“Okay, listen up,” Aaron said as they walked toward the D-grade wolf and its pack. “I don’t need any heroics. I want us all to come out the other end alive, okay? So here’s the plan. I want you, Treg, and your people to create your shield wall. Focus on drawing the fight out and staying alive. No risk-taking. No fancy stuff. Do just enough to keep the wolf pack’s attention on you, and not me. You’re not looking for kills, you’re not looking to win. Just keep them engaged, okay? Watch each other’s backs, be smart. That kind of stuff.”

  “I suppose we can do that,” Treg agreed.

  “And you, Marko, I want you with them, laying traps. Work with Treg. I know you can’t understand each other, but figure out some hand commands or something. Find out where the weak spots in the goblin defenses are, and plug them up with your traps. I’ll try to draw them out, but I’ll need you and the others to hold their attention, and that requires everyone working together as best they can.”

  “Got it! I’ll see what I can do.”

  “Zach?”

  “Yeah!”

  “Do what you do. Stay out of sight and shoot arrows. If you can, use them to draw the wolves to the formation. Hell, if it’s possible, draw them to the traps. But most importantly, keep them off my back. I’m going to need some time. If I’m right about this, and the alpha is a leader type Class, everything should get much easier once I take it down. I doubt it’s going to be easy, though. If you got anything to buff yourself, potions and whatnot, use them now.”

  Aaron, of course, got his own food out. Unfortunately, he never really cooked much for others, especially not weaker people. He had his couple of remaining servings of his Heavenly Bog Infused Bánh mì, but it required high morale to work. He was fairly certain it was wasted on the goblins, and honestly wasn’t sure it would work on either Marko or Zach.

  If it didn’t work, it would have no effect, but still cause minor side effects after it wore off. Was it worth the risk? There was nothing about the wolves that made him think they had mind attacks, which was one of the buffs the dish carried. And so that lowered its usefulness. The dish also provided Energy efficiency, which would be useful. It also provided a nice Vitality and Willpower buff. Vitality in particular would be useful to those on the ground, but still, if they didn’t have the morale for it to work, it would just end up being a debuff, and Aaron didn’t feel good taking that risk.

  Luckily, the goblins had an alchemist. It was the very alchemist their herbalist had been collecting ingredients for earlier, and they had several potions of Stoneskin, and even a potion of Eagle Eye for Zach. And while the potions weren’t amazing, they were probably better suited for the situation, even if the banh mi worked.

  Aaron, on the other hand, grabbed a serving of Ichor Braised Bison Meat Pie from his scabbard and devoured it, along with a bunch of other stuff, and caught the gazes of his companions as he enlarged, while eating copious amounts of food.

  “Okay, are we all ready?” Aaron asked, stuffing the last handful of food down his mouth as they reached the edge of the wolf territory.

  “As ready as we’ll ever be,” Marko said.

  Zach had already left them to take a spot in the trees, but an arrow shot down to confirm he, too, was ready.

  “Err, I suppose so. Let’s get this over with,” Treg said, still sounding uncertain.

  “Okay. So, their lair proper, where the wolves rest, doesn’t begin until some way into the territory. We’ll march until we spot them, but when we do, the fight could start in an instant. So you need to be ready. You have to be able to get into formation within seconds, okay?”

  “Okay,” Treg said. “You hear that, everyone? Be on the ready! In formation, in the moment I give the command!”

  “Good. It looks like you got things under control. Let’s move.”

  A couple of minutes later, they spotted the raised heads and twitchy ears of a few wolves, who had obviously already heard, and possibly sensed their arrival.

  Aaron raised a hand, and Treg started barking some commands. The goblins immediately got into formation, and Marko got to work laying traps.

  “Good luck,” he said, waving and dashing toward their enemy.

  He didn’t charge straight into battle, though. He closed the distance and tried to gain their attention. It wasn’t hard, though, and within seconds, all of the wolves were rising from where they lounged and prowling toward him, fangs exposed and dripping with saliva.

  But Aaron’s attention was firmly set on the biggest one at their rear, its silver fur glistening in the midday light. Its eyes were cold and hungry like a predator, and it looked at him like nothing more than another meal.

  The smaller wolves parted for the big one, and its eyes locked with Aaron’s as it stepped forward, growling softly.

