My Isekai Fantasy Is All Wrong!

Chapter 14: Interlude - Scoroe

Life as the top dog of a pack was the best. It hadn’t been all that great for an ambitious type like Scroroe when I was still in the middle of climbing up the hierarchy and taking the pack for myself, but Scoroe wasn’t a whiny bitch. Scoroe was the fiercest, most patient, most cunning, and smartest Diamond Dog of all time!

So fierce, and patient, and cunning, and smart was Scoroe that ever since I became the alpha of the pack and changed how things ran around here, the pack thrived better and faster than ever before. Scoroe had been born when there were only nine members and under father’s leadership, I never saw it peak over twelve. We were nomadic then, primal and stupid, hunting like wild animals.

When Scoroe saw what life was going to be ahead of him, I put my first genius plan together and poisoned father days before challenging him for the position of alpha. Unlike the rest of the idiots around Scoroe, I paid attention to everything and everyone. Scoroe learned from his mom and the other bitches, things that the males deigned were beneath them; like which herbs made healing salves and which ones combined into fast or slow acting poisons.

After becoming the alpha and killing Scoroe’s predecessor easily, my power scared all the others into complete submission. Then the changes made by Scoroe started paying off and that motivation by fear shifted to motivation from respect, and admiration, and loyalty!

Under Scoroe, there was no more need to risk our lives out in the wild. There was no need to wander around aimlessly. It took a long time to establish connections with other wandering packs in the area, but after a year, those connections made their own connections and they all funneled back to me.

Those connections gave Scoroe access to trade and there was no shortage of commodities and luxuries I wanted for myself, but I didn’t want to work hard for an honest living. Scoroe also knew that even the idiots around me would not be happy if I made them work and took all of their resources for myself. Thus, Scoroe planned out yet another genius resolution and made it his “work” to seek out and capture slaves to do the actual hard work for him.

At first, Scoroe needed the full might of the entire pack to force a small group of slaves into working the Mine. Back then, Scoroe couldn’t even afford anything but the cheapest of Magical Lanterns. Scoroe was patient and cunning, however, as I never took on more than half as many slaves as there were pack members for us to guarantee that they couldn’t escape.

Scoroe waited until he could afford magical suppressants to expand his budding slave empire. It wouldn’t do if a single slave escaped and brought the full might of a country on the pack. That was why Scoroe chose a secluded cave in the middle of nowhere to establish his operation. That was why Scoroe never took on any significant risk with the number of slaves his pack could manage.

Over time, the resources piled up and after trading with the connections Scoroe had built, I traded for the means to secure more slaves. The more slaves Scoroe had, the faster the resources built up, and the faster the resources built up, the more I could spend on improving the pack’s quality of life; Scoroe’s above everyone else’s first, of course.

Where once the pack had to hunt for their food systematically, it then only had to hunt once a week, then once a month, then once a year, and finally nevermore! Where once the pack had to rely on the bitches to prepare healing remedies, now it had a full stock of healing potions and various other alchemical products to combat illness and disease.

The warrior male class could afford to laze around all day, at most only exerting their superior strength whenever a slave acted up or the hunting group found another prospect for capture. The bitches were entirely freed of any responsibilities or work. Their sole “job,” if any of them even considered it as much, was to open up their legs for Scoroe whenever he demanded it and to take care of his young when the time came that he wanted them. This wasn’t enforced with violence, it was simply his pack’s way of life and any bitch who rejected Scoroe would be kicked out; the same as any other pack in the Neutral Territory.

Twelve years had passed since Scoroe had become alpha and in those twelve years, nothing, not a single hiccup had disrupted the pack’s continued prosperity. No one had died in battle, no one had starved or died of thirst. One older dog had passed, but that was due to a birth defect that couldn’t be remedied and gave rise to chronic health issues.

Now, on a random Spring night, Scoroe was helpless as I watched my entire life’s work crumble before my eyes. Scoroe could barely believe there was an issue going on when the first alarm rang out. After all, while it was rare for a slave to rebel and make enough trouble for one of Scoroe’s grunts to call for help, it wasn’t impossible. The fact that the distress signal was coming from the first underground layer instead of the ground floor only increased the chances that it would happen since captured slaves got stronger the deeper into the Mines one went.

Then a second distress signal appeared on Scoroe’s transceiver and then a third… There was no mistaking it for anything else, Scoroe knew this wasn’t a simple slave rebelling, rather his camp was under attack! However, given the lag time in between signals, it looked like there was only one attacker. Scoroe knew he needed to act fast and decisively.

The fact that the signals had started to come from the first underground level could only mean one terrible thing: The intruder had managed to get all the way down there without alerting anyone. Moreover, with how quickly the distress signals were piling up, it wasn’t because they lacked the strength to charge in head first, but because they had likely been trying to keep up the cover of stealth.

