You’re freezing your ass off.
The cold causes all stats to decrease by 5%
Unless you get warmer, stats will continue to decrease.
I tried to mitigate the cold by keeping my torch close, but all that seemed to do was singe my eyebrows.
“The forest is so different at night,” Abbey noted.
“Yes,” I agreed. “And these torches don’t do shit.” At best, we could only see around ten yards ahead. Shadow mired anything beyond.
“It’s not just that. It’s all the noises. Things are all over the place,” said Abbey, taking a couple steps towards me. “And with this light we won’t be able to see any of them before they are on top of us.”
“Best keep it down then,” said Warren. “If we’re quiet we might hear something we can’t see.”
With that, the conversation died down. We followed Warren’s lead as he tried to follow different sets of tracks to their source, but after an hour we had yet to see anything and the weather was starting to get to everyone.
“Like, how much further are we going?” asked Faye for the fifth time.
“As far as we have to,” said Klein. The cold had sobered him up rather quickly.
“Maybe we should stop here and rest,” I said as we came to a clearing. “It doesn’t look like Warren’s tracking is working.”
“It’s not me. It’s the damn torches. The fire is scaring everything off before we can get close,” he explained.
“Are you sure there isn’t anything that won’t be scared off by the fire?” I asked.
“Only something with a lot of power behind it, an apex predator that has no reason to fear anything in this mountain range,” said Warren.
As if on cue, numerous howls came from the distance. The howls and their echoes reverberated off the surrounding mountains, blending into a continuous cacophony that seemed to beat down on us from every direction.
“Can anyone tell where it’s coming from?” I asked.
“No,” said Warren. “But they’re getting closer.” We all trembled as we realized Warren was correct. The howls were growing louder.
“I told you this wasn’t a good idea. We should have stayed in bed,” said Abbey, voicing what everyone was thinking, well what almost everyone was thinking.
“Man up. Let’s do this,” Klein shouted, embedding his torch deep into the ground to free both hands for his oversized axe. “Here we make our stand.”
We followed Klein’s lead. Not that we had any choice, the howls seemed to be coming from everywhere so any direction we went would be as likely to lead us into greater danger than into safety.
“Incoming,” said Warren. His enhanced visual skills allowed him to better identify subtle movements in the shadows beyond the reach of our flickering torches.
“Klein, on your left,” Warren warned, just before a large black wolf leapt from the darkness.
“What?” Klein’s response came a moment too late. He turned just in time to see the wolf chomp down on his wrist. Warren loosed a couple arrows into the wolf’s side, encouraging it to let go while Abbey used a healing spell to restore Klein’s arm.
Faye and I would have come to Klein’s aid as well, but we were preoccupied by the arrival of additional wolves. Tooth and claw met magic and steel in our desperate struggle against the pack. Klein, Warren, Faye, and I each handled our own wolf while Abbey retreated behind to support from the rear.
I shoved a wolf back with the shaft of my spear, creating enough space between us so I could stab through its open jaws and penetrate its brain. I tried to aid the others with their wolves, but as if summoned by the dying wolf’s cry, more wolves emerged from the shadows and attacked.
The fighting droned on for several hours as an unending tide of wolves just kept on coming. We were often forced to fend off two or three wolves each as the body count slowly built up; growing so numerous we had to relocate several times lest drown in a sea of corpses.
As the fight wore on, fatigue gradually wore on all of us. Sure, we had Abbey’s recovery spells and a number of potions to keep our bodies in good condition, but that did little for the state of our minds. Mental fatigue gradually built up, exacerbated by depression caused by the seemingly limitless number of wolves. We started to make mistakes, started requiring even greater amounts of healing, which only brought about the next problem.
“Hey does anyone have any elixirs left?” I asked realizing I had just run out of the vital stamina restoring fluid.
“Here,” said Warren, passing me a small blue bottle between bowshots. “Try to make it last, I’m almost out.”