  But he didn’t wait for it. Aaron immediately activated a Skill, peppering the entire wolf pack with [ Spectral Bullet Punch ], before shooting back out of range with [ Spectral Rush ]. It didn’t do much but annoy the alpha, but his attack did do some damage to the weaker ones, while others erected defenses to save themselves from the fast-firing ghostly missiles.

  But none of that really matters. His attack served its purpose, driving the wolf pack mad with anger and sending them charging forward.

  The silvermane alpha led the charge, bounding toward him, and then suddenly turning into a beam of silver light as it closed the distance in an instant, appearing within inches, biting down with its steely fangs.

  A last-second [ Spectral Rush ] was all he could do to survive the attack, and dodging to the side, as he successfully kited the alpha away from his companions.

  Arrows shot down from above, slamming into the sides of a couple of smaller wolves the moment they stepped into range. It was perfectly timed, and was turned from Aaron, and toward the formation of goblins banging their weapons and hollering insults at the wolves.

  The plan seemed to be working, and the wolves went straight for them and began to circle around the shield formation.

  It seemed that it wasn’t hard to draw them away from Aaron. Probably because the alpha was the largest and strongest by a good margin, and they obviously had confidence in its ability to deal with him alone.

  Claws struck out, sending blades of silver light at the shield formation as they circled. As the attacks landed, the shields shook against their might. But they didn’t fall. Not yet, at least. And the goblins had Skill too, and defensive barriers flickered up, only to vanish seconds later as they were summoned and quickly destroyed by beams of silver light.

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  The shields themselves took a beating from the attacks raining down upon them as well. And the opportunistic wolves darted in and out of melee range, biting down with razor-sharp jaws that crushed shields beneath them, alongside unlucky goblin hands.

  But the goblins weren’t helpless. They drove their enemies back with coordinated spear attacks and sword thrusts, drawing blood and sending the beasts whimpering backward.

  Traps were detonated around them as the wolves circled, some catching the wolves and temporarily turning them into sitting ducks for counterattacks, while others poisoned, set aflame, or skewered their paws on spikes. Though as helpful as the traps were, none were killing blows.

  But they didn’t need to be. Wounded wolves broke from their assault, fleeing back to the rear of the pack as others took their place. Away from the action, the wolves could heal and recover. But at least it gave the defenders some breathing room, and their objective was to distract, and that was exactly what they were doing. They just needed to hold on long enough.

  Not far away, Aaron clashed with the silvermane alpha again, and little pins of silver light shot out from its fur, cutting through his body and opening hundreds of tiny wounds across it.

  But that wasn’t all. The little needles of silver light remained in his skin, slowing him down and making him heavy. Although as bad as the debuff was, it wasn’t as bad as the ring, and he felt like he had already gained an edge from the short time he had worn it.

  Grunting, he fought through the pain and the debuff. Aaron slammed into the wolf with a series of flashy attacks that sent it bouncing back as it readjusted for another attack.

  However, it was obvious that he had taken the worst of it, and new wounds were opening up across his body every time they fought. Also, while he could somewhat work through it, the silver pins were an annoying debuff. However, he was fairly certain he knew how to get rid of them. The only problem was finding a good opening to do so.

  He jumped in and out of the shadows with the help of his cape. The alpha could smell him and mostly followed his scent, but nonetheless, the little trick did seem to confuse and slow its attacks, giving him yet another edge against it.

  Dipping into Fate Bender, he lined up his plan and set it into motion. He gave the wolf an opening, let it come to him, and blasted straight through its first attack with [ Spectral Rush ], taking partial damage from the silver light, which opened a wound across his chest. But that was fine. He already knew it was going to happen.

  When he appeared, he countered with his own attacks, funneling a good portion of his adipose reserves into a combo chain that started with a particularly powerful [ Soul Shattering Strike ], which was followed up with a strong haymaker slamming into its chin.

  The wolf squealed, and its maw was knocked off course; however, its claws weren’t, and they ripped Aaron to gory pieces.

  But unfortunately for it, this too was part of his plan, and when his aether shocked him back to life, he appeared before it minus the silver needles.

  At full strength, and his adipose reserves still mostly intact, he gritted his teeth and pounded the wolf with an absolutely apocalyptic [ Soul Shattering Strike ].

  The beast howled as Aaron slammed his fists into it, drawing blood for the first time, and blasting away at its energy reserves.

  And against all odds, the D-grade beast was actually forced into retreat, bouncing away to gather itself. Snarling and growling at Aaron, it didn’t immediately charge back into the fray, either.

