Hero Scout

Kenji in using the copy of the Troll body from his [Forbidden Slot] gave the large werewolf a long squinty look. The creature reminded him of George in his dark black mane, powerful aura and authoritative stance. Yet only in that exact manner, otherwise this creature and the refined butler of the Mayor couldn"t have been any different.

Far from brushed, this werewolf"s fur was bracken and coa.r.s.e, his temper constantly flaring in a most undignified way, and the meaty spear in his hands tipped with gleaming silver.

"Let me guess, silver is critically effective against werewolves?" Kenji said.

Kragg laughed.

"Hardly. Silver can, however, be infused with magic rather easily, and this spearhead was imbued with the Wolfmother"s power in ages past. I discovered it, and have used the spearhead ever since when fighting my own kind in an attempt to awaken the Lost back to the path of conscious thought."

"And has that worked?"

"No, the magic is too weak. The priestess might be able to accomplish something when she awakens, however," Kragg growled.

Nodding, Kenji turned to squint into the dark. Far away he could see little dots of light, although the Troll"s vision was so terrible he couldn"t tell much more than that. It reminded Kenji of those horror games that insisted he put the light of his screen way down to get some cheap jumpscares, although this time he hadn"t the ability to refuse. This time the jump scares would do more than make him agitated, they"d more than likely end with his guts torn about and eaten.

"You"re certain the slaves are there? Also, if we"re just fighting humans then is this really all necessary?" Kenji waved to where he a.s.sumed all those werewolves and regular wolves had gone from before, now just the occasional glint of yellow eyes revealing their continued presence.

"They have unsouled werewolves on their side, driven on by whatever drug they feed them. They don"t care about their own safety or who they fight. Utterly ferocious, and humans are both pathetic and reasonable intelligent. By themselves, they are not that strong, but working together their separate abilities create a much stronger group capability. Breaking that ability to work together will be your responsibility, creature."

"Thankfully "breaking" things is this bodies specialty!" Kenji flexed his huge arms and found the large werewolf unimpressed. "Also you seem to have been misinformed, my name is Kenji Aztec, not "creature".

"Then we go, Aztec," with that Kragg vanished into the darkness, the yellow eyes all around them winking out of existence. Kenji had to start wading through the forest after them all alone, left to crash into every tree, twig and bush as he slowly approached the distant torchlight.

Through the forest howls, roars, and screams echoed. Kenji"s huge heart pounded as he constantly awaited the teeth that stalked the dark. They never came, only increasing his stress as he knew quite well that the amount of sound he was making should have alerted every d.a.m.n thing from here to the hidden moon.

Finally getting a line of sight of a collection of humans behind a wooden barricade, something came screeching out of the shadows to his left. The blur of fur left a deep gash across Kenji"s shoulder before fleeing back into the forest, a second blur managing another gash across his back, Kenji"s slow fist crushing only earth.

"Gah!" Kenji shielded his eyes as arrows slammed into his side with the force of spears, the distant formation firing at breakneck speed until Kenji was forced to hide behind a series of trees. Pulling out the arrows Kenji found them aflame too -

Kenji flung into a rage, primordial instincts activated as the magical fire ate away at his body. Flung into a state of maddened terror, he crashed his back into a tree again and again, uncaring that he drove the arrows deep if only the attached fire would suffocate. A werewolf attacked from right in front, Kenji flung his entire weight onto the creature and pinning it to the ground.

The werewolf tried to bite into this leathery neck with limited success, Kenji picking the werewolf up by its leg and thrashing it around the ground while roaring incoherently. By the time he was done the creature was a crumpled mess, yet lifting the werewolf high, he used it as a living shield.

Turning the corner, Kenji charged the enemy formation. Their arrows slammed into the Unsouled werewolf, Kenji approaching in quick steps to crash into the wooden barricades. When the dust settled Kenji found a human wizard with tongues of flames forming in his hands, before Kenji could raise his peppered werewolf shield high a torrent of fire washed over him.
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Screaming, Kenji charged through arrows, spears and more fire to grasp the enemy wizard by the head. He squeezed, the woman"s head popping like a grape before Kenji grasped her by the legs and sent her body crashing through a crowd of hunters.

As the fire ate away at his flesh Kenji threw himself into a hunters building, smashing the fire with wood to smother it and managing to set the building alight at the same time. Arrows continued to slam into his back, as the fire rapidly ate away at his body until an especially brave hunter appeared before Kenji to let loose an arrow bound in magical flame from point-blank range right into his skull.

Fire devoured Kenji"s brain, his world going dark.

Kenji sat there a short while and waited for his terror to fade. The experience had been horrible, NEVER had he felt so overwhelmed by something like that, even Ash"s personality had largely felt like something he had allowed to happen. This? This had felt like he had no choice, the Troll"s innate phobia of fire an all-consuming experience that had extinguished Kenji"s ability for higher reasoning in a flash of animalistic instinct.

