The four of you head out to hunt at the Wolf island again.



After landing and reentering the bowl of the island, you make your way through the sparse woods and enter the central clearing. Today there are no other groups of people around, and several groups of pups playing around the field, especially near the central cave entrance. Scanning the field, you see a group of 3 wolves, a group with 4 wolves and 1 Alpha, and... off to one side, something distinctly different. A Wolfbeast.
It stands bipedal on its rear legs, as tall as Frederic, with lean limbs and arms that that reach down almost to its knees. Its posture is hunched over, with the shoulders being the high point of its body and the head hanging forward. Its tongue lolls from its mouth as it turns its head constantly to scan its surroundings.
It stalks around the field, and clearly avoids one group of wolves as it wanders. Every so often it leans down and sniffs at the ground, then digs for a second, moving large amounts of earth with each powerful stroke, before returning to its wandering.

Frederic: "Yeah, that's definitely a Wolfbeast. Be careful, unlike the rest of the wolves on this island, it WILL attack us without provocation."

Leon: "Yeah."
Karina: "I'm ok with it. That Wolfbeast looks... wrong. I don't like it."
Frederic: "Good. Gram, I have experience but you have training, so how about you take the reigns."

Frederic: "Hm. Solid, except, this assumes the Wolfbeast will act like a normal wolf.
Normal wolves exhibit strong pack behavior, but the Wolfbeast tends to be much more solitary and stay on its own, relying on its strength rather than teamwork. All the other wolves on this island have had at least one companion, the wolfbeast is alone.

And to add to that, like Karina said, this one is... not normal. I've read about them a bit, and this one is... thin, and acting strange.
It's probably just an effect of the grooming the Guild does on these wolves, but, be prepared for it to behave erratically."

Leon: "I'm not familiar with monsters in general, what's this thing weak to?"
You remember that these wolves don't have any particular elemental affinity, so nothing will be especially effective or ineffective just based on mana.
Furry things are susceptible to being lit on fire, but at the same time then Frederic would be dealing with a flaming wolfbeast.
Less energetic elements like earth, ice, water, or air would be safer for Frederic but also may be less impactful against the wolfbeast.

Frederic: "Nothing I can think of. Though, for such a simple beast I think you may be overthinking it."

Leon: "Ok. I, think I've got it. I'll stay away from using lightning too. And, I guess light. Frederic maybe you need fireproof armor if we're going to be fighting furry things a lot."
Karina: "Um. That's, a lot..."
Frederic: "Just remember the two formations, line and diamond. That's the most important thing. We'll practice for more complicated monsters over time.
Everyone ready?"

Karina and Leon both nod.

The four of you move in to engage the Wolfbeast. Frederic walks faster, moving up ahead of the group. Leon starts peeling off to the right, and you veer to the left, while Karina stays in the back, behind Frederic. As you draw closer, it cranes its head to the side to look at Frederic, and you hear it growl in the distance. It slowly turns its body, and begins pacing towards Fred as it starts loping forward on all fours. From here you can see its mouth hang open and eyes focus on the knight as it approaches, starting to speed up.

You quickly take aim and fire at the wolf as it rapidly accelerates into a run towards Frederic, and you see a small dark blur shoot from Leon's position at the wolf as well. It turns towards you for a split second, before you suddenly feel a sense of dread coming from Frederic's direction, same as the first time you went out to the slime island. The Wolfbeast's head snaps back to Frederic, and it slams into the broad side of your knight's raised tower-sword.

Frederic is knocked back much less than you'd expect from a hulking wolf monster hitting him, and you fire the other two shots in your gun into the wolf while it refocuses after its charge. Leon also sends another shot from the other side, but despite the three bullets and two spells the wolf seems unphased, and rakes a claw across the shield-sword with a horrible screech of metal as it begins to attack Frederic in earnest.

You reload as quickly as you can, as several more spells fly from Leon into the wolf, much faster now that it is staying in one place. As you finish reloading, Frederic's armor suddenly begins shining, sending glints of light all across the area, including into the wolfbeast's face. It pauses its assault for a moment to paw at its face, then snarls and slams both paws into Frederic's raised sword. As the knight staggers back, guard broken, you fire off two more shots at the wolf.

Despite the increasing amount of red among its fur, it shows no sign of slowing, and claws Frederic across the stomach while his arm and sword are off to the side. You see a spray of red across the grass as Frederic is knocked to the ground. Karina yelps, but still manages to cast a healing spell, and you can see the wound shifting on his stomach.
The wolfbeast does not seem to want to give him the chance to heal though, and the beast draws its lips back and bares its fangs while it squints through the glinting light to lock its gaze on Frederic's face.