Chapter 14 – BONUS CHAPTER!!!

The massive wolf, black fur bristling across its back like a thousand warring spears, let out a snort of breath, then turned and darted up the mountain, disappearing over an edge. Fleeing? No, unlikely.

The normal-sized direwolves all ran up the mountain, too. Are they waiting for me? Is it an ambush? Are wolves smart enough to do that? Probably. I know normal wolves are known for their teamwork and ability to hunt as a group. These wolves are bigger and stronger, so why not smarter, too?

Caleb shrugged his shoulders, then continued his climb, coming to the point that the wolf had disappeared at. The longer he waited, the greater chance that his Frenzy skill would fade. Moving fast was likely his best chance of victory. He reached out with one spectral hand, grabbed a lip of rock, and hefted himself up with ease.

Another plaza. Similar to the one that Caleb had crash landed onto. He recognized a lot of the familiar features. More alabaster columns, more chiseled tiles lining the floor beneath a crust of ice, and the mouth of a cave with a fist-sized yellow gem set into its crown. But there were also stark differences. The tiles were gouged with claw marks. Discarded, half-finished meals and bones were littered across the ground. Mounds of snow had been burrowed through and he could see the edges of what looked like dens deep within them.

Everything was silent. There was a soft howl, but it was only wind whistling through the air, kicking up occasional flurries of snow.

If this weren’t a Dungeon, I’d feel a bit bad about just waltzing in and decimating an entire ecosystem like this. But the system has made it abundantly clear. If I want to get out of here, I need to kill. Sorry puppies, you’re no longer the apex predator.

Caleb made his way across the frozen stone, toward the mouth of the cave. He kicked a half-gnawed bone out of the way with his bare toes, licked his lips, then stepped inside.

The cave was dark. So much so that he struggled to see where he was going until his eyes finally started to adjust to the meagre light. He reached a hand into the bag at his waist and pulled out the green gemstone. Holding it aloft, he let just the smallest amount of his aether flow into it.

Cool green light burned from the gem like a copper torch.

“Ah,” Caleb muttered, turning in a slow circle, his eyes cresting around the chamber, around and onto each and every wolf that snarled back at him. The cave echoed with their growls like a rumbling engine. Their teeth shone like knives. Their eyes gleamed like pools of angry amber. “I had a feeling you guys were smart.”

Fenryr padded forward until the massive beast was close enough that Caleb could’ve reached out and patted its nose. Though he was sure, if he tried that, he’d lose a hand. The growls grew silent as the two eyes each other. Man versus wolf.

Caleb could feel the pressure of Fenryr’s Presence pushing against him, trying to make him submit. But his own Presence was kept tightly wound within himself, pushing against the wolf’s. The two forces met, and they found themselves equal. A grin crossed Caleb’s lips.

“Hopfully you’re strong enough to give me a proper challenge.”

Fenryr rumbled in response, deep and powerful enough to shake Caleb’s vision. If the System wanted him to push himself to his limit, he would certainly indulge it.

The wolf snapped forward.

Caleb twitched back barely fast enough to avoid his head being taken off. He leaned backward, spectral fingers digging into the frozen stone beneath him and flexing as he catapulted himself away from the boss.

He landed nimbly in a skid across the floor, gem still shining in one hand, as the chamber erupted in a symphony of howls and guttural snarls. But nowhere within this chamber was safe. Another wolf tried to nip him from behind and he barely dodged out of the way before yet another came from his other side and dug its teeth into his calf.

“Shit,” he grunted, spinning and cracking the beast hard enough across its skull to loosen teeth from his flesh and send it sliding across the ice and into the cave wall. The warming sensation of its aether rushed into him. Though, not enough for any significant healing.

Rivulets of blood trickled down his leg, but he didn’t even have time to check his wound. Fenryr was bounding toward him. Caleb threw his spectral arms in a wide arc, catching dogs in each clawed hand and tossing them away, gaining him a few feet of breathing room, a few split seconds. With his other hands, he began charging Bonebreaker.

The skill soaked up his aether like a sponge, draining him faster than he would like. This was not a skill he’d be able to use many times during this fight. So this one had to count.

He punched. A wave of crushing power blew forth from his fist. It crashed into the charging beast.

And did almost nothing.

His stomach jumped as he immediately threw himself into the air, leaping over the barreling wolf, narrowly avoiding a foot-long claw. As he neared the ceiling, he willed one of his spectral arms to lengthen. It did, reaching up and grasping a hold on the rock overhead. He swung there, suspended over the sea of wolves beneath him and catching a quick breath.

What the hell? Just how tough is this boss?

Fenryr snarled below, a bit of dark crimson matting the fur around its eyes. Not nothing. But not near as much as Caleb would have liked.

I need to change my strategy.

If the ground wasn’t safe, he’d just have to take to the walls and ceiling. Not like that was unfamiliar territory for him either way. He was almost more comfortable hanging from the rock than he was on his own two feet.

He started to move, climbing upside down like a spider, watching Fenryr pace down on the cave’s floor, glowing eyes fixed on him. It was difficult to fight while putting so much of his focus on keeping the boss’s Presence from suffocating him. Like he had to constantly shore up holes in a ship that was taking on water while also playing a game of chess. If his attention slipped for even a second, he could feel Fenryr prod further in. He couldn’t allow it to get a foothold. It was a mental battle as much as it was a physical one.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

A piece of rock flaked away from the ceiling just as Caleb put his weight on it. He started to slip, got that weightless feeling in his stomach at the start of a fall, but was able to drill his other spectral arm wrist deep into the stone and anchor himself there. The hundred pound chunk of stone fell and exploded into shrapnel and dust on the ground, causing a few wolves to howl and leap back.

That gave Caleb an idea.

He clawed one hand into the stone, prying away a baseball-sized hunk.

“Ya’ll wanna play fetch?” Caleb grinned down at the swarming, growling, howling wolves. Their hackles rose, frustrated that he was out of reach.

“Here. Fetch!”