Chapter 32: The Smaller Big Bad Wolf

“So yer off ta fight da’ big bad Wolf today, ya?”

Ellena looked up from her tea. Her eyes darted around, a little confused. “I’m not… I’m not fighting the Lonely Wolf yet.”

Rugtug waved his hand dismissively. “Not that big bad Wolf! Da’ smalla’ big bad Wolf.”

“Oh, well then yeah. That’s the plan. How could you tell?”

There was a growing grin on the Tuglits lips. “Cus of that great big smile on yer’ face. I tolds ya’. We’ve been watching ya’ for a while lass. You love a good scrap.”

“Does that bothew you?”

Rugtug tilted his head. “No? Why would it?” He lifted his cup. “Everyone needsa’ hobby.”

Truth be told, that was actually a massive relief to Ellena. It was hard not to notice that particular trait of hers. A trait she didn’t know she had in her past life. It was weird. Enjoying fighting. Enjoying killing. Especially for someone who wasn’t a complete sociopath.

Ellena furrowed her brow. Wait… Am I sociopath? Like. That’s different right? Don’t they feel nothing? Is that right? Have I ever met one? What’s the difference between a sociopath and a psychopath anyways? I don’t think I’m either cus I care about a lot of people. That means I can’t be right? And its not like I don’t feel guilty, especially when I kill most monsters.

“Lassie? You okay?”

“Hmm?”

Rugtug was staring at Ellena, along with quite a few of the other Tuglits. “You’ve just been sitting there lettin’ ya’ tea a wastin’. You all good?”

Yet another trait that she wasn’t overly fond of. This one, at least, was inherited from her last life. That she knew for certain.

“Just thinking about stuff y’know?”

“Anything important?”

“No.”

Then, there was a short and awkward silence as Ellena completely broke whatever conversation was there. The rest of the Tuglits quickly carried on with their individual lives and tasks, but Rugtug stayed staring.

“I-I’m gonna go kill a big Wolf now.”

Ellena downed the rest of her tea and quickly leapt from her chair. She waved goodbye to the mage who wished her good luck even as she darted through the tunnel.

Of course she could have told Rugtug exactly what she was thinking. She didn’t even know why she didn’t. Perhaps the ex-Human just wasn’t ready for that exact conversation yet. It would mean delving into things she didn’t know about herself and she definitely didn’t know the Tuglit well enough for that yet.

The Mushman took her mind off of her self imposed awkward conversations by fighting through various Black Wolves. This time the corridor in which she fought a dozen Sabretoothed Black Wolves only held a couple. Perhaps that was thanks to the war she caused those days before. The Black Wolves must have been struggling to regain their numbers even with the dungeons mana.

Still, she had to preserve her strength. She was still yet to see the giant Sabretoothed Wolf in action. What it could do, how fast it was. All she knew was that it was definitely going to be her hardest fight yet, but then that was any fight against a boss.

The giant Black Wolf was lazing around on the ground when she first spotted them. Being groomed by two Sabretoothed Wolves either side. A kingly treatment. Or, at least that was how Ellena interpreted it.

This was the first chance for her to get a proper look given their last interaction. The appearance of the giant Wolf was almost disappointing. Other than having six pairs of the long jagged teeth that the other Sabretooths Wolves had, he was wholly un-unique.

Ellena took a few shallow breaths and summoned two shields. Send them into the two Sabretoothed Wolves. The two Wolves instantly lost their heads before they could even fight back. The boss noticed immediately, and turned to Ellena, pure hatred in their eyes. Whether she was ready or not, this fight was definitely on and she could not stop herself from grinning.

The Wolf lunged at the small Mushman, who pulled both of her shields back to her side, creating a small wall. They weren’t enough though. The sheer force of the bosses body hitting hers sent her flying into the jagged rocks behind her.

Mushman blood shot from her lips as multiple pointed tips jutted into her back. Not that she had time to nurse them as the big Wolf was backing up ready for another lunge. Another one would break the shields. They were both already heavily damaged.

An idea came to the ex-Human. She grinned, waiting for the Wolf to lunge again. Then, just as it was about to meet head to shield, she hastily moved them and herself away, letting the Wolf hit the wall head first.

