Book 3, Chapter 26
The Alpha Wolf

    It"s already evening when we"re finishingwith shopping. Ow my waist hurts! I never knew buying stuff can be so tiring.

    Iaccompanied Rose back to her dorm. Our orders have already arrived, which caused much surprises to her roommates.

    Lean asked the moment she saw us:"Did you two just rob a bank? Where did an orphan get so much money?"She took out an overall from the bags. "Oh dear.  SnowSpecialties, memorial edition! And--woooah!"

    She was pushed aside by theother girls in the room.

    I said goodbye to Rose when the others are fighting overthe clothes. "You can stay in this dorm for now. I"ll try to find a housefor you as soon as I can. And don"t worry about your parents, I"ve modified thedatabase, those dogs downstairs won"t let them in again."

    When I"m back at my own room we entered the gameat the exact same time.

    Rose hugged me. "How did you know I"m online?"

    "Well you won"t wait toget in here again. So here I am, to keep your company."

    "I likeyour att.i.tude!" Rose returned to her "evil girl" mode. "Youknow, I understood what uncle said that night. So how about...now?"

    c.r.a.p! That"s too straightforward!

    "Uh, Rose? Well, that day I--"

    Rose pinned me on the ground. "I know what you werethinking. I was awake the whole time."

    "Then why--"

    "Well Iwanted to see if you are a true man, or just another pervert!"

    I topped Rose over. "Your conclusion?"

    "Pervert! You"re a beast!" Rose joked.

    "You know what, you found my secret. Rawwroo!" Itried to mimic wolf howl and started to kiss Rose--got to finish what I startedon that day.

    But what happened next is totally out of ourexpectations. As I "howled" once or twice, several more realisticones came up from nearby. And that creepiness is definitely not imitated byhumans.

    Did I just attract real wolves?

    Arooooo--

    It"s getting closer. Too bad, mya.s.sumption was right.

    I summoned my team in a hurry. Lucky appeared first andbegan to clear away the surrounding bushes, because hiding places can be deadlywhen dealing with wolves. Getting an open ground will improve our chances.

    NightShade and Phiona are next. Their fast movement should be good against wolfpacks. Phantom is a must-have. I didn"t call Loong"er though. She mainlyattacks by using spell matrix, which can be too slow in this situation.

    The wolves appeared not long after we got ourselvesprepared. Two large black monstrous wolves leaped onto a fallen tree trunk withgreat speed. They scouted around for a bit and locked their gazes at us. BeforeI can feel confident that we can deal with just two wolves, seven or eight more showed up on the tree.

    Shoot. Looks like there are a lot of them.

    Another snow-white wolf jumped from behind them, probablytheir alpha. I became sure when I noticed its abnormally large size and thatcross-shape scar between its eyes. The white wolf stared at us for a secondbefore jumping in front of me in a blink. I immediately dragged Rose and ran. Thisthing"s size is enough to tell me that it"s deadly!

    The wolves didn"t scareLucky, who just rushed towards the white wolf and swiped at it, which dodgedthe attack with a quick side-leap. Night Shade prepared a follow-up attack but wassurrounded by the other wolves before he can reach his target. Phiona tried toprovide support. One of the bigger wolves crouched and jumped up, almostcatching her tail. Looks like flying isn"t an advantage now.

    Lucky is straight-minded though. After his claw missed,he tried another swipe using his tail. The white wolf dodged again, then jumpedon top of Lucky"s back and began to bite at Lucky. Lucky breathed a fireball inanger out of pain, which burned down another group of wolves. Night Shadecharged out of his surrounding enemies and lunged onto Lucky"s back, ramming the white wolfaway. He got faster speed.

    I told Rose to climb onto a tree and support us usingher healing and support spells, while I grabbed an ordinary sword and joinedthe fray. Lucky is already engaged with the alpha wolf so I can read its stats.

    It doesn"t look good. [Demonized Wolf (Light aspect)], level 750 Boss, Speed 230 whichis the same level with Phiona, Attack is standard, but that HP bar isbeyond any tank type I"ve ever seen. Lucky"s ultimate level is 1000 but isstill having a hard time because his current level is too low. Night Shade isfaster but not really a damage dealer so he can"t do anything. Phiona is tryingto keep the rest of the wolves busy.

    I"ll have to do this on my own.

    "Lucky! Restrict its movement!"

    We"vepracticed before. This means Lucky will cast two fire spells which form up acircle to trap the target inside. We can then attack freely from the outsideusing ranged skills.

    The fire circle was a success but the wolf simplyjumped out of it. Man that was high! I made a hard brake as the monster landedright in front of my face. I can almost feel its breath!

    The wolf bent down and got ready to lunge at me. A well-timedblack flame wall appeared and separated us. Yup. That was from Phiona.

    Howeverthe wolf still jumped over the fire wall.

    "Oof!" It knocked me flyingwith just one claw swipe, depleting my HP. That damage is expected from a bossmonster who"s 500 levels above me.

    Rose used her healing spell in time. A warm feelingcomforted me. I ordered Lucky to set the entire area aflame. That should hinderits movement.

