CHAP 16: Snowy ambush_Witch's pet

Cold.

So cold. We should have brought blankets.

An owl nearby is hooting. Lein's hand is on my back, gently stroking my fur. We've been waiting like that for hours. Now that the sun is down, everyone is accumulating stress. The goblin stealth squad should be here soon.

We arrived here earlier than expected and had to wait hidden in the snow. To pass time, the soldiers asked Lein what happened to the town of Terrnit. The blond idiot named Albius decided it was the right time to pick a fight.

"If the town's guards were of your caliber, it's no surprise it was destroyed in a day."

Some of the soldiers threw harsh glances at him but none had the time to argue before Lein interupted.

"You do know you are even worse right? I defeated you easily remember?"

She has a point.

"You have a wise beast! There is no honor in hiding behind your expensive pet bought by daddy."

"My father didn't buy Fenrir, and I don't remember you doing anything else than use your dog as a frontline brute."

He's getting red again. Quite quick to upset.

"At least I have a father!"

Childish. Truly unbefitting of any grown-up man.

The man sneered at Lein. She did tense up but didn't answer. Some of the others told Albius he was going too far but he didn't seem to care.

Lein got up from the tree stump she was sitting on and, without a word, rose her hand. Albius tried to get his own in the way of a potential slap.

She then proceed to kick him full force between the legs and finally answered his taunt.

"I guess you won't be one though."

Not the most mature thing to do but it felt right. And the blond idiot deserved it.

Most of the soldiers ignored Albius, though one decided to help him with a healing spell.

No one else tried to bother Lein that day. She kept petting me for the next hours.

The following three hours went by in silence. When night finally came, everyone was covered in some wild plants and sprayed with wild berry perfume to prevent the wolves from picking up our scent, Ophelia then gave orders and everyone took position. A simple yet deadly pincer maneuver. At that point Lein finally let me go.

And now we wait.

I took advantage of the free time I had to summarize what spells I could use in my current state. Spell copying didn't prove to be really useful as Lein is the only person that use offensive spells that I know. Veria, Reus and most of the soldiers just don't use magic and the rare one that do are medics specialized in healing magic.

So I was left with anything my memory kept intact enough to be casted. Not much apparently, it seems like the effect of my "death" destroyed parts of my memories. I can barely remeber why I choose to become a witch's beast. Remebering the specifics of the spells was a pain.

In fact I can barely remeber my four favorite spells. Well they are more curses than spells actually.

Curse of sloth

Greatly lowers the target's agility, perception and endurance for the duration of the curse.(2min base duration,mana cost: 300)

Visions of madness

Fill the target's mind with images of insanity, causing great chaos in it's mind. Can give random abnormal mental status with a probability set by the user's intelligence and the target's wisdom.(5min effect duration,mana cost per second: 150)

Brand of decay

Place a brand of decay upon the target, reducing it's health, mana and stamina over time until the caster or the target dies.(mana cost: 2.000)

Prelude to the end of times

Summon the apocalypse! The first act of the symphony of the end. This spell's mana cost cannot be reduced by more than 50%.(mana cost: 10.000)

I can also remember the basic mandatory spells for mage-type adventurers. Probably because my instructor at the time kept harrasing me with them.

Light

Continuously burn mana to generate a small lightsource in proximity to the caster.(mana cost per second: 5)

Detoxify

Remove the effects of harmful components in target's blood. Doesn't work on living oragnisms. (mana cost: 40)

Wound reduction

Reduce the size of targeted external wound. Mana cost will increase the size of the wound. Doesn't give the lost health and blood back.(base mana cost: 20)

Matchstick

Generate a small flame on contact.(mana cost:20)

Matchstick is the spell I used to burn the tent in the goblin's camp and Albius's dog's fur, it lacks power but is enough to start a fire with any kind of fuel. Light is useless for me since my cat's eye allready do the job. Though I guess it doesn't work in pure darkness. Plus light can be used to support Lein.

Detoxify and wound reduction are far worse than they seem. They are pretty limited and the description doesn't mention the fact that they fail on powerful poisons and afflicted wounds. Still better than nothing.

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Then come the curses. Sloth is a good way to slow down opponents that are too fast for me and madness is really powerful but prevents me from casting anything else while I'm using it. And they still need far too much mana.

My other curses are definitely out. Decay is extremely powerful, but 2000 is far too much mana and the prelude is even worse. The description doesn't really tell what it does but I remember that the effects vary depending on where it is casted. Though most of the time it only brings destruction.

If I want to use them, I'll need to find a low cost curse spell to get and level up my curse mastery. I'll look into that once we are done with the goblin problem.

For now I'll do with the basic spells. I think …

Everyone is tensing up. Bows are drawn, swords are unsheated.

They are coming, I can smell them, sweat urine and even abit of blood. They have wolves.

