The Rise of the Winter Wolf - Book 3 - Chapter 1 - The Thirtieth Floor (Patreon)

Wolf

As soon as the green flash of light fades, I find myself in a dark forest, shrouded in a thick veil of fog.

“Well, this is annoying,” I mutter before letting my ice element freely leak out of me to push away the mist.

One other benefit of my species is that my eyes allow me to see through ice element, making it appear transparent to me. As if it were made out of glass.

Although, strangely enough, it only works for the pure ice element, and not for anything I make with it. Except for the icy mist for some reason. My only guess as to why it still works for the icy mist is because I am not purposefully creating the icy mist.

That said, ice element on its own is also pretty useful. Without me directing it to do anything specific, it automatically decreases the temperature of anything it touches for as long as it touches it.

Hence why it always comes out in the form of an icy mist. Since it is freezing the moisture in the air. It is also why, as a harbinger, my complete immunity to the ice element, and the cold in general, is a necessity. Because if it wasn’t, then the ice element that my body automatically generates would damage my own body.

What I usually do with the ice element I generate is manipulate the temperature of the objects both in the air and the actual physical objects in my ability’s radius, decreasing them to the point of freezing before I use my manipulation ability to freely manipulate the object, after it reaches the freezing point.

I look around the clearing I now find myself in after pushing the mist back far enough before noticing something strange.

“Are the trees darker in color than the previous floors?” I mutter with a glance towards Sapphire on my shoulder, as if she would answer my question somehow.

Sapphire just tilts her head at me with a cute little purr before she continues her own look around the area.

I chuckle while shaking my head.

Sometimes she acts really intelligent for a spider, but then there are others when she is just adorable.

Although, less adorable in her true form.

I jerk my head towards the west as strange sounds enter my ears. Not too long after that, four life sources enter my skill’s range.

Whatever they are, they appear to be making a beeline straight for me and Sapphire. Although the fact that they aren’t making any footsteps leads me to think that they are probably some type of dark sprite.

Did my ice element attract them? Or do they just have good senses?

Either way, I get into a fighting stance with my claws spread out on both sides of me.

Another benefit of my new species is that I don’t need that Razor Claws skill anymore, since all it did was let me shapeshift my hands into claws for a stamina cost. Now that I actually have real claws, I don’t have any use for the skill.

I still kept it anyways in case someone wanted it as a trade. It is Tier 5 after all. And a shapeshifting skill at that.

Soon enough, four half-a-meter-tall, purple creatures with insect-like wings, and pupilless purple eyes fly straight into the clearing, causing all of my ice element in their path to disappear completely.

_-| Unnamed – Dark Sprite Spawn – Level 322 |-_

“Spawn?” I mutter as the four creatures fly straight towards me whilst making strange sounds that seem to land somewhere in the middle of hysterical cackling and screeching.

I’m guessing these things aren’t all that intelligent? Is that why they are called spawn?

Hmm, this might be a good time to adjust a little to my other forms. Considering how berserk these guys seem to be.

Normally, the stupid sprites are very tricky and like to fly around in circles, constantly avoiding my attacks. It makes them a pain to deal with. Even if they usually die in just a single strike from my claws.

An excited grin spreads across my face as my body begins to shift to hunter form. White fur with the texture of ice sprouts all over my body as I begin to grow in size, while my claws grow larger and sharper than before.

A slight wave of discomfort assails me as my head and legs transform into my hunter form – particularly from the newly grown muzzle, long, pointed ears, and the newly shaped feet.

Despite this, the grin never leaves my face throughout the entire five-second-long transformation before I raise my head to the sky and howl. I then charge straight towards the approaching sprites as Sapphire jumps off of my shoulder and grows to her full size with a short screech.

Two of the sprites break off and charge towards Sapphire while the other two continue making their way towards me, with a dark, blackish purple glow radiating around their fists.

I briefly take note of it through the fog over my thoughts before ducking under the punch of one of the sprites and being struck in the shoulder by the other one. The area around the punch suddenly explodes in a flash of darkness before returning to normal, sending me recoiling backwards slightly.

After taking a brief moment to glance at my armor where it hit me, I focus my attention back on the two spawn before swiping one of my clawed hands at it and reaching forwards to chomp on the other one. My teeth rip straight through the neck and shoulder of one of the sprites, catching the edge of its wing along with it before I force my jaws closed even further as a shriek of pain breaks the creature’s previous noises.

Meanwhile, my hand’s claws rip a large, bloody path straight from hip to shoulder on the other sprite, with my liquid-ice venom going straight into the blood and quickly freezing it.

I shake my head back and forth once before spitting the sprite out at the other one, causing them both to land with various screeches of pain on the frosted ground beneath them. Before they can get back up, I leap towards them and slam both of my feet straight into them, cutting them with the slightly-duller claws on my feet in the process.

After seeing my EXP go up from the kills, I get off of the two corpse and turn my attention towards Sapphire to see her piercing one of her sharp legs straight through the chest of the last of the two sprites that went towards her. The other one I can already see dead at her feet, with its head completely missing.

The grin on my canine-like face fades as the thrill of the hunt that has been a noticeable change to my view of battle since getting turned finally fades with the last cries of the sprite before it falls off of her leg.

I quickly freeze the blood in my mouth and manipulate it to float out before dropping the chunk of frozen ice onto the ground. After that, I do the same with the blood covering my clawed hands and feet, along with the blood that dripped over my neck and chest from the sprite.

“So much blood,” I mutter as I finish cleaning myself and turn to see Sapphire doing the same with my ice element that wasn’t dissipated by the sprites.

Ever since the first time I hunted in my hunter form, I’ve realized that the form has another effect on my mind outside of just the fog. It also gives me what I call a ‘hunters mentality,’ where I find satisfaction in hunting. And while it doesn’t actually mess with my thoughts or affect the hunt, it does make me enjoy fighting more than I used to.

Which isn’t a bad thing I suppose.

I am distracted from my thoughts as I feel Sapphire climbing up my leg towards her spot on my shoulder, having already changed back to her small form after cleaning herself off.

After petting her for a few seconds, to which she responds with a happy purr, I focus my attention on the dead sprites while rubbing my chin in thought.

Maybe I should turn some monsters on this floor again… at least, for when I fight the boss that is. It would certainly make the battle a lot easier for me.

And considering how large these dark sprites were compared to the previous dark sprites, they could actually survive a bite from me. So, this floor, depending on what other monsters are in it, would be a pretty good floor to do that.

That said…

I look up as I hear footsteps from around four to five dozen meters to my east.

“Let’s hunt us some monsters,” I say to Sapphire in a gruff tone to match my appearance in hunter form before sprinting off towards the sounds.

Before I even think about taking on the boss, I should get some more levels.