  His attack had woken it up and scared it.

  It was obvious that this wolf had seen him as easy prey, but that had changed. It now knew that he was a real threat, and wasn’t so quick to charge straight back into action so carelessly.

  But even more curiously, was the way the pack behaved. They had been rotating in and out, taking turns attacking the goblin formation, and gradually breaking down the defenses little by little.

  And it had been working, too. There were more of them, and they were at a higher average level than the goblins or the humans.

  All the goblins could do, even with Marko and Zach assisting, was hang on for their lives, and unfortunately, a couple had already succumbed, dragged out from their positions and flayed across the ground by the wolves.

  It was a desperate situation, and the goblin defenders, marked by many wounds, looked to be close to breaking.

  But when Aaron landed his terrifying [ Soul Shattering Strike ] on the alpha, causing it to howl and squeal in pain and terror, they paused. The wolves turned and watched as their leader limped away from Aaron, their gazes laser-focused.

  Aaron and the alpha clashed again only moments later, and it wasn’t the man who had come away worse for it. He had landed several attacks, and while they didn’t look like much to the naked eye, anyone with a sense for energy could feel the fluctuations traveling through both the silvermane alpha and the air.

  The wolf leader hadn’t liked that, and now it stared him down with great trepidation. It was obvious the mood had changed, and fear was dripping into the alpha.

  Gone was the mantle of the fearless, fear-inducing alpha wolf. And what stood in its place was a mere beast, and the others took notice, as if a veil had been slightly pulled back.

  Despite this, though, Aaron grimaced. He was beating the alpha, just like he thought he would, but the others weren’t holding out as well as he hoped. He doubted they would last another minute. He needed to finish this as quickly as possible, but as he saw the fear and confusion in the alpha’s eyes, a chilling thought came to him. What if it fought scared? What if it ran and fought defensively? Would Aaron be able to kill it before its subordinates killed the goblins?

  He gritted his teeth and crouched down slightly, filling his legs with Stamina. He had basically forced these people into the battle. He knew it was going to be tough, but he thought he would have more time. Now, faced with the possibility of failure, he knew that if the others all died, even if he survived, he would be haunted by it for the rest of his life.

  He wasn’t just going to let them die like that.

  He took a second to focus his mind and prepared to shoot forward and end the fight as soon as possible, but right when he was about to charge, something odd happened. The fighting in the clearing suddenly came to a halt as a System notification appeared in front of him.

  You have been challenged to duel for the Title of alpha and supremacy over the pack.

  Reward: Pack Alpha Trait and silvermane pack leadership

  Accept? Y/N

  What? Aaron thought.

  Was it challenging him… for control of the pack? But why? If it had just held out for a minute longer, its victory would have been more or less assured. The other wolves would have joined the battle against Aaron, and the tides would have turned. So why would it do something like this?

  He glanced back and saw that the fighting between the others had stopped. They weren’t in good shape, but they were alive, and for the moment, they had a chance to catch their breath. He had a feeling that if he rejected the request, though, that would no longer be the case.

  Fuck, he thought.

  He couldn’t help but feel he was somehow walking into a trap, but he didn’t really have a choice. Not if he wanted to guarantee the others’ lives.

  Accept.

  ***

  “What’s going on?” Treg growled, blood dripping from his lip, as he gripped his hammer tightly.

  “They’re leaving us?” Marko said, only a few meters away, his expression confused and equally wounded.

  “What do we do?” A goblin said.

  “Wait,” Treg raised a hand. “It doesn’t look like they’re going to attack him. Let’s see what happens.”

  Treg wasn’t just trying to save himself, either. The wolves didn’t look like they were planning to join the fight to attack Aaron. They were calmly strolling toward where the battle was taking place.

  And then, one by one, they began to take spots, sitting around as they intended to watch the fight.

  Neither the goblins nor the humans had any idea what was going on. But if they were given a moment of reprieve, they had to take it. If they had healing potions, they drank them. If not, they used healing salves or whatever else they had available, trying desperately to recover whatever they could before the battle resumed.

  But it didn’t. It seemed something else was taking place. The wolves showed no intent to resume fighting, instead choosing to become observers as Aaron and the silvermane alpha stared each other down, preparing for the next round.

  “Let’s see where this goes,” Treg finally said, and then the goblins and human companions too joined as spectators.

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