The Rise of the Winter Wolf - Book 2 - Chapter 29 - The Crisis (Patreon)

Wolf

If we’re to finish off this event boss before we both run out of stamina, then I am going to have to risk going into close combat with it. It should be worn down enough that I can keep up with it.

“What’s your plan?” Crystal says with a grunt as she releases another arrow at the werewolf right before my ice spears hit it in the back.

I glance at the sword on my hip before deciding to just go with my gauntlets and claws instead because of the increased mobility, along with the fact that they are a much higher tier than the sword.

“I’m going to get up close and personal with this beast!” I shout back to her before rushing towards the werewolf as it turns around to snarl at Crystal.

“What?!” she shouts with a slightly frantic look on her face as she nocks another arrow, “are you crazy?!”

I ignore her shout as I make it within a meter of the werewolf before it seems to sense my approach and turns around. As it’s turning, I reach forwards and slash it across the shoulder before backing up as quickly as possible, just barely avoiding getting sent flying by its own claws.

A large amount of blood begins pumping out of the claw marks left on its shoulder before I maneuver around it to slash at its legs next, only to get kicked in the gut right after drawing five faint streaks across its leg.

As I am flying in the air from the kick, I begin to roll slightly to adjust my landing before managing to land on my feet.

The monster is still pretty damn fast even with all of those wounds…

If only that stupid Sword of the Forgotten worked on beings as high a level as this! It would help me a hell of a lot against this werewolf!

I back away from the werewolf for a moment before deciding to go ahead and draw my sword from its sheath.

Thinking back on it, Crystal’s miasma seemed to do okay against the werewolf, so maybe the acid on this sword will as well. Not to mention that it gives me a better reach to stay away from its bites.

“Dammit!” I hear Crystal mutter after firing another arrow into the werewolf, briefly capturing its attention. “I’m starting to run low on arrows!”

My eyes go wide at that before I swear at the unfortunate timing.

It’s do or die time now.

I release a large cloud of ice element around me and the werewolf to obscure its vision while lowering its body temperature and raising my own physical abilities before charging at it in a last ditch move.

The werewolf makes a mixture of a growl and a snarl as it constantly looks around the cloud of mist as a light frost begins to build up on its body.

I rush up to it while putting as much force behind my sword as possible before thrusting it straight towards the werewolf’s heart.

Suddenly, just as its about to reach its heart, the werewolf turns its body to face me and raises a hand to block my sword. My sword then pierces into its hand whilst the acid coating it begins sizzling and burning through more of its hand until it goes limp as the werewolf strikes at me with its other claw, sending me flying out of the cloud of mist.

I roll on the ground for several meters before crashing into a tree with a grunt of pain as the werewolf steps out of the cloud of mist as the mist begins to fall to cover the ground now that I’m not directly controlling it anymore.

“Shit,” I grunt before noticing Crystal running up and grabbing one of the damaged arrows off of the ground.

She then fires it at the werewolf before it makes it halfway across the distance towards me, briefly attracting its attention as it gets sent back about a foot from the arrow’s explosion, only for it to surprisingly decide to continue going after me instead.

“The hell?!” I hear her swear before she sends another wave of miasma at it, to which it quickly swipes away at with its uninjured hand, sending the miasma billowing away from it as it continues marching in my direction.

I glance at its hand as it hangs limp from its side with a hole through most of it.

Is it pissed about its now disabled hand?

Either way, I get back up from the ground before pulling another sword out of my inventory due to the other one having been sent flying away from me.

The werewolf suddenly lets out a grunt, followed by a mouthful of blood being spit out of its muzzle as it begins to speed up its pace towards me.

“Just die already!” I shout as I break into a sprint towards it as well.

As we reach each other, I barely manage to parry its claw strike with my sword as a light snapping sound comes from my arm before I reach up and claw at its throat with my arm. The werewolf tries to snap at my arm with its mouth, but I jerk it backwards before it can do so, leading to it snapping at air as I grab another sword from my inventory – the one from the kokoi – and thrust it straight towards the werewolf’s heart.

“Shit, Wolf, watch out!” I hear Crystal shout from the other side of the clearing before feeling an explosion hit my back as a searing heat burns through my armor, knocking me straight into the werewolf with a powerful force. My sword pierces straight through the werewolf’s heart from the force before it reaches down and locks its jaws straight onto my shoulder, sending another searing pain through my entire body as I begin to feel its venom inserting itself into my bloodstream.

“No! Wolf!” I faintly hear Crystal shout towards me before seemingly shouting at someone else, “You bastard!”

The sights and sounds around me begin to fade as I feel myself fall on top of the werewolf whilst it keeps its jaw locked onto my shoulder until the moment it dies, and a fuzzy notification appears in my vision.

I faintly hear Sapphire screeching in panic as she comes out of my shadow.

Everything begins to go black before I can read the notification.

