Team Canine Crushers (Suka)
“Gabby,” the woman says, identifying the Goblin Witch with a glare, “Where. Is. My. Bride?” Despite being pissed as hell, her voice is almost as sweet as a Siren’s.
Oh, this must be Ariella, Alex’s first wife. This is the aquatic monster that Alex helped evolve into a ‘Triton,’ who later went on to conquer the Mermaid Cove and become the leader of a monster enclave—barring the Kraken, who truly rules the coast—thus explaining her entourage. See, I pay attention!
Together, Kani the Cancer, a scallop, an octopus, a shark girl, and the Triton woman use their Water Magic to maintain and control the orb of seawater that allows them to breathe on land and stay hydrated. They're using the crab girl as a mobile platform to ferry them about.
The Witch yanks her broom high into the air with Bonny clinging on desperately as they ascend out of the enraged Alpha Bitch’s reach. “Alex is on the other side of the battlefield, but it would be quite convenient if you decided to lend a hand here.”
“Dammit, Gabby, swallow your pride and ask for help!” I shout, alerting the Wolf Lord to our presence. Moka and I narrowly avoid his jaws as he swings his head at us through a cloud of dust.
“Oh, because you’re so humble!” Gabby screams back at me as the Alpha Bitch and Zeta Wolf charge at Ariella’s team. “No, you don’t,” the Witch scolds as she points her wand at the smaller of the two.
While Gabby’s magic has had limited effectiveness in the battle so far, that has more to do with her opponents’ Toughness than her spellcraft. At the end of the day, a Zeta Wolf is a Second Tier monster, and Gabby’s Elderflower Plant Growth Magic is on another level. The thorn vines she sprouts beneath the bounding canine burst from the ground with astonishing speed and perfect accuracy. He’s completely entangled in seconds, quickly covered in bleeding scratches, and stuck fast in a tangle trying to gnaw his way free.
Meanwhile, all five aquatic monsters spin up a Water Jet spell combining their magical focuses to achieve a powerful river of saltwater that slams into the Bitch’s chest. She tries to zig-zag forward, but they’re a well-honed team, and their aim follows her with precision. Her advance, though unstoppable, comes on slowly.
With few other options, the Alpha Bitch makes a last-ditch leap for Ariella’s group. She lands on the Triton’s bronze trident and Kani’s raised crab pincers, which pierce and sink into canine flesh. The Alpha is a tough old bitch, though, and has the strength, weight, and perseverance to push on despite the pain. A deadly pair of slavering jaws snaps mere feet away from Ariella’s face as the Triton struggles to hold the Bitch at bay.
“You promised to keep her safe!” the Lady of the Cove admonishes Gabby, refusing to be distracted from her purpose here.
The scallop, shark, and octopus girls aim for the Alpha’s maw with their water jets as if hoping to drown her, or at least fill her stomach, but their force and volume are lacking without Ariella and Kani’s contributions.
Vines as thick as tree trunks erupt from the ground beneath the Alpha Bitch at Gabby’s behest while a flamethrower shoots from Bonny’s gloved fingers. Both wrap around the Alpha’s body from opposite sides, ensuring maximal coverage. Fur burns. Thorns pierce flesh. The Bitch doesn’t stop gnashing her teeth at the aquatic quintet. She’s inching closer by the second.
Then a small horde of broomstick soldiers crashes into the Alpha Bitch’s flank. Go, Bonny!
I’d failed to account for one thing when I dismissed them earlier. The broomsticks the Dire Wolves chomped to splinters not only regenerated, but somehow each piece of shattered wood regrew into an additional soldier! Their numbers skyrocketed while I wasn’t looking; we canines sure love to chew on sticks.
The resulting wave of broomstick soldiers is finally affecting the battlefield. They swarm over our opponents as nonliving extensions of Bonny’s will. I’m sure there’s a limit on their numbers, as they’ve abruptly gone from a First Tier non-threat to a high-Rank Second Tier equivalent presence, but we haven’t hit that ceiling yet.
“…Fucking ‘Alakazam.’” Gabby is dumbstruck by this development, with nothing more to say, only staring daggers at her Apprentice, who just sits there in awkward silence. The bigear mouse girl seems properly proud of the achievement. Meanwhile, the Alpha is momentarily overcome by this swell of bodies as the soldiers crawl over the Bitch’s prone form. The Witch adjusts her glasses and nods to herself. “Ariella, hold her down for a minute. We’ll wrap things up here and go save Alex—I don’t intend to fail my promise.”
