Coyote Ugly

Grant didn't know right away what exactly was sending off danger signals left and right for him, but he knew that whatever it was, the people who were with him, stood absolutely zero chance against the enemies, so he immediately told them to run.

Unfortunately for the group of trainee's, they hadn't delt with dangerous situations like this yet, so they didn't react quick enough. And that would be something they could only regret later because before they could move, a pack of five coyotes were already surrounding the group.

Each coyote was at least the size of a great dane. They had long sharp teeth, sharp claws, but retained the same lean figure that normal coyotes had so they looked to be quite fast.

The trainee's could only cower in fear and stare at the monsters, because they were paralyzed by the stench of death radiating from the coyotes.

Grant however, knew precisely why these monsters were radiating such dangerous auras. They were all Enlightened Tier monsters, and it seemed that all of them were stronger than Grant to some degree.

Without even turning to speak directly towards the group, he started to relay instructions.

"I am going to activate a skill that allows your stats to increase slightly. The skill will not last more than five minutes. In those five minutes, you all need to do your best to get away from here.

I will try and keep as many of them at bay as I can, but do not let your guard down!

Richard and Robin, you two are in charge of keeping these people as safe as you can. Do not throw your life away needlessly though. These guys are higher level than me, so you do not stand a chance against them in a head on fight even with my the buff from my skill."

"Understood."

Knowing that they understood his instructions, Grant immediately activated Dragon's Roar. Feeling the boost in his stats, he didn't hesitate to charge at the closest Coyote. His aim was to deal damage to at least one of them to draw the ire of the other four so that they would attack him instead of going for the group.

To some degree, his plan worked, but not as well as he had hoped. While he was charging at the coyote in front of him, the two that were to his left and right came at him from the sides.

With unreal precision, the coyote on the left went high, the one on the right went low, and the on in front of him charged directly at him. They were clearly trying to cut off any avenue of escape and end him in the first encounter.

Unfortunately for the coyote's, over the two weeks spent training with Skit, Grant had become extremely adept at controlling his body to avoid deadly strikes. After being hit with a staff for the hundredth time, he had forced his body to move in more obscure ways to avoid being hit.

Instead of trying to avoid the strikes, Grant planted his foot firmly in the ground and dove shoulder first into the coyote in front of him. He hadn't done any actual damage to the coyote but the small burst of speed had allowed him to avoid the two coming at him from the sides.

While the two coyotes that were coming from his side landed and immediately started running to Grant's sides to attack again, the coyote that he body checked bounced a few times before scrambling back to it's feet.

The body check had slowed Grant down momentarily but he continued to charge forward and neared the tumbling coyote. Once it reached it's feet, the Sword of the One True King, was already inches away from it's neck.

The coyote tried to scramble out of the way but the sword decapitated it before it had a chance to react.

{Congratulations on killing Furry Tomb Wolf - Assassin Level 31.

You have reached level 29.

Gained four status points to be distributed freely.

You have absorbed +12 Strength, +42 Agility, +21 Health, +33 Stamina and +24 Mana.

You have gained +100 Credits and 2 Random Rolls for successfully leveling up.}

[That's one down. Four and a half minutes left on Dragon's Roar. I need to speed this up. Wait.. wolf? These are clearly coyote's! Who's naming these monsters?! I demand answers!!]

Seeing the death of their comrade, the other two coyote's that were fighting with Grant, charged at him even more fiercely now.

Instead of taking them on one at a time, Grant grabbed the body of the now headless coyote before it could even hit the ground, spun around, and chucked it at the coyote to his left.

The body of the dead coyote slammed into the other coyote and both of them were launched down the street before crashing into a building.

He didn't receive a notification so he knew that he would have to come back and kill that one, but he didn't have time to worry about that at the moment. He could hear the screams of the trainee's as they fought to get away from the two coyotes that were attacking them and knew that each scream meant another lost fighter.

He quickly engaged the last coyote in a back in forth exchange of bites, sword swings, and paw strikes. Clearly this final coyote was borderline equal to Grant in terms of speed and it was making it difficult for Grant to deliver any meaningful strike. While the fight between them raged on, the screaming never ceased.

Grant became increasingly incensed every time he heard someone scream in pain and terror.

"You fucking dogs are wasting my hard work!"

Sadly for the trainee's, Grant wasn't concerned about their lives at the moment, he was more concerned with his time having been wasted. Of course he felt bad that people were dying under his watch, and that increased his anger to the next level. But he had just spent the entire day coaxing these people into killing zombies and other monsters and now it was all turning out to be a waste.

With fire spewing from his eyes, Grant charged at the last coyote from the original group that had attacked him, and tried to slash it in half. Unfortunately, the coyote could sense the rage and killing intent radiating for Grant, so it had immediately turned tail and ran towards its last remaining allies.

It knew that it couldn't take Grant head on so it would try to rely on it's friends.

When the last two coyote's saw their pack mate running towards them with a man who looked to be on fire chasing after it, they immediately gave up on the weaker members of the group and tried to regroup to take Grant on.

Seeing this, Grant took a deep breath and regathered himself. His Dragon's Roar only had about a minute and a half left and the second that it expired, he would be in a tough spot. The only reason he had been able to make quick work of the first coyote and damage the second one with the first's dead body is because of the percentage boost and subsequent reduction to stats the skill provided.

If he did not have the skill, it would take everything he had just to fight the first three and it was likely that the other two would have killed everyone else before he could grab their intention.

Knowing that he had their full attention now though, Grant quickly yelled at the survivors to grab anyone who was still breathing and get as far away from there as they could.

Some of the survivors had already run as far away as they could get, even before Grant said anything, but a small percentage had remained due to fear.

Grant was relieved when he was Richard and Robin still moving, although they both had sustained injuries, they didn't appear to be life threatening.

While Grant was yelling instructions at the survivors, the coyote that had been flung away had rejoined the group of three and the now four of them were currently circling Grant, looking for an opportunity to attack.

They had apparently chosen to ignore the other survivors completely because the survivors had managed to get away without attracting any of the coyote's attention.

Seeing the last person round the corner at the end of the street, Grant refocused on the fight ahead of him.

The first to attack him was the one directly behind him. He didn't even need to look to know because he could sense the movements due to his passive skill.

{Dragon's Roar: 32 seconds remaining.}

[Fuck it. All or nothing!]

"Frenzy of Time!"

For the next five seconds, Grant tried his best to kill at least two of the coyote's. And just milliseconds before the skill came to an end, he managed to decapitate the second coyote.

[Thank god I'm fast as fuck!!!]

What Grant wasn't expecting though, was before he could activate the skill a second time and finish off the group of coyote's, another group, this time consisting of only 3 coyotes, came bounding down the street. Grant could tell that they were much stronger than the first five. They appeared to be the leaders of the pack and were coming to rescue their compatriots who were in danger.

[Are you telling me, in two weeks, an entire pack of coyotes managed to reach Enlightened Tier?!

Fuck me man... the apocalypse blows.]