Starting from Zero Chapter Book 3 - 26 – The Alpha Wolf

Book 3, Chapter 26

The Alpha Wolf

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It's already evening when we're finishing with shopping. Ow my waist hurts! I never knew buying stuff can be so tiring.

I accompanied Rose back to her dorm. Our orders have already arrived, which caused much surprises to her roommates.

Lean asked the mont she saw us: "Did you two just rob a bank? Where did an orphan get so much money?" She took out an overall from the bags. "Oh dear. Snow Specialties, morial edition! And--woooah!"

She was pushed aside by the other girls in the room.

I said goodbye to Rose when the others are fighting over the clothes. "You can stay in this dorm for now. I'll try to find a house for you as soon as I can. And don't worry about your parents, I've modified the database, those dogs downstairs won't let them in again."

When I'm back at my own room we entered the ga at the exact sa ti.

Rose hugged . "How did you know I'm online?"

"Well you won't wait to get in here again. So here I am, to keep your company."

"I like your attitude!" Rose returned to her "evil girl" mode. "You know, I understood what uncle said that night. So how about...now?"

Crap! That's too straightforward!

"Uh, Rose? Well, that day I--"

Rose pinned on the ground. "I know what you were thinking. I was awake the whole ti."

"Then why--"

"Well I wanted to see if you are a true man, or just another pervert!"

I topped Rose over. "Your conclusion?"

"Pervert! You're a beast!" Rose joked.

"You know what, you found my secret. Rawwroo!" I tried to mimic wolf howl and started to kiss Rose--got to finish what I started on that day.

But what happened next is totally out of our expectations. As I "howled" once or twice, several more realistic ones ca up from nearby. And that creepiness is definitely not imitated by humans.

Did I just attract real wolves?

Arooooo--

It's getting closer. Too bad, my assumption was right.

I summoned my team in a hurry. Lucky appeared first and began to clear away the surrounding bushes, because hiding places can be deadly when dealing with wolves. Getting an open ground will improve our chances.

Night Shade and Phiona are next. Their fast movent should be good against wolf packs. Phantom is a must-have. I didn't call Loong'er though. She mainly attacks by using spell matrix, which can be too slow in this situation.

The wolves appeared not long after we got ourselves prepared. Two large black monstrous wolves leaped onto a fallen tree trunk with great speed. They scouted around for a bit and locked their gazes at us. Before I can feel confident that we can deal with just two wolves, seven or eight more showed up on the tree.

Shoot. Looks like there are a lot of them.

Another snow-white wolf jumped from behind them, probably their alpha. I beca sure when I noticed its abnormally large size and that cross-shape scar between its eyes. The white wolf stared at us for a second before jumping in front of in a blink. I imdiately dragged Rose and ran. This thing's size is enough to tell that it's deadly!

The wolves didn't scare Lucky, who just rushed towards the white wolf and swiped at it, which dodged the attack with a quick side-leap. Night Shade prepared a follow-up attack but was surrounded by the other wolves before he can reach his target. Phiona tried to provide support. One of the bigger wolves crouched and jumped up, almost catching her tail. Looks like flying isn't an advantage now.

Lucky is straight-minded though. After his claw missed, he tried another swipe using his tail. The white wolf dodged again, then jumped on top of Lucky's back and began to bite at Lucky. Lucky breathed a fireball in anger out of pain, which burned down another group of wolves. Night Shade charged out of his surrounding enemies and lunged onto Lucky's back, ramming the white wolf away. He got faster speed.

I told Rose to climb onto a tree and support us using her healing and support spells, while I grabbed an ordinary sword and joined the fray. Lucky is already engaged with the alpha wolf so I can read its stats.

It doesn't look good. [Demonized Wolf (Light aspect)], level 750 Boss, Speed 230 which is the sa level with Phiona, Attack is standard, but that HP bar is beyond any tank type I've ever seen. Lucky's ultimate level is 1000 but is still having a hard ti because his current level is too low. Night Shade is faster but not really a damage dealer so he can't do anything. Phiona is trying to keep the rest of the wolves busy.

I'll have to do this on my own.

"Lucky! Restrict its movent!"

We've practiced before. This ans Lucky will cast two fire spells which form up a circle to trap the target inside. We can then attack freely from the outside using ranged skills.

The fire circle was a success but the wolf simply jumped out of it. Man that was high! I made a hard brake as the monster landed right in front of my face. I can almost feel its breath!

The wolf bent down and got ready to lunge at . A well-tid black fla wall appeared and separated us. Yup. That was from Phiona.

However the wolf still jumped over the fire wall.

"Oof!" It knocked flying with just one claw swipe, depleting my HP. That damage is expected from a boss monster who's 500 levels above .

Rose used her healing spell in ti. A warm feeling comforted . I ordered Lucky to set the entire area afla. That should hinder its movent.

