A group of Alphas appear! pt. 3

Thanks to Hannah taking potshots the rate of wind slashes to the fence were cut down severly but now that the Alphas were making a move that number had increased and returned with a passion. Each strike against the fence reverberated along the ground that made me feel a little unstable, that was in no way a wind slash from a regular Cutter Wolf.... And in seconds the fence was bent to the point it was bending back and digging itself into the ground.

The attacks stopped for a moment but that was when the realization hit us hard in the face... The fence didn't fix itself and stand up straight as it was now embedded into the ground and allowed a huge gap for anything to jump over.

"GET READY!" Jack yelled just as 6 massive wolves fully jumped over the fence with enough height that even if the fence was fixed, they could have sailed right over it with ease. They had enough intelligence that the attacks on the fence were just to catch us off guard. The Alphas landed in front of the 7 of us that stood there. 4 humans and 3 Kwehs. But even Bjornson who was a good neck and head above the humans in height merely came up to the shoulders of wolves as the stood there on their 4 legs.

The air became deathly still for what felt like an eternity as the rage in the wolves eyes seemed to form a physical pressure over me that blocked out everything else. That was until a loud BOOM rang out and a yelp from one of the slightly smaller Alphas disrupted the silence and from there chaos ensued as the rest of them lept toward us with snarls and growls. One lept towards me but Bjornson jumped towards it to intercept it in midair and with a kick it flung the huge beast a few feet away.... But the poor Kweh didn't come away unscathed as in the act, one of the claws of the Alpha had managed to catch onto his upper shoulder and ripped out a few feathers along with leaving behind a big gash.

But just to show off how much of a badass he is, he didn't runaway and instead stood his ground even with his blood running down his feathers and dripping down to the ground. His eyes were fully focused on that Alpha in pure defiance and an attitude that screamed how dare it hurt him! Bubba was near me ready for action as I snapped out of the force that was weighing on me from the sheer aura of the Alphas and I readied my new gun and aimed it at the wolf just as it was standing back up.

With a POP that sounded like it came from a cap gun, A net shot out and fully covered the wolf..... 'The Fuck? I was trying to kill it?' I immediately looked down and remembered that to switch the ammunition I had to 'pump' it. What a weird design, but screw it now was not the time to think about useless shit.

I pumped the gun and could feel an internal switch that rumbled as something clicked into place inside the gun. I aimed and pulled the trigger and was met with a Bang as I saw nothing but a spot of red start to form from the leg of the Alpha still struggling with the net. It dropped to the ground as it started to favor its injured leg, but shortly I noticed the blood had stopped from the wound and it slowly stood upright even with the net over it to look directly at me. I swear If looks could kill this whole farm would have already been nuked.

But knowing if I didn't kill it, it would kill me was enough motivation to aim and fire a few more times. Thankfully the net was enough of a hindrance to it that I was able to land 2 out of the three and with body shot and another leg shot, it was on the ground while wheezing. I noticed that the blood from the body shot was filled with what looked like... Air bubbles? Wait didn't that mean something??? OH SHIT! That means I hit it's lungs right? Hell yea! I got excited until I noticed that the blood had stopped freely pouring from the beast and its breathing was starting to stabilize.

"You have got to be shitting me! This thing got shot in the lungs but still recovered? Where's the admin cuz something ain't right here!" I yelled as I took aim and fired a few more times. This time I aimed for the head, Which yes I know I should have done from the start but let's just chalk this up to rookie mistake ok? Let's leave me with a little bit of pride..... But this time the shots that did hit bled a little bit longer before they healed up, this time the net had wrapped completely around it and the monster could only stare at me in pure defiance. It would've loved more than anything to escape and tear me apart, but tough shit cuz I wanted loot!!!

I fired multiple times and each time I got a little bit better in aiming as I hit one of it's eyes and the next shot was able to go deep enough to hit the brain. With little more than a yip it dropped and a shimmer of light, almost like a mirage appeared next to the fallen body in the net as 2 objects appeared. I got so excited that I wanted to go get them immediately but I took a deep breath as I forced myself to turn my attention to the other Alphas. Alex and Bjornson and Bobba were in the middle of fighting off 2, while Jack and Claire were struggling to fight off the other 2. I looked around for the last one but soon saw as one of the Alphas was dead on the ground with a huge hole in its head along with big missing chunks from its body that looked like the other wolves that got hit by me when I was using Hannahs sniper.

"Let's go Bubba! Let's help Jack and Claire and take one of the Alphas. We can use the same tactic we just did and have it easy." I smiled as I pumped my gun to switch back to the net ammo and took aim towards an Alpha that was just about to jump towards Jack as he was in the middle of defending form a paw that was covered in wind magic. I shot the net and it was able to hit the lower body of the Alpha in mid air and it was knocked off course and hit the one Jack was busy dealing with. They were both forced into a roll a few feet away, It took them a second to stand up but even then I could see they were slightly dazed from the unexpected impact. One of the Alphas snarled and snapped at the one that I caught with the net in anger and the other one bowed slightly before they both snapped their heads towards me in anger.

