Two black figures that had been watching the fight from a distance ran away after seeing the first demigod dying.

A few healthy warriors were sent to chase after them to see if they could find out where they went and who they were. But they came back empty-handed.

The warriors stood around unsure what to do. Several of them still had open wounds that still needed to be taken care of but were still shocked by the death of Grand elder Wulfric.

He was the first Grand elder to die in battle since the first great war when many of the Grand elders of that generation had been wiped out.

Out of everyone there, Akira was most ashamed of himself for allowing such an ambush.

The demigods were relatively weak compared to the werewolves but their use of exotic skills and silver weapons laced with poison could and did cause a large problem for them.

Akira's eyes rose from his grandfather who was still being held in his arms. He looked to the surrounding warriors who were silently waiting for him to say something.

As he looked over those that had survived the short fight he could see several had received various different wounds from the exotic skills that had been launched at them. Fingers, noses, ears, and even a few eyes had been lost by some of them.

“Everyone, finish treating your wounds. When you are fit to move we'll take the Grand elder and rejoin the others back at the village,” said Akira as he laid Wulfric gently onto a large snowbank.

Akira had received a few messages from the system, most of them were nothing important.

You have received a new title for killing multiple Demigods!

Brutal Hero Killer.

'What is this? Are you trying to say I'm some sort of villain?'

Ignoring the messages he looked to where the demigods had been killed and saw that there were many items laying on the ground. He walked over to each item and put them in his bag, not in the mood to inspect them.

Mileena came over to him wanting to say something but she could not find any words of comfort for a situation like this, so she just stood there silently.

Akira nodded to her and walked into the nearby trees to be alone for a few moments while the others continued to help each other bandage up and their wounds.

He didn't go too far away, it was only far enough so he could have some quiet time to think. He made sure to check his surroundings with his heightened senses.

After confirming that there was no sign of anything hostile in the area he let his emotions run free.

When a few minutes had passed he again rained in his emotions and started to wipe his face and eyes to clear his vision.

A large amount of fresh snow was falling from the sky as Akira stared off into the distance thinking of what he would have to do now that his grandfather had gone. So many things popped into his head it was overwhelming.

As he was still wiping his eyes he heard the sound of crunching snow behind him and turned to look at it through blurry eyes.

He had a hard time seeing what it was not only because of his blurred eyes but also because it had white fur that blended in with the surrounding snow.

The small creature had crouched down and become still when it saw Akira's head turn around.

Akira again wiped his eyes and was now able to see what it was [💀 Level 1 Snow wolf pup].

He looked around to see if there were any adult snow wolves as well. But no matter how hard he looked or how long he listened he could not find any.

'What is this weak small fry doing out here alone? This isn't even the area for snow wolves anyway.'

Akira couldn't be bothered with the small pup so he turned around to stare at the falling snow and contemplate his future. He continued to ignore the loud sounds of the not even close to stealthy snow wolf pup.

Thump. Akira felt a light tap on his back and turned around to see the [💀 Snow wolf pup] slumped on the ground near his feet. It stood back up quickly and started to shake its head to clear the dizziness from crashing into Akira.

“Shoo go away,” said Akira pushing the [💀 Snow wolf pup] away with his foot.

The [💀 Snow wolf pup] gave a squeaky yelp of indignation and leaped forward to tackle the foot that had dared to challenge him.

“Stop bothering me,” said Akira as he shook off the small pup. He scooped up some snow and lightly threw it at the [💀 Snow wolf pup] who received a face full of snow.

“Yap!” the [💀 Snow wolf pups] squeaky barks rang out and it started to hop around in the snow around Akira trying to dodge Akira's snowballs.

“Whatever... I'm not going to play around with you,” said Akira as he turned around and headed back to the other warriors.

He could still hear the sound of crunching snow behind him as he took a few steps forward. When he stopped and looked back the [💀 Snow wolf pup] had also stopped but had begun to hop around so it wouldn't get hit by a snowball.

