Oh shit! A monster surge!? We have to get out of here!

Yorrin and I exchanged wide-eyed looks with one another. Nothing more needed to be said, we were already scrambling to pack up the remainder of our stuff and flee to the nearest gateway. I rushed to pack my tools up as quickly as possible, not wanting to waste any time with getting out of the little clearing we were in. Monster surges were bad news in almost every circumstance. From what I’d been taught, surges were things that usually happened when the Tower Authority decided that someone was doing something that violated its unwritten rules. They also were triggered when the system determined that someone inside the floor was doing something it didn’t approve of.

The effects of the surge varied based on what kind of activity triggered it. If there were excessive amounts of harvesting or if the system determined that adventurers were abusing the floor somehow, it would immediately spawn higher level monsters, and often in far greater quantities. The monsters would be extra aggressive and attempt to kill anything that wasn’t native to the floor. The other instance in which monster surges would be triggered is if there were rules violations taking place. Those monster surges were far more lethal than the others. The system would spawn hordes of highly destructive monsters that would rampage and attack both people and structures built in the tower. Those could be devastating and set back colonization efforts when they happened.

Through centuries of carefully recorded events, a rough rulebook had been reverse-engineered. The rules the Tower Authority enforced seemed capricious and arbitrary from at first, but it often came down to specific nuances. The Tower Authority didn’t forbid people from building permanent structures on floors, but the specifics of the construction mattered. A structure couldn’t be too tall or be dug too far underground. Building around some areas like dungeons or nests wasn’t allowed either. There was a general rule of thumb that you could follow that would often keep you out of trouble: don’t build anything that restricts access to tower resources or locations.

My train of thought was interrupted when a howl sounded from the east, and then was echoed back from the north and south sides of the clearing moments later. My heart lurched in my chest, and I knew we were out of time. I stuffed the last of my gear back into my backpack and shot a look over to Yorrin.

“South! We’ll have to detour around the wolves and make our way west to the gateway after we’ve gotten away from the pack!” Yorrin yelled over at me. “See you at the gate, don’t stop for anything!”

“Hey, wait!” I shouted, “Shouldn’t we stick together!?”

“Our chances are better if we split up, now go!”

I shouted a [Battle Cry] to boost my stamina recovery, then used [Flee] to stack on speed, and ran to the south as fast as I could. I was fast when I used [Flee] and I hoped that it would give me the advantage that I needed to make it out of the area safely. Yorrin activated his own skills and took off ahead of me. His level advantage and class gave him better mobility options than I currently had available. He broke through the tree line a good hundred yards ahead of me and disappeared into the forest. More howls sounded from behind me, and I poured as much effort as I had into sprinting regardless of the flaring pain in my thigh.

I was only twenty or so yards away from the cover of the trees when I heard the hiss from behind me. A weight crashed into my back and sent me tumbling forwards. I tried to tuck into a roll, but I wasn’t able to pull it off and wound up eating dirt pretty hard.

“Gah, fuck!”

I scrambled to my feet and shrugged out of my pack simultaneously, and frantically looked around to figure out what sort of situation I was in. My initial impression was that it wasn’t good, but I wasn’t totally screwed.

[Consider]! [Consider]! [Consider]!

Two level 10 wolves and a level 12 took up a position outside my reach covering three of my cardinal directions. “Yorrin! Help!!” I shouted as loud as I could, hoping that at the very least, he would fire off a few arrows to help me get away. I didn’t hear any response, but I held out hope that he’d have my back. I drew my sword, bared my teeth at the three wolves and screamed at them. My plan was still to try and disengage, but my odds would be better if I could impair their mobility with a wound or two each then flee. I fell into my defensive stance and prepared to fight like hell.

Come on, attack already!

A far deeper growl sounded from behind me, and I risked glancing away from the three wolves I faced in the front to check my rear.

Fuck me… [Consider]!

A [Level 17 Scale Wolf Denmother] was slowly walking towards me, taking her sweet time. My situation went from bad to worse, and I tried my damndest to still the tremors in my legs. I wasn’t an expert on these monsters by any means, but I had a feeling that big momma here was the true threat, and the other wolves were there to herd their prey–me–for her to exact revenge upon. The Denmother was two or three times the size of the other wolves, and I had to look up to meet her gaze. Granted, I was small at only five feet tall, but this was a big scale wolf. The beast’s nostrils flared as it sniffed at me, and I saw the golden, slit eyes look down to the ground where I’d discarded my pack.

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I snarled at her: “Yeah, I killed two, and I’ll kill you too, you big bitch!” With my free hand I pulled my skinning knife from my belt. I was going to need every tool at my disposal to even have a chance at winning this fight. And that was assuming it was just the two of us that were fighting, and the other three didn’t pitch in and contribute. My opponent pulled its lips back and bared it’s fangs at me and let out a ferocious growl at me. She lowered her stance and leapt forwards, closing the five-yard gap between us in two bounds.

I barely had time to react to the speed of her assault, and she was on top of me. I ducked low and went under her pounce, lashing out with my knife at her underbelly scales. The razor-sharp blade scratched and slid over the scales, failing to bite into her armored hide. I knew that if I was to have any chance of winning this fight, I’d have to press as hard and as fast on the beast as possible. Spinning on my toes, I used my squatting position to launch a charge of my own, and I attempted to pierce her hindquarter with my sword. Success! I buried a few inches of the end of the sword into her haunch and yanked the blade back out to ready myself for a possible counterattack.

