Just as the second werewolf deflected past me, I changed directions, shooting sideways through a couple of the other werewolves who were struggling under the barrage of spells.

  A couple errant spells and arrows nearly clipped me, but Energy Ward managed to deflect them. Arrows burst into fire or sizzled with lightning while some of the spells exploded with fantastic bursts of light. The concussive blasts shook me violently, but also pushed me on faster.

  As I shot past the other werewolves, I pulled a pole ax from my inventory and slammed it down on one of their backs. At the same time, I triggered my new class spell Cascading Force.

  “Cascading Force. Apply a random force effect to any melee strike, drawing from one of the following types of natural force: Kinetic, Auditory, Electrical, Thermal, Gravitational, Magnetic, Solar, or Hydraulic.”

  As the blade hit, a beam of pure sunlight pierced the night sky, centered on the prone werewolf whose spine I’d just cleaved in two. It convulsed as the light intensified into a blinding pillar. The wolf’s fur burned away and its skin melted under the intense heat. It was like one of those ants I’d seen kids burning with magnifying glasses when I was 7.

  The wolf’s howl faded to a human scream as the blast of sunlight forcibly transformed the wolf back. A man writhed on the ground, his face locked in a rictus of agony. As soon as the pillar of sunlight winked out, he screamed again and started transforming back.

  Damn. If I could reverse the lycanthropy, we might be able to save some of the folks who had been bitten. I stuck the landing, ending up on the opposite side of the pack of werewolves and closer to the shimmering barrier protecting the town from the rest of the pack. Surprisingly, the 2 werewolves I’d knocked flying with Tether Slide sprinted after me, their sleek lupine forms rippling with regenerated muscle as they closed the distance.

  Behind them, everyone was focused on finishing the last of the 6 new werewolves. Some people shouted for folks to try capturing them instead, no doubt having seen the one guy transform back. I hoped they could, but the werewolves attacked with such ferocity, people couldn’t afford to hold back or they’d get bitten too.

  My attack had helped disrupt the werewolf attack, but I ended up facing the two most powerful werewolves alone. I growled, wishing for Soulrend and Fang. I wasn’t out of tricks, though.

  The lead werewolf growled back, and I understood its meaning. “Betrayer of the pack. You are marked for death.”

  “You have to learn to let things go,” I replied, pulling out one of the spears I’d taken from the cows and throwing it while again casting Cascading Force.

  The werewolf dodged the blow without slowing. The spear struck the ground and a 5-foot circle of earth dropped 6 inches, as if stomped by an invisible boot. That one had gotten gravitational force. Would have been great if I hadn’t missed.

  Instead of slashing at the second wolf, I let it come. I felt an overwhelming desire to see if my new Mimic class spell would capture Lycanthropic Transformation.

  Except the werewolf didn’t try to bite, but leaped to crash-tackle me. Energy Ward was still active, so I side-stepped, allowing my defensive aura to deflect the werewolf. Again it bounced away, suffering a double shock of elemental damage.

  The other wolf lunged in half a second later, fangs flashing in at my thigh. Energy Ward started to deflect it, but I moved, thrusting my leg into the wolf’s jaws.

  They snapped down with crushing force, the razor-sharp teeth rending my pants and shearing through my hardened flesh. Energy Ward still hit the wolf with elemental damage. Its muzzle caught fire and it convulsed under the onslaught of electricity. I convulsed with it as the current flowed down its teeth and into my body.

  I got no message about Mimic triggering, but did see a message from Eva before I waved it aside. Her French-accented voice sounded amused.

  “Congratulations, Lucas! For negating your own defenses to get bitten by another werewolf, you receive a silver Darwin Award loot box.”

  Silver? I hadn’t gotten a silver in days. And since when did Eva start making fun of me?

  I didn’t have time to worry about it as the werewolf wrenched its entire body sideways, throwing me bodily about a dozen feet. I crashed to the ground, my savaged leg already healing from my enhanced natural regeneration, boosted by Wolf Blood, and aided by energy from my Tesla Coil bracelet.

  Idiot. I couldn’t Harvest a spell until the monster was dead, and I hadn’t gotten a chance to trigger Mimic because my Bone Ring made me immune to poison. I’d just let a wolf bite me for no reason. I had to stay in control.

