Dragon's Tale 32 (Patreon)

Half an hour after I started chasing the wolf, I started to reconsider the decision. It wasn’t the first time I was hunting an animal, but I soon learned that the difficulties of facing an ethereal animal were not limited to breaking through their magical resistance. 

Tracking them was a true pain as well. 

Since they were not fully physical beings, they interacted with the physical objects in weird ways, leaving almost no evidence. Another reliable option to track a magical creature was to follow their energy remains. Under normal conditions, such an aura would stand out from the environment to the senses of an experienced mage, but that method was out thanks to the unbearably thick and continuously shifting magical winds on the background. 

Ultimately, I was able to track it only by luck. My enhanced senses were efficient enough to catch the slight smell of the burnt flesh and fur created thanks to my attack, allowing me to draw a general direction. It wasn’t exactly the most accurate method, but it was the best way to do so. 

When I finally saw the damaged wolf standing in the middle of a valley, I should have felt satisfaction. After all, all my exhaustion and suffering paid off. Unfortunately, seeing the wolf reminded me of a crucial fact. 

Wolves were not solitary creatures. 

Actually, I hadn’t forgotten that fact. How could I, when one of my most vivid childhood memories was about trying to survive against a wolf pack with just a small blade when I was nine years old, while my grandfather observed from a distance, smoking his pipe? Still, I expected that even if it had a pack, an ethereal wolf should be the leader of the pack. 

That assumption was ruined by the presence of a pack of eight ethereal wolves, standing in a semi-circle, preparing to rush forward, creating a force that was threatening enough to destroy everything that stood in their path. To make things even worse, they weren’t the scariest thing, which should have been impossible. After all, a single ethereal wolf would have been enough to destroy a town in its lonesome if it wasn’t for their dependence on the magical environment. Eight of them, capable of teamwork, angered by an earlier assault, was nothing less than a true calamity. 

But even a calamity was paled against the hulking figure behind them. It was roughly had the same shape of a wolf. Of course, a wolf didn’t have ten-inch teeth, a fur thick enough to stop siege weapons, or a poison breath enough to kill an elephant when inhaled once, or blood so violently-magical that a drop of it enough to drive a mage into a frenzy. Nor a wolf was larger than a house. 

It was a disaster-class wolf. 

I cursed my luck. If an ethereal beast could threaten a town, a disaster-class beast could threaten a city. Like the ethereal beasts, they grew in magically-intense areas, but unlike ethereal beasts, they weren’t dependent on the magical environment in the short term, which meant that unlike ethereal beasts, their capability to bring ruin to civilization was not only theoretical. Some of the most prominent disasters were created by them. 

For example, Pompei… 

Naturally, my theory of them was lacking substance, and mainly relying on legends and second-hand accounts on the books, which made it unreliable. Still, there were many facts that were agreed on across those materials. First, no disaster beast was the same, their abilities and elemental natures wildly varied. Second, their behavior was highly influenced by their beast nature. Third, their strength varied wildly, but even the weakest of them could rival the strongest sorcerer. 

In other words, I was screwed. 

A weaker man would have turned his back and run away, hoping for a miracle, but I dashed forward instead. Ultimately, they were wolves. Their whole hunting strategy relied on exhausting the prey by chasing from behind. I certainly wasn’t fast enough to run away from a normal wolf, let alone a disaster-class one. I didn’t want to suffer a pathetic death, running away from a bunch of pathetic beasts, no matter how strong.  

Instead, I shouted loudly as I charged forward, raising my hands on both sides. “Come and get me, you bastards!” I shouted. My sudden forward rush and my voice startled them momentarily. They were clearly unused to crazy suicidal assaults. It turned out to be my luck, as other than the disaster wolf, every single one of them froze in panic, while the disaster wolf took a cautionary step back when a rush of lightning flew out of my hand, adding to the intimidation factor. 

The wounded ethereal wolf panickedly took a step back while the others froze in indecision. I understood their reaction. After all, they were clearly one of the most dangerous creatures in the mountain, meaning they have hardly faced a situation they had to run away. Their slowness worked in my benefit, as I found myself in the middle of them before they could run away. 

I did a full turn even as I forced myself to the limits, forcing lightning to flew out endlessly from my hands. It resulted in a lightning tornado. Pained cries of wolves, combined with a depressing smell of cooked flesh, reached to my nose. I wanted to laugh at my initial success, but my attention was caught by forcing me to make the tornado even larger. I wanted it to cover the whole area, killing the wolves before they could react. 

It was a good plan, enough to actually catch several beasts in the immediate surrounding, but like every good plan, it was faced with an unexpected setback. This time, said setback came in the form of a huge paw, breaking through the lightning to hit my torso. I managed to raise a magical shield, but despite its strength, it cracked immediately, throwing me back in the process. 

Still, even as I rolled uncontrollably on the ground, I was happy. I avoided the brunt of the attack that would have turned my torso into minced meat. The disaster wolf howled in anger as it kept its front leg raised, not happy with its burnt fur. However, compared to the ethereal wolves around, its wounds were nothing. Five of the ethereal wolves were on the ground. Three of those were twitching repeatedly, while two of them were motionless, dead. 

Even with the pain spreading in my body, I felt proud. Taking down five ethereal beasts with one spell was a legendary feat worthy of legends. Too bad no bad would believe it. Even worse, it was very unlikely for me to survive to tell the tale. Still, desperation was not enough to make me stop trying. 

Luckily, the arrogance of the disaster wolf worked to my benefit. Rather than rushing forward to finish the job, it howled. If I read the reaction of the remaining ethereal wolves correctly, it was ordering them to attack instead. As an apex predator, it didn’t like being hurt, whether serious or cursory. 