The Denmother spun in place and lashed out with her tail for my legs, and I hopped over the attack and responded with a slash of my own aimed at her shoulder. While I was still swinging, she caught me off-guard with her speed and agility, and pushed herself towards me. I wound up hitting high on her back with my blade instead of the area I was aiming for. The feedback of the sword in my palm hit me hard enough that it caused my fingers to tingle. Trying to chop into her back like that was like hitting a log. There was no give at all, and my sword only made a shallow, mostly superficial cut into her scales.

I drew my blade back as fast as I could to try and protect myself from any bites, given her now close proximity. The wolf darted her head forwards, and I tried my best to block the bite with my sword. I didn’t expect her to chomp down on my blade with her gigantic teeth, and I was suddenly forced to make a decision I didn’t want to encounter. Should I abandon my sword and let her disarm me so that I only had my knife? Or should I risk getting my arm dislocated and fight her over it?

Ah, this is going to suck!

With a downright evil-looking glint in her eye, the wolf lurched and twisted her head, and I committed to trying to retain my sword. I was easily yanked off my feet and swung from side to side. No matter how hard I clenched my fist onto the handle, I wasn’t able to keep hold of the sword and was flung into the air. Panic gripped me as I flipped end over end, and I landed on my back, hard. The impact knocked the air out of me and momentarily stunned me. Wheezing from the blow, I focused as hard as I could on using my [Fighter’s Grit] to fight off the disorientation and pain caused by my arm getting nearly ripped off.

Before I was able to get my bearings, the beast stepped over my supine form with my sword still in its mouth. The massive head of the Denmother was positioned over my abdomen, and she looked down at me and stared me in the eyes. My stomach burned as adrenaline flooded my system and my heart started to race hard in my chest. With a flex of her jaw, the wolf crunched down and shattered my sword in her mouth. She spit the shards of metal out onto my chest and made a strange chuffing wheeze sound while staring me down.

She’s… She’s laughing at me!

Rage boiled up from my heart and I screamed at her, and I poured every ounce of the emotions cascading through me into it. I pushed the terror of my imminent death, the hatred of my enemy and the sheer rage of so many months spent saving and training only to lose my life to bad fortune on my first hunt. I couldn’t help but feel enraged at the fact I’d been abandoned and left to die by the person I’d hired to protect and train me, either, or that surely found its way into the blood-curdling scream that tore through me.

Just fucking kill me!

I could feel a presence in my senses and assumed that the other members of the pack gathered around to witness my execution. The Denmother’s head shot forwards and she opened her jaw to finish me off. Acting without thinking, my training kicked in and I shoved my forearm into her mouth so that she couldn’t get to my skull. It didn’t seem to bother her all that much, and a moment later her jaws snapped shut on my arm. I screamed once again as I felt her teeth pierce through my bracer and tear holes in my flesh, A moment later a sickening crunch sounded as my bones were shattered and I was slammed with the urge to throw up from the pain. Instead of spewing, I tried my best to stab into her neck with my skinning knife.

I wasn’t able to cut her hide earlier, but I prayed that I’d be able to pierce it with the tip of the blade. The first strike was good and pierced her hide! I followed up with a second as the wolf bellowed into my face around my broken arm, and I got a second stab in.

Fuck! You! Let me go!

I yanked back and went for a third stab, but before I was able to swing a third time, a huge paw came down on my ribcage and yanked downward. The worst agony I’d ever felt in my entire life shocked my system so hard that the knife fell from my grip. I could feel her sharp claws slice through my leather armor and scrape along my rib cage. It was one thing to feel like your fate was sealed, and another thing entirely to know it. With the tail end of her gouge, she several tracks through my abdomen, and I could feel blood pouring out of my guts after she shifted her paw back to stand on both forelegs.

Somehow my rage kept me from immediately blacking out, and with blurred vision, I looked at the stab wounds I’d put into her neck. They were bleeding heavily, but they weren’t gushing like an artery would. Given the rate at which monsters recovered from wounds, it may not even kill her. I couldn’t… Wouldn’t tolerate dying having accomplished nothing in my life. I don’t know where the idea originated from, but inspiration struck me. Yanking myself upwards with my broken arm in her mouth, I was able to wrap my free arm around her neck and haul myself the rest of the way up for one last attack.

I held onto the wolf’s neck with everything I had in me, and I sank my teeth into the flesh between the two stab wounds on her neck I’d previously made. It was stupid, and I was already dead, but I wanted to at least finish off this gods damned wolf, even if I had to gnaw through the side of its neck. The wolf jerked in surprise, howled and attempted to shake me off, but I wasn't going to give up! Hot blood squirted all over my face and blinded me as I spit out the hunk of flesh I’d carved out with my teeth, and I went in for more.

F-fuc!

I tried to curse the monster in my embrace, but it threw itself to one side and rolled over me. I felt more bones breaking, but I’d given up trying to keep track of any further wounds at this point. I wanted to cackle and scream with elation through the flailing death throes of the Denmother, but between tearing out another mouthful of its neck, partially drowning in the blood in my lungs–inhaled or my own, I couldn’t fathom–I couldn’t. I’d take the victory instead, as short lived as it might be. The Denmother came to a stop laying on top of my battered and broken body, and I pushed the latest chunk of flesh out of my mouth with my tongue.

I was dimly aware of the fact I was in shock, and that was probably why I was so giddy. Breathing was hard with the weight of the corpse on top of me, and my breaths were rapid pants. I knew I wasn’t that far behind her, and I relaxed the arm I’d been using to grip her neck and let it fall over my head. I was dizzy and felt like I was freezing as I wiped some of the blood off my eyes. Even though my vision was still blurry I could see the stars starting to peek out in the sky. Exhaustion was dragging my consciousness down and it was becoming increasingly difficult to keep my eyes open. One last thought went through my mind as I slipped into unconsciousness:

Yorrin, you piece of shit, if I ever see you again it’s going to be you who gets left for dead.