The [💀 Snow wolf pup] continued to follow him no matter how hard he tried to get it to leave him alone.

Ding!

A rare mutated [Snow wolf] has shown up!

Now is your chance to tame it while it is young!

If you are successful you will be able to train it into a strong companion that in the future will be able to fight alongside you.

Step one: get close to the [Snow wolf].

Akira was taken aback by the message and was unsure what to do.

After a few seconds of contemplating if he even wanted to have another thing to worry about, he decided since this was the first time he had seen a message like this he would at least try it out and see what would happen.

Step one get close.

Akira turned around and started to slowly move towards the [💀 Snow wolf pup] that was hopping around sending the snow near it flying everywhere.

It didn't run away from Akira as he got to within a few steps away.

Ding!

Step two: Give the [Snow wolf] a piece of meat.

Fresh meat will raise the chance of success by a large percentage.

All the fresh meat was back with the warriors so Akira had to fish out a few pieces of rock-hard salty jerky from his bag.

He held the small pieces in his open palm allowing the [💀 Snow wolf pup] to see the food.

The [💀 Snow wolf pup] stopped hopping around and sniffed the air for a few seconds before taking a few cautious steps forward right up to Akira's hand where it continued to sniff the cold jerky.

The mouth the [💀 Snow wolf pup] opened wide and snapped up the small pieces of hard jerky and began to gnaw on it with large bites using its baby teeth to make quick work of it.

After a minute of chewing the jerky was fully pulverized and entered its stomach. It began to sniff and lick Akira's hand wanting more.

Ding!

Step three: Place hand on top of the [Snow wolf's] head to begin the contract.

Akira used his other hand and placed it on top of the [💀 Snow wolf pup's] head. It did not resist and allowed his hand to rest on its head.

Ding!

Contract initiating!

A bright white light spread out from Akira's hand and covered the body of the [💀 Snow wolf pup]. Akira could feel it quiver as the light enveloped it.

When the light covered the [💀 Snow wolf pup] it began to pulse with different shades of white and gray looking like several waves of light was washing over it growing faster and faster as the seconds went by.

A minute passed as Akira patiently watched the pulsing light come to a complete stop.

Ding!

The [💀 Snow wolf pup] has accepted the contract!

Please give the young [Snow wolf] a name.

“Hmm, squeaker? No not that, Hardhead? Not that either...” Akira looked at the small [💀 Snow wolf pup] trying to get some inspiration for a name.

“I name you Fluffball!” said Akira, confident in the name he had chosen.

Ding!

Fluffball has been successfully tamed!

You are only allowed to tame one companion so hopefully, you made sure to pick the companion you wanted.

You cannot tame another companion even if Fluffball dies.

“What the! You should have told me there was a rule like that before or I wouldn't have wasted it on this guy! I would have picked something stronger!” complained Akira.

At this moment all thoughts of sorrow were gone from his head as he read the messages and looked at his new companion.

Akira picked up Fluffball to inspect his new companion and received a lick on the cheek for his troubles.

“Yep, you're a boy. Guess I should have figured that out before naming you huh,” said Akira after inspecting Fluffball.

Fluffball just looked at Akira not saying anything.

“Hey, it's not like I'm an expert in this. We're both in the same boat since this is our first time doing something like this,” said Akira trying to defend his odd sense for naming things.

Silence.

“What am I going to do with you? You're so weak that even Stubby, who is several times smaller, could bully you, steal your lunch, and dance around you for days.”

Fluffball didn't know exactly what Akira was saying but he knew it wasn't something nice so he let out a yap of protest.

Ding!

Suggestion:

Keep Fluffball alive by training and feeding him.

He will grow and receive special stats depending on how you treat him.

If you neglect him he will gain a sense of independence and ignore any commands you give him.

Watch what you feed him or he may become fat and lazy.

