Chapter 50: Chapter 50: Where the Wild Things Are

CHAPTER FIFTY

Where the Wild Things Are

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Only I would have the kind of luck that would put me smack dab in the middle of a monster deathmatch. Seriously, the only good thing about this scenario was how the patchwork wolf was still catching its breath, which meant I only had to look one way for death to come flying at me.

The chimera bellowed a lion’s roar that reverberated across the glade. Then, as if its massive bulk wasn’t a detriment to its speed at all, the three-headed beast vanished from my sight.

Its disappearing act wasn’t enough for me to panic though. Sure, I couldn’t track it with my eyes, but the rumbling ground rushing toward me was enough of a sign that an attack was imminent, and anything charging at me in a straight line should have expected me to react equally violently.

With a quick prayer to the Earth Weaver to forgive my wanton act of destruction, I stomped my foot hard on the ground, sending my magic deep into the earth to turn that side of the glade into a field of fire and ash and brimstone. Volcanic Step sent a shower of volcanic ash and molten fire upward, spraying the chimera who’d reappeared a mere six feet away from me in flames that spread across the beast’s back.

The ground burned around us, and while I hoped the Earth Weaver could forgive the death of those pretty flowers, I was excited to feel Scorched Earth’s area-of-effect condition activate. Because I seriously needed that upgrade in stats plus the weakening of the chimera’s abilities to survive this fight that I was sorely unprepared for.

Surprisingly, my favorite area-of-effect spell barely seared the monster’s dark fur coat. It probably would have given time, but the goat head on the chimera’s back had other ideas. The godsdamn monstrosity sucked in the flames that wrapped around its body and freaking ate it, going so far as to burp contentedly afterward.

“Baldr’s balls…” I sighed. “Of course, it’s fireproof…”

I probably should have pulled back after this sudden reversal, but my annoyance got the better of me. I chucked one of the daggers I was holding into the beast’s lion head, but its python tail whipped forward and caught the dagger between its jaws.

“Sucker,” I taunted.

Earlier when I crafted my first wolpertinger’s dagger, I carved a rune into its hard surface because I knew I would eventually want to throw it at something. I just didn’t know I’d have to pull this next trick off against a freaking chimera.

“Īsaz!” I yelled.

I know I’ve mentioned this before, but of the many schools of the arcane arts, one of the most potent of all was rune magic—if they were done right that is. Luckily, unlike my Crucible against Doomsday, I did manage this trick right this time. A rune empowered by good material that doubled as a sacrifice—because I was giving up my weapon for this spell—combined with a word of power that was driven by a desire for mischief, and you get a near-frozen python tail that won’t just shrug off that coating of frost spreading across its scales as Doomsday did with my previous ‘Ice Rune’.

That was one head temporarily managed. Now, if only the other two could go down just as easily.

Angered by my spell, the lion head snapped forward, and I wished to the gods I’d caught it in a ‘Frozen’ effect instead of that damn tail.

I whipped another wolpertinger’s claw from my belt and just barely managed to block the lion’s fangs from gouging out my chest with my twin daggers. Sadly, the force of the chimera’s charge was far too rough for me to maintain my stance. I was pushed back, forced to tumble on the ground a good ten yards away which was within striking distance of the patchwork wolf’s head.

Interestingly enough, the beast that had wanted to kill my fellow novices back in last weekend’s dungeon break seemed uninterested in gauging out my jugular this time. Perhaps it could tell that attacking me now meant mutually assured destruction for both of us, or maybe it just recognized that I wasn’t the bigger threat here. Who knows?

“Looks like you’ve healed up a little,” I realized.

The garish wound on its side had closed up, although thick scar tissue remained as a reminder that the patchwork wolf wasn’t completely healed yet.

“So, are we going to fight now too?” I couldn’t help asking.

In response, the patchwork wolf got up on shaky legs, and instead of charging me, it sent an intimidating howl right at the chimera stalking toward us. Surprisingly, the wolf’s howl caused the larger beast to pause. As for me, even though this howl hadn’t been aimed at me, I couldn’t suppress the shiver after hearing it from so close.

The wolf’s all-too-human reddish-brown eyes glanced my way, and I could tell immediately what it was playing at.

“Truce?” I confirmed.

