Stronger Together chapter 156

Every single being in that clearing that hadn't come with me wanted  to eat me. Now, sometimes in movies and TV shows they refer to someone  glaring or leering at someone as looking like they "want to eat them"  this however, was not that. The hunger in the eyes of that crowd wasn't  lust or even bloodlust (though there was sure plenty of that) the wolves  and humans and somehow even the damn shadows looked like they genuinely  wanted to snack on my flesh. Briefly I imagined them trying and getting  godsteel stuck in their teeth, but strangely it didn't make me feel  better.

Lycaon was looming over us, grinning down with a  feral smile on his lips. It was pretty fucking terrifying, fortunately  though I was kind of frozen by his sudden declaration Max very much  wasn't. The little tiger cub actually stood up on my head with his back  paws planted on my shoulders and roared. Well. He made a noise. The  little guy was too small to roar properly so it was more of cranky yowl.  Lycaon apparently thought it was adorable. "Peace, little brother, we  are both of us the kings of beasts so how could I bully your servant."  He turned his head "Graegus, come and experience our guest's wisdom in  battle."

I briefly considered being offended by being  referred to as Max's servant, but given the normal feline relationship  with humans it was pretty standard for them to give that impression.  Regardless this wasn't the place to explain it to him in either case.  The shapes around the fire began to move out of the way and I heard the  thump of feet or paws or whatever this thing was going to have. I was  expecting something truly huge and I was not disappointed. Graegus  was...massive. Easily ten feet of pitch black matter fur, razor sharp  yellow teeth, claws the size of my thumb and blazing golden eyes.

The  thing was a hybrid of man and wolf roughly the height of a fucking  basketball hoop, which was funny because I was fairly certain I was the  one going to be getting dunked on. Those burning eyes fixed on me and I  got to see even more of those vicious teeth as his mouth dropped open in  what had to be an intentional display of the fact that this thing could  bite my head as easily as I would take a bite of a granola bar. The  size alone wouldn't have been so worrying, but I could see the aura of  raw power rolling off this thing when I briefly switched on my magic  eye.

Lycaon let out another booming laugh. "Graegus is the  youngest of my generals in this place, and given your own age I thought  it fitting you do battle. As a sign of respect to the little king there  I'll even promise safe passage for your women and your elder in the  event of your death." The way he said 'in the event of' really bothered  me, because it sounded a lot like he meant 'you're definitely going to  die here'. But I honestly couldn't imagine that happening. Even without  using my klurkor battle form I was at a level where some random wolf  general couldn't touch me.

I smiled at Lycaon "Fair  enough. In fact, I'll even let him have the first chance to attack." As  soon as I finished speaking I cranked my aspects to their max, slowing  down the world around me to the point where a falling drop of water  would take a month to hit the ground from a foot up. I grinned to myself  as I felt the power rage inside me. I felt...stronger somehow, like my  godsteel was more here. More important, more powerful. It was it's own  unique existence in a place where everything was made of the same stuff.  This whole world was just a dream the universe was having. I felt  invincible.

Then Graegus came at me and I was sent  hurtling across the clearing, smashing hard into a tree and I realized  something I hadn't really bothered to consider. Bad things in your  dreams are often insanely powerful. This was a spiritual creature on the  same level as a loup-garou in a place where spirit was all that  mattered. Sure he had some human in him probably but it didn't really  matter. This was his domain, The Wild Wood, and I was prey. He was on me  in seconds, slavering and biting and scratching with those huge claws. I  would have died if not for the extra power from my godsteel, but the  weave in my body was minimal, I wasn't made of the stuff.

I  spent about ten minutes getting kicked around, the godsteel soaked up a  bunch of the punishment and I had to hide behind my damn arm more than  once. Apparently super spirit badass werewolf generals don't get tired. I  had my aura up amplifying my hits and it seemed like the only real  reason I could even hurt the bastard. I was throwing hooks into his ribs  like it was going out of style (when your opponent has four feet on you  'work the body' is pretty much your only option) and he was barely  wincing. I had no clue how the hell I was supposed to win this fight.

I  had gotten complacent in my new strength, I wasn't used to fighting  above my weight class anymore. Luckily I was a klurkor master at least  and I'd had plenty of time to learn to apply that in combat. I could win  this fight if I just...my mind went blank. What the hell was I even  doing? Why was I just banging it out with this huge beast like I was  some kind of martial arts master? I was a fucking wizard! This was  literally the least efficient way I could possibly fight something. Hell  even Lycaon had said I should use my 'wisdom'. Granted he had most  likely been mocking me but still.

