While Sir Albert’s group (+ Brie) were taking on the wolf pack, Q and the Alpha changed their battle location to the nearby woods. Q entered first by diving through some underbrush, and the Alpha followed soon after. What was waiting on the other side though, was a flaming bullet Q had cast!
The Alpha was hit by the spell head-on, and a bit of its health was chipped off. The Alpha was stopped for a second as it shook off the flames from the spell, then began searching for Q. It growled and sniffed the air, tracking Q’s scent. It was able to quickly locate Q just ahead, and began dashing in her direction.
The distance between the two was closed quite quickly, but just as the Alpha lunged with jaws wide open, Q sent another flaming bullet down its throat. She also followed it up with a [Tri-Spark], and kicked off of the Alpha’s head to gain some distance from it. The Alpha was now enraged, and ran after Q with renewed vigor.
The Alpha tried to lunge towards Q again (with its claws this time), but Q met those claws with her dagger, and the two began pushing against each other. “Hehe… I’m not the same old fox from the tutorial! [Tri-Spark]!” Bolts of electricity flew from Q’s fingers and struck the Alpha in its stomach.
The Alpha was unable to move as it had the [Stunned] status on it, and Q took this opportunity to increase their distance rather than deal more damage. I can’t fight Wolfy head-on… He’ll tear me apart! Q thought, remembering their exchange with their claws from earlier. I just need to steadily whittle down his health, and then finish him afterwards.
Q continued to run through the woods, firing her spells at the Alpha whenever they were off cooldown. The woods were incredibly dark, but due to the Alpha’s glowing eyes she was still able to aim in its general direction. The amount of things Q could make out were low, but thanks to the moonlight shining in-between the branches above her, she was able to avoid anything on the ground that might have tripped her. On several occasions the Alpha was able to close the distance and attack Q, but she managed to dodge its attacks or hid behind a tree causing the Alpha to miss.
The two continued to run through the forest, the Alpha slowly becoming more and more irritated as it was unable to land a direct hit on Q. Eventually it lost its patience and stopped in its tracks, and its horn began glowing with magical power. For a moment Q had also stopped moving, but quickly began running again once she saw its horn glowing. There’s no way I’m staying to find out what that does…
Suddenly, a loud sound exploded behind Q, and a powerful force hit her and sent her flying. She flew through the air and crashed into a tree and fell down, leaving her at less than half health. “W-what the heck was that?” Q struggled to get up and saw that the ground in front of her had been gouged out. Searching for the source of what caused it, she found that the Alpha was at the end of the ruined ground, standing still and breathing heavily. “Was that a charge attack? That’s insane…”
Just as Q picked herself off of the ground, the Alpha also recovered from its charge and faced Q again, running forward to attack her. Q rolled out of the way and the Alpha got its claws stuck in the tree that she had crashed into earlier. Q shot off some more spells, then began running away again. On the way she drank a health potion and placed her dagger in her belt, looking for a tree she could climb.
Eventually she had found a branch low enough, so she jumped up and grabbed on, hoisting herself up as the Alpha just barely missed her. “Hahaha… this is kind of like the tutorial, isn’t it? Though this time, I have magic!” Q smiled as she began firing spells from her high spot. The Alpha dodged most of the spells, though it was still hit by one or two. For a while, Q thought that she could probably just stay up there and beat the Alpha like this, when it’s health went below 75%.
The Alpha’s eyes stopped glowing, and Q was no longer able to see where it was. Oh god, this is kind of scary… Q strained her ears and tried to listen for any trace of it, but didn’t hear anything. She decided to use the new [Sense Presence] skill she had recently obtained, and as soon as she did she felt a strong presence behind her!
Whipping her head around, Q reacted just in time by bringing her hands up to her head just as the Alpha jumped out of the nearby shadows and attacked her. The Alpha was able to push Q off the branch, and the two fell off. As she was falling, Q twisted her tail and regained her balance, making sure that she was on top of the Alpha as they fell onto the ground. The Alpha didn’t seem to mind the fall though, as it tried to bite Q’s neck.
At this point Q was exerting all of her strength to keep the Alpha’s claws from scratching her, while the Alpha was also trying its hardest to bite her. The two’s struggle caused them to move around, and they began rolling atop one another as they continued to fight to stay on top. Their rolling eventually brought them to a steep slope where the two finally broke free of one another, though they continued to roll down the slope.
The first to get up was the Alpha, who immediately jumped at Q while she was down. Q responded by using her claws to dig into the ground and pull herself forward, allowing her to slide underneath the Alpha. Q continued with her forward momentum and made a somersault before landing on her feet and continuing to run away. She looked back to see if the Alpha was following her, but it had disappeared from her sight again so she used [Sense Presence] again to locate it.