I yanked out the cork and took a couple swigs greedily. A wave of energy ran across my body, starting in my gut before rolling out to my fingertips, all the while removing soreness throughout my bones and muscles.
Ding.
You have ingested too much and have gotten sick.
Please wait between successive consumables.
Agility -10%
A ten percent speed loss might not seem like a big deal, but when coupled with the reduction of all my stats from the cold my effective combat ability was cut in half.
The more I learned of this world, the more it seemed like the one I left. This wasn’t just like any game. If you ran too much, you got tired. If you ate too much, you got sick. You even got weaker from the cold. All like the ‘real’ world.
It wasn’t much longer before the last of the wolves joined the heap of their brethren. We all collapsed to the ground and exchanged relieved looks, the gauntness of our faces revealing the depths of our exhaustion.
“That… was… a… close one,” said Klein between gasps of air. “Maybe it… was a mistake… coming out here.”
“Like finally,” said Faye. “Can we like go now? I’m going to like totally catch a cold.” Faye took advantage of the opportunity to move into Warren’s embrace under the pretext of warmth.
“And how does an ice queen catch a col- aahh,” Klein joked before a slab of snow materialized above his head and dropped on it.
“Ok, let’s go,” I said, too exhausted to try to break things up when Klein responded with a fistful of ash from a burned out torch.
Before leaving, we moved to skin some of the bodies. Wolf meat was too sinewy for food, but we could sell the fur for a tidy sum. Before we could get very far, we were interrupted.
“Ooooooooooooooowwwwwwhhhooooooo!!!”
A solitary thunderous howl rattled the earth with its great intensity. I had yet to see anything but I knew instantly what it was, what it had to be, the wolf boss. We were in no condition to fight. We had to get out of there. I glanced around at my companions. The depth of their jaws indicated agreement. So we ran.
We stumbled over tree roots and under branches as we hurdled ourselves back towards Mill Valley, but given the amount of time we’d spent walking there, even running we wouldn’t get back anytime soon. As we ran, the single howl multiplied becoming a strange sort of grumble. As time passed, the sound grew steadily and even over my own loud rasping breath, I heard the sound of panting advancing on either side.
“They’re surrounding us,” Warren shouted from a few yards ahead. We all began to see wolf forms mostly concealed in distant shadows as they ran alongside, gradually overtaking us, gradually surrounding us.
Then I saw it. Directly ahead, revealed by the light of the full moon, was the wolf boss. The wolf boss was white and three times larger than the others were, but that wasn’t what set it apart. Brilliant cords of light emitted from the wolf’s semitransparent visage. Each cord moved in a high arc through the air before ending on one of the companion wolves that had moved in to surround us.
“G-g-g-g-g-ghost,” Abbey exclaimed.
“Rut roh,” Klein barked as everyone realized what the ghost wolf’s pack consisted of.
The pack was disturbingly familiar. It should have been, since we’d spent half the night dispatching them.
I could hear the grinding of broken b
ones as the zombie wolves shambled towards us, could see the pale fog of my own breath, could feel the wolf boss’ howl still reverberating in my chest, all merging together, enhancing the ever growing sense of finality. This was the end, but I wasn’t going to go quietly.
The battle restarted with our resurrected foes. Like before, we huddled in a tight circle to ensure we couldn’t be flanked. Since the wolves were coming all at once rather than in waves, we were vastly outnumbered.
The battle was different than last time. The undead wolves were far slower than when they had been living, but what they lost in speed they made up for in endurance. I stabbed and slashed at them with my spear, driving it deep into their bodies or crippling their limbs. But, regardless of the severity of the injury, the zombie wolves just kept going. It was only when you damaged their brains did they finally stop.
You might think, well that’s just like any zombie movie, but trust me it wasn’t. In those movies, it always seems so easy, but for someone with my strength and a relatively light weapon like a spear, breaking through bone and penetrating the brain cavity of a moving target was a challenge.
