Together we sprinted for the slope down to stage 1. At first I outdistanced the others, but slowed so they could keep up. Part of me wanted to run flat out, but I hadn’t risked so much to rescue them only to leave them to die now.
I pulled out a couple zombie lanterns and handed them over. My companions took them without question, not slowing our desperate pace. William looked hopeful, while Joey kept glancing back at the raging fire his meteor spell had triggered, not able to hide his fear. If that wasn’t enough to kill werewolves for good, what was?
I knew just how dangerous the werewolves could be. I barely believed we’d managed to escape the pack once. We just had to do it one more time. If we could get off the second stage, maybe the werewolves wouldn’t follow.
Fresh howls broke the darkness of predawn. They started weak and thready, but strengthened even before the first howls faded away. I cursed softly. They were recovering too fast from those powerful spells. Now they’d come after us with a vengeance.
I leaped grasping roots and weaved around trees, taking the twisting turns of the narrow trail in a mad dash. Joey and William kept hard on my heels, their lanterns bobbing wildly, their breathing loud in the still morning.
Morning. It was almost dawn. I tried glancing at the sky, but the forest was too thick to grant more than occasional glimpses. The moons had long set and the stars had faded into the pitch-black of pre-dawn.
Werewolves turned back to humans at dawn, didn’t they? My transformation had ended early, but the coming of morning might be our best chance. How long did we have? 5 minutes? 10? More?
If they caught us, they only needed seconds to rip us to shreds.
More howls sounded, much closer than before. They couldn’t be more than a couple hundred yards back.
“Do you have any silver?” Joey panted.
“No.” Would silver even work? “Your energy rifles will hurt them, but as you saw, it takes a lot of shots to beat their regeneration.”
“How did you find us, and how did you survive long enough up here to even try?” William gasped as he leaped a root.
“Won’t help us here. Keep running.” My voice sounded calmer than I felt.
My breathing was still even. I might not be able to keep up with a werewolf, but I could hold our current pace for hours. My Endurance stat was still climbing, and each tier-1 point equated to roughly 10 tier-0 points.
Back on Earth, I could have outrun the best distance runner many times over. Thinking about it that way seemed insane. It was crazy that we had barely reached the morning of the third day and already I’d advanced so much.
Stop getting distracted. Running for our lives, remember?
If they caught us, I’d unleash all of my temporary spells in a non-stop barrage. That might buy us some time or, if I got really lucky, drive them off.
Yeah, I’d seen how they kept charging the zombies even while getting crisped by laser rifles. Maybe those last two big spells had spent most of their regeneration. Fire had to be tough to recover from.
Fire. The beginnings of a desperate plan began to form.
“Joey, will you give me the other scroll for that meteor blast?”
“Why? It takes too long to fall?”
“Contingency plan.”
“Didn’t you have a plan to escape when you freed us?” Joey asked.
“This was my plan.” I didn’t admit I hadn’t expected any of us to live this long.
“You’ve gotten us this far,” he said. A scroll appeared in his hand and he passed it to me without breaking stride. I dumped it into my inventory and studied its description.
“Ember Strike Scroll. Single use spell. Uncommon. Unleash a meteoric blast of fiery devastation across an area 10 feet square for every point in Strength and deal 100 points of fire damage per point in Constitution. Cast time 3 seconds, minus 1 second per 10 points in Intelligence.”
Wow. That was an even better spell than I’d thought. That meteor had unleashed incredible devastation, and with my stats, it would be even more powerful.”
I whispered so the others couldn’t hear. “Cyrus, those points in intelligence, are they tier-0 or tier-1?”
“Tier-0, of course.”
I nearly laughed aloud. That meant the cast time would be instantaneous for me. I could definitely work with that.
Without warning, we broke out of the forest. The path continued straight through a long field of short clover. There! The slope down to the lower stage was barely 100 yards away.
“Hurry!” I cried and we accelerated to a full sprint.
Together we flashed across the field and reached the top of the descent. The ground became packed earth and rock with only a few scraggly trees along the slope that dropped steeply for over 2000 feet toward the lower grassland. Farther down, clumps of trees, piles of boulders, and dark shadows of ravines split the slope, but still left plenty of room to run.
