The Demon Lord's Successor

“Stay right where you are!” you say with a mischievous smile to Elza before she takes a single step away. A perfect opportunity has arisen to test out one of your abilities. My [Submission] spell has worked on humanoids so far, but what about animals?

“Elza, make sure none of those four escape this place no matter what,” you say and then turn to the two bunny girls. “Alpha, Epsilon, cover me! Kill any wolf that attacks us.”

Then you confidently walk downhill in the direction of the biggest, baddest dire wolf you see. You make a safe assumption that the biggest of the animals should be their leader. Since you can’t cast [Submission] on every single wolf, that’s your main target. And if things go poorly with this test you can always use your [Summon Imps] spell to summon your faithful minions, but for now, you try to conserve energy for your eight maximum [Submission] uses.

“Is it ready yet?” The archer girl asks impatiently with a trembling voice. She is yet to unleash her arrow, all four are clearly delaying the fight as much as possible. As you approach the wolves, one of them turns to you and snarls, revealing the sharp teeth and salivating.

You instantly cast [Submission] at the wolf while saying with a clear voice, “From now on obey me like you would the leader of your pack!”

Immediately the wolf hides his teeth and even bows to you. This greatly bolsters your confidence in this plan and you can’t help but grin in anticipation. You are about to gain some truly deadly warriors.

The other dire wolves also notice your presence and turn to you from the adventurers. Without even raising an arm you look the leader of the pack straight in the eyes and cast [Submission] as you say, “From now on, you and your pack belong to me and follow my orders! You will hunt and feed on who I command you to!”

Not waiting for a reaction you cast [Submission] three more times and say, “Obey me and only me! You are forbidden to attack anyone without my command ever again! Bow down to me!”

The dire wolf leader raises its head and howls. Then the wolf clearly bows before you, along with many others of the pack. Several wolves snarl, and two attack you. One jumps at you from the side, but Alpha pierces its throat with a single strike. The wolf falls mid-jump and slides to you on the ground, writhing and bleeding out at your feet. The other wolf attempts to circle around and attack from behind but gets it's legs tied up by Epsilon's whip and falls to the ground. Alpha wastes no time in piercing that wolf's heart. Seeing their swift demise, none of the wolves dare to oppose you anymore. It looks like the pack is yours.

“What is this new devilry?” the dwarf whispers to the rest of his party. All four look at you with a mix of confusion and fright. The archer girl lowered her bow. Is she smart enough not to point it at you or just too scared? This might be a good opportunity to put your new minions to the test. After all, they are most likely still hungry.