  I rolled to my feet, but the other werewolf body-slammed me, knocking me rolling backward again. What were they doing? Those were not normal werewolf tactics. They should be going for my throat or opening arteries.

  As I again rolled easily back to my feet, drawing upon my insane Agility stat, I understood. I was now barely 20 feet from the barrier separating the town from the rest of the pack. Half a dozen werewolves were crouched just beyond the barrier, red eyes locked on me. Those clever devils were trying to knock me through the barrier so the pack could rip me apart.

  Except that meant they were not trying to kill me. A zombie shotgun-like stun gun dropped into my hands and I blasted one werewolf lunging in to push me again. The blast caught it in the face, toppling it over where it twitched on the ground.

  That wouldn’t slow it for more than a couple seconds, but that was plenty. I clubbed the other werewolf with the butt stock of the gun so hard its skull cracked.

  Before I could finish either wolf, a third werewolf crashed into my chest, knocking me over backward and sending my stun gun flying. Where had that one come from?

  The newcomer was missing a leg and most of its hair. It looked more dead than alive, but still raked its fangs across my Crash Test Dummy jacket, trying to shove me another foot closer to the barrier.

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  I punched it in the side of the head hard enough to break its jaw and send it tumbling, but the other two werewolves piled on. One seized my left leg while the other bit down right over my head, its jaws totally encasing my face.

  The monster’s hot, rancid breath filled my nostrils as its fangs sank into my neck and skull. I’d forgotten to equip my goggles with the new full-head shield.

  Together, the werewolves wrenched me toward the barrier. I couldn’t see or hear anything as pain seared through my calf and across my head and neck. My Tesla Coil bracelet was pumping in healing energy, but I was getting ripped apart.

  Something snapped deep inside and I howled like a wolf right into the monster’s maw that was wrapped around my face. I lashed out with my leg so hard, I tore most of my calf muscle free. That just enraged me further and I kicked out with all my strength.

  I connected with something and a distant yelp told me I’d hurt the monster. The werewolf biting down on my head wrenched me so hard it would have torn the head off a normal human.

  I reached into my inventory and pulled out one of the few remaining bladed weapons I had, then plunged it blindly upward. The short blade punched deep into the werewolf and it fell away, body convulsing.

  I rolled to my feet, bloody and racked with searing pain and towering fury. The wolf I’d kicked off lunged in, but I caught it by the jaws and wrenched them open with all my strength.

  It fought back, raking at me with its razor claws, but I ignored the new gashes across my armored jacket and down my legs and pulled harder. It was a mighty monster, superhumanly strong and savage, but I had just gotten a huge boost to Strength, and I pushed every point to the limits of its effectiveness as I heaved.

  The werewolf’s lower jaw snapped off and it stumbled away, whimpering. I spun to the werewolf I’d just stabbed in time to see its body shimmer with blue light, then shrink in on itself.

  I looked down at the dagger I held. “Huh.”

  I’d blindly pulled out my Poniard of the Random Were.

  “Poniard of Random Were. Rare. Deliver a dose of poison to trigger a randomized were transformation, or drain the victim’s health by 50%.”

  In this case, the werewolf had transformed. It rose to its 4 feet shakily, looking around in bewilderment. It gave an adorable yipping bark, then recoiled when it realized that was its voice. Identify kicked in as I stared at the surprising transformation.

  “Goowee-doodle. Level 38. This adorable mini doodle is the unique mash-up of a werewolf and an Earth Golden Doodle. There’s no telling what its bite will do.”

  The once sleek, deadly werewolf was now a fluffy mini doodle with curly, golden hair and floppy ears, barely as tall as my knees. It spotted me and growled, making me laugh.

  That angered it enough to shake off its surprise. It lunged at me. I extended my arms to catch it. I just had to feel how soft its fur was.

  A glowing amber barrier of light appeared in front of the monster before I could catch it, and it bounced back. More barrier panels appeared all around it, boxing it in. Then a top panel snapped into place and drove down with crushing force, smushing the cute were death puppy into the ground so hard it exploded.

  It would probably regenerate, but getting smushed to paste would hurt even a werewolf. A sizzling bolt of lightning tore down from the sky and struck the ground behind me, so close my hair stood on end and I fell forward, my muscles twitching.

  Behind me, the other badly wounded werewolf had been crawling toward me. Now little remained but a blackened crater of wolf paste. Some of the bits were starting to twitch, but several people rushed in with hammers and axes to finish them off.