I wanted to whoop and shout in victory. I’d made it back! We were nearly back down to stage 1. Miracles did happen.
Then I glanced back and my hope withered at the sight of the 5 large wolves loping out of the forest. With Wolf Sight, I clearly made out their sleek forms and rippling muscles as they effortlessly bounded over the grasses after us. It looked like they’d already completely healed from all the punishing damage the zombies had inflicted on them, plus William’s and Joey’s spells.
“Faster!” I shouted.
Neither of the guys looked back, but poured on every bit of speed and managed to accelerate a little more. Joey pulled slightly ahead of William, who tucked his chin and gave chase with grim determination.
I followed, preparing my spells. We were on the slope. That should be enough! The need to get away from the deadly second stage drove me on like a physical weight.
The werewolves ran like living bolts of death, closing the gap between us with terrifying ease. I slowed to a stop as the truth settled over me like a death shroud.
We weren’t going to make it.
So be it.
I called Soulrend to my hand and tried to remember the fearless bloodlust I’d felt as a werewolf. I managed a flicker and embraced it, fanning the ember into a weak flame.
Identify confirmed I was facing a pack of Waterlogged Werewolves identical in makeup and levels to the original pack that struck the zombies who had captured me. Had the other 3 been part of the same pack, or had parts of 2 packs merged to chase me? It didn’t matter. The pack leader raced straight at me, fangs white in the darkness as its maw gaped open to eat my face.
Was that another lieutenant of the ultimate alpha? The others spread out behind it, focusing on my companions, running close together as they converged on their prey.
Seeing them all together finalized that vague plan that had been forming and I changed strategies. Marking the position of each wolf in my mind, I dumped Soulrend back into my inventory. Shouting my own battle cry, I lunged to meet the pack leader.
It leaped straight at me, covering the last 10 yards in a blink. My giant ogre club appeared in my hands and I swung with every ounce of strength I could muster, hauling down with my entire body.
At the same time, I triggered Ember Strike, focusing all my will on the club. As I had hoped a fiery halo wrapped the 500 pound club, transforming it into a meteor of destruction that I smashed at the werewolf. It was already leaping, so could not change directions.
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I also triggered my last remaining use of Fractal Strike.
“Fractal Strike. Make up to 4 reflections of one strike to hit up to 5 enemies simultaneously.”
Four more glowing copies of my giant burning club appeared, one in front of each of the werewolves. All swept down together and . . . Yes! They all blazed with the superheated fires of Ember Strike. It had copied the club plus its current enchantment.
My clubs smashed into werewolves like meteors from the heavens. The impacts unleashed shockwaves that momentarily blinded me as the clubs squashed the werewolves into the packed earth so hard, dirt and blood and gore erupted in cascading waves back up the slope before everything was consumed by the boiling clouds of white-hot fire.
My entire body rattled with the impact and I staggered back, clothing smoking and exposed skin reddening from the heat. It felt like I’d tried to bob for apples in a blast furnace.
I dumped the club back into my inventory. My head swam from the double-stacked spells. They had drained almost all my mana. That was more than I’d expected, and I felt woozy.
The rumbling echoes of the detonations subsided and eerie silence settled over the scene. Towering pillars of flame slowly faded and a delicious, cool breeze caressed my burned face.
I was going to pull out my burn cream, but realized my enhanced tier-1 regeneration was quickly taking care of the minor burns. I couldn’t heal nearly as fast as a werewolf, but my recovery was an entire tier better than anyone else’s.
Joey and William stood about 20 yards downslope, their lanterns discarded at their feet, energy rifles in hand as they vainly scanned the darkness for wolves.
I stared at the 5 craters blasted into the ground, smeared with charred werewolf blood as Eva spoke. “Congratulations, Lucas! You have defeated Waterlogged Werewolf, level 35. Bonus experience earned for defeating a higher-level enemy.”
Three more notifications followed, then even more messages, but I ignored those. One werewolf was somehow still alive. I mentally triggered Soul Feed. I couldn’t remember if I needed to be touching the dead monsters, but I triggered it anyway.
