Amazon Apocalypse: Chapter 50 (Patreon)

Servant of the Chaos Wolf, Alpha Wolfman, or my personal nemesis, whatever name this creature went by, it seemed to have developed as much distaste for me as I had for it.

“Human!” its voice called through the night air, a grating feral rasp.

“Wolf,” I retorted.

I spotted him moving in the night. Two eyes burning crimson light amid the shadows all around us. His eyes met mine, which were glowing just as brightly.

Servant of the Chaos Wolf (Level 30)

I cursed inwardly. As I had feared, the Alpha Wolfman’s boost upon becoming a Chaosborn Lycan was just as great as that received by all his kin. He was stronger than me now, and he’d already broken through into the D-Grade like I was still trying to do.

“You dared attack my den. Now I attack yours!” The being formerly known as the Alpha Wolfman said.

I curled my lip in distaste. “If you hadn’t attacked Crownhill, I would have not attacked you. Any conflict between our races was brought on by you and yours.”

The Alpha Wolfman gave me a toothy grin. “Conflict pleases the Chaos Wolf.”

“I’m sure it does...” I muttered, gesturing with my hands for the others to crouch low with Mana Bombs at the ready. If our enemy wanted to stand by and talk, I might as well prepare a deadly surprise for him.

“I must thank you, human. If not for you, finding our great ancestor would have taken generations...” The Alpha Wolfman crouched low, and dark shadows curled around his claws.

I narrowed my eyes, and mana gathered in my palm.

“See your fate, human! Your closest allies have already fed the pack.” The Alpha Wolfman curled back his arms and unleashed an awkward throw at the wall. It was all speed and force, but little finesse. Lycan limbs clearly weren’t built for throwing.

I had my guard up, thinking it was an attack like my Mana Bombs. But the Wolfmen hadn’t had the sophistication for anything more than stone daggers. They certainly couldn’t make something akin to Mana Bombs.

The projectile bounced off the wall with a meaty thud before stopping on the broken pavement below.

Two blank and sunken eyes stared up at me. Blood and spinal fluid mixed as they dripped from the neck of the severed head that had so recently lectured me about hard decisions.

“Sheriff Drayton...” I muttered, heart catching in my chest. No wonder the Alpha Wolfman hadn’t shown himself until now. He’d been busy attacking the police station.

My hands curled into fists. If only he’d listened and joined forces with me. The Obelisk had wider defenses; we could have used him and his men on the walls.

“Know despair, human!” The Alpha Wolfman laughed. “Your fate will be the same.”

The Alpha Wolfman and I clashed a third time. He exploded with primal speed and vigor, eyes burning like lakes of blood. He was pure power, raw and terrifying. The speed he’d shown me before was nothing compared to his might after his racial evolution.

Your Dodge proficiency has reached level 20!

Your Taunt proficiency has reached level 8!

Before, we were evenly matched, but now I realized I had little chance of winning a direct confrontation. Fortunately, all his talking had given me time to prepare.

“Go, now!” I said as I stood upon the wall with a Mana Bolt in one hand and an Eldrich Blast in the other.

The Alpha Wolfman swept his claws where my head should have been. The strike was blindingly fast and deadly and might have killed me if not for Warp Step and Sure Step working in tandem to show me the path to safety. In making the attack, the Alpha Wolfman exposed himself to my allies, who pelted him with Mana Bombs from all directions, just as we’d practiced on many of the Alpha Wolfman’s kin.

He roared, dark tendrils of pure shadow magic lashing out amidst the magical explosions. They tore the tendrils lining his back like tentacles apart in an instant. It was almost eerie to have so much magical power explode so close. All the damage they dealt was strictly magical, so the spells in my hands sizzled out, but my body was otherwise unaffected.

That was our one advantage over the Chaosborn Lycans, and we leveraged it to impressive effect throughout the night. The Mana Bombs were perfectly safe for us but deadly to creatures that relied on mana flowing through them as much as blood.

I had hoped this barrage would be enough to cripple the Alpha Wolfman like it had for so many of its kin, but the transformation from E-Grade to D-Grade had to be even bigger than I’d initially assumed.

“Keep at it!” I yelled, blasting the Alpha Wolfman with spells of my own. The more Corrupting Marks I could inflict him with, the better.

