I moved outside the barrier, and transformed into D rank Oil Toad form, making sure the other adventurers saw me as I shifted so there would be no confusion. The oil toads don’t come around these parts anyways, but better safe than sorry.

I lashed out with my tongue as one of the wolves got closer, and it seemingly phased through the wolf. Suddenly, I felt something bite into my side, and croaked out in pain. I lashed out where it bit me and turned, but nothing was there.

An Illusion. Light? Dream? Mind? What alignment?

A cold feeling spread through my wound, and I began to feel sleepy. Sleepy, what labyrinth monster does that?

One of the adventurers called out “Dolosus Lupus! Watch out for illusions!”

I remember now. I’d written a passage on this monster some time ago.

‘

Deceitful Wolf / dolosus lupus:

Size: 10 feet long, 4 feet tall

Rank: E-D

Alignment: Dream

Description:

The Deceitful Wolf is one of many varieties of metamorphosed wolves. All have the same base appearance of a grey, hairless, eyeless, earless wolf with an elongated neck, circular mouth, and barbed tongue. However, their illusory forms differ greatly.

Some take on the appearance of a normal sized wolf, choosing a simple approach of confusing their prey with a false range. Others Have no appearance at all, choosing to appear invisible to the naked eye. Others still take on the appearance of entire packs of wolves, instilling fear in their target with greater numbers. A few particularly intelligent members change their appearance to be young members of their current prey, tricking their target into lowering their defenses.

Do not fall into the trap of thinking these monsters cannot detect you simply because they have neither eyes nor ears. They simply have no need for them. Their sense of smell is the strongest of all D rank and below creatures, besides certain scent aligned monsters, and they can detect the dream mana of other creatures, even when they’re awake.

Personality:

The Deceitful Wolf often chooses to hunt alongside other wolves, acting as their pack leader. Usually this only includes the non-monster variety, but a few unfortunate souls have encountered packs comprised of several Deceitful Wolves.

Diet:

The Deceitful wolf sustains itself entirely on blood and brain matter, leaving the rest of the meat to its non-monstrous packmates.

Combat:

Their saliva has a powerful, magical sedative effect. A single bite is often enough to break through a mind barrier of their rank, and thus should be avoided at all costs.

There is no hiding from these creatures. Masking your scent is pointless. They will hunt and track and wait for days if they believe you are worthy prey. If one of these creatures decides to hunt you, your only option is to hunt them back.

Origin:

The deceitful wolf traces their origins back to Elosian Wolves, appearing long before humanity ever step foot on the planet.

‘

I concentrated on constructing a mind barrier, as Assoziieren taught me, and was thankfully able to dull the effect. Only an E rank, then. I scanned the area for the monster, but looking for an invisible creature was impossible amongst the clashing fury of dozens of monsters and adventurers.

Instead, I ignored the problem, choosing a more area focused approach.

I spat out gallons upon gallons of oil towards the approaching monsters, phasing more out as my body stopped being able to produce more.

The approaching monsters were slowed trying to dredge through the tar, and I spotted a floating glob of tar in the area I had spat at.

“There!” A staff-wielding pyromancer called out, sending a spark of flames out and igniting the monster. The flames spread to engulf a small area.

The invisible, burning wolf monster rushed out to attack me, and I greeted it with clawed fury. I struck out with one arm, but struck only air where the monster appeared to be.

I turned around, expecting the monster to strike my flank again, but Tishina was behind me, wrapping her shadow mouths around the creature. She raised it above her head, tore it in twain, ate one half of the corpse, and threw the other towards a spiderilla that rushed around the burning tar.

The spiderilla caught it out of the air, and threw it at the pyromancer. The pyromancer crossed her arms to block it, and the spiderilla slung a web at her legs. It pulled, knocking her down, and dragged her over to it.

The spiderilla went to smash down onto her, but stopped mid-swing. It then moved its arms out to both sides of it, and clapped down on its own head, splattering it into a pancake. The spiderilla fell over onto the pyromancer, revealing Geistig just behind her.

One after the other, the monster waves immediately around us all did the same in one form or another.

Geistig called out “Tishina, Sylas, Brigid, stay here and protect the barrier. Everyone else, with me! We have to close the barricade!”

