The Rise of the Winter Wolf - Book 6 - Chapter 66 - Attrition and Questions

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Wolf

I feel my brows rising in surprise at the sight of multiple people I recognize appearing here in the dungeon, including but not limited to Diane, Leo, Arianais, and more. Although their level seems to be limited while they’re in here from what I can see. To the point that their level is limited all the way down to mine and Beelzebub’s.

And all of them that appear near Beelzebub’s Domain are easily making it away from Beelzebub’s Domain and heading over towards mine. Then some of them let themselves be turned into lunar winter beasts, like Diane, whereas others put up a fight. So I hold myself back from turning the ones that clearly don’t want to be turned.

To my surprise though, Leo seems to want to be turned as well. Which is very unexpected.

Not as unexpected as the fact that I can turn undead now. So long as I do it with my Domain.

My brief distraction costs me though when Beelzebub’s clone lands a strike with his stinger on my tail, making me let out a roar of pain that echoes across the entire battlefield. Because I can feel his curse spreading through my tail.

Until I completely tear my own tail off with my claws before jumping back to dodge an attack by Beelzebub’s clone. Then I rush straight at him, only to suddenly turn into lunar ice element and split off into two branches of my element to attack him on both sides.

But Beelzebub doesn’t fall for that and instead splits off into three branches of his own, two of which counter mine before the third tries to strike one of my branches from the side. Only for me to split off that branch in half so that his strike passes straight through the gap I make.

Then we continue to dance like this, splitting ourselves up into our Domains instead of our physical bodies before clashing over and over again. Avoiding attacks and making attacks of our own. All with the most compressed parts of our Domains. Meanwhile we continue to clash with the stretched parts of our Domains spanning the entire battlefield, turning the battlefield into a chaotic land of cursed mist, ice, and pale blue light.

Over and over again, we clash. But gradually my energy begins to decline. Even as my forces finally begin to completely dominate Beelzebub’s, leading to a split in the balance here.

Since Beelzebub is starting to dominate me a little in terms of our personal battle, but my forces are winning their own battle.

At this point I can easily tell that I’m not going to win this on my own.

So I start using items one after another to increase my chances against Beelzebub. Which works enough that we’re no longer unbalanced anymore. Especially because of one of my items in particular that decreases my energy usage.

It’s just too bad the item is only a one-time use item. And it only lasts for a minute.

I make sure to pay attention to the battle below as more and more of my lunar winter beasts begin to turn their attention towards Beelzebub’s clone. With Beelzebub having a harder time trying to get hits on me the more lunar winter beasts focus on him.

After all, I’m not the only one who is getting exhausted.

He may have a far stronger Domain than me, but he doesn’t have infinite energy. So I can tell that his Domain is growing smaller and smaller. And it’s becoming more and more stretched out as my lunar winter beasts begin to turn their attention on him.

But then something unexpected happens.

Beelzebub suddenly reforms into his regular body again with an excited grin on his face.

I watch him in my Domain form for a few seconds before he says, “Remember, young one, when your Domain is nearly empty on energy, it’s best to return to your natural physical form. It requires less energy to attack in this form.”

That gives me pause as I wonder if he’s trying to trick me or if he’s telling the truth, only to find a message from Fenrir telling me that what Beelzebub is saying is true. So I return to my physical form as well, with both my and Beelzebub’s Domains returning fully to our own physical bodies.

Then the two of us silently face off against each other with my lunar winter beasts finishing off the last of his bugs.

“You’ve done well thus far, child,” Beelzebub says, sounding proud for some reason. “Let’s see the end of this battle.”

I narrow my eyes a little, only to raise a hand and say, “Wait, I have a question first.”

My words seem to surprise Beelzebub, who looked like he was about to attack again. And after a second, he relaxes a little while glancing down at my lunar winter beasts before looking at me again.

“Alright, ask away,” Beelzebub eventually says while glancing back and forth between me and the remaining billions of lunar winter beasts down on the ground and in the air.

“Why did you decide to help teach me when you were placed here against your will?” I ask with a frown on my face.

This has been bothering me for a while now. I understand that he doesn’t have any sort of grudge against me and is upset about being cloned and placed into the Beta Dungeon against his will, but none of that means he has any responsibility to train me.

Beelzebub’s clone looks at me for a second before smiling and answering, “Because I owe Fenrir a favor. And because of Grim.”

I blink at his answer and take a moment to think about it, only to find a smile stretching across my face.

Right. The System mentioned that he had some sort of falling out with Grim.

So if I believe his words, part of why he is helping me is to get back at Grim, and the other part is to pay back Fenrir’s favor. But he still won’t just die because very few people would simply lay their life down to die for someone no matter the reason for it.

“Alright,” I state with a nod. “Let’s finish this battle.”

Beelzebub’s clone nods his head before his eyes flash with white light.