I  threw a couple more punches, bleeding off the extra magic from the force  aura, then I imbued my aura with wind. This was a new trick since I had  just managed to properly cast this spell recently, but much like how  the fire Aura was just a hot aura, the wind Aura made a curtain of air  around me that made me harder to hit. I could even use the air to push  me out of the way when I needed to dodge. I cast a few shields with the  same kind of air spell between us as I backed off. Then, I started on  the fire magic. Waves of soulfire infused flame was pretty damn  expensive to cast, but after the fight with the Vukodlak I had  specifically tried to come up with a way to make it more efficient.

After  learning wind magic I had realized the casting the flames through  soulfire infused magical wind could exponentially increase the power  from even lesser castings. It ended up being way less of a drain on my  soul. I cast a few mid level bursts of flame that hit the shields and  became whirling pillars of fire. Graegus dodged them with casual ease  for the most part, but one of them brushed his shoulder. He hissed in  annoyance as one of his arms caught fire, and since it was soulfire I  was grinning at the amount of damage it might do. I thought I might be  able to end this pretty soon.

Sadly  that was not to be. After his arm caught fire Graegus glared down at  it, grabbed his own wrist, and violently ripped it from his own body,  literally throwing his own limb at my head. The flaming arm was buffeted  by the wiend shields and flew wide of me, which was good because I kind  of froze up for a second when he did it. I started laughing as I  continued to dodge. Graegus was growing the arm back pretty quickly and  as I danced away from the strikes, asked in a gravelly somewhat garbled  voice "What?"

Something  about the whole situation just made me laugh harder and it took me a  few seconds of consistently dodging and laughing to get enough breath to  respond. "You-" I gasped and rolled to the side, dodging a swipe from  his claws as he bounded over the shields. I laid down another one as I  moved "you disarmed yourself." The massive lumbering wolfman stopped. He  stared at me for a second, before literally howling with laughter, the  baying laughter was taken up by everyone in the clearing, even Lycaon.

It  was absolutely mystifying to me at first, but then I figured it out.  This wasn't malicious. They didn't dislike me or anything. They wanted a  good show and they thought this would give them one. They were having  fun watching this, hell Graegus was having fun actually fighting. The  mindset here was completely different than the situation would imply.  The wolves all sat in a circle around us, having cleared a space by the  fire, but I wasn't in danger from them. Well, I was in danger from  Graegus, that guy would fucking kill me. But the others weren't going to  stab me in the back.

I  hadn't realized until just then how worried I had been having my back  to all these predators, but knowing I was safe from the ones who weren't  actively trying to murder me right now was actually a huge relief. I  let the tension drain away from me and decided to do what they were  doing. I put my all into the fight and just tried to enjoy it. I backed  up, waiting for Graegus to stop laughing and come for me, and I wasn't  kept waiting long. He kept cackling for about two minutes then lunged  for me again out of nowhere.

I  started casting force magic. Bolts to the face and body to slow the  wold down and trip him up while I thought of something else to try. I  dropped my force aspect because I wasn't throwing punches anymore and I  didn't need it and I finally decided on a tactic. I was going to go for a  hail mary. It took me a few minutes dodging to set it up but I finally  managed to get in the frame of mind needed to tap into a new aspect, one  I hadn't used yet. I layered the aspect of wind into my body, expecting  speed or some kind of flight.

Graegus  got through my shields and pounced on me just as I finished. He went  right through me. Literally, like I was a ghost or something he just  passed through my body and out the other side. I stared down at the  misty outline of my physical form. The wind aspect let me become  insubstantial apparently. He swung a few more times trying to rake his  claws through my body. He seemed to be getting incredibly pissed off by  the fact that he couldn't touch me. He spit and snarled and howled and  clawed until finally he stopped.

He  glared at me, almost pouting at me for ruining his fun, or at least as  much as a ten foot man beast can pout. I cast another fire spell, then a  few more force bolts. I was actually running really low on Aura.  Luckily the man wolf had realized he couldn't hit me and I could hit  him. He turned to his king with a snarl. "I concede." Lycaon smiled at  us both, clearly having enjoyed the performance and clapped his hands to  bring his subjects to attention. I dismissed the new aspect and thanked  my lucky stars he had given up. All that magic had been sucking me dry.

Lycaon  raised his hands "Friends! We have witnessed a great battle from a  worthy challenger. Today is a good day. To celebrate this wonderful  entertainment we will hold a feast in honor of our guests. There will be  meat for everyone!" The wild things howled and danced in joy and oddly I  felt like joining them.This place was actually kind of nice. The  clearing at least. Sure they would kill me in a second, but they  wouldn't be dicks about it. This was fun for them, living their lives  and loving their nature. I shrugged, when in Greece I guess.