Althos pushed himself harder than he had ever pushed himself before while sprinting through the forest to reach the location of the wolves. He could hear the impressively speedy dire-bears behind him, tearing apart the forest in a mad and cacophonous dash to escape the narrow confines of the trees and sprint to their final objective.

Althos' two feet carried him swiftly through the forest, to a part of it he had never been in before, and as he passed by countless trees to cross the vast distance between himself and the wolves he wanted to protect he found himself mesmerized by the blurring of the trees that he dashed past.

In his vision, due to him being unused to his own speedy capabilities, the trees seemed to blend together to create a constant, swirling background of blended wood and leaves that the deity found quite beautiful, as well as disorienting.

Behind him, he could hear the faint sounds of the destruction the gigantic bears caused while going after the wolves. He could hear their massive bodies decimating trees and wrecking chunks of the forest. He could feel the faintest echoes of the vibrations they caused with each of their weighty footsteps.

As he practically flew through the forest it started to become difficult for him to hear the bears, even though they were enormously loud beasts. This was a good sign, and it made the deity breath a sigh of relief. He was nearing the wolves as well.

He sprinted through the forest, his feet and his stellar senses working in concert to allow him to evade obstacles that would cause him to fall or otherwise slow him down. Within seconds he had traversed dozens of meters and was considerably closer to his intended destination than he had been before.

Nearly a minute had passed before Althos reached the location his divine radar had informed him the wolves were located. Upon reaching the area, Althos began a short search for the arboreal lupines that ended when he looked up a tree and found the pair of beasts very literally looking down on him. The deity grinned at them and examined them from a distance, for but a moment.

The silver-furred wolves had easily climbed a massive tree and were parked atop a thick branch. Their mahogany-colored eyes were filled with relief at the sight of the familiar deity, and the wolves did the lupine version of a grin. Their tails were wagging as well, revealing both happiness and agitation.

Althos reached out to both wolves using his mind, so as to spare anyone the effort that it would take to speak loudly enough to be heard over the considerable distance that separated them.

[Hey, can you hear me?]

His initial message was a simple greeting and a quick question. Moments later both wolves responded in the affirmative, making use of the mental rope the deity had thrown them. Althos quickly crafted another question, and as he crafted it he was annoyed to hear the sounds of distant trees crashing as if solely to remind him of the danger the wolves were in.

[Are you okay? The bears didn't already reach you just for you to somehow escape, did they?]

The male wolf quickly responded, filling in Althos on the details he felt he needed to know.

[We're fine, and we fled before they got anywhere close to us. Our systems informed us that you had banished a filth demon back to its home plane and that an ability had been triggered as a result of that. We were told that we were being hunted, but not by what so we fled. That was when we got a followup notification that you were on your way, so we climbed this tree to wait for you.]

Althos nodded in understanding once he had read through the entire message. The deity quickly thought about what else he needed to tell the wolves, but he felt that there was relatively little they ought to be informed about. He sent one final message and then turned to head out to confront the creatures who were annihilating the forest.

[Alright, I'm on my way to exterminate the dire bears and then I'm gonna go help my servants with the other bears.]

Moments after he sent that message and had already begun to move, one of the wolves howled suddenly, manipulating the wind so as to slow Althos' movements before he could teleport to where the bears were.

[WAIT! Did you say dire bears? Althos if you are saying that dire bears are targeting us, please find a way to stop them without killing them. Dire bears in this forest are the treasured children of a powerful spirit and a massive bear who protects these lands from humans. If you can find a way to stop them without killing them that'd go a long way towards restoring the peaceful state of this area and ensuring we can remake the treaty that divided this forest evenly.]

Althos heard this and hissed in irritation.

[Sorry! But it's true. Please... find a way to solve this without killing them. Not necessarily without violence, but without killing the dire bears.]

This last message was sent by the female wolf. It was one of the first messages she had sent the deity. Althos made a strange noise, a sound like that of a mushroom's roots digging into the ground, and turned to teleport to where the bears were. Right as he vanished he sent the wolves a message.

[If I can I'll solve this without killing the dire bears.]

Althos intentionally made this sound more difficult than it probably would be by willing his mental voice to sound frustrated and concerned. He had deceived the wolves, letting them think he was a druid and not a deity and to keep that up it would take a commitment to his deception, including pretending to find things that mortals would find difficult, difficult.

He recognized that stopping the bears without killing them would probably have been fairly simple, and now that he possessed a real knowledge base with which to compare himself to mortals he could even imagine ways to do it. His mind was already working out a few different strategies, even as he activated his teleportation power and moved to where he suspected the bears were located.

