The Wolf of Calamity - Book 1 - Chapter 6 - The Ur Tribe (Patreon)

Year 1396 After Chaos
Month 7

Chaotic Plane

After a long and fruitful hunt, the Ur tribe is finally heading back to their fort with their prey. Amongst their number are seven frost raiders, each armed with rather poor equipment handmade by the two elders of their raid party – one of which is out gathering right now. They each have hand axes, simple hide armor made from the hides of direwolves that cover most of their exposed pale blue flesh, and boots made out of the leather hide of whatever creature the frost raider boss found and killed.

The frost raiders aren’t sure what it was. Not even the raider boss himself was sure.

Quiet chatter fills the frozen plains as the raid party travels back whilst carrying their prize of five direwolves. But not too long after their fort comes into sight, the emergency horn begins to echo across the wide expanse of ice and snow.

“Emerrgencshy?” the raider boss growls out, his voice difficult to understand and slightly garbled by the large fangs in his mouth. Then, after taking a second for it to fully register in the slow creature’s mind, he shouts, “Emerrgenschy!!!” and begins to run straight to the fort.

The other frost raiders all immediately join him, with the ones previously holding the direwolf corpses simply dropping them and joining. But by the time they all reach the fort gate, the horn has already stopped blaring, and the silence of the taiga has returned.

“Urgot!!!” the raider boss shouts, his voice echoing throughout the vicinity as he slams his foot on the ground in anger. “Come ourt here!!”

No answer comes for several seconds, each of which has the raider boss growing angrier and angrier until he finally enters the fort with the other raiders following behind him.

Unlike the regular frost raiders, the raider boss is nearly two and a half meters in height, making him stand tall above the others. This is because of his rank as a Knight Ranked. The very first step on the Path of Nobility.

Creatures amongst the three planes evolve beyond their original race upon absorbing enough elemental energy to become a Ranked. But beyond that, they also gain an aura along to match their reaching Knight rank. This aura allows Knights to sense their surroundings, almost as if it were a sixth sense of some sort. But the most common use for an aura is for suppression.

The frost raider boss lets out a low growl as he fails to find either of the two raiders that were supposed to be on guard in the fort. So he lets his aura out, spreading it around him as far as he can, reaching nearly ten meters away. But when even this doesn’t work, his growl turns into a snarl and he shouts, “Urgot!!! Gerrt ourt herre!!!!”

As if summoned from his voice, an answering shout echoes from the poorly made stairs leading up to the wall, following which a small frost raider comes running, soon entering the raider boss’s aura.

The raider boss lets him get within a few meters of him before forcing his aura on the raider, knocking him down to his knees.

“Whrat happened?!” the raider boss shouts, spittle flying from his mouth from his rage.

Not even bothering to fight against the aura pushing the raider to his knees, he answers in stunted words, trying with difficulty to pronounce each one clearly, “Me. No. Know. Guruk. Gone.”

The rage in the raider boss’s eyes flashes to an even greater level as he slams the raider’s face into the ground with his aura and draws his axe. “Gone wherrre?” he asks, his grip growing tighter and tighter on his axe.

“Me. No. Know.” Urgot answers with difficulty, now straining slightly against the aura’s control just to be able to speak. “Heard. Shriek. Found. Burn.”

A roar echoes throughout the fort from the raider boss before he lets the raider go and shouts, “Taake me therre!”

Urgot drops down immediately after being released, only to climb back to his feet in visible pain again to follow his boss’s orders. And once the raid party reaches Guruk’s hut, all they find is a large amount of burn marks coating the hut floor. Most of it being located in one place, next to the frost raider’s bed, but some of it also being next to one of the windows.

The raider boss growls as he kneels down next to the bed before reaching out and touching the burn mark, avoiding a small portion of magma that is still remaining. He then jumps to his feet as he senses the faintest amount of natural magic attached to the magma and shouts, “Magicaaaallll!!!!”

All of the raiders that had mostly remained silent till now immediately begin to grow excited at the thought of hunting a magical creature. This is because magical beings – those beings whose bodies contain magic itself instead of simply using the elements around them in their magic – often give trace amounts of elemental energy when eaten, further advancing a creature’s way along the Path of Nobility.

“Soonn, wre hunnt!” the raider boss shouts, only to calm down for a moment. “But now, we lay trap!”

The other raiders immediately begin cheering, seemingly uncaring of their lost tribesmen the moment the thought of eating a magical creature enters their minds.

However, the boss on the other hand turns to Urgot and shouts, “Forrr letting ann elder pass away, Urgot forbidden frrom partaking!!!”

Urgot’s eyes widen, and he begins to panic at the thought of being left behind in power by the others as they all partake in the magical creature.

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Year 1396 After Chaos
Month 7
Before the Ur tribe reached the fort

Chaotic Plane

Asher

I stare wide eyed at the large creature and his entourage of frost raiders as they approach the fort. Or rather, I stare straight at the ID floating in my vision above his head.

<-| Guruk | Frost Raider | PHYS - 102 | MAGIC - 41 |->

It’s the same species, but what the hell are those numbers?! And its size!

After staring at it as it walks across the taiga from my place hiding at the edge of the cliff just like when I first arrived, I turn my attention to the other frost raiders behind him. And what I find after IDing them surprises me.

<-| Auruk | Frost Raider | PHYS - 31 | MAGIC - 23 |->

<-| Urvrot | Frost Raider | PHYS - 30 | MAGIC - 24 |->

<-| Urket | Frost Raider | PHYS - 37 | MAGIC - 25 |->

Why are these so weak compared to the two I saw earlier? The one I saw leaving the place, and the one I killed were so much stronger than these…

I shake my head at the thought.

It doesn’t matter. It just means that hunting them will be easier.

I begin to walk away, back in the direction of the den I had usurped.

Although, along the way, I can’t help but wonder what that strange, pale blue energy was that had spread out around the Guruk guy. Because I’ve never seen anything like it.