The Wolf of Calamity - Book 1 - Chapter 9 - The Hunt Begins (Patreon)

Year 1396 After Chaos
Month 7

Chaotic Plane

Asher

I give it one day – which turns out to be about forty hours according to some bizarre counter in the top right of my vision that I hadn’t noticed until now – before heading back to the frost raider fort. By now, I’ve hunted a few more direwolves to get more used to hunting creatures. Meanwhile their corpses didn’t really give me much in terms of stats. But any little bit helps, I guess.

Also during that time, the blizzard came back, along with the ice wraiths. Which made me very thankful that I kept the icy mud as fresh as it could be on my body, what with the heat released by my magma blood constantly trying to melt it.

Someday I would really like to take those things down a peg and eat one. But now I’ll just have to wait.

Either way, the blizzard only lasted for about six of those forty hours. So it wasn’t all that bad.

I can’t help but snort to myself as I slowly approach the edge of the cliff overlooking the fort. And as soon as I do, I find my eyes narrowing at the sight of five raiders casually walking along the top of the wall.

That’s… too many for me to deal with.

I take a deep breath through my nose, smelling for any scents nearby until I lock onto eleven scents total. Nine of which are fresh and coming from the fort, and two of which are not. One of the fresh ones being their large leader.

Okay, looks like I’ll be hunting outside of their fort this time…

I sniff again, taking in the scents and finding that both of the remaining scents are to the East of the fort. And one of them is even the one that was in the fort when I hunted the other.

Interesting.

Am I able to take on two at once? I’m not sure. But it won’t hurt to take a look.

So I climb down the cliff before stealthily making my way through the trees into the deeper patch of trees that the scents are coming from. Then it takes me ten minutes according to my System time teller thing to get close to them, only to find that the two are both split up.

My forehead furrows in confusion and I find myself tilting my head.

Why aren’t they together?

Isn’t the pack mentality to hunt together? Assuming that’s what they’re doing.

And that’s when I smell a third scent in addition to the other two. One that is distinctively direwolf, but also with a hint of frost to it.

Don’t tell me…

I slowly make my way closer to the three before finding the two frost raiders’ scents on opposite sides of a clearing in hiding, with a direwolf whose fur is completely white and whose eyes are pale blue standing in the clearing between them. The thing is clearly eating something, what of which I do not know.

<-| Unnamed | Frost Wolf | PHYS - 31 | MAGIC - 37 |->

Of course, its name starts with frost.

I shake my head to dislodge the thought.

No time for that.

By the looks of it, these two frost raiders are trying to hunt the frost wolf, which is surprisingly about as strong as I am. At least in pure stats. It’s still lacking the magical powers I have from his experiments.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a direwolf anywhere near as strong as that. But then again, it’s not a direwolf, now is it? It just looks like one. Or, one with white fur and blue eyes.

The frost wolf continues to enjoy its meal, seemingly unaware somehow of the two frost raiders near it. Which doesn’t make sense, considering how clearly I can smell… wait a second, I’m downwind from them and it’s not. Is that why?

It’s the only answer I can think of without knowing more about the frost wolves, so I just go along with that.

After watching for a few more seconds, I begin to prowl along the edge of the clearing, just a few meters outside of it with my belly to the ground, stealthily making my way over to the position of the frost raider on the right side. And once I get close enough, I narrow my eyes and focus on the source of the scent. A frost raider hiding behind a rather thick bush that seems to be full of some sort of berry.

Not only is the frost raider focusing on the frost wolf and seemingly waiting for something to happen, but it’s also gathering some of those berries in a bag at its side. A very poorly made bag, if the stuff back in teacher’s now-ruined cabin is anything to judge by.

I keep myself low to the ground several meters away from the creature, careful not to step on any twigs or make any noise as I slowly approach, only to stop about two meters away from it with a bush of my own for cover.

How to handle this… if I use a magma shot right away, then it’ll likely start screaming, which’ll then alert both the frost wolf and this guy’s companion to my actions.

Hmm… well, guess first I should ID it.

I stick my head around the bush to do just that before hiding again to plan.

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

This one is weaker than me. That’s good.

Also, I feel like I recognize that name. Was he one of the ones I ID’ed the last time I was here?

Probably.

I stick my head around the bush again, just watching as the frost raider alternates between watching the frost wolf and the berries it’s picking.

By the looks of it, killing it won’t be a problem. In fact, it’ll probably be rather easy. The matter at hand is how to kill it without the other two creatures hearing it and coming over here.

Fortunately, the smell of blood won’t be a problem when I devour it. But if it even makes a single sound, it’s possible one of the other two might hear it.

And since I can’t use bait to lure it out in case the frost wolf hears it from within the clearing…

I step out from around the bushes before slowly making my way over to the frost raider, deciding on simply using my greater size to my advantage. My body grows tenser and tenser as I step closer and closer to the creature, only relaxing ever so slightly when I get within a single meter of it. Then I jump with my mouth wide open, chomping straight down on the creature’s throat from behind before dragging it backwards while putting as much pressure as I can with my jaws.

The frost raider tries to cry out, but its throat is already crushed. So all it manages to do is make some gurgling noises that fortunately aren’t loud enough to be a problem as the frost raider tries to grab at my muzzle and shake me off to no avail. And soon enough, it drops its fight with me and goes limp, following which I devour it, sucking the entire thing into my stomach.

One down.