I can now hear the sound of their feets in the snow. One of them is giving wispered commands. They are clueless. For now.

Should be in bow range now, some of the soldiers are taking aim. Ophelia signaled that there are ten seconds left before engage. I can feel the pressure ramping up.

Five seconds left. One of the wolf riders is coming next to me and Lein. I am taking a position to attack as soon as he comes into my viewfield.

Two seconds left. I can hear his regular and calm breath.

One second left. The muscles in my legs are tensing up, my mind is focused on light, I will briefly flash it in the eyes of our unsuspecting opponent. If I cast it in front of me Lein shouldn't be affected.

Now! The spell shone in front of my closed eyes as I relied entirely on sound to know how the goblin moved. As I opened them I was already facing the grunt's face and jumped at him. I clawed maddly at his eyes, gouging out one of them with a powerful claw strike.

Your target was disfigured for 48 sharp damage.

At the moment Lein froze the wolf's front legs, I dodged the hands of the now blind goblin by jumping off and used a small burst of gigantification to increase my weight and strength. As I hit the wolf's head, Lein stabbed the goblin's throat with her dagger.

Your target was knocked out for 34 blunt damage, stunned for 2 seconds.

The wolf didn't die but was stuned and Lein also stabbed him, in the eye this time. A small piece of brain slid from her blade as she removed it from the now limp beast.

Around us, most of the soldiers had left their hideouts and attacked. About a hundred goblins were already on the ground, arrows protuding from their skulls or chest. Most of the sword wielding soldiers were already engaging the scattered goblin scouts.

The goblins leader shouted to get his men's attention. They regrouped in front of him, raising their shields to deploy a defensive line. A few slings users tried to counterattack but were quickly shot down by the archers.

When the goblins finished their defensive line, Lein summoned a ice domain that froze them in place. They could defend from the front, but not from the back, and now that they couldn't move our allies had all the time they needed to circle around them.

The fight quickly became a slaughter, goblins were shot and slashed relentlessly . Ophelia was decapitating a goblin with each of the movements of her halberd. Even Albius was pulling quite the kill count, his dog prevented ennemies to bother him while he kept nailing the heads of the blue pests with arrows.

The goblin's leader, realizing this battle was already lost, dashed toward one of the few wolf riders that survived and pulled him down. He jumped on his wolf and fled without even giving a last order to his troops. The remaining goblins lost whatever will to fight they had laft and fled too.

"Don't let them alert the general!" Ophelia shouted.

Most of the cowardly runts were backstabbed but the leader was already out of bow's range. One of the soldiers rushed toward the horses to give chase but it was clear he wouldn't be fast enough.

I used metamorphosis, though this time I kept moving during the transformation. The strange mist followed me without problem but the sudden change made me lose my balance and I stumbled, losing some time even though I didn't really fell.

As I finally turned into a horse, Lein jumped on my back, without any harness or saddle. Quite bold. I like that girl.

We followed the wolf through the dark woods. I managed to avoid most obstacles thanks to my cat's eye. Yes, I am a horse with cat's eyes. The wolf is even better than me at navigating the forest, but his overhall speed is way lower than mine. We are getting close. I can feel that Lein is ready to cast a spell as soon as she gets an opening.

I'll give her one. I used sugestion on the wolf to make him jump over a rock. As he was jumping I charged into it's flank.

Your target has been tackled! You inflicted 151 blunt damage, target and rider fell.

Both the rider and his mount were sent flying. As I stopped in front of them Lein summoned an ice domain.

I crushed the wolf's face under my hooves and Lein stabbed the goblin leader. Mission complete!

Your target fell over for 47 blunt damage, target is dead.

Lein decided leaving it like that was a waste so she looted the goblin and put the wolf's body on my back so one of the soldiers could butcher it.

When we came back everyone was already cheering. Ophelia didn't approve.

"You'll rejoice when we are done with them. This is just the begining. Tommorow we will flank their main force when Reus's troops will fight them in the plain."

We were supposed to do the same as the goblins we killed. The battle would happen next to the forest and we would have to circle around the enemy's troops to strike their unprotected rear.

Today was a bloody battle. We didn't have any loss on our side but tommorow won't be the same.

Also gallop gained a level today.

