Monsters roamed the night and the weak perished as their prey. They prowled under the safety of the shattered moon and were emboldened by its presence. The scarlet darkness was their hunting ground and nightfall was when they left their lairs.

The reasons monsters were active during the night was a mystery that was never understood. The records of expeditions and accounts of witnesses were studied for many years but the truth remained shrouded. Monsters were not stronger or more aggressive during the night nor did they fear the light. There were not even behavioural differences. The only difference between monsters that roamed under the moon was that they hunt longer distances than when the sun was up.

Rana examined her own behaviour and state of mind but there were no revelations or even insights. She couldn’t even be sure whether her irritation at the sun and comfort under the darkness was a result of her transformation or a remnant of her own past.

Still, the unknowable of why monsters prowled the night became a reality that people accepted. It was an ironclad rule that when the ashen trees faded into their own shadow, monsters came out. Now, Rana would soon come face to face with one of the nightmares every adventuring party feared. It was a lone-wolf, rejected by its own kind because it didn’t need the pack. It was too powerful.

The Fenris continued to stride forward and its blood-red eyes locked onto the humanoid in the distance. It was far but Rana could see its large body tear through the wind. She focused onto the energy swirling within her and drew as much as she could. Her chances of survival were slim; alone she stood no chance. She needed every advantage she could get no matter how minuscule they were.

There was still some distance but the monster was closing in fast. Rana had to come up with a plan.

The Fenris was a threat-level B monster which meant only a group of veteran marked ones could fight. However, that was misleading information. The Fenris had stats beyond its threat level and could massacre any veteran groups it pleased. The reason was that it tends to target the leader of a group during the fight and a strong vanguard could hold its attention long enough for his allies to kill it with Spells since it had low endurance-stat and magic resistance. Any other team composition would lead to casualties and without a vanguard defeat was inevitable.

Rana had no frontline nor powerful Spells. The massive health pool and stat advantage the Fenris had was sure to guarantee her death. She was once again careless.

It was hopeless and every path leads to defeat. She saw no chance at victory. Still, she would claw her way forward.

The giant wolf leapt and crashed in front of Rana. Its talons punctured the ground and shook the earth. It raised its head into a fierce howl that cur the blades of grass then inched forward. The beast was upon her and she had nowhere to escape. Its red eyes glowed brighter in excitement and its breath steamed the air.

Rana braced for the attack that never came.

The Fenris was hesitant, unsure of what to make of the humanoid in front of it. Rana was supposed to be food, the same tasty bag of meat it hunted for years. It simply stalked around her, circling the unknown entity. It was gathering information.

Rana was confused as well. There were many questions and she had to acquire the answers swiftly. This abnormal behaviour was an opening and one she should not let slip from her hands.

The Fenris was not a tactical monster. It was intelligent and chose its fights carefully but when the beast decided to fight it was always with overwhelming strength. They never cowered because they must remain the solitude warrior that required no pack. When they pounced it was not until death did they stop. So why did this Fenris stop? It identified a lone wanderer, maybe an adventure that fell behind his party, or an overconfident warrior, and decided it could strike and claim its meal. There was only one reason. What if the Fenris upon closer inspection realized Rana was not who it initially thought of?

Monsters, for the most part, did not attack other monsters. There were reasons such as territory disputes, arguments over the spoils of battle, and being an obstacle towards their initial target. Other monsters were never the reason for a fight between monsters and all of them would prioritize humans first.

Rana was an undead, a monster, so it was very likely the Fenris realized that truth upon closer inspection. It had no appetite for the foul. It had no interest in the rot and decaying flesh of a zombie. Soon it would lose interest.

Rana thought of what she would do and it seemed like the best course of action was to let it pass. She considered using its hesitation as an opportunity for a primitive attack but the quickly realized it was impossible. She hadn’t had the time to develop any new Spells and her strongest Spell, ‘Mana Blast’, only had a potency of 40. Without any augmentation from other equipment, her best possible damage against it would be around 60 due to the Fenris’ low defences but that was the maximum given his size advantage. However, its health was around two thousand and having high skill-stat made it resistant against critical damage. Rana needed more than thirty hits, something her mana couldn’t handle, to take the wolf down. The monster only needed one to shred Rana to pieces.

It was best to let the wolf go.

“Attack!” yelled a voice in the distance followed by a chorus of shouts, breaking the silence of the night and any chance Rana had at avoiding the fight.

Rana and the Fenris turned their attention to a small platoon of five human soldiers rushing forward. “Get away from there!” one of them yelled and Rana realized they were aiding her.

The Fenris soared forward with a leap and engaged the soldiers, ignoring Rana. It aimed for the group’s captain, a soldier in heavy armour with a spear and shield. The monster swiped at the captain and his body flew in the air and crashed onto the floor. He was injured but the shield protected him from the killing blow. The fight was not lost.

Rana scanned the remaining members of the squad. There were two melee weapon wielders, an axe and another spear user, a bowman, and a mage. The set up looked like the standard Kingdom patrol group. The captain with two warrior-class, one rogue-class, and one mage-class. She hoped the Kingdom’s recruitment and training standards did not lower during the time she was dead.

“Mage!,” Rana yelled, startling the tiny woman. “Give me an Agility Boost!”

The mage-class frowned but did as she was told and a surge of energy enveloped Rana. Rana guided the energy within her body and had it coursing through her.

Attributes — AGI: 220

The mage was skilled and seasoned in combat. She sensed that Rana was a veteran and her Agility Boost had a plus effect, something only to be achieved by being skilled in magic. Rana was not fast as she wanted but it was barely enough.

“Bowman! Focus on channelling mana and only fire when you have Pinning Shot. Frontline soldiers, stay to the side and keep attacking, do not use any Skills!”