Clouds of glowing white energy roiled up from 4 of the 5 craters, lighting the entire area in ghostly grays. Joey shouted in victory and William trotted toward me as a torrent of energy blasted into me so hard, I staggered.
Instantly my health rocketed up to full, my injuries evaporated, my mana visibly filled, and my physical stats turned green and crept up by a full 50%. A little timer appeared and started ticking down from 5 minutes.
I laughed as enormous strength filled me to bursting. “I can’t believe that worked!”
William pounded me on the back so hard he would have broken a rib if I was limited to my Earth strength. Now it barely moved my shoulder.
“You did have a plan all along,” Joey chortled.
“How did you do that? I thought we were dead.” William cried.
“I double-stacked a couple limited-use spells. I’m lucky I had enough mana for all of it.”
“We can do that?” William asked.
Joey added, “I had no idea. Was that my Emberstrike scroll?”
“It was. When I combined them, it changed somehow.”
“How?” William asked.
“I wasn’t sure it would work, but had nothing to lose.” The idea had hit me, and I’d run with it. Somehow I’d felt that I could combine the spells that way. Was that my Wisdom stat proving its worth, or just blind luck?
A low growl rumbled up from the closest crater, the one that held the pack leader.
“One of them is still alive?” Joey exclaimed.
“Not for long.” I led the way to the edge of the crater and peered down.
The once sleek and deadly werewolf was scrabbling weakly at the bottom of the fire-blasted crater. It looked like little more than a charred skeleton of cracked bones with patches of fur and muscle, but its red eyes were blazing with hatred and more of its body regenerated every second.
The recovery was very slow, and I doubted it would heal completely before it ran out of power. Fire was hard to heal, and even though I’d felt the incredible power of werewolf regeneration, I still barely believed it could recover even partially from such a hit.
“We’ve got this,” William told me as he and Joey hefted their energy rifles. Together they opened fire, blasting the werewolf with volley after volley.
The wolf writhed in the pit as fur peeled away and meat blackened. Bones seared and snapped, and a pair of well-aimed shots punched through its red eyes. Within seconds, we got the notification.
“Congratulations. You have defeated Waterlogged Werewolf pack leader. Level 45. Bonus experienced gained for defeating a higher-level enemy.”
We cheered as notifications scrolled past. I scanned them as I triggered Harvest. I tried it on every last werewolf, but it failed every time.
“Does this thing only work once per monster type?” I growled.
Cyrus responded immediately. “It’s not a hard and fast rule, but why would you want to re-use a spell you’ve already harvested? Look for new experiences.”
“Getting that werewolf transformation again would have been amazing.” I felt a deep-rooted hunger to feel that power again. What would that do to me if I could make it permanent? Would I unlock a shapeshifting class? The idea was both terrifying and exhilarating at the same time.
“Don’t look back. Focus on your next victory and enjoy the spoils of this one.”
Scanning the other messages, I smiled to see one I hadn’t expected.
“Congratulations, Lucas! You have reached level 6. Two stat points allocated.”
I had killed a bunch of level 35 zombies, plus did most of the work killing that pack. I wasn’t sure how experience splitting worked, but I’d take another level any day.
The 2 points were both allocated to Constitution, and I was fine with that. They gave me a big boost to life points, and as the new stats were applied, I could feel my body growing denser. My bones creaked, my muscles quivered, and goose bumps rose across my skin as my body physically altered with the boost.
I reminded myself that I was getting only 2 stat points, but those were tier-1 points, equivalent to 20 tier-0 points. I was now 10 times as durable as the toughest person on Earth. My body was changing in ways I didn’t yet totally understand. When would I become bulletproof?
The image of Aquaman ignoring bullets flashed into my mind. Cyrus had said as a level-1 human, my base stats were more like a superhero, and I was adding even more to those. The thought made me smile.
Both Joey and William got 6 extra levels from the fight. Joey did a jig, dancing and whooping and laughing, while William looked so stunned he might fall over.
I got a bunch of other messages, including achievements for leading a group from three separate teams in a single conflict, which got me a silver Churchill loot box. It contained a scroll that increased my CHA stat by 5 points and a really nice common-grade fighting stick banded with steel, with enhanced durability to withstand damage from bladed weapons.
