Free Web NovelChapter 28: Chapter 28: The Shameless Alpha Wolf
With the explosive rush of power from the sudden level-up, Lucy’s shadow tendrils finally managed to completely immobilize the massive Alpha.
Taking a page right out of Lilith’s brutal playbook, Death lunged forward aiming her sharpened skeletal fingers directly at the beast’s weak point: its yellow eyes.
But the Alpha possessed terrifying combat instinct. It squeezed its eyes shut just in time.
Death’s bone blades sparked against its thick hide, only managing to carve bloody scratches across its eyelids.
The Alpha let out a furious snarl and tried to use the momentary distraction to break free from the shadows.
But just then Eve stepped in. Fully utilizing her newly evolved sleek humanoid form she slammed her synthetic palm against the beast’s flank and released another electric burst.
This one was vastly more powerful than the previous shock effectively stunning the massive wolf in its tracks.
While the vanguard handled the boss, Night and Lilith used this golden opportunity to finish off the two remaining lackeys.
Lilith targeted her wolf flawlessly.
Having watched its comrade die to Lilith’s eye-gouging tactic earlier, the beast frantically closed its eyes to protect them.
But Lilith was a like brawler. She coated her metallic fists with her corrosive dark mana and mercilessly punched the blind beast twice in the ribs before Eve’s AoE stun could wear off. Before the wolf could even attempt a counterattack, a third devastating uppercut knocked it completely off its feet.
While Lilith was struggling slightly to cleanly execute the wolf due to her lack of a dedicated finishing move; with the knife Night had no such issues. He seamlessly slipped into his meditative stealth closed the distance and finished off his own paralyzed opponent with a single clean strike.
The [Over-Sharpened] black knife cleaved through the air, cleanly beheading the beast.
[You have slain Lvl. 4 Mountain Wolf | +30 EXP]
Level: 5 (EXP: 35/600)
Thirty EXP? Night noted internally.
Killing opponents weaker than my current level gives reduced experience.
Night quickly turned to help Lilith but seeing Eve already darting over to assist her, he decided to pivot and engage the Alpha alongside Death and Lucy.
But upon seeing the situation take a rapid turn for the worse and sensing that the rest of his massive entourage was still a fair distance away from the cave; the Alpha suddenly did something completely off-script.
Its muscles bulged unnaturally as it entered what looked like a Berserker rage mode. With a violent, earth-shaking tremor, it forcefully shattered Eve’s residual electric stun and snapped Lucy’s shadow bindings like brittle twigs.
And then... it ran.
Without a single ounce of Alpha-level dignity or shame, the massive boss monster flipped the table, quitting the game and bolted toward the cave exit. Because of its overwhelming raw strength, Night, Lucy, and Death couldn’t even react in time to gang up on it before it vanished into the dark cavern.
Meanwhile, Eve calmly walked over to Lilith’s knocked-out wolf. She placed her pale hand directly on its skull and released a small-scale highly focused electric burst straight into its brain efficiently executing it.
[You have slain Lvl. 4 Mountain Wolf | +30 EXP]
Level: 5 (EXP: 65/600)
With the immediate threat cleared, Night quickly checked his EV reserves. He saw exactly what he had feared.
[Energy Value (EV): 600]
In that short, chaotic skirmish alone, he had burned through more than 80 EV—86 EV to be exact. And that was despite the passive regeneration he was getting from digesting the previous corpses in his domain combined with the energy from the incredibly nourishing fast food Sara had provided.
The EV drain of keeping them manifested in high-intensity combat is massive, Night analyzed.
However, he made a very surprising discovery; the energy regenerated from the food he ate and the corpses dissolving in his Nightmare Domain were tracked as separate sources. He could effectively stack his EV recovery from both methods at the exact same time.
Outside the cave, the shameless Alpha had only stopped after retreating a safe distance away. Realizing just how dangerously close to death it had been it turned around and glared at the culprits with a death stare.
Seconds later, the sound of heavy paws echoed through the cavern. The rest of its pack finally arrived.
Standing behind the Alpha in the sprawling grotto were now exactly twenty-five wolves. Four more strays had apparently joined them along the way.
Night’s brilliant surprise attack; which had been designed to cull their numbers and thin the herd had just been rendered completely meaningless.
But having the sheer numbers advantage didn’t make the Alpha feel any better. Instead, it was absolutely pissed.
