Chapter 2: Calming the Alpha Wolf

"I hate it... I hate it... I hate it... The snobbish boy repeated, in the light it showed that he was hedgehog wearing punk rock attire, a spike bracelet on his left wrist with a spike choker around his neck. A white shirt that said "piss off!" on the front of it and a pair of ripped jeans. "Goddammit I hate it!"

"And what is it you hate so much, Spike?" Asked the older gentleman, he appeared as an old lion in a black butler's attire. He looked at the time through his pocket watch, his character had its brown furred mane parted in the middle to show that his age was at least in the fifties. "Stressing so much about things will lead to gray hair and you'll end up bald like me."

"Shut up Sebastian, you know what I hate." He shot back. "It's been a week but I still can't believe that one of our hacks was beaten by a noob... a total newbie! That pisses me off to the max right now!"

"Please calm down, you have to remember that the hack was made by our new member." Sebastian explained returning his watch into his breast pocket. "Not only that but the novice player also had an experienced player with him to help defeat it, it was something we should've expected."

"It still pisses me off, I need something to put my anger in or I'll explode." Spike opened a few holographic screens in front of him, they showed areas from different worlds of the game which were being viewed by hidden cameras. He smirked as something he saw caught his interest. "Hm... I think I found the perfect stress reliever."

---

In real life, Ferdinand was a regular middle age worker at a supermarket. He usually was busy with his job, but he always found free time to play games when he had the chance; today was his day off so he had decided to relax until he got a text message, it was Kageichi telling him to meet him in the middle of town in Fursona Online. Getting his VR helmet on he closed his eyes as it began to activate. "Establishing connection..."

As he opened his eyes, the mage found himself back in the village of the sengoku period. He made his way to the middle of town waiting for the panda, but he was nowhere to be found. "He's late for his own meeting, I swear this had better been worth all those text messages."

"Surprise Bear Hug!" Ichi sneaked behind his older brother and lifted him into the air. "Hey there big bro, what's up dude? I've been waiting for you for like ever now!"

"You're the one who's late, where have you been exactly?" He asked.

"Oh man I've been all over, this game is just amazing." The panda put Ferdinand down smiling. "I've noticed how lots of players make their own jobs like selling items and stuff did you know that? Oh and there's this one guy who actually made his first class a cook and he has like a dozen shops in different worlds."

"You forget that I'm the one who told you these things." The foxnuki sighed and noticed his friend's level had increased. "You got to level 13?"

"I sure did, been grinding all week with quests and stuff."

"But in a week you should've at least..." Ferdi sighed. "Ichi... have you been in the Sengoku era this whole week?"

"Yeah, I've been doing most of the missions and fighting more monsters." Ichi answered. "What, is something wrong?"

"Listen, when you start off in this game you know you go to a start off world right?" He explained. "This time period is your beginning, in a week you should've been at least level 20 but since you stayed here you've only gotten low level monsters and small quests. If you go to another time period you'll get more stronger monsters to fight and quests with more EXP to obtain from them."

"Really, I had no clue." The ever clueless panda laughed nervously. "But um... I don't know how to travel to other times."

"Well I guess that's my fault since I never really told you about it, and since we're in the middle of town I might as well show you." The foxnuki waved his hand to summon his menu through a holographic screen, Ferdi scrolled down until he found and clicked on the "Time Jump" option. Once activated a large device was shown in the middle of town, a large circular clock attached to a floating blade. "This is the Time Dial, its the device which allows players to jump through different periods of time."

"Whoa, so this is how you go around."

"I sent you a party invite, so accept it and listen up." Ferdinand continued as he scrolled through the different time periods. "Let's see here, since this is your first time let's head to the medieval era. Once I say "Time Jump" since your in my party we'll both be transported, so are you ready?"

"Yeppers, lets go big bro." The panda answered all giddy.

"Alright: Time Jump!"

Once activating the time dial the clock began to spin at a rapid pace, it shined a bright light that grew and enveloped the two players in a sphere. Inside they could see scenes of several different time periods unfold before them, soon the scenes began to stop and the light faded away to show a new area. The two players found themselves in a village where a large castle could be found far off from it, the buildings were made from stone unlike the ones from the sengoku era. Kageichi looked upon the new world in amazement. "Oh man this is so cool!"

"Yep, this is the medieval era." Ferdi replied.

"Awesome, hey look a knight walking with an old guy." He referred to the large bear in knights armor escorting an elderly NPC somewhere, though the way the bear had a paw on the old fox's rump was a bit odd. "Guess he's a bit affectionate with his elders."