The other three soldiers were hesitant. There was a stranger in a robe telling them what to do.

“Do as she says!” their captain bellowed and the three began to take action. Good. If the captain was not on her side then the fight would be over. She would run and leave the soldiers to their deaths. It pained her but that was the truth.

Could the patrolling soldiers win on their own? Possibly, but unlikely. The captain was most likely a shield build and had a Soul Destiny oriented towards defending. If someone like that did not have the stats to contend a direct blow from the Fenris, their frontline would fall quickly and leave the mage-class helpless.

The Fenris sensed that its preys were following her orders and approached Rana slowly, its hesitation of what she was still making it cautious. It wasting time only meant an increased chance at victory.

“Captain, stay put,” she ordered, not wanting the Fenris to switch targets. “Does anyone in your squad have the Talent Critical Supporter and what Skills does your axe and spear users have? Do any of them have projectile Skills?”

“Gerald, our axe user, has Arch Slash plus and Spinning Drag. Lexington, the spear user, is a Twisting Snake specialist. All of my squadmates except Molina, our mage-class, have Support Attack but only Gerald and Henry, our bowman, has Critical Supporter,” the Captain yelled back as he struggled to get up. He must’ve felt frustrated.

Rana did not doubt the captain knew how to defeat the Fenris. The monster wolf was rare but not unheard of at the edges of the woods. The patrol seemed seasoned and would’ve definitely heard of, if not have the experience, dealing with a Fenris. The issue was that their team composition would risk heavy causalities and once their frontline collapsed the battle was over. It happened when he gave the order to save the random stranger travelling at night.

The captain threw his pride away and rather gamble on a stranger with all his subordinates living than having even one of them die. He was not a good captain. Death was the only decider in battle. Either the monster dies or the soldiers did. However, his sentimentality might’ve saved his squad’s life.

Rana began to give the orders.

“Mage, tell me when you have enough mana for two casts of Rock Slide. Everyone else, tell me when you have enough Focus for Support Attack. Bowman, aim for the eye when I give the signal. Spearman, save your mana for Twisting Snake. Everyone, chain your attacks and support attacks well. Don’t waste your Focus on Abilities.”

A shade of red loomed over Rana and she instinctively leapt forward. She was glad she could still see the telegraph of enemy monsters. With this, she didn’t need to rely on her memory as much. The plan was simple, she would use her boosted agility-stat and memory to buy time for the others to unleash their Spells and Skills. She would find an opening to maximize their damage.

The critical weak point for the Fenris was inside the mouth and the eye. A critical strike to the eye would cause the monster to be dazed momentarily and any damage is doubled if landed within the mouth. Landing critical strikes were difficult due to the huge skill-stat a Fenris had but Critical Supporter guaranteed a critical hit, not the damage when support attacking. Support Attack was a Talent that allowed a marked one to ignore resource cost and cast time to instantly follow up an ally’s attack at the cost of half the support attack’s damage. Talents were powerful passives buffs but they required a certain Focus amount to trigger. That was why she didn’t want the soldiers to use Abilities, tide-turning in their own right, but cost Focus.

Rana and the wolf continued to tangle while the other soldiers hacked at the monster. It didn’t matter if the damage was minimal, every bit counted. Thanks to the boost in agility-stat and Henry’s speed reducing Pinning Shot Rana managed to avoid a direct hit. However, the Fenris had overwhelming physical stats and even then its grazing blows took a significant amount of health from Rana. Her mind duelled as the chill spread around her body but she forced herself to overcome the aching fatigue.

Stats — HP: 87/100

First came Molina.

“Ready!”

Stats — HP: 72/100

Then the remaining three.

“Alright,” said Henry.

Stats — HP: 55/100

“Ready to go!” yelled Lexington.

Stats — HP: 32/100

“Let’s hope this works!” cried Gerald.

Stats — HP: 28/100

The Fenris sensed the surging morale of his opponents and realized they were soon about to unleash something undesirable. It pounced. The monster rushed towards Rana, ignoring the other humans at the cost of suffering more damage.

Rana clicked her tongue, the red telegraph exploded in size. It would be a direct attack.

The captain yelled and appeared before Rana. He hugged her and used his body to shield the frail body of the girl that was injured for the sake of his entire squad living. The claw came and crushed everything below. The captain was not in pieces. He had the Talent ‘Support Defend’ and most importantly Critical Defender. It prevented critical damage, which included dismemberment, when support defending.

The two rolled onto the ground but Rana was quick to recover.

“Now!” she yelled and shot Mana Blast at the wolf. “Bowman, the eye! Axe, drag its head to the floor.”

An arrow zipped through the air and hit the eye of the monster. The red orb exploded into blood and the monster howled in pain. Gerald ran forward and leapt beneath the head of the beast. He began to spin and dragged the monster to the ground with a critical Spinning Drag.

The giant wolf toppled and its mouth hung open.

“Unleash your attacks! Rock Slide first!”

Molina channelled her Spell. She was not as fast as Rana but her speed demonstrated her skill. Earth gathered and solidified in front of the mage-class and charged towards the enemy by breaking the ground. The earth element was the Fenris' weakness and now boosted by a critical weak point the damage was massive. Soon followed was Twisting Snake, a darting spear throw that aimed true despite its unpredictable path.

The attack chain began, the most devastating assault that could defeat any monster, multiple attacks launched one after another into a critical weak point.

Rock Slide chained into a supporting Twisting Snake. Twisting Snake into a double Rock Slide as Rana shot another Mana Blast into the other eye, dazing the beast again. The attacks exploded into the Fenris. Its body exploded and dark blood rained down.

The humans were dirtied and tired but they survived.

The Fenris was defeated.