The fact that a group of perceived weaklings had invaded its territory, slaughtered its packmates and forced it to flee was an unforgivable insult.
As they say, wolves are highly territorial and fiercely protective of their families. They will actively hunt down and eradicate any threats to their pack. The exact same held true for the monstrous variants inside this dungeon.
The Alpha threw its massive head back and let out a terrifying, rallying howl. The other twenty-nine wolves immediately joined in creating a deafening symphony of howls that shook the stalactites above.
Seeing this, Lucy knew the opponents were going to be significantly more dangerous now that their morale had peaked.
Exercising an immense amount of willpower, Lucy actively went against her gluttonous nature. She stopped her shadows from reaching out to devour the fresh corpses of the four fallen wolves in the cave.
"Leave them," Lucy’s teenage voice echoed seriously in his mind. "Eating their fallen mates right in front of them will only piss them off more. A provocation like that will definitely trigger a berserk, do-or-die charge from the entire pack."
"Night, keep the red talisman active in your hand," she warned. "We will likely need it."
Night gave her a firm nod, slipping his hand near his spatial ring to prep the magical trump card. He squared his shoulders getting ready for a brutal, life-and-death battle. freёwebnovel.com
But contrary to what he expected, he wasn’t scared. In fact, as he looked at the imposing backs of Death, Eve, Lilith, and Lucy, he felt his blood pump with genuine excitement.
He was finally fighting side-by-side with his friends.
Suddenly, the wolves’ howling stopped. In perfect unison, all thirty beasts began to glow with a menacing green light. They lowered their heads, bared their fangs, and rushed toward the cave entrance like a tidal wave of fur and claws.
Night rubbed his eyes, just to make sure he wasn’t seeing things.
"That Alpha has a skill similar to your [Pack] skill and it is at a much higher level," Lucy analyzed rapidly. "It seems like it takes a moment to manually activate unlike your passive skill."
Lucy took a few steps forward placing herself at the very front of the cave. "This will probably drain your EV quite a lot, Night. Brace yourself."
Night nodded, now was not the time to save EV
Lucy’s form began to warp. She grew larger, expanding from the size of a heavy motorcycle to the size of a car, and then ballooned into the size of a massive armored van. She looked significantly larger and wider than before.
She threw her heavily scaled head back and howled.
Her howl possessed a distinctly feminine quality, but it carried the ancient, overwhelming authority of a Level 60 Fenrir. It was infinitely more dominant and terrifying than the Alpha’s.
Her majestic roar crashed into the charging pack like a physical wall. It caused the wolves to flinch and stumble, violently disrupting their momentum and instantly shattering the green glowing aura of their pack skill.
One shouldn’t forget that, at her very core, she was originally a wolf too. And an apex one at that.
Watching the massive wolf steal the spotlight, Death was absolutely pissed. The ethereal flames in her sockets flared wildly. She was the literal embodiment of Death and she refused to be outdone by the gluttonous mutt.
Up until now, she had severely restrained her true abilities out of fear that it would drain Night’s fragile EV pool too quickly. But seeing Lucy flex her power, Death stopped holding back entirely.
She slammed the heel of her skeletal foot into the damp ground. A terrifying, ice-cold wave of pure necrotic energy rippled outward from her bones.
When that dark energy washed over the four dead wolves lying inside the cave, something truly horrifying happened.
The corpses began to violently twitch as if coming back to life. The decapitated wolves had their severed heads magically yanked across the floor, brutally reattaching to their slashed necks with a sickening crack.
Then, something even stranger occurred. Their fur, flesh, muscles, and blood all began to rapidly dissolve or more accurately, it was bei absorbed straight into their own skeletons.
Watching this horrific display, the charging wolf pack and their Alpha skidded to a dead halt, feeling a profound unnatural chill run down their spines.
As the final strips of flesh were absorbed reinforcing their skeletal structures, tiny blue flames ignited within the empty eye sockets of the four undead beasts.
Moving in perfect unison all four skeletal wolves turned away from their former pack, faced Death, and slowly lowered their front legs, bowing their skulls to the cavern floor.
The eerie gruesome scene looked less like a horror movie and more like four loyal knights bowing deeply to their rightful queen.
The reality, however was far more terrifying: four dead wolves were submitting to their new dead master.
