The "Best" RPG Ever-8

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Breakfast the next morning was provided with the night's stay. After they had ordered their food, Zack looked across the table at Katherine, almost glaring. "What exactly happened last night?" he said, directly.

"Oh, well..I found out that being a Psion makes sleeping very different," she answered. "Basically, I have much more control over the parts of my mind that other people usually aren't aware of, so I have a lot of control over my dreams. And with the mental communication skill, I can actually look in on, and even enter, the dreams of anyone sleeping nearby. But I don't have any real control once I'm there, except over myself and whether I stay or leave. I could sort of tell you were having a bad dream, and I wanted to help, but I didn't really have enough influence to do anything. Really, sorry about that."

Zack glared for another few seconds, and then sighed and uncrossed his arms. "..It's all right," he said, "just please don't do it again without warning me before I go to sleep."
"Sure."

"So, did you go in my dreams after that?" asked the witch. "I think I remember something about a black cat with your voice...and a bunch of dark, gothic structures..um.."
"Yeah, I did for a while. It was always so dark in there, and it visually looked like what I'd expect from a nightmare, but I could tell it wasn't one because you were pretty happy and calm the whole time."

"Sooo, was it not a normal dream?"
She shrugged. "I dunno. I've been in exactly two dreams that weren't mine, and I never really researched this kind of stuff before. But it was fun, at least."

"Good enough for me!"

"Uh, what're we gonna do today?" asked Nora.

"Well, I need to buy some things," said Zack. "And then I guess we'll go on another job."

Mika looked over at him. "What kind of things?"

"Nothing expensive. I just want something to wear that isn't armor. This is surprisingly comfortable for what it is, but I can't sleep in it, and it'd be nice to have something lighter to wear."

"Well, while you're doing that maybe you can sell that quiver we found," said Katherine. "And the rest of us can find a job to do."

"Yeah, that'll save some time," he said.

"You seem awfully trusting of our judgement on that," said the Psion.

He shrugged. "Considering I approved of the last one, and it still turned out to be ridiculously hard, I don't think you can do that much worse. Just make sure to get whatever information you can from the town guard first. If they think it's way too much for us, then reconsider it."

"Makes sense," said Katherine.

---

"Um..dire wolves?" said Nora. "I've always kinda..wondered what 'dire' means."

Mika had the paper, and the others were looking over her shoulder. "It's basically just a really nasty wolf," said Katherine, "bad enough to count as a monster instead of an animal. Zack and I ran into one right when we started. They're not too hard to kill."

"Hm, yeah, just one maybe, but are you sure about a whole pack of them?" asked Mika.

"Well, this bill comes from the guard, and it's out on the main board. So they must not think it's too big a deal, either. C'mon, let's ask them."

She went over to a nearby guardsman, the witch and weaver in tow, and said, "Hey, what do you know about this wolf pack business?"
The guardsman held out his hand and Mika gave him the bill. After a quick glance he said, "Oh, that. There's this pack of dire wolves blocking the south road. It's a real pain, 'cause every time a bunch of fighters go out to kill the pack, the dern alpha keeps getting away and then goes and finds a new pack somewhere. But the road's usually clear for a month or two after, anyway. The alpha does attack, but not as much as it could. Doesn't want to take a risk at gettin' seriously hurt, I'd wager. So...just about anyone can clear them off if you're careful."

"Huh. Any idea why that alpha keeps blocking that particular road?" said Mika.

He shrugged. "Nope. It's real strange, too, they don't attack people who go far enough 'round, even if it should by all rights take 'em through the pack's natural territory."

---

"So we're fighting a pack of dire wolves," said Zack, looking over the job paper.

Mika answered, "Yep!" The four players were standing on the south edge of town.

"You do know that based on this they outnumber us two to one, so at least one is gonna pounce at each of us, right?"

"We'll manage," said Katherine, starting to walk down the south road.. "Anyway, didn't you say you wouldn't object?" The others followed.
"I'm not objecting, I'm just making sure everyone understands. You okay with this, Nora?"
The elf-girl nodded. "Yeah. I figured out how to pull up some of the earth fairly fast, so I should be able to knock away anything that gets too close."

