stick the oversized canines into her back. All attempts failed as she used her Ice Shield skill, not only blocking the attacks but causing frost to gather on her body and in turn on the Wolpertingers fur.

Now squirrels have a tendency to hibernate, while hares do not. And birds are a mixed bunch, with some handling the cold better than others. Considering the Wolpertinger was found in the Alpines, you would think that meant it handled the cold well. But when your body is being crushed and held by a giant frozen centipede, the fur doesn’t do much to stop the cold from entering you. So it began to panic, kicking and even screaming, to try and get away.

Now where guardian had been able to catch her Wolpertinger off guard, Alpha’s team wasn’t so lucky. Both of the Guardians on her team had tried to use the same tactic as my Ice Guardian, but where her Wolpertinger had been late to react, the larger one had not. The large Wolpertinger had not flared its wings, but instead pushed towards the Guardians. The distance closing faster than expected, allowed it to use its larger bulk to push back and repel the female Guardian on Alpha’s team. As the male had tried to circle around, the Wolpertinger had flared its wings then, smacking it in the head with a meaty thunk.

It hadn’t done any real damage, but it did stun it and pushed it out of the fight for a moment. Meanwhile the female that had clashed head on had reeled back, allowing the Wolpertinger to jump it and bring its fangs down. If the female Guardian had been alone, she probably would have died from the blow. Instead the Wolpertingers head too Alpha’s claws across the face, tearing at its right eye. The sudden blow didn’t stop it, but had deflected the fangs to only graze the Guardians side instead of plunge into her center. Still even that graze had torn a small chunk out of its side and blood gushed forth. The amount of blood gushing from the wound was way more than it had any right to be, and the fact that it seemed to flow towards the fangs of the Wolpertinger made me think it had used a skill.

I sent a warning of the possible blood-letting skill to my creatures, warning them not to take let the fangs cause wounds if possible. As I said this, the large Wolpertinger pushed the Guardian at Alpha, giving it room to back off and take some space. Unfortunately for it, the Alpha group still wasn’t done. The bats that had been hanging back, took this moment to both use Ringing Blast at it, disorienting and stunning it. Its reaction was to flare its wings out, hoping to hit anything to close. That was the wrong move though, as the 2 Lesser Kobolds had waited for the wings to come out before pouncing on top of them.

Those wings had some power behind them, enough to at least send a 1 ½ foot long male Guardian centipede into a wall. But that didn’t mean they were meant to handle the weight of a Lesser Kobold on top of them, causing the left wing to snap while the right bent at a bad angle. The Kobolds didn’t stop there, biting and clawing using their Shadow Claw skill to deal extra damage.

This time the Large Wolpertinger screamed, but where the smaller one just made noise, this scream was more like my bats Ringing Blast. The noise sent my creatures into a daze, giving the Wolpertinger the chance to fling them off its wing with a violent shake. Luckily the shake actually caused more damage to its wings, which now flared out uselessly against its side and the floor.

Most of my monsters had taken some kind of hearing damage from that, but my Alpha was the quickest to recover. She charged the Large Wolpertinger, causing it to choose between standing its ground or fighting the Lesser Kobold nearly the same size as it. Choosing to charge it lowered its antlers to receive her, using them for the first time. As Alpha got close I felt more than saw mana gather around the Wolpertinger’s antlers, gathering for some kind of skill. I went to send a warning when Alpha actually dodged to the right on her own, using the Wolpertingers blind spot to hide the large rock she had.

Whipping the rock towards the Wolpertinger, she then jumped up and over the right antler onto its back. That was only meant to be a distraction though as the female Guardian of her group came in from the left diving into the Wolpertingers broken wing. This time the scream carried no skill, and was quickly shut by the male Guardian shoving his stinger into its neck, having been hidden behind Alpha when she was charging. Now having Alpha on its back and the female Guardian on its right side, while the male Guardian pumped paralyzing venom into its neck, the Wolpertinger began to panic mush like the smaller one.

Going back to the smaller one I saw that the Foxen bats with my Ice Guardian had decided to use the diving slashes I saw used on the skink so long ago. The small Wolpertinger had been pumped full of Paralyzing venom on top of being frozen by the Ice Shield skill. The Kobolds on the other hand had grabbed onto the wings that a=had been caught flared out and had destroyed them, getting extra slashes in gaps between my Ice Guardians hold.

That battle was basically over so I finally moved over to the last battle, between my main Foxen bats and the smallest Wolpertinger. And was happily surprised to see it was basically over as well. It would seem that the first Ringing blast had allowed the 3 Kobolds to get close, while my female Foxen bats more powerful ringing blast kept it stun locked. That allowed the three Kobolds to lock down its head and wings, while raining down blows. The other bats also joined in, diving to lacerate the Wolpertingers body where they could. One of the Kobolds had been the female that won against the nonvenomous Tatzelwurm, who took the chance to raise its head enough to bite at its neck. Tearing its throat out stopped it from screaming, while the next bite snapped its neck.

The small Wolpertinger dropped lifelessly next to her, while the bats joined the other 2 groups to take them out. Not long after the other Wolpertingers also succumbed to their wounds, leaving me with three dead Wolpertinger Chimeras and only some marginally injured monsters. My monster roared there victory when I felt the Crawler at the entrance react. Lashing out it had tried to strike a Wolpertinger I hadn’t seen hiding in the crack entrance. Unfortunately it had missed and the Wolpertinger fled outside, faster than any of my monster could be.

It would seem that although we had won this battle relatively easily, the war was not quite at an end.