Joshua was yanked off his feet and flew half the distance between himself and the ‘attractive’ wolf before his own weight reasserted itself and he slammed into the ground.

Unfortunately, that invisible force still gripped him and continued pulling him toward his doom. Now with one hundred percent more road rash.

He scrabbled at the ground, managing to get turned around and even to begin crawling away from the wolf.

Or so it felt like. But he quickly realized that for every foot he gained he lost two more. And he didn’t have many left to lose.

The living rabbit who had started this whole mess and who had been hiding behind Joshua had taken off to safety as soon as he was yanked from his feet, but the wolf was no longer interested in that tiny ball of fluff. It had bigger prey.

Like Joshua.

“Attack you dumb thing!” Joshua shouted at his summoned daemon rabbit, who was just standing there, unaffected by the invisible force gripping Joshua himself.

The rabbit responded instantly, lunging, horn first, straight for the wolf’s neck.

It was so fast that it impaled the wolf, spun in the air, pushed off, leapt away, and landed, all before the wolf—or Joshua for that matter—could react.

The wolf was faster than Joshua and moved to snap at the rabbit, but its jaws clamped down on nothing but air with an audible crack.

Unfortunately, the wolf’s liquid-mist body was undamaged and Joshua was still being pulled toward it despite fighting against the force with all his strength. More unfortunately, the attack had only temporarily stolen the monster’s attention. Now, with a brief snarl at the daemon rabbit, it refocused on Joshua and, not content to just stand around while waiting for the tasty snack to be pulled to it by whatever magical attraction power it had, charged straight for him, its six legs carrying it forward at blinding speed.

“Crap!” Joshua cried, clawing furiously at the dirt.

Pain erupted from his already sore left leg as the wolf latched its teeth into his calf. Despite looking like liquid mist, its mouth was more than solid enough to pierce Joshua’s flesh.

Sin cawed and dove at the wolf, slamming into its flank.

The wolf snapped at Sin, but the bird was already gone, having fluttered up to the branch of a tree. Again.

The attack hadn’t done anything to the wolf’s liquid-like body, but at least it had gotten the wolf to release Joshua’s leg, and he no longer felt that invisible force pulling him toward it.

“Get it,” he shouted at the rabbit, who was standing back, watching passively again.

It once more instantly leapt into action, a rainbow-streaked blur, soaring through the air, horn-first toward the wolf.

But this time the wolf was ready, and caught the rabbit easily in its mouth. It crunched down, eyes locked onto Joshua. Its face was mist-like and flowing, but those eyes were solid as steel. Burning hot, glowing steel.

Joshua’s hopes fell, but then the wolf yelped as a burst of reddish goo shot out of the rabbit, filling the monster’s mouth and even oozing up over its face.

The wolf dropped the rabbit and stumbled backward, snorting and shaking its head. But the goo wouldn’t be displaced, sticking even to its mist-like face.

Joshua didn’t know what the substance from the rabbit was, but it wasn’t the daemon’s blood, unless this daemon version had changed from a vibrant blue to a murky red.

For its part, the unihorn rabbit lay motionless on the ground where it had been dropped. Alive, but out of the fight.

Joshua didn’t let the opportunity the daemon had given him pass. He grabbed up the dropped unihorn and skeleton then charged the wolf before it could recover, swinging the skeleton down toward its head.

Though Joshua moved as fast as he could, it wasn’t fast enough.

The invisible force returned and this time yanked him off his feet and straight down before the skeleton could make contact.

He slammed into the ground like a car had been dropped on him, his face hitting the dirt so hard his entire head bounced.

He groaned, stunned, smelling copper and something else. His tongue was buzzing for some reason, and it sounded like there were bees chirping in his head.

He would just lie here for—

He was yanked back to the present as the wolf latched onto his leg again. The right one this time.

Searing pain jolted him to full consciousness and he cried out, kicking his one free leg at the monster while it shook him about like a rag doll.

He felt like he was going to throw up from the pain.

It was like kicking a pillow, and only when he landed a direct hit on its head did he feel something more solid.

That was when he realized that he miraculously still held on to both the unihorn and skeleton. He ceased his kicking, took aim, and slammed the latter of these down onto the wolf’s misty head.

It only latched tighter and shook him more wildly.

Aim for the eyes!, his mind shouted at him. They’d been the only thing—other than its mouth—that seemed truly solid.

Letting go of the skeleton and gripping the unihorn in both fists, he used his agility from years of rock climbing and horseback archery, thrust himself up and forward, and stabbed down with the unihorn with all his might.

The horn skittered off the socket of the eye he’d been aiming for. It was like hitting a frozen cloud, but he’d struck with such force that the horn skipped across and plunged into the opposite eye.

The monster released Joshua’s leg and jerked away, unihorn protruding from its right eye socket, blue-black blood oozing down and seeming to merge into its misty fur.

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Joshua expected it to whimper or paw at the injury, but all it did was snort once. It focused its one remaining eye on Joshua, and snarled.

“Oh that’s not good.”

The wolf dashed back in for him.

Joshua grabbed up the skeleton, roared, and slammed it down onto the wolf’s head.

