What Lies in the Dark

The continuous growling perceeded as I stared fixedly on the darkness in the hallway.

It eventually got louder and louder and louder, until I could finally hear faint scratch marks on the tiled floors of the school. It was the same type of sound a dog’s paw causes when it tries walking along a waxed surface.

I gulped.

I don’t know whether it was because of a human’s natural fear of the darkness or the quiet yet bone shivering noise that this new monster seemed to just barely make, but I truly felt fear.

This wasn't the same tension as when I was battling the goblins. This was something else entirely.

Luckily though, for some reason, it wasn't as overwhelming as I fir thought. If it was the past me, no doubt I'd be frozen from fear, crying, maybe even pissing my pants a bit. I think that might have been the 50% resistance to fear I received from my title.

Regardless, the overwhelming fear of the unknown, was something I could just barely stomach through.

I gripped Efhermet tightly, moving into a familiar pose.

I contemplated making a break for it and rushing back to the door that connected the teacher’s lounge, but right now I was across the room on the opposite side. I didn’t have the cocky confidence to think I could make it there in time before whatever thing outside came and killed me. Plus, if I ran away into the adjacent room, that would basically be like bringing death to Cielle and Hina.

And it would be pretty pointless if Hina died after all the trouble I went through.

For now, I stood my ground.

The growling continued on until a silhouette of a 2 meter figure appeared from in front of the gaping hole in the wall.

It was hunched over, its abdomen thin, while its broad shoulders sprouted thick arms. Its body was standing on hind legs, upright, although its hunched back suggested the creature wasn’t originally meant for human postures.

The most jarring thing about this creature though, was its head. In short, it had a canine face. Its razor sharp teeth poking out of a too-large snout, while its face, as well as the rest of its body was covered from its pointy wolf-like ears down all the way to its equally as wolf-like feet with a thick mat of fur.

Once it came into view, I could finally read its status window, although it only confirmed what I had already guessed.

Werewolf Scout - Level 23

200/200

[Darkness Attribute in effect] - 25% in stats

I inwardly groaned upon seeing its stats.

Not only was 8 levels above me, even higher than the Goblin Commander, but it also had a stupid thing like darkness attribute.

Wasn’t this thing strong enough as is? Why add such an overpowered boost?

Although I would have wondered why I could see something like the Darkness attribute on this monster’s status window… but it wasn’t the time for that.

Right now, I was in a seriously disadvantaged position.

It head swerved from left to right until for a brief instant, its eyes met with mine. Although that was only for an instant before it continued to gaze over the rest of the room.

It took a tentative step forward, while sniffing the air continuously.

“....”

I observed it, even through the darkness. It was hard at first, mostly since its black fur melded in with the natural shadows the lack of light created, but you know what, humans are pretty amazing creatures. My eyes naturally adapted, allowing me to atleast see a portion of its silhouette move about in the room.

I slowly crouched down, careful not to make a noise.

From the looks of things, this creature had pretty bad eyesight. Or more accurately, it was probably blind.

Its eyes continued to look left and right, but it was as if they never received any visual stimula. Although its nose and ears would twitch constantly, using both its hearing and smell to guide the massive creature around the room.

I saw the wolf twitch its nose on more than one occasion as it would continuously bump into the tables and backpacks. At first, I wondered why such a agile looking beast was moving in such a manner before I put two and two together.

Wolves or any canines for that matter were creatures who relied primarily on their enhanced sense of smell. In this regard, the Werewolf scout wasn’t any different, but there was something blocking its sense of smell; The corpses.

Its been over 10 hours since these things had died, so its no surprise such a strong smell was being emitted. Even someone like me, who has an average sense of smell couldn’t take much of the stench.

I could only imagine what extent the terrible stench has on impairing the Wolve’s senses.

I secretly thanked this unexpected godsend while I stayed quiet. By the twitching of its ears, I could tell it probably had just as good hearing as its smell, so it was even more important that I stayed silent.

5 minutes passed, and the creature was still continuously moving around haphazardly throughout the room.

Somehow or another, in those 5 minutes, I successfully made my way to lay next to a dead corpse. I was hoping its stench would mask my own.

Although the creature was moving around aimlessly, there was one thing that caused me to fear; it was moving in my direction.

No matter how clumsy it may have seemed, from my perspective it was still clawing its way over, inch by inch.

For a brief moment, I pondered whether I should attack it while I still had the element of surprise on my side, but I brushed that idiotic thought aside.

