‘Damnit, what do I do?’ Seeing the wolf that was being chased by a horde of creatures, he hesitated unsure of what to do in this situation. He had slowly grown fond of the wolf’s company over the past few days, sure it still slightly scared him, but he felt they were coming to a mutual understanding. He couldn’t deny the selfish side of himself, the part that greatly appreciated their mutually beneficial relationship, where the wolf provided him food and he cooked and shared it. He knew he was the one who benefited most in this transaction but the arrangement suited him, but that wasn't the only reason he felt concerned for the wolf's wellbeing.

There was the budding friendship that seemed to be developing between them, he had noticed the wolf's playful personality. He could tell that she was testing him, she would huff and prance around when he chased her away, no longer tucking her tail in fear. Then there was her unnatural intelligence, beneath her eyes stirred deep thoughts and feelings. Whenever they made direct eye contact, he felt the briefest of a connection. Like he understood more of her feelings than he had any right to, feelings of loss, regret and fear that almost mirrored his own. Finally, he wasn't completely dense when it came to her giving him her hunt every day. He didn't think that she did it solely because of his ability to cook it, there seemed to be genuine remorse and the desire to make up for her attempt to kill and eat him, an apology for interrupting his hunt of the deer, and a deep desire for something that he couldn't put his finger on.

Dante continued looking out the window as the wolf made its way closer to the Church, it was obvious to him that she was heading towards where he was residing. In the distance he could just about make out the creatures that were chasing after the wolf, the moonlight reflected off of their scaly skin, giving them an almost metallic appearance. He concentrated his senses and focused his vision towards the chasing monsters, he tried to discern more details to establish what he might be up against.

As the chasing hoard of creatures got closer, Dante started frowning. The creatures that were chasing the wolf became more visible, he could make out more of their appearance. The best way he could describe them was humanoid lizards, they must have been at least 5 feet tall but it was too dark to make out much else. ‘What the fuck have you got yourself into this time Wolf?’

Maintaining his observation of these creatures, he could make out more details as they approached ever closer. They had a dark scaly hide, bulging red eyes with slits for pupils. Their brows were protruding with rows of small horns that ran towards the back of their heads. They appeared somewhat humanoid but they had long clawed hands and feet, with a long tail extending behind them. 'There really are evolved humanoid creatures?! Fuck, I hope they're not too intelligent.' Thinking back to the wolves he had fought several days ago, how intelligent they seemed. How the wolf that had been helping him seemed far too clever for its own good. Dante wasn't too confident about the prospect of an easy fight with these creatures, the advantages he thought he would have against the wolves were practically useless against these lizardmen.

Dante’s stomach sank when he observed that the creatures had crude clothing, a few just had shoddy loincloths, others had animal skin and cured hide that wrapped around their torso. Several of them appeared to be holding weapons, crudely made daggers and spears. ‘They have weapons and clothes, definitely some intelligence… fuck… fuck!’

The creatures were running crouched, their loping gates belied their speed. They were rapidly making their way in his direction and slowly gaining ground on the wolf. One of the smaller creatures in the rear was being carried by a much larger lizardman, the large lizard must have been over 6 feet, it had hulking muscles that rippled all over its body. The smaller one that was being carried appeared to be the leader, it was much better dressed than the others, it had a long leather robe and carried a staff with a small jagged crystal on top. It had a malevolent aura and a demeanour that spoke of a high level of intellect. It looked to Dante like it was hissing out orders, pointing its clawed hands in different directions and taking control of the hunt. He watched on in amazement and horror as the creatures began to flank the wolf in an attempt to cut off its retreat.

Dante was still in the bell tower, indecisive about whether to help the wolf or if this was a ruse by the wolf. He still didn’t entirely trust it yet, if he let his guard down too soon it could spell his doom. He wasn't given the opportunity to make a decision, several notifications pinged into his head.

[Trial started: Kill The Corrupted Kobolds]

[Rewards based on performance]

[Punishment if failed: Waya Dies, F’s Disappointment]

‘Kobolds?! Who the fuck is Waya? Is that the wolf’s name? Does it have an actual name?!’ The thought that the wolf that had hunted him, the same one he pictured as a wild and feral animal that lived by its instincts, albeit a damned intelligent wolf. This was a wolf that he imagined was struggling to eke out an existence in the wild. Suddenly this wild wolf was now called Waya, a creature that had a personalised name.

