Rulac stalked forward, flanked by the two Alqats who had shown up. I was curious about what he would be like in battle, and I wasn't disappointed.

He always carried himself lackadaisically, so the severity and calm with which he walked into battle was almost jarring. That, however, was nothing compared to the way he fought. Given his size and obvious power, I had assumed that he would fight like Took--smashing into the foe and dominating them with brute force, but I was far from correct.

When we saw the first adult wolfstag, Rulac dashed forward with a coordination and grace that belied his size. The wolfstag reared back, and began channelling its magic into its horns, which began to glow and glitter with power. Rulac looked like he would would engage straight forward, but at the last moment, right as the wolfstag began to crash its head forward, Rulac just wasn't there. He jumped above the wolfstag and, going horizontal, grabbed the foe by the scruff of its neck in his jaws. Rulac bit down hard, and the wolfstag went limp in his jaws. He relaxed his bite and it flopped wetly onto the ground, warm blood pooling and soaking its fur.

I looked on, amazed, but Rulac was far from finished. Looking ahead, we saw another 3 adult wolfstags. All three began conjuring brightly burning bolts of lightning, but Rulac continued to run towards them at a dead sprint. He dodged two of the bolts, couldn't avoid the third, and allowed a glancing blow off of his flank. I smelled burning flesh, but Rulac didn't react at all. He simply closed in on the closest foe and bodily lifted it up by its tail. Rulac, given that he stood nearly 1.8m tall, was much larger than any wolfstag I had ever seen, this life or previous. He swung the hapless thing around and smashed it into the active horns of the middle wolfstag, and I heard something crunch. Rulac ran forward and feinted high on the last standing enemy, causing it to rear up to try to protect itself. He then quickly grabbed it by the throat with his right hand, flipped it onto its back, and ripped its throat out. I heard the wet slap of the torn flesh as it hit the ground, dropped from his jaws.

The other two Alqat weren't idle, as the rushed forward and made sure that all the felled foes were dead, quickly ripping their throats out and running to stay near their leader. All three continued onwards and my pack and I rushed to keep up. We simply followed in silence until we came to a small alcove, too small to be called a den. Inside were 4 younger wolfstags, at least 1 of which was a Young Thunder Wolfstag. I called my pack forward and we began our own fight. I heard Rulac mutter something to the other two, but I was too focused on making sure I fulfilled my quest since I may well lose the opportunity to do so if I didn't at this juncture of time.

I rushed towards the biggest one of the group as I began to pull the tickling magic up from my chest to my throat. I decided not to activate [Bloodlust] at this time, since it could backfire on my concentration on this unfamiliar magic. As such, I was more cautious than usual and dodged an attempted strike while I could see the warmth begin to congregate on the young wolfstag's horns. I waited for a moment, then, when it lunged forward, I dodged to the side, brought my mouth as near to its head as I dared, and pushed the last little bit for the loud explosion to happen.

The effect was immediate and effective. The young creature had never experienced something like this, and startled back, whimpered, and lost its concentration on its own magic. As I witnessed the lightning fizzle out of existence, I seized my advantage. The wolfstag reeled, and I took the opportunity to rip deep into its shoulder. It whimpered in pain as I bit deeper and harder, until, my teeth grinding on thick bone, I lifted my prey up and slammed it down into the packed floor, stunning it further. It immediately began trying to recollect itself, but I had quick, easy access to its throat, and I quickly put it out of its suffering.

Since I knew it was coming, I could briefly feel the surging strength within me, and it wasn't just adrenaline. In the top corner of my vision, I saw the flashing [System] message, and, though I didn't read it, I knew it was letting me know that I had completed my quest. I decided to check up on the rest and their own fights.

Looking, Solia and Treel were focusing on one of the other three wolfstags, and seemed to be about to finish things, while Took was currently disemboweling her foe. Brutus was deadlocked with his enemy, both trading ineffectual blows. I began channelling my magic, brought it to my throat as I approached, and, in a moment of overexcitement, let it get to critical mass before I was in position and I had my mouth partially closed, so, instead of the potential stun, it mostly rang in my head and slightly startled the wolfstag. In the long run, this worked just about as well, as the wolfstag looked at me in fear, just long enough for Brutus to capitalize and begin eviscerating it. I was surprised at how temperamental yet natural this magic was for me--I supposed it was due to the fact that the magic came from some organ, and not from my own intimate knowledge of the Words of Power. I didn't have a specific Phrase I was using that would dictate what would happen, so it was less certain what would happen, but since the magic came from me and not the Words, it came rather naturally, instead of calling it from somewhere else.

The fight had ended at this point, so I looked to the entrance, only to see nobody. Looking down the hall, I could see that one of the Alqat was running to catch up to the others. I looked at my pack, nodded, and then we took off towards the others.

...

It was amazing to see what they had done in the same amount of time it took for us to dispatch our own foes. We ran forward and there were another 7 corpses littering the path before we could catch up. All were killed as methodically and carefully as the others, with singular wounds scarring their still-warm bodies.

We finally caught up with Rulac and the others who were standing, stoic, at a fork in the path.

After a moment's wait, I confusedly asked, "So... why are we waiting here?"

Rulac answered, "We're sure that there will be some who flee. We're here to keep them from doing so."

"...Just us?"

Rulac laughed. "Just watch. I don't need that magic stuff, but these two work well together. Hold you breath when we say so."

I figured it would be something fire related, given our location, and, once a group of panicking wolfstags came along, I was proven right. The two Alqat (one male and one female) began to work together, as the male conjured a bonfire of sorts in front of him and the female whirled a swirling mass of air into being that slowly integrated with the flames, creating a fiery tornado that slowly, prodigiously, began inching towards the now even more panicked group of wolfstags.

They began to try to turn around, but something behind them seemed to be pushing them forwards, so they began to try to rush through to the other side, where we were. As they entered the flames, Rulac called out, "Hold breath now!", and a deep black smoke began to fill the corridor. It choked the life out of the area, but we held firm in our location.

The smallest in the group, only about Solia's size, were caught up in the powerful winds, and, screams echoing, broiled while others tried to charge through. Those that made it were charred and obviously pained, and Rulac quickly took care of the majority of them. A couple made their ways past him while he dealt with the rest of the mass of bodies, and we stepped forwards to take care of them.

These adults were dangerous to us, but since they were far from peak condition, we five could simply mob them one at a time and rip anything still keeping them alive apart. Some were so burnt from the flaming cyclone that when we bit into them, their skin crackled like paper. Everything that I saw was in agony, choking and coughing. I saw a female wolfstag holding two small cubs in her jaws as she gently tried to protect them from our merciless jaws. There was no mercy, and no hesitation from any... except for me.

I had seen these wolfstags as my enemies, as "other", but this... was disturbing. I had done this, multiple times in my past life. I just had never seen it, so I never really thought of what exactly burning to death entailed. The brightly burning fireball in front of me was just like the ones that I had created, and used to fry dozens and hundreds of keelish.

I had no qualms about killing my enemies, but this fiery inferno was something completely different from a fight. It was a particularly painful death, and one I didn't relish seeing. Looking at the Alqat, none seemed to particularly enjoy this, but looked detached instead.

Regardless, this was a battle of extinction, and it was better that this pack of wolfstags die here than continue to pose a threat to my future survival, so, until there were no more, I continued to wet my teeth in the nearly boiling blood of any wolfstag that survived the deadly tornado.