[DCI] Chapter 75 - Pack Affairs (Patreon)

We took a quick look at the corpses of the wolves, at least those that hadn’t landed in the merciless pools around us, and began readying up to continue.

“These mutts weren’t anything special,” Aisha commented, the massive axe resting atop her shoulder. “It’s a bit of a shocker the previous team lost. There could have been four of them at best, so kinda like us without the kitty.”

“There is always a chance that these are just the scouts,” Levia pointed out. “Lucas stopped one from escaping.”

“Or the other Defenders have cleared this place up for the most part and lost against the Boss Monster,” Shuri pointed out. “In the end, we don’t have much information about the number or strength of the enemies in here, save for the Alpha.”

“Which can now be confidently recognized as a full Werewolf.” I scratched my chin thoughtfully. “I saw my blade leave golden marks on the wounds, and from what I could tell, you did too.”

“Yeah. It’s good we have taken precautions. This would have been much harder without the blessing. Thanks, Levia.” My drakan mate lowered her head appreciatively at the lunar elf.

“You are welcome.” The polite Witch tipped her hat in response. “But, does our new companion have means of bypassing their physical resistance?”

All heads turned to the feline girl, who stood there with fists against her waist. “Of course. I wouldn’t have come in here without any means to defend myself. I’m not suicidal.”

She took down her quite sizable backpack, which consisted of multiple segments sewn and attached together, each section made of different material ranging from cloth, through leather, to even metal. Opening it, she rummaged through its contents for a moment before pulling out a makeshift hand crossbow. Alongside that, she fished out a tied-up packet of bolts that looked like someone had melted silver cutlery and attached the tips onto wooden sticks.

“These bad boys might not seem like much, but with the help of my Class, this ammunition is on par with actual silvered bolts,” Aurora explained. “And, in case something gets close and personal with me, I have this to stab them when they least expect it.”

Attaching the gadget to her belt, she reached behind her back and made a quick swing, grinning fiercely. In her furry fingers rested a similarly hand-crafted dagger. The handle was made of a conveniently-shaped bone while the blade must have come from the leftover silver that had remained after she crafted the bolts. It was irregular and somewhat awkward, tied to the grip with a durable string.

“Well, I don’t want to sound too rough, but… that doesn’t seem like a lot against many enemies,” Aisha commented with a bit of a scrunched nose.

“Rough is a good word for most of my gear.” The Scavenger chuckled softly. “A piece of advice, don’t underestimate it too much. In your hands, it might be trash, but with proper knowledge and skills, you can make a lot of good stuff from rubbish. As the saying goes, one man’s trash, another’s treasure.”

“While I certainly agree with you that creativity and the support of your Class can make a big difference, I still agree with her on what you have shown us not being much in front of a potential horde of resistant wolves and a Werewolf,” Levia added.

“I know. That’s why I usually prepare a lot and take small jabs at my opponents. A surprise attack here, a trap for the pursuers there, hide for half an hour, check for any potential loot that could help, rinse and repeat.” The catgirl shrugged, hoisting the backpack onto her shoulders. “I can’t solo an army like the Berserker here, but I should be able to last longer in the grand scope of things.”

“That sounds quite ratty.” Aisha squinted at her, gripping her axe with a firmer hand. “I certainly hope you aren’t another Betrayer.”

Aurora’s eyes widened to the brim and she hastily waved her arms in front. “No! I’ve never sabotaged anyone or done anything wrong! I work alone because people tend to look down on my gear, not because I’m someone suspicious! Please, believe me!”

I rested a hand on my mate’s shoulder. “She does seem honest. There was an opportunity to mess with us without being noticed and she hadn’t taken it.”

“I don’t know.” My drakan girlfriend hummed thoughtfully. “This could be all a ruse again. Who knows if she really is a Scavenger and isn’t just dressed as one to evoke pity from her teammates, and as she said herself, to make others underestimate her. It’s not like we’ve confirmed her Stigma.”

Shuri looked between the two of us with a raised brow, clearly curious about the whole Betrayer and again parts. I nodded at her faintly to let her know that we could cover this later if she wished. Before I could respond to my beloved, though, Aurora had already shed her backpack once more and was stretching her collar while facing away, dragging it down.

“Look! Just give it a moment because of all the fur!” she pleaded, hope-filled eyes directed at us over her shoulder.

After a few seconds, a grayish sigil began pushing through the black hair and we saw it in its full glory, right between her shoulder blades. It depicted a hand digging inside a sack. Aisha glanced at me questioningly.

“It matches,” I confirmed.

She sighed lightly. “Sorry about the accusation. We don’t have the best track record with teammates. The least I can do to make up for it is this.”

