Duskbound

Monsters killed each other all the time. They had to in order to level up, just like people. As far as Velik was aware, they didn't have classes, so they couldn't earn levels from doing other things like cooking or carpentry like those who possessed a crafting class could. One monster attacking another wasn't much of a surprise, especially when they were two completely different types.

That meant that the only thing Velik really needed to do in order to bring this fight down to a one-on-one was to get out of the new monster's way and let it go through the bear all on its own. That, he could do. It was a simple matter to leap straight up into the trees and let the two monsters fight. He'd take on the winner, not that he had any doubt which one that would be.

At least, that was the plan. What actually ended up happening was that the moment his feet left the ground, the wolverine jumped on him. Velik got his spear up between them, but the spear failed to pierce the monster's fur. The only reason it didn't snap was its [Shape Shifting] enchantment, which allowed for enough give that it bent instead.

Velik was thrown backwards from the force of the impact, while the wolverine went slightly to the side. They landed at almost the exact same moment, mere inches apart. Snarling, it scrambled to its feet and raked its claws across Velik's leg. He flinched away and flung himself off the ground with one arm, but he wasn't fast enough to fully avoid being hit. His pants tore and blood splattered into the dirt, but the hooked claws failed to drag him in.

He flipped back up to his feet, wincing as pain shot up his leg, but confident he could still fight. Fully focused on the wolverine, he didn't realize that the armored bear monster was right behind him now. It had charged forward in the last second, and Velik honestly wasn't sure if it was targeting him in particular or if he just had the bad luck to be closer. Either way, its jaw closed around his forearm and tried to drag him back to the ground.

Velik didn't have 97 physical for nothing, though. The bear was strong, especially considering its size, but when he flexed his leg muscle, its teeth couldn't penetrate like the wolverine's claws had. A quick chop of his shortened spear on the bear's face was all it took to get it to release him, and just in time, too.

Wolverines weren't noted for their calm, docile behavior, so it wasn't very surprising when it didn't stand still and wait. By the time Velik was free, it was already wading in to rip everything it could reach to shreds. Fortunately, this time it overcommitted to the attack and he was able to get out from between the two monsters.

Another notification flashed across his vision, crediting him with an assist on the second steel pelt bear, not that he felt he'd done much. If anything, the bear was helping him. He circled behind the wolverine while it savaged the bear's corpse, reshaped his spear's tip into what was basically a needle, then slammed it in with all the [Duskbound] strength he could muster.

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The good news was that it slipped through the wolverine's fur and sunk into its muscled back. The bad news was that, if anything, it grew even more frenzied. Armored flesh flew in every direction as it tore the bear apart, perhaps mistakenly believing the other monster was the cause of its pain. Does it even feel pain though?

Velik pulled the spear back out and tried to line it up for a second strike, but [Spear Warden] failed him. He couldn't control the monster's movements because it didn't care about getting hit. Its fur was too tough for anything but a direct piercing strike to get through, and it was so enraged that lining up a clean shot was almost impossible.

I might just have to run from this one. Maybe it'll stay here and eat its kills instead of chasing.

That was a longshot. Monsters weren't known for ignoring people, especially not ones that were running, and Velik wasn't sure he was faster than this thing, even at night. He definitely didn't think he could face it during the day. [Predator's Visage] was sure of that. If he could run, he would. If it chased him, he'd have to stand his ground and fight. Leaving the wolverine alive to see the next sunrise was a terrible idea.

He darted down the trail, but a second later, the wolverine took off after him. Hissing and spitting the whole time, its waddling gait would have almost been funny if not for the fact that it was covered in gore from the tip of its snout to the end of its tail. It was also freakishly fast when it wanted to be, and Velik immediately abandoned the idea of running. Forget worrying about fighting it after dawn. I don't think I could actually get ahead of it!

There was nothing for it but to stand his ground and fight. The trail wasn't big enough for him to use his spear to its full effect, but it didn't matter. The wolverine wasn't afraid to take a few hits to get to him anyway, so he shortened the shaft by two feet so that he could swing it without worrying about it getting caught in the trees.

Then it caught up and the fight was back on. Velik ducked when it leaped at his face. He skittered backwards when it tried to rip into his calves. He jumped nine feet straight into the air and hooked an arm around a low-hanging branch when it lunged at his groin, only to immediately drop back down and skewer it with his needle-tip spear.

Pinning it to the ground would have required him to outmuscle the monster, something he couldn't do. It snarled and spit and thrashed its way free, ripping itself open in the process as he widened the blade of his spear slightly and gave it edges. By the time it managed to break free, blood was leaking freely from its belly and matting down its back fur.

And it was still going strong, somehow. Is this thing actually moving faster now?! This has to be some sort of skill. There's no way—oh shit!

The berserk wolverine hurled itself through the air, all four legs pointed in Velik's direction and spread wide as if it were planning to catch him no matter which way he dodged. There was only one way he could go: straight down.

Dropping to his belly, he rolled as the wolverine soared past him. It rebounded off a tree, losing none of its momentum in the process, and leaving Velik scrambling to get back upright before it pounced on him like the world's most deranged house cat finding a mouse in the larder. He could already imagine those hooked claws slicing into his flesh again.

The dead bear saved him. He never would have gotten out of the way on his own, but the wolverine slipped on a strand of entrails in its frenzied rush to reach Velik. It wasn't much of a slip—four-legged animals generally had excellent balance no matter how low their stats were—but it gave Velik that fraction of a second he needed to regain his feet and get his spear up.

The next fifteen minutes of his life were among the worst he could remember. There'd been hard fights in the past, especially when he was still a kid, wielding nothing but a slightly-crooked tree branch with an end he'd sharpened using a pocket knife he'd stolen before he'd been kicked out of town. But this was something else. The wolverine was almost impossible to even hurt, and it didn't seem to care when it did take a hit. It just kept coming, no matter what.

Considering its relatively small stature, Velik would have expected it to bleed out by now. Morgus knew he was feeling dizzy enough from his own blood loss, and he'd only taken a half dozen hits compared to the fifty or more the wolverine was suffering from. Its whole body was a matted black mess of monster-blood-soaked fur.

It kept going full tilt right up until the end, when it died mid-air while flinging its whole body at Velik's face. He saw the instant the life went out of its eyes, with its face still locked into a snarl and its body coming straight at him. He dropped to a knee and let the wolverine's body fly over his head.

[You have slain a gloan wolverine (level 26).]

[Spear Warden has advanced to rank 5.]

Velik's very first action was to reach into his waist pack for a healing potion. Thankfully, system glass was near-indestructible, and the vial was intact. He tilted it back and swallowed the whole thing in one go, then sighed in relief as it went to work.

And it wasn't even an elite! he thought as he eyed the system notification. Why was it so damn strong? Maybe I was right to think I wasn't ready for this yet. This is only the first day and I… well, I don't want to say it nearly killed me, but it came a lot closer than anything else has in years. Two monsters like that could do it, especially during the day.

But all the reasons he'd had for venturing into the deep wood were still valid. He needed to figure out what had caused the sudden spike in monsters, and that wasn't going to happen if he just stuck to his normal stretch of forest and killed monsters as they appeared. With an unhappy sigh, he started walking farther north. He had a worg to hunt down, and several more hours of darkness before he needed to find a place to sleep.