Forged By The Apocalypse - A LitRPG With Draconic Potential

My approach to the battle ongoing in the bog was not aided by Air Manipulation, as that apparently made me sound like a jet engine to Naea’s magical senses and I didn’t want to interrupt. There was no reason for me to interfere here in what was technically none of my business. However, a thrill pushed me forward, one I couldn’t ignore even if I had wanted to. The pale moonlight illuminated the scene while sparks and currents of mana lit up the battle like fireworks.

It was beautiful.

This was the world outside the dungeon. This was what the Earth had become in the months since magic appeared and tore any semblance of sanity from our lives. Monsters appeared, a challenge from The Tree. Survive and grow stronger, or die as the growing hordes amass against you, that was the rule. In Ascentown, our strength was in numbers, the ability to plan and prepare. Merchants, crafters and labourers could find their place under that umbrella of safety.

Out here, in the wilds, survival of the fittest took hold. We had seen few creatures of any description in our day of travelling, and the reason for that was now clear. When two beings met in the wilderness, it meant death for the other. The beings surviving out in the wild were either powerful, or careful, or in the worst case they were both. I gently jogged over the loamy soil, tapping lightly as I landed to keep myself from getting stuck in the mud. The two beasts were throwing each other around quite successfully, if nothing else, so it was a task just to keep an eye on the fight.

With a roaring crash and a howling descent to follow, the pair of unwieldy fighters tumbled into something of a ravine. The space was wide enough for movement, but it was clear this would be where the final stand took place. The turtle might be able to get out of the pit, if it didn’t have a furry drill trying to pierce its tough shell. I was surprised at the speed of not just the werewolf, but the turtle, too. Neither had the clear advantage.

Monster - Briarlurk Terrorpin - Level 26

Standing at eleven feet at its highest point, and at least as wide as it was tall, the huge amphibian brought back some uncomfortable nostalgia. My time in the first dungeon was plagued by this thing’s humanoid cousins, after all. I found myself cheering for the werewolf as I took in the larger creature’s form. It was a mossy green, with large angry eyes and a sharp snout. Its shell rose with spikes and from its shell, whips of barbed plant material lashed out.

Despite the large monster's somewhat disappointing level, I was pleased. The System was at least getting better at naming things. Unlike the large target of the shelled beast, the werewolf was harder to pin down and analyse, often slipping under the legs or around the other side of the shell. When the lashes caught it, it either slashed them or ripped them right out of the terrapin’s shell. It was taking some cuts for its trouble, though. Naea and I gave a running commentary, using our bond to speak silently.

“Do you think I could have beaten the turtle at level thirty?” Naea asked, curious. I told her that she absolutely would, and it wasn’t a lie. Even without a weapon like her size-changing Chibizashi, she would have been able to slip into the joints easily enough. Once you got past the defences, it should be simple business to finish it off. The issue was getting in close, but Naea would have been fast enough by far.

“You’d have torn it apart, little reaper. Looks like the turtle realised it can’t win like this, watch out.” My warning was casual and mostly for flavour. A large explosion of mana burst from the feet of the terrapin. Unlike a tortoise, with their thick hoof-like feet, or a sea turtle with flippers, the Briarlurk Terrorpin had paws with uncomfortably human proportions. The fingers of these hands plunged into the soft ground and all of the ambient mana in the area came under its control. My eyes widened, impressed.

The werewolf noticed something was wrong, too. It tore at the shell, trying to rip the hide away but the terrapin was too durable. In the moments of growing crescendo, I locked down the mana in the area around Naea and I. A few seconds later, thorny whips launched out of the ground, roots appeared where they hadn’t been moments before. A brutal blender of thick, powerful vines covered in knife-length thorns all attacked at once.

In an equally impressive showing of speed and control, the bipedal wolf zipped through the growing bramble, claws flashing in the moonlight. Within ten seconds, dozens of vines had sprouted, growing fast and aimed directly for the wolf. Many lay scattered as it dodged and tore at the assault, but the offence was overwhelming. A pair of wrapping rose stems caught the wolf’s right arm and left leg, spelling trouble. “Looks like that’s it,” Naea said with a frown, her emotions glum. She had clearly chosen a side, too.

“Nah, watch.” I could sense the air starting to change. Even the mana around myself was being affected, past my own control. The terrapin had used its trump card, and now it was time for the werewolf to take its turn. I tasted the energy on the air with curiosity. Not quite a Dao, but something powerful…

The two thorned shackles became four, and then many more as the Briarlurk Terrorpin gave everything it had to crush the last resistance. The dome of thorns pulsed as the Briarlurk Terrorpin continued to expend its energy. In vain, I expected. The thing had become physically smaller as it spent biomass alongside mana to fuel this attack. Maybe it could absorb the plant matter back into itself, but it wouldn’t have the chance.