For one, this thing was numerously stronger than me, even if it had trouble smelling me out right now, once battle started, it would most likely switch to its sense of hearing to hunt me down.

Also, wolves are pack creatures. There was a more than likely a chance that this creature was part of a larger group as well. Even if I did managed to kill this first scout, which is an impossibility all in itself, the commotion from such an action would undoubtedly lead the others to my location.

So instead I stayed silent, waiting, hoping it wouldn’t find me.

It almost did though. Almost.

It got within inches of my location. Its hind legs were directly in front of me. From such a distance, it would have been mere child’s play on my part to sever its achilles tendon. Such an opportunity caused me to briefly overturn my original notion of avoidance. If I could impair its movements, which, in many cases, were werewolves’ biggest advantage (at least in most games), then killing it became a possibility.

I was so close to actually going through with this plan, when a howling from the distance stopped me abruptly in my tracks.

I stayed riggedly silent, Efhermet gripped, almost poised near the Wolf scout’s hind legs.

I listened in for the howling, as the Werewolf did the same.

It came again, loud, resonating throughout the hallway, and into this room. It wouldn’t come as a shock to me if the howl resonated throughout the entirety of the West wing as well.

The howling, which went on for an indefinite amount of time, abruptly stopped. There was silence for 5 seconds before a series of separate howls seemingly replied back to the first howl.

This round of noise was much louder in volume than the original. The wolf in my vicinity did the same as well. It faced the direction of the original howling, before it replied back with its own gut wrenching cry.

Its head was poised upwards, leaving its neck visibly vulnerable.

My eyes fixed on that body part for the briefest moment before my body moved into action.

Although I spouted things about precaution, my natural instincts -- more specifically, my will to get stronger-- kicked in and wouldn’t let myself waste such an opportunity.

I rocketed upwards with my feet. The force of the sudden action propelled me forward, towards the creature’s neck. The Wolf’s own howling blocked out any noise I might have made during this course of actions.

With a deep, and well aimed thrust, I plunged Efhermet into where I imagined its vocal chords would be.

At first, the knife met fierce resistance, both from the mat of fur guarding its neck, and the surprisingly taut muscles which supported it. It was a completely different feeling from stabbing a tiny goblin.

This was the difference in both monster and level.

The surprising resistance didn’t stop me for long though, as my blade continued onwards, regardless of the difficulty. I thanked the investment I had in strength as the dagger finally sunk into the creature’s throat, severing its vocal chords.

Its howl was stopped by an abrupt yip, as its clawed hands moved to reflexively cover its throat.

Not one to miss an opportunity, I dropped down back onto the ground and entered a crouching position. Now I was face to knee with the creature. Its eyes gazed down, as if it had seen me, which all together, I doubted.

It continued to stare in a daze while my attention focused in on its knee.

My sudden attack left the scout wide open, and I wasn’t going to give it any leeway either.

I rushed forward once more, towards its exposed knee.

Monopolizing on my speed and accuracy obtained from my inflated agility and dexterity stats, I used a well aimed [dissect] directly to the space between the creature’s kneecaps and his radius.

My dagger sunk in nicely and I continued to apply more force. In less than a second, the bladed edge reached the other side and [amputation] was successfully activated.

The creature feebly dropped to the ground as I moved back a great distance.

It glared in my general direction with its beading red eyes but I could tell it was agitated. Not only the smell, but the continuous howling of the others from outside caused its most reliable senses to worsen.

Right now, this thing was as blind as a mole.

I walked out of its reach leisurely as it slashed out with a delayed claw. Right now, the thing was crouched down on the floor. It would need time to adjust to its missing leg. And that was time I would put into good use.

I walked around the creature slowly. I didn’t care much about all the noise I made, since the howlings blocked out much of anything, really. Every now and then, I’d kick a couple of corpses towards its general direction. The aim was to further block out its sense of smell with the proximity of rotting carcasses.

And from the looks of things, it was working. The beast struggled as its nose twitched non stop. Its face was contorted into both pain and anger.

I knew about Wolves who could walk on three legs, so I predicted I’d be in a fair bit of trouble had this thing decided to move around on all fours (well, I guess in his case, on all threes), so my next goal was to sever the other leg.

I finally made my way to behind the creature.

The howlings still persisted but with less intensity as before. Now, it seemed like the creatures were purely trying to extend the noise.

The wolf in my vicinity though, was still looking towards the front of the art room. It had lost track of my movements a while ago, so all it could do was stare steadfast out into the dark.