It was half an hour before I made one last stab through an eye socket, finishing off the last zombie wolf. The run and the fight exhausted what little I had in the tank and we hadn’t even fought the wolf boss yet. The wolf boss kept back all throughout the battle as the zombies wore us down. As we killed them, the energy cords broke but the power they contained didn’t go away. With each fallen comrade, the aura around the ghostly wolf intensified until it was utterly blinding. It was as if all of its power had been going to maintain the pack and now that they were gone, it was at full strength.
Hardly giving us a moment’s rest, the ghost wolf dove at us, its spectral form not leaving as much as a foot print as it raced a couple inches above the ground. Warren fired an arrow straight at it only to see the arrow pass harmlessly through its face.
“Piercing Strike,” I shouted, activating my most devastating spear technique against the charging beast, confident that the wolf’s weight and speed would enhance the effectiveness of my strike. Like the arrow, my spear passed right through the wolf, leaving no sign of having done anything.
The wolf continued its charge straight through me. As it passed, a surge of cold froze my insides, causing a painful stinging throughout my body vaguely reminiscent of an extreme bout of brain freeze. I cringed as I saw my already shallow health bar fall by a few more percent.
Just how are we supposed to hurt this thing,” said Klein. His ax had proved equally incapable at wounding the beast.
The wolf turned around to make another pass, but before it could reach us, Faye decided to give her magic a shot.
She summoned a maelstrom, a dizzying whirlwind of snow and hail that brought the wolf boss to a standstill. The wolf snarled and snapped in aggravation as the icy slivers ripped through it, causing parts of its body to decorporealize and fade for a few seconds before it reestablished its hold and returned to semi-transparency.
“Physical attacks don’t work, but magic does,” said Warren.
“Faye can’t kill it by herself,” said Klein. “Abbey, stop healing and help Faye. Focus on smiting the ghost with holy magic. We’ll try to keep it off the two you as best as we can.”
We all spread out. There was no point to stay close any more, all it would do is let the wolf strike at more than one of us at a time.
I was worried. My current health made my death only a couple hits away and although I expected Abbey’s holy magic to be highly effective on the ghost, I had only ever seen her use healing spells and doubted her attack spells had seen much use, it just wasn’t in her nature.
“Hey Wolfie, you think you can take a piece of this?” Klein took a few large practice swings with his ax, giving a full display of his adeptness. “Come tempt your fate.”
The ghost wolf focused on Klein, taking a chomp or two out of him before Warren fired a couple or arrows to draw its attention. Again, the arrows sailed through harmlessly, but it did its job and Warren started receiving the brunt of the wolf boss’ aggression. After Warren took a hit or two, it was my turn.
“Hey, banshee bitch,” I yelled as I picked up a fist-sized rock and tossed it at the wolf. “Yeah, I mean you.” I tried to dive and roll out of the way but the wolf was just a bit too wide. Waves of nausea twisted my guts as the ghost passed through yet again, generating another prickly surge of pain.
This cycle of hot potato continued for several minutes as we tried to keep the wolves off the girls.
Fay and Abbey’s magical attacks were slowly working and over time the wolf’s once glorious white coat lay disheveled. As it took the hits, large clumps of fur started falling out and dissolving back into formless mist. The only question now was who would last longer.
“Another hit and I’m a goner,” I announced after I failed to dodge another pass.
“Same here,” said Klein.
“I’m not much better,” said Abbey. We were really drawing this one down to the wire.
Protecting Faye and Abbey was the only hope any of us had, if they died, the wolf would be as good as immortal. Therefore, despite our fragile states, Klein and I continued to entice the boss into attacking us. This round, the wolf chose to attack Klein and he barely managed to roll out of its way.
“Whew, that was a close one,” said Klein.
“Yeah, we’re not doing half bad,” I said. Almost as soon as I uttered those words, the wolf shifted its focus from Klein to Abbey.