Status:

Name: Fenrir

Master: Lein Ardegarde

Age: 3 weeks

Specie: Witch's beast (Rank:2)

Gender: Male

HP:275/275

MP:26/26

Level: 44

Attributes:

STR:20 END:23 DEX:28 INT:36 LCK:26

AGI:53 VIT:24 PER:29 WIS:26 CHR:16

Jobs:

Feline seer lvl 60(9%)

Black horse lvl 7(96%)

Skills:

Metamorphosis (Active) lvl 0(50%)

Change between availables forms.(2 min duration,1 h cooldown, unlocked forms: Black cat)

Cat's eye (Passive) lvl 2(19%)

Enhanced vision in low light environments.(55% increase)

Stealth (Active) lvl 3(27%)

When activated, you are harder to notice . (-14% presence, affected by agility)

Plague eater (Passive) lvl 0(79%)

You have less chance of being infected by diseased food. (20% reduced infectivity of food)

Track (Active) lvl 1(22%)

You can follow the traces of preys that will appear as colored trails.(Range 3km, precision based on lvl and target)

Luck stealer (Passive) lvl 2(12%)

Reducing someone's luck will boost yours.(+5% of stolen LCK for 20% of duration)

Pounce (Active) lvl 2(27%)

You lunge at an enemy, damage increased on unalerted targets. (2.10m range, +45% stealth damage, damage based on strength and dexterity)

Natural weapons (Passive) lvl 1(9%)

Your claws, fangs or other biological weapons are strenghtened. (+20% damage)

Stalk (Passive) lvl 0(96%)

Increase speed when following a target in stealth.(+15% speed, affected by agility)

Curse perception (Toggle) lvl 0(49%)

When used you will be able to see curses. Higher levels allows to see with more precision and to differentiate curses. (affected by perception)

Telekinesis (Active)(Linked:cat) lvl 1(32%)

You can generate force by will.(4.5m range, 1.2kg max weight, affected by intelligence)

Magic sight (Toggle) lvl 0(13%)

Allows one to see mana. Higher level will allow to differentiate magic types and mana concentration.(affected by perception)

Mind cast (Toggle) lvl 0(7%)

When the skill is active, known spells can be casted by thought but cost extra mana and are less efficient(+30% mana cost increase,-40% spell power)

Spell copying (Passive) lvl 0(7%)

You can learn spell by watching peoples use them. The more you see and the more you learn about a spell will increase chance of obtention. The more complex and powerful a spell is the harder it will be to imitate. You will still need to meet the spell's requirements.

Sugestion (Active) lvl 0(76%)

You can incite the mind of others. Your suggestions can be resisted or blocked but are near impossible to ignore. Higher level will allow use in combat.(5m range, efficiency based on intelligence and wisdom)

Forced empathy (Active) lvl 1(23%)

You forcefully send your feeling to someone. Can only be used when in contact. Higher level will allow the transmition of fabricated feelings.

Mind read (Active) lvl 0(8%)

You can read the mind of peoples. Higher levels will allow acces to memories and feelings.(3m range, efficiency based on intelligence)

Gallop (Active)(Linked:horse) lvl 1(12%)

Greatly increase speed but takes increased time to slow down and rapidly consume stamina.(60%speed increase,20% extra stamina cost,40%less deceleration efficiency, efficiency based on strenght and endurance)

Heavy charge(Active) lvl 0(24%)

You are able to make good use of your weight when charging.(25% of weight added as extra damage when charging, increased by an extra 25% if target is less than half your weight)

Natural resistances(Passive) lvl 0(7%)

You are an expert at resisting the dangers of the wild.(30% extra resistance to wild poisonous plants and diseases, weather effect on stamina, mp and hp are reduced by 20%, scales with endurance and vitality)

Nightmare ride(Active) lvl 0(0%)

You are the perfect steed for a terrifying ride, you inflict fear on nearby ennemies when someone is mounting you. (10m range, scales with charisma)

Fire mastery (Passive) lvl 0(3%)

Fire magic's damage and efficiency are increased.(10% extra damage,-5% mana cost)

Abilities:

Gigantification (Active) lvl 1(36%)

You temporarily gain size and the strenght to move with said size. The spell constantly drains mana and cost more for bigger sizes.(2.9s base transformation time, 9.5 min cooldown after end of effect)

Perks:

Reborn (Achievement)

You were given a second chance as a new being ! EXP and Proficiency gained +10%

Black cat's curse (Specie)

You are an omen of bad luck. LCK -20% for 2 h to anyone who looks at you. Can't be stacked, doesn't affect allies.

Feline(Specie)(Linked:cat)

Your claws can be retracted.Your steps are lighter. (-40% noise generated by movement.)

Curse affinity(Specie)

Curses are 30% less efficient on you and 30% more on your enemies(only affect curses casted by the owner of the skill)

Man's best friend(Achievement)

You helped your master selflessly, affinity with all master's increased. In addition, you gain extra experience by helping your master.

Strong mind(Specie)

Your mind is powerful, mind attacks are reduced by 20%, mind magic is 20% more efficient.

Steed(Specie)(Linked:horse)

You are an trained steed, stablility of rider is increased by 40%, rider weight impact on endurance consumption is reduced by 20%.

Known Spells:

Matchstick(Fire)

Generate a small flame on contact.(mana cost:20)

Wound reduction(Life)