Ashlani’s Reincarnation [a LitRPG Adventure]

Days continued to pass, the journey difficult and somehow easy at the same time. There wasn’t anything unusual to do, simply to continue on our path while hunting enough prey to keep the swarm fed. With nearly 1000 individual carnivores needing to eat enough to sustain ourselves on long days’ travels, we devoured everything we found, from Toothy Bullfrogs to terrorbirds. Of course there were some that could escape our hunters, but most everything we found eventually fed the swarm. And our growing number of pets/followers.

The wolfstags’ numbers had swelled with the addition of the survivors of the Wave Wolfstag’s pack. I’d almost expected a massive horde of wolfstags like those of Arwa’s pack that we could slaughter our way through and force the noncompliant to feed us, but I’d been more than a little mistaken. There had been fourteen members of the Wave Wolfstag pack, and none had been slain by my or Arwa’s assault. The wounds that the unfortunate at the front had sustained were quickly patched up by Vefir and a couple other keelish that had taken to following him around. These other three keelish hadn’t yet evolved to khatif nor demonstrated any magical capability, so I disregarded them for now, merely showing my appreciation through a couple quick nods.

The journey continued, and the wet jungles began to give way to swampy marshes, and our pace rapidly slowed as we needed to slog through the shallower sections while avoiding the deepest sinkholes with rotting vegetation and unknown predators within. I had never been near here, but the Wave Wolfstags avoided these deepest sections with an instinctual fear that I didn’t feel the need to question whilst still on the run from whatever reinforcements the Veratocracy was calling. The Wave Wolfstags guided us readily through the frustrations of the swamp, never struggling half so much as the rest of us.

Before long, I realized why the Wave Wolfstags could so much more easily traverse the thick soup that was the ground in this foreign swamp. Their paws were more than twice the size of even Arwa’s, though she stood at least a foot taller than her lesser cousins, and their toes splayed out in a way that helped them to walk on top of the thick muds and choked waters that plagued our every step. Surely there was some magic at play further reinforcing their abilities, but either way, the Wolfstags ranged around us and helped to keep an eye on our surroundings.

Even though the Wave Wolfstags had nearly half again as many members as the Voltaic, and Arwa was the only fully grown Voltaic Wolfstag, she and her pups quickly showed the reason why the Voltaic, Glacial, Gilded, and Infernal Wolfstags were absolutely superior to their Mistral, Wave, Stone, and Flaming counterparts. By keelish standards, the Wave Wolfstags’ magic was impressive, but by Arwa’s standards, there was nothing worth thinking about. After several seconds’ concentration, the wolfstags could conjure up spears of water they could propel fast enough to cut through flesh. The Voltaic ones, though, always had near instantaneous control over nearly crippling surges of electricity. Even the pups, if given just enough time to be ready, could rather reliably overcome their adult cousins.

Though much less impressive in every way–size, intelligence, magical prowess, and numbers, to name a few–the newest members of the swarm were still welcome additions. Their horns were far more dangerous in a fight than the Voltaic’s antlers, and as I’d already noticed their wide paws were an amazing adaptation for these marshes. I’d always known about how the wolfstags had either horns or antlers, each varying by what type they were–Wave and Glacial with the straight, sharp pairs of horns from their foreheads, Mistral and Voltaic with clumped, wild masses of antlers that jutted wildly from the base of their skulls, Stone and Gilded with curling ram’s horns that started above the ears and curled around them, and Flaming and Infernal with a set of antlers that sprout from the tops of their heads and curl together into an approximation of a crown.

Sybil, Shemira, and Joral had been hard at work domesticating these newest canines, and they were quick to fall in line. While Arwa’s submission to us had been unusually quick, I had long suspected that was due to her intelligence in understanding how completely we had her in our power, more than anything else. These new wolfstags, though… were obviously not especially intelligent. They had approached a swarm of nearly 1000 predators and thought that they would be able to treat us as regular prey animals.

Through the magical influence of two rulers compounded with all my passive [Skills], it was no surprise that the weak-willed wolfstags quickly found themselves happily subjected by our superior strength and minds.

Our exodus slowed nearly to a stop, I found myself pacing many nights after leading a pack on a hunt, my eyes frustratingly clouded by the darkness as I forced myself to continue trying to progress my [Skill]’s evolution.

“Alpha.”

Sybil’s voice shook me from my frustrated continuous movement.

“You are putting the swarm into an agitated state with your own frustrations. Please, come lie with me.”

Today, we’d been fortunate enough to find actual solid ground to sleep on, a rare grove of trees that had either found purchase on this stray solid ground or had raised the bed of the swamp up enough to be able to thrive. Either way, there was nearly enough dry ground here for the whole swarm to rest in the same place instead of scattered across the occasional hillocks of rotting vegetation and fallen trees. Around me, the quiet sounds of keelish filled the grove, and though I didn’t look around myself to see, I could feel the tension in the air as my manic movement was watched.

With a nearly silent sigh of frustration, I settled onto the ground next to my mate and forced myself into near stillness. 

“We aren’t moving even a quarter as fast as we were, and I don’t know how fast our pursuers will be. A True Waterspeaker would be able to keep their team moving at a normal pace through here, and if they have a High Waterspeaker, they’ll be even faster as they can ride the water through here. We need to move faster, because if they catch us here, we’ll be slaughtered.”

Sybil watched me as I only barely kept myself from raising my voice and resuming my pacing.

“And what can we do to speed our travel?” Her question was soft, genuine, and unyielding. I knew what she was getting at.

“Continue moving.” I sighed, letting my body fully slump to the ground.

“Indeed. And that is what we are already doing. Now, it is time to rest, for tomorrow, we will continue.”

That was when a chorus of splashes sounded out around the island and the startled conversations among the keelish became shrieks of pain and panic.

Thanks for reading!

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