Chapter 44: Trial by Death Wolf

Van tried to keep his presence to a minimum. Not wanting the death wolf he was told to hunt down below to sense him. He was already told beforehand where this wolf was by his father and the dangers hunting such a dangerous creature was but was promised that he would be standing by in case anything might happen.

A death wolf was a unique wolf variant found in the lands of Alcray. Normally forming small hordes out in the wastes, the young are pushed out of the pack so as not to be eaten by the undead death wolves that protect the pack.

Death wolves have a unique life cycle, instead of dying and staying dead, their corpse reanimates itself and acts like any other mindless undead. Except for a few key features. Small hordes of undead death wolves roam about and amongst them would be living death wolves. Using their undead brethren for protection, they roll around in corpses to hide the scent of life on them and eat whatever the undead wolves kill like carrion feeders. When a female is pregnant they will leave the pack to give birth and raise the children for a year until maturity. The young wolves then hunt for themselves until they mature fully. When mating season comes around they go back to their pack to look for a living mate that will be hiding amongst the undead wolves. Should the death wolf be injured in the pack, even if they lost an entire limb, they will not flinch to continue alongside the pack and pretend to be another undead wolf, for doing otherwise would mean death. Once reanimated, death wolves will return to the pack, growing their undead number unless culled.

Because of this life cycle. Death wolves have developed a strange immunity to pain, and can even fight after blows or attacks that would leave most animals and beasts dead. Worse, if the mana of the death wolf runs rampant when it dies, it can immediately come back to life to attack the one who slew it. Many newbie hunters have died thanks to that. In other words, you can’t just kill a death wolf once… you have to do it twice…

Van held his breath, slowing down his heart and emulating the stillness of his ancestry. He waited above the death wolf, on a branch, hidden by leaves. Waiting for it to move beneath him. Hoping that his first strike will be all that he needs and that he wouldn’t have to fight such a dangerous creature.

He was not allowed to use his familiars for this. Only his own power and skill. His father assured him that if he simply applied what he has learned up to this point. Then a single, young, death wolf should be no problem for him... He believed in his father, believing in himself though, was another matter entirely. Though it did help that he was given a pendant with some light enchantment to protect from fatal injuries, even if it only had a small charge.

The wolf was close, almost ready for his strike, the only problem. He had no idea which area to strike first. “If I strike the mana core, it would go down, instantly, not to mention it has a high chance of preventing it from reanimating itself back again. But doing so is difficult and risky, i’ll have to cut through all that bone and muscle and hope that the place where I presume the core to be, is actually there and not anywhere else on the body. If I aim for the head, and somehow pierce through its skull, I can kill it instantly, but that's not a one hundred percent guarantee that it won’t reanimate. If I put all my strength on cutting through its neck, it won’t reanimate once killed. But I don’t have the confidence to try, due to my lack of skill. Aiming for suck a small area while it's moving, and cleanly slicing through the joints of its neck, would be very unlikely…”

But Van didn’t have much more time to think, the window of opportunity was closing, and if he didn't strike now, it would only make it more difficult for him later. He didn’t want to do this, this was the first time he was ever hunting a living creature. He knew if he opted out, his father would understand and be fine with it. But he wouldn’t…

He gripped the sword tightly. Not one of the bests, but certainly not the worst. A blade made to do a task, given to him by his father for this hunt. “I have to do this… I have to become stronger… this world… is not kind to weakness. If I want to live a peaceful life while protecting my own, then I need the will… the will to take another living being's life… and make sure I do it thoroughly so that it doesn’t come back to haunt me...”

With that in mind, he coated his blade in blue aura, sharpening it and making it stronger. The effects of his use of aura, already slowing down his perception of time by a small amount, while increasing his speed. His decision made, he leaped down to strike at the head of the wolf. Even if it comes back, it won’t be immediately, any damage to its vision and hearing while alive, may carry over to its undeath, potentially making the second round easier.

