The thing stood there heaving. Its breath was heavy, and I caught the whiff wet dog mixed with urine. A box popped up describing the creature. PAI’s voice read along with me. “Werewolf - Level 4. Hybrid creature—half-man, half-wolf. Known for strength, speed, and heightened senses. Caution: Infectious Creature: This creature is infected with Lycanthropy! Only infectious during a full moon. Weakness- Silver, Fire.”

  I let out a groan, opening my inventory quickly and equipping my torch. The creature just seemed to notice me.

  PAI kindly added, “and please note, fire can only slow regeneration—it will not fully negate it.”

  I swore under my breath as the werewolf snarled, its yellow eyes locked onto me.

  “Any good news here?” I asked, gripping my club.

  PAI’s voice chimed in once more, disturbingly calm, “Statistical analysis indicates a 12% chance of survival.”

  An image, unbidden from my childhood of Jim Carrey asking a girl what his odds were with her. So, you’re telling me there’s a chance?

  It wouldn’t be long before the Werewolf sprung at me. It wasn’t as huge as the kind I was thinking about. In most Werewolf movies, the being that they became always eclipsed the size of the person. Most the time they took on a certain thickness, at least on the big screen. This wasn’t that, it wasn’t bulging with muscles, it was more of a wiry wispy thing. That made me more nervous, the long hairs stretching from the animal’s maw gave the image of menace. Its teeth were surprisingly long, and it did seem that the Werewolf’s head was much larger than a normal man’s. Despite this, its arms were long, claws glinted in the sunlight. It motioned and kind of staggered for a moment, in the blink of an eye it was right in front of me. Its arm reached back, its face uncomfortably close. I swung wildly, hoping to intercept the claw strike.

  The creature let out a howl as my club met its pointed claws first, shattering them. It reeled away from me, but I spotted the bent fingers as it clutched it close. I jumped after it, the wolf snapped at me, even as it fled. I reached with a quickness toward the beast, making contact with my open left hand, I activated my Grapple ability. The werewolf’s torso stiffened as it let out a snarl. It ran, faster than the blink of an eye, coming to a dead end. It turned, crossing great distances with mind boggling speed. I could hear it breathing so loud that I thought that it had to be a machine of some kind. It was breathing rapidly, making it seem as though the inhales and exhales started to overlap, all the while the creature’s speed was terrifying. It finally came to a stop, one hand starting to heal already. I readied another torch in my off hand. It came to face me and lunged, I barely had time to get my club up before the monster’s teeth began gnashing at it. I had no time to care for the lost torch as the creature’s gaze consumed my vision. Its eyes weren’t entirely human, but not entirely animal. They were yellow, and his breath wreaked of decay. The word fester manifested in my mind every time it tried lunging through my club. Its jaws were clasped tight to my only defense. I was pushed to the ground, it was snarling fiercely in my face, spit and moist breath making me squint my vision. It had its full weight on me, and it repeatedly lunged downward at me. One arm was limp, and the other was used to help bear the creature’s weight down on me. Its squatter hind legs were just below me. As it lunged again, I shoved my arms upward while scooting lower beneath the creature. I kicked it square in its dangling balls.

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  It wasn’t the reaction you’d expect, in fact, it was relatively nominal. It let out a groan, and its bodyweight went slack for just a second. I brought the leg that had done the deed up across the animal’s body laying my shin against it. With my other leg, I heel swung my foot with all I had. For just a moment, for the briefest of moments, my mind woke from the action. For a second, I realized what I was doing. I was fighting a fucking werewolf. In a living game. And it had some kind of stupid religious backstory? Oh yeah, and I just shin swept a monster from the movies, like it was my Jui-Jitsu sparring partner.

  That was as far as my active mind would let things go before I returned to the immediate. The sweep was successful, I mostly followed through, well enough to get to what I needed. That happened to be my other grappling ability, which required me to have 70% of my weight on my opponent. The small icon went from faded out to bright, so I activated it.

  The snarling and tensing of the werewolf stopped, it looked at me for a moment before its head started thrashing back and forth. It’s body still held the pose it was in when I activated my Crushing Hold, in my UI a debuff showed over the creature with a timer: 48 seconds.

  I wasn’t too far from the door, so I rushed over, seeing if maybe it would open. No go. I checked again, 40 seconds. I looked around frantically, spotting a few of the lamps on the wall that still had liquid in it. I grabbed two of them that were lying unbroken next to a busted shelf, stepping over shattered glass as I did so. Something pierced my foot, but I couldn’t pay it any mind, 22 seconds.

  I threw one of the lamps at the monster, it hit the creature and didn’t shatter, dropping lamely to the floor. I was closer now, and I broke the second one on the floor just before the creature. 12 seconds.

  I grabbed one clawed foot, dragging the creature over what I now suspected to be kerosine. The other unbroken lamp was dragged across the floor right in what would be the werewolf’s armpit. I pulled out a torch, taking a moment to be grateful that they came out of my inventory lit, and smashed the unbroken lamp with it. I let go of the torch as I did so, brandishing my club. At four seconds, the whoosh of flames engulfed the creature. I was close, but I worried it wouldn’t be enough, so I pulled back and managed one solid blow against the monster’s skull just as the howling came to a crescendo.

  I ran away, getting as much distance from the growing flames as I could. The howling was horrendously loud, the werewolf started getting up and I thought for sure I was done for. Childhood stories about little red riding hood waded through my worries. I remembered watching all the American Werewolf movies as a kid and thinking “nope.”

  Just as I was sure the flaming monster would lunge at me, it crumpled to the ground, its mass collapsing in on itself. The smell of burnt hair and meat made my guts roil. I moved back to the area that I had initially seen the man that would be monster, moving to the back wall, I leaned up against the it and lost most of the fantastic breakfast I had a few hours earlier. I saw a nearby chair and moved to sit, figuring I needed a second. Notifications were flashing all through my vision, a few achievements, a level up notification, experience messages, all added up. It was too much too fast, I felt like I found myself in a rave and I took something I shouldn’t have. I plopped into the chair, where it collapsed disastrously. I just lay in the heap of shattered wood, giving up for the moment. Breathe, Kevin, just breathe.