Growth Hero 2

by Brent Tyman

  I had forgotten she still had a much higher Speed stat than me. Jeez, she was fast.

  “Haha, I figured you’d want to join up. The Wolves are closing in already, and I wanted to show Aurielle that magic you keep claiming I have,” I said.

  We all slowed down as we neared the Raging Wolves.

  I glanced back to see that Juliana and some of the soldiers had noticed us taking the lead on this, but the others… not so much.

  I could still hear them arguing, even from here.

  “They are quite a loud bunch, even surpassing my retinue in their quarrelsomeness,” Clarissa said, before she eyed me hungrily. “But seeing you seizing the initiative like this, is quite… appealing. Let’s show them how it’s done.”

  The Raging Wolves had formed up into a row, with one Wolf taking up a position behind them in the middle. All seven of them snarled at us as I drew my sword, but something strange caught my attention.

  The Wolf in the back had red, glowing eyes, while the others had only pale, yellow ones. All of the Wolves kept snarling in growling tones, but the lead Wolf stopped, its red eyes examining me in detail.

  The first thing I liked to check was aggro range, so I slowly creeped up on the Wolves, watching alertly for anything odd in their behavior. I motioned for the women to stay behind me.

  Suddenly, without warning, the lead Wolf snapped its jaws together and growled a staccato series of barks and howls. Two Wolves broke from their formation and sprinted towards Clarissa and Anny, behind me.

  “Aurielle take the one to the right,” I ordered as I moved to intercept the one that approached on the left.

  The Wolf was fast, its form almost as much of a blur as Anny was when using her Speed stat. Luckily, I was able to get in front of it in time to stop it from reaching Clarissa.

  Unfortunately, that meant that it crashed into me instead, before I could take a swing.

  Crunch!

  The Wolf wasted no time trying to bite through the armor protecting my lower legs, reminding me of the Foxes and Rats I had faced before. It was ferocious in its intensity, trying to bite into my leg as if it were ravenously hungry.

  Fortunately, it wasn’t able to penetrate my greaves at all. My armor was clearly more than a match for the seventh floor. I guess having Juliana help me spend so much coin was worth it after all.

  Well, to spend all that coin in the form of a Demon Horn.

  It growled and hissed as it attacked my leg, its own back legs swinging wildly from side to side. I raised my sword and drove the blade down through its head, ending the beast in one fell swoop. Its corpse leaked blood as I pulled out my sword, and I checked to my side to see that Aurielle had a fearsome and unconventional method for dispatching monsters.

  The Wolf she had intercepted hung suspended in midair, floating a few feet off the ground. It tried in vain to escape, flailing its legs about in an attempt to gain some purchase and return to the ground, but that didn’t help at all.

  Aurielle had a hand raised, as if she was reaching for the Wolf with an invisible string.

  “Gravity Cascade,” she said, and the Wolf smashed into the ground, exploding into a mess of blood and… Wolf pulp.

  Even the lead Wolf seemed surprised by this. It stared intently at what was left of its fallen kin but didn’t seem to be too perturbed by the gruesome display. It snapped out a guttural howl in short methodical sequence, as if it were giving orders, now that I really thought about it.

  Two more Wolves sprinted at Anny and Clarissa. It seemed this lead Wolf recognized they weren’t really fighters, like me and Aurielle were. Anny was getting there though, and technically, so was Clarissa with her boosts in Strength. I was surprised when Clarissa and Anny nodded to each other and took up positions in front of us.

  “Whaaa…” I started to question, but Clarissa looked back over her shoulder and gave me a wink.

  “It’s our turn now, handsome. We wanna test out our Strength.”

  I wanted to protest, but I could see how determined they were to help out with the fighting. I nodded, but kept myself ready, in case they needed assistance.

  Clarissa waited for a Wolf to dive right into her, its teeth snapping at the air as it growled.

  I had expected Clarissa to pull out a weapon, maybe that thin dagger she kept hidden somewhere on her, but what followed surprised the heck out of me.

