Chapter 12: Fang Wolves

The wolves closed the distance in half a breath.

Leon’s grip tightened on the Mana Staff, and just as the first Fang Wolf left the ground, a translucent notification flared to life in front of him, unbothered by the fact that twelve monsters were currently airborne and aiming for his throat.

[Monster Detected: Fang Wolf]

[Level: 1]

[Type: Beast]

[Innate Talent: Poison Howl]

[Description: Fang Wolves hunt in coordinated packs. When threatened or engaged in combat, a Fang Wolf may release a howl that inflicts a lingering poison effect on nearby targets. The effect stacks with repeated howls.]

[Threat Assessment: Low (Solitary) / Elevated (Pack of 5 or more)]

Leon read it in less than a second. Level one didn’t mean weak, not when there were twelve of them working together and they could apparently poison him from a distance without lifting a claw.

"Garrick, stay behind me and don’t move," Leon said, already stepping forward to put himself between the wolves and the carriage.

The merchant didn’t argue. He dropped low behind the driver’s seat, one hand white-knuckled around the reins of the panicking horses.

The first wolf reached him.

Leon didn’t wait for it.

Crack!

A bolt of condensed mana left the tip of his staff and caught the wolf mid-leap, punching through its shoulder and sending it tumbling off the road in a spray of dark blood. It didn’t get back up.

Ding!

[You have killed "Fang Wolf (Level 1)" and gained 12 experience points.]

One down. Eleven left, and they weren’t giving him time to admire the number.

Two more wolves came from either side, jaws already open. Leon pivoted on his back foot, staff sweeping low.

Sidestep! Crack!

The staff’s tip struck the nearest wolf across the skull, and a burst of Arcane Surge detonated on contact, caving in bone and throwing the creature into its packmate. Both went down in a tangle of fur and limbs.

Ding!

[You have killed "Fang Wolf (Level 1)" and gained 12 experience points.]

[You have killed "Fang Wolf (Level 1)" and gained 12 experience points.]

Three kills. The remaining nine spread out, circling instead of charging blindly now, and Leon’s jaw tightened. They weren’t just fast. They were smart enough to learn.

Then one of them threw its head back and howled.

The sound wasn’t loud. That was what made it worse. It was low, guttural, and it crawled straight under Leon’s skin like something physical.

Ding!

[Poison Howl has affected you!]

[Effect: Poison (Stack 1) — HP: -3 per second. Agility reduced by 15% for 40 seconds.]

A sharp burning sensation spread through Leon’s veins, starting at his chest and radiating outward. His muscles tightened involuntarily, and for a moment his next swing came a fraction of a second slower than it should have.

A wolf capitalized immediately, fangs snapping shut on the hem of his coat instead of his arm, close enough that Leon felt the air move.

He drove the butt of his staff down into its skull before it could try again.

Ding!

[You have killed "Fang Wolf (Level 1)" and gained 12 experience points.]

Four kills, and the poison was still spreading. Leon could feel it settling into his blood, a slow persistent ache that refused to fade even as he moved. Another wolf howled from somewhere to his left, and this time he felt the sensation double, layering over the first like a second wave crashing before the first had finished receding.

Ding!

[Poison Howl has affected you!]

[Effect: Poison (Stack 2) — HP: -6 per second. Agility reduced by 25% for 40 seconds.]

Leon clenched his teeth against the pain, then forced himself to steady his breathing. He stretched his arms and immediately activated Life Mend, directing the healing energy through his own body to restore the HP he had lost. It wasn’t a poison-cleansing skill, so the venom coursing through his veins remained a problem, but restoring his health would at least prevent the damage from pushing him over the brink.

Poison stacking against a Support with no cleansing ability was exactly the kind of situation that could kill a careless player. Leon had no intention of becoming another statistic on Eternal Heaven’s player count.

Leon kept gritting through the burning and forced his staff up in time to block a wolf’s lunge, the impact rattling up his arm. He answered with a point-blank blast of mana that turned the creature’s head into ruin.

Ding!

[You have killed "Fang Wolf (Level 1)" and gained 12 experience points.]

Five down. Seven remained, and two more were already inhaling for another howl.

Leon’s HP ticked downward with every second the poison lingered, a slow bleed he couldn’t outrun and couldn’t cut away. He clicked his tongue and kept moving anyway, weaving between two wolves that lunged from opposite directions and letting them collide with each other instead of him.

Slash! Crack!

Two more howls rose from the pack almost simultaneously.

Ding!

[Poison Howl has affected you!]

[Effect: Poison (Stack 3) — HP: -9 per second. Agility reduced by 35% for 40 seconds.]

Leon’s vision swam for half a second. His limbs felt heavier, his reactions a half-beat slower than they should have been. A wolf’s claws raked across his forearm, tearing through fabric and skin, and pain flared bright and immediate.

He answered by driving the tip of his staff straight through its open mouth.

Ding!

[You have killed "Fang Wolf (Level 1)" and gained 12 experience points.]

Six kills. Six left. His HP bar, when he spared it half a glance, had dropped further than he liked. Poison this persistent, on a level one body, was no joke.

Then, mid-swing, something shifted.

The burning in his veins didn’t vanish, but it dulled, like a fire being smothered under wet cloth. Leon barely had time to register it before the notification arrived.

Ding!

[Absolute Adaptation has activated!]

[Your body has begun adapting to Poison Howl.]

[Resistance to Poison Howl increased by 80%.]

[Current and future stacks of this effect are reduced accordingly.]

Leon almost laughed.

Of course. Absolute Adaptation adjusted him to threats, specifically, the moment his body registered them as a repeating pattern rather than a one-time hit. Three stacks of the same poison in under a minute had apparently been more than enough data for it to work with.

The ache in his blood faded to something manageable, background noise instead of a countdown. His limbs felt lighter almost immediately, the borrowed sluggishness bleeding out of his muscles.

"Now that’s better," Leon muttered, rolling his shoulder.

The remaining six wolves seemed to sense the shift too, hesitating for the first time since the fight had started. It didn’t save them.

Leon closed the distance himself.

Crack! Crack!

Two bolts of condensed mana tore through the closest pair before they could react, dropping them where they stood.

Ding!

[You have killed "Fang Wolf (Level 1)" and gained 12 experience points.]

[You have killed "Fang Wolf (Level 1)" and gained 12 experience points.]