The wolf had no idea what happened. The last thing it saw was Van already more than halfway down on it. Its eyes filled with surprise, confusion, fear… at facing its own mortality. It knew what was going to happen next… but at the last second… it glared back at Van. with defiance, a small snarl frowning on its lips… that it will never finish…

He felt it as his blade pierced the wolf. Driving through the skull and into the brain and out the other side of the mouth. He knew it would be hard. But he didn’t expect so much resistance from a living being made of flesh and bone. What was worse was the way the eyes looked at him, filled with energy that was slowly seeping out. Leaving nothing behind.

Van will never forget that sight… the wolf had a strange innocence in its eyes before it saw him and what he was going to do to him. And the way it knew it was going to die, but chose to die snarling at the person that was going to kill it. Spoke to Van on a level that resonated with him so hard. He felt it shake his soul realm on a fundamental level. Like thousands of half-remembered experiences, he had for himself, flashed in the back of his mind, condensed into a single second, and disappearing like a stray thought that didn’t take.

The fact that he killed a living being for the first time. The look in its eyes as it died. The feelings that its last act of defiance invoked in him. Made Van freeze in place as he looked at the dead wolf. Almost as if in shock, his head foggy in disbelief, the enormity of his action weighing down on him. So much so that he couldn’t move for a solid minute as he tried to wrap his mind around what he just did.

Unfortunately for him. In this case. Waiting around was the last thing he should have done. Which was why his father chose this particular beast for Van to fight. Some lessons needed to be learned the hard way. The world wasn’t going to stop just because you did, in battle, if you let your mind wander too far, or for too long, you will end up dead. And from the canopy above, Alvaroz watched. Waiting in case he needed to act.

Then, the wolf lunged at him. Van’s blade was still lodged into the wolf's skull, so the sudden movement surprised him as he was pushed back by the hilt of the blade. Taking a jump backward, dislodging his sword as he did so. He opened up distance between him and the now undead wolf that had its head cracked open, its brain matter slowly spilling out, but its eyes locked on Van’s with a malevolence that made his veins run cold.

Van immediately knew it was a mistake to have dislodged his blade so quickly. He could have gone in for another strike. But he was so out of it and so surprised that it didn’t even register that that was an option.

With undead and single-minded determination, the wolf charged at him. Pouring his aura into his blade, Van tried to do what he saw his father do many times before. And with intention, swung his sword. A wave of aura energy was released and crashed into the undead wolf stunning it.

This was not what Van wanted though, he wanted to cut the wolf, but it seemed he was not skilled enough to do that. But surprisingly, the attack was more effective than he thought it would be. It sluggishly got up from being pushed back by the aura crash, and tried to run at him again. But this time, slightly slower than before.

“I see… even if it wasn’t as effective as I was hoping it to be. Aura is considered to be concentrated life energy… and now that it is undead, that life energy, even if not used properly, must have messed up a little whatever foul magic is used to reanimate the corpse. The only problem is… that aura strike took a full quarter of my aura reserves. So I can’t just casually use it over and over again.”

The wolf was almost upon him, but this time he was ready. He was still afraid. But his training took over and he took a stance to meet the oncoming monster. Just as the wolf jumped to attack, Van sidestepped it and plunged his blade into its side. With a will, he forcibly pushed another quarter of his aura into its body. Hoping to disrupt whatever foul energies kept it moving. Van jumped back after the strike, creating distance and ready for another chance.

The undead wolf staggered. Almost confused as it tried and failed to quickly turn around. Its legs and body not acting as it should, but to stupid to realize what was going on. But like any good undead monster, with its endless stamina, it shrugged off the attacks. Sluggish now it may be, but that won’t stop it from attacking.

Van saw this and realized where this was going to be headed if he was not careful. “If I don’t find a way to kill it now, it's just going to continue to try and kill me. No matter how much aura I put in it, if it doesn’t destroy it, the battle will never end. I’ll tire out before anything else… I need to put an end to this now… I have to either cut off its head or find its core and destroy it.”