His perspective on the wolf changed, he thought that the name gave it an almost civilised air, like the wolf had more to it than he initially suspected. It was a validation of his suspicions regarding her intelligence.

The notification had forced him to make a decision, he didn’t have time to think too much about the name the system had generated for this trial. If the system had triggered a trial for him, he figured the wolf didn’t have bad intentions. He didn’t think the system would scheme against him, to him it was more like an impartial observer that occasionally helped people who were integrated into it.

He made his mind up, turning around he ran down the stairs of the tower. Dashing towards the church door, ripping away the pews he had stacked up against the door as a barricade. He opened the door and screamed at the wolf to get its attention “Waya! Come inside!” He gestured to the wolf, unsure if it understood his intentions when he shouted. After all, he had been trying to scare the wolf off every day. His behaviour wasn’t too dissimilar to how he behaved whenever it got too close to him when he was cooking.

The wolf’s ears perked up when he shouted, she seemed to look in his direction, a recognition of her name when it had been called. There was the briefest moment of surprise that ran across its face, Waya rushed forward even faster than before, desperate to escape the clutches of the Corrupted Kobolds.

Seeing the way the wolf responded to the name, he thought 'There's definitely more to this wolf'. The wolf dashed into the small gap that Dante had left, it was just wide enough for Waya to squeeze inside. Once she bolted past him in a lather of sweat, he slammed the doors shut. Almost no time passed before he heard several thudding noises, a tip of a spear slammed right through the thick wooden door and slightly cut into Dante's face.

Dante hissed in pain as he moved away from the door, Waya stood behind him with bristled fur, panting breaths left her. She smelt of burnt hair and there was a small patch of missing fur. Waya paced around and growled towards the door as more smashing sounds could be heard, each time causing the thick wooden doors to rumble and move.

“Get back Waya,” he shooed the wolf away from the door, with more care in his words than he previously used when interacting with her. Dante moved toward the pews he used as an improvised barricade, he grabbed them and shoved them up against the door, he barely managed to stack several of the pews before a loud crash came from the door and a small gap opened up.

He could see a Kobold forcing its clawed scaly hands through the gap. Once a small gap was opened, it frantically tried squeezing its head inside. The frenzied lizard creature wriggled and pushed, screeching and hissing. It was making progress in forcing its way through the gap it had created in the door.

Dante saw its wild blood-red eyes darting around, the lizard was taking in the surroundings, looking at Dante then towards the wolf. Seeing Waya, It hissed, its fork tongue slithered out between its razor-sharp teeth. Frothing black saliva was at the edges of its mouth as it frantically tried to get inside the church. It continued to desperately thrash around, gradually succeeding in widening the gap in the door.

Understanding that a confrontation was unavoidable, Dante summoned his mana claws, he injected 3 points of mana into his fingers to create dark orange claws. He swung a clawed hand at the crazed Kobolds face, creating 5 deep gashes that sliced from the top of its head, bursting through one of its eyes and splitting down through its lips. A high pitch squeal of agony rang out of the frenzied kobolds mouth. Dante wasn’t finished though.

Faced with the blinded Kobold, he saw that dark fluids and blood were seeping from its burst eye, dribbling down its torn face. He reached forward with both hands, approaching from the blinded side of the kobolds head. He then used both hands to rip ten long gashes through the kobolds throat, putrid black blood spilt onto the floor of the church. A disgusting smell of rot and pestilence spread throughout the large room.

The kobold gargled and choked on its own blood, wracking coughs brought forth more black blood that spilt down its scaled chin. Its hand reached for its neck to stem the flow, then several more hands reached through the gap in the door and dragged the bleeding Kobold's head back. As the Kobold disappeared behind the door, they then heard horrific screeches coming from the large group of Kobolds outside. Dante took the opportunity to shove the doors closed again, gagging on the disgusting smell. 'What the fuck is that smell? what is up with their blood?'

Taking advantage of the momentary respite, he returned to the job of stacking up more pews. After a short while, the hammering noises returned with a vengeance, frenetic clattering sounds of weapons striking the wooden doors could be heard. Small holes could be seen opening up in the doors, and more of the Kobolds faces and eye's peered through the gaps that they were creating.

From behind him, the wolf anxiously watched. It studied Dante during the whole encounter pacing back and forth, taking great interest in all of his actions. Shortly after the Kobold had been removed from the doors, Dante received a new notification.