An ear-splitting howl began to keen, not from inside the dome, but from above. I looked up, and the moon seemed to be twice as large in the sky, completely full where the shadows had been before. A ripping sound could be heard all around the ravine, and a few moments later a furious, bloody and much larger werewolf emerged. It breathed heavily, warm breath steaming in the cool night air.

The werewolf was somewhat awkwardly proportioned before, but now it was exaggerated massively. Initially, it’s arms were slightly longer, ending in wide claws hands while its legs had thick and powerful thighs, but the thin thighs of a predator built for sprints. Its ears pointed up atop a head with an elongated snout full of razor sharp teeth, and the fur covering it was a muddy brown. Far more muddy now than it had been.

The features had become even more wolven under the light of the magically enhanced moon. It had lost most of its humanoid features, prowling forward as a gigantic wolf. Where it had hands before, they were definitely paws now, and it walked forward like a gorilla or a bear more than anything else. In fear, the terrified terrapin retreated into its shell.

“Ooh,” Naea gasped aloud, “that’s a bad idea!” She gave up on our quiet communication and shouted her advice to the unheeding turtle. The wolf’s eyes snapped towards us though and I rolled mine. I didn’t bother chiding Naea for getting us caught watching. With nothing left in its tank, the turtle could only withdraw inwards and hope. Its prayers were for naught as the werewolf flexed. Its long claws dug into the ground and churned it slightly as its back arched. The howl which had been whistling through the air was joined by another.

This time, the howl ripped from the jaws of hell itself, and even I felt myself shiver as the intimidating battle cry sent verberations through the air and mana. Despite my overpowered Will attribute, I was convinced for a moment that the jaws of death were closing around my throat. I shrugged off the mental assault, and swept the effects away from Naea, but I was once more impressed.

The fight was already over, but the turtle’s life was still there to be reaped. Obliging, the wolf shot forward like an arrow. It seemed to almost vanish for a moment, tackling the shell of the terrapin into the wall of the ravine they battled within. Shoving forward with its back legs, I could hear crunching and wailing from inside the shell that caused me to wince. The cracking intensified, the shell buckling from within. With another mighty roar, the wolf stood.

Despite the shell around them.

The Briarlurk Terrorpin was thoroughly demolished and shards of chitinous viscera scattered into the air. Even before it had caught its breath, the wolf’s eyes once again snapped to Naea and I. We had set up position at the edge of the ravine, my legs dangling down. For the first time, I noticed the eyes of this beast. They were bright blue, illuminated in the moonlight to look like the sky on a bright day. The humanity and beauty of them felt out of place in a werewolf. It must have seen something it didn’t like in my own eyes, and showing it still had intelligence in this larger form, ran away instead of challenging me or Naea.

For a while, I stayed by the ravine. Naea even dropped down to see if she could loot the turtle, but it wasn’t our kill so no such luck. “I shouldn’t be surprised,” I called over to her, “but that one shocked me. Do you think I’d turn into one if it bit me?”

“What?” Naea almost looked disgusted. “Why would that happen?”

“Well, it’s normally a curse or a disease or something in stories.” I was honestly excited, my inner wannabe goth and nerd enjoying this turn of events. Werewolves were cool, I always enjoyed a good body-horror werewolf movie. Pretty much any horror movie, actually. “Actually, that’s not far from zombies at that point. One apocalypse at a time.”

“Zombies? Those are real!” Naea told me, excited to be in the know again. We had already decided to take it easy for the night, so I shared some more scary stories with Naea. She matched some of them to things she knew about the System. I rarely took advantage of the weird encyclopaedia which was her brain, but maybe I should. She fell asleep, beginning to snore around the time I finished describing the first Evil Dead movie. That one was one of my favourites, I thought to myself while tucking Naea into a safe spot on my bed inside the large tent.

Calmly, I went outside with a cup of coffee. I wasn’t going to sleep while Naea did, we always kept one of us on watch. I found myself wondering if there were still databases of the culture humanity had made. Being in the wilderness, with monsters from fairy tales and nightmares running around, it was easy to assume there was nothing left but the end of the world. I didn’t like the thought, so I sat down and tried to take my mind off things.

It had been far too long since I did some inner world maintenance.