    It didn"t go as planned though. The alpha chargedstraight at me, completely unaffected by the surrounding fire. It was justtrying to jump over the flames out of instinct. But now it noticed that theselow-level spells don"t cause much damage at all so it simply decided to run through them!

    There"s no way I can avoid such a fast attack. I was knocked outside theflaming field and crashed into a tree, breaking it. I heard shrieking from Luckyand Phiona, the collars transferred my damage to them, keeping me alive. Anotherattack from one of the wolves managed to finish off Phiona. She can revive, though.

    I don"t really have anything to deal with the situationnow. I jumped onto a nearby tree and used [Capture] three times at the alpha --which completely p.i.s.sed it off. The wolf opened its jaw. A white, crescent shapedobject flew towards me. No idea what it is but obviously something I"d better avoid.

    I[Blink]"d away from my spot. Snap! The tree broke in half from where I wasstanding, with the cut clean as if slashed by a sharp blade.

    Phantom explained: "That"s a typical skill used bybeast type monsters, [Pressure Blast], an advanced version of wind blade."

    "So it"sdangerous?"

    "They are dangerousenough without the skill!"

     I looked at Rosewho is still standing on her tree, then shouted:" Rose! Decamping tactic!"

    Rose was confused by my unusual choice of word, but she soon realized what Imeant when she saw me de-summoning my companions. She jumped from the tree and fell onto my arms.

    I threw another [Capture] at the alpha and turned tail. Inever expected it to work. Never hurts to try, though.

    I activated my ring and teleported us to some randomplains. Then I lay on the ground to take a breather. That was some awful experience!

    But I heard a system notice. "Congratulations, player Ziri successfullycaptured level 750 Boss monster."

    "Huh?"

    I saw a white pet egg in my inventory.

    "That was...unexpected."

    I checked the egg. Yup, it"s from that alphawolf.

    Rose moved closer. "What"s this?"

    "A companion egg. All my companions are hatchedfrom eggs I captured like this one. They can help you fight, or you can play withthem just like normal pets if you wish to. Though I don"t think I can do that with these big guys of mine."

    "I see now! I never saw one of these eggs before. Noone had any from where I came for that matter."

    I took Rose"s hand and put the egg on it. "Yoursnow!"

    "You don"t need it?"

    "I havefive companions and you have none. Take it to protect yourself. This thing"sfast. Should be a good companion for a wizard like you."

    "Thank you thank you!" She gave me an abruptkiss on the face and, ugh. I can"t control my smiling now.

    "Are you still going to call me Ziri from now on?"

    "Honey!""

    Manshe"s...open. "Sounds good to me."

    "How do Ihatch it?" Rose turned the egg around without figuring out anything.

    I took her hand again and made a small cut on it, droppingher blood on the egg. She froze. Must be communicating with the system.

    Theprocess didn"t take much time. The egg burst open in her hands, leaving a small,white furball behind. But I thought it was a wolf?

    The little thing stretched itself soon. It surely isthe wolf before, just...tiny, and looks like a ball with all that long haircovering its body.

     "Aww it"sso cute!" Rose won"t stop rubbing the creature against her face. "Itlooks beautiful! I love the pure white color. And that cross mark betweenthe eyebrows is such a nice touch!"

    I tried to explain like a professional: "Don"t getconfident just yet. It"s level 0 now, you need to bring it to at leastlevel 100 before it can help you fight off anything."

    "Don"tworry. As long as it"s cute!"

    Now I"m worried Rose may accidentally pluckoff some of the fur from the little pup.

   

    "Good day my friends!" Someone with full bluewizard robe showed up near us. Appears to be a player. "Nice b.u.mping intoyou two here!" He stretched out one hand.

    I can feel something is off with this guy but can"treally tell what it is. However Rose didn"t give it much thought and shook his hand.

    Themoment they contacted with each other, a strange shaped ring came off his handand locked itself onto Rose"s. Before we can react, Rose disappeared after aflash!

    "What did you do??" I drew my sword andpointed it at him.

    "Ziri! I got you now! Just surrender!" The wizardlooked at me with an "I already won" att.i.tude.

    "What have you done to her?" I prepared tocut his head off the instant he gives me an answer.

    "Oh nothing really. I just sent her to the prison."

    "Prison?"

    "Yes! I"m a bounty hunter."

    "What do you mean?"

    "Wait, you don"t know?" He looked at me inshock. "Players like us accept these quests from various bounty hunteragencies located in different cities. We get certain reward by finishing thequest, based on its difficulty and how much Evilness the target has. Each questhas a time limit of three weeks. If we can kill or arrest the target withinthat limit, we get the reward, with no Evilness penalty on ourselves. But wewill need to pay 1% of the bounty reward as a compensation if we fail it."

    "How did you find us?"

    "Bountyhunters have the right to acquire target location once per day. I happened tonotice that you teleported near my city so here I am. Give up now! Surrenderand you won"t lose anything. You can"t beat me anyway. Be a good boy and goto prison with me, or do you want to lose a level first?"

    I chuckled. "So Rose is in that city nearby?"

   "That"sright. I"d just go there and keep her company if I were you. That place sucks!"He approached me.