  Clarissa simply stepped to the side, out of the way of the Wolf’s lunge, and threw her bare leg out in a side kick. The Wolf bucked and twisted around her foot as Clarissa’s leg seemed to crush its side before it went flying into the tunnel wall.

  Splat!

  The Wolf’s body smashed into the wall before slowly sliding downwards. It left a nasty red streak behind on the snow covered wall from where it had struck, all the way to the ground.

  I was fairly sure it had perished.

  Jeez…

  Clarissa gave me a knowing smirk as she observed her own handy work.

  I had to admit, I was impressed.

  Anny had been toying with the Wolf that had gone after her. She blurred in and out of my view, appearing to teleport circles around the Wolf as it snapped its teeth in the always empty space Anny had been in a moment before.

  I wasn’t sure if she did so intentionally, but when the Wolf next darted in, Anny kept travelling towards it, causing both of them to collide. The Wolf was no match for Anny’s boosted Strength, especially when combined with her already impressive Speed.

  The sheer force of her momentum propelled the unfortunate Wolf straight upwards, not unlike what had happened to the Wolf Clarissa had dispatched. The Wolf shot into the air and ended up smashing into the ceiling above, leaving another nasty red mark there before falling back down to land in a heap in the middle of the tunnel.

  Anny’s expression was just as shocked as ours. She stared wide eyed at the splattered remains of the Wolf.

  “My Gods, I swear I didn’t know that would happen!” she squeaked, still in shock.

  “Nice one, Anny!” Clarissa said, grinning. “That was a nice bit of flair, toying with it before taking it out.”

  “Ahh, I was just trying to keep from getting bit!” Anny replied. She was so shocked; she had stopped wiggling in place like she typically did.

  Only three Raging Wolves remained. They looked unfazed at the demise of their buddies.

  The lead Wolf, the one with the red eyes, was clearly calling the shots. I could only imagine that his next move would be to have the other two Wolves beside him attack us at the same time again.

  An idea came to me. And while I could always try it on the next pack of Wolves, this was the perfect opportunity to put Aurielle's impressive power to work.

  “Aurielle, can you keep the red eyed Wolf in place with your power?” I shouted over to her.

  “Of course,” she said. “Now?”

  “Now,” I confirmed, and she smiled as she thrust her hand out.

  The lead Wolf’s head and snout instantly slammed into the ground in front of it. The Wolves standing beside it paused their snarling and growling.

  I didn’t waste any time and quickly dashed forward, keeping an eye on the two other Wolves. Even when I was only a few feet from them, the only thing they did was snarl at me. They didn’t move from their position.

  Something strange happened, then. I observed that the lead Wolf’s eyes were no longer red, instead becoming a pale yellow like the rest of its kin. At the same time, the eyes of the Wolf next to it turned red.

  My body moved virtually of its own accord. With a quick stab of my sword, I pierced this red-eyed Wolf’s head before jumping back and watching to see what would happen. The first thing I noticed was that this Wolf’s eyes instantly lost their red hue and returned back to a pale yellow before glazing over.

  As if some sort of spell had been lifted from the remaining Wolves, they shook their heads as one and looked around in confusion, as if they were seeing their surroundings for the first time.

 
Their eyes widened as if they were shocked to find me this close to them. The former lead Wolf acted just like its fellow kin. Having lost its commanding presence, it now acted as if it had never had one. Both beasts backpedaled as quickly as they could, letting out halfhearted growls that sounded more like whines.

  Once they had backed far enough away, they turned and bolted back the way they had come, fleeing as fast as their legs would carry them.

  I guessed they didn’t want to fight anymore.

  A weight suddenly pressed into my back and I spotted a long blonde hair tickling my cheek when I looked see who it was.

  “Hmm, excellent work as always, handsome. What did you figure out?” she asked.

  “Alex! What was it you did to those Wolves? I never thought Raging Wolves would run from us,” Anny said.

  “They don’t usually run away?” I queried.

  She shook her head. “Not that I’ve ever heard. Monsters rarely run away from adventurers, even when heavily outnumbered. This is the first time I’ve seen a monster flee.”