Even fighting the Far King in Tariak hadn"t felt the same, the h.e.l.lflame having consumed him long before the true all-consuming fear could take hold. After a short time, he heard the shouts of humans and ping of loosed arrows continue, and Kenji knew he just had to suck it up.

Like being stuck with terrible players in a team match, Kenji was just going to have to make do.

Rapidly turning into the Sun Elf Queen, Kenji flittered to the human back lines and cut a pair of throats before they could so much as croak surprise. Pushed forward with a torrent of wind, Kenji stabbed another hunter through the head, before an unsouled werewolf slammed into the earth beside him.

Lit by torchlight, and with a sun elf"s perception, Kenji got his first good look at the foe. Without plague sure, but those yellow pupils were pinp.r.i.c.ks, the whites of its eyes shining like beacons, while the werewolf"s mouth let loose a constant river of drool.

Howling, it attacked. Bursting upward with a rush of wind Kenji got out of the way, and had to dodge a volley of targeted arrow fire from the remaining hunters. Activating this body"s invisibility ring, Kenji slipped aside to rip through another pair of throats, before activating his illusions to terrify the enemy with his sudden numbers.

"Elves! Run for it, the elves have attacked too!" the hunters screamed, and retreated along with those human reinforcements that had been pulled from other parts of the camp. All together they became strong again, arrows fired in their ma.s.ses towards anyone that followed, and their armoured warriors able to hold a werewolf in place long enough for another pair of magic casters to unleash their spells.

Along with them went the Unsouled werewolves, the enemy abandoning their camp and heading down the path towards Essenark. Roaring triumphantly, Kragg landed hard into the earth beside Kenji and took off at a sprint towards a long series of iron cages.

Breaking them open, a series of starved werewolves were freed, along with a series more warriors held tight by thick iron manacles.

"Kragg wonders, you are Kenji yes? Or you are a real elf?" Kragg said towards Kenji, the other werewolves staring at him with hungry eyes. Not taken in by this body"s good looks, however, Kenji was pretty confident they were thinking about how he might taste instead.

"I"m a representative of the Hero Guild," Kenji said, pointedly adressing the werewolves as a whole. "My name is Kenji Aztec... but I reperesent so much more than that. Tonight, you have had just my help, but if you can shake of those that seek to destroy you I can make a pact between your people and my organisation to form a lasting state of prosperity. My merchants, my warriors, my crafters and my political protection will be blessed upon your people, and never again will you be a third-rate species consigned to the label of "resource"." Kenji"s hard truths goaded reactionary snarls, several warriors and regular Werewolves stalking closer with shining claws and bared teeth. But he had them for the moment, and pressing on Kenji was confident he could seal the deal.

"With my help, your priestess has been returned, with my help this raid has been conducted with fewer casualties than you would have otherwise, and with my GUILD"S help, this success can be turned into a long-lasting period of mutual success. Your solution to all your problems is here, now tell me, will you spurn this chance...or seize it?"

The werewolves grumbled to each other, Kenji not fluent enough in their mannerisms to know if it were good grumbling or bad. But when Kragg nodded, he a.s.sumed it was the former.

"Well said, Kragg sees wisdom in your words. You have proven yourself. With this raid we have regained some of our lost strength, now we need only food, time for the medicine to work, and finally, we shall be ready."

Kenji was thrown off a bit by that last part but made an excellent job of appearing unphased.

"Maybe you should explain what comes next, for those that don"t already know," Kenji said gesturing towards the newly released werewolves.

"Another good idea. Of course, we will unleash a full-scale invasion on the Furbolg homeland, and wipe out that d.a.m.ned race from existence. Their meat will nutritious us, their medicine will heal us, their territory will provide for new hunting grounds, and with them gone we will only have one enemy. If the humans thought taking advantage of us when we were weakened was difficult, they will have no idea of what a fully powered Werewolf Pack will do to their fledgling village," the werewolves roared agreement.

Kenji paled. These Furblogs had been borderline evil with how they had set up the werewolves to be plagued, starved, and then enslaved. But genocide? If nothing else Kenji had a hard time believing any people were wholly unified in anything.

"Perhaps a raid instead," Kenji proposed," if we kill whoever is in charge, I can become that person. Then I can direct the Furblog"s to halt their practices, and even fabricate a peace treaty that ends with them providing medicine and food. Wouldn"t that be better? Much fewer casualties on both sides that way."

Growling filled the night air. Kenji could see it in their eyes, too many werewolves preferred retribution over keeping their people safe. Kragg didn"t nod this time, merely turning back towards the caves their pack lived within.

"Kragg is Alpha no longer. Kragg will ask Tenko and the Elder for guidance, although Kragg already knows which option he prefers." Kenji at least noted he didn"t ask about Kenji"s promise of becomging the Furbolg leader. Although whether that is because he deduced Kenji"s abilities in battle or werewolves are just the type to accept information at face value...

Taking off with annoying speed, Kragg led his pack through the forest with a very worried Kenji speeding behind them on a gust of wind.