She stopped just before his face. Blanche was a tall woman, maybe around 170 cm. Coupled with her high heels she could even look down on me but I wanted to believe that was because I was still in a teenager's body. Uhum. Anyways, even with her height Duncan and she had a noticeable height difference.

“You will not move without my orders. Do you understand me?”

Duncan looked annoyed.

“Look, I-“

“No. You look. When I paid you a treasure worth of gold I expected an obedient hunting dog and not a stray dog that goes around fighting everything it sees.”

Duncan looked offended. He tried to put his hand on Blanche’s shoulder but sparks danced in the air, shocking him.

“Remember the Geass you signed. You should be thankful that I am even paying you. If you get out of hand I have every right to punish you.”

Duncan let out a displeased groan. He actually seemed to be uncomfortable when Geass was mentioned.

“Now get in the formation. We already lost enough time.”

Without making any noise everyone started to move once again. A Geass, huh? It was the first time I heard it in this world but I could roughly guess what it meant from the context and fantasy media I consumed when I was still young. Some kind of magical contract that forced someone to do something. Or similar to that. Even so, it must be something that’s very restrictive considering Duncan’s reaction. It also must be something that couldn’t be used lightly since none of the other party members seemed to sign it. Even though I was interested in what that exactly meant I didn’t open my mouth. We kept moving forward. Air got colder and the snow got faster as we moved up.

“To the right!”

“Blessings of Anshar!”

Attacks continued. Trolls, wolves, eagles, and many more come attacking. Duncan didn’t move by himself this time. At most I blocked the attacks that managed to slip from others. Blanche could handle herself so I focused on protecting Agatha. I didn’t have to do a lot.

“Finally.”

Duncan spat on the ground. I furrowed my eyebrows as I looked at the dungeon entrance. 2 giant wolf statues stood at the sides as if they were guarding the rock gate. The gate was wide and tall, at least 3 meters wide and 10 meters tall. It was covered with runic letters which let out a pale blue light.

(You reached the Heart of the Wolf King. To complete your quest you must travel to the center of the dungeon.)

Those statues looked really well made. Noble and wild. Even though I knew jack shit about art I was impressed. They looked like they were about to come to li-

“Ah, fuck me!”

As Duncan stepped towards the gate yellow and blue light respectively shone from the statue’s eyes. They started to move and swung their claws. For solid rock statues that weighed at least several tons, they were quick. Duncan managed to block its attack but he was pushed back, sending snow flying everywhere.

“Travellers. You dare to disturb Our Father’s Resting Place?”

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One of them spoke. Without moving its mouth, I might add. It’s voice… It sounded like Wolf King.

“If you are brave enough to come here then prove your worth. Defeat us and you may grant audience to Our Father.”

The other one added. Blue and yellow light respectively spread around their body in lines as they moved.

“Iron Wall!”

Percavel hit his shield to the ground. A grey aura covered his body and shield. One of the wolves swiped its claws. He met it head-on and managed to stand his ground. Damn. I am impressed.

“Poyraz! Take care of Agatha!”

Blanche rushed towards the wolves. She already pulled out both of her weapons. One of the wolves tried to bite her but with a single leap, she managed to get on top of its head.

“Arcane Sword!”

Mana covered her rapier, making it bigger. She stabbed the creature with it. But even with mana making her sword grow, it was just a toothpick compared to the creature. While I was far away, I noticed Blanche’s face change when she struck it. Was there a problem?

“Arghhhhh!”

Duncan leaped in the air. He slammed both of his axes into the other wolf. His attack actually managed to create a crater on the wolf’s body. Wolf nearly lost its balance. But rather than make pained noises it just shook him off.

“They are resistant to magic!”

Blanche shouted. So that was the problem.

“Greater Healing!”

Agatha shouted. Light covered Percavel who was bleeding from tanking several hits.

“Knight’s Valor!”

Percavel was spamming several abilities. He was tanking most of the hits. If he were to stop I wasn’t sure if I could defend Agatha.

“Not bad humans. Not bad at all! However, it is not enough! It never will be enough!”

The wolf fighting against Duncan and Percavel laughed.

“Close your ears!”

I shouted as loud as I could. I knew this pattern!

“Auuuuuu!”

(You have been exposed to Howl of Fear.)

(Iron Will neutralizes the fear effect.)

(You resisted the Instant Death status effect.)

Percavel coughed blood and fell to his knees. Wolf hit him with his claws and he was sent flying.

“No!”

Agatha ran towards her.

“You managed to resist my howl? Not b- How?”

It stopped talking as its blue eyes laid on me.

“How a weakling like you didn’t die from my howl?”

“Don’t know. Maybe you aren’t as powerful as you think you are.”

To answer me it slammed its gigantic claw to where I stood. I managed to dodge it.

“Stop, Brother. This human… His smell…”

Goddamnit, stop trying to expose me! I pulled my bow and shot an arrow into its eye. It raised its paw and my arrow bounced off it. The first wolf sniffed the air.

“I see. So that’s how he resisted my howl. Funny! How funny, human! But that doesn’t mean anything! You still have to defeat us!”

Blanche and Duncan fell back to my side.

“I don’t know what you did but good job, Poyraz. We need to take a breath and regroup.”