The monster reeked of burnt hair and fried meat, while his heavy musk clung to my nose and mouth. I was stuck mid-air with a level 58 boss, and by the feel of his body tangled with mine, he was far from dead.

  I recovered my sight first and blinked away the dazzling after-images to find the Alpha’s muzzle sticking under my right arm. Somehow I’d ended up with my head in the clear, his right arm stuck under my left. A horrible, blackened gash had torn through his torso, but it was already closing.

  The deadly monster twitched, then again. As he shook and rattled, new currents of electricity washed through me, setting my own muscles twitching.

  What the hell? That had only been one lightning bolt, right? I managed to trigger a second lightning resist potion, and thankfully the protection stacked with the last one I’d used, although I did get a warning notification.

  “Maximum lightning resist dosage reached. Taking another lightning resist potion within the cooldown window will result in reversing the effect and doubling all lightning-based damage.”

  Yikes. That would literally kill me. Still, I’d gained enough resistance to move a bit. Alpha was waking up, but still twitching. Only then did I notice a series of steel spikes stuck deep into his torso. Crackling electricity danced between them.

  Nice. Burns hadn’t said his master lightning bolt included a way to keep delivering lightning damage. Even though the electricity kept tearing through Alpha, his insane regeneration was starting to push it back.

  No way I’d wait for him to wake up, still tangled together like that. I pulled him around and twisted behind him to cling to his back. His body was visibly healing way faster than even my enhanced recovery.

  Could I slow his recovery down? I triggered Soul Feed. The latest upgrade allowed me to absorb energy from living enemies with direct contact. At the moment, I had a lot of direct contact.

  A flood of power roared into me, topping off my own pools in an instant. Despite all I stole, the Alpha’s regeneration did not seem to slow. I shifted on the Alpha’s back, then yelped. The short fur coating his body turned out to be hard and prickly, like thousands of needles, and they scraped my jacket, tore through my pants, and dug at my legs. Thankfully, my Constitution made my skin harder to penetrate, so fewer of the hairs stabbed deep. The wounds closed instantly, healed by the Alpha’s own power, but they were still annoying.

  He grunted, coming awake just in time to hit my first tether point face-first so hard the heavy tree limb cracked. We bounced instantly off toward the second tether, another tree about 200 yards away, at the southern edge of the clearing. The brutal impact did nothing but trigger the terrifying boss’s rage.

  We shot through the air together in the craziest duel I’d ever seen. The Alpha roared in fury, long forelimbs reaching up for my head. If he got a good hold on me, he’d tear me to pieces.

  So I reached around under his elevating right arm and shouted, “Open wide!” I flung a lava grenade into his open maw, nearly losing my hand to his reflexive bite in the process. His mighty jaws slammed shut like a bear trap just before the grenade detonated with a muted thump.

  The Alpha’s entire body convulsed and he threw his head back, vomiting a firestorm of living lava. His muzzle melted almost entirely off under the insane heat that reddened my face. The stench of melting werewolf made me gag and my stomach lurch, threatening to heave.

  He might have insane regeneration, but that would hurt anyone. Except he started regrowing his muzzle almost instantly. How many hits like that could he take?

  Despite the agony he must be suffering, he again reached up to grab me. I kicked off with all my strength, sending the Alpha tumbling away. He fell to the ground hard, but bounded back to his feet at once.

  “Don’t mess with humans, or you get burned!” I shouted.

  Pretty weak, but with adrenaline and a sense of victory boiling through me, it was hard to think of good one liners.

  My smile faded as the Alpha gave chase like he’d been fired from a rocket. His earlier jump had been impressive, but dude, that monster could run! Despite how fast Tether Slide wisked me across the clearing, he ran me down within 30 yards.

  “Must go faster,” I urged my spell. It ignored me.

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  The Alpha again sprang into the air, deadly claws reaching for me. Crap!

  Another lightning bolt slammed into him, but it was tiny compared to the last one. Burns’s master bolt must need a lot more time to recharge. Other spells and arrows swept across Alpha, but none of them contained the power to knock him off course, let alone kill him.

  The terrifying boss monster blasted through the clouds of lightning and fire and ice and arrows, howling with bloodlust as he closed on me, crimson eyes blazing with rage.

  I shot him with a stun gun again, but this time he shrugged off the hit with barely a twitch. He was so enraged, it was like he'd gotten berserker buffs.

  Before I could try anything else, the Alpha crashed into me, deadly claws grabbing my torso as he slammed his head forward into my chest so hard my sternum shattered.

  Waves of absolute pain washed through me, and every muscle spasmed. Claws punched through my Crash Test Dummy jacket and drove between my ribs.