He roared in pain, thrashing atop the wall where I’d been standing moments before as the shadows lining his body evaporated. Without them, he looked much more like the Wolfman I’d first seen.

I used Exploit Weakness, targeting any vulnerability it showed me. If I could kill him the worst would be over. Given time, Sakura and I could deal with the rest of the Lycans ourselves, and Crownhill would finally be safe.

But the Servant of the Chaos Wolf was not so easily defeated. He roared, thrashing in agony atop the wall. The shadows that once cloaked him were now burning away beneath the Mana Bombs, but he was a formidable foe even stripped bare.

In his agonized thrashing, he brought down the barricade beneath him. In a flurry of wood, stone, and groaning metal, the defenders were thrown back.

The constant barrage of Mana Bombs striking him abruptly and paused, giving the shadows lining his body the chance to reform.

They did so in an instant, and the moment they returned, they aimed straight for the hearts of the human defenders.

Half of them found themselves impaled on tendrils of shadow and darkness. Each blow aimed unerringly for the heart as though the tendrils sought it out specifically.

There should have been blood. There was certainly screaming. But what was happening to the people seemed worse than mere death.

Shadows flowed down the tendrils and into their bodies, just like I’d seen happen to Bridget, but it was far faster this time. The Servant of the Chaos Wolf was pumping the same sickly curse that had transformed him and Bridget into more people.

“Your people will join mine, either as a pack or as food,” the Alpha Wolfman howled into the night air.

This was bad. Very bad.

I’d used all my tricks against the Alpha Wolfman before and failed. He was more powerful than ever now. If I fought the same way I had before, I would lose. I needed something new.

A new icon was flashing in the bottom corner of my vision to get my attention.

Your ultimate ability is 90% charged!

The bar was filling up, especially with every Mana Bolt and Eldrich Blast hit home. I had one new trick, after all. I just had to hope it would be enough.

The darkness became a nightmare. Shadows of the Chaos Wolf spread in all directions. The Alpha Wolfman’s tendrils speared one defender after another, and he strode forward with the casual dominance of a wolf among rabbits. We were just prey to him.

But humanity would not fall so easily.

Mana churned around me, and I borrowed the sinister energy the Alpha Wolfman was using to empower my attacks.

I blasted a few shadows. Charging my ultimate on them was easier than hitting the Alpha Wolfman. I killed a few, but there were so many of them I couldn’t possibly catch them all.

Worse, now that the barricade was down, our line had collapsed. Our fighters had been on the wall, not guarding the civilians. These were the families of those brave enough to defend us, most still not beyond level five. They were nearly as helpless as regular humans.

Your Ultimate ability is 95% charged!

Behind me, I sensed my party members who hadn’t used their ultimates putting them to the test now. I didn’t have the time or attention to spare for them, but I took advantage of the openings they created.

Attacks buffeted the Alpha Wolfman, and he struggled to focus on me. I tried to keep him occupied since every moment he fought me, he wasn’t slaughtering people in the shelters. But now that the barricade was down, Lycans were pouring into the shelter’s inner grounds. Wolf howls went up all around us as they poured in.

“Run!” someone shouted, and the defenseless people camping around the Obelisk fled into the buildings nearby as fast as their feet could carry them. But if our barricade couldn’t hold, neither would the walls and doors of the buildings within the shelter. If we couldn’t drive the Alpha Wolfman back here and now, a shelter wouldn’t be left come morning.

Shadow tendrils snapped at me. I retaliated with my spells, each impact nudging my ultimate a little closer to readiness. Sweat stung my eyes, and my lungs burned with every breath.

My enemy roared, then lunged. So quick, his teeth came for my throat. I dodged, but was too slow to move out of the way of his claws.

Talons as long as my fingers shredded my clothes. Pain flared, and I might have dropped to my knees if not for the adrenaline coursing through my veins.

We locked eyes briefly as the Alpha Wolfman met my gaze with a satisfied snarl.

I was too slow, and he was too fast. Too strong. I reached for my Mania. Did I dare push for the fourth level again? Lyra might save me from the consequences again, but she wouldn’t let me come back to life if I died. That opportunity had passed.

If I’d been alone, I would have done it. And who knew what would come through me this time? Last time it had been the Chaos Wolf; next time, some other dark god might have come through and turned humanity into its puppets, just as the Chaos Wolf had done to the Wolfmen.

