The Dungeon Fairy: Three Lives: A Dungeon Core Escapade (The Hapless Dungeon Fairy Book 3) Jonathan Brooks (read me like a book .txt) 📖

He didn’t have time to ponder any more, though, because there was another wolf behind the one he just killed, and another behind that.  Maybe this Boss Room is one of endurance?  Just waves and waves of a single monster, though weaker than ones we’d seen before?  He’d heard of such things happening in a dungeon, though he hadn’t seen it before; even then, he’d never heard of it being in a Boss Room.

Another howl seemed to shake the room, a singular source that seemed even louder than the hundreds of lupine voices they’d heard earlier.  A glow suddenly surrounded the wolves racing towards them, and Marvus only had a moment before a trio of them were upon him.  One of them lunged towards the Plunderer, intent on biting his leg, and Marvus danced to the side; when he went to execute a counterattack with his dagger, the wolf was suddenly gone, having moved as fast or faster than Marvus himself.

Not good at all.

A crunch on his left distracted him for a moment, and he looked over to see that one of his Cohort had found out the hard way that the onslaught of wolves was suddenly faster; his knee got crunched badly, and he was practically yanked off of his feet.  Marvus went to help him, but he rapidly discovered that he had some problems of his own – such as the 5 wolves now arrayed against him, appearing out of nowhere it seemed.

They struck nearly as one, and not even their superior speed could prevent one of them from being impaled through the throat by his dagger; unfortunately, this left him open to attack, and while he avoided 3 of their vicious jaws, the 4th clamped onto his right arm, yanking it off the hilt of his dagger.  He could feel the pressure of the teeth against his skin, and the tearing as his flesh parted, but it wasn’t as bad as he feared.  Ripping it out of the wolf’s grip was impossible by itself, but a quickly grabbed knife from his waist into its left eye was enough to make it let go – in addition to killing it.

They aren’t really that powerful, just fast.  Screams and cries from his Cohort seemed to want to put the lie to that thought, because they were suffering and dying to the wolf horde.  None of them had as much physical resistance as Marvus had, however, so even a Level 5 wolf would do some damage to their bodies if they couldn’t avoid it.  Some tried to disappear into the shadows, but were hunted down by the wolves, able to sniff them out – an unfortunate ability that the feral canines seemed to possess.

This isn’t going our way; time to break out the secret weapon.  If there was one thing that Marvus loved, it was money.  Not always for wealth’s sake, but because of one of his abilities as a Plunderer; it was expensive, both in terms of his stamina, but also in relation to his wallet.

Plunging his hand into his bottomless bag, he pulled out a handful of silver coins, activated his Splurge ability, and flung his hand outwards at tremendous speed.  Two dozen silver coins flew out of his hand, shooting so fast that they were a blur as they smashed into and through the skulls of the wolves attacking him.  And not only the wolves attacking him, but also through every wolf surrounding their group, killing them instantly, where they dropped down to the ground and dissolved straight away.

With that one ability, he had killed perhaps 30 of the wolves attacking them, as some of his coins went through multiple targets before slowing down, but there was a price.  Marvus slumped in place, most of his energy having been spent performing his Splurge skill, and looked around at his Cohort.  Half of them lay dead, their throats ripped out when they were overwhelmed, and the others ranged from slightly injured to severely – though a Potion or two would fix them right up.  In fact, that was immediately what they did, using the break in the tide of wolves to heal themselves up as much as they could.

They had more time than he expected, as the remaining wolves quickly disappeared into the forest of trees, now completely hidden by the darkness.  That was just fine for Marvus and the others, however, because it meant that they could recover and strategize before they came back.  Or, what he sincerely hoped but highly doubted, they had all been defeated and they were free to claim their prize.

Howls once again shattered the silence around the still-living Cohort members, though its intensity was so much less now.  Good; maybe they’ll think twice about attacking us.  A moment later, however, the howls were joined by the singularly powerful howl he had heard earlier, though this time it didn’t seem as infused with power.  Nevertheless, it was frightening enough.

Is that a really big wolf? he couldn’t help but think.

Nope.  Not a wolf at all.

A noise that sounded and felt like pounding along the ground reverberated through the trees, followed by cracks as trunks were apparently pushed aside.  Marvus stood up straight, some of his physical energy and stamina refilling from the use of his Splurge ability, and held onto his dagger with a vise-like grip.  He nearly dropped it when the monstrosity thundered into the light, all 10 feet of heavily muscled werewolf stepping towards them intimidatingly.  A tiny bit of wetness soiled his pants before the Plunderer gathered his courage and charged the massive monster.

The next moment, Marvus found himself hurtling through the air before slamming bodily into the side of a tree.  He collapsed in an ungainly pile at its base, shocked at how powerful the werewolf was.  The strike hadn’t been all that fast,