Chapter 1.10 First Battle

Melinda grasped the two thick horns that grew from her forehead. They rose upward and then rounded backward, gradually thinning and ending with a sharp end. They were over forty centimeters long and rough to the touch. That's where the extra 25 centimeters of height came from.

The horns did not please her, to say the least. It was too much, even for her. She doomedly sat on the ground and fell into depression, unable to deal with reality. An unknown amount of time passed until Melinda heard a growl nearby. Turning her head instinctively, she saw several beasts that looked like wolves, only bigger. More than a meter long and three-quarters of a meter tall. Their dark, almost black fur sat tightly on them, and it looked smooth and glistened brightly in the sunlight.

There were four of them. They stood with their mouths open, saliva dripping from their mouths, and they stared with bright red eyes in her direction. One wolf was a little closer than the others. He seemed to be the one growling. He also looked slightly different from the other three - a little larger and with reddish streaks on his body.

'Probably their leader, ' Melinda thought.

She got up slowly and without panic turned in their direction. She had no weapons. Nor would she be able to run away from them. So, she decided to retreat to the edge of the forest. If she was lucky, she might find a thicker fallen branch to protect herself from them. Or climb a tree, which was harder for her. She slowly backed sideways toward the forest, keeping her eyes on the wolves. The leader arched his face upward and let out a high-pitched howl that sent a chill down Melinda's spine. The three smaller wolves moved forward, spreading slightly and trying to surround her from different sides.

'Clever beasts, ' Melinda thought.

One wolf came closer than the others. She made a threatening lunge in its direction. The wolf jumped back a meter, bared its teeth, and growled.

'And not cowardly, either, ' she noticed. 'What to do? '

However, she left with no choice and no time. Another wolf jumped, aiming for her throat, and Melinda had to duck in a hurry. Another jumped. This time she didn't have time to dodge, so she clenched her fist and decided to strike back. She aimed her fist at its head, but at the last moment, the wolf ducked. It was a close call, barely touching his ear. But it was enough to make the wolf jump away and howl resentfully. Melinda was injured, too. The wolf clawed at her shoulder, ripping the fabric and scratching her skin.

At that moment, the next one decided to bite her leg.

'No fucking chance, ' Melinda grinned mentally. When the wolf was near her leg, she kicked it with all her might under its front paw.

It was a good blow. The wolf flew a couple of meters and fell sideways. But he was still alive and relatively unharmed. At that moment, the first two decided to attack again, leaping at her one by one. Again, Melinda dodged one and tried to hit the other. This time she hit where she was aiming, but it wasn't a strong blow. There were no scratches on her body this time, just scraped skin on her knuckles.

They circled around each other for a minute or two, ducking and attacking monotonously. Two of the wolves were limping by this time, and the third was stunned after a lucky hit to the snout by Melinda. But she had suffered, too. The skirt of her dress is torn in two places. Two deep scratches appeared on her arm. There was another scratch on her leg. Her shoulders were also cut. The wounds were unpleasantly bleeding and stinging.

The wolves had slowed noticeably and attacked less frequently. Melinda, on the other hand, felt no fatigue. She smiled. She thought victory was near. But she forgot that there were four wolves, not three.

Suddenly a sharp pain pierced her body. Tears came to her eyes. She turned her head back instinctively to see what had happened. The leader of the pack, whom she had forgotten about, had closed his jaws on the tip of her tail. Now he was wrestling with her on all four paws, growling and trying to tear her tail off. With each movement, she felt a new wave of pain.

A wave of rage overtook Melinda. She spun sharply toward the leader. She had only one desire: to tear the beast apart with her bare hands. The result was unexpected for everyone. As she turned, her tail yanked the leader suddenly forward, pulling him off the ground and following her tail. Out of surprise, he forgot to loosen his jaws. So, he flew off with her tail. And when Melinda turned around, there was neither the leader nor her tail.

Behind her, there was a thump, a crunch, and then a faint whimper. Melinda was pierced by pain again, though not as intense. She spun around rapidly again, this time in the reverse direction. The leader was still clutching his jaw around her tail. He flew with it again, but halfway through Melinda's turn, his jaw loosened completely. He was thrown through the air to the nearest tree. On which he collided with his backbone in an unfortunate crunch.

The two wolves in front of Melinda lay on the ground. One was motionless with its tongue stuck out. The other whimpered, trying to get up on his paws, but he couldn't. One paw a broken and twisted at an unnatural angle. A yellowish bone stuck out from the bloody fur.

Melinda growled and leaped toward it. She started pounding her fist into his head until she heard a crunch and the wolf fell dead.

Nearby she heard a growl. When she turned her head, she saw a third wolf limping on its front paw and about to jump at her, aiming for her throat. Without thinking, Melinda grabbed the wolf lying in front of her by its hind legs. She used the wolf's body as a club and swung it at her attacker. It wasn't a strong blow, but it was enough to knock the wolf aside.

She swung again, aiming with the body at his face. The wolf ducked, pressing its muzzle to the ground, and then leaped at Melinda again, sensing the opportune moment. Melinda took a step back and to the side, and then in a reverse motion, just fighting back, suddenly hit the wolf's muzzle. It fell to the ground, stunned, and began whimpering and waving it from side to side. She didn't give him a second chance because she swung and hit him with the wolf's carcass with all her might. There was a crunch, and the wolf collapsed motionlessly.

