Fenrir

As I’m trying to repeat the void realm breach again after five failures in a row since doing it for the first time, Dawn suddenly shouts in excitement and completely shatters my focus, “They’re stepping onto the final platform!!!”

Before she even finishes speaking, I slip up in my infusion, causing the arc of metal to suddenly begin warping in a very strange way, but I ignore it to instead focus on the intruders again.

I finally get to see Fang’s new abilities in action!

Almost as if on cue, the second I turn my attention onto the boss room, Fang finally begins to get up from his previous position lying down on the ground. Which also quickly draws the annoying one’s eye, followed immediately by a frown.

“It looks like whatever it is that’s cloaked is finally moving,” she warns the others while aiming her bow in Fang’s general direction.

Through his camouflage, I notice Fang’s eyes narrow slightly before he moves slightly to the side, causing her arrow to simply fly right past him.

Dawn giggles slightly at this, but I ignore her as Fang lets out a short growl and begins to change form.

Finally!

My core pulses energy a few times in my excitement, meanwhile the intruders’ eyes all widen in surprise from seeing the camouflage on Fang fade away as his black fur changes to a pale white while also growing in size, sharpness, and thickness.

Suddenly, a squeal echoes from Dawn’s place hidden in the corner of the room, drawing my attention towards her.

Did… did she just squeal?

That’s a first.

I glance at the intruders, but they’re all still watching Fang as he finishes changing forms.

At least she didn’t let her voice reach them.

Anyways, Fang raises his head once he finishes and lets out an incredibly loud howl; one that makes the bridges around the room begin to shake.

All of the intruders in the room visibly tense up at Fang’s actions with the lone exceptions being Roland and the annoying one, who actually sends another arrow flying straight towards Fang without giving him the time to finish howling.

“Hey! That’s rude!” I hear Dawn shout, making me let out a faint mental chuckle as I watch Fang just barely dodge the arrow before sending the woman a glare.

Yeah, it was a little rude. Although I’m still not entirely sure why he was howling in the first place.

I know Dawn mentioned that dungeons need to fit a bit of a visual pattern, with scary and powerful boss monsters and fancy looking later floors, but it didn’t really make much sense to me. After all, they’re here to fight and get stronger, not to be frightened or see beautiful scenery.

Even if I do from time to time feel like fancying up my core room. Because who wants to spend eternity in a boring cave?

My thoughts are drawn back away from my tangent towards the intruders as Fang growls and charges straight towards them. And it isn’t until right now that I realize that all of the other monsters within the room are dead, leaving Fang completely alone with the group.

Uh… how did that happen?

I focus my senses on the room, along with the respawn patterns placed around it before following the trails of mana left by them to find where the monsters of the room died. And what I end up finding makes me pause for a second.

Did all of them really cross the bridge, leaving Fang by himself on the main island…? They can’t be that stupid… can they?

The weaker monsters’ purposes in the room are to weaken the intruders, distract them while they face the stronger monsters and the boss, and to lead them into traps. Not to sacrifice themselves by crossing the bridge only to be picked off individually at the end of the bridge.

Meanwhile, as I’m judging my own monsters’ actions, I also watch the intruders slowly begin to spread out to surround Fang in a sort of half-circle.

After this fight is over, I’m absolutely going to have to script some orders into the monsters in this room to make sure nothing like this happens again...

“I feel like this monster is familiar…” I hear one of the two twins, causing my thoughts to halt for a moment.

Huh. I didn’t think one of them would notice.

That’s rather impressive, considering how different he looks now.

“It looks like a bigger version of those beowolves to me, except with sparks escaping its eyes,” the annoying one says with a frown from the other side of Fang.

The very same twin that mentioned Fang being familiar squints her eyes before saying, “I guess you’re right.”

I take back my compliment.

Wait a second…

“Is it just me…” I begin, drawing Dawn’s attention towards my core room, “or does Fang seem angry about their inability to recognize him from the previous floors?”

Dawn freezes in place for a second before focusing on Fang again right as the large wolf begins charging directly at the annoying one.

Right after the intruders finished speaking, I noticed Fang’s face twist in displeasure, followed immediately by an oddly quiet bout of snarling before he began charging towards the archer.

Who also happens to be the one who brought up his similarities to the weaker beowolves in the first place.

Although it could also just be that he’s targeting one of their weakest links. After all, besides Roland – whose magic won’t affect Fang – she is the easiest target amongst their group.

Regardless of that, Fang opens his mouth mid-charge and sends a ball of black flames straight towards one of the twins who was about to charge directly at him with their sword drawn. At the same time, he slightly changes the direction of his charge in order to avoid an arrow sent flying at him by the very archer he’s rushing towards.

“Finally,” I exclaim while my core continuously flashes in my excitement, “it’s finally time for the main event!”

Right after I exclaim that, both Roland and the other of the two twins send spells directly into Fang’s side, to which the large wolf simply ignores without breaking out of his charge.

Gotta love that magic immunity. Especially now that it’s actually becoming more useful.