Boss Battle

"Thats... a joke, right?"

Appearing in between the trees a gigantic wolf who was crazily similar to the Mother Wolf that attacked us that day.

Maybe this is fate announcing a rematch because it was unsatisfied by the end of our last fight.

At that time I was forced to use a trick to pin her down and leave the killing to someone else. This time I had a fully functional Titan and even weapons to carry a fair match. Was this fate's way of saying the result would still be the same or that I was extremely lucky to survive that time?

"Well, there is only one way to find out, and that is to fight with her!"

"I think the newbie went crazy."

"Look at those eyes, did he inject stuff?"

"Hahahaha! It seems this will be a great show!"

The wolf was not real so it didn't look around or showed any feelings seeing its pack destroyed, instead, like a scripted action, it took snow steps toward me and let out a loud howl.

"Wooooooooooooooooo~~~~~~~~~~~~!!!"

I bet the real thing would make my ears bleed but luckily the simulation device had safety locks that limited the volume of the sound, even then it was quite loud!

My stunned state from the surprise finally vanishe and I aimed at it with my rifle using both hands.

Tatatatatatata!

The shots rained down over the beast's face, but the beast wasn't going to simply be bullied without fighting back and quickly dodged to the side.

I felt the earth tremble as the beast landed all four pawns at once, but it didn't stop there and charged at me. I prepared the side step maneuver as I fixed my aim, and once the beast was 5 meters away, I activated dodging right on time.

The wolf didn't just stop after missing it's target, instead it circled around and charged at me again. I tried turning around, aiming and shooting but that monster moved too fast for my Titan to accompany it, making my turn finish just as it was time to dodge again, making it impossible to shot at all.

Sweat started accumulating in my hands and my heard pumped more and more blood. Adrenaline was rushing into my brain and my senses got more and more acute as I looked for a chance. After chasing and failing for the third time in a row, I noticed the pattern in the beast's charge that could be exploited if aimed correctly, so at the beast's fifth charge I didn't chase after it anymore.

The beast was coming, the radar informed me. I started counting, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and dodged again to the side. Suddenly a beast appeared just where I stood one second ago, but I already expected this, so my aim was ready and I started to shoot.

The shoots this time weren't aimed at its head, quite the opposite, its the legs that I aimed for. As long as I could hurt this huge wolf's legs it wouldn't be able to run as fast, making it easier to dodge and to aim all at once.

"Kaeennnn~~~~!!!!"

The wolf screamed in pain as the shots hit its legs, loosing it's balance and falling down. I could charge at it now and attack with my knifes, but I remained at some distance shooting bullets to not risk a counter attack.

Fair enough the wolf got up seconds later, swinging it's body around to hit anybody who dared to get close to it, but because it was only me fighting it now, it's actions were stupid and useless, but you can't really expect much from a simulation as it doesn't really think right?

The wolf stopped charging and instead approached me walking slowly. I retreat at the same pace while showering it with bullets right on it's face. I bet if this was reality the wolf's face would be horrible now, but due to it being just a 3d model, only a bit of texture changed painting his face in red.

From there on the wolf tried multiple times to jump on me, but I just kept my distance, slowly bleeding his life and after 5 minutes of repeating this cycle, it finally fell on the ground after giving out a sad howl of defeat.

"This was too easy."

"I agree. We should have set the difficulty level on Hell mode instead!"

"Well, these simulations never simulate animals well enough so it wouldn't make much difference."

"Right! That huge wolf attacks were quite plain!"

"Should we do it again?"

"I don't think we have the time. Maybe a duel is all we can make."

"Then, who is going to bully the newbie? Honestly I don't feel like it today."

"B.B. you are our leader, so it's your responsibility. Make sure to teach the newbie his place while doing so... Though I doubt I have to remind you such thing..."

"Ugh... all right. But let's restart the simulation before doing that or he will use the excuse that he lost because of all the damage accumulated from the wolves..."

(I'm hearing you all, you know? Ugh...)

The simulation was reloaded and we appeared in the middle of the forest again.

"You were hearing us, right? So, are you ready?"

"Hmm, sure. Please go easy on me."

"Hahahaha! No promises from me. Try to stay alive!"

To make things fair, both of us were using the same mode of rifleman.

B.B.'s brother started the count down, and just as it reached zero I aimed my rifle and shot at B.B., but him, instead of doing the same, dropped a grenade right in between us and as it exploded and a smoke cloud covered the whole place, he disappeared from my sight making me lose my aim.

I checked the radar and saw the dot behind me, so I turned around and shot blindly trying to hit him, but-

"Game Over."

- Right at this moment the grenades exploded right on my feet, making my Titan fall to the ground and then both his knife buried themselves in my cockpit.

"...I lost."

"Hahahahahaha! Look at his face!"

"Don't feel bad, newbie. At least you tried to turn around instead of just waiting in place."

"Right! Right! Most people freeze in place and don't even know how they died!"

"Sorry Joel but that's me going easy. I didn't even shot once."

"Ugh... no problem. So, did I fail?"

"No! That was just as expected. There is only so many people who can fight B.B., we never expected this much from a fancy pants who has not even graduated yet."

"For a temporary help, you are good enough. At least you know how to handle a Titan and won't need us to clean you *ss as you get attacked by some mob."

"I have nothing against it as well. Let him play with Gary's toy while Gary is away."

"Then, since everybody agrees, welcome to the Team!"

"Thank you."

After that we exited the TSC and we went together to a bar grab some food. It was still in the middle of the afternoon but those guys went all out drinking like crazy. I got worried they would make some trouble and someone would call the police but even after night fall nothing aside from random singing and chatting ended up happening. As I got back on my bed, later that night, my head was completely full by all the events that happened that day.

"Well, they are scary but not bad people. Seems like this will be fun! But if gramps finds out, I can't even imagine what he will say..."

And so, without me even noticing, I fell asleep, waking up only in the next day.