"By the way, did you actually spend any of your skill points?" asked Katherine. "Having some new skills might actually come in handy."

"Um..I don't really have any," said Nora.

"You get them from killing stuff. But I meant Mika and Zack."

"I have a few more passive abilities that make me better at fighting, and a weak heal spell," said Zack. "And I can switch between that defensive form and this one whenever I want now."

Mika nodded. "I learned to throw more dangerous pumpkins. Also, a demon summoning spell, but that takes some preparation. Until I absorb another demon that's about all I can learn to do."

"So wait, you can summon demons?" said Katherine.
The witch raised her hands, palm-up. "Yeah, but I can't control them. I think the idea is that I can make a demon appear, kill it and take its essence, so I can get more powerful even if whatever quests I take on don't have me fighting any demons. The catch is that for every essence I've absorbed, the demon summoned is lots more powerful. Which means I..or you guys..have to be good enough to beat something more powerful. But then, of course, I get that much more power from absorbing it, too. I think we could already handle what would come out now, though."

Nora said, "So..shouldn't we do that as soon as possible so you'll be as powerful as you can be?"

Mika shrugged. "I have to get some components and things, probably by buying them, and a clear space, preferably away from town so the townsfolk don't have to see it and get even more suspicious of me. Also it has to be after dark. I was gonna mention it at some point, but I figured there wouldn't be a point to talking about it yet."

They continued walking for a while, until eventually the shapes of a bunch of wolves showed up on the road ahead. "That's our mark," said Katherine.

Zack deadpanned, "Thank you for stating the obvious."

"Well..I thought maybe one of you guys didn't see it." They kept walking, and stopped five or six yards away from the wolves.

"Wow..those guys look pretty terrifying," said Nora. "It's..kinda creepy. They're just standing there, watching us."
"Their goal is apparently to block the road," said Katherine. "They'd leave us alone if we gave them a wide berth, or turned back."

"And..that'll be the alpha," said Zack, pointing to a particularly large wolf pacing around the back of the group, with entirely white fur and scars all over its body. He drew his weapons. "Ready?"

"Yeah," said Katherine, putting a hand to her head.

Mika got her broom-staff out of inventory, and held it like a bat. "Yep!"

"Um..yeah." Nora 'took hold' of some of the soil nearby, pulling it taut—not quite moving it around, but getting it ready to be moved.

"Okay, let's go." Zack silently charged at the wolves, and they reacted by charging straight at the group. He focused on the first one to get nearby, blocking its attempt to bite him with the smaller sword, picking up its head while it was still holding onto the sword with its jaws, and sliced at its neck with the large blade. The wolf's jaw went slack and it slumped over immediately. He had to move aside as another wolf jumped at him, and swung the thin blade at another that tried to get too close.

Mika started throwing pumpkins right away—the dangerous kind. They exploded on impact into shards that were somehow sharper and more solid than usual, and those shards buried themselves into the crowd of charging wolves, slowing quite a few of them down. Katherine stunned the first wolf to get too close, followed by a swift telekinetic stab to the gut. She pulled that knife out while striking another out into the mouth of the next approaching animal, stabbing up to catch the more vital part of its head from the inside. Both fell over, and the two kept the flow of attacks going, Katherine generally drawing enemies away from the witch and weaver. When there came to be too many for Katherine to keep away, Nora lifted the earth. It was like an unusually thick, solid rug was being pulled up from under several of the wolves, and its momentum sent them flying back, a few landing on their heads and not getting back up.

Zack kept going, assessing the situation as he went. It looked like about half of the wolves were surrounding him, trying (successfully, in fact) to get the occasional bite or swipe of claws at him, while the other half were split between charging the other three and..going around them? That wasn't a good sign. The alpha was still hanging back.