Now that I was in position, I patiently waited behind the creature for the howls to completely die down. In order to acquire the right opportunity, I needed the noise to be non existent. I was going to use its sense of hearing to my own advantage.

Finally, when the howling had stopped and the only thing I could here where the creature’s struggle to stay upright, I smiled faintly. My trap was now set.

In the darkness, the creature let out wet mouth noises, as if imitating the howlings of its comrade.

I found this rather annoying, so with haste I set about my goal.

I pulled out a spare goblin short sword that I carried with me. Its blade gleamed in the faint moonlight as I threw it to the left of the creature. The darkness messed with my accuracy, but in my case, that didn’t really matter since my target was relatively large.

The knife shaped object sailed past the wolf before it hit one of the metal tables in the art room. Even if the table wasn’t metal, the impact itself would have produced sufficient sound. In this case, metal on metal, was extra effective, as the creature reared its head in reflex towards the noise.

Once its attention was occupied, I immediately rushed into action.

I had one goal, and only one. My eyes locked with the back of the creature’s ankle that was still connected with the rest of its leg. It rested on the cold hard floor, and was rather defenseless.

In one quick motion, I activated [dissect] and lunged at the exposed body part.

Unfortunately, [amputation] didn’t set in, but luckily, I managed to sever its achilles heel upon contact with a [lacerate] in effect. The leg, while still connected, was otherwise dead.

The wolf’s face scrunched up in agony. It would have howled out in pain, had his vocal chords remained intact.

My face remained impassive as I watched it shiver in pain.

I moved back, and circled around the creature some more.

It heard my footsteps (mostly since I wasn’t trying to hide it), and kept track of me with its hearing. Its expression displayed frustration as it glared at me.

Since it was basically invalid from the waist down, it would occasionally try to desperately claw its way forwards with its arms, but every time that happened, I’d either throw a spare short sword in its way, or I’d kick it hard back into place.

Eventually, the creature stopped attempting to move all together and just watched with apprehensive eyes.

I briefly checked its status while encircling the creature. A bright smile adorned my face when I noticed it had about 80 hp left. It wouldn’t take much effort to finish this thing off.

As I circled it, I’d tap the surrounding desks every so often three times, in order to gain its attention.

Whenever I did this, I’d throw a dagger its way, directly aimed at its head.

Soon, like I expected, the creature began to associate the three taps with a dagger throw. Every time I tapped the desks, the creature would curl up in a ball, guarding its face and chest with its arms, seeing as how that area was the one I aimed for the most. It got to the extent where it was now pointless to throw the daggers.

But this was fine with me, since I ran out of daggers in the first place.

[Well, enough playing around.]

I chided myself, who knew when a fellow Werewolf, would make its way over here to investigate that one of their comrades were missing. I could handle a half dead monster, but if I directly went head to head with a creature 8 levels higher than me, I’d be dead for sure.

Although, despite the time it took, through this course of actions, I had managed to whittle down the creature’s hp to 15%. I would only need either a few critical hits, or several regular hits to put it out of its misery. Or, I could aim for a fatal blow. That would work too.

I tapped another desk three times, which prompted the creature to curl up and tense itself. While this made throwing sharp objects at him exceedingly difficult, it did also leave him open for several different types of attacks.

Its current posture restricted its own movements, and it would have a hard time reacting to much of anything.

When he reflexively curled up to the noise I produced, I immediately bolted forward. Efhermet was poised in front of me, as I lunged out, aiming specifically for its ear.

I sank the blade deep within the orifice of its auditory canal, driving it deeper and deeper until it met fierce resistance from its skull.

A critical hit panel flashed out briefly, but I didn’t pay much attention. I needed to finish the thing off. Instead of pulling the blade out, I chose to just twist and prod at the new wound with my still wedged dagger.

It continually lost its hp due to this, and in as little as 30 seconds, I had slain my first Werewolf scout.

I wiped the sweat from my brow, as I vainly tried to examine the surrounding floor for any dropped loot. Disappointingly, in this darkness, I couldn’t find any.

I got up, and briefly looked at the creature.

I had managed to kill it, but leaving the corpse here might attract its friends over, so with heavy reluctance, I dragged the carcass over to the teacher’s lounge and chose to indefinitely keep it there until morning.

When Cielle saw me dragging a dead werewolf, she gasped out in surprise. Although a moment later she managed to retain her original facade and then merely asked if I was injured.

To which I responded with a, “No, I made sure to be careful.”

*****

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