Book 1. Chapter 29: The Alpha Warg

Book 1. Chapter 29: The Alpha Warg

Part of Jake did just want to take to the sky, where he thought only the Alpha Warg would have any sort of ranged attack. Jake thought about how he wanted to handle this fight. At this point, he was not worried at all; it was just about how many cards he wanted to show the dungeon master so that they could not counter his party in future floors.

Fighting a large group of enemies like this, the enemy would really benefit from their ability to attack from all directions. Jake might be able to build a sort of physical barrier using earth runes, but due to him not being able to fully control the earth at that level yet, he might end up just getting enemies that could jump on him from above instead of closing off that avenue.

Jake looked over at Fhesiah and smiled. He thought he had an excellent tactic that would piss off the wargs and their alpha. The wargs would coordinate and attack from all directions, making the fight go how they planned it. Jake would turn that around on them, and give them a target that could do the same to them, and they could do nothing about it. If they bunched up to counter the demoness, he would cast a larger area of effect spell to eliminate many of them.

Jake cast Runic Empowerment onto Fhesiah. She would dash as fast as she wanted, and dart in and out of the sky, and otherwise slash any warg that was not defended, while Jake and Ophelia used their teamwork of shield and spear work to cut down the wargs that surrounded them.

Fhesiah took off with glee, immediately attacking the nearest warg. They tried to respond, but she easily slashed their throat and moved out of the way of their jaws, dancing through their moving formation. They moved to surround her, or slow her down, but she easily moved through their ranks, cutting through and slashing them where she pleased. Her use of [Winged Combat] allowed her to bait wargs into leaping into the air at where they thought she would be, only for her to change direction and turn their counter into an attack of her own.

Meanwhile, Jake and Ophelia moved in tandem to guard against attacking wargs. About twenty of them were surrounding them, making probing leaps and attacks, which Jake and Ophelia punished with powerful stabs of their spear towards their vitals.New novel chapters are published on

It had been only thirty seconds, but six lay dead at their feet, and several had been wounded near them. Wargs reaching for a flank attack on an unprotected side of Jakes would find Ophelias spear or shield slammed into them from odd angles, and attacks on Ophelia would meet the same of Jakes. Jake was monitoring their alpha: he knew this creature would take advantage of their distraction, either with some kind of massive spell or a powerful charge-like ability. Creatures like those usually also had some kind of howl or battle-cry like ability that should strengthen or otherwise speed the creatures up, making them more deadly.

The demoness continued her grim work with savage glee, slaughtering the creatures like they were but chickens and her a fox. Her punches and kicks shattered skulls, and her slashes of throats left them dying in mere moments. After a minute, she had not slowed down at all, and dozens of the creatures had already laid dead. It was at that point that the formation of the creatures shifted.

The wargs on the opposite side of the alpha flooded towards it, some passing around or through where Jake and Ophelia were fighting, still surrounded. Fhesiah was a little worried, as she would only slightly thin the two dozen that were heading towards Jake and Ophelia before they arrived, but Jake waved her off. He wanted her to probe the Alpha and watch what that part of the formation was doing. He would take care of the large number of creatures with a spell.

He couldnt send precisely what his plan was, but she got a gist of what he wanted through his intentions. Their bond at level 5 allowed for more than just emotions, and he could guide her in ways similar to how he guided the temporary creatures he could summon. With that, Jake got his runes ready, and when the two dozen, nearly three dozen with the ones that were already surrounding them on that side they were approaching from getting near, he released his spell: [Runic Magic: Forked Lightning].

This attack blasted out with a loud clap of thunder in a large cone, and the blue-tinted lightning devastated the creatures in front of him, where he released his spell. The shocked creatures hides were scorched in various places, and Jake was satisfied with the results. Only three wargs were still even moving, and he and Ophelia moved to finish them.

The pack of wargs were now down to half the original number, and he could just see the Alpha Warg just seething from its position in the back of their formation. Fhesiah was still moving through their ranks, keeping to the outsides and out of range where she thought the Alpha Warg could assault, but she returned to Jakes side with a use of [Call Summon]. The Runic Empowerment buff was about to wear off. They were about to enter the end-game of the wargs assault.

Jake unleashed the runic lightning attack, a single bolt that slammed into the Alpha Warg. The reddish energy was consumed and the creature went flying away once again. Fhesiah was there to meet it where it landed on the ground, slashing at its throat as it was downed, blood splattering as the creature struggled disoriented to get up, as Jake could tell she was not reaching deep with each slash. Eventually she wound up a much stronger slash and she had reached the desired effect, the creature losing its vitality and unable to get up.

Ophelia had finished off the wurm, and helped Jake mop up the remaining wargs. Shortly after, Jake received a notification.

Dungeon floor completed. Next floor in: 2 hours. Maximum Rest Time: 8 hours

Reward: Alpha Warg Cloak

With that, there should be a portal appearing in about 2 hours that could take them to the next floor, but they could wait for a maximum of 8 before it forced them to enter. The two hours would allow the dungeon master some time to prepare for the next challenge. They were restricted in what challenges they could make, being limited by the level and number of entrants and the [Law of Balance], but they could take advantage of anything they learned about Jakes party: their strengths and weaknesses.

Jake and Ophelia had both reached level 9 from the dungeon, but they had not earned any new spells. The demoness settled in to absorb her kill energy, likely needing at least the two hours and then some to absorb it. Jake and Ophelia set out to loot everything, the large amount of creature corpses not far away. Once the looting was completed, Jake set out to prepare some lunch. They had various ready-made foods in their storage bracelets, but Jake brought most of what he needed to make some fresh food if time permitted, which it was, in this case.

Jake heated some pre-made soup in a large cooking kettle he took out of his storage space; he only needed to add water to the base he had made. The tundra was cold, even with their supernatural resilience to it. Jake and Ophelia waited for Fhesiah, and they joined them after about an hour of consuming the kill energy.

They talked about the battles, but avoided mentioning anything about their ability to use the flames of Hestia, or about how much reserves they had left when the battle ended. Jake could tell through the bond that both of the girls were well above half their reserves, and that was with Ophelia avoiding casting her more useful spells.

Jake took out their reward, the Alpha Warg Cloak. It was of a black fur that almost glistened blue in the sunlight. It had an activatable ability: Alpha Warg Howl. When activated once per day, it would use a similar ability to what they witnessed. Overall, a nice ability to have, as it was like a minor health buffer and speed boost for allies. Jake looked over to Fhesiah, thinking that she would be the best for this ability; her often being in the thick of the fighting, and it would give her options for protecting her allies, which Jake and Ophelia already both had. At the same time, could she wear a cloak with her wings? At the very least, he knew she didnt need to flap them in order to fly.

The cloak used almost a game-like ability, not needing heavenly energy or mana to activate. Jake was happy for this, as it went along with Fhesiahs sensibilities, especially since it enhanced her party. It would give her a way to protect Jake that she didnt currently have.

They huddled together near the lit fire, holding each other with their equipment, and waited for the 2 hours to pass. Overall, they were back at nearly a hundred percent. They were not fully rested, but they would not chance forcing to wait the full time as the trial had a finite amount of time. What if one stage had them traveling for an entire week over an enormous distance? They didnt know. The entire stage only took less than an hour, the fight lasting from beginning to end once they found their quarrel.

The portal opened, and they stepped through. Four floors to go.