It didn't go as planned though. The alpha charged straight at , completely unaffected by the surrounding fire. It was just trying to jump over the flas out of instinct. But now it noticed that these low-level spells don't cause much damage at all so it simply decided to run through them!

There's no way I can avoid such a fast attack. I was knocked outside the flaming field and crashed into a tree, breaking it. I heard shrieking from Lucky and Phiona, the collars transferred my damage to them, keeping alive. Another attack from one of the wolves managed to finish off Phiona. She can revive, though.

I don't really have anything to deal with the situation now. I jumped onto a nearby tree and used [Capture] three tis at the alpha -- which completely pissed it off. The wolf opened its jaw. A white, crescent shaped object flew towards . No idea what it is but obviously sothing I'd better avoid.

I [Blink]'d away from my spot. Snap! The tree broke in half from where I was standing, with the cut clean as if slashed by a sharp blade.

Phantom explained: "That's a typical skill used by beast type monsters, [Pressure Blast], an advanced version of wind blade."

"So it's dangerous?"

"They are dangerous enough without the skill!"

I looked at Rose who is still standing on her tree, then shouted:" Rose! Decamping tactic!"

Rose was confused by my unusual choice of word, but she soon realized what I ant when she saw de-summoning my companions. She jumped from the tree and fell onto my arms.

I threw another [Capture] at the alpha and turned tail. I never expected it to work. Never hurts to try, though.

I activated my ring and teleported us to so random plains. Then I lay on the ground to take a breather. That was so awful experience!

But I heard a system notice. "Congratulations, player Ziri successfully captured level 750 Boss monster."

"Huh?"

I saw a white pet egg in my inventory.

"That was...unexpected."

I checked the egg. Yup, it's from that alpha wolf.

Rose moved closer. "What's this?"

"A companion egg. All my companions are hatched from eggs I captured like this one. They can help you fight, or you can play with them just like normal pets if you wish to. Though I don't think I can do that with these big guys of mine."

"I see now! I never saw one of these eggs before. No one had any from where I ca for that matter."

I took Rose's hand and put the egg on it. "Yours now!"

"You don't need it?"

"I have five companions and you have none. Take it to protect yourself. This thing's fast. Should be a good companion for a wizard like you."

"Thank you thank you!" She gave an abrupt kiss on the face and, ugh. I can't control my smiling now.

"Are you still going to call Ziri from now on?"

"Honey!''

Man she's...open. "Sounds good to ."

"How do I hatch it?" Rose turned the egg around without figuring out anything.

I took her hand again and made a small cut on it, dropping her blood on the egg. She froze. Must be communicating with the system.

The process didn't take much ti. The egg burst open in her hands, leaving a small, white furball behind. But I thought it was a wolf?

The little thing stretched itself soon. It surely is the wolf before, just...tiny, and looks like a ball with all that long hair covering its body.

"Aww it's so cute!" Rose won't stop rubbing the creature against her face. "It looks beautiful! I love the pure white color. And that cross mark between the eyebrows is such a nice touch!"

I tried to explain like a professional: "Don't get confident just yet. It's level 0 now, you need to bring it to at least level 100 before it can help you fight off anything."

"Don't worry. As long as it's cute!"

Now I'm worried Rose may accidentally pluck off so of the fur from the little pup.

"Good day my friends!" Soone with full blue wizard robe showed up near us. Appears to be a player. "Nice bumping into you two here!" He stretched out one hand.

I can feel sothing is off with this guy but can't really tell what it is. However Rose didn't give it much thought and shook his hand.

The mont they contacted with each other, a strange shaped ring ca off his hand and locked itself onto Rose's. Before we can react, Rose disappeared after a flash!

"What did you do??" I drew my sword and pointed it at him.

"Ziri! I got you now! Just surrender!" The wizard looked at with an "I already won" attitude.

"What have you done to her?" I prepared to cut his head off the instant he gives an answer.

"Oh nothing really. I just sent her to the prison."

"Prison?"

"Yes! I'm a bounty hunter."

"What do you an?"

"Wait, you don't know?" He looked at in shock. "Players like us accept these quests from various bounty hunter agencies located in different cities. We get certain reward by finishing the quest, based on its difficulty and how much Evilness the target has. Each quest has a ti limit of three weeks. If we can kill or arrest the target within that limit, we get the reward, with no Evilness penalty on ourselves. But we will need to pay 1% of the bounty reward as a compensation if we fail it."

"How did you find us?"

"Bounty hunters have the right to acquire target location once per day. I happened to notice that you teleported near my city so here I am. Give up now! Surrender and you won't lose anything. You can't beat anyway. Be a good boy and go to prison with , or do you want to lose a level first?"

I chuckled. "So Rose is in that city nearby?"

"That's right. I'd just go there and keep her company if I were you. That place sucks!" He approached .