Angling one of her protective pauldrons, Aisha showcased her own emblem. Facing us once more, the feline lady examined it with genuine interest before glancing past her. Levia combed some of her silvery-white hair over her ear and displayed the symbol on the side of her forehead. Not that surprising for a Class linked with knowledge.

When Shuri’s turn arrived, the oni princess smiled wryly. “I would rather not if that’s alright. There’s a lot more undressing required even after I remove my armor. The Stigma is placed right in the middle of my chest.”

With only me left on the list, Levia showed the daintiest of smirks. “As my muscular friend over there would say, you have not yet earned the right to witness its magnificence. And she would not be talking only about the mark.”

“Damn right!” My Berserker lover snorted. “Lucas’ one would give you a nice view of his cock. But, we can vouch for both of them.”

“Oh.” Aurora’s eyes skipped briefly to my waist. “It’s alright. I’ll believe you guys.”

I wondered if there was a slight blush under that thick fur covering her cheeks, but her facial features gave away nothing.

“Great.” I clapped my hands to move things forward. “Is there anything worth taking from these pups before we go?”

She took a peek at each available body with her golden eyes shimmering even more and shook her head. “No. I don’t detect anything special or valuable. We can go. Do you have a plan?”

“Find the mutt. Decapitate the mutt. Celebrate. Someone’s very long overdue with that.” Aisha grinned.

“The four of us can communicate mentally,” Levia added. “Lucas will guide us to victory as always. Follow his commands and we shall succeed without fail. It would take too long to explain every strategy we have worked up together.”

The feline girl looked like she was considering it again as her gaze roamed over me, but thankfully, her decision remained unchanged. “If you say so. I’ll listen to you this one time.”

“Thanks.” I smiled at her appreciatively. “Do you perhaps have anything useful that might help us locate the Alpha or its lair?”

Aurora scratched her head, her fingers inching fairly close to one of the rounded triangles atop it. “I’m not sure. There might actually be one ability, but I usually save it for after the Dungeon is cleared.”

“What does it do?” Aisha asked.

“It points me to the most valuable thing in the Dungeon, once per week,” the Scavenger replied. “And since the position of that thing can change if it’s for example the weapon used by one of the random mobs, it’s a waste to use it too early.”

“But, in our case, it might possibly lead us where we need to go,” Levia noted.

“Will you be willing to try?” I turned to look straight at the catgirl.

“I guess.” Aurora shrugged. “In the end, this is an Emergency Assignment. I shouldn’t be getting too greedy here. The clear rewards themselves are great already. Let’s make sure we can actually succeed in time.”

Digging in one of her pouches, she pulled out an irregular gemstone, definitely carved off a bigger chunk by hand, with the help of some basic tools, and passed it onto the Spiritual Puppet. Sitting down on the grass, she entered a meditative pose while the animated toy hopped off her shoulder, positioning itself right before her and raising the crystal above its head.

While waiting, we got a better look at the puppet. Most of its sections were made of durable oak, which took the form of cylindrical shapes with rounded edges. The individual parts could be easily discernible. It consisted of feet, shins, knees, thighs, waist, torso, upper arms, elbows, forearms, hands, and head. Most of them were fairly featureless, either by design or out of necessity. We didn’t know yet. Nevertheless, they were connected by metal wires, most likely spiritually charged and attached to the heart of the doll.

After thirty seconds, the gem began to glow and cracked audibly. Then, it shattered into literal dust, which floated into the air with golden radiance. Swirling in circles for a moment, the mystical particles surged away from us in a slithering line.

Aurora jumped to her feet and scooped up the puppet. “We gotta follow the golden trail. It won’t wait for us. We should be on the lookout, though, since it always picks the shortest path to its target. I can’t guarantee it won’t lead us right through a massive swamp.”

“We’ll handle it when that time comes.” I nodded at her with gratitude. “Time to move before we lose the dust.”

Assuming the agreed formation, we jogged ahead. The environment couldn’t be described as friendly so we had to watch our step. Aurora covered her snout with a cloth again, but Levia offered her the same spell she had used on us and the feline lady didn’t have to rely on that poor method of protecting her sensitive nose. It made her look much happier, and in turn, definitely much deadlier.

Our powdery guide was damn fast, weaving around trees and rocks, and we had to give it our all not to get left behind. Thankfully, Rose could zoom on par with its speed so she made rounds back and forth, keeping us on good track. I made sure to give our little friend an affectionate pat or two whenever she circled us to correct our direction.

We were more grateful for her presence with each passing day, to the point that it was hard to imagine our lives without the cheerful orb hovering over our faces.

As Aurora had accidentally predicted, we stumbled on a massive pool of bubbling mud, which released toxic fumes, most likely being acidic on its own. But, Levia didn’t let us fall behind too much and pulled out one of her stronger arcanas. A powerful wave of chill surged forward from her hand, covering her fingers in some frost, and a frozen road appeared right through the middle of the dangerous pond.

