Chapter 72: Fang Wolf [5]

Chapter 72

Alpha of the Fang

The Fang Alpha moved first.

It came in a hard, low line, faster than the earlier exchange had prepared him for. Rael met the rush the only way that still made sense—he pulled fire into the short sword.

Flame Manipulation.

Heat raced along the steel until the blade burned with a tight, white-edged sheath of flame. The Alpha saw the change and threw itself sideways at the last instant. The flaming edge carved a bright arc through empty air and left a trail of heat that made the nearby leaves curl.

Rael did not let the miss end the sequence. He stepped through and brought a second cut up from the low line, aiming for the shoulder. The Alpha twisted and caught the blade on its claws. Fire and keratin met with a sharp, spitting hiss. The impact shuddered up Rael’s arms. The Alpha’s strength was still greater. Raw power alone would not break it.

They traded again. Claws against flaming steel. Short, violent collisions that forced Rael back a step each time. The Alpha’s weight and the density of its strikes kept stealing the center of the clearing from him.

"I can’t match it like this," he said under his breath, voice tight with the effort of another parry. "Strength isn’t the road. Control the ground."

He stopped answering every attack with a direct cut.

Hellfire.

He put the skill down along the entire left side of the clearing. Dark-red fire climbed out of the soil in a continuous, stubborn band that clung to root and leaf and refused to die. The Alpha’s next lateral move brought it close enough to feel the heat. It checked hard and angled away from the flames.

Rael was already working the opposite side.

Frost Manipulation.

Cold pulled moisture from the air and the earth. A spreading sheet of ice raced across the right flank of the clearing, locking the ground into a slick, uneven surface. In the space of a few heartbeats the Alpha’s clean escape routes narrowed. Fire on one side. Ice on the other. The open path that remained led straight toward the human standing in the middle with a burning sword.

The Alpha took it.

It committed to a full-power charge, everything poured into closing the distance before more of the ground could be taken from it. Rael held position and watched the timing with the same cold focus he had used against the spider. He waited until the massive body filled his vision and the claws were already descending.

Ice Armor.

The shell of hardened frost locked across his torso and arms in the final fraction of a second. The Alpha hit him like a falling tree. The impact drove the air from his lungs and threw him backward across the clearing. He hit, slid, and rolled, the armor cracking and flaking under the force but keeping the claws from opening his chest. When he came up his ribs ached and his vision had narrowed, but he was still breathing.

The Alpha was already turning for the follow-up.

Rael raised his free hand before it could complete the pivot.

"Inferno Bolt."

The compressed spear of white-hot fire formed and flew. It struck the Alpha high on the side and detonated. The explosion tore a ragged, burning wound through fur and muscle. The Alpha staggered, one leg dipping, a rough snarl ripping out of its throat. Smoke rose from the injury. It still did not go down. It planted its feet, gathered whatever strength remained, and prepared one final charge.

Rael tightened his grip on the short sword.

"One more," he told himself. "Make it count."

Flame Manipulation answered again, denser this time. Fire concentrated along the blade until the steel itself seemed secondary to the cutting heat that wrapped it. The Alpha launched. The leap was still fast, still heavy with killing intent, but the earlier wound and the damaged ground had stolen some of its cleanness.

Rael did not retreat.

He stepped forward into the attack, dropped his weight, and slipped under the reaching claws. Fur and heat passed over his back. As the Alpha’s momentum carried it past, Rael turned and drove an upward slash with everything he had left. The flaming edge bit deep, continued, and tore a long, catastrophic line through the chest and upper torso.

The Fang Alpha’s forward drive died in mid-air. The body crashed to the ground in a heavy, final sprawl. Legs kicked once. The yellow eyes stayed open for a moment longer, then emptied.

Silence returned to the forest by degrees.

The last thin crackle of Hellfire faded. The ice had already begun to melt. The three remaining ordinary wolves that had watched from the edge were gone—fled the moment their leader fell. Rael stood over the Alpha’s body with the short sword still raised, chest rising and falling in deep, controlled pulls. Blood from earlier cuts had dried in dark lines across his armor. New bruises were already settling along his ribs and shoulder. Nothing was broken. Nothing was bleeding badly enough to force a potion yet. He had walked into the fight with a pack and walked out of it with only minor injuries. The margin had been thinner than he liked.

The system registered the kill.

[+1 Level up]

[+159 Souls]

Rael exhaled and finally lowered the blade. He looked across the clearing at the scattered corpses of the pack and then back to the massive body at his feet.

"The difference between a beast and its leader," he said quietly, "isn’t always strength."

He turned the thought over once more.

"Sometimes it’s understanding."

The Alpha had read him, adapted mid-strike, and forced him to abandon pure power for control of the ground. That was the gap. Size and speed mattered. The mind behind them mattered more.

He crouched, forced his hand into the ruined chest, and pulled the Monster Core free. It was denser and brighter than the ordinary Fang Wolf cores, warm even through the residual heat of the fight. He stored it, then stored what he could of the useful remains. His arms felt leaden. The fresh level sat in his body like a quiet second wind, but it was not enough to make another serious fight wise.

He looked once more at the darkening spaces between the trees. The twin suns had moved further along their path. Time had been spent. Condition had been spent. Staying out longer would be greed, not growth.

Rael turned back toward the distant direction of the walls, adjusted the fit of his armor where the Alpha’s claws had scraped it, and began the walk out of the Wildlands. The forest watched him go in silence.

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