Brigid, the pyromancer, nodded. Tishina of course ignored Geistig, and was already running towards the barricade.

“Damn it Tishina! Every time!” Geistig chased after her. “Kaanton, stay and take her place.”

“Sir, yes sir!” An orc wrapped in wooden chainmail called.

“Don’t call me sir!” Geistig said as he turned.

* * *

The sun had set when Tishina and the rest of Geistig’s squadron reached the barricade.

Tishina leaped left as a giant worm burst through the ground where she was running. In one smooth motion, she grabbed onto its head, crushing it into paste in her fingers, then ripped it out of the ground.

She continued running, moving towards the center of the pack until she was completely surrounded. With a dozen monsters around her, she whipped the worm repeatedly in front of her, and lashed and bit out at the monsters to her sides with her shadow armor. Three were chomped in half instantly. Six were injured, but were raised and smashed to the ground. Two successfully blocked, but were smashed down upon with the other monster’s corpses. The last, a spiderilla, dodged both strikes, then punched out at tishina. With a single hand, without looking nor stumbling, she stopped the punch, wrapping her tiny hand around one of its fingers.

She turned to it, and tilted her head. Tishina wrapped her shadows around the monster and slowly stepped in towards it.

Tishina used one of her shadow tentacles to raise herself eye level with it. The spiderilla roared out and struggled to escape, but was utterly overpowered. Tishina smiled brightly, showing her teeth, and dug her entire arm into the spiderilla’s torso. When she retracted her arm, she was holding the monster’s still-beating heart, which she threw behind her. One of her shadow-mouths caught it out of the air, gulping it down in one bite. The others tore into the monster, eating its flesh until it was gone.

“Vorfahr almighty,” one of the adventurers following Geistig said, “she’s really E rank?”

“Not for long at this rate.” Geistig muttered.

“Sir!” one of the adventurers at the gate called out to Geistig.

“Call me Geistig.”

“The barricade is almost repaired. We just need to multi-alignment reinforce it before —”

A giant, green, acid-aligned C ranked slime oozed its way out from between the gaps in the barricade, dissolving the stone around it, and engulfing one of the people working on the barricade.

“Before that.”

The temperature dropped as one of the mages behind Geisig started casting a spell.

“Stop that!” Geistig ordered. “You’ll kill them too. Someone needs to go inside it and drag them out first. ” Geistig turned to the rest of his squadron, looking for the right person for the job, but Tishina already rushed past him.

“Tishina, stop! That’s an order!”

Tishina ignored him, plunging herself into the slime. With the last dredges of her mana, she grabbed onto the barricade worker, and pushed them out of the slime.

Geistig rapidly formed a mind bridge to her.

“Tishina, get out of there!” He screamed to her.

“Can’t. Out of mana…” She replied, weakly.

“Vorfahr’s hairy balls!” Geistig screamed out loud. “Someone, get her out of there!”

Tishina’s skin was rapidly dissolving into the acid slime, exposing her muscle and bone.

“Did I do good? Tell father I did good.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll get you out of there. No need for goodbyes. Just give us a second.”

“Tell father, I did good. Please.”

“No. Screw this, I’ll get you out myself!” Geistig rushed forward, but a raven passed him, diving into the slime itself.

“Papa? Is that —” The mind bridge suddenly cut off.

The night stilled as the mana from the labyrinth started pouring into the slime where Tishina was. The darkness of the night tore, revealing light spots — the absence of dark mana — as it was pulled in towards her.

“A rank up? Here? Now? Why? How?” Someone called out.

“Sozdatel?” Geistig whispered.

The slime, sensing the sudden shift in the air, tried to spit Tishina out and retreat back into the labyrinth. But what it spit out was no humanoid, but the darkness itself.

A writhing mass of tentacles and teeth, wings and claws, shadow and death stood. It extended its tentacles out, touching the monster corpses. From where their shadows peaked out from the moonlight, an army of shadows in monster form rose.

Tishina, with her new D rank powers, was still silent. But her army was not. They screeched out, howling at the moon.

And together, they ran into the labyrinth, tearing and eating all beings foolish enough to get in her way, and adding their shadows to her collection.