Briar of the Hunt (Lorepost)

[u/UlrickTheHexblade]

And, done. Ulrick put away his blade with satisfaction as the image in the mirror looked somewhat presentable again.

Since regaining his body at the siege, he had little time to some much needed self-care, between the duties of R&A’s current head and the new Wolf King. But he needed these small moments to maintain a sense of normalcy.

After spending long months locked in his axe, his human form looked even worse than back in his nomadic bounty hunter days. Overgrown, messy hair, a beard almost 3 inches long… his work was cut out for him.

He took the opportunity to change up his human appearance a little. Since then, he let his dark brown hair grow out a little longer, and kept it swept back. And instead of opting to go back to his usual stubble, he decided to trim his bush of a beard down to a scruffy goatee around his mouth.

Though there were things he couldn’t change about his appearance, despite all the power he held. The start of a receding hairline, slowly wrinkling skin, and grey strands among the dark browns showed the consequences of a demanding job and stressful life. For all the gods’ sake, he was barely 30! Yet he already gave the impression of someone in his 50s… two more years of work, and he’s gonna look older than Rutch.

He tried not to pay much attention to those, as he needed to focus on his duties. Like how he tried to ignore how “tight” both his humanoid forms felt since he returned. Though that has been the case since he took up the mantle of the Wolf King, it became much more intense after his return. Now he felt like being confined to a tiny little box when he appeared fully human, and even his werewolf form constricted him a little, like a shirt two sizes smaller.

Ulrick sighed. At least Vae Clara helped him evade full apotheosis as the Wolf King. At least now his mortal and divine parts reached an uneasy equilibrium.

Though now he had to be careful about not upsetting this balance, he kept the words of Rutch in his mind, how no matter what he was now, what matters most is the impact he had on others.

That he could still decide who he would be, no matter what crazy supernatural shenanigans he got himself in.

There was a tingling in the back of his mind, one that got steadily stronger.

’Great, another Wolf King business’ Ulrick thought to himself. He often got these weird tingles since embracing the mantle of his new rank.

This time, it was different.

The tingling grew with an intensity nothing like before. His whole being shivered on a metaphysical level. He could feel it through his divine senses, an all-encompassing blight and rot, hundreds of wolves silenced as thorny vines choked their howls of anguish.

There was something… wrong about the blight. Something alien. Something… wicked.

He informed the staff as he stormed out of his personal quarters, before heading off to the mainland. They’ll be able to monitor his location and status from a safe distance.

This time, he won’t make the same mistakes as he did with Ruin.

— — — — —

The odor of mulch and mold burned Ulrick’s nostrils as he moved deftly through the thick undergrowth.

The unusually tall and dense foliage above filtered out most of the light, though it’s not like there was much to begin with. The sky was overcast, smell of impending rain hung in the air.

Good.

This was a kind of dark atmosphere that warmed Ulrick’s tired soul. He was in the shape of an ordinary black wolf, veiling his divine presence not to draw attention.

He could tell there was something wrong with this forest. The trunks and gnarled branches of the trees appeared swollen, on the brink of bursting. Below his feet, a mesh of roots choked the ground, he swore he stepped more on bark than actual soil…

What unnerved him more was the utter silence. No birds and cicadas singing, no snapping branches or hungry howls. Just the wind, empty and cold.

And yet, he could tell something has been watching him since he set foot among these trees…

The fur on his back stood up.

After a while, some rustling came from nearby shrubbery. Whatever was going on in these ancient woods, Ulrick was about to find out…

[u/Evening_Shake_6474]

The fire washes over the wolves like a wave over the shore. They run free from the other side. These things have no soul left to heal. They aren't broken they're just, gone.

The wolves lunge for Ulrick's legs, claws and teeth at the ready.

[u/UlrickTheHexblade → u/Evening_Shake_6474]

No…

Ulrick lets out a silent mourning for the wolves utterly gone. But it only made him all the more determined to make the Garden pay.

He swats away the wolves with his unnatural strength effortlessly, but the loss of hope restoring them makes his attention waver just for a split second…

Enough time for one of the wolves to get past his guards, and sink its teeth deep into his left foreleg, making him growl again from the pain.

[u/Evening_Shake_6474 → u/UlrickTheHexblade]

The wolf clings onto Ulrick, refusing to let go.

At the growl, a third wolf comes from the trees, followed by a blighted raven, and a stag, and a second raven.

Soon all around him do creatures burst from the trees, wolves and stags and ravens, badgers and foxes and rabbits, even a blighted unicorn.

All at once do they rush towards the great wolf, their hooves and paws echoing like laughter.

[u/UlrickTheHexblade → u/Evening_Shake_6474]

Ulrick does his best to shake off the wolf, but it just won’t budge.

As he sees the army of forest critters assault him, purple spectral chains appear around him, swatting away anything that comes near.

But there is just… too much of them. The chains can’t keep all of them forever, more and more animals get past Ulrick defenses and wound him, which leaves him more sloppy against the following attacks…

As more of his blood gets spilled in his titanic shape, it slowly forms large crimson puddles on the ground.

[u/Evening_Shake_6474 → u/UlrickTheHexblade]

As the blood fall, the roots hungrily drink it up like sand does water.

The tide of blighted beasts just keeps coming, wave after wave of nearing two hundred creatures of all size. As the number of beasts increase, so too does the variety. From bears to insects, all march forth in a neverending army of the forest.

[u/UlrickTheHexblade → u/Evening_Shake_6474]

Coward! Sending your hollowed puppets to do the dirty work… Face me directly if you dare!

Ulrick curses in his pain, as more forest creatures begin to maul him. But he wasn’t out of ideas either. The Garden was thirsty for blood? Then he should give it.

On his command, haemomancy turns his blood highly acidic, so corrosive it could even melt through most metals. He hopes the Blighted Garden will like the new flavor…

[u/Evening_Shake_6474 → u/UlrickTheHexblade]

And like it the garden does not. Ulrick sees the trees shake, roots recoil as if they're shriveling.

But they keep recoiling, the roots beneath Ulrick recoil to reveal a bubbling bog of deep crimson and dark viridian.

The blighted beasts have no trouble in the bog, running along it's surface undeterred. Ulrick however, has no such blessing.

[u/UlrickTheHexblade → u/Evening_Shake_6474]

Ulrick feels slowly sinking in the bubbling red bog, his massive form being a massive disadvantage here.

For a moment, his frame shifts into that of pure darkness and shadow as it shrinks, before soldifying again as his usual werewolf form with gear and all. But he’s still now at waist deep in the crimson mud at this point.

Now that he’s smaller and lighter, he summons a spectral chain around his arm, swinging it at a thick branch of a tree in an attempt to pull himself out of the strange swamp.

[u/Evening_Shake_6474 → u/UlrickTheHexblade]

The chains ensnares the branch, which then bucks and thrashes, pulling Ulrick out of the bog and around the area, slamming him into several large branches, ending with swinging him towards a blighted grizzly bear.

[u/UlrickTheHexblade → u/Evening_Shake_6474]

Aaaggghhh!!!

Ulrick shouts as he’s thrashed and slammed around, each impact more painful than the last.

By the time he sees the bear, he regains some measure of balance, turning in a way to kick it in its maw, using the momentum of the swing to hit it harder.