“Hey, wait, come back this instant!” Ariella growls in a somehow melodic tone as the Witch rises high into the air on her broomstick. Our Lady of the Cove’s hands are full, gripping the bronze trident buried in the angry Bitch’s shoulder.
It seems like Gabby is heading my way, which is perfect, because I need help! The Wolf Lord is getting too pissed by all this mucking about to tolerate our shenanigans any longer. He’s ramping up the speed of his attacks when they were already too quick to deal with. No more messing around; his claws swipe through a dust cloud and scrape against my flame construct, rattling its foundation.
Now that he’s confirmed where we are, his jaws are soon to follow. Moka blasts his mouth with a dust explosion, and I rocket us away on flame jet paws, but he’s upon us in an instant—and then he’s on the ground. The massive form of the Wolf Lord crashes into the earth in an undignified heap.
A glance at the Witch’s wand tip glowing with a stony aura confirms it’s Gabby’s Elder Earth Magic that destabilized his footing. It’s a trick that won’t work repeatedly now that he knows what to expect. I can’t let this opportunity go to waste!
All of my focus, all of my will, all of my mental acuity, my training, visualization, and fighting spirit go into this final push! This is the culmination of everything I have!
My flames explode outward, my glorious new form taking shape with my guidance. This construct will be on another level compared to my previous works, both in terms of my borrowed Third Tier power and the experience I’ve gained with developing these things. I need a strong mental image, the tenacity to hold it together, and it doesn’t hurt to have a lover at my side in the nucleus of my creation.
Before the Wolf Lord proudly stands a challenger carved in fire. My flaming beast form is half his size, with Moka and I occupying the beating heart, but its canine body is entirely made of burning Elemental magic.
I snap at his face as he stands. He’s simply gone, his Wolf Rush still far too fast for me. His jaws are closing on the nape of my neck when he’s blasted by double the dust explosion. Gabby, Bonny, and Moka are all working together to support me!
The Wolf Lord circles me in a moment to attack from the opposite side. He slips on a patch of ice that I hadn’t noticed until now. Gabby must have used either her Intuition or figured out how to use Luck Magic, because she and Bonny would’ve had to set this up earlier by making a puddle and freezing it with a combo of Snow and Water Magic.
This time, I go for his throat, and my fiery jaws clamp down on his jugular. Except, his pelt is too tough for even my Third Tier flame construct to penetrate! This is crazy! The Wolf Lord must be on the verge of ascending to the Fourth Tier for how strong he’s become.
Still, I have him pinned for a few seconds, and Gabby is the one who doesn’t waste the opportunity this time. No, she instantly starts preparing her strongest attack.
"Air Blade! Air Blade! Air Blade!"
Gabby slashes the sky repeatedly, sending three spells to collide with one another. She unravels and combines them into a new construct that descends on the Wolf Lord’s neck.
"Air Guillotine!"
The huge blade of compressed air magic bites through the giant wolf’s defenses, slicing through thick fur, and penetrates his tough hide.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
Blood from the shallow wound dribbles a thin trickle onto the Wolf Lord’s shoulder. Gabby’s best offensive spell didn’t even cut into muscle. We all pause for a heartbeat.
Normally, this would be the end. The Wolf Lord is three times bigger, stronger, faster, and tougher than expected. For all my bluster, defeating him simply isn’t possible even with teamwork. He’s seconds away from turning the tides, and crushing us one by one.
However, we have one final play in this life-or-death game. There’s something we’ve been working towards in the background, Spindle’s idea from last night that Gabby took and ran with. And it all depends on making him bleed.
Gabby’s ruby earring leaps down onto the Wolf Lord. It’s one of Flou’s cores! The bunny-eared Red Slime lands on and bites into his wound, sucking like a leech. A fountain of blood shoots out onto the ground as Flou spits it out from her backside in a stream like a sap tap on a maple tree.
In more pain from this attack than any up to this point, the Wolf Lord jerks out of my grip on his throat, sits, and scratches himself with his hind leg. The First Tier Slime core breaks apart when his claws rake through the 'flea' on his neck. Our attention isn’t on this distraction, though.