[ Corrupted Kobold level 3 killed (1 of 18)]

[Gained 153 Combat experience]

[Hand to hand combat increased to 11%]

‘Fuck, there’s 17 more! Ok, I've planned for this… sort of, well not exactly for these creatures but I have contingencies.’ The past few days Dante had been preparing for the possibility that he would get attacked by numerous enemies. He had set up some contingencies and defensive measures within the church for this eventuality, he was glad that he had the foresight to do so.

****

Waya watched as the hideless tried to create a barrier to stop the Kobolds from coming inside the stone building. She was confused about how he suddenly knew her name, she wasn’t sure what other words meant, but didn't mishear him when he said her name. Her heart thundered from the close call after being chased by the kobolds.

Earlier in the day, she had been worried about her brother. She hadn’t seen him for several days after they split up to track the hideless man. After her initial successful interaction with the hideless, she wasn’t ready to leave him and give up the hard work she put in to foster a relationship with the man. There was also the fact that the burned meat was the most delicious thing she had ever tasted.

She wanted to continue maintaining her interactions with the hideless, she felt that progress was being made in winning his trust, she could also sense they were building up a connection. Waya enjoyed the food he cooked, she had a bit too much fun, laughing at his antics. The way he would flail his arms and shout at her stopped being scary, to her it was turning into a bit of a game. She kept testing how close she could get before he got mad, she would scamper away laughing to herself. However as the days went by, she grew more worried about seeing no signs of Maikoh, he was supposed to follow after her once he realised he was going the wrong way. She even left some obvious trail markers to help guide him towards her.

Eventually, she decided to see if she could find out what was going on. So she started to backtrack through the woods and see if she could find out where he had gone. Retracting her steps by following the metal tracks and going up the river, she saw something strange. It was a single small Kobold, draped in a leather robe and holding a staff. 'Oh no!' Her father had told her about them, the ones with staves were the most dangerous. She was taught to always run from them, he said they wielded vile and corrupted magic. They could warp a wolf's thoughts and make them their playthings, they could fire projectiles that exploded and burned the skin and fur.

Waya skidded in her tracks, turning around to run away. Unfortunately for her, It was already too late, she felt sudden scorching heat and the sound of a large explosion behind her. It knocked her to the ground, she wheezed trying to catch her breath, her ears ringing incessantly. She scrambled up and kept running. Looking behind her she saw the small Kobold grin viciously, it was pointing its clawed hands in her direction, then out from her surroundings, she was ambushed by many more large Kobolds with black saliva dripping and frothing from their mouths. Uncertain of what to do and where to go, she recalled how the hideless man hid away in his stone tower every night. So she planned to run towards him and his tower for safety. After successfully managing to escape the clutches of ambushing kobolds, she ran towards the safety of the man she had previously tried to hunt.

“Waya, what are you doing this way!” the hideless shouted at her, breaking her out of her trance like state. She got lost in the recollection of events that led up to now. Waya turned back to see the Hideless was no longer standing near the door, he was on higher ground, making his way up a steep ramp that led to the next level of the stone building.

Waya turned to run towards Dante, a crashing sound could be heard behind her. When she turned her head towards the source of the sound, she saw a large kobold standing up amongst glass that was shattered all over the floor. A moment later another Kobold that was wielding daggers jumped inside, tumbling across the floor. It scrambled up and beelined towards the barricade, trying to remove the obstruction to the door. ‘No! They can’t come in!’ Waya howled and then charged after the dagger-wielding Kobold.

****

Dante was yelling at Waya, she seemed to just be pacing back and forth, staring at the door where he had set up the barricade. He had in previous days broken apart the stairs that led to the upper floor of the church. He had then constructed a crude ramp with the wood, he figured that he could remove or destroy this ramp in order to stop enemies from getting to the next floor.

He called out to the wolf again “Waya, what are you doing this way!” He started to desperately wave his arms to get the wolf's attention. The wolf broke out of its agitated state and looked towards him, it was at that moment when he saw one of the windows explode. A large Kobold seemed to be launched inside the church. Then another that was armed, the dagger-wielding kobold got to its feet, then it immediately ran towards the doors. If this kobold managed to destroy the barrier, their chances of survival would rapidly drop. They had to prevent any more Kobolds from getting inside. ‘Fuck, no!’ As he thought about the need to stop the kobold, he saw Waya dash towards the barricade to intercept the kobold.