Part One Hundred and One

“Are you sure that this is wise? We don’t even know where they went.”

“Hey, I already told you what Michael said! If we don’t move out soon, then who knows what’ll happen! Even if we fail, we can at least say we did something!”

“She’s right. If we just sit by and let the chips fall, then we’ll have no say in the outcome. At the very least, we can deal with some of the Shadow monsters roaming the fort.”

“Haah. Alright. Then let’s get a move on.”

Finally! Why does he have to be such a stubborn asshole!?

Grant had been holding them up for the last couple minutes, slowly but surely infuriating Alicia. She’d honestly had been only a few seconds from either slapping him, or running off on her own.

Her frustration was only amplified by the fact that the fighting was nearly over. The monsters had thinned out to the point where there were barely any left. In fact, they would’ve already won by now if it weren’t for the continuous bombardment from the Golems. If the Void Wolf’s spell could be dealt with, then they’d be able to wrap this up in a matter of moments.

***

“Make sure you stuff those Bombs in as deep as possible. And keep the ignition switches facing outward. We'll need easy access to them once all the Bombs are placed.”

“Hoh, to think you had all of this already prepared. Hm, what insight.”

“What? Uh, this is all just crap I’ve gotten from the Dungeon. I mean, sure, I’m stringing it into a feasible plan, but it’s not that impressive. Save your admiration for if it works.”

This was merely an attempt to lure the Void Wolf out. If it wounded the monster, then that would be a bonus, but I was simply trying to expose it. The Bombs hidden in my bait were just a cheeky little surprise.

The riskiest parts of my plan were where to place the baits, and whether or not Alicia would meet up with us. I had no confidence of the two of us being able to fight the wolf on our own. My last two encounters with it had shown me that the wolf was beyond what I could handle by myself.

Its physical abilities are bad enough, but add in its magic and Shadow movement, and you have a positively irritating monster. And since our Skills are still sealed, the fight will be that much harder. I have no idea if the wolf can still use its mana, but the other monsters we’ve seen don’t seem to be able to use theirs. That’s probably the only reason we got so far.

As for where to lay my trap, it should be somewhere were we can fight the wolf easily, but won’t allow too many other monsters to join in. I’d ideally like for the others to have easy access too, but I can’t wait for them. Letting the Void Wolf ambush us would be the worse case scenario. I doubt we’d survive if that happened.

Factoring in all those criteria, there’s exactly one place that comes to mind. If I’m lucky, then I might be able to kill the wolf there without needing to fight it. And even if I’m not, then this should at least be a good opening move.

“Come on Tavin. Let’s go finish this.”

***

[Alicia’s POV]

“Two more on the left side!”

“Guh, there’s another wolf behind us.”

“How are there this many monsters inside the walls!? What were the NPCs doing!?”

The five of them had raced through the fort towards the central headquarters, only to run into stiff resistance from the dozens of monsters waiting for them. Every time they dealt with one group, another would race at them from a different alley. The three men were forced to rotate their positions constantly to deal with the multi-sided threat.

Alicia had snagged a quiver full of arrows from an NPC before they left, and her constant barrage was going a long way towards helping them push through. On the other hand, Kalia was basically unable to do anything to help them. With her magic sealed, she was forced to fight with a shortsword she’d kept from her days before unlocking magic.

Considering that most of the monsters they were fighting were either Shadow Wolves or the occasional C-Rank, she probably should’ve stayed back at the walls where it was relatively safer. But her insistence on going, coupled with the fact that nowhere was really safe right now, had eventually worn the others down enough that they’d given in. Of course, if they could somehow deal with the spell disrupting their mana, then Kalia’s potent magic would be available again.

“So, where exactly is the boy at? We won’t make it much further if this keeps up.”

“…!”

It was at that moment that Alicia realized that she had no way of knowing exactly where Michael was going. He’d been in such a hurry that he’d neglected to set a rendezvous spot for them. They could check the headquarters room-by-room, but that would take too long. There was a high likelihood of one of them running into the Void Wolf the longer this took.

“Haaah, he forgot to set a meeting point, didn’t he? I swear, that guy's more reckless tha-.”

What exactly Michael was more reckless than we’d never know, as a massive explosion tore through the air before he could finish. Part of the central headquarters was now up in flames, and a large segment of wall and the ground had been completely destroyed. The sight shocked them into silence, at least until Kalia spoke in a very dry voice.

“Well, I think we know where he’s at.”

They nodded as one, before heading off to see what he’d done.

***

“Cough, cough, cough….. whew, that was more intense than I’d expected. Fuck, I’m gonna get in so much trouble for this, aren’t I?”

“I believe it is too late to worry about that. The die has already been cast. Besides, it did ultimately work. I doubt any beast could’ve survived that explosion.”