The orcs, Raverangos, and Silander watched as the ghouls their master had created leaped into the fray. The creatures, made of shadow stuff, were every bit as fearless as actual corpse-made ghouls were in combat and shortly after roaring at the bears they rushed at them. The two groups crashed into each other quite dramatically.

The ghouls made use of their well-hidden strength, striking at the bears with gruesome claws and closed fists. The bears charged forward, trying to use both fangs and claws to toss the ghouls aside, but the ghouls' speed gave them a necessary leg-up to survive the initial exchange of blows unscathed.

After realizing how shortly that would last if left unaided, Raverangos roared and charged towards the brawl. The creature ran on all fours and threw its full weight at one of the bears waiting to get a chance to claw at the ghouls. The demon weighed several tons, even more than the bear did and its titanic mass pummeling the bear pulverized its puny body.

The bear was thrown several meters away from its companions, sailing and flipping through the air before landing upside down in a tangle of broken bones and ruptured organs, thankfully numb to the pain it would otherwise feel due to shock. In its mindless rage, the waring creature futilely tried to right itself but spent a few moments unable to do so, until bloodloss made the creature lose consciousness. It was unconscious when it passed away moments later.

Raverangos roared at the bears, turning the attention of a handful of them away from the ghouls, and towards itself instead. The massive demon grinned savagely at the bears who suddenly turned away from the fight with the ghouls and almost immediately charged at the demon, who had killed one of their own in a single titanic strike.

[Quest update: 2/12 hyper-aggressive bears eliminated.]

Althos received and willed away that notification with a smile after but a passing glance at it. Perhaps a few minutes had passed since the bears had approached the ghouls. Althos felt a bit of concern over his less physically imposing servants, but he knew that he'd be done with his part of the battle quickly. All it'd take was for the deity to break the ability that held the dire bears in its grip. And then he could return to his allies and aid them or heal them as need be.

As Althos began to dash towards the bears, shortly after teleporting to a location further back in the forest, he checked the status of his familiars and worshipers. Right as Althos checked Gallow and Ranthor had just entered combat, and as he checked the status of his familiars he found that all of them were entering the fray as well, aside from Raverangos whose status was currently listed as "Fighting" and showed that the demon was fully engaged in battle.

This spurred the deity on, and so did the intensifying sounds that came as the deity closed the distance between himself and the massive bears he was rushing towards. Within seconds he saw a gigantic tree topple over, and the creature responsible for toppling it.

The beast he could see at the edge of his vision, hundreds of meters away, was a veritable mountain of dark red fur, with rage-filled eyes the same color as its coat. The beast roared, the sound explosive, and charged at Althos. Althos could see another massive mountain of fur behind it, who quickly joined what Althos now had reason to believe was its sibling.

Althos grinned and within seconds the three creatures had nearly closed the distance that separated them.

Silander carefully watched the battle while clinging low to the ground. The great frog was walking on all fours for the first time since she had been awakened, and due to her flexibility, she was able to reduce her visibility by a significant amount.

She carefully crawled along the ground and within moments was daringly close to the battlefield where creatures that were positively enormous compared to her freely fought. On more than one occasion one of the bears had nearly spotted her, only for the bear to be attacked by one of her bigger allies.

Silander was carefully observing the battlefield, looking for an opportunity to somehow attack or otherwise weaken the enemies her allies were fighting a perilous battle against. After she had spent several moments watching the battle, she noticed an odd bear.

This bear was closer to the back of the disorganized pack but was carefully avoiding the battle. It seemingly refused to lunge at any particular opponent and only making threatening gestures at anyone who approached it.

Silander knew her allies would have noticed this if they had been free to take their time to watch the battle. She was the only one whose actions weren't especially active.

Salifinos was carefully using magic to aid the orcs, and Tristan and the soul-orbs were in the back of the battle, using magic to heal or cheer on the orcs. Tristan, in particular, was doing a considerable amount of work to make it easier for her allies to endure the intensity of this battle where each of them were facing off against massive, enraged enemies.

Her magic cured her allies of minor, often annoying wounds, that occurred when they weren't able to fully escape a charge or evade a biting attack. The priestess was even capable of healing and empowering Althos' ghouls, who kept nearly 5 of the bears busy while the demon confronted several others at once. This gave Gallow and Ranthor real opportunities to stay busy, weakening their targets.

Within a minute of intense clashing another bear had fallen, just as Silander dared to make a bold move that would fully change the balance of the fight if successfully. She was close to and undetected by the strange bear who had yet to strike. She spoke, making use of her animal speech ability for the very first time.

"Are you different from the other bears?"