  Now that I thought about it, even the Rats on the first floor didn’t run, even when I’d whittled down their packs till there was only one Rat left. I supposed monsters in the Dungeon almost always ended up fighting to the bitter end. At least, unless you managed to get out of their aggro range; in which case, they would back off.

  These Wolves were an exception, though. They’d clearly panicked the moment that I dispatched the red-eyed Wolf. That act seemed to have dropped their raging resolve to nothing and then some.

  Aurielle came over to me, a smile on her lips and her eyes twinkling. “That was an impressive demonstration, Alex. Would you care to explain what happened to those Wolves?”

  As soon as I opened my mouth, Karl practically leaped into view, his hands holding both quill and parchment.

  “Yes, Alex,” he pleaded. His glasses were almost completely fogged up, but I could tell he was excited. “I need every detail about what happened. Your decision making, your observations, and your conclusions. Please, it’s for my research.”

  “Alex, are you okay?” Juliana asked, quickly pushing through the rest of her retinue as they encircled us.

  “That was very gallant, Alex,” Kesara commented. “Impressive as ever.”

  “Oi! How come when I rush forward into battle, I get scolded for it? But when Alex does so, he gets praised and congratulated?” Daiver whined.

  “Because Alex had the sense to bring a healer with him,” Kesara retorted.

  “Still reckless, but interesting to witness,” Vencia agreed.

  Juliana was checking my body for any injuries, which elicited an eye roll from Clarissa.

  “He’s fine, Juliana. I wouldn’t let anything happen to my handsome Alex,” she said.

  “I… wasn’t worried. My faith in Alex’s abilities is absolute.”

  “I had to physically restrain her to keep her from intervening,” Karl chuckled, his eyes still giddy with excitement. “She would have no doubt turned all the Wolves to cinders before you could learn anything from your analysis.”

  “That’s preposterous… Well, some deserved to become cinders. But perhaps not all of them,” Juliana admitted.

  I laughed and enveloped Juliana in a hug as everyone else broke out their theories about why the Wolves behaved as they did. I kissed Juliana’s cheek as she nuzzled into my shoulder.

  “Thanks for checking in on me,” I whispered in her ear. “It means a lot.”

  “Of course…” she said, her face heating up. “But perhaps letting me know when you decide to be reckless is in order? Please? For next time?”

  I laughed at that, and Clarissa hummed from behind us. She had been plastered to my back this entire time.

  “Uhh, Clarissa. Do you intend to stay there?” Juliana asked.

  “Of course,” Clarissa grinned. “It’s cold out here and I owe it to my handsome Alex to keep him and his armor nice and warm.”

  “Oh, I see. Perhaps I will join you in warming his armor,” Juliana replied before she hugged my front tighter.

  Wait, what? Where was this coming from?

  Oh Jeez…

  8

  Once both women agreed to untangle themselves from me, I acknowledged Aurielle’s and Karl’s requests and explained what I thought had happened with the Raging Wolves.

  It seemed to me that the Wolves relied entirely on the lead Wolf, the one with the red eyes, to tell them what to do. The effect his commands had on the rest of the pack was almost like it fueled their rage—like some kind of spell effect.

  Once the lead Wolf was out of the picture, though, that rage fizzled into nothing and the remaining Wolves effectively became harmless, opting to flee rather than stay and fight.

  To me, their odd behavior—effectively disabling the entire pack by dispatching the lead wolf—seemed more obvious than any behavior patterns I had discerned in the other monsters I had faced thus far.

  The oddity I had picked up on, though, was that it was clear some strange kind of magic defined who was the leader. This magic could be transferred from one wolf to another.

  The fact that I had spotted it at all almost felt like it was a fluke. The transfer had been subtle, but it was clear that the lead Wolf had relinquished its leadership to the red-eyed Wolf I ended up striking down at the end.

  This seemed to prevent the magic from transferring again, and hence the remaining Wolves fled the area.

