A pack of dogs were wandering around Silver Oak University after the System Integration. All beings with sentience were presented with a system message in a format they understood although the System was able to communicate more thoroughly with those of higher intelligence.
These dogs were able to understand that their lives as shunned street dogs was over. Now they were able to eat their fill as they grew stronger. The half a day since their new lives began was the best day of their life.
The pack leader wagged its tail slowly as it saw a group of humans walking away from it. It remembered all the times humans had kicked it, hit it, yelled at it, or thrown something at it. Its heart beat quickened at the memories until a more pleasant memory flashed. An older woman left food out for it and its pack every morning, but even this memory turned sour as it remembered the woman suddenly screaming this morning as she was petting it.
When it came back to investigate the woman who had stopped screaming, she had attacked. No matter how much it tried to show the woman it was the dog she knew, the women didn't stop attacking. Eventually it had to attack back, but the woman never stopped trying to hurt it.
Since that moment, it had led its pack to hunt down all the disgusting humans it could find. The system messages it received after some of its hunts telling it the target wasn't a human didn't matter to it. It would kill those that spent its entire life hurting its pack.
The leader of the pack growled to let its pack know they would be hunting their next prey. When the pack responded in kind, it howled to announce the start of the hunt.
Sylas laid out a battle plan as the pack of dogs started approaching them. His companions felt their stats rise by one point as his passive skill [Bossy Words] took effect on everyone other than himself and Cam Fitch, who didn't have a backpack thus was not included.
He heard Swain muttering "They're dogs… But they're trying to hurt us… But they're just dogs…" to himself with something similar, but a little less reluctant, coming from Sam.
"I know guys, but we have to pro-" Sylas was cut off as he had to rapidly dodge to the side to avoid Swain's wide swing at the pack. Swain was trying to pull as much aggro to himself as possible to reduce the burden on his friends. Unfortunately, it was his first time swinging his [Swinger's Axe] and he didn't judge the reach of his weapon accurately.
Luckily, he had managed to land a solid hit on the level 5 mutt, slowing its future movement while also making it slam into the dog next to it. His axe then barely clipped the third dog as it jumped back to avoid the incoming attack. Flashing Sylas a sheepish smile, Swain focused back on the dogs in front of him as he successfully aggro'd three of the dogs leaving only the pack leader for Sylas and Sam to contend with.
With the other three enemies occupied, Sylas focused on the leader of the pack. The alpha was a couple steps behind its pack as they ran up so it wasn't included in Swain's wild swing before. Seeing its pack engage, it also began to lunge at Swain, but had to dodge at the last moment as Sylas swung his bat towards its face.
The alpha realized it couldn't help its pack before dealing with the threat in front of it. It looked at the figure in front of it seeing little to no threat coming from it compared to the threat its pack was facing. It ran, getting to its top speed in the matter of several feet, biting at Sylas as it approached. Sylas barely dodged to the side as the alpha nipped at his calf.
WHACK
What the alpha hadn't seen was Sam standing behind Sylas, waiting for an opportunity to strike. She had brought her bat down on the alpha's head as soon as she saw it run past Sylas. The dog yelped as it was forced to bite through its own tongue. Sylas was able to take advantage of the situation and land a blow on the hind leg of the pack leader.
Sylas and Sam heard a cry of pain, but it didn't come from their opponent. Swain had blood dripping from his left forearm and you could see teeth marks in his skin. Feeling as though the tide of battle was turning on both his and Swain's side, Sylas gave out a new call.
"Focus on Swain's side to make sure he doesn't get hurt again."
Samantha followed his shot call and dashed behind the pack of mutts, engaging them to relieve some of the pressure. Seeing the pack turn towards Sam, Swain let rip a mighty swing, fatally injuring one mutt while using its body to topple over the other two. Swain bellowed "I'm your target!"
Back in the pack alpha versus Sylas fight, there hadn't been much progress made. The alpha was being more cautious since it was injured, but was also getting panicked by the yelps coming from its packmates. Sylas wasn't initiating the fight again either. He was aware that physical fights weren't his forte so his plan was to stall as long as possible.
After several more yelps were heard, the alpha had enough and charged at Sylas. With his plan of stalling Sylas tried to get in a comfortable rhythm of dodging the charges since it was the only move he'd seen so far. The pack alpha continued to use hit and run methods for the next minute as Sylas was dodging.
He felt good about himself and his ability to judge where the mutt would be attacking, but the arrogance cost him. One of the times the alpha charged in, it was a little bit slower than normal. Thinking this meant it was getting tired, Sylas was happy to let it tire itself out a couple more times before trying to counterattack. The alpha had other plans. Its stats had been raised throughout the leveling process therefore it was smarter than an average dog. It charged slowly, just past Sylas, then turned around and lunged at Sylas's back. Sylas was turning around as the alpha pounced on him, unable to steady himself before the weight of the alpha knocked him down.
The pack alpha immediately went for the kill and clamped his jaw around Sylas's neck. Just in the nick of time, Sylas jammed the handle of his bat in the alpha's mouth causing it to be unable to fully close. Sylas could feel the warm blood roll down his neck as the alpha's canines pierced through his skin. Sylas's mind went blank as he used every bit of strength he could muster to push the bat up into the dog's mouth.
A black object obscured his vision as Diana hit the alpha with her empty backpack, but the alpha held on. Sylas couldn't hear anything as he stared at the pack alpha as Diana bashed it over and over until she suddenly stopped. He thought this might be the end as the strength in his arms slowly started to fade. Maybe he should have accepted the invites from Swain to workout. Maybe then he would've had enough strength to survive.
That was when he saw a familiar object fly through his vision slamming into the alpha's head which caused it to fly back a couple of feet opening a small gash in his neck where the canines just were.Swain was looking down at him now as Sam knelt to put pressure on the bleeding wounds in his neck.
Sylas was in shock laying on the ground. He couldn't hear Sam as she talked to him. He couldn't feel it as she got medical supplies, cleaned his neck, and then bandaged it. He was in shock at how close he was to death. Then he got angry. Not at the alpha for almost killing him. Not even at the world for becoming a death pit. He was mad at himself. Furious that he had given up in that final moment. Enraged that he was okay with dying.
How could he just accept his death? How could that be his ending? Death? To a dog? No! That couldn't be how his story ends. What about his wife? His brothers? Swain? Who was going to look after them if he died? Was he okay with how sad that would make them? The position it would put them in to have one less trustworthy helper during the awful Integration? No. He needs to step up and do his best. How could he have given up? Never again.
Sound returned as Sylas focused on the beautiful worried face in front of him. A 22 year old woman with sky blue eyes and blonde hair with brown roots peeking out was looking back at him saying his name repeatedly. He smiled and thanked her for saving him. With the worry draining from her face, Samantha smiled back taking a little jab at him. "Do you end up on the floor on the verge of death after every fight?"
"Only the ones in front of you so you take care of me." Sylas chuckled and winked back. He felt his neck as he stood up realizing he wasn't in any pain. "See, you did so good my neck doesn't even hurt." He looked over to see Diana and Professor Medina finishing their treatment of Swain's forearm and Swain giving him a grin.
"Who's tanking the floor now!" Swain laughed loudly. Sylas just shook his head as he remembered how many times he'd been in the process of telling Swain what to do in the videogames they were playing just to have Swain immediately fall to the floor dead. He'd say Swain was still helping the group by tanking the floor's aggro.
Sylas thought it was time to see what the reward of almost dying, again, was so he opened his notifications by focusing on the blinking envelope icon at the top right of his vision.