Its snout went up and down, which I assumed was a yes. Honestly, I wasn't sure I could trust it, but as Sun Tzu once said; The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

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“Thor’s Thunder… I can’t believe I’m about to let a murdering wolf from the great beyond watch my back…” I sighed. “But when life throws you lemons… you make—”

This bastard wolf didn’t even wait for me to finish my banter. It cut me off with another vicious howl and then pounced at the chimera.

I was quick to follow after it as I planned to use the patchwork wolf’s distraction to cut off one of those annoying heads.

“Holy—”

The goat head slammed into the patchwork wolf with what I guessed was the force of a wrecking ball as it smacked the horse-sized beast past my head and into the ground a good six feet behind me.

I felt bad for it, but it wasn’t like we were friends or anything. Besides, I had the freaking lion’s head to deal with now.

A menacing growl came from right in front of me, and I raised both daggers forward out of reflex. That’s when I saw the condition that they were in. Both of the claws were cracked in several places. These cracks spread across their hard surfaces, suggesting that my wolpertinger’s claws wouldn’t survive another attack from the lion head’s fangs.

“Vargr… it’s one damn problem after another…”

Two pairs of eyes glared at me from beyond my daggers’ reach, although they weren’t menacing enough to make me shiver as that patchwork wolf’s howl could.

“I killed a wolf more than twice your size. Compared to him, you’re like a little kitty with personality disorder,” I taunted.

That was technically true, although it wasn’t the full truth either as I didn’t defeat the emissary on my own. Gods, I wish I had bombardment options right about now.

The chimera must not have liked the comparison because it was quick to lunge for me with its front paws outstretched. I rolled to the side and dodged that would-be deathblow though, and then I followed it up with a no-hands summersault that let me twirl around to hack at the beast’s right flank.

Interestingly enough, the patchwork wolf had gotten back up at that exact moment to attack the chimera’s left flank. Although I wasn’t sure how to feel about being so in sync with my new frenemy.

The thing about having multiple heads is how the damn thing could look left and right at the same damn time, which meant we couldn’t attack it recklessly. However, the beast seemed to hesitate to attack either of us too as it probably guessed that the other one would attack as soon as an opening appeared. This gave me a small reprieve, which meant time to inspect my enemy some more.

“These daggers are going to break before they pierce through that tough hide and into the muscles underneath…” I deduced. “But the thing about these physically resistant monsters is how they all seem susceptible to magic.”

As if to prove my point, I caught sight of the python tail which was still trapped in a semi-frozen state. At least that’s what I thought when the snake lunged at me with its mouth wide open. Sure, my ‘Ice Rune’ slowed it down a ton, but that wasn’t the point of the spell, was it?

I stepped aside at the last second so I could send one of my daggers crashing down on its outstretched neck, but the tail’s scales—while still coated in frost—were hard enough to easily repel my attack. Moreover, the dagger in my left hand fell apart, leaving me with a single wolpertinger’s claw in hand to repel the lion’s head that suddenly appeared in front of me.

Honestly, if it hadn’t been for the patchwork wolf attacking its left flank at just the right moment, I might have earned myself another regression then and there.

Fortunately, I survived and was angry that I owed the patchwork wolf. So, in an act of spite, I chucked the dagger right into the lion head’s open mouth just as I yelled, “Thurisaz!”

I didn’t really like using a rune that symbolized the forces of chaos, because, duh. But, because the ‘Thorn’ rune was also Thor’s rune, the duality of its symbology made the rune ideal in this admittedly chaotic moment. Besides, I made sure to channel the rune’s divine aspect rather than the chaos part of it.

Sure enough, a giant, powerful, uncontrollable force exploded out of the wolpertinger’s claw just as it got stuck between the chimera’s fangs. Lightning flashed inside the monster’s mouth, rocking it so hard that the lion’s eyes rolled to the back of its head so that only the whites were visible.

A shit ton of clutch experience told me that electrifying the chimera wasn’t enough though, and I stepped the Hel away from the beast, which was the right move considering how a blast of purple flames struck the ground I’d just vacated.

“Seriously?!” I glared at the chimera’s goat head. “You’ve got a flamethrower in you too?”

Interestingly enough, I didn’t even need to run away from the goat head’s flame-spewing chompers. Because its purple flames, which I assumed were a lesser flame compared to the one burning inside of me, were quickly sucked into the glowing trinket hanging on my necklace, something I didn’t know the Flameheart Grimoire could achieve.

I felt my status bar vibrate in my pocket, and I was curious enough to know what my grimoire had done to risk taking a peek at my screen.

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