They both snarled and got low to pounce but only the one not caught in my net successfully lept at me as the one with the net wrapped around its lower body ended up tumbling and sprawling out. I switched ammo quickly as Jack took over fighting the one that lept and I was in charge of taking shots at the one I caught before eventually I was able to kill that one aswell. The same shimmer appeared but I was already switching focus to the one Jack was preoccupied with and with the combination of our attacks it was killed aswell and we were off to finish off the 2 that were fighting Alex and the Kwehs.

After a short but intense fight with those 2 we were all either bent over breathing heavy or sitting down. The only one not resting was Alex as he was applying the Mush to Bobba and Bjornson to help them recover from the various scratches and wounds. Some looked bad, especially that first wound on Bjornsons shoulder area but the rest weren't as bad as that. I didn't want to get Bubba hurt so I only had her intervene if it looked like I couldn't kill the monster in time, which thankfully never came to pass because of Hannah and her addition of the net ammo.... I really should try and pay her back for that....

"Good... Job. Fwooooo Man that sucked for a moment. I really appreciate the help Jimmy." Jack said after a big deep breath as he went around and finished picking up the dropped loot and bringing it over for Claire to keep ahold of as he pulled out a sharp looking knife and started to skin and dress down the carcasses.

"Mind if I help? Or atleast watch, I could use the lesson whenever I get around to doing it myself." I got up and stood next to Jack and asked and he was more than happy to give me some lessons on the right way to skin and take out the organs, what to avoid, or where to be more gentle so as not to puncture and ruin the meat, Things like that. Before I knew it I was finishing up the last carcass and setting up the hides to dry over a line that was already covered in 5 other sets of bloody hides. The ground near us and my hands and clothes were covered in the blood of the Alphas but after that system update or whatever happened, I didn't feel as queasy when looking at the gore as much as before, almost like the system helped me to get over that in preperation for the future that was to be filled with instances like this.

Next to the hides hanging up was a tarp that was laid down and on it were several big chunks of meat and what looked like some kind of jagged crystals? Orbs? Imagine a circular object but it had spikes coming out of two sides of it. Next to those were some long canine teeth and claws that looked aslong as my fingers!

"Now that the Alphas are dealt with the rest of the wolves moved on and we can finally end this mission." Jack said with a sigh of relief. He had been saying how he missed his bed for the past few days now. His face then drooped before speaking in a saddened tone. "We also need to give Paul a proper funeral and inform his family..."

Claire went over and gave him a reassuring hug as they both sniffled and stood there for a moment in silence. We all did in fact, But afterwards the mood lightened up as Claire went and brougth over the loot that had dropped and then laid it out in front of us so that we can examine and see just what they were. In total about 11 items dropped so it was a 1-2 ratio per Alpha, not bad for the chances of loot dropping, and this was the lowest Grade monsters that started to actually drop the loot! Just imagining what an A grade or higher would drop was getting me excited but Those kinds of thoughts quickly died out when I remembered what Grade I was.....

"Let's see here, Looks like some weapons of Rank C, a sword with wind magic enchantments, and a couple daggers with the same, Then we got some Ranked C Wind stones. That would be good for Enchanting weapons and armor, or some of the Alchemists like to use em for experiments. Oh what's this?" Claire held up a cube that looked like it was made up of 4 smaller cubes and some kind of weird static like energy connecting them. She turned it this way and that way but she couldn't figure it out.

"My system isn't responding to it so this is something completely new. What do you think Jack, should we take it back to HQ for research?" Claire held the object out but just as Jack reached for it my hand burst forward to grab it. Something inside me was screaming at me to take it and without warning my hand moved on its own.

"What the hell Jim?" Jack said as he looked at me in confusion. "Things like this shouldn't be mishandled, what if it exploded or did something to cause mass destruction? We need experts to handle this, not some newbie fresh off his first kills." He put his hand out again but this time the look on his face was serious. "Give it boy, While I'm being nice."

[System Update successful]

[User James Frough has aquired the [Cube of Growth]]

[Abilities include - Enhanced growth of user, Portal access to [Personal Dimension]]

[Warning: Loss of [Cube of Growth] will result in loss of above mentioned abilities.]

A window popped up that startled me but after reading it I was more excited than ever and now knew why my body reacted on its own, maybe it was destiny? Either way I couldn't hand this over.

"I'm sorry Jack but if Claire couldn't figure out what this was then that means it was made for me. The system just popped up and I know what this thing is and what it does, and I'm damn sure not going to let this go. It's vital to my future!" I stood firm even when he took a step forward in aggression with his hand still out.

"Boy this is not something to play around with, You can have anything else from the drops and even some of the material, but that thing IS coming with us to HQ." Jack placed his other hand onto the hilt of his sword as he looked me dead in the eyes while speaking. I knew this was something out of the ordinary... But was this really something to act this way over? His aggression towards me and why am I feeling like he wants to hurt me now? This wasn't right.

I looked over at Alex with a raised eyebrow. "What is going on Alex, isn't there something about the loot drops and rules over who gets them? I killed a few of them so shouldn't I get a choice? I choose this and you all can have everything else." I turned back to Jack and said but he wasn't listening as he immediately drew his sword and held it towards me.

"Don't make me do this James Frough! Hand over the relic NOW!"