For the next ten seconds, Q was able to tell where the Alpha was jumping from, but after her skill wore off she was once again left with no idea as to where the Alpha had gone. I guess it’s time to get super serious, huh? Q thought as she brought her knife back out. She narrowed her eyes and tensed her body, and the world seemed to slow down a little. At the same time she invoked [Ember] in order to get some light in the area. Even if it makes me easier to see, it doesn’t matter since Wolfy always knows where I am… With her preparations ready, she yelled out, “Bring it on!”
In response to her yell, the Alpha appeared from the shadows, leaping right at Q’s back! Thanks to Q’s enhanced hearing, she was able to hear the Alpha as soon as it appeared, and turned around to meet it. While she was turning, she yelled out “[Magic Fist - Gust]!” and the spell combined with the [Ember] she had cast earlier, covering her fist in a cluster of flames.
Q managed to time her attack perfectly, as her punch managed to hit the Alpha right in its jaw, dealing substantial damage and knocking the Alpha to the side. Q didn’t stop there though, as she pounced on the Alpha, not wanting to let it disappear into the shadows again. Just as Q jumped, the Alpha was able to recover and move out of the way, dodging Q’s stab.
Seeing that the Alpha had managed to get away, Q decided to cast another [Tri-Spark] and dashed towards it. The Alpha jumped backwards and retreated quite a distance, then dug its claws into the ground. It crouched down and growled menacingly as its horn began to glow again. “Another charge? Fine with me.” Q also lowered her body and prepared herself to meet the Alpha’s charge.
Last time the Alpha charged, Q had her back turned and was unprepared. This time she was fully aware of what was coming next, and was ready for it. Feeling far more confident with dealing with the charge this time, Q decided to taunt it a bit. “Come on Wolfy, let’s see if you can hit me this time.” She swung her tail back and forth while also making a ‘come at me’ gesture with her fingers.
Seeing this display the Alpha decided to attack! For a moment Q was surprised at its speed, but quickly regained her composure. Now that she was facing the Alpha, she saw that the aura around the horn gathered to the point and sharpened, becoming as pointy as a needle. The Alpha then exerted force into its legs and dashed forward. As it ran, the aura around its horn began spinning and created a sort of ‘drill barrier’ which began gouging out the ground. Not yet… not yet… Q stood perfectly still as the Alpha got closer and closer.
Once the two’s distance was less than a few meters, Q muttered “Toro, toro…” and then threw herself to the side while also swiping at the Alpha’s eye. Her knife was stopped by the horn’s aura though, and actually broke into pieces! Luckily Q herself was able to dodge the attack by a hairsbreadth, and seeing the Alpha’s figure which ended up far ahead of her she happily said, “Olé.”
With the Alpha’s movements temporarily sealed, Q took the opportunity to run up to it and attack! Now that her knife was gone, Q had no choice but to rely on her own body and spells to deal damage, so she began to employ them to their fullest extent. She used [Beast Within] and began to slash the Alpha rapidly. In between each of her attacks, she’d use a spell whenever it was off cooldown. In this fashion Q was able to take down the Alpha’s health to half before it started moving again.
The Alpha backed away from Q, and returned to its previous crouching position. The Alpha growled as its horn began to power up again, and was covered in the dark blue aura.
“Hah,” Q sneered. “I can dodge your charge, so it’s usel- WHOA!” Q jumped backwards to avoid a wave of energy that was suddenly shot out from the horn. “...Projectiles now, Wolfy?” Q looked at the Alpha with a disdainful expression while she shot out a flaming bullet.
The Alpha dodged the spell and gave a look that seemed to say “you’re the one who’s been shooting me the entire time”. The Alpha fired another wave and the two began to exchange their own ranged attacks. For the most part the Alpha was able to hit Q a few times as its attack range was quite large, but due to it not being concentrated Q didn’t take a lot of damage. On the other hand Q almost didn’t hit the Alpha at all, now that it was facing her and ready to dodge her spells.
Grr… I might have a lot of mana but at this rate I’ll just run out while exchanging shots. I guess I have no choice but to use ‘that’ to break out of this deadlock! Q stopped shooting her spells, and began running in a large circle around the Alpha, constantly casting [Tri-Spark] when she had the chance and was close enough to hit. The Alpha was incredibly cautious at this point though, and everytime Q came within the distance of a few meters it would jump backwards.
Seeing this, Q jumped backwards and began increasing her distance from the Alpha. For a moment the Alpha was confused, but gave chase anyway. Q disappeared into an underbrush, and just as the Alpha was going to jump in it hesitated. It clearly remembered what happened the last time it blindly jumped in, so instead it backed away from the underbrush and began charging its aura again. After a few seconds it fired out a powerful blast of energy, incomparable to the attacks it had made before.