‘Shit.’ Abbey lacked the speed to have any hope of dodging.
Klein dashed to Abbey’s side and hoisted her off the ground with one arm.
“What are you doing?” Abbey shrieked legs kicking the air as Klein tossed her with all his might.
The wolf boss pounced, opened its jaws for a bite, and took it, although perhaps not the one that had been intended. Abbey flew to the side narrowly missing the wolf but Klein didn’t fare so well. Out of canine instinct more than need, the creature’s ghostly jaws snapped and Klein fell. Like flipping a switch, his body collapsed limply to the ground.
Abbey tumbled, the force of the successive hits knocked the staff out of her hand, which continued to slide until it was well outside her reach. I tried to draw the wolf to me, but it wasn’t having any of it and circled back around to strike at Abbey again. Abbey got to her feet and chased after her missing staff.
‘She’s not going to make it,’ I predicted. ‘If only there was something I could do to help, but against this boss I’m next to useless, only Abbey’s holy magic and Faye’s icy elemental magic seems to have an effect. Wait… Elemental?’
An idea sprang into my mind, one of those thoughts so simple, so obvious you smack yourself upside the head for not realizing sooner.
I kicked over one of the torches and slammed down my spear, piercing the torch’s wooden handle. Then I hoisted back up my spear, now topped by the entire torch. ‘Fire spear.’
With the last of my stamina, I hurled the spear as hard as I could. Only once it was in the air did a final regret come to mind. ‘What if I miss?’ Everything was riding on this last ditch effort and I had never bothered to practice throwing my spear before. Alone in the forest, throwing my spear was too risky, if it was lost or damaged I would be left without a weapon. Now that it was necessary, I lamented not trying it before.
The awkwardly balanced, torch-tipped spear sailed through the night air. My target was large and the fire still passed through it. The faltering ghost wolf burst into flames before giving one last blood curdling howl and evaporating, leaving nothing behind but the stony grey wolf crest. The flames consumed even the spear.
You gained 3625 EXP
You gained a level
†Spear Mastery† has reached level 8
You have learned a new spear technique: †Javelin Toss†
†Javelin Toss†
Throw your spear for an additional 400% damage
Relinquishing y
our weapon is a desperate move. Be careful not to lose it
Cost: 100 Energy, 10% chance of your breaking spear
Somehow, I managed to hit the ghost wolf with my unbalanced spear, somehow a torch was able to hurt it, and somehow the minute flame dealt enough damage to finish it off. All these instances of extreme good fortune should have sent me into convulsions, but I was too tired and all I could do was slowly drag myself to the fifth crest, one earned at the cost of an ally.
After a few minutes of rest, I asked what we should do with Klein’s body and was both surprised and disgusted with the answer.
Warren stripped down Klein’s body and handed his clothes and other belongings to Abbey. Klein would need them when he returned in a week. Then we burned the body. When an otherworlder died, they remained conscious in their dead body for a week, seeing, feeling everything that happened to it until they resurrected in a new body in the nearest town. A number of resurrected individuals suffered serious mental trauma from having to witness their bodies ravaged by animals until their eyes were gouged out only to feel maggots rut around their guts until their time was up. It was better just to burn the body immediately and experience a few moments of extreme pain than to have to endure a week of agony.
After the funeral pyre was set, we headed back towards town.
“So, what do we do now?” I asked.
“Like, what do you like mean?” said Faye.
“What about the snow?” I asked. “We had planned to leave in the next day or two.”
“We can’t leave Klein behind,” Abbey grumbled. “We’ll have to wait for him to come back.”
“It’s only a week so it shouldn’t be a problem,” said Warren. “They have a safety margin in predicting that sort of thing.”
“Well, I guess this is the end of the line for this,” I said indicating the wolf crest in my hand.
“Aren’t there two more?” Warren asked.
“Yes, but without Klein it’s too difficult to continue. I don’t want to kill us all,” I said.
Arrival Page 6