I scanned the long list of achievements I’d ignored through the long, terrifying night and focused on some of the best ones.
“Congratulations, Lucas! For spending more than four hours in a completely different body, you receive a platinum Mimic loot box.”
The gleaming metallic box appeared in the air in front of me and I willed it open to reveal a pair of scrolls.
“Scrolls of the Wolf. Each scroll unlocks a new ability.”
“Wolf Blood. Ability. Level 1. Speed up health and mana regeneration by another 10% by absorbing energy from the environment.”
“Wolf Sight. Ability. Uncommon. Level 1. Unlocks night vision and increases Perception stat points calculated from Wisdom by 10%.”
“Sweet!” I read the scrolls. New abilities seemed pretty rare. I’d take as many as I could get. Harvesting Lycanthropic Transformation from that werewolf had not only saved my life, but gotten me some sweet permanent upgrades.
“Congratulations, Lucas! For defeating slaver zombies and freeing more captured slaves like yourself, you receive a diamond Insurrection loot box!”
“Diamond?” I breathed at the rare sight of the brightly glittering loot box. It gave me a mountain of mana crystals and one more scroll.
“Title Scroll. New title: Spartacus.”
“Spartacus. You’ve got the spirit of a revolutionary. You’ve taken the weapons from the very slavers who captured you and turned them against your captors. You’ve slain more than ten slavers, who serve the final stage boss a full tier above the one you are authorized to reach. Each enemy was at least twenty levels above your own. In the process you saved 2 slaves destined for short lives of hard work and torture.
Keep it up, Spartacus. What could possibly go wrong?
Plus 25% more experience gained for each kill of a higher level enemy.
Plus 5 to CHA.
Plus 5 to Luck.”
I laughed as I read the scroll and felt the influx of new power. “Thanks for the new title, Cyrus.” That extra experience boost could prove the difference between making it to level 10 in time or falling short.
“You earned it, Lucas. Your journey is proving very unique. The experiment is turning out better than most of my projections suggested.”
“Thanks. At times it seems like more of a curse, but right now, I’m loving it.”
“You love to beat a dead cat.”
“Horse. It’s beat a dead horse.”
“I would think you would prefer beating cats. They can be so annoying.”
“That’s part of their charm.”
“You humans are endlessly inconsistent. I love it.”
Eva continued as I turned back to my achievements.
“Congratulations, Lucas! You combined two spells with hidden synergies to form a unique attack with the power to overwhelm multiple opponents simultaneously. You receive an emerald Einstein loot box.”
“So is combining spells a common thing?” I asked as the huge emerald appeared hovering in the air in front of me, glittering so bright it lit the entire area.
“It is possible, although you are one of the first to discover that fact,” Cyrus said. “Many spells lack the synergy to combine well, but the pair you used reinforced each other with a compounding effect that multiplied the damage. Few would have enough mana at this stage to fuel the resulting spell. The outcome speaks for itself. Well done, Lucas.”
William and Joey were looking at me funny since Cyrus spoke loud enough for everyone to hear.
“Did my Luck stat have anything to do with making that work?” I asked, pitching my voice low so hopefully only Cyrus would hear.
Not that it mattered when Cyrus responded loudly, “Your Luck stat may have contributed to the final percentages of compounding between the spells, but did not determine the initial compatibility.”
“You have a Luck stat?” Joey asked.
“Yeah. Another long story.”
“How can you have so many of those?” William asked. “We’ve only been here for 3 days.
“I like to keep busy.”
“I’ve never seen an emerald loot box,” Joey said as several loot boxes appeared in front of him. Most were silver, one gold, and one platinum. He beamed and patted the last one. “My first platinum.”
“Congratulations,” I managed, but barely hid my surprise.
How could he not have seen even a platinum loot box? Had my experiences been so far from the norm? I glanced at William, who was in the process of opening his own loot boxes. He too had a platinum and looked just as giddy with excitement.
Maybe my titles really were affecting my rewards more than I realized. I thought back to my Trailblazer title again and the 30% chance to upgrade loot boxes. The notifications didn’t specify when it triggered, but maybe I’d been seeing a lot more upgrades than I’d realized.
Thank you, Cyrus for giving me titles.