The alpha pulled its ears back and growled, alerting the other two to my presence. I darted past the pillar toward the center of the room and threw my first spear. It hurtled through the air like a bullet at one of the subordinates. The wolf barely had time to look in my direction before my spear shot through the side of its neck with a spray of gore. It died on the spot.

  Not stopping, I summoned another spear. The two remaining monsters howled and charged in mirrored arcs to surround me. That was the problem with fighting in larger rooms: they could use the pack tactics that the corridors didn't allow.

  Not that the two of them together amounted to anything substantial. I'd been fighting the wolves for a few days now, and I knew all their little tricks and tactics.

  I strained my legs to change the direction of my sprint and turned ninety degrees to the right, rushing to the closest pillar. The wolves conversed with howls and snarls—or so I liked to think—and followed. One of them had to slow its pace to avoid reaching me before the other, which gave me enough time to peek out from behind cover and hurl another spear.

  It tore through the air with a sharp whistle, faster than the first. I'd intentionally been holding back to not show the full extent of my skill. Even though it knew about the attack pattern, the Direwolf could do nothing but stare as my spear pierced its skull. Life left its eyes, and it crumpled to the floor, leaving only me and the alpha.

  I stepped out from behind cover with a third spear. The other two had already started to fade out of being. Heaving my arm up and down, I wore a smug grin and locked eyes with the beast. Each level jump of enhanced throw came with massive boosts of power, and I'd been dying to see how well it worked on a stronger opponent. This fight was just what I needed before the next floor.

  Rushing forward, I met the alpha in the middle of the room and shoved it back with my shield. I was still not strong enough to overpower it—far from it—but it was wary of me after my display of power in killing the others so easily, and for good reason.

  My spear tore through the space between us, ripping into its front leg. It growled and slammed into my shield with its other paw. Vibrations ran through the wood and into my bones, yet I grinned.

  I'm getting stronger.

  I leaned into the impact and stuck close to the wolf. Even when it tried to retreat, I pressed on and pressured it from behind the safety of my shield. The sound of my spear whistling through air became the rhythm of our battle, the only other sounds being our increasingly labored breathing. Before long, I had it cornered between two pillars. It whirled its head around, looking for a way to escape. Its ears pressed back against its skull as it glared at me while baring its teeth.

  Edging slightly to the left, I gave it an out and loosened my grip on the spear shaft ever so slightly.

  The wolf lunged forward, slashing with a paw and forcing me to block the strike with my shield. Unseen behind the shield, I smiled and listened for the sound of it darting away. As soon as I heard the rapid beat of its paws striking the floor, I whirled around and threw the spear. It punched through the air like a thunderclap.

  The Alpha turned to look, but my spear was already digging deep into its ribs. It could do nothing but watch.

  The spear shot out the other side of the wolf and slammed into the wall with a reverberating boom, making the chamber shake and fine stone dust rain down from the ceiling.

  We shared a moment of silence, me and the wolf. Blood poured out of the wound in its chest before it slumped forward and closed its eyes.

  You have defeated [Direwolf Alpha LV34]

  You have defeated [Direwolf LV24]

  You have defeated [Direwolf LV24]

  I stared at the three corpses littering the ground with a complicated expression.

  No level up? Maybe that makes sense. The fight didn't feel very hard...

  They hadn't really put up a fight. There wasn't even enough time for Flow state to activate. I headed over to the Alpha and pulled out my spear before sitting down on its massive frame. Before I headed through the gate, I needed to recover my stamina anyway, and I was out of food. My stomach growled louder than the Alpha ever had. Sharing a look with Iron, I scratched my neck with a chuckle. If the boss was on the other side of the door, could I really enter without making the proper preparations?

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  * * *

  I glared at Iron as he circled the chamber of my latest battle. "Stop judging me. I eat because I need to, not because I'm snackish."

  He chirped, sarcastically, forcing a harumph out of me as I turned away from him with my nose pointing into the air.

  I snorted, "Whatever." My face was hot with smeared blood as I took another bite out of the Alpha. Surprisingly, it tasted fine. I expected it to be tough as cardboard, but it was quite tender, although very gamey. Just thinking about the chance to cook it over a coal fire with some seasoning made my eyes water. The thought also numbed my taste buds from the monotony of raw meat.

  Drying my mouth with my sleeve, I finished the meal with a burp and leaned back against the chamber wall with a satisfied smile. I really couldn't complain about life, even with the world ending and all. I had food and a sort of roof over my head, which was more than many had during civilization. Sure, I missed my friends and the comfort of a warm shower, but the more time I spent here, the more I felt I could get used to it.