We sprinted over it before the acid dissolved the bridge and I held Levia’s hand for a few minutes after, warming it up with my own. I caught a delicate smile on her serene lips as we ran, which only made it even more worth it. We let our fingers stay intertwined even after hers returned to their proper temperature. Aisha sent us a jealous squint but I just chuckled under my breath.

Soon enough, we met some living resistance.

Another part of the Alpha’s pack came to greet us. Three wolves this time, but they looked much fiercer and battle-hardened, with plenty of scars and bruises from old fights. They seemed a tad bigger too, possibly even more enhanced by their leader. That would mean we were getting closer to our target, which was nice.

Unfortunately for them, they were still nothing in front of a charging Berserker and her Armorer sidekick.

Aisha used her Launch to fly into the air and followed it with the classic Ground Pound. The monster she had been aiming for dodged the lethal blow, but the impact threw all three off-balance. She cast Tectonic Stomp right on the head of the fallen wolf and smashed its skull into smithereens with a wet squelch.

Shuri tackled one of the other beasts, which had remained standing, even though on wobbly legs, and pummeled it with her fists like the last time. She didn’t need to do anything fancier. Her armor was more than enough to protect her from its claws and jaws, even if it wasn’t a top-tier set.

I quickly understood why Preserve was such a crucial skill for Armorers.

The last wolf didn’t run but aimed to catch the oni princess from behind, targeting her head. Before Levia could blast it with another arcana, something flew past us, spinning horizontally. Three stones linked together by a barbed wire struck the monster’s legs, tying them up and causing some minor cuts.

“I too am fairly good at throwing weapons.” Aurora winked at me while spinning another of those offensive tools around her furry finger.

Our frontliners worked with each other to take down the last enemy, Shuri holding it down under her knee, and Aisha beheading it mercilessly with an executioner’s cut. They nodded at each other and my mate helped our new friend up.

At least on the battlefield, they knew how to let go of their differences.

We looked around, but the golden dust was gone. Rose came to the rescue, though, rushing back to us and taking the lead. She had followed it while we were fighting, this smart little thing. Knowing she wouldn’t be of much help directly, she always came up with clever ways of being useful nevertheless.

She brought us to the front of a cavern which looked like it had been constructed from slamming huge slabs of rock one into another. This was definitely the den of these wolves, dug deep into the smelly earth. I could understand not wanting to make your home on the surface, where everything stank and wanted to choke you with poisonous fumes.

Just as we arrived close to the entrance, more enemies strolled out of its darkness, their feral eyes glinting threateningly. But, one pair was located much higher than the others, and the moment our next opponents stepped into the dim white glow, we spotted a humanoid figure amongst them, just as furry, wild, and lupine-like.

“Here’s our Werewolf.” Aisha grinned. “Time to refresh our buffs, girls!”

She and Levia turned around and ran straight up to me. Knowing what they meant, I let go of my longsword, allowing it to slip into the earth, and opened my arms to welcome them. Embracing both ladies as they crashed into my front, I first allowed Aisha to steal my lips as Levia peppered my neck with delicate pecks.

My fierce drakan mate devoured my mouth as I kneaded her ass with obvious intentions, fingers digging into the supple flesh of her tender behind, dangerously close to the gap between. The exchange broke as quickly as it began and I turned my face to Levia, pulling her into a gentle, loving kiss as Aisha switched to biting my neck. The lithe elf led my hand to cup her petite breast and I felt it thoroughly through the thin fabric of her dress, to the obliviousness of our companions as her body shielded us from any observers.

As they stepped away and ran back to their positions without a word, I confirmed via my watch that they had gotten a small enhancement for three hours, linked with their vitality, spirituality, and fatigue. Those had already expired after our previous attempt, leaving them with just the buff to their stats, which lasted another half a day or so.

Shuri and Aurora looked at me in slight consternation, but I just shrugged and connected with all three of my subordinates mentally. ~Aisha, Shuri, keep the Werewolf busy. We’ll clear its pack as quickly as we can. Then, we nuke it. As long as the two of you won’t turn it into mincemeat before.~

“Yes, Master!” Both of my mates shouted in unison, choosing to respond vocally for whatever reason.

Left out of the quick briefing but clever enough to notice and realize that we were going in, the feline lady took a powerful swing. “Bombs away!”

Three awkwardly shaped boxes the size of a fist dropped right before the Werewolf. Shuri jumped in front of Aisha and spread her arms. The makeshift grenades exploded with a storm of shrapnel, raining dozens and dozens of sharp silver fragments upon the pack. Some pinged off our tank’s armor, though I felt like the Berserker would have been fine too if none of the projectiles struck her eyes.