"Look behind you!" yelled Zack, and Nora did just that. She saw a wolf jumping at her, and ducked to one side, pushing the air as hard as she could to the other. The wolf experienced a sudden, extremely strong gust of wind, and went tumbling to the ground, landing wrong due to the unexpected change of direction. Nora picked up the tallest hunk of earth she could manage and threw it at the crowd of wolves behind the one that had tackled her. Katherine took advantage of the stunned wolf and stabbed it before provoking the rest of the front wolves and running off to one side, trying to lead them closer to the wolves that had gone around the three girls.

Zack was now rid of most of the wolves that had come after him, though with several scratches and bites in his armor and skin to show for it. None of them looked or felt serious, even though they were definitely past whatever threshold the defer injury provided. He ran back toward the others, casting a healing spell on himself along the way, and then turned around and slashed at the closest of the wolves following him.

Katherine managed to get back to the group about when Zack did, and by now there were only a few of the wolves remaining. Then the alpha made its move, charging straight at the party of four and pouncing toward Zack with a speed that seemed impossible for its size. Zack's reflexes were still good enough to stab the thin sword up at the wolf, but it seemed to glance off the creature's belly fur and barely change its course at all. Zack went down under the animal's weight, dropping the heavier sword in the process.

Nora continued using the earth and wind to redirect the wolves, keeping them as close together and far away as possible so Mika could keep bombing them, and trying to allow only one or two near at a time so Katherine could deal with them. They all saw the alpha tackle Zack, but the other wolves were moving too quickly; helping him would mean being open to one of their attacks. At any rate, he seemed to be doing reasonably well. He pushed the alpha's neck back with his right hand so its bite couldn't quite reach him, and met its claw-swipes with his own left-hand slashes. They rolled around on the ground for a little bit before the wolf finally jumped back, Zack stood up, and then paused, both panting and waiting for the other to move.

After a few more seconds, the alpha suddenly howled. It didn't seem to be an ordinary howl: It hurt the players' ears and gave them all a slight headache, Zack and Katherine worse than the other two. The other wolves, for some reason, responded to this howl by ceasing their attack and running around the group to behind the alpha.

Zack gritted his teeth and bent over, picking up his main sword, readying to attack with it but not making his move just yet. The three girls turned toward the group of wolves and got ready to start fighting again, too, all of them panting and clearly tired from the fight so far.

The alpha didn't attack. It gave a growl that bled into a bark, and shook its head. Katherine lowered her weapons. "...Hm?"

"What is it?" asked Zack.

"Well..you know I can partially read minds now, right? I think he just said something. I could hear it...but couldn't quite.."

The wolf barked again, three times in succession. "..Oh! I think I understood that time. He says..he wants your pack."

"What?" said Zack.

The catgirl shrugged. "Apparently he thinks we're your pack, and wants to challenge your leadership. Is that it?"

The wolf appeared to nod, and growled again, and continued vocalizing as Katherine translated.

"Hm...he wants..a one-on-one fight. No..pointy things or third skins. If he loses, you can..command him."

Zack lowered his weapons. "Give me a minute." The wolf appeared to nod again.

He turned around to face the others. "Do you think this is a good idea? I'm pretty sure he wants me to fight without any weapons or armor."

"Well," said Nora, "I'm sure the guard would be very happy if the wolves stopped blocking this road for good."

"Come on, wouldn't having a giant wolf at your command be awesome?" said Mika.

"Well, sure, but.."
"What, you don't think you can take him?" said Katherine. "I bet you can take him."

"If I lose, you'll have to answer to a wolf for..probably the rest of this game. However long that is. You think it's worth the risk?"

"Aww, come on, you wouldn't let that happen," said the catgirl.

"Yeah," said the witch. "I haven't known you all that long, Zack, but I think the Knight class was perfect for you. You jumped right in front of a giant goblin to protect me. If you could take that guy, I'm sure you can take some mangy old wolf, right?"

"..All right then. Just remember I didn't decide to do this without asking you first," said Zack.