  I embraced the pain and snarled, “I just got that jacket fixed!”

  The agony and terror that came with facing the unstoppable Alpha triggered a towering battle fury and fueled it like hellfire. Roaring out my pain and fear, I seized the Alpha’s half-healed muzzle with one hand and jammed my other thumb into one big, red eye with all my strength. The eye exploded and my gloved thumb punched deep. I ripped at his skull, trying to pull out his brains.

  That hurt him. His head twitched hard, trying to dislodge me, but I clung on. So he changed tactics. His clawed hands still holding me close and digging deep into my chest heaved outward.

  Holy freak, I felt that. I screamed as he tried to rip my torso in half like a rack of ribs.

  I thought I was strong, but I’d never imagined just ripping a monster apart with brute strength. Facing the Alpha’s overwhelming power, even my over-the-top stats felt laughable.

  I wanted to grab my Poniard of Random Were again, but I wouldn’t be able to reach him with it as he twisted my torso back while ripping me apart. Despite healing energy pouring in from my Tesla Coil bracelet and a river of regeneration again roaring in from the Alpha himself through Soul Feed, I was losing ground.

  Ribs began to crack, and agony tore through me with white-hot intensity. I had to break his grip, or he’d literally rip me apart.

  So I summoned one of the serrated whips I’d gotten from the Maze Fiend. I was so bad with whips, but I didn’t need skill right there. With a single flick of my wrist, the bladed whip snicked out and wrapped around the Alpha’s throat.

  That got his attention, and the temporary paralysis effect of the whip gave me the second I needed. Planting my feet against his chest, I heaved with all my strength, despite how that wrenched his claws still sunk deep into my torso. I screamed again, venting my pain and terror and determination as the whip tightened. Blood sprayed as it severed arteries and cut deep into the Alpha’s neck.

  “See how well you can fight without your head,” I growled, spitting a mouthful of blood.

  The Alpha shrugged off the temporary paralysis, released my torso with one clawed hand, and grabbed the whip with his bloody claws. I was strong, but lacked leverage to out-wrestle him. So I dropped the whip, leaving it buried in his neck, and triggered a full regeneration potion. The river of regeneration I was stealing from the Alpha had slowed since I only maintained contact with my feet. Even with that and my Tesla Coil bracelet still helping, I was in bad shape.

  While the Alpha was distracted for a second pulling the whip away from his neck, I triggered one of my precious scrolls of ice blast, envisioning it as a bolt of dense freezing power. The blast of supercharged ice crossed the inches between us in a blink, punching into his wounded face so hard he back-flipped in mid-air. Ice encased his entire head and I pumped my hand in victory.

  For the second time, I escaped his deadly claws and left him behind to tumble in the air, thrashing and smashing at the ice around his head. It shattered and he howled with rage. I’d hit the tree in another second, then he’d be on me again, but I couldn’t help bellowing back my challenge.

  Below me, the wolves had stopped their assault to watch our insane battle across the night sky. On the far side of the barrier, people shouted and cheered me on. See if Tony claimed I was useless after watching me duke it out face to muzzle with the Alpha.

  I’d gotten a couple lucky breaks, of course. I hadn’t expected him to jump 40 feet so easily, and never imagined he could run me down while Tether Slide yanked me through the sky. Despite everything I’d done to fight back, I’d been totally outmatched.

  Alpha hit the ground and launched after me again. I stuck the landing on the tree and crouched on the high branch. I had to move, but cast a final glance across the massed humans on the far side of the shield wall. I tried to pick out Ruby, but the world flashed with blinding light.

  A new force seized me and hurled me sideways. It felt like the times I’d been teleported and the world spun, my stomach heaved, and I lost all sense of direction. Had one of the other fighters triggered some kind of fetch power, or something to bring me home?

  Then the world snapped back into focus and I dropped heavily to a stone floor. I leaped to my feet, ready to fight for my life, despite my torso still stitching itself back together. I paused and blinked as I looked around.

  I’d ended up in a book-lined study, straight out of a medieval castle. The large room was made entirely of stone, with a narrow window in the far wall, half covered by a heavy drape. A fancy, carved marble fireplace held a roaring fire, with a faded woven rug on the floor in front of it. Two comfortable overstuffed chairs faced each other across the rug. Bookcases lined two walls, while a rolltop writing desk, piled with papers, sat near the window.

  The Alpha was nowhere in sight, but I wasn’t alone. A skinny old man with pale skin and wispy white hair sat in a wooden chair at the writing desk. He wore threadbare gray robes that hung loose on his scrawny frame. His aura, though, filled the room with vast power. It felt as strong as the Alpha’s.

  The old man smiled and said, “Welcome to my home.”