Dream Come True

"I don't care what the system says. There's no way Uriel didn't sic these hairy mongrels on me." Shiv looked around the building he was in, which had various types of grain and feed for the herbivorous animals that resided in the farm. 'Nothing. Looks like I'll be making my own weapons… as usual.' Shiv knelt and molded a portion of the ground into a giant battleaxe that he hefted with ease. He stared at it with a frown, then set it on fire and nodded with satisfaction. Then, he prepared to use his [Freeze Ranged] Skill on anything that came through the door or the hole he'd made a minute earlier in his fight with Not Uriel.

The wolves didn't use the ready-made openings. They were more… imaginative in their attacks.

As Shiv stood in the center of the room, thinking he was ready for whatever attack may come, he suddenly felt… cold. He shivered, not having expected such a wondrous feeling right before a battle.

He quickly learned that the wondrous feeling came with something not so wondrous. An obscenely large wolf exploded from the earth directly behind him, wrapped in icy spikes and aiming canines as long as his hand at his neck. He spun around swinging his flaming battleaxe with all of his might, and cut the monster's jaw off. The momentum made him stumble out of the way of the armored wolf and almost trip over the corpse of Not Uriel.

He managed to turn around with just enough time to register the presence of a wolf the size of a pickup truck wrapped in earthen armor crawling out of the hole before the ice-covered wolf slammed a spiked head into his side.

The wolf had gone berserk, and was scratching and hitting him with every body part and spike it could manage. The result was painful and bloody for Shiv. But he wasn't the only one being damaged. He let go of the axe, which had lost much of its usefulness due to the extreme closeness of his opponent, and squirmed and yelled until he managed to get the wolf's spiky neck in a chokehold. His arm and side were bleeding fiercely from the icy armor digging into his skin, but he persevered until the wolf was dead.

Knowing that he didn't have any time for rest, Shiv grabbed the axe and scrambled to his feet, wildly swinging the weapon in the hopes of deterring the giant wolf.

He managed to keep the wolf back long enough to get proper footing, which was promptly ruined by the wall behind him exploding inward. He fell to the ground and summoned a curved wall of earth to protect him from the shrapnel and debris that had been… electrified? That did not bode well for him.

Shiv realized that he was probably about to die unless he gave this fight everything he had. "Alright. No more messing around. All of you Not Uriels are going to die."

He made a wall that exploded out of the earth and replaced the one that had just been destroyed. He had no doubt it would soon be gone, just like the original, but he just needed to buy time. Enough time to take down the monstrously sized wolf in the room with him.

He rolled out of the way of a spike the wolf summoned and made his own spikes shoot out underneath the wolf. His, however, were not evaded.

Unfortunately, the wolf had extra thick armor on its belly that managed to deflect and block a good portion of the spikes, causing them to shoot up and then out. The temporary snare the spikes made gave Shiv enough time to move forward and swing his battleaxe downward with all of his might. The wolf threw its head to the side at the last moment, but wasn't fast enough. Its head was cut in two, from top to bottom, with the right side being much larger than the left.

[You have destroyed a very large wolf that was probably related to one of your only friends. Good job.]

A rush of power entered Shiv as he turned to face his wall, mostly managing to ignore the sarcasm evident in the system's message.

The lightning wolf, it seemed, had changed its plan. Suddenly feeling the hair on his arm stand up, he turned around and looked at the opposite wall… to no avail. The ceiling collapsed right on top of him, revealing a wolf with lighting flickering across its body.

Simultaneously, the wall he was facing caved in to reveal two more truck-sized wolves. Both of them were on fire, and looked very angry.

He only got a glimpse of his two new opponents, as he was buried in the debris and hundreds of pounds of electrified, growling muscle. He felt something stab into his shoulder and heard a distinct popping noise, which sent another burst of terrified adrenaline through his body.

With a roar, he set himself on fire and molded the end of his axe into a spear that he pushed upward into the electric wolf that was reaching to bite his head off. It stabbed through and lifted the wolf off the ground. He stood up again and launched the half-dead weight at the fiery wolf that had moved closer than the other.

Shiv stared at the wolves and they at him for a second. He realized his left arm wasn't working, and his entire body was twitching and numb from the electricity.

Then all three flaming monsters threw themselves at each other.

Shiv was thrown backward by the first one, who had much more muscle and momentum than he did. Now on his back and with his good arm pinned, Shiv growled as fiercely as the wolf preparing to bite his neck, and kicked with all of his might. The wolf was sent flying off, allowing the second wolf to jump up and fall toward Shiv with its claws aimed at his head.

Moving with the speed of a snake striking its prey, he whipped his spear into position and grinned with savage glee when the wolf landed on the pointy end of the spear. His grin was gone when the kicked wolf came back and sank its teeth into his leg while he was distracted.

He gritted his teeth and kneed it with his other leg, to no avail. Sensing the wolf was about to rip his leg off, Shiv made his spear sever at the halfway mark and swung it as it molded into an axe. It bit into the wolf's head and killed it instantly while the other wolf stumbled away with half a spear in its chest.

Shiv tried to stand up, but his mauled leg refused to cooperate, causing him to just get up on his side and glare at his last opponent as it slowly bled out.

The wolf howled, drawing an annoyed, pained groan from Shiv. It then shuddered and tried to get its paws under it so it could stand, but its head fell to the ground, severed at the neck.

Shiv blinked.

"Hello, Shiv. Glad to see you haven't been injured too badly." Duncan limped through the door set in one of the last walls standing and waved at Shiv with a cheerful smile. "And you're welcome for saving you from the big, bad wolf."

Shiv groaned and fell to his back, closing his eyes to the bloody scene surrounding him.

"Ah. So that's why the wolves stopped attacking us so suddenly. They came here to attack you." Briggs' voice made itself known in the scene of destruction. "What did you do to make them so furious?"

Shiv grunted.

"He said he tried to give one of them a kiss." Duncan translated.

Shiv exploded into a coughing fit that had several curses including Duncan's name mixed in. He rolled over and gave the short noble a dark look.

Briggs was unamused. "Never do that again." He was dead serious.

"Well, now that that's been dealt with, what say you gentlemen to climbing a tower to witness the results of our master plan?" Duncan suggested in the same cheerful tone.

Shiv sighed. "I'm a bit immobile at the moment."

"That's not a problem." Duncan laughed and walked up to Shiv and tried to pick him up. "Gah! You're heavy!" He persevered and managed to get the chuckling Shiv on his back.

"He's a farmer. Here, put him on this." Briggs said and made a stretcher from ice.

"Ahhh." Duncan nodded as if that explained everything, and dumped Shiv onto the icy heaven.

Then the two walking men grabbed the ends of the stretcher and began carrying Shiv, who was still bleeding fiercely. They walked for a long while until they came to a watchtower set in the wall and began climbing the spiral staircase inside. Soon, both the young noble and the veteran warrior were gasping for breath. They persevered nonetheless, reaching the top of the tower in a decent amount of time.

They helped Shiv to sit down on a ledge, then sat on either side of him and looked out over the city in flames.