Apex Hunter of the Wild Hunt
"Those ghoulish direwolves... they roam these woods during full moons. It is said they hunt the ghosts of the recently departed... and feast on their very souls."
The Apex Hunters are large, ghostly beings that take the form of direwolves, being described as two to three times bigger than normal wolves, with perfectly white fur and icy blue eyes.
They sport sharp teeth and claws and have enough strength to rip the flesh from the bones of their prey.
Cold-blooded killers, they hunt in packs of up to nine, stalking silently their pray and cornering it, using their numerical advantage to take down beasts much larger than them.
The unnatural capabilities of the Apex Hunter are a consequence of its incorporeal nature; they exist as masses of concentrated mana, bound by an Ego that gives them the shape of direwolves.
Physical attacks can stall one's attack, but they are otherwise ineffective since the wolf will just absorb more lingering mana from the forest.
The Apex Hunters are the most common predator that spawns during a Wild Hunt, because it is the first predator form that a worthy hunter will take, should they be recognized for their talent and choose to remain an animal.
The direwolf is considered an "apex hunter" because of its versatility and efficient usage of mana to keep a semi-tangible form inside a realm.
Other animals, such as the Ravagers, require a much finer control over the flow of mana.
They are also the favorite animal of the Celestial Artiakimmis, the Aspect of Nature - so much so, that most folklore depictions of hunting gods present them as heads of a wolf pack, or with the power to shapeshift into a direwolf.
There are a plethora of myths that surround these terrifying beasts, many cultures linking their existence and appearance to the phases of the moon, to the presence of ghost or undead, or even to demonic summonings.
That is because the Wild Hunt is a rare occurrence, taking place once every ten years on one of the many realms of Aclara; since the Apex Hunters appear only during this event, many people will never have the chance to see one of them more than once or twice in their lives, if at all.
Should you come across a pack of Apex Hunters, make sure to target the limbs if you have access to ranged spells or arrays. Focus on cutting attacks - severing parts of their body is the easiest way to slow them down. They can "regenerate" any damage taken by absorbing more mana, but the rate of their "regeneration" can vary wildly based on their individual experience and is tied directly to their mana absorption. Another viable tactic is using psychic attacks, given how their physical manifestation is held together by the strength of their Ego, or how clearly they can visualize themselves. A strong enough mentalist can entirely dispell an Apex Hunter's form, rendering the beast virtually dead for the remainder of the Wild Hunt event.
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