The entire room shook, dust dropped from the ceiling and the Wolf cried out in pain. It backed up, shaking its head as droplets of blood darted across all the walls. Ellena used the opportunity to run under the beast and boost her body into its soft belly.

She rather overestimated her strength though. The Wolf did bounce, and spit out even more blood, but Ellena was knocked backwards to the floor, disorientated. It may not have lasted long, but it was enough for her foe to spin around and claw her.

Ellena felt each long claw rip into her skin. One cutting her left arm from its socket, the other two leaving visible rips in her torso. She felt the pain and she felt it raw. Burning, bruising and terrible. She could feel the breath of the beast hit her innermost parts and watched her arms fall to the floor.

The Mushman fell to her knees, dribbling blood out of all three gashes. She looked up at the Wolves great jaws that approached her. If it weren’t for her pain resistance, this situation would have meant the end of her life, but she still held enough consciousness to think of a plan.

Both Mushroom shields flew into the bosses mouth, stopping it from closing its colossal maw. Ellena had a short moment to catch her breath and dart backwards. Intermediate Regeneration would slowly heal her, including her arm eventually, but she would have to win this fight at an even greater disadvantage. There was no way to run now.

Eventually, despite doubling them up, the Wolf broke the first shield. With the decent mana pool that Ellena now held, she summoned two new shields, giving her three. She was yet to check if there was a limit to how many she could wield at once, but the strain on her brain was more of a worry. Coordinating multiple shields was a little much for her.

Even so, she persevered. Just before the Wolf ripped through the last shield in its mouth, she used the other two to crush either side of its jaw together. As the middle shield shattered it ripped through the top and bottoms of the Wolfs mouth.

The beast began to whimper and pawed at its shattered jaw. Ellena curled her remaining hand into a fist and punched the creature's jaw once again who howled out in pain. She began to pepper it repeatedly with the shields, over and over. Individually they would never have the strength to pierce the bosses skin, but quickly the overwhelming flurry did its job.

Second after second, moment after moment the Wolf tried to fight the onslaught, but Ellena never gave an inch. The shields, her fist and head, rapidly battering the Wolf. Then, she managed to knock it into a wall and the beating grew even faster. She summoned another shield and screamed as her onslaught finally pierced the beast's skull.

At last, the Wolf fell, its face an unrecognisable mess. Luckily, she wouldn’t need the head to turn this particular giant into leather. Not that she had any particular ideas for it just yet, but it would be handy to have it ready for when she did.

“Overall level has increased from [Level 44] to [Level 51]!”

“Unique skill [{Mushroom Helmet lvl 27}] has increased to [{Mushroom Helmet lvl 28}]!”

“Skill [Warriors WIll lvl 9] has increased to [Warriors Will lvl 10]!”

“Skill [Warriors Strength lvl 4] has increased to [Warriors Strength lvl 5]!”

“Skill [Intermediate Regeneration lvl 4] has increased to [Intermediate Regeneration lvl 6]!”

For a moment Ellena had forgotten about the fact that a good chunk of her torso was missing along with her arm. Two levels in regeneration helped bring her back to reality. She looked down, then immediately felt faint, falling backwards.

Her body was caught by something soft though. She looked around through blurred vision to see the ground elevated below her. “W-Wha?”

“Don’t worry lassie, I’ve gotcha. Quite da’ wound you’ve taken.” A familiar voice replied.

Near the entrance to the room, a familiar tuglit came into view. Rugtug was leaning against the door with a smirk. He nodded towards the Wolf before Ellena could reply.

“Ya healin’ is gonna take a while, you want me to drop the body off atcha house?”

“D-do you know whewe I live?”

Rugtug thought for a moment. “Ah. I guess not,” he shrugged. “Well I can carry it for ya. Well I say carry, it’ll be my magic doing the hauling.”

Ellena had no reason to refuse. She looked down at the stump where her regenerated limb slowly grew. Unlike her adopted family she didn’t have an ancient kings curse holding back her skills.

She turned back to Rugtug, barely awake, just clinging to her consciousness. “I’ll take you up on that offew,” she replied simply.