With his decision made, Van summoned his shadow wolf from behind him and gave it a mental order to hold it in place. The shade streaked through the ground like a bolt of blackness and appeared behind the monster. Biting on its back leg.

The undead wolf didn’t even realize it was being attacked as it tried to run forward towards Van. Which was fine for Van as it gave him more time to finish gathering some of his shadows and send them towards it. Slowly the shadows wrapped around its feet, preventing it from moving.

Confused, the undead wolf tried to attack the shadows, its bites and mindless rage doing nothing at the things that held no form. But its endless strength was tearing and pulling some of the shadow tendrils apart. Meaning that Van had a small window of time to attack it while it was still distracted and immobile.

Thankfully for him, the undead wolf finally seemed to have noticed his shadow wolf and started attacking it mindlessly. With one massive bite, it tore through the shade's head, only for it to reform a few seconds later. Seemingly angered by this, the undead wolf crunched the head of the shade once more in an even larger bite. Ignoring the fact that it also crunched through its own leg doing so. But this time the shade did not have the energy to reform and was destroyed. The materials used to make it dropping, fried, and some of them unable to be used again.

But the time this bought for Van was all that he needed. Using some of the footwork his father taught him, he rushed to meet the distracted wolf. Putting all his remaining aura and even some of his mana into his sword. He struck with all his might on the neck of the wolf, doing everything he could to push the blade clean through.

Surprisingly the wolf struggled under him. But Van gritted his teeth and pushed on through as blood began to spurt everywhere. With great difficulty and some sawing motions, he was finally able to take the head off the wolf. The wolf’s body spasmed and shuddered, it tried to move a bit before finally coming to terms with what happened and giving up. It dropped on the ground and lay still.

Van took a few seconds to catch his breath, but he learned his lesson about taking too long. This time he placed his hands on the body of the wolf and used his mana to sense where the core was. Finding it, he used his sword to cut a bloody mess towards it, but after a point the sword was not enough to cut its way through all that flesh. So Van dropped it and with a lunge, steeled his mind and plunged his hand into the wolf, aiming for the core, grabbing hold of it, and yanked it out.

The core pulsed softly in Van’s bloody hand, warm, until it slowly went cold and pulsed no more. With a sigh of relief, he dropped the core and dropped himself on his back to take a quick breather. Wishing that he could take a bath right now and go to sleep on a nice soft bed tonight.

Soon, clapping was heard and Alv made his appearance. “Not bad. Not bad at all… though there are several areas where you need improvement in. fighting and winning against a death wolf all by yourself for your first real fight. That's an accomplishment that you should be proud of.” he said with some pride in his son.

Van looked up at his father, too tired to argue, and just said. “I don’t ever want to do that again…” he said with all the emotions he was going through right now.

Alv chuckled. “Believe me, I know what you mean. When I had to fight for real for the first time. I felt so sick to my stomach…” he trailed off a little there and gave a silent chuckle at himself. “Well… let's just say, it's never a pleasant experience… unless you're a psychopath or something.” he joked.

Van rolled his eyes and got up with a sigh. “So what now? Do we just leave it as is?”

“Well, the next thing you should do is use your vespera bangle. These devices allow you to absorb the released mana from a kill. Give it a try.” Alv said encouragingly.

Van quirked an eye at that and decided to give it a try. With some prompting from his father on what to do. He summoned his bangle and stretched out his arm towards the now firmly dead wolf. Activating the proper procedures, the mana from the dead wolf was slowly being absorbed into the bangle.

Looking at the interface, Van was surprised to find that the bangle absorbed a whole 221 units of mana. And his eyes widened when he saw that he also gathered 0.02 units of essence.