Once the blast had ended, the underbrush was completely destroyed alongside the things behind it. The Alpha looked at where the underbrush was, but became surprised to find that there was nothing on the other side! It looked around in confusion when it suddenly noticed a shimmering red light approaching from above! “[Magic Fist - Arcane Overload]!” Q descended from a branch on a tree and punched the Alpha directly on its horn!
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
As her fist made contact, strong light emanated from it for a moment before gathering up and releasing a powerful blast of energy! The dark forest was illuminated with a bright light and a loud *snap* was heard as the Alpha’s horn was shattered and broken off! At the same time the surroundings were blown away, leaving a large crater where Q and the Alpha stood on opposite sides.
Q was on her knees, struggling to take a mana potion while she fought against the effects of having no mana. The Alpha on the other hand was howling in pain from having its horn shattered. The horn lay embedded in the ground in the center of the crater, and the blue aura which was emanating from it slowly faded away. The Alpha’s health bar only had a quarter left, and it swayed back and forth unsteadily, but soon regained its senses and charged at Q!
“Ugh… I just shattered your horn. Couldn’t you stay down for a few seconds longer?” Q complained as she tried to dodge the Alpha’s charge. Even though her mana was recovering, she was still slightly dizzy so she couldn’t dodge the charge completely, and was caught on her shoulder.
Letting out a grunt of pain, Q was sent flying backwards while the Alpha followed up with a bite on her arm. “Agh!” Q gritted her teeth and aimed her free hand at the Alpha, casting all the spells she could. “[Ember], [Gust], [Tri-Spark]!” Luckily for Q, her last spell managed to cause the [Stun] status on the Alpha which gave her an opportunity to separate herself from it.
Q took a deep breath and reassessed the situation. My health is less than half, while there’s only a quarter of my mana left… and Wolfy’s not going to give me a chance to use another potion… She watched as the Alpha recovered from being stunned and leaped towards her. Okay, that means it’s going to be a brutal melee battle! Letting out an excited grin, Q also jumped forward to meet its charge.
The two began a terrifying exchange of high speed blows as they dashed around the crater. Q’s attacks were slowly shaving off health from the Alpha, while the Alpha’s attacks would rip out chunks of Q’s health. The one thing that kept Q relatively safe though, was her armor, as it protected most of her vital spots. The only thing she had to be wary of was the Alpha biting any part of her body, as she’d be rendered helpless if she was caught by its jaw again.
In-between her attacks, Q would cast a spell every so often, and at one point she actually managed to inflict a [Burn] status effect using her [Ember] spell. Finally! It’s about time this ring activated its ability! Q took a quick glance at the ruby ring on her finger. With the Alpha receiving extra damage over time, the battle gradually began to swing back into Q’s favor and she redoubled her attacks.
*****
“The light came from over here!” Sal’ Karn told the others as they ran through the forest. “Though be careful, there might be other wolves hiding around, and I can’t find them since my skill is on cooldown.” Each member nodded and they proceeded through the forest with increased vigilance.
After the wolves lost their ability to jump through the shadows, the players had a far easier time dealing with them. They managed to dispatch the wolves in a few minutes, and were now heading to the forest where they last saw Q run into.
“I hear fighting! This way!” Sir Albert pointed towards the center of the forest. All the players began to make their way to the battlefield, and what they saw caused them to gasp in surprise.
There was a deep crater in the center of the woods, and trees and shrubs were thrown about everywhere. Since the trees were cleared away, the moonlight was able to shine down and illuminate the two figures moving inside the crater. The fox-kin girl with burning red hair, and the alpha shadow wolf with jet black fur were fighting with incredible speed and ferocity.
Despite the fact that these two were fighting, it looked more like a frenzied dance. Q led the Alpha around the crater, while the Alpha made rapid dashes to close the distance on Q. From afar it looked like a bright flame was slowly flickering, while a dark shadow constantly chased after it.
For a moment they were completely mesmerized with the sight in front of them, and watched Q and the Alpha fight each other. “Hold on a moment.” Sir Albert said, “This is no time to be watching! We must go in there and help miss Q!” He brought out his sword and was about to charge into the crater, when suddenly a blade appeared in front of him!
Sir Albert’s eyes followed the blade, and found that it was Brie who was stopping his advance. “Lady Brie, why are you stopping me?”
“... Don’t interfere.” Brie said curtly as she turned to watch the battle. I believe Q wants to fully enjoy this battle. It would be dishonorable for us to join in suddenly.
While the rest of Sir Albert’s party was confused, none of them made a move forward as they didn’t want to anger Brie. As the players moved around to get a better view, Q’s fight with the Alpha was beginning to reach its climax.