“Oh Tavin, why’d you go and say that!?”

“AWWRRRRROOOOOOOOOOO!!!”

“Fuck. RUN!”

The two of us whirled around and sprinted down the corridor back towards our secondary ambush point. My plan had basically been a reprisal of my first attempt against the Orc General. We’d laid a trail of Fragrant Meats from the headquarters’ main entrance, all the way to a storage room in the basement. The only differences this time around was that the final meat had Combustion Bombs embedded into it, and that the room was full of barrels of gunpowder.

Yeah, I don’t understand why they were there either. I only know about the room due to my earlier exploration. They probably have it in case we needed it for a sabotage mission, but it sure came in handy here.

Following the wolf as it snacked on all the delicious meats we’d left for it was probably the most dangerous part of my plan. It would’ve never reached my final trap if caught even a whiff of us. We’d had to tail it at an extreme distance, and hope that the residual scents in the building would cover anything else up.

Anyway, we’d had to run as soon as we realized that the wolf was still alive. Given the palpable rage contained in that howl, the Wolf was not happy with us. Being eviscerated was not on my to-do list today.

Hearing it behind me, I made the mistake of looking back at it, and nearly threw up. Turned out that the wolf wasn’t in good shape after surviving that explosion. All of its fur had been burnt off, and the skin below was now blackened and crispy all over. One of its eyes had been burnt shut, and its tongue was now a blackened stub. But despite all that, the beast was still coming after us. That showcased the utter tenacity that monsters could have.

“How much further!?”

“Just two more hallways!”

“Good! Don’t turn around. You don’t want to see how ugly its gotten.”

We raced through the hallways of the headquarters, barely managing to stay ahead of the wolf. Every other step caused my ankle to throb with pain, but I gritted my teeth and kept going. Funnily enough, the wolf’s injuries allowed me to keep ahead of it, if only barely.

As we approached the main entrance, I prepared to enact the final part of my plan.

“Tavin, dive to the side!”

We slammed through the doors, each of us diving to the side as the Void Wolf entered the doorway. And the sack of Combustion Bombs I’d stuffed above the doors fell down onto it, wrapping the wolf in yet another explosion.

I rolled to my feet, drawing both of my swords. But before I could do anything else, arrows slammed into the smoldering wolf, causing the beast to whine in pain. Seeing such a brutal creature whining in pain like any other animal was surreal.

“Lad, what insanity have you gotten up to this time?”

“Hey guys. Welcome to the party. Now help me put this dog down for good.”

I’d hoped and hoped that the explosion would guide them to us, but seeing them here when I needed them was gratifying. I dropped back a bit to stand beside Cameron and the others, as we all readied to face off against the wolf.

“RRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWRRRRRR!!!”

But obviously the wolf wouldn’t just roll over and die. It snarled at us, before diving into its shadow before we could react.

“Tch, fan out! It could come from any shadow at any time. Keep your eyes peeled for it. Survival Instinct only reacts right before it pops out.”

We stood ready with bated breath, fully prepared for whatever the wolf might bring. Except that it never did anything.

***

The Void Wolf had dived into the shadows to escape, not attack. It made sense if you thought about it. Not only was it heavily outnumbered, but it was also severely injured. So escaping was its best route to survival.

Of course, it wasn’t giving up. Since it had instructed several of the monsters set to invade the fort to destroy the Anti-movement Array, it would be able to easily infiltrate the fort in the future, and complete the Army’s objective.

Getting out would be difficult. While the wolf could still use its mana since it was the one who cast [Void Cage], it wouldn’t be able to recover mana or stamina until the spell was dispelled. It was only able to move through shadows because that was an innate ability that didn’t require mana, otherwise it would’ve been truly stuck.

It surfaced within an out of the way alley, intent on deactivating [Void Cage]. Releasing a sustained spell only required the caster to will it so, but still left a short opening where they were vulnerable. A short opening where the wolf was unaware that it was being hunted yet again.

*Crack!*

At least until a massive weight slammed into its head hard enough to crack its skull. The impact staggered the wolf, allowing its attacker just enough time to bring their weapon down a second time, crushing the monster's brain enough to kill it.

***

We stood around for several minutes where nothing happened. Just as all the tension was starting to drain from me, something happened to make all of it fade from my mind. All the mana in the fort returned to normal, which was soon followed by a series of massive explosions from outside the fort. That was soon followed by a System Update.

*Ka-clunk!*

::Dungeon Scenario Update:

Remaining Challengers 443.

Mid-bosses remaining: 0 of 3.

Monster Army Remaining: 8.4%

All conditions have been met. Beginning Endgame Protocol……Complete.

The Dungeon Boss will Attack in: 23 Hours 59 Minutes.::

A tremor ran throughout the Dungeon as we processed those words, and everything they brought with them.