As for the wolves, they didn’t receive it just as well.

Plenty of the poor pups whimpered and wailed as their bodies were now littered with bits of deadly silver. They were effectively out of combat unless they could somehow push the fragments out. A few had managed to evade being hurt by standing behind their comrades, so Aurora didn’t disable everyone.

And there was the big guy too.

In his case, her surprise only made him angrier. A bunch of cuts were visible over its fur and dark brown hide, but we watched those slowly regenerate. The shrapnel hadn’t sunk deep enough to cause any lasting damage. Everything was being healed by the monster’s incredible recovery capabilities.

But, this was good, and we went to work with what we had.

The frontline duo engaged the Boss while the rest of us headed out to thin the herd a little bit. I kept myself close to Levia, acting as her guard, while Aurora was right on our heels. My charming Witch ripped one wolf into shreds with elastic vines while I beheaded the other one with my longsword.

“Do you have any more of those explodey things?” I asked in a simple way, not sure if she knew what grenades were.

“Nope.” The Scavenger shook her head. “That was pretty much my entire stock of silver out there. Everything that I managed to gather throughout my delves. I knew it could come in useful someday. Sorry.”

“Don’t be.” I smiled at her. “You’ve done your part. Now, leave the rest to us.”

Rose warned me about a sneak attack and I spun around to swat away a jumping wolf. Aurora stepped forward on her nimble feet and stabbed it in the neck with her dagger, finishing it off. I shielded her from a swipe from another beast, keeping my blade between them, and Levia used another arcana to drown it in blue flames, cooking it alive.

From the corner of my eye, I could see Aisha and Shuri handling the Werewolf fairly well. It proved to be quick on its feet, relying on agility most of the time. My fierce Berserker had a hard time placing meaningful hits on the humanoid monster while our Armorer couldn’t find a good moment to grapple with it. Even so, they worked together, protecting each other from harm and slowly wearing it down.

A group of three stalked us and I turned to face them, spreading my arms threateningly.

“Fuck off, you dangly mutts!” I yelled at them while invoking Intimidation and donning my scariest war face.

They hesitated for a moment, but that moment was everything my companions needed.

Levia lobbed some flask above them and Aurora struck it with a stone. The black sludge descended onto two beasts, eating through their flesh like molten lava through styrofoam. They were dead before they could realize it. As for the remaining one, I sent my handaxes to bully it before getting close enough to make it a head shorter.

Most of the pack was neutralized by this point, only a bunch of whimpering victims of Aurora’s bombs limping around. We checked on our brave warriors again and found them entangled with the big guy, both wearing some hints of struggle and injury. Yet, Aisha valiantly restricted its muscular legs, bearing with the claws scraping against her skin and armor, while Shuri twisted its arms behind its back rather painfully.

Just as all of its limbs were restricted, they couldn’t really use theirs to deliver the final blow.

And that was where Aurora came in, sauntering up to them and aiming her hand crossbow at its head from almost point blank. The Werewolf stilled for a moment, seeing the shiny tip leveled at its forehead, and then stilled for all eternity as the bolt sunk into its brain with a soft thunk.

The two ladies released their quarry and sat down by its sides.

“That’s it?” Aisha spread her arms. “I mean, we did take a while to catch the bastard, but how did the others fall to such a wimp? Did they underestimate it?”

Feeling like something was amiss, I pulled out my smartphone and navigated to the Wiki. Using the picture search feature I had discovered way in the past, I snapped a photo of the dead Werewolf in its entirety. Two seconds later, I had its full entry in front of my eyes.

“Fuck…” A quiet curse slipped past my lips.

Then, a deafening, wailing howl shook the air.

We spun around, facing the direction we had come from initially. From between the spooky trees, a twice as large Werewolf stepped out. Its fur was much longer and also deep gray. Through all that thick hair, glowing emerald veins pulsed with power. Acidic green spittle dripped out of its snarling muzzle, with the insides of its jaws bearing the same toxic shade. It was truly ripped in terms of physique, but the two pronounced sections over its chest weren’t pure muscle. 

At least not that kind of muscle.

Behind it, followed about twenty normal wolves bearing the same ominous features. They were also bigger than their regular counterparts, with their snouts easily reaching up to my face. There was no doubt that this was the cream of the crop amongst the Alpha’s troops.

And they all looked pissed.

“Ladies, it seems like the real Alpha has returned from its rather uneventful hunt just to watch us murder its precious mate.” I chuckled nervously. “And from the look of things, it’s the woman who wears pants in this relationship.”

As the wise sages used to say, hell hath no fury like a female wronged.

Yeah, I made that last bit up, sue me.