The Alpha’s health was less than ten percent, while Q’s was hovering around thirty percent. Standing on opposite sides of the crater, they glared at each other for a few seconds, and then both dashed towards each other! Q started off by shooting a flaming bullet which the Alpha avoided, and then followed up with [Tri-spark] when she got close enough.
The Alpha ducked to the left and suddenly without warning the blue aura appeared around its body! For a moment Q noticed that the horn embedded in the ground had transferred a bit of its aura to the Alpha, which allowed it to use one last aura attack! Q tried to avoid the blast of energy coming towards her, but was unable to and got knocked onto her back. The Alpha then jumped onto Q and pinned her to the ground, and began biting her neck.
“ARGH!” Q screamed in pain as she watched her health rapidly decrease.
“We need to help her, now!” Sir Albert ran down the side of the crater, disregarding Brie’s warning. Unfortunately he tripped on a root on the way down, and began tumbling down the crater. While the rest of his party watched him fall, Q used a skill.
“[Relentless Assault]!” Q’s body began moving on its own as her arms broke away from the Alpha’s hold, and began wildly slashing at it. The Alpha responded in kind, using its claws to scratch at Q while also biting harder than before. With a few seconds of struggling, Q managed to leverage her legs underneath the Alpha and pushed up with all her might! The Alpha was sent flying through the air, and Q finally got up on her legs.
The Alpha managed to land on its feet, and dashed towards Q who began running away from it. The other players watched in horror as the Alpha quickly caught up to Q, and just as it jumped forward Q turned around with something in her hand!
“This is the end!” Q yelled as she stabbed the Alpha in the chest with its horn which was in the ground. The Alpha fell on the ground and struggled to pick itself up. All the players went silent as they watched the Alpha’s health drain away slowly. With a bit of effort, the Alpha sat on its hind legs and gave Q a look of respect. Just as its health reached zero, the Alpha lowered its head to Q, and then disappeared in a particle of lights.
Panting for breath, Q watched the light disappear into the sky and said, “Your fur was soft this time Wolfy…” Q and the other players were then bombarded with multiple windows which described their rewards from the battle.
[Level Up!] x2
[Stats Gained!]
[Skill Proficiency Gained]
[Spell Proficiency Gained]
[Congratulations! You have slain a Unique Monster!] - Unique monsters only appear once in the world, and defeating them gives great rewards!
[New Title] - (Unique Slayer) Provides 10% extra damage against named monsters.
[Items Received]
[Wolfy’s Horn (Crafting Material, Unique)] - The Horn of an Alpha Shadow Wolf. If it is processed properly, one can bring out the full power of the shadow wolves.
[New Skill] - Summon Wolfy (Active, Consumes 300 Mana, 24 hour cooldown) Once used, you can summon Wolfy with additional wolves for one hour (or until they are defeated in battle). Wolfy’s level will be equal to yours, and the extra wolves are half of your level. Can currently summon 2 extra wolves.
After reading her rewards, Q became ecstatic upon finding out that she could summon Wolfy. At this point she finally noticed the other players who were looking at her from the edge of the crater, as well as Sir Albert whose face was firmly planted into the ground.
“Uhh… Hi guys.” Q gave a little wave as she began making her way up to the other players.
“Miss Q, I- Oh, you’ve already defeated it.” Sir Albert finally picked himself up and began brushing off the dirt which covered his armor.
“Congratulations Q. That was a wonderful fight.” Brie nodded.
“Nice job lil’ lass. That was one hell of a battle!” Baldur let out a hearty laugh.
“Well, not that we even saw most of the fight…” Magnus folded his arms. “But judging by this giant crater, I’m sure it was very intense.”
“Do you need heals?” Celinus asked as she brought out her staff. “That ending became very dicey you know? I almost used a healing spell on you, though Brie stopped me.” She smiled wryly.
Sal’ Karn didn’t say anything special, but he did look at Q with renewed interest.
“Well, let’s head back to camp.” Q said once she got back up to the other players. “Right now, I just want to rest by the fireplace and drink hot chocolate.” The players then made their way back to the camp, and what they saw there surprised them.
“Oh hey everyone.” Kukis greeted them. “Where did you all go?”
“No questions.” Q said. “Just pass me some hot chocolate.”
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Whoo! Um, sorry about no chapter last week. Hopefully this one is awesome enough to make up for it.
Also I want to apologize for leaving the revision of previous chapters at a standstill. As it stands, some things are inconsistent so I'm sorry for that, but I also don't have that much time to dedicate to revising previous chapters because I'm writing current ones while also having RL-chan stand close behind me. VERY close behind me.
That stuff aside, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. 'Till next time friends!
Fun-fact: Tombstones were originally meant to push down the soil in order to keep dead people's 'evil spirit' from coming out of the ground. Later on when they were standing up, it was meant as a marker so that people don't step over someone's dead body and get cursed by the spirit.