The Devouring Dragon

"I'm sorry, Ria-tan! We can go some other time!" Sirzechs said, trying to comfort the annoyed near-adult girl in front of him.

"Are you sure, Onii-chan? I hate all these delays…" Rias trailed off, an annoyed look on her face. She had been wanting to move to Japan for years now, but her parents had insisted on taking a lot of precautions before she could.

The main one had been that she had to be 16 years old before she could leave - that had been more than a year ago now, and delay after delay was holding her back. At this rate, she'd be an adult by the time she moved. She wanted the Japan school experience, but she'd only get 2 years at most now.

"I'm sure. It'll be hard to find a good one right now. There's been a… disturbance, in part of the forest lately," Sirzechs explained gently, "There's a lot of potential familiars you'd be missing out on. It's better to take something like this slowly - a familiar is something you'll have for the rest of your life, so you need to pick one that's right for you!"

Another condition was that she brought a familiar with her to Japan. A familiar was necessary for any high-class devil, as if had a large range of uses: Communication, helping with self-defense, distributing contracts, and a whole lot more.

"A disturbance?" Rias asked, tilting her head at her older brother.

"It's nothing serious. Something like this happens every few years or so," Sirzechs hummed, nodded at her, "Sometimes a… invasive species, let's say, comes along. It messes up the ecosystem of the forest."

"Then, shouldn't you do something about it, Onii-chan?" Rias asked, as her brother was one of the four Maous, the rulers of Devil-kind.

"No, don't worry about it. We just need to wait a bit," Sirzechs said, glancing out the large window in the Gremory Clan manor, "Things like this always get sorted out. It won't be more than a week or two."

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I huffed, blood dripping down my mouth as I slumped against a tree. I thought I had been prepared to take on the Great Wolf King, but I was sorely mistaken.

Not because I wasn't strong enough - I was far stronger than any dire wolf that came my way. Stronger to the point that they were practically an XP/Stat farm.

Unfortunately, that stat farm was neverending. That might sound like a good thing, but after being in this section of the forest for over an entire day, I was exhausted. 

Despite my HP sitting at full, as I was constantly healing from using [Devour], my body was far from tip-top shape.

My eyelids weighed heavy, dragging downwards in an attempt to close as I leaned against the tree. I had been trying to get some rest for hours, but anytime I fell asleep for more than a few minutes, a dire wolf came out of nowhere.

It might've just been poor luck that the dire wolves kept approaching me, but I'm leaning more towards it being due to the Great Wolf King watching me somehow. Or, at least just continuously sending more wolves out to look for me.

I didn't remove my territory claim back at the 'house' and set up a new one, mostly because I didn't need to. The alarm notification would be more annoying than waking up to a dire wolf biting into me at this point.

And, because of my high END, I actually managed to get some sleep if it was a low-level dire wolf. The alarm notification was sure to force my eyes open, but the low-level dire wolves did so little damage that it didn't even wake me up right away.

I leaned back against the tree, staring forward into the dark forest ahead. At this point, I was considering giving up on the mission and heading back.

I wanted to sleep. I really wanted to get some sleep. I was exhausted - both mentally and physically.

I leaned my head back against the tree, my eyes falling shut as my body relaxed. A second later, I let out a sigh as the grass ahead of me rustled.

Another wolf?

"This sucks…" I sighed, forcing my eyes open again as I pushed myself to my feet. I stared into the dark area ahead, blinking my eyes rapidly as my vision was a bit blurry.

Then, I blinked them some more. Then, even more. My blurry vision went away, but the being in front of me didn't.

Am I hallucinating? 

The dire wolf in front of me didn't look like a dire wolf. Instead of four legs, it was walking on two, with a humanoid body. It looked even more humanlike than Raeren had.

Whereas Raeren had looked like someone had stuck a wolf's head on a very hairy human body, this dire wolf looked almost identical to a person.

[Raya] [Dire Wolf Princess] - Level 29

Where Raeren had fur covering his entire body, Raya had smooth skin, which was very visible considering she was clothed in what was practically torn-up rags. She was short, looking to be no taller than five foot, and had a muscular body.

Her toned abs and decently defined muscles were clear, and the only thing that gave away that she wasn't human was her head. Her face was human-like, with a beautiful angular face, but that was where it ended.

She had two large gray wolf-like ears on the top of her head, along with a long mane of gray hair that fell all the way to below her waist. Her big black eyes were staring at me intensely, but she stayed a couple dozen feet away, partially cloaked by the darkness around her.

"If you want to fight, can we hurry up and get it over with?" I said bluntly. While it was interesting to see an even more human-like wolf, I figured that the stronger ones would all be more intelligent and human-like.