  After my Stamina recovered, I decided to get a move on. The dungeon wasn't going to explore itself. Leaving the corpses of the wolves behind with a downtrodden look, I made my way over to the gate. The doors were heavy as all hell, and I had to put my whole weight behind me as I pushed. They opened with a low groan, revealing a shade of pitch black inside. I swallowed and cast a glance at Iron.

  Here goes.

  Blue letters scribbled themselves into my field of view.

  [Direwolf Lair floor 3]

  They were all I saw. The rest was just darkness. Wherever I turned, I saw nothing. It wasn't until I began to walk deeper inside that torches flickered alight with flames, the first visible source of light I'd seen since entering the dungeon. Flames were a terrible idea in a cave. I could only hope it wouldn't burn through my oxygen.

  As I walked, more torches lit up, as if in welcome for me to delve deeper inside. I summoned a spear and double checked the condition of my shield in my other hand. Clenching my hand against the weaponry sent a pulse of false security running through my body--a very welcome sense of security.

  My shadow danced along the walls to my sides, sinking into the engraved letters and making them seem deeper than they were. Pieces of broken stone littered the floor from the etching. It crunched under my boots as I walked. Suspense weighed heavy on my shoulders and seemed to spread to Iron as the bird flapped silently behind me, chirplessly.

  It took no more than a few minutes before another gate loomed in the distance. A brazier stood to either side of it and burned as fiercely as small infernos. They made my skin prickle as I stood between them and craned my neck to look up at the enormity of the door. Its surface bore intricate carvings depicting a pack of wolves on a wild hunt, their horde illuminated by a silver moon that was split in the middle by the gate's crack. I ran my fingers against the carvings, feeling every cut of the chisel press against my skin. I had never seen anything like it. This was art.

  With a touch as light as a feather, the doors opened. There were no loud groans or creaks, only a silence that beckoned me inside a circular room without a roof. A bed of ivory flowers covered the ground with a layer of snow white petals. If I wasn't mistaken, it was still day outside, yet silver moonlight illuminated my steps as I walked inside. In the middle of it all, stood a pillar of shining silver. Bold letters scribbled its surface and made it look scratched from afar.

  My steps fell silent on the supple flowerbed. It bent ever so slightly underfoot, adding a slight spring to my step. I took a deep breath and savored the crisp air with a slight smile as something stirred behind the pillar.

  I froze, clenching my hand around the spear as a slender figure rested a thin hand against the pillar of silver and peeked out from behind its cover.

  A woman.

  I bit my lower lip to keep my jaw from falling open in admiration of her beauty, because she really was beautiful—more so than any person I had ever seen. Her skin was as pale as the brightest of lights, and her hair was darker than night. It fell down her naked shoulders all the way down to her hips. She stared at me curiously as I approached and tilted her head. Her eyes cut through the room like a pair of glossy pieces of amber and pierced straight into my soul. My heart raced, and I jerked my eyes away from her naked body.

  "I'm sorry!" I exclaimed, taking a step back.

  She giggled and stepped out from behind the pillar fully. I cast a glance her way and immediately regretted my decision. She did nothing to hide her body, even though most of it was covered by that raven black mane of hers. It swayed gently in the wind and revealed her beautiful skin.

  "How did you get here?" she asked, her voice crackling with dissonant magic, and brushed a piece of hair behind her ear.

  Something within me stirred at the sight of her knife shaped ear. An elf?

  "Forgive me. I was just making my way through a dungeon. I didn't expect there to be other people."

  Her smile fell, and the air between us shifted from curiosity to tension. I gulped.

  "Dungeon..." she mumbled, tilting her head to stare at the moon with a slow exhale. "So the time for our dawn has come."

  She glared at me, bending down to all fours and howling. I didn't really know where to look at first, but when her body started morphing, bone visibly shifting under her skin, I knew I couldn't look away.

  Her head snapped to mine, and she forced the words out through clenched teeth. "Be proud, stub ear. You face Aerendyl in battle."

  [Huntress of the Moon LV???]

  A savage roar left her lips as the metamorphosis completed. Her once pale skin was covered in fur as black as night. The amber eyes remained the same, intelligent and piercing. She was not a large wolf, in fact, she was quite a bit smaller than most Direwolves I'd faced, both in the dungeon and out in the wide world. Yet there was something about the way she moved that exuded power.

  The flowerbed swayed from a passing wind, and she burst into motion, flashing to me from the pillar in a moment. I barely had time to raise the shield to block her jaws from snapping down around my throat.

  I stabbed in retaliation, feeling my spear pierce nothing but air, and as I lowered the shield from my face, she was gone.