[NR] The First Waves - Chapter 550 (Patreon)

The wolves are a little too close for Jason’s taste. So, in exchange for a swipe across his back, he quickly disables the last bear with a punch to the throat. The attached Energy blast collapsing the more delicate inner portions of the neck. You know, like blood vessels. It only took a moment before the bear fell over unconscious.

Despite how deadly this strike was in theory, the bear wasn’t likely to die from it. Being built like a tank also meant a hefty investment into Constitution. This has a knock-on effect of making it much harder to kill them through less destructive methods.

However, while not a lethal blow, it was enough to take the bear out of the fight as busted blood vessels struggled both to heal and keep blood pumping to the brain despite losses to internal hemorrhaging. That left some wolves for Jason to deal with. Well, they looked like wolves at first glance.

Now being closer, Jason easily noticed they’re only wolf-like. While the body is a near perfect copy, the head is disturbing. Except for the ears, the head is mirrored at the jaw. Though if having four eyes isn’t enough to classify it as something else, the multiple forked tongues each seems to have, probably should.

Jason wasn’t sure what the purpose of a wolf having a forked tongue was, but the fact there were multiple of them pointed towards nothing good. That meant more of a focus on defense than normal, but you couldn’t be too careful. He didn’t know what, but mouth based attacks tended towards being pretty effective compared to other similar effects. The best example of this being a dragon’s breath attack. They have so many abilities, but when you think of dragons, you think of flight and breathing fire.

Then the not-wolves arrived. Their tactics were similar enough to wolves, except there was a clear preference for trying to “lick” instead of bite, confirming something was. Jason did alright dodging and when not possible, applying a layer of Energy to defend. Rosha even had time to fire a supporting shot or two.

Still, it was almost inevitable that one of the not-wolves would end up landing a hit. And yeah, those tongues were nasty. Two of them got in and each had a different effect. The one caused debilitating pain and the other tried to paralyze Jason’s muscles.

Good thing this wasn’t truly a System controlled beast or Jason would have been in a lot of trouble. Because while he technically didn’t have muscles to paralyze, the System would have gladly forced the perception that he did onto reality. At least, it would have if everything was taking place between beings within the System. Jason was sadly still shackled, but these not-wolves came from deeper in and not initiated. So, while there was a surge of stiffness in the area, no actual paralysis happened.

Still disturbing though, as it meant each tongue likely possessed a different curse. Because that is what they were, no toxin was injected or poison spread. The effect was completely magical in nature.

It was also likely that each curse was similar in danger. Both the pain and attempted paralysis would have, in normal circumstances been able to disable a person. Jason was just built different. Oh, and had a pretty high pain tolerance.

The only good news being that the one curse was targeted at muscles. It could have easily been a more general paralysis effect. Though that did have Jason consider a different possibility. Maybe instead of each tongue being a different effect, it was all aimed at one effect, paralysis. The difference between each tongue instead being based on who it could affect.

After all, Jason looked like he was a flesh and blood creature. For something like that, pain and muscle paralysis would be the most effective combo, with nerve-based being a potential third. As for why go this route over a more general curse?

Well, firstly, it is important to note that there is no truly “general” form of paralysis. Even being able to hold a body motionless wouldn’t be enough, as not all beings have a body. For not though, any other considerations could wait as Jason just managed to kill one of the pack, causing them to get a wee bit angry.

They showed this anger by splitting their faces wide open, extending all their tongues a shocking distance out, and letting out a hissing grunt. How in the world they managed to add a hiss component to a grunt of all things is best left to the imagination. However, the actual length of their tongues showed they had been going easy on Jason.

Though he didn’t let them get away with this show of anger. While they were distracted with their display, another fell to a flying kick, stomping the monster’s face flat while cutting it apart with a bloom. Another pause, as if the not-wolves couldn’t believe he would attack while they grunted, and they rejoined the battle with a savageness well beyond what they had previously shown.

Jason, in turn, actually had an easier time of things. Yes, the tongues were now fully extended and the attacks coming in faster. However, the raw rage that had taken hold of the not-wolves broke their teamwork.

This led to the unfortunate (for them) outcome of Jason being more than capable of dodging all of said attacks. Sure, this left him no room to attack, but Rosha was more than happy to finish most of the fight for him.

Then, with only one not-wolf left, Jason easily finishes the fight. And it is the actual end of the fight. Courtney and Lily managed to handle all the raptors ahead of Jason’s finishing the last of his monsters.

After that, with Rosha back in her elevated position, the rest of that day’s waves broke over them. And as they gather around the campfire, Rosha can’t help but ask, “I thought the last wave was supposed to be the toughest. What’s up with these first waves?”