Walking back to the arena, Lyssandra observed how those three new goblins stood rigidly still in a trembling line.
They were trying so hard not to piss themselves, their fear so palpable it smelled sour in the humid air.
They shrank back slightly when her shadow fell across them, yet they held their ground in a clumsy imitation of bravery.
Then she began a slow, deliberate circle around them like a tiger eyeing a gazelle.
She moved like a predator playing with her prey before deciding whether to crush them or break them down piece by piece.
The metallic click of her heels echoed sharply off the stones, marking the rhythm of her hunt.
She reached out a gloved hand, using her fingertip to lightly trace down the trembling cheek of the goblin standing closest.
"What do we have here?" she purred, her voice smooth enough to melt wax.
She flicked a stray lock of the goblin's hair, letting her finger stop just behind his ear for a heartbeat too long to be accidental.
The heat from her skin seared slightly against his sensitive ear, sending a shiver through the group.
"Are you ready for your wildest ride in this new life of yours?" she teased, turning so that her massive, jiggling breasts grazed the front of the middle goblin.
The pressure of her cleavage ground briefly against the goblin's groin, teasing the cloth-covered bulge.
Her long, sharp nails then scratched lightly across the side of the second goblin, walking a path from the ribs down to the navel.
"Y-yes, Great One!" he squeaked.
His eyes rolled back in his head and he answered in an almost incoherent mess of lust and terror.
Lyssandra looked him right in the soul, then patted his trembling crotch firmly before turning.
"Good, then we can begin now."
She abruptly broke away, her hips swaying as she walked.
She left the three goblins there in utter confusion, wondering what hell awaited them at the other end of the walk.
"G-Great O-One, may I ask you a question?" a goblin asked, his voice trembling as he shuffled to match her long steps.
The narrow stone corridor felt endless, echoing like the winding bowels of some sleeping earth deity.
"Sure" she said.
"What are we doing here?" he asked.
"Today, I'm going to teach you guys how to kill a Lightning Wolf without ever facing them directly."
Lyssandra answered smoothly, not breaking stride.
She exuded an aura of absolute command.
"What is a Lightning Wolf?" the goblin asked again, desperate to keep up.
*'It's time to give them some basic information,'* Lyssandra thought.
She reached out and conjured her mental vision to accessed the scan she had viewed of a lightning wolf during a previous battle.
"Your target is a Lightning Wolf," she began, her voice taking on the tone of a teacher speaking to bright, if somewhat unsteady, minds.
"A fast, pack-hunting beast."
It had black fur, streaked with faintly glowing lightning.
"When it moves, it's like a flash," she explained as if reading a recipe from memory.
"Don't try to outrun it unless you want to fry in your own boots."
Its bite carried enough electricity to paralyze prey in a single strike.
"It can strike from a distance with a bolt from its mouth," she noted, lifting a finger to warn the small listeners.
"And its body releases constant static."
"Get too close carelessly, and you'll be electrocuted before you even feel its fangs."
"It is strongest in a pack. They think and move as one."
"So you don't fight all of them at once," Lyssandra instructed.
"You must isolate one. That is the only way."
She gestured with her hands to show how an imaginary current flowed around them.
"Earth disrupts its power. Force it to expend its energy to slow it down."
"Then you strike."
"Beneath all that terrifying speed and magic," she concluded. "It's still just a beast."
"Kill it cleanly, and you live to eat tonight."
With so much information to sift through in their tiny minds, the group—consisting of Lyssandra, Luna, and the three new goblins moved carefully into a dense, jungle-like biome.
"This is a fresh experience."
Lyssandra spoke with a hint of surprise in her tone.
"I didn't even know there was a jungle like this tucked deep inside the dungeon."
"This is where the Lightning Wolves live."
Luna whispered back, her eyes sharp as a hawk searching the perimeter for any signs of danger.
"Let's do this. Here is the plan."
Lyssandra gathered all the beasts close to her.
She lowered her body into a crouched position to explain her strategy.
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Far away near a massive, overgrown tree, four shadowy figures were dashing with blinding speed.
Behind the path of their passage, there were streaks of yellow lightning.
Static air crackled as a mesmerizing show unfolded.
They were chasing something.
The small figure running ahead possessed the same speed, agility, and quick reflexes as the predators behind it.
It darted and zig-zagged across the forest floor with a grace that would mock an enemy.
Despite being small and white with striking red eyes, it showed the exact opposite traits of a predator's calmness, its movements frantic.
It ran wildly to evade its doom, but even then, in the end, the prey could not escape the coordinated hunting tactics of the larger predators.
One Lightning Wolf lunged, sinking fangs into the flank of the white rabbit.
A hot, metallic tang of blood filled the air as its mouth cavity splashed with the juices of the hunt.
The smell of fresh death lingered and caused the other three wolves to salivate, their tongues lashing out with the hunger of dogs in heat.
The Alpha, the one with the largest size and most prominent lightning pattern, moved away to allow its kin their meal.
It took the biggest and juiciest bite of the kill first.
The remaining pack closed in with glee.
The Alpha stood tall as a king over its hunt and feast.
The Alpha held up its head in silent claim.
Suddenly, from high above the tree canopy, a fiery orange orb plummeted down in a screaming streak of destruction.
It impacted straight onto the mangled remains of the dead rabbit, causing a catastrophic splashing of intestines and organs that flew in every direction.
Where the carcass lay, only a charred, smoking patch of grass remained, sizzling in the humid air.
The wolves feasting did not anticipate the ambush and were blasted back by the explosive heat, tumbling several meters away with yelps of surprise.
A cloud of dust rose to swallow the battlefield, blinding everything with a thick, swirling fog.
"Now!" a loud command echoed from a hidden position, sharp and authoritative.
A column of water, dense and solid as steel, dove straight into the dust veil, creating a wet wall between two approaching wolves.
The water jet slammed into their chests with high pressure, forcing them to leap and dash like puppets on strings pulled by a master puppeteer.
From the clearing, a single Lightning Wolf broke through the dust column, its fur bristling with static energy.
Its eyes burned a furious red, darting around the tree line in search of the source of the attack.
Then, it found it.
A small, green-skinned goblin was trembling violently underneath a massive tree root, frozen in pure terror.
The wolf threw its head back and let out a high, crackling howl that stung the air.
It dove straight toward its target, its paws flashing in a blur of yellow light and jagged claws.
It intended to rip the goblin's neck out in a single, violent strike.
Sixty meters became thirty, then just five in the blink of an eye.
The small goblin kept quivering, expecting the end of the world.
And then, the ground beneath the Wolf snapped with a sickening crunch.
The earth where its paws pressed collapsed outward, and the massive beast plunged right into a deep, hidden pit.
It disappeared instantly into the dark earth with a short, surprised growl before silence took it.