He turned around. "Okay, I'll accept your challenge. Give me a minute to get rid of the armor, and we can start." Then he turned around and walked a few yards away from the wolves, the other three following. He sheathed his swords and removed the knight's armor, skirt and leggings first folowed by the top, shoulderpad, and cloak. Each piece fell to the ground with a surprising amount of weight. When he was done, he was left wearing a pair of bike shorts and a tank top.

"So that's the clothes you bought then," said Katherine, grinning.

"Shut up. It's all that would fit under the armor."

"I wasn't saying anything bad about it. Looks good on you. Really brings out—"
"Katherine. I am seriously reconsidering risking what might be my actual life on this. Shut. Up."

"Okay, okay. Sheesh."

With that, the knight walked back over to where the alpha was waiting, sitting on his haunches on the ground. The other wolves had backed way off, same as Zack's "pack". He crossed his arms, looking into the animal's eyes. "Well..you ready?" he said. The wolf barked. "Let's get this over with then."

The creature stood up, its body tensing, and growled. Zack could feel himself tensing up instinctively in response. He could hear something coming from the back of his own throat, a low, gravelly sound..a growl? It was almost involuntary, a reflex or instinct of some kind he hadn't been aware of before. They looked at each other, waiting for the first move for several seconds. Finally, the alpha pounced at Zack.

He moved aside, kicking the animal in the leg. It landed, whirled around, and was on him almost before he had his foot back on the ground. He managed to stay on his feet, his tail moving to keep him balanced against the heavy weight smashing against his chest, and shoved it back with both of his arms. The wolf landed on its back on the ground, and Zack took this opportunity to pounce himself, landing on top of it.

He started punching and shoving at the creature as hard and fast as he could. It moved its muzzle to bite him and he moved his head away, and they kept going like this for several tense seconds before the wolf forced itself onto one side, taking Zack around with it. He grabbed its neck with his hands as it started clawing at his right side, and after a few seconds he was forced to let go and kick it in the stomach, rolling away and quickly standing back up. The wolf was up as soon as he was, and then they were looking at each other again.

This time Zack made the first move, feinting half of a kick toward the wolf's head before running around and kicking it in the side. The wolf turned its head around and bit his ankle on its way back to the ground, which caused him to stagger back briefly. It took advantage of that to pounce on top of him, and Zack had to struggle away from the creature's jaws again, trying to push it off. Suddenly he found himself moving his head around the wolf's muzzle and biting one of its ears. He hadn't been expecting to do that, and when the wolf rolled back off of him, yelping in pain, he sat up, spitting bits of fur and blood out. None of it tasted good.

The wolf recovered and jumped at him again before he could stand up, and Zack responded by making a swift kick angled up-left to its stomach, which made it land to one side of him. He stood up, whirled around, and jumped onto the wolf's back, his hands grabbing the fur of its front shoulders and his nails digging into the flesh underneath. The wolf stood up and started running, and Zack held on, lying forward on the wolf's back, digging his feet into its haunches and pushing and pulling at it, trying to make it stop. Eventually the wolf lost its balance and tumbled to one side, sending Zack off in that side. He stood up as quickly as he could, and the wolf stood up a bit more slowly.

He took advantage of the extra time, landing a kick under the wolf's muzzle, stunning the creature long enough to get closer, pick it up by its front shoulders, and throw it to one side, against a nearby tree. He walked up to it slowly, feeling physically exhausted now but getting ready to pick it up again anyway, but then he paused, hearing the wolf whine a few times as it slowly got up.

Katherine ran up. "He's giving up," she said. "You did it, Zack! Also, holy crow, remind me not to make you angry."

"Yeah, sure," he said, panting. "So..you'll stop blocking the road then?" he said, pointing at the wolf. The wolf lay down and gave a weak bark.

"He says you're the alpha now. He'll do whatever you tell him to do."

"Huh. You're not gonna challenge me again as soon as you get better, are you?"
The wolf barked again. "He says..not for a while."

"That..that's good." Zack nodded, and then collapsed onto the ground, passing out.

---

Took me a long while to get around to writing those two fight scenes at the end. I knew basically what would happen, but had a major writing block for a while on coming up with the specifics of that particular part.