After their quick break, Astaroth and Violette could already hear the wolves honing in on them. But, instead of waiting for them, they went after them.
Astaroth and Violette hounded the wolves, hunting them down as they neared the den with every encounter. White was fighting with more and more vigour the closer they got.
When they finally reached their destination, Violette gasped. Waiting in a large clearing were about fifty wolves, all gathered around one very large black one.
White Death was snarling from within Astaroth, while Genie was already growling at the Alpha, her stance low. She recognized the wolf that had thrown her to her death.
Genie had grown quite a lot in the last months, ever since Astaroth had left for the capital. She was now one size bigger than most dire wolves, but still smaller than the alpha.
Even white would have paled in comparison. The black alpha was humongous, reaching almost the size of a giant brown bear.
Astaroth scanned him.
Dire Wolf Alpha (Zone Boss):
Level: 40
Grade: Special
Health: 157’900
Mana: 4’320
Astaroth grinned manically. The update had brought about some changes to the stats of monsters, lowering their health at higher levels a little.
But since the last time he saw this alpha, it had gained the Zone Boss status, completely negating that change. In fact, it was now most likely even stronger.
While he was having a stare-down with the alpha, White spoke in his head.
‘Master. I would like to fight him myself. Can you summon me first?’
Astaroth had guessed the spirit would ask something like this.
‘I was already planning on that. I will meld with Luna first and try to reduce the load on your combat. We should not decimate the entire pack.’ Astaroth replied in his head.
‘I think taking down their alpha should make them yield. Without a leader, they would have to retreat.’ White agreed.
Reaching this agreement, Astaroth summoned White Death, making the large white wolf appear next to Genie. This enraged the black alpha, since he now had to face an old nemesis, and a potential new threat.
Plus, the two pesky elves near the two wolves would be annoying to deal with too, since they had shown the strength to cull his pack already. The black alpha lost patience first, and howled loudly.
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This signalled his pack into action, as many wolves started running forward.
“Violette, try not to kill all of them! Use crowd control as best you can and help us take down the big one.” Astaroth said, making sure Violette didn’t wipe out the pack.
She nodded in response, starting to cast a spell. A gigantic wave appeared before her, washing the charging wolves back, before freezing into a tall wall of ice.
With this move alone, she had already isolated half of the pack, making their efforts in combat easier for some time.
Then Astaroth melded with Luna, boosting his stats immensely, and darting at the black wolf. He used his daggers, going for hit-and-run tactics while he was faster than his enemy.
Melding with Luna, since she had been born, gave him much more power than that one time in the tournament arena. He guessed the stats he had gained that time were only a part of her full strength because of her egg status.
Now, melding with her gave him the power of a level sixty monster, at the very least. So even if this alpha was a zone boss, for the next five minutes, Astaroth’s stats were higher than it.
White darted into combat too, lunging at his usurper. His spirit form passive made him much more resistant to the black wolves’ attacks, letting him take the beast on without too much worry.
Violette tried her best to make the surroundings clear of the regular dire wolves, pushing them back, or gravely wounding them, so Astaroth could fight without having to look over his shoulder.
Occasionally, she would also shoot bullets of ice, and high-pressure jets of water at the wolf, from his blind spots. Those attacks were hurting him and making him angrier.
After two minutes of getting assaulted by Violette’s magic attacks and Astaroth’s dagger slashes, the alpha was already a quarter of his health down. But then, something changed.
The black wolf howled again, his eyes starting to glow red. The dire wolves in the pack all had their eyes turn red too.
Suddenly, the ones behind the wall of ice broke through. By the force at which the ice exploded outward, Astaroth understood what was happening.
“Violette, be careful! They are in a temporary rage effect, so they are now stronger!” He yelled.
And just to prove his point, the alpha spun around much faster than it should have and attacked Astaroth. Astaroth’s eyes went wide, as a paw was coming at his face faster than he could dodge.
He quickly cast Mana Skin, and swapped out one dagger for his shield, enhancing it at the same time. He managed to block the attack a fraction of a second before it hit him.
‘So heavy!’ he thought, as the paw was launching him away like a bullet out of a gun.
Astaroth flew backwards, blowing through trees with his back, like a humanoid cannonball. Each impact ate away at his health quickly, as it fell from full to a quarter before he stopped.
As he tumbled to a stop, he looked at the distance he had travelled. He was now on the ground, hundreds of meters from where he was previously standing.
He watched as the alpha had swapped targets now, going from White to attacking Violette. The girl was erecting wall of ice after wall of ice, trying to block his path.
She knew from what she had just noticed that one attack would be lethal for her, so she did as Astaroth had trained her to do. She ran back inside the forest, all the while building walls akin to a maze around her.
But she could hear the sounds of crushing ice getting nearer.
“Astaroth! Help me!” She cried out, getting scared.