"Never mind that, right now just listen and learn." The foxnuki gestured over to the board with several papers on it. "You should already know about the quest board from the sengoku era, but here's something interesting to look at." Ferdinand touched one of the missions activating a holographic screen to show more about it. "Here, read this."

The panda read the quests description aloud. "Save the Alpha, "The wolf protector has gone berserk, I found a way to save him but I need help to hold him down.". It says its from Player: Xavier Pendragon, wait a player made this quest?"

"In Fursona Online, Players can make their own quests for others to try." Ferdi explained. "As rewards the player who makes the quests either shares his loot or lets the person who helped have the rare item of the quest."

"Is that right." Ichi read it more until he saw the words "Quest Accepted" on the screen. "Huh, so we're doing the quest?"

"Yeah, I know about the Alpha Wolf and its not the type to go berserk like that." He answered. "I want to investigate this further."

"Okay... guess I do want to see what the Alpha Wolf is like too and the EXP will be worth it."

"Alright then, come on we're going to meet Xavier at the town gates with his apprentice." Ferdinand walked off gesturing the panda to follow.

---

Meanwhile at the town gates, a player stood in wait for someone important. It was a brown bear with a built fat body frame, green eyes and a white tribal tattoo on the left side of his face. The player wore a black loincloth and a pair of armbands to complete his outfit. "You're Xavier correct?"

He turned to his left to see Ferdinand and Kageichi walking towards him. "Hello, and yes I'm Xavier. Thanks for accepting my quest."

"No problem, we're always here to help when people need it." Ichi said smiling.

"Don't talk like we're in an anime." Ferdi sighed. "So if you would, tell us more about the quest you made. From what I know the Alpha Wolf is a kind monster."

"He is, you see I've studied the Alpha Wolf for a while and even understand it." Xavier explained. "It's a kind guardian in the forest. For quests you actually just play a game of tag with it, its probably the most gentle monster in FO."

"Can you really call it a monster then?" Ichi asked.

"It's a wolf as big as a house so yes you can." The bear chuckled but frowned as he continued. "Something has happened to it though, I don't know if its a new quest but the Alpha Wolf has suddenly gone berserk. It's destroyed some of the forest area and devoured most of the monsters as well."

"Maybe its a bug in the game, big bro and I had something like that happen a while ago."

"It couldn't be, it would've been fixed by the system then so it's probably a new quest." Ferdi thought. 'Still if its not I have only one idea to what it truly is... I just hope I'm wrong.'

"I've found a way to save the Alpha Wolf without destroying it though." Xavier opened his inventory screen an clicked on an item that appeared in his hand, a red liquid inside a vile. "This is dragons bane, it works as a powerful paralysis which can hold a monster for thirty minutes."

"But I thought that only works for dragons?" The panda questioned.

"It works for regular monsters as well, though the time it can hold them is ten minutes at best." He answered. "That's just enough time for my apprentice to use his magic."

"Hang on, I'm here I'm here!" Running down from a shop can a fox that sounded around Ichi's age, he wore a black and white sleeveless hoodie with a dark purple long sleeve shirt under it, black shorts with a chain attached to the left pocket and a pair of black sneakers. He stopped between and laughed nervously. "S-Sorry I'm late, I had to buy some items just in case."

"This is the apprentice I talked about."

"Hi there, I'm Arita Komamura." He introduced himself. "I'm 18 years old and my classes are a bard and a healer."

"You're a bard?" Ichi asked. "I thought those guys wore clothes from... uhh, whatever time bards come from. Where's your flute?"

"Hehe, you mean this?" The fox snickered and summoned an electric guitar in his hand. "I came from the modern day era, so my magic comes from rock and roll."

"Oh I see, I see what your plan is." Ferdinand spoke. "You plan to use the dragons bane to hold the Alpha Wolf down, then Arita would use a spell to make whatever is causing it to go berserk to stop."

"That's right, I've been leveling up to get this one spell that we need." Arita answered. "I'll be able to calm the Alpha Wolf with this for sure."

"Then it's settled then, where can we find it?" Ferdi asked.

"Its in the forbidden forest, let's hurry before it heads somewhere else."

---

"Hahaha, can you believe this?" Spike laughed as he watched Ichi and the other players head to the hidden forest through hidden cameras. "They think some spell can really beat my hack? They are so dead for sure."

"So how will you handle it?" Sebastian looked back to his watch as he cleaned off a glass cup.

"Handle it, I'm gonna kill them like they were insects under my boots!" He exclaimed. "Its not like they're gonna be able to really do anything."