  Tomas appeared beside me and extended a hand to haul me to my feet. “Are you okay, Lucas?”

  “Yeah.” I let him pull me up, then turned to survey the battlefield. My torn leg still hurt enough that I would have passed out back on Earth, but I pushed the pain away. Knowing I’d regenerate in seconds made the pain more of an annoyance.

  I’d lost track of everything else as I fought the stupid werewolves. Most of the pack were dead, while a bunch of people swarmed around the last 2 werewolves, trying to tie them in ropes and chains. The werewolves struggled mightily and several people had gotten mauled or raked by claws.

  I applauded the attempt to rescue the people who had been turned, although I had no idea if even full poison resist potions could reverse the lycanthropy after their first transformation. I kind of doubted it, but it was worth trying.

  Tony Waldau and Burns Turner, the two best fighters on the city council approached, flanked by about a dozen of the highest-level fighters I’d seen so far. That glowing barrier wall was a special ability of Tony's, and if I had to bet, I’d guess the lightning came from Burns. Getting their classes had powered them up even more than I realized.

  “Tony Waldau. Level 31 baby human. Team Avengers. Class: Paladin Savant.”

  “Burns Turner. Level 30 baby human. Team Pirates of the Caribbean. Class: Tempest Marshal.”

  They’d both picked up a few new levels. The tall, good looking Tony had been a well-known actor back on Earth. He had to have unlocked a Charisma stat because everyone fell into line whenever he spoke. As much as I considered him a pain in the neck, he did seem to have real leadership skills. I’d have to ask him about how he got Charisma unlocked. He might even tell me.

  Burns’s was no longer even identified with his first name, just the nickname we all used. Interesting. The weathered stunt coordinator was a tough guy and a solid, no-nonsense leader.

  While Tony cast another wide, golden barrier between all of us and the distant werewolves to momentarily reinforce the town barrier, Burns strode forward, wide-bladed boar spear appearing in his hands. He plunged it into the chest of one of the captured werewolves, pinning it to the ground.

  “We’re trying to save them!” one woman shouted, even though one arm hung limply, covered in blood from a wolf claw.

  “The safety of the rest of us comes first,” Burns said. “I’m sorry, but we don’t have enough potions to waste on those already too far gone to save. Better to put them out of their misery.”

  With a sigh, she nodded, and the other folks who had been trying to capture the wolves instead turned to finishing them off. That was the only kind of freedom we could still offer.

  Tony looked to Burns with a scowl, as if he wanted to argue, but just shouted, “Get the wounded back.”

  For his part, Burns was staring down at the werewolf he’d just killed with a look of surprise on his face, as if he’d just gotten an epiphany. Battles were rough, but I’d made all of my most important breakthroughs during fights, so I wasn’t surprised.

  “People with bites are fading fast,” the healer Alice called from where she was treating a woman with half an arm ripped away.

  I rushed over. “They’ll transform if we don’t stop the poison.”

  Burns shook himself out of his reverie. “Can we stop it? Once they turn, we’ll have to put them out of their misery like these others.”

  His willingness to make the hard decisions did not surprise me. He’d stabbed his spear through Joey’s chest to kill the Spectral Mauler as soon as it finished consuming poor Joey’s spirit. I respected his strength, but this time thankfully we didn’t need it.

  “I can help. Here. Give these to the people with bites.” I pulled out 30 of my 99 bottles of full poison resistance that also blocked Lycanthropy.

  Alice gaped. “How did you get so many?”

  Burns clapped a calloused hand on my shoulder, but spoke to Alice. “Doesn’t matter. You have the resources you need. Get it done. Get our people back on their feet.”

  “Yes, sir,” Alice said, dumping the potions into her own inventory and waving other healers over.

  “Good work, Lucas,” Burns said.

  “I’ve got experience with werewolves.” I forced myself to look away from the wounded woman Alice was tending. A small but vocal part of me wanted to rip off my Bone Ring, wait for the woman to change, then get her to bite me.

  Not productive.

  Tony joined us, but another fighter jogged up behind him just then and interrupted whatever he was going to say. “Sir, we’re getting the other battle squads formed up to fend off any other incursions.”

  I knew that voice.

  I stepped around Tony and gasped. “Edmund?”