The Innkeeper

The first shot hit the Alpha directly in the face, but the Alpha did not even flinch. The shot barely broke its skin, and after a couple of drops of blood the wound completely healed. Lex felt like cursing, but instead focused his fire on the other wolves behind the Alpha while retreating. He had retreated only a few steps when he felt his body tense, his instincts screaming at him to dodge! Lex did not hesitate in throwing himself to the side, but he was still too slow. He felt something hit him on the chest, launching him off to the side. The air left his body and he puked all over the ground as soon as he landed. He did not let that stop him, however, as he reached into his bag and pulled out his last flashbang. He pressed the button on it and started running – or stumbling – away from the wolves.

The ten second delay seemed like infinity, and he kept shooting towards the wolves to try and keep them at a distance. When there were only a couple seconds left he threw the flashbang towards the Alpha and bolted away. He heard a bang behind him, followed by the howling of wounded wolves.

‘Bloody hell!’ he exclaimed internally as he ran. He had no idea what had hit him, and he just realized that he had lost his grip on his short sword when he was hit. Fortunately the gun was still in his hand, but there was no way he could go back for the sword. Hopefully he bought himself a few-

Lex felt his body tense and immediately rolled to the side, just in time to see a large object fly by where he was just running. He looked back and saw the Alpha standing in the distance, launching some kind of air blast from its mouth towards him. Lex rolled again to dodge, and immediately aimed the Heavy Harley towards the Alpha. He tried to shoot it in the mouth, but he was too disoriented to aim properly and missed all his shots!

‘Bloody hell give me a break!’ he screamed internally and he threw himself behind a tree to break line of sight with the Alpha, and kept running.

“You have 20 bullets remaining. You should also drink a Botlam Dew in case you have internal injuries,” said Mary, but stayed out of his sight to avoid distracting him.

Immediately Lex bought a Botlam Dew mentally and drank it, ignoring the familiar taste. He was in trouble, reloading his magazine took a couple of minutes. He needed to get somewhere he could hide for a few minutes. But how could the wolves give him any time? The few wolves left that had been accompanying the Alpha ran in front of him, cutting off his escape path as the growling Alpha slowly made its way towards him. Lex backed up against a tree once again, to keep the wolves from attacking him from his back, and focused on the Alpha.

‘Never gonna wish for some more excitement ever again,’ he said to himself internally. His initial excitement for combat had worn off, but it wasn’t fear that replaced it. He was filled with immense focus and determination. It would be a lie to say that he wasn’t still nervous, but he had his nerves firmly in control. Right now he was in a tough situation, but not an impossible one. He already felt his body recovering, not to mention he was sure that his body armor had reduced the damage he had taken from the Alphas projectile attack.

When it was about fifteen feet away the Alpha lurched at him, ready to bite his throat off, but Lex was also ready. In one fluid motion Lex raised the Heavy Harley and shot one single bullet straight into its open maw. Before the shot even connected he’d already aimed the gun away, shooting continuously at the other wolves around him. The Alpha was injured and it fell on the ground, but it was far from weak enough for Lex to take advantage.

Lex bolted into the forest once again, his gun finally out of bullets. He removed the magazine and threw the empty one into his backpack, hoping the close proximity to the spirit tokens would work in refilling it while he took out the magazine with the iron ranked low caliber rounds. He really hoped he could find some time to rest, the recoil from these bullets was still too strong for him.

“I think I hear the sound of running water!” Mary exclaimed. “It could be a river, you coils use it to hide. That way,” she said, pointing Lex in the right direction. Panting heavily now, Lex forced himself to run where Mary pointed and hoped the wolves would give him some time. But the very next second an angry but somehow gargled howl from behind him let him know that the Alpha had started the chase again. Lex grit his teeth and forced himself to run faster. Fortunately the river was closeby, and Lex reached it quickly. Unfortunately, so was the chasing Alpha and its speed had picked up beyond anything it had shown before.

Its speed really was too fast, and before Lex could aim his gun it was almost on top of him. Lex’s body tensed again, and for the first time Lex felt like he was staring death right in the mouth. To be more specific, the open mouth of the wolf that was lunging towards his throat once again. For an instant time seemed to freeze and Lex’s thoughts forze as well. He could only see the sharp and bloody teeth of the wolf, each one as big as one of Lex’s fingers. He absolutely could not get bitten!

Without planning or realizing, Lex raised his right arm defensively – blocking the wolf from reaching his throat. The angry Alpha chomped down on his arm and Lex felt insane, unbelievable pain as he felt his muscles rip and his bones shatter. The boy and the wolf fell into the raging river, but even as their bodies were carried by the cold, rushing water they did not separate. Angry, incoherent and exhausted, Lex did the only thing he could think of. He fought against the force of the water to bring the gun upto where he assumed the wolf’s eyes were and shot!

The recoil hit him like a hammer, and threatened to tear the gun out of his arm but he held on. The pain of his wound, the vertigo of being flung around like a rag doll by the water, the exhaustion of running and fighting all day threatened to knock him unconscious, but he fought to keep himself awake. The wolf, still biting into his arm, flailed its paws around in an attempt to find something to grab onto, to pull itself out of the water but to no avail. Lex brought the gun to the wolf’s skull and shot one more time, finally prying its jaw loose and separating the two.

But Lex did not have any time to celebrate, the force of the river was beyond what he had anticipated and he had absolutely no control over his body as it was rushed down river. He moved his one good arm around to try and maneuver himself but there was no luck. Just as he was beginning to lose hope – what little hope he had left – he felt something grab his leg and pull him aside. He felt a tinge of panic, and readied himself to shoot, but then he realized that he was being pulled out of the river! Hallelujah!

It only took a few moments, but felt as if an eternity had passed by the time he was pulled out. He raised his head to see a giant turtle with a horn on its head staring fondly at him.

“Silly humans, why are you always so helpless,” Lex heard a soft voice in his head, and almost chuckled despite his condition.

“Stop chuckling and bandage your hand. You’re losing a lot of blood, you’ll bleed to death!” told Mary, appearing above him.

‘Can’t catch a break,’ he murmured to himself.

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