Chapter 31

Chapter 31

I stared at the empty cage as I rose. The massive white wolf, big enough that its flesh and fur were practically bursting out of the bars, was gone. The creepy, black-silhouetted woman was still there, one tendril reaching out towards me again. But the wolf was gone.

What? What the fuck? How was this adaptive? How was this fair?

It got tired of my bullshit and decided to kill me. I fought back the panic, pulling in deep breaths, mentally listing things that I knew. The first floor bonus was Intelligence. The Second was Perception. Third wasfuck, what was the third?

I pulled up my stat sheet. Audrey tugged at me, sensing something was wrong but not understanding what. I felt her send me an empty thought, tagged with calm.



Level: 6

Strength: 6

Toughness: 4

Agility: 10

Intelligence: 15

Perception: 8

Will: 11

Companionship: 1

Active Title: Jaded Eye.

Feats: Double-Blind, Ordinators Guile I, Ordinators Emulation, Stealth I, Awareness I.

Skills: Probability Spiral, LVL 9. Suggestion, LVL 12. One-handed, LVL 6.

Summons: Audrey Omnivorous Flower Hybrid. Bond LVL 3.

Selve: 452 (-100 per week)

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I stared at the numbers, trying to make sense of them and remember what exactly had changed. My thoughts were frayed, filled with the image of the massive white wolf snapping its teeth at me on that first ride up the elevator.

Audrey tugged at me again, and I mindlessly stroked her petals, trying desperately to think.

It wasThats right. It was Willpower. Which for some reason hadnt hurt muchme or Brettwhen we received the bonus. I hadnt paid much attention to the bonus rewards because they hadnt perfectly fit. The Flowerfangs were easier to deal with once I identified how to separate them with Perception, yes, but they would have been just as trivial with high Strength or just my own existing intelligence if I was a traditional caster. Agility was a factor in that fight as well.

After a long hesitation, Audrey said, I think so.

Then go. I gritted my teeth as she crawled down the back of my hoodie. Audrey did as instructed, vines looping around my arms and neck

Waist, Audrey, not neck!

S Sorry. She settled. Her thorns didnt cut into the armor much, but I could feel the tiny pins of pressure. If I fell even slightly wrong, I was going to be in a world of hurt. But a little pain was better than being without a summon completely.

The doors opened and a frigid, razor-sharp gale of wind blew in, pinioning me against the back of the cage. I squinted through raised arms, checking to see if by some miracle it was still open. I felt Audrey press tighter against my neck as we battled the wind, pushing hard to get even a step of distance. Snow whipped against my neck, my cheeks, my ankles, every tiny patch of uninsulated skin painfully aware, contrasting with the oppressive, creeping chill of frost that covered the rest of me.

The tempest slowed as I pushed out of the lift and into a gray darkness. My eyes adjusted. The arena, if one could call it that, was a flat wasteland of ice, interspersed with mountainous terrain that called to mind the top of a mountain. I tried to circle behind the lift and found that I wasnt far off, a contiguous ledge continuing on from either side. There was only one viable direction to head in. Straight ahead.

I removed the crossbow from the ring on my thigh. It somehow felt warmer to me now, perhaps some aspect of the magic within.

I pushed through the snow, trying to avoid the deeper section, but still sinking in up to my calf from time to time, my body temperature dropping rapidly as I struggled my way through.

Twenty minutes is all your body can take, not factoring in the time it will take you to get back to the elevator.

It was helpful information to have. And apparently, this situation was dire enough that had deigned to dial down the snark. Still, the idea of lasting even twenty minutes in here was harrowing. And if I was forced to fight in the deepening snow, I wasnt sure all the Agility in the world could save me.

Without the warning buzz of its hard to say whether I would have noticed it at all. I lowered myself into a crouch, hunting for the source. In the past, it had only activated when I was being actively hunted.

Then I saw it. A strangely formed slope where snow accumulated unnaturally, moved with the wind unnaturally. It took a full thirty seconds of staring to realize what I was looking at.

The albino white wolf from the cages. It was curled up in a ball in the center of an embankment. I saw a glimpse of its scarlet red eye from between a barely closed eyelid.

A gust of the ever-changing wind blew up from behind me and felt like it forced its way through, rather than past me. The scarlet eye flicked open. I saw the wolf rise sluggishly, its nose panning in my direction as its breast heaved.

And in terms of size, it was really more bear than wolf.

The probably wont be as effective against this as it would have been against the Gnolls. Theres no way a fantasy-style winter wolf doesnt have some form of cold resistance. But the more bolts I land, the more quickly the target loses heat. And its not like it has opposable thumbs. It cant just pull the bolts out. I just need to get as many shots on target as possible.

It was possible. It wouldnt have been if I hadnt upgraded. The effective range of this crossbow wasnt much longer, maybe fifteen to twenty feet, rather than the common crossbows ten. But it was far more accurate.

And it was far easier to land shots on a target that wasnt moving.

I reached out to the Winter Wolf with intending to transmit an image of the empty tundra and feelings of exhaustion.

To say that I met resistance would be an understatement. A wave of grief and rage shattered the connection, gracing me with a splitting headache. The wolf stood immediately, and next to the imprint of her body were three motionless pups.

Not good.

She bared her teeth at me. An overwhelming fear rose in my gut, so violently I traded for immediately. Calm fell over me, panic trapped beneath.

With careful effort, I raised the crossbows sights to my eye, and fired.