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Melinda was able to catch her breath a little. The only one left alive was the leader, who was lying and whining near a tree with a broken spine. Melinda heard the whining and turned her head in his direction. The leader met her gaze and suddenly fell silent from his whining. Red eyes stared at him, blazing with rage. Suddenly he felt as if he were an ant about to be crushed by a demoness. She slowly straightened up and turned in his direction, keeping her eyes on him. She was dragging the dead body of his kin behind her by the legs. When the demoness was not far from him, she swung the dead body with great force. The last thing the leader felt was a heavy blow to the head before he lost consciousness forever.

Melinda swung the wolf's body at the leader with great force. She hit where she aimed, but as a result, the "baton" broke. The skull cracked and the neck vertebrae snapped. The "baton" now resembled a wet rag. She tossed it aside and began punching the leader with her fists. It took her a time until, at last, she heard the long-awaited crunch. A smile spread across her face, and it froze in place.

Ding • Your skills are growing

Achieved: Unarmed combat level 1

Ding • Your Skills are growing

Achieved: Combat Concentration level 1

Ding • Your Skills are growing

Achieved: Evasion level 1

Ding • You have gained a new trait

Gained: Combat Rage

Ding • You gained a new title

Gained: Ruthless

Slowly, the smile on Melinda's face changed to horror. Her fists covering in blood and some other bits and pieces. She immediately jumped up and took a step away from the leader.

"Who invented this game!" She shouted, "This isn't a game at all!"

The wounds on her body were no longer bleeding. Only her tail was still bleeding and a little aching. Melinda sat down on the grass nearby. She needed some time to recover. So, she sat for a long time without moving. Feeling the dried crust of salt left by her tears on her cheek, Melinda wanted to wipe it off with her hand. When she raised her hands to her face, she saw the bloody fingers and palm. She moved her hands away in horror.

Looking around, she stood up and walked over to the corpse of the leader. Leaning over, she wiped her hands on its clean fur. She suddenly wanted to get away from the scene of this carnage. Without thinking, she went into the woods. But she could not go far. After a couple of minutes of walking, she caught her horns on a branch and fell on her back, hitting her head on a tree root.

Groaning in pain and rubbing the bump on her head, she tried to get up. It didn't work. Her hair got caught on a root and had to be released from its captivity. Finally freeing them, she slowly stood up and walked farther. Now she walked carefully around the trees and occasionally lifted branches to go under them. But once again she was out of luck. Walking under one tree with thick branches, she lifted the branch closest to her, as usual. But her hair caught unluckily in the tree trunk, and her hand slipped off the branch, which hit her in the horns.

Melinda tried to go forward, but no such luck. Her horns and hair were firmly caught in the branches.

It took her a long time to free both horns and hair. She had to pull literally a single strand of hair out of its captivity.

Finally freed from its captivity, she struck the trunk of the tree angrily with all her might. The tree creaked, protesting against such violence, and showered her with leaves and small bits of dried wood from head to toe. Some of the leaves got behind her scruff.

"I hate this game already! " Shouted Melinda now carefully getting rid of the leaves.

‘Better get back to the clearing and wait for help there,’ she thought, turning around in the direction she'd come.

The way back took more than half an hour. There were a few small animals along the way, but they ran away immediately. Birds flew over the trees a couple of times, but Melinda couldn't get a good look at them. They flew way too fast. She got tangled in branches a couple more times along the way and wasted time trying to free herself. Still, she made it to the clearing. At first, she thought she'd reached another clearing, and she immediately panicked. But then she saw the crater and calmed down. She came out into the same clearing but from the other side. She almost walked right past it, though.

After sitting on the edge of the clearing to rest, she then got up and walked to the site of the battle with the wolves. She then dragged all the wolves to one spot, after which she sat down on the grass beside them. The red lifeless eyes of the wolves did not seem so threatening now. After the battle had been over, she heard the messages in her head, and now she wondered what they meant. Unfortunately, there was no log of the messages, and Melinda could only rely on her memory.

"Open my player status," she said in a voice, and a player status window opened before her eyes:

Name: Melinda Banhart

Age: 27

Race: half human

Gender: Female

Ethics: Neutral

Morals: Neutral

Body →

Soul →

Job →

Class →

Titles →

Traits →

Skills →

Body Fatigue: 2%

???: 0% х30/41

The short, brutal fight added 1% to her body’s fatigue.

'Hmm, still neutral, ' she thought, looking at Ethics and Morals.

The changes related, as far as she remembered, to Titles, Traits, and Skills. The first thing she opened was the "Titles".

Name: Melinda Banhart

Age: 27

Race: half human

Gender: Female

Valid titles:

Ruthless →

'That's it, ' she thought, and mentally clicked on the title and said the title name. A window appeared in front of her with a description.

Title

Ruthless

Description

•You are cruel and have no sympathy for the troubles and suffering of others.

•You mercilessly and inevitably destroy your enemies, ignoring their pleas for mercy

Bonuses

• Ethics: Chaos +1

• Morale: Evil +1

'So, +1 isn't enough for a noticeable change, ' Melinda thought and sighed with relief.

Though the description of the Title was troubling, the lack of change in Ethics and Morality pleased her. She didn't want to get evil at all. That usually meant having trouble communicating with local NPCs.