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6) Pack Mentality

6) Pack Mentality

For the next several days I didn’t do anything. I let the new Alpha do as he pleased. He was somehow good at ordering his group around. He had a special bark that seemed to command them. When he made that bark, they got into whatever position he wanted right away.

They mostly hunted small prey, rabbits and mice were most common. Alpha got the biggest portion of the food, while the other dozen or so shared 90% of it. Alpha seemed to be a capable leader. At least his pack didn’t go hungry. I felt a bit of regret for all of the animals that were killed, but it was survival of the fittest in this place. My sense of smell was extraordinary. If I suggested to Wolf to find something, a sense of scent overpowered my senses.

During those days, I came up with a plan. I wanted to move to a more powerful body. If this place was anything like games, evolving would take more time with each evolution. It would be easier to just take over the body of something that was already more powerful.

Although having a pack of wolves was great, I’d have to make sure Alpha did a rank up every time before they did. That would get really hard eventually. After my simple plan was made, I had Alpha make the group get into a new position whenever food was near.

I would take over Alpha’s body completely, while the other wolves would surround the target. The first battle was difficult, but after that it became easier. When I took over Alpha’s body, I fought the prey in a one on one battle each time. That way most of the experience would go to Alpha instead of one of the other wolves.

It actually had an unintended side effect. A positive one. The wolves began to respond more quickly when I or Alpha roared an order. My guess was they were just happy to get the food without working. Of course Alpha was getting a lot of battle experience.

I figured that there was some sort of exp system in place. Even if I couldn’t view it. That meant I had to make Alpha defeat enough enemies to be able to rank up. Even if he didn’t rank up, soon I would be able to take down a more powerful animal with his, and the pack’s, help.

X Days Later

We’ve been hunting like this for over a week now. At least I can tell time. The forest is beautiful, but I don’t want to spend much more time here. I was never really into all of that nature stuff. Everything in moderation as they say.

We haven’t found much outside of the small animals. Once we found another Dark Wolf, but it was dying. The pack didn’t hesitate to finish it off and eat it. Cannibalism seemed to not matter to them. It did make sense. The group only found a source of food about once a day at most. Since there were so many of them, they would need to eat all they could.

The cycle wasn’t really life threatening, but Alpha did have a few close calls. One time when Alpha was fighting a large rabbit, it almost took one of his legs off. I used the Light Claw right as the rabbit was about to hit. It’s enough to say the rabbit didn’t survive.

Apparently Alpha couldn’t use Light Claw, or at least never did. I was always the one that had to activate it. And it obviously worked best when I was in full control. So if the fights got bad enough, I would just take over to finish them. That way there was less danger to both of us.

Then, on a non-distinct day, it happened. While out hunting, my pack encountered another group of Dark Wolves. They peaked through the trees as my group ate our latest kill. It was larger than most of our normal kills, so I didn’t mind letting them have a bit if it meant protecting my pack from an attack.

I thought we could share the spoils, but their Alpha thought differently. The other pack had at least twice as many wolves as I had. The other Alpha was bigger, and its teeth looked like they could shred through steel.

It was midday. The light from the sun was streaming through the leaves of the trees high above us. A river gurgled nearby. The sound of heavy panting could be heard from both groups. We had both chased wild hares to their rabbit holes. The other Alpha stared at me.

I felt my blood run cold. His stare seemed to pierce into my mind. He charged me. I thought my group would help, but they shied away. I jumped back as he tried to ram his body into me. Somehow he managed to turn himself while only using one leg.

He rammed into me at a very high speed. I felt the air rush out of Alpha’s lungs. Alpha was thrown into a tree, and I felt at least one rib crack. Alpha stood back up and snarled. The other Alpha howled. As soon as Alpha(Wolf) saw this, he ran up to the other Alpha and clawed at his neck.

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I used Light Claw, and caused a bit of damage. The other Alpha was a little surprised, and jumped back. The other Alpha began to growl and snarl. Wolf growled back. After a short, but tense, standoff, they jumped at each other.

The other Alpha had jumped noticeably higher than Wolf. The other Alpha tried to clamp down on Wolf’s back. At the same time Wolf tried to turn his body around to bit the belly of the other Alpha. The other Alpha managed to take a small bite out of Wolf’s back, revealing a small amount of blood and muscle.

Wolf sliced at the other Alpha’s stomach, but didn’t manage to do any damage. When we landed, the other Alpha was already jumping again to attack. I urged Wolf to run to where the other Alpha had just been.

The other Alpha jumped over Wolf, and Wolf was unharmed. The other Alpha’s pack started yipping loudly. Some of our pack went over to them, and began yipping as well. Did I just lose followers?

The other Alpha jumped again. Instead of running under it, I had Wolf slice at the other Alpha’s stomach as it came down. Blood sprayed out of the wound. The other Alpha didn’t seem to be bothered by it. He ran at us, and tried to claw at our eyes.

We swiped at him as well. I used the Light Claw, and we managed to leave a deep gash on his nose. His paw clawed through our left eye. The pain made use cry out. The other Alpha only seemed to get angry at out attack.

I knew that Wolf and I were going to lose. The other Alpha hadn’t taken enough damage to actually give us any chance of winning. If I hadn’t thought our pack would fight with us, we would have been more prepared.

I decided there was only one solution. I jumped into the body of the other Alpha, and took complete control over his body. I attacked one of my own pack. Right as the paw was about to hit, I jumped out of his body. I flew back to Wolf, and jumped over my pack members.

As soon as the situation went out of control, I knew my pack and I were going to be slaughtered. The other Alpha’s pack looked hearty, strong, and powerful. I had no chance of actually winning. If that was the case, I would have rather escape by myself. At least then someone would survive.

I didn’t expect what happened next. Instead of attacking the Alpha, all of my former pack started chasing me. I don’t mean they were running with me, they had turned hostile towards me. They were trying to kill me. The other Alpha barked an order, and they stopped.

But only for a moment. After that the entire newly formed pack began to chase me. How could they turn against me and Wolf like that? We gave them food and shelter!

I urged Wolf to run for our lives. There was nothing I could do. If I possessed one of the other wolves to stop them, then I would lose Wolf right away. I could only do that if one of them actually caught up to Wolf, and managed to physically attack us.

We ran through the forest, but having a pack of Dark Wolves chase me didn’t put me in the best position to get away. My mind was racing. I did know a bit about dogs though. I knew they couldn’t smell you if you passed through a river.

So that’s what I did. There was a rive nearby, so ran towards it. The other wolves were hot on my heals. I could have taken Wolf over completely, but I didn’t trust myself to be able to run as quickly as him. I directed Wolf to the river, but the other wolves were somehow faster.

The pack was weaving through the trees, dodging right and left. The Alpha was behind the group, barking when one of them slowed down even the slightest. One managed to nip Wolf’s leg, but I focused on making him ignore the pain, and continue running.

Just as he made it to the river, one of the other wolves grabbed his leg. He began ripping and biting at it. I don’t know what happened, but Wolf shuddered, and the leg suddenly came loose. It honestly seemed as if Wolf had detached the leg himself.

I knew that wolves would chew their own legs off if they were caught in a trap, but I didn’t think they could just detach it at will!

As soon as the leg came off, Wolf jumped into the river. Blood was seeping from the wound, and Wolf was crying out in pain. None of the other wolves followed us into the river. As soon as we landed in the water, we were swept away. The speed of the current was too much to do anything other than lay there, and let it take us where it wanted.