"But if your hack on the Alpha Wolf keeps up, word will spread to the system admins." The lion pointed out.

"Why'd you bring them up... fine I'll put the mutt back to normal once I kill off that panda and the others."

"Oh very well."

---

The party of four continued walking toward the forbidden forest, as the trees began turn more grotesque with branches that looked like claws. Kageichi could sense a dark foreboding, as if something was watching them. "This really is different than the Sengoku era's forest, I can just feel the sense of danger here."

"Every era is different when it comes to dungeons and special areas." Ferdi explained. "You should always go and try quests in different eras."

"Yeah I know."

"You still gotta admit that the graphics are pretty bitchen." Akita said smiling. "This was definitely worth the sixty bucks in getting this game."

"So besides that why not get to know each other while we walk?" Ichi asked. "So Xavier, what made you made you be a healer for the game?"

"Huh, oh um well..." The bear blushed. "I just like helping heal the sick and injured, t-there's really nothing to it."

"Aw, the big bear is shy." Akita teased.

"Don't start fox boy, so what about you?"

"Me? I got this game because it looks freaking awesome!" The fox said excitedly. "I mean look at us, we're our own characters, in a virtual world doing a quest as epic as this. Not to mention it feels like we're actually in the game, seriously our characters are pretty much are second bodies."

"Cool, well with me I got this game because my big bro Ferdi had it." Ichi said. "I don't really play many online games cause I never have any friends to play with so I never get interested in them. It's the same with playing with people IRL, where I live there aren't any people my age to play with so I usually just buy single player games."

"Aw how cute, so its like your way to make friends?" Akita asked.

"I've got friends at school, just not game playing friends."

"You sure about that?"

"Are you trying to pick a fight?" The panda growled slowly unsheathing his sword.

"You'd lose anyway level 13, I'm ten levels ahead."

"Oh you are dead!" Before the arguments grew any further, a dark growl echoed around the forest. "Um... what was that?"

The party looked around as the growl echoed again, Ferdinand looked looked through the trees as he saw a pair of gold slitted eyes staring at them. "Quick, everyone move!"

The gold eyed monster jumped out from the shadows to attack, the four quickly jumped out of the way to see what it really looked like. The monster was a large black wolf the size of a large building, it's large teeth like a sharks and razor sharp claws that could probably cut through steel.

"W-What the hell is that?" Akita exclaimed.

"Can I have a wild guess and say that's the Alpha Wolf?" Ichi asked.

"That can't be, it didn't look like this a while ago." Xavier answered. "It's at level 27 when its normally level 15."

"This could be a theory but since we didn't see any other monsters its my only possible idea." Ferdi opened his books readying himself for a spell. "The Alpha Wolf might've killed them all and leveled up, the only problem with that is that monsters can't level up they have a fixed level from the start."

"Well whether it was grinding to get stronger or not we have to stop it right?" Ichi said as he readied his sword. "So what's the plan?"

"We can't kill it so try to bring its health down till its weak enough that the dragons bane will work more effectively." Xavier explained.

"Here it comes!"

The Alpha Wolf charged again as the party scattered, Kageichi running at its side made a quick stab at its ribs before jumping back from its tail whipping at him. The wolf swung its claw at him as the panda tried to block, the force threw and slammed him into a tree but thanks to blocking his health lowered slightly; Xavier growled as his body began to transform, his fur turning into brown scales as wings began to grow out of his back. It continued until he completely transformed into a large dragon, he breathed fire at the large wolf draining its health constantly with his flames. The Alpha Wolf roared back unleashing a sonic boom that blew the shapeshifting bear's flames at him burning himself until he transformed back.

"Thundering Tempo!" Akita wailed on his guitar, playing a loud tune that shot a bolt of thunder at the Alpha Wolf damaging its health making it half now. "Ichi, strike him now!"

"Right!" Kageichi charged at the wolf again, it's tail lashed out at him repeatedly but he dodged each attack with ease jumping up into the air and getting above it. "Needle Dive!" The panda's sword glowed as he made a spinning dive down and striking the Alpha Wolf's back with his sword. The attack made a critical, but the wolf's tail wrapped around his body and lifted him up in the air. The tail began to grow black tendrils around his his body, the feeling of them sneaking in his clothes making Ichi freak out. "Ah... Ah... AHH! Bad touch bad touch, help me dammit!"