Scoroe used a special Magic Enconder that only he personally carried with him. Unlike the ones all the grunts supervising the slaves used which were blue and signaled “Help!” Score’s Magic Encoder exploded into a small cloud of gold smoke that signaled “Attack the threat,” and “The alpha is here!” on the other transceivers.

Scoroe wasted no time in running out of his private resting quarters and sprint towards the intruder after adding a few different potion vials to his emblazoned leather jacket; my most prized possession and the height of my status in the pack.

Several more pings sounded out from Scoroes transceiver even as he channeled all his Magic into running as quickly as physically possible and had a line of sight on The Demon in less than ten minutes. After taking just a glance at the horrifying blood-stained giant in the suit of armor, Scoroe knew I needed to take drastic measures if I ever hoped to overcome this disaster.

Scoroe stopped dozens of meters away from the demon and uncorked two potions that would massively enhance my speed and strength. In the time it took Scoroe to do that and bring the vials up to my lips, enough time passed for me to watch the demon punch one of the grunts so hard they flew into the walls of the hall so hard they left a sizable crack, only to follow up with a kick to a different grunt which visibly shattered their leg before the other one had collapsed on the floor.

The demon ducked under a swing from a punch from a third only to completely absorb the tackle fourth Diamond Dog without so much as buckling. It then proceeded to grab the offender by the scruff of their neck and throw it at a different Diamond Dog, before taking a swing at a different one of the stupid bunch that were too stupid to realize it was a hopeless situation for them.

Scoroe grimaced, balked, and shook my head. Scoroe had to go even further against this absolute nightmare of a monster. Scoroe took out a third potion, one that I’d resolved to only take as a final resort — one that I’d only imagined needing to stand a chance against a full task force of Ponies or Griphons — and accepted the risky gamble.

Malachite Madness was a potent stimulant that would grant its users effects so extreme they needed to literally transform to not be broken down from the influx of power, but it came with a terrible cost. In the best of cases, riding out the effects without getting wounded from battle still only had a 50% survival rate. Worse yet, the accounts from those who had survived or talked to survivors of the potion said that they often wished they didn’t due to the long and agonizing period where they were left debilitated and recovering.

But Scoroe had no choice. Against the demon, nothing but my trump card could stand a chance and the alternative was death; there were no two ways about it. It would either be immediate death by the hands of the demon, ego death if Scoroe was somehow left alive at the end of this incident, or countless other ways my end might be made manifest.

After drinking the vial of Malachite Madness the effects hit Scoroe almost instantly. Scoroe’s muscles began to expand and bulge in a way that even I had to admit were grotesque. Scoroe could see that I was getting taller as my point of view noticeably increased in fractions of a second. The Magic in Scoroe double, no, tripled and surged so violently it leaked out of my body and formed a sort of dark green cover that was visible to the naked eye.

“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” the demon cursed, surprising Scoroe. To Scoroe, in the short amount of time I had been exposed to it, I had been convinced that it was a living suit of monstrous armor; unfeeling and mechanically predisposed to slaughter everything in its path.

“I’m only going to give you one warning. Stand down and accept being restrained by a set of magical suppressants. Unlike the rest of your little group, I won’t be able to afford holding back against you,” the demon spoke even as it finished off two more of Scoroe’s grunts; the last two by the looks of it.

“I accept,” Scoroe said, taking a step back and looking away from the demon.

“Yeah, I can’t understand you. But apparently, you can understand me, so if you’re accepting then get on your knees and hold up your arms for me to restrain,” the demon said.

Scoroe complied. Scoroe got on my knees, kept my arms raised over my head, and continued to look down. Compliant, waiting… For just the right moment, to—

Smash!

The stupid demon was truly too careless and dimwitted to see through Scoroe’s peerless tact and sheer genius! It got too close and suffered a point-blank punch from a hyped-up Scoroe who held nothing back.

“Alright, you motherfucker. I was planning only knocking out the rest of you, but I’ll make an exception for you,” The demon let out a ghastly cough and a stream of blood flowed down from its headpiece.

“That almost fucking killed me,” it sounded mad. Then the demon flashed with a golden aura and the blood on its body and sword vanished without a trace.

It moved and if not for Scoroe’s augmented speed and strength, I would have received worse than an inch-deep wound running along the arm I’d raised to defend myself.

Scoroe tried to defend himself and fight back, but the demon was too fast. Scoroe had the strength and durability to outmatch the demon, but not enough to survive a death by a thousand cuts. Escape was impossible when the demon could evade and deflect all of Scoroe’s attacks and with no other cards on the table, there was nothing else I could do but try and hope for a miracle until the bitter end.

Unfortunately, none appeared and after a couple minutes which felt more like hours, Scoroe’s body and mind gave up involuntarily. The last thing Scoroe saw was the demon plunging the sword it had used to carve out dozens if not hundreds of slashes on my transformed body into my heart.

“I didn’t want to do this,” were the last words Scoroe heard as his consciousness and life faded.