Mage And Wolf
Chapter 257

Chapter 257: Chapter 257

I draw the excess heat from the cupcakes with the last step in the mystic cooking technique, leaving them warm and fresh, but not so hot we can’t decorate them. As I’m passing them out I sneak a healing pill into the toppings crushed to look like sprinkles. Because who doesn’t like sprinkles?

"Alright, now decorate your personal cupcakes and we can snack before getting everyone else’s ready." I wink at the kids, who happily slather every available topping on top of an amount of icing that almost makes a second Cupcake. Within seconds their faces are covered in chocolate icing and the baked treats are gone in two fast bites, like they were afraid someone would steal their treat. But who would bully the Alpha’s children?

"So that’s where you went. Sneaking off to eat unhealthy foods while mom isn’t looking." Comes a teenage voice from the doorway.

"You probably didn’t know this, but these two trouble makers are grounded, which means no television and no desserts all week." The oldest son of Alpha Conway laughs before giving his younger siblings a serious face.

"And what do you have to say for yourselves?"

"Sorry Big Brother Dave." Come two sweet young voices in unison before the girl covers her mouth and stares at me in shock.

The obvious answer is, of course, to play it off like I don’t know anything strange happened. Instead I give both kids a hug and distract their brother.

"We were just baking for the pack. Taste tests don’t count towards breaking dietary rules." I say with authority and he nods along for a second before his brain shakes off the mild command and catches up.

"Oh no, you don’t get to fool me that easily. Cedar talked. I swear I heard Cedar talk when Marcus apologized. She’s even covering her mouth." Dave insists.

"Maybe she’s just hiding the icing?" I ask innocently.

"And maybe a half Lycan cultivator sent by the Moon Goddess healed her with magical cupcakes?" Asks Dave sarcastically. Curse his timing, I totally had this one pulled off in secret until he showed up.

I shrug and offer him a Cupcake to decorate. "Do you want one? I swear they’re really good."

Cedar nods enthusiastically, handing him the assortment of ingredients and pointing at the icing with a big smile. She’s right, that icing really is the best part of the cupcakes.

"You guys make your brother a snack and I’ll decorate the rest. Cupcakes for two hundred will take a little while." Really it won’t, I can decorate dozens at a time using energy flows at my level of cultivation, but they need family time.

Alpha Conway and his wife come in just as I finish, finding all three of their children with icing on their faces, before sighing at the lack of discipline.

"Momma, Alpha, want a Cupcake?" Cedar asks, handing the pair each a fully decorated treat with their names on them.

"Thank you Cedar darling." Their mother says before stopping entirely again. That’s twice in one day, a new record for mental errors.

"Cedar can talk again? You really are a blessing from the Moon Goddess, I’m certain of it. We need a bigger celebration. A simple victory feast won’t do." Alpha Conway cheers around a mouthful of cake, picking his daughter up and bouncing her into the air.

He must have mind linked the pack, because the moment we step outside to announce the first batch of food is ready, the Alpha family is swarmed with well wishers and happy warriors. The Omegas run in behind me and gather the tables to set out the buffet of meats, while a line is forming for ’magical cupcakes’.

Not wanting to disappoint, I add a few more healing pills to the icing mix, stirring them in well. They might have reduced effectiveness this way, each person only getting a small fraction of a pill, but they will make everyone feel better and help relieve stress and fatigue.

[Dangerous Beasts incoming, 3 klicks out.] Karl sends me a mind link.

"If everyone will excuse me for a moment, my group will take up patrols while everyone eats. Lala and Hui’Jin, you watch the compound." I likely couldn’t bring them if I wanted. Everyone is out of the bunker now, and they’re being swarmed by children who have never seen a Bunny or a Dragonewt before. The adults are more reserved, but werewolf children are very cuddly and love physical contact.

Lelou takes to the air, scouting the area for whatever caused my alarm, startling everyone who hadn’t already seen her, while I follow Karl over the wall and out into the woods. These woods aren’t like the ones out on the west coast where I grew up. The trees are short and spindly. Almost all look like they’re young, with sparse branches and are growing out of a thick loamy base I suspect is muskeg. A mix of mud and plant growth that is far from solid once you get away from the tree roots.

"It’s a group of category 4 Basilisks. We can’t let those get to the Pack grounds, fighting without seeing the targets is too much for them to handle." Karl says as me and Lelou approach.

"I’ll hunt the area, keeping any other dangers away, you two take care of the basilisks." Lelou announces, leaping back up into the air.

We are the better choice, with my eyes closed I can see just as well, watching the energy flow of the world around me, and the spirits of the living creatures. Category 4 monsters all have cores, shining like a beacon in my mental vision, and I can see the group Karl is worried about from here.

"I’ll get the lizards, you finish the patrol loop." I tell him before running out through the trees towards my target and coating myself in a thick barrier of energy.

I’m not certain if they taste good, but there will be a lot more meat available in just a minute.

I can see then staring intensely at me as I approach, trying to petrify me. But their petrification ability has a great weakness, in that it is caused by an energy attack meeting an object. I’m stronger than they are, and coated in a Barrier made of Death Energy. The only weak point for them to attack would be through direct eye contact, as too dense of a shield over the eyes blinds the user. But I can navigate with my eyes closed.

Opting for a bit of distance, I grab a pair of low quality swords from my inventory and hurl the first between the eyes and deep into the skull of a basilisk. It dies instantly, both the creature and the sword turning to stone and crumbling. A loss of a sword, but an effective strategy. There are only two more of them, so I try the same attack again, hurling a sword from either hand.

One manages to petrify the sword, but before it can crumble it slices through the monster’s eye and inwards, killing it, but the second swats the sword away with a close and charges me.

We trade a few blows, the beast visibly upset that I’m not stone yet, before I manage to leap over its head to land a strike on its spine, then a spinning kick to its ribs, stopping its heart and causing it to turn to stone and crumble.

There, much better. Most creatures are only strong because of their body, but the basilisks stare and the cockatrice ability to shoot feathers and petrify targets are a whole other level of danger, no less dangerous than Dragon Breath. Not something the average cultivator or werewolf can deal with.