The last thing I can hear before everything goes dark is the sound of a bow string being released and an arrow flying as Crystal’s voice resonates throughout the clearing.

“Vulcan! You fucking coward!”

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Arcadian Live

Absolute silence reigns through the stadium, with the only noise being that of Sapphire’s panicked screeches mixed with Crystal swearing at Ludric as they begin fighting away from the clearing, leaving Wolf alone with Sapphire on top of the werewolf’s corpse.

Ludric’s few remaining fans within Arcadian Live – the ones that didn’t leave the show to instead watch Artorius Royale, or various other viewing rooms that focus more on Ludric – snicker in amusement at the events, earning themselves glares from the Winter Wolf and Deadshot fans amongst the audience.

“Vulcan is a fucking coward,” Mikaela mutters in a quiet voice. Too quiet for the audience to hear.

Katherine and Niklai both nod their heads in agreement.

Everyone quietly watches Sapphire as she pries the werewolf’s jaws off of Wolf and moves him off of the werewolf’s body before jumping in fright as two fancy looking purple chests appear near the werewolf with a fanfare.

“Come on Sapphire, you can do this!” someone from the audience suddenly shouts, “save The Winter Wolf!”

This one shout breaks everyone amongst the audience out of their stupor as hundreds of people begin shouting various forms of encouragement for Sapphire.

“Do it Sapphire!” “Save him!” “Get him to a safe area!” “Get him out of that clearing and away from that battle!” “Grab those loot boxes!”

Sapphire sits there for a couple of seconds before approaching the two loot boxes and touching one of them, causing an item description to appear above it.

She doesn’t hesitate at all at this point as she climbs up the chest and waves at the description, completely ignoring everything on it before putting the item into Wolf’s inventory.

“I think this might be the first time Sapphire has actually used some of the shared System Access that she has with Wolf,” Niklai mutters as the cheers of encouragement continue throughout the stadium.

Sapphire glances at the other loot box before pausing as Wolf lets out a groan.

She immediately rushes back to him to find him still unconscious as a blackish blue coloring slowly begins spreading outwards from the bitemarks on Wolf’s body.

“The virus is beginning to spread,” Mikaela says with a frown, “at this point, it is already too late to stop it.”

Gasps run through the audience as the cheers of encouragement continue.

Sapphire seems to freak out for a moment at the sight of the spreading virus before she gently picks Wolf up, glances around the area one last time, and leaves the clearing without very much hesitation.

“She left the epic chest behind,” Katherine says, “does that mean that she is leaving it for Deadshot? Or does she just want to find a safe place as quickly as possible to hide Wolf as he changes?”

No one answers her question as Sapphire carefully carries Wolf through the forest, away from the ongoing battle between Crystal and Ludric as his ice element slowly trickles out of him as his bone marrow generates more.

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The Outskirts of the Clearing on the Twenty-Second floor

Crystal lets loose an arrow at Ludric before she grabs another damaged one off of the ground.

Ludric barely dodges the arrow as he sends another wave of flames at Crystal.

She tries to dodge the flames, but still manages to get burnt slightly on her left arm.

“Shit,” she mutters before shouting at Ludric, “why are you trying to kill everyone?!”

Surprisingly, Ludric stops attacking at this question.

A brief look of surprise crosses Crystal’s face as she thinks to herself, ‘Is he actually planning on answering? I thought he never speaks?’

“Because people are trash that need to be wiped out,” Ludric answers, speaking a full sentence for the first time since the Administrator Dungeon Run began before he raises his hand towards Crystal again.

Crystal breaks out of her surprise quickly enough to roll out of the way as a fireball flies straight from his hand to her location before exploding behind her.

‘Damn, I don’t have enough stamina nor arrows to deal with him right now!’ Crystal curses in her mind before glancing back at the clearing with some guilt. ‘I hope Wolf’s familiar is smart enough to have gotten him away by now, as I am not going to risk my life any further just for his sake.’

Crystal then turns back towards Ludric, only to find him already blasting a wave of flames directly at her.

“Fuck,” she mutters before she tries to roll out of the way.

Right as the flames are about to hit her, a blade of water suddenly slices through the flames towards Ludric’s direction from near a tree several meters away from their fight.

Ludric’s eyes widen in fright before he rolls out of the way of the blade of water and gets back to his feet. He then looks in the direction that the blade came from before grimacing.

Crystal turns around to see as well just as Ariana steps out of the shadow of a large tree with both of her swords in hand.

‘Silver Siren? What is she doing here?’ Crystal thinks before watching Ariana approach them as Ludric begins to back away in an obvious attempt to run away.

“Shit! He’s going to run again!” Crystal shouts as she gets back to her feet and searches for an arrow to fire at him.

Before she can find one, Ariana swings both of her swords in a cross, sending a cross-shaped blade of water straight towards him as he sprints off into the forest.

Just as the blade reaches him, he throws down a black orb the second the blade strikes his left arm, causing him to scream in pain right before vanishing in a green light.