She was stronger than Raeren, but considering how easily I'd taken him down, and that I was even stronger after devouring so many wolves, I wasn't worried. I was more concerned about taking her down as fast as possible and getting more sleep.

"I… do not want to fight you," Raya finally said, and I noticed that despite her humanoid mouth, she still had sharp and jagged teeth.

Huh? A dire wolf that isn't trying to kill me? That's new!

But, at this point, I was still more interested in sleeping than conversing with her.

"Cool," I replied bluntly, "Then, mind leaving me alone? I'm trying to sleep here."

Raya stared at me, her face not giving anything away. She was silent for a second, and then looked away, not meeting my eyes.

"I… will keep watch for you," She finally said. I stared at her blankly.

Random humanoid dire wolf - no, more specifically, random humanoid dire wolf Princess walks up, and just wants to keep watch for me while I sleep? Not suspicious at all. Nope. Not al all.

"Why?" I asked her, looking her up and down.

"We share the same goal," She replied, still not looking me in the eye.

"...good enough for me!" I said, promptly sitting down, leaning against the tree, and closing my eyes.

Time to get some sleep!

…

Alright, not actually. I'm not dumb enough to just trust the words of this random dire wolf girl. 

In reality, I leaned against the tree, my eyes closed as my ears listened intently. The grass ahead of me rustled as the wolf girl approached me, and I readied myself for the inevitable 'sneak attack.'

However, said 'sneak attack' never came. The rustling stopped as Raya walked past me, and after another 5 minutes, I finally cracked open the corner of my eye.

She was leaning against the tree next to me, casually glancing around the forest around us. Her back was to me, leaving herself open for an attack. I could easily take her down right now, using my high AGI to devour her before she even knew what was going on, but I was more confused than anything.

Is she actually just keeping watch?

I watched her for another 5 minutes, but the girl didn't move. She simply stood there, guarding my 'sleeping' body. Finally, I decided that this was a good chance to actually get some sleep.

Realistically, what could she do to me while I was asleep? If she tried to attack, she would get in one hit before I woke up and took her down. It wasn't like she could just slit my throat or something - the game system didn't work that way.

Even a fatal blow would just be a huge HP loss, which would then heal from my [Physical Regeneration] skill.

If she was waiting for other dire wolves to show up and ambush me, the result would be the same. Unless she was waiting for the other three Wolf Generals themselves to show up and all jump me, I wouldn't be in any real danger even if an ambush occurred.

Hell, even if the other generals did show up, I'd probably still be fine. I'd easily taken down Raeren, and that was before I'd gained a ton of stats from farming dire wolves.

The only real concern was that she was trying to lure me into a false sense of safety so she and the Great Wolf King, who I assumed from her title was her father, could ambush me. 

But, I'd been here for hours trying to sleep. If the Great Wolf King wanted to fight, he could've just showed up at any time. If that was truly their plan, then letting me get some rest before the fight was stupid.

So, I decided that the risk was worth the reward of getting some sleep, and I shut my eyes. Mere seconds later, sleep overtook me.

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When I opened my eyes again, I had to blink rapidly as a ray of sunlight shone across my face through the trees above. I pushed myself up quickly, suddenly feeling uneasy.

After struggling to sleep for more than a few minutes, sleeping for multiple hours felt strange. I looked over, spotting Raya still nearby.

She was doing a terrible job at being a lookout, as the wolf girl was slumped against the tree she had been leaning on, sound asleep. As I looked at the sun ascending into the sky, I estimated that I'd been asleep for at least 7 or 8 hours.

I hadn't been awoken a single time, so either Raya had just fallen asleep recently, or just her being here was enough to deter the annoying dire wolves from attacking. Considering that she was their Princess, and that she was drooling from how sound asleep she was, I was leaning towards the latter.

I stood up, my feet rustling the grass under me and causing the wolf-girl to jolt awake. She looked around, looking dazed for a second before her eyes locked onto me.

"Good morning," I said jokingly, and her back stiffened. She looked up at the sun, then quickly wiped her mouth as she shot to her feet.

"Ahem, G-Good morning," She returned, blushing slightly at being caught sleeping.

"Why'd you help me?" I got straight to the point. I was on a mission to kill the Great Wolf King, not to spend the day chatting with a wolf-girl.

"R-Right!" Raya cleared her throat. Her back stiffened, and she looked at me with an indescribable look for a moment. Then, she abruptly fell down onto her knees. She bowed her head forward, her arms and head touching the ground as she bowed at me.

"Please help me!"

I stared at the wolf princess bowing at me blankly.

What the hell is going on?!

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AN: Thank you for reading! 

If you would like to support me, you can at Patreon.com/Koyon ! I'll be posting early chapters there for this story in the future.