To check the current status of Fluffball use the new companion icon next to your own status icon.

Akira opened Fluffball's status window.

Fluffball: Level: 1

Race: Mutated Snow wolf pup

Title: Naive explorer

Personality: Inquisitive

Hunger: 90%

No special stats or skills have been received yet.

Akira let out a long sigh. He had brought himself more trouble.

Unlike Nox who could exit and enter his shadow and did not need to eat, Fluffball was a living being that could not disappear and needed to be constantly looked after and fed.

Fluffball nosed Akira's hand again wanting more food.

Akira pulled out a few more pieces of jerky and a piece of hard bread. Fluffball snapped one of the pieces of jerky into his mouth but it was a lot bigger than the smaller pieces from before so it took him longer to chew it.

Fluffball ate all of the meat jerky while ignoring the piece of bread he even went so far as to push it off of Akira's hand onto the snow.

“What a picky eater,” said Akira as he grabbed the piece of nearly frozen bread and put it back into his bag.

Fluffball gave a large yawn showing his tongue and small baby teeth while he turned his head ignoring Akira's criticism.

Fluffball's hunger was now at 5% so Akira had nothing to worry about for some time.

The memories of the recent fight popped back into his mind making him feel ashamed for temporarily forgetting about it.

“Come on Fluffball. We need to go back and return to the others,” said Akira as he scratched behind Fluffball's ears.

Fluffball gave an energetic Yap and started to follow Akira from behind hopping from one of his deep footprints in the snow to another.

“Chief your back! Is everything okay?” asked Vilkas who had also come along on the trip.

“We're all ready to...”

“Look out a [Snow wolf] is behind you!” shouted a warrior as he pulled out his weapon ready to protect Akira.

The other warriors all grabbed their weapons and stepped forward to attack as well.

Fluffball, seeing so many werewolves who were giving off a hostile vibe jumped in front of Akira the fur on his neck raised up and he showed his teeth as he growled.

“Yap! Yap! Yap!” Fluffball challenged the hostile people to a fight wanting to protect Akira.

“Wait!” said Akira, causing everyone to halt their movements. Fluffball also stopped his growling and looked to Akira with his head cocked to the side waiting to see what Akira would say.

“He is not an enemy, I uh...sorta picked him up a few minutes ago while I was thinking over there,” said Akira as he pointed back at the trees.

“You what?”

“Are you saying you tamed it?” asked Vilkas.

“As expected! Your talents really are worthy of being the chief of the Darkmoon clan!”

“Grand elder Wulfric has really chosen the right successor for the clan. Not only is he able to fight and lead warriors well but he is also able to tame wild monsters,” praised another warrior.

“Well...It isn't that great it just sort of happened,” said Akira.

Akira saw Klyn awake and walking towards him supported by another warrior whose right side of his face had been bandaged to cover his missing eye.

Akira looked at Klyn who still looked rather pale.

“Akira I'm so sorry... I was too weak and was not able to do anything to save Grand elder... I mean your Grandfather,” said Klyn full of remorse.

“You have nothing to be sorry about! I will be forever grateful for all the effort you went through to try and help my grandfather.”

“I'm sorry. I am just too weak. I need to practice more, so something like this doesn't happen again,” said Klyn.

He continued to quietly mutter several apologies under his breath.

“Chief what is your command?” asked Vilkas.

“Right now we need to go back to Dalry village and regroup with the others and then head back to the main clan to report the death of my grandfather.”

“And the meat?”

“There is no sense in leaving it behind. We will finish our mission and deliver it to the village.”

“We will do as you say!”

“Let's move out!” shouted Akira.

A heavy feeling of loss weighed everyone down as they placed Wulfric onto one of the sleds and covered him with one of the fur blankets before heading off back towards Dalry village.

The only one with a light and playful mood was Fluffball as he happily hopped around in the snow occasionally letting out a yap at anyone that walked too close to Akira.