The tendrils began to glow and drain Ichi's health away, restoring the Alpha Wolf's health slowly. Ferdinand noticed and quickly readied his spell. "May the earth attack with raging flames by its side, Fire/Earth Sign: Erupting Stalagmite!" The spell summoned underneath the wolf unleashing a burst of flames with pillars of earth that stabbed its underbelly. The attack caused the Alpha Wolf to throw Kageichi away and stop its energy drain, as the spell ended its health went back to half. The monster went berserk and howled a sonic shockwave damaging everyone around it with a critical. "Ngh, Damn. It didn't have an energy drain attack before, Ichi are you ok?"

The panda samurai growled as he got back up and shouted, "The heck with saving it, let's KILL that wolf bastard!"

"Calm down idiot." He sighed. "Xavier, we have to get it with a good strategy. Does the Alpha Wolf have a weakness?"

"Soothing Winds." Xavier summoned a gentle breeze of wind around himself and the others, the wind healing them to a safe percentage of health. The spell gave him a new idea. "That's it, its weakness is wind!"

"Alright, leave it to me then." Ferdi said.

"I'll help too, I got an attack with a wind attribute." Ichi responded as he sheathed his sword.

"Alright, Xavier get ready with the item, Akita ready your spell." He instructed. "We've gotta make this count, Kageichi distract it!"

"I'm on it!"

Kageichi made a run towards it and began to circle the Alpha Wolf, he dodged the its claws and kept his distance as Ferdi charged his attack. "Cut through clouds: Wind Blades!" Ichi jumped as the foxnuki swung his arms unleashing waves of compressed air that cut through the ground and critically damaged the Alpha Wolf on contact.

"Typhoon Axe Kick!" Kageichi's dove down, the wind speeding him up as he licked the wolf's back. It was a critical blow that took it off its feet and slammed into the ground.

"It's health is at 25%, Xavier use it now!" Ferdi exclaimed.

The brown bear nodded and dashed with the vile in his hand, quickly he downed the dragons bane in the Alpha Wolf's throat and quickly jumped away. "Akita now!"

"Soothing Melody!" Akita began to play a soft, calming song as a golden light began to envelope the Alpha Wolf's body. "Hey, its working!"

The spell finished as the light disappeared, but the Alpha Wolf rose up and roared as it's health bar filled back to max. "It... It didn't work?"

"Are you kidding me with this, after all we did!?" Ichi exclaimed.

"S-So what do we do now?" Akita stuttered. "If the spell then it turn it back what will?"

Ferdinand sighed. "There's no other choice... we'll have to destroy it."

"No!" Xavier responded. "I swore that I would save the Alpha Wolf, there has to be a way."

The Alpha Wolf charged at the party but suddenly stopped; in the air echoed the sound of a bell that held the wolf in place. "What's going on, where's that sound coming from."

"I don't know, but it's so... calming." Ferdinand sighed in relaxation.

Gatrandis babel ziggrat, edenal

Emustrolrozen fine el balbrazii

Gatrandis babel zigguratu edenal

Emustrolzen, finel zii

'That song... where have I heard that before?' Ichi thought to himself until the song stopped.

"Hey, look what's happening?" Akita pointed back to Alpha Wolf as it began to change, it's black fur changing to a normal grey and its gold eyes changing to a chestnut brown. "It looks like it was before it went berserk."

"Wait then... it's back to normal?" Kageichi asked before the giant wolf charged at Xavier. "Oh crap, Xavier look out!"

The Alpha Wolf tackled him to the ground, but instead of hurting him the wolf began to playfully lick him over. "Hahaha, you're back! Oh I'm so glad you're ok."

"Did that song change it back to normal?" Ferdi said aloud. "What was it anyway?"

"The swan song." Ichi answered. "I heard it a few times so I was surprised to hear it, and it was a girl singing it too. I wonder who it was?"

"I don't know, but whoever it was... we'll definitely need to thank her." He smiled as the bear and apprentice played with he large Alpha Wolf. 'Still, Akita's own spell didn't change it back. That song was definitely not a normal skill, it had to have been made by someone else that's not a part of the system admins. If that's the case then my suspicions were correct. The Alpha Wolf, and the Berserker Bear from last week... they were hacked.'

---

"Are you freaking kidding me!?" The hedgehog smashed a table in anger. "Another of our hack's got beaten by them, and with the help of another hacker! Who the hell was that?"

"I'm not sure, it's gotten my interest as well." Sebastian pondered the thought and headed for the door. "I'll report this to the Guildmaster, Spike please clean up before you head out."

He growled as the aged lion made his way out. "I swear, I'm gonna have that panda's head mounted to a wall!"