But just as I was about to make that hard choice, my companions attacked.

Sakura was a crimson whirlwind. Her club seemed larger than before, and it burned with a deeper hue of crimson than I’d ever seen from her, save for when she used her ultimate.

She charged with reckless abandon, wielding her club in both hands and letting the shadows gnaw at her. The damage they were doing was growing, and I worried for her. Especially when some of the Alpha Wolfman’s shadow tendrils shot straight toward her heart. But then I saw her mad, hair-brained scheme.

She had a Mana Bomb clenched between her teeth. Then, just before the shadows struck her, she bit down and detonated the magical explosive within her own mouth.

A wave of mana ripped through the air and tore the shadows to shreds. Her club struck the Alpha Wolfman’s head as Sakura spat broken chunks of metal into the Alpha Wolfman’s eyes.

Before he could retaliate, Frank rushed in, pistol in one hand and sword in the other. He unloaded six shots into the Alpha Wolfman so fast they seemed to come from an automatic weapon.

He rushed in with his sword just in time to block a strike aimed at Sakura’s guts.

The two of them bought time for Michael and Margaret. She attacked, and I was surprised to feel mana emanating from her. She must have picked up a class with magical abilities and focused on enhancing them after our disastrous last battle against the Wolfmen.

A fireball the size of my fist whipped through the air and struck the Alpha Wolfman in the side, burning away fur and shadows alike.

Michael ran straight into the opening, and when the Alpha Wolfman opened his mouth to bite Michael’s head off, the former pest control worker shoved his sprayer right down the Wolfman’s throat and emptied the entire tank he carried in one explosive stream.

Finally, Bridget appeared. She looked different from what I remembered. I wasn’t sure if it was the apocalypse and the levels she’d gained or if something about her wolf bite changed her. She looked leaner than before, her body hard and toned. I could see the tight lines running up and down her back and stomach through the tattered remnants of her clothes.

For the first time, I saw her as a woman instead of the helpless girl I had to look out for in the office. She moved with desperate determination, daggers flashing in her hands as she moved in. At the last moment, she ducked and slid between Michael’s legs and beneath the Alpha Wolfman’s belly. Her momentum carried her underneath him, and she dragged her daggers across his vulnerable underside.

Your ultimate is fully charged! Use?

I hit yes, and power I’d never felt before flowed through me.

You have activated your ultimate ability, Secrets of the Unseen.

Power flowed through me. What it was or where it came from, I didn’t know. It wasn’t mana that much, I knew. But every time my mind fought to grasp the power I was wielding, the ideas slipped through my mind like sand through my fingers.

Power surged through me. A flood, an avalanche, something older and vaster than the powers I’d come to know since the arrival of the System on Earth.

The name of my ability came to my lips, a whisper brought of their own accord. “Secrets of the Unseen...” my voice said, hushed and yet heard by everyone around me.

Energy erupted, and a color never seen before erupted from my fingers. Pain lanced through my head just looking at it. I had no word for it, but I knew it was power.

I poured that power into a humble Mana Bolt, energy coursing through the simple spell and flooding it with might far beyond its ordinary limits.

The Alpha Wolfman roared, this time in fear. The surviving power drowned his voice out. The shadows all around me evaporated like puddles in the summer sun.

Then I unleashed the spell, and the world stood still.

A lance of power pierced the Alpha Wolfman straight through the heart, and he howled in agony.

A moment later, the power receded, leaving nothing behind, no trace of its passing or sign of its destruction. The memory of the ability faded, and I could no longer even remember what it looked like.

I stumbled, mana drained and body exhausted. But as bad as I felt, the Alpha Wolfman looked worse.

He was a pitiful sight, battered and wounded as he was. But for all the damage he’d taken, he was still alive, if only barely.

He turned, limping as he did. Then, without so much as a howl, he turned tail and fled. Behind him, his Lycans abandon their hunt. Humanity was not prey they could afford to hunt.

<Author's Note>

We're getting closer to the end here. I'm about 5 chapters ahead of you guys still. I have to revise my total chapter count estimation upward again, but I think this time will be the last one. Maybe 57 or 58 chapters? Perhaps with an epilogue from the POV of next book's antagonist. I have the ending scene in mind now and within sight.