I rolled away even as I created a screen of I gathered my magic, and when one of the wolves rushed forward, I sent a bolt of lightning to dissuade it. It dodged, but took a step back in fear, giving me enough chance to explore the surroundings. I looked around, and saw a small cave on the wall of the valley. I dashed forward

The disaster wolf howled threateningly once more, but didn’t try to follow me. Instead, three remaining disaster wolves rushed for me from multiple directions, trying to surround me. I sent rapid lightning bolts, but they proved too clever. The one that I aimed dodged without losing ground, while the others continued to rush forward. 

I changed tactics and started creating waves and waves of lightning. It was magically consuming, enough to actually make me feel the tendrils of exhaustion, but it was also better than the alternative —being ripped into pieces by angry wolves. As an added benefit, the strong light prevented the wolves from realizing I was heading toward the cave until I slipped inside. 

I prepared myself to release a thick lightning bolt, ready to take down the first creature that dared to step into the cave. Unfortunately, the wolves proved too smart to fall that simple trick, howling instead. I took a deep breath, trying to ignore the slowly disappearing pain, my recently-attained healing capabilities once again proving their worth. I focused on healing myself, feeling secure as the entrance of the cave was too small for the disaster wolf to enter. 

It turned out to be another miscalculation. Because the disaster wolf walked to the entrance of the cave. I hoped that it would camp at the entrance, relying on its poison breath to kill me in the cave. I hoped that, because I had a lot of solutions against poison breath. I could delay it as I rested, before starting to dig a tunnel out of the cave, escaping the valley from the other side. It would have been exhausting, but not as much as facing against a disaster wolf. If it tried to track me, I could have created a defensible location to give me a fighting chance. 

It ruined my plans by suddenly smashing its paw at the wall of the cave, breaking a huge piece off, widening it enough to allow it to walk in. “Fuck,” I murmured even as I cast an earth spell, strengthening the ceiling to prevent it from collapsing. As I did so, it smashed against the entrance again, widening it enough to enter, and I found myself facing a head bigger than my body just a few feet away, getting closer and closer. 

I summoned the strongest lightning bolt I could conjure and threw against the wolf, aiming at its eye, using its lack of mobility. Unfortunately, it just closed its eyelids, and protected its eye successfully. Its magical resistance was unbelievable, as its eyelid was barely harmed. 

Desperation was a good way to make people risk the unknown, and I was no exception to that. I knew that anything I could normally cast could never hurt a disaster wolf, so I did something I never planned to do, and delved deep into my magical core, which was created by the transformation of the dragon heart. 

Suddenly, I felt magic flood my body, but it was much different than the regular sensation. It was much stronger than the regular magic I could use, but even more unwieldy. It felt like a wild thunderstorm was moving through my veins, with all the pain it implied. The pain was so bad that I lost control of my body, unable to even raise my hand. I tried to suppress the flow, so that I could at least get a rudimentary control, but failed. As a result, the magic flowed even wilder, with the enhanced pain it implied. 

My vision darkened, and I wanted to laugh, darkly amused that my desperate gamble made it easier to be hunted. The wolf still attacked, its mouth wide open, displaying the full range of teeth, but among pain, I noticed a sudden panic in the movements of the wolf. Unlike previously, it was feeling a threat. Too bad I was unable to react. 

Before the threatening set of teeth could connect with me, the pain became bearable. I opened my mouth and screamed, which was the limit of my movement capability. 

Unexpectedly, a huge bolt of lightning, many times stronger than anything I could have achieved even with my enhanced capabilities, left my mouth, and smashed against the open mouth of the creature. Unfortunately, I lacked the slightest ability to aim, so rather than aiming it toward its eye, it hit its lower jaw. 

The results were spectacular. The lightning bolt cut through its skin and bone like butter, leaving a charred and broken mess behind, The wolf let out a broken moan as it pulled back, rushing away. For all its capabilities, it was an animal, and an animal would never risk its life to take down prey that proved too strong to hurt it. 

Or challenge a stronger predator without a burning need. 

I didn’t know which one it thought, but regardless of the reason, it rushed away, leaving me to collapse on the ground alone, trembling helplessly, trying to stay conscious. I breathed hard, trying to control my body. Luckily, the spell drained the magic of my body, removing the risk of self-explosion. Even better, I heard the panicked howls of other ethereal wolves, getting more and more distant. 

Somehow, the danger was resolved, but not without leaving even more questions about the mysteriousness of my abilities. I wanted to return to the hidden city. Despite the risks, I decided to break into the library, because if it continued like this, my lack of information about being a sorcerer would kill me sooner or later. Compared to its virtual certainty, the deadly wards of the library was an acceptable risk. 

Since I was motionless, I decided to mediate to hasten my recovery. I tried to pull the external magic, but the suction effect was much stronger than expected. Still, the result was even weirder than that. Despite the clear sky, a lightning bolt fell from the sky. To make it even more unbelievable, just as it was about to fall on the ground in front of the cave, it took a ninety-degree turn and rushed at me like an arrow, and absorbed into my skin. I felt my body recover slightly, feeling the power once more. 

No matter how weird, the results were hard to argue. I continued to meditate, and the lightning continued to fall, recharging me. It only stopped when I felt my reserves were approximately a quarter full, but by then, the lightning stopped to fall even if I tried to summon it. 

Instead, I meditated, trying to complete my physical recovery before I traveled once more, marveling at my own power. Somehow, I could feel my power increasing even more.

As soon as I recovered enough, I was going to go back to the library. Solving the mystery of my own power couldn’t be delayed anymore.