Seeing the surprised look on Van, Alv began to explain. “Even if its natural mana pool was, lets say, a fraction of what you just received. It's best not to forget that beasts have mana flowing all over their body. Like someone who might be cultivating mana body might have. While it's not impossible to cultivate near a recently dead corpse to gather the mana. This device makes it easier so you don’t have to do that. It even gathers the essence for you.”

Van was amazed by such a handy tool. Even more, so that he could also use it to gather essence. But the amount of essence gathered was what surprised him even more. “Ren wasn’t joking when he said they dropped a massive fortune on me. How many decades and how many powerful monsters did they have to kill to gather the amount they gave me for my ritual…”

“And there's more…” Alv said with a cheeky smile.

Van perked up and looked at his father expectantly.

Smiling, knowing that he had his son’s attention he began to explain. “As vampires we… let's say… have a special trick that we keep to ourselves when we want a little more mana…” with a grin he walked up to Van and whispered into his ear.

Van then immediately tried to do what was suggested. Using his knowledge of blood magic, he pooled the dead wolf's blood out of its body and near him. With a will, he squeezed that last ounces of life force left and absorbed it through his skin. The feeling was strangely exhilarating. He gained a few more units of mana.

“That's a little secret we vampires have. Use it wisely, and probably not in front of any humans you don’t trust. It's a great method to get those last ounces of mana. Not to mention, if you're hurt, it will also help in healing you.” Alv said.

“Ya… some of my aura is even recovered. Is this normal?” Van asked.

“Sometimes. Also, this should be obvious, but don’t go doing this in the middle of battle. You need to concentrate in order to use it properly. This is also something only vampires can make use of, as well as some dhampirs. It's because our bodies are able to do this that we are perceived to be so dangerous. We not only can quickly gain whatever energies our kill provides. Unlike how it used to be when people had to cultivate next to the corpse for hours. But we also gain every ounce of what it has to offer, gaining a little more than what most people get.” Alv said.

“I see…” Van said in deep thought. Then looking to the corpse asked. “What do we do with the body?”

“Whatever you want. It's your kill. You can skin it, or use parts of it to make more of those shades of yours. Or just sell some of the more valuable parts for money such as its mana stone.” Alv replied.

“Mana stone?” Van asked, confused. The first time he was ever hearing such a term.

“Mana stone,” Alv replied. “Sometimes some animals and beasts don’t properly cultivate their mana. It's not like they always have someone to teach them the proper way. So the mana settles inside them in odd places, turning some of the flesh hard. In layman's terms. It's like cancer.”

“Oh…”

Alv nodded. “But it's useful for some potions and such. Not that all beasts and animals have it, but it's best to keep an eye out for it.

Van nodded, then asked about how to properly disassemble his kill for parts and valuables. After an hour of which, he was looking at a mutilated corpse that was strung out before him. Making his stomach churn.

“There's got to be an easier way of doing this…” Van said, face scrunched from the smell and the task he was doing.

“There are,” Alv said. “There are some people who have bags or rings that can store an entire corpse to be brought to a processing facility. Some with even large soul realms can do it. In fact, I once heard of a woman with a unique soul realm that, once a corpse was put in, slowly disassembled it into a neat pile.”

Van paused from what he was doing and smacked his face with his hand. Instantly regretting it because now he had even more blood on his face than he did before. “You couldn't have told me that Before!”

Alv chuckled. “I thought it would be a good learning lesson to figure out how to properly take care of a kill yourself,” he said with a smile.

Exasperated. Van willed the remains of the corpse into his soul realm and got up. “I need a bath…” he said, in a long-suffering way.

Just then something smashed into his face. “Master! Master! Are you okay!” it then proceeded to rube itself all over his cheek, trying to hug his head as wide as possible.

“Lyn! Stop! You're getting yourself all bloody! And you're just rubbing it all over the place!” but the little fairy refused to let go and continued to kiss his cheeks, babbling how she was going to make him feel better soon and that it was going to be all okay, as Van tried to pull her off.

Alv chuckled at the sight and decided to just sit back and watch the entertainment.

Varenes

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