Lycan Matron

Saying we need to find lycans is a lot more difficult than actually finding lycans. Everywhere we go, we are only beset by flame monkeys. This may be their territory.

Then, we actually do find a lycan. We slay it easily, as we have every other monster on this level, and advance down the direction it came from. Once again, we are attacked by only flame monkeys. However, after a little bit of wandering, we encounter another lycan, and after killing it, we once more go down the direction it came from.

It is in this way that we begin encountering more and more lycans. When the number of flame monkey encounters decreases and the number of lycan encounters increases, we know that we are heading down the right path.

Cutting our way through them goes smoothly until, during one encounter, Wyll gets a little too relaxed and a lycan takes a bite out of his trousers. He shrieks in fear and I'm upon the offending lycan in seconds, my blade through its heart the next instant.

"Wyll!"

"I'm alright, I'm alright! It only got my clothes…" Wyll looks down at his torn trouser leg, exposing the slightly bloodied flesh underneath. The lycan has in fact not only gotten his clothes, but neither is it a deep wound. It seems to be a light scratch from the looks of it.

"You're injured," I point out.

Wyll looks down at his lightly bleeding leg as though he's just noticing it, "Oh… it doesn't hurt or anything. All I feel is a little sting."

"Can you continue then?" I ask.

Wyll hops in place a few times to test his leg, "Yeah, I should be good. I guess I got lucky."

"You did," I say, "Focus."

I swear, I thought my heart stopped for a moment when that lycan reached Wyll. After all that I said to his sister, if he suffered a dangerous injury right after, I'm not sure I'd have any right to speak ever again.

We continue on, and when we encounter more enemies, I notice that Wyll is far more careful now. The threat of the second level had begun to lose its edge with how easy our strategy had made going through it, but it has now reasserted itself. In a sense, this may be a good thing. It means he'll be more ready for any mid-boss fight that comes our way.

After a while, my wish comes true and the crystals that light the dungeon all begin glowing red again. I wait with bated breath, hoping we've gotten the right enemy. By the end, we only found lycans and barely any of the other monsters, so I'm quite hopeful that the mid-boss to show up will be a lycan matron.

I hear the sound of approaching footfalls. They're quick and not as heavy as a flame gorilla's. I raise my blade.

And then it bursts from through the trees, a wolf-like creature. Its fangs are longer than a sabre-toothed cat's and its long claws dig into the dirt as it glares at us with a wide-eyed madness that only monsters can possess.

I smile, here it is: a lycan matron.

"Wyll," I say, and Wyll gets to work immediately. He raises his hand, shouting, "Waterlog!" And the spell's cone-like structure makes it easy to hit his target as usual. I follow that up with a confident, "Abyssflame!" And then swing my sword, declaring, "Abyssflame Slash!"

The lycan matron slips around the wave of black flame with ease, and I realise my mistake instantly. Wyll's Waterlog skill is less effective against lycans, so of course it would barely have any effect on a lycan matron.

Thankfully, the lycan matron is just circling us right now. It feels like it's trying to judge our abilities before going on the attack. I see its eyes flick to my rapidly disappearing black flames that splashed against the greenery behind it. It might have chosen to act careful because it can sense the power in that attack.

I keep a close eye on it as I say to Wyll, "New plan… we'll just have to attack it from two directions." I hope I've managed to keep the shaking out of my voice.

"O-okay," he doesn't even bother trying to keep the shaking out of his voice.

The lycan matron seems to be getting impatient now. It paces a little more, its movements getting more and more erratic until it finally charges at us. It's a different sort of charge from the flame gorilla. That felt like a massive cannon being fired at us, this feels like a bullet.

As soon as it's close, I swing my sword again, "Abyssflame Slash!"

Unfortunately, the lycan matron is not like the flame gorilla, it's agile and it easily slips around my attack. Wyll charges at it, committing to his own swing, and it is faster because he doesn't have anything like the Abyssflame activated, but he too is easily dodged around.

The lycan matron has two choices now, it can either go for me or Wyll. I don't know what it is, but maybe it's the way I saw the lycan matron notice the blood on Wyll's leg, or maybe it's the way I saw it watch my Abyssflame Slash attack warily, the same Abyssflame that I'm currently coated in—but in that moment, I suddenly realise which target it will go for.

As though I've been doing this for years, I let my Abyssflame fade to gain speed, and I stab my sword in front of Wyll just as the lycan matron pounces at him, its sharp fangs bared.

This was not an attack I made on the lycan matron itself, it's an attack I made by predicting where it would go, and my decision proves to be correct. The lycan matron notices my attack at the last second and twists out of the way, but I still clip it in the front left limb, splattering blood on the ground.

The lycan matron retreats with a noticeable limp and I breathe heavily. Two Abyssflame Slashes and keeping the Abyssflame on all this time has completely drained me of all my stamina. But I can't collapse yet, my enemy is still alive.

I point my sword at the enemy as I see Wyll pale out of the corner of my eye, "I… saw my life flash before my eyes…"

"We're not out of the woods yet," I pant out. I see the lycan matron watching me carefully. Even through its madness I have a feeling it understands that I've gotten weaker.

An idea strikes me. A terrible, terrifying idea that I don't want to go through with no matter what… but the alternative is death.

Like steeling myself and throwing myself into a frigid pool, I steel myself and stumble on my feet.

Wyll notices and says panickedly, "Thomas! A-are you—?"

"I'm fine," I cut him off. But my voice is weak and said in the midst of panting. The lycan matron twitches, and I wait for it to make the first move. My lungs burn and when my knees buckle again, my gaze drops from exhaustion for a second.

A second is all the lycan matron needs. Like grey lightning it zips at me, even with its injured limb. Wyll valiantly tries to step in front of me and take a swing at it, but it slips around him, its jaws opened wide to tear a chunk out of me.

I manage to raise my arm in front of me in time, and as the lycan matron's jaws close around it, I say heavily, "Abyssflame."

The lycan matron's teeth sink into my flesh, and it howls in pain just as I howl in pain. Its teeth dig into my arm as its flesh sears. The black flames on my body enhance my defence, and the lycan matron's raw contact with them begins burning it. It writhes and I scream as blood spurts everywhere. It is opening its jaw to escape, but I muster every last bit of my willpower and—

Stab!

My blade goes clean through the lycan matron. It stops moving, and we both fall to the ground. The pain is unbearable, I can barely even see anymore, I've never been hurt like this…

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500 EXP

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