CHAPTER 9 — “Fang and Crystal” #3
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐│ STATUS EFFECT APPLIED ││ \[Howl of Dominance\] │├─────────────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Effect: Fear (magical, will-based) ││ Duration: 15 seconds ││ ││ Penalties: ││ --- Movement speed: -30% ││ --- Attack speed: -20% ││ --- Decision making: impaired ││ ││ Resistance Check: WIS 30 vs DC 25 ││ Result: PARTIAL RESIST (duration halved) ││ New Duration: 7.
5 seconds ││ ││ "Your wisdom stat just saved your life.
││ Who knew being old and jaded had benefits?
" │└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Seven seconds. I can work with seven seconds.
Fenris charges.
I don’t try to meet it head-on—that would be suicide even without the fear effect. Instead, I run. Sideways, toward the arena wall, using every bit of my reduced speed to get out of the direct path.
The wolf adjusts, but it’s big. Big things have momentum. They don’t turn on a dime.
I reach the wall just as the fear effect fades, spin, and see Fenris sliding past me, claws scraping stone as it tries to correct its trajectory.
Now!
Johnson launches himself from my shoulder.
He doesn’t go for the wolf’s face this time—it’s too big, too alert. Instead, he lands on its back, near the spine, and starts climbing toward the neck. His claws dig in, drawing blood, and Fenris roars—
The wolf bucks, trying to throw Johnson off. It’s distracted. Focused on the thing biting into its back instead of the thing standing right in front of it.
I move.
The cleaver comes up. Down. Into the wolf’s front leg, right at the joint where the armor plating is thinnest. I feel it bite deep, feel something give way, and Fenris staggers.
First blood.
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐│ DAMAGE DEALT │├─────────────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Target: Fenris, Alpha of Alphas ││ Attack: Joint Strike (cleaver) ││ Damage: 45 ││ Status Applied: \[Hampered\] --- 15% move speed ││ reduction on damaged leg ││ ││ Fenris HP: \~555/600 ││ ││ "You hurt it.
A little bit. It's still ││ absolutely going to murder you, but at ││ least you drew blood first." │└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Forty-five damage out of six hundred.
This is going to take a while.
The fight becomes a rhythm.
Fenris attacks—massive sweeping strikes that would kill me instantly if they connected.
I dodge, barely, using every scrap of agility and instinct I have.
Johnson harasses from above, darting in and out, keeping the wolf off-balance.
I look for openings, take shots where I can, and try very hard not to die.
It’s working. Slowly.
Fenris’s HP drops: 500. 450. 400.
But mine drops faster.
A glancing blow from a claw catches my side, tearing through armor, and suddenly I’m at 64 HP. A pounce I don’t dodge in time pins me to the ground for three agonizing seconds before Johnson bites the wolf’s ear hard enough to make it release me—and now I’m at 41 HP.
And then the timer hits sixty seconds.
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐│ BOSS ABILITY ACTIVATED ││ \[Pack Summon\] │├─────────────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Fenris howls, calling allies from the depths.
││ ││ Reinforcements Arriving: ││ --- Dire Wolf x3 (Level 8) ││ --- ETA: 10 seconds ││ ││ "Oh good.
More wolves. This wasn't hard ││ enough already.
" │└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Three more wolves. And Fenris is still at nearly 400 HP.
I have forty-one health and no potions.
Velthar, Johnson says, and there’s urgency in his voice now, we need to end this. Fast.
“I know.”
The summoned wolves will overwhelm us. We have maybe two minutes before this becomes unwinnable.
“I know.”
Then do something about it!
I’m trying. I’m trying. But I don’t have the power—don’t have the mana, the skills, the raw strength to take down something this big in two minutes.
Unless.
What are you thinking?
“Something stupid.”
That’s not reassuring.
I have twenty-three mana. My [Mana Infusion] skill lets me enhance items with raw magical energy, but it’s unstable—the results are unpredictable, sometimes dangerous.
And I have one item I haven’t used yet.
The Beast Core from the alpha wolf.
I pull it from my pouch. It pulses in my hand, warm with contained energy. Fifty units of mana, according to the System. More than double what I currently have.
What are you doing?
“Infusing.”
Infusing what?
“Everything.”
I slam the core against my chest and activate [Mana Infusion].
The System screams warnings at me.
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐│ MANA INFUSION --- EMERGENCY USE ││ \[Beast Core (Minor) → Self\] │├─────────────────────────────────────────────────┤│ WARNING: Direct mana infusion is EXTREMELY ││ dangerous.
Not recommended for organic ││ targets. Risk of mana burn, channel ││ overload, or complete system failure.
││ ││ Proceeding anyway? \[Y/N\] ││ ││ "This is the dumbest thing you've ever done.
││ And you've done a lot of dumb things.
" │└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
[Y]
The mana hits me like lightning.
Not the gentle flow of natural regeneration—this is a flood, a tsunami of raw power crashing through channels that weren’t designed to handle it. Pain erupts behind my eyes, in my chest, in every nerve ending I have. I hear myself screaming, distantly, like it’s happening to someone else.
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐│ MANA INFUSION --- COMPLETE │├─────────────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Mana Absorbed: 50 units ││ Current MP: 73/75 (temporary overcap: +15) ││ ││ Status Effects: ││ --- \[Mana Overflow\] --- All skills enhanced +50% ││ --- \[Unstable\] --- Random mana discharge possible ││ --- \[Pain\] --- Just...
general pain everywhere ││ ││ Duration: 30 seconds ││ ││ "You have half a minute of being significantly ││ more powerful.
Make it count. Or don't. ││ Your call." │└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Thirty seconds.
Fenris is turning toward me, sensing the surge of power. The summoned wolves are emerging from the arena entrance. Johnson is shouting something in my head that I can’t quite hear through the roaring in my ears.
I have thirty seconds to kill a floor boss.
Better make them count.
I move.