  With this information, and after another demonstration on the next pack we faced, everyone seemed impressed with my methods of grinding. In this case, it really wasn’t ideal for the Wolves to flee, though, as that meant less experience for me and my Clan, plus the smaller amount the party got. If I had it right, the lead Wolf would most likely be the last Wolf to engage in combat and it made the most sense for us to wait to dispatch it last, rather than taking it out right at the start.

  We endeavored to finish off the remaining Wolves as quickly as possible whenever the lead Wolf perished before the rest of its pack, so we could reap the most experience with the least amount of risk. Aurielle’s magic was incredibly useful in this, as she was able to effectively immobilize the Wolves with her gravity magic.

  I could only guess how long she could hold a monster for, but it was clear these Raging Wolves were no match for her.

  I wondered what kind of monster would be troublesome for her? That Troglodread had managed to injure her, but if I had it right, her stats had been much lower at the time, due to her curse. Despite this, she had been hunting both the Troglodread and the Titan.

  Which was admirable to say the least.

  I would really love to get a peek at her stats…

  After testing my theory on a few packs of Wolves, the party joined in to grind the rest of the way back to the surface. With this many people and our stats being far above what was normal for this floor, I was fairly sure Anny could have plowed into every single Wolf she saw and ended the fights in record time.

  In hindsight, we could have saved a lot of time doing that.

  Instead, Juliana insisted we work together as a unified party. It was more cumbersome than fighting with just my Clan members, as I had initially surmised, but I knew this training would help down the road with their coordination against tougher monsters.

  “Alex, perhaps you could explain how you would deal with a pack of Blazing Bulls?” Karl asked me. He had now opted to get my opinion on how I’d fight monsters I hadn’t even encountered yet.

  My answers were pretty much the same, regardless of which monster he tossed out.

  “I have absolutely no clue what I’d do until I see them in action first,” I admitted. “And what the heck is a Blazing Bull?”

  “Just a Bull that’s on fire or something,” Kesara replied. “And don’t mind him, hon, Karl is just frustrated since the monsters he’s asking about are ones he has trouble fighting.”

  “That is most certainly not the case, this is for my research,” Karl repli
ed, bristling as he stood, straightening his shoulders. This slightly loosened his glasses’ perch on his nose and he had to readjust them.

  “Blazing Bulls are resistant to fire, and even to lightning, for some reason,” Kesara continued, grinning. “I heard from the gossip mills in the capital last year that Karl Taronik, the most academically gifted of the Taronik Clan, had been chased out of the capital’s Dungeon by Blazing Bulls. Oh, it was the only thing anyone talked about for days! My mother nearly keeled over laughing at the news.”

  Karl narrowed his eyes dangerously at Kesara, but she kept going.

  “Rumor had it, that he went in solo to prove his worth to his father. He went all the way to the ninth floor where the Bulls are located in the Tasberg Dungeon, and promptly sprinted all the way back to the surface.”

  “Huh, why would he flee all the way to the surface when he only needed to get to the floor above him?” Aurielle asked, confused.

  “Those are only speculative rumors, mind you,” Karl said with a dismissive sniff. “Please disregard them.”

  “Tell that to the dozens of adventurers you passed on the way back out. Apparently, Karl thought the Bulls would climb up the stairs after him, so he kept going and going. Isn’t that right, Karl?”

  “They were impressively fast, and I had all of my journals on me,” Karl admitted with a shudder. “It would have been unacceptable to have my notes reduced to ashes. One of them put its hoof on the stairs to the eighth floor! My actions were perfectly justified.”

  Kesara tried to recall another rumor she had heard, but Karl quickly shut her down and dragged her off to the other side of our column.

  Blazing Bulls, huh? Some of the monster names in this fantasy world were pretty strange. How could a monster deal with being on fire all the time?

  The Wolf packs gradually decreased the further we travelled on the seventh floor. We also occasionally spotted the corpses of Wolves that had evidently perished a while ago.

  It was hard to find those. In the first place, most of their corpses were half buried under the snow. But with the way it they appeared to have perished, I could only surmise the feral Demons had something to do with it. Those feral demons had gotten all the way to the fifth floor, after all, before we encountered them.