Gabby is already stooping on her broomstick to the site where the fountain of blood landed, her wand whipping about to make plants grow in a specific pattern. When the line of growth reaches the bloodstain on the ground, she draws a tiny glass vial from her robes. The Witch tosses her little bottle to the earth, full-bore, where it shatters against a rock.
That bottle contains a drop of my blood, drawn from me yesterday for this express purpose.
Stabbing her wand with manic glee at the spot where my blood mixes with the Wolf Lord’s, she brings forth a bright star of arcane purple Dark Magic at the tip. Beneath, plant growth intersecting the blood-spill comes alight in runic patterns, and the glow spreads along lines of this foreign text in opposite directions. The illuminated foliage displays the specific shape of a complex ritual diagram encompassing the battlefield, as far as the thorn fence Gabby made at the start of the war.
This was the hidden purpose of that stunt; she'd laid the groundwork for a massive ritual. Spindle and Gabby had worked together on this project last night. The Webling had explained how severing the bond between the Wolf Lord and the Pack to cut the flow of power through the Leadership bond wasn’t possible using the knowledge we had. Her research on the Sheikh wouldn’t ‘translate’ that way. However, Spindle conceived of an idea for a loophole, a special Ritual that Gabby and Bonny then crafted.
Spindle posed the question: What if we didn't have to cut off the Wolf Lord's power, but could redirect it instead? If the Wolf Lord's strength comes from acting as the representative of the Pack's combined will, what scenario would not allow him to act in that capacity? The answer to that question is what we call, ‘The Challenge.’
"Father, your time as the Wolf Lord is done. From now on, I will lead the Pack."
"Eh?" The Wolf Lord's hesitation costs him his one chance to escape or disrupt the ritual diagram after wasting time on Flou’s distraction. Now, our Ritual activates as he stands on all fours and looks about at the glowing lines with curiosity. Then, as if overcome with a bad case of indigestion, he doubles over in pain, and lifts his head to howl.
Ghostly wolves, their bodies like constellations of arcane purple light, erupt from his throat, leaping into the air before landing on the ground at a sprint. An aura expands from the phantasmal wolves running in a ring that washes over us like the rising tide. On impact, all but two individuals are pushed away on the crest of that wave.
Bonny clings to the Witch’s broomstick with desperation as she and a madly cackling Gabby are shoved through the air away from the Wolf Lord.
Moka is forced out of my flame construct, which thankfully doesn’t burn her due to my control over the fire, and she tumbles to her feet dozens of meters away. My fiery beast form dims, and I feel a significant portion of my strength disappear, though we’d expected this unfortunate side effect. Similarly, the tummy Brand that Alex gave me goes still as if the magic supply were dammed upstream.
A small price to pay for the main event!
The Wolf Lord is a shadow of his former self. Every phantasmal wolf that spills forth from him strips a portion of his power away until he visibly shrinks. He diminishes before my eyes until he’s only a head taller than the average Dire Wolf. His coat is grey and faded. He has a plethora of battle scars on his flanks, throat, and face. Even his eyes are slightly cloudy. He’s… old.
Book of Monsters Entry – Greater Wolf: Canine monster. 3rd Tier, Below-Average Rank. The direct evolution of a Dire Wolf that accumulated the necessary experience from many successful hunts. These monsters tend to form the backbone of canine packs. Their strength, speed, and toughness are all elevated compared to their previous form. However, a lack of magic leaves them in a rather disadvantageous position in encounters with other monsters of their Tier.
All that power didn’t disappear, of course. The ghostly wolves, a manifestation of the Pack’s combined Evolutionary energy, patrol the perimeter of our arena. They won’t allow anything to interrupt our fight—because whoever wins will become the Pack's new Alpha.
That's right. Every other monster or outside source of magic is banned from influencing events inside the circle. Gabby says it's this stipulation that 'pays' for the Challenge's incredible effects. The Wolf Lord's own Leadership bond has been turned inside-out to enforce the fairness of our honorable battle. I can't even access my Power Bond until this duel for dominance is over.
It’s just me, a Second Tier Lesser Lupine Flamestalker, against the most experienced Greater Wolf in the Pack.