The collision itself did little damage, but the horn it pushed in did much more.

There came a wet crunch as the horn penetrated all the way in and the wolf went limp, its momentum carrying it into Joshua, leaking blue-black fluid onto his lap.

“Well that’s pretty gross,” he wheezed. He pushed the corpse, which weighed more than he would have expected, aside, then fell to his back, panting.

He spotted Sin perched in the branches above him.

The bird squawked worriedly.

“Is that—” he took several gasping breaths, “your modus operandi? Attack once and then fly away?”

Sin squawked.

“Yeah, true, you did get it to let me go. But we really—” more panting, “need to work on our teamwork.” Joshua grunted, then closed his eyes.

He knew he should get up, but he was too tired to.

He felt something land on his chest and opened his eyes, too exhausted to be startled.

Sin was looking at him with one eye from a few inches away, head tilted.

He felt concern radiating from the goofy-eyed little familiar.

“I’ll be fine,” Joshua assured it. “I think. If I don’t bleed out first.” His legs felt like they were on fire, but he really didn’t want to look at the damage.

So instead, he forced himself to sit up, Sin hopping to his shoulder.

His head spun, but he didn’t pass out, so that was good.

Despite trying not to, he got a glimpse of his legs, which were covered in blood.

Not all of it is mine, he reminded himself. Some of it belongs to a dead god.

Not dwelling on the sight, he got his feet under him, then pushed himself up to a standing position. His legs burned, sparks of pain shooting through them, but they bore his weight.

He surveyed the carnage before him.

The wolf seemed dead, but he cast Loot on it to be certain.

You have received ⦃Pelt⦄

You have received ⦃Meat⦄

You have received ⦃Organs⦄

You have received ⦃Bones⦄

You have received ⦃Shard⦄

He let out a sigh of relief as the wolf was stripped down bit by bit.

Then his eyes widened.

“Whoops. I didn’t think that through. It’s not going to come back to life, is it?”

He squinted and saw a ghostly shape resembling a wolf where the corpse had been. Just like he had seen with the unihorn rabbit.

Sin squawked a warning and Joshua made a run for the trees.

Well, he tried to. His legs weren’t cooperating so he instead got a face full of earth.

A sound behind him caused him to spin over onto his back.

The wolf had returned to life, but, like a reverse zombie, its monstrous appearance was gone. It now looked like a normal small wolf, with only four legs and one tail, and made of the solid stuff of muscle, bone, and fur. It actually looked more like a dog than a wolf, but this fact was of little concern to Joshua at the moment. A wild dog could still tear him to pieces.

Especially in his current state.

Maybe it won’t notice—

The animal looked at him, sniffing at the air.

Crap, he thought. It can smell my blood. His eyes darted about, searching for the unihorn or skeleton.

But before he could find either, the wolf turned around, cast one last glance at Joshua, then took off in the direction it had come from, disappearing into the forest.

Joshua just sat there, staring, unable to believe his luck.

“If I were really lucky,” he muttered, “I wouldn’t have met it in the first place.”

Sin—who had taken off to the trees at the first sign of trouble—landed on top of his head and pecked it once.

“Get down from there.”

The bird hopped to his shoulder.

Joshua achingly got to his feet and squelched in the direction of where the loot from the monstrous wolf lay.

He stopped after a few steps, noticing his unihorn rabbit daemon on the ground in front of him. Its form had faded, and was now nearly transparent.

“Sorry little guy. I don’t think you’re going to be okay. If it’s any consolation, you probably saved my life.”

Sin pecked the side of his head.

“Yeah yeah, you helped too. Barely.”

The rabbit looked up at him weakly and mewed once.

“Ah geez, I already feel bad enough.”

It managed to get to its little padded feet, peered around until spotting something, and patted slowly off. It looked pathetic.

“Where are you going?”

Then he saw what it was headed for. The daemon shard. Joshua had dropped it at some point.

The ghostly rabbit reached the shard, looked back at him and mewed again, then flashed into mist and was sucked into it.

Joshua stared for long moments. Finally, he said, “What is this, Pokémon?”

He picked up the shard and examined it.

[Unihorn Rabbit Daemon Shard]

(shard)

The echo of a [Unihorn Rabbit].

Depleted. Needs recharging.

“Huh. Well, at least it’s still alive. Not sure how to recharge it though.”

Sin squawked.

“Jealous?”

Sin huffed.

“You make some odd sounds for a bird.”

Joshua pocketed the shard and limped over to the wolf’s loot.

[Attractive Wolf Pelt]

(crafting material)

The pelt of an [Attractive Wolf].

[Attractive Wolf Meat]

(edible)

The airy meat of an [Attractive Wolf].

[Attractive Wolf Organs]

(edible crafting material)

The damaged organ group of an [Attractive Wolf].

[Attractive Wolf Bones]

(crafting material)

The damaged skeleton of an [Attractive Wolf].

[Attractive Wolf Daemon Shard]

(shard)

The echo of an [Attractive Wolf]. Use to summon a copy with the same properties and abilities.

Joshua studied the item descriptions, considering. “Which one of you will make me attractive?”