Her voice quietly drifted through the chaotic battlefield but was heard quite clearly by the bear. The terrified creature became aware of the great frog's presence in that moment. The bear frantically turned to her, with eyes that contained a lot of fear and a tiny glimmer of hope.

"Yes. I am."

The bear's voice was guttural but quiet, and Silander could hear the deep fear the bear felt. This made Silander think on her feet, about how to help her fellow animal while also aiding her comrades. After a few moments, she realized that there was no need to be complex in addressing this. She locked eyes with the bear and spoke again. Her advice was simple.

"Run. I'll make sure my allies don't chase you down. Run far and run fast."

Silander's voice was in that moment empowered by her own belief in herself, and by her desire to be useful. Her eyes peered straight into those of the bear and the bear saw the conviction Silander had. The bear did a soft nod, and Silander leaped out of the way. The bear began to dash past her, trampling the area where the great frog had just been.

Silander sent an urgent message to her allies using the mental connection her master had previously established that linked everyone.

[Don't attack the bear that's fleeing! It wasn't enraged, just scared. Let it go free. Focus on taking down the actual enemies.]

Immediately after sending that message out, Silander felt her belief in herself grow. She turned to one of the few bears that was locked in a one on one fight, a silver-furred beast that was fighting the orcish brawler named Anthus and moved to go aid her companion.

She readied another of her new powers, one of the mighty traits resurrected by her master, her potentially potent elemental breath weapon.

When the distance between the bears and Althos had closed, the deity leaped over a powerful claw attack launched by one of the gigantic dire bears who had struck the instant the distance between them was less than a meter apart. Its claws missed the deity and instead smashed into the ground where the deity had just been. The force of its attack carved through the soil underneath the god.

Up close the creatures must have been nearly 5 and a half meters tall without rearing back on their hind legs, and almost 4 meters wide. They were easily among the largest creatures Althos had ever seen.

As Althos leaped over the attack he looked at the bears, before landing behind them. Neither side wasted any time reacting to the other, and Althos readied a spell even as both bears rushed him.

He channeled the restorative energy of the healing school of magic in both of his hands, willing one spell to be cast twice, and hoped that the spell would end the encounter as quickly as it had the potential to.

Ranthor carefully aimed one of his arrows at a bear locked in a struggle against one of the ghouls.

He took a deep breath, focused his vision, and felt it zoom in on the bear he was aiming at. The powerful telescopic vision ability his master had resurrected within him was granting him a certainty over where his arrow would end, and once he felt certain that the ghoul wouldn't suddenly move and get in the way, the orc released the arrow.

The arrow sliced through the air, twirling beautifully in the night's sky. It crossed a distance of several meters, whizzing harmlessly past the ghoul and sinking into the center of the bear's eye. The bear roared in agony, being sent back by the force of the orcish arrow even as blood sprayed out from its eye.

The ghoul didn't let this advantage fade away without pressing it and threw itself forward at the damaged bear. Before the bear could react the ghoul was dangerously close to the soft-meat of the beast's neck.

It sunk its vicious and bladelike teeth into the bear's neck and then yanked on the flesh it's daggerlike incisors had caught onto. The ghoul's teeth tore apart a significant portion of the soft flesh of the bear's neck, along with a mouthful of fur. The ghoul spent a moment chewing the skin and fur alike, before swallowing it in plain view of the bear.

The bear took a few steps back, before collapsing. The bear's blood had splattered the ground where the beast walked, and it was going to spend its last few moments twitching as its blood continued to ooze out of its destroyed eye and torn open throat.

3 of the bears who had attacked the orcs were now dead, and one had fled. Five remained.

The ghoul didn't waste any time celebrating its victory. Instead, it turned and leaped into combat with another bear, who now had the unenviable fate of facing two vicious ghouls.

As a deity, Althos didn't have a heart but if he did it would have been pounding as he unleashed the spell in his hands on the two bears whose jaws were wide open and zeroing in on him. The deity's "Freedom of Mind" spell exploded outward and rushed towards the bears, promising to free their minds from the effects of the enraging spell that currently plagued them once it made contact with their bodies.

[Spell Type: Healing

Spell Name: Freedom of Mind

Description: Undoes powerful mind-altering magic. This spell's whole purpose is to free the mind from spells that alter perception, implant false emotions, and deceive the mind.

Spell cost: 2000 magical energy per cast]

The spell was nearly invisible as it was expelled out of the deity and had someone tried to see it all they would have seen were two bursts of translucent magical energy ripple through the air until they made contact with the bears and sink into their bodies. It quickly hit them since the distance between the three creatures was virtually nonexistent.

Once inside of them, the spell began a battle to free the bears from the control and influence of the rage-fueling curse that urged them to slay those they perceived as their enemies: Althos and the wolves.

Sensing the magic impact the bears, but also realizing that the bears weren't going to recover in time to not hit him, the deity instinctually teleported out of the way, landing a few meters away from the bears as the two bears hit each other and collapsed into unmoving piles that ended up right next to each other.

The deity looked at the bears to check in on them and found that they were unconscious, but as he checked their statuses he saw the following information:

[Name: Ripper Bloodmoon

Class: Forest Nobility

Species & Status: Dire-Bear (Unconscious, liberated)

Faction: Son Of Dread Bloodmoon]

[Name: Mauler Bloodmoon

Class: Forest Nobility

Species & Status: Dire-Bear (Unconscious, liberated)

Faction: Son of Dread Bloodmoon]

He also received a quick notification that informed him of a pleasant surprise. He grinned as he read it and learned of an unexpected heroine.

[Congratulations! The quest is nearly complete and in your decision to pursue the best possible options with regards to handling the various conflicts till now you've earned a special reward. It will be given to you once you speak with the wolves again.

Regarding the lone uncorrupted bear: Silander's timely intervention and decision to reach out to the lone non-corrupted bear who was dragged into the fighting is also a factor that will affect and influence the reward you receive. The quest now has another slightly positive modification: if you eliminate the remaining bears, or if you pacify them, the quest will be officially complete. To receive the reward please speak to the wolves once more. That will be when you "turn in" the quest and receive your reward.]

Althos willed the notification away and teleported to the battlefield wherein his allies were fighting.

Althos emerged onto the battlefield, impressed with what he saw.

He saw multiple bear corpses, and his servants, worshipers, and allies all fighting their hardest.

The brawlers were engaged in intense fights with large bears and for a second Althos considered letting them finish just to see where everyone ended up. But then he changed his mind, as he was feeling particularly impatient and wanted to just turn in this quest and be done with it, at last.

The deity wordlessly cast a powerful paralysis spell, one of the many spells he had gained as a consequence of learning about the alteration school of magic. The spell consumed the entire battlefield and spread out in a circle centered on the deity, at the speed of sound. An unavoidable, powerful, totally unresistable spell.

The entire chaotic field of battle, a place where moments ago a variety of sounds could be heard, fell silent. All around Althos warriors and bears fell to the ground, some in mid-air and in mid-strike.

Even spells that had been sailing through the air, to heal friends and to pester foes, merely fizzled out of existence in the wake of the powerful spell Althos had cast.

After checking that everyone was down, Althos silently created and cast a fusion of magical effects. He expelled a burst of powerful restorative energy that not only healed any wounds anyone in the area felt but also freed their minds of effects that charmed them, enraged them, or otherwise suppressed their free-will. The deity had just freed them from the grips of the filth demon's final trick, and in doing so successfully completed the quest!

He verified this with his own eyes, taking time to check the statuses of each of the living bears. Within a few minutes, he had checked and then double-checked the statuses of the bears. He had successfully freed each of them from the filth demon's ability.

The deity grinned. The expression on his face was one of a sort of delirious joy. He was in the throes of powerful, positive emotions as he reflected on the fact that he had successfully completed the very first quest he had ever received.

The first time the deity spoke to his followers upon returning to the battlefield what he had to say was fairly simple.

"Let's go turn in this quest!"

He took a few moments to magically transport his allies to where the wolves were laired. He did this by touching their shoulders, transporting them two by two, using an alteration magical effect rather than using any spell.

He transported himself and Silander last while thanking her for her work and courage in approaching the lone bear and getting her to leave the fight. He recognized the bravery and kindness she showed at that moment and wanted her to know that he appreciated her.

In the instant during which Althos and Silander were teleporting, Althos received a surprising notification.

[Special Alert:

New title acquired: The Honorable Liberator

New title acquired: The Mercurial Alpha

Your unusual actions and choices in clearing this quest have earned you two new titles rather than one. Bears will know you as "The Honorable Liberator" since you fought against them but once you learned you could liberate them you did. Wolves will know you as "The Mercurial Alpha" since you fought against their foes, killing some, while also healing others.

It's possible for these titles to change over time and based on your actions in the future. Wolves and bears will recognize you as a superior creature and be submissive towards you, though this alone doesn't guarantee their worship. That said, making them worship you is now significantly easier]

Althos audibly chuckled as he willed away this notification. Once he had done that, he was in front of the tree where he had first encountered the wolves.

The wolves were now on the surface, looking at his followers. They recognized some of the deity's servants and didn't recognize others, but they weren't hostile. They could most likely sense Althos' scent on his allies. When they saw the deity the wolves bounded forward, excited to see their friend in one piece.

Althos grinned at them and was quite happy to see them as well.