After about an hour, we had reached our destination. The caravan had set up camp in a clearing, just like we had. Rieg left the wagon at the edge of the open area and continued on foot with Dragos and Orthok. The rest of the group followed them at a distance of a few paces.
As they got closer, more and more gruesome details were visible. The merchant’s three cargo wagons stood neatly side by side, somewhat apart, and looked undamaged. The horses, however, were all dead. Their mangled, in some cases half-eaten carcasses covered half the meadow. Apparently, they had tried to escape, but were caught up and slaughtered. Heavy slaughterhouse stench was over the camp, blood and torn out entrails could be seen everywhere.
I looked at the boys next to me. Tim and Bob were a little pale in the face, but holding their own. On their farm, they had probably seen a slaughter or two, though nowhere near as bad as this. Nigel covered his mouth and nose with one hand, looking like he was about to be sick. I myself was feeling pretty uncomfortable as well. When we spotted a severed arm on the floor further ahead, I heard retching sounds coming from Nigel’s direction and had trouble stopping my breakfast from coming up.
I hurried to move on and caught up with the people ahead of us. They were standing in front of the fire pit, wordlessly looking at the scene of the night’s carnage. On the ground lay four corpses, some gruesomely mutilated, some gnawed. One man was missing his entire face, others had lost limbs.
Orthok suddenly turned to Dragos and grabbed him by the neck. His face showed no emotion, but there was cold anger in his voice: “Not so dangerous? Like a big dog? What game are you playing with us, merchant?” He pointed to a pool of blood where a paw print was clearly visible, as big as my palm.
“What was I supposed to do?” the merchant groaned. “This caravan has my entire fortune in it! Surely I can’t just leave it here for anyone to help themselves to my belongings! If I had told the truth, you would never have come along! Please, the monster is gone!”
The hunter let go of his neck and gave him a strong shove against his chest, causing him to stumble back. “Get out of my sight, you cowardly pig! You’re going to get us all killed here.” He paid no further attention to Dragos and turned to us. His voice sounded concerned. “It seems to be a cave wolf. The only good news is that these animals are solitary. But they don’t leave their prey and defend it against other predators. We need to get out of here! With any luck, we’ll make it...” He broke off in mid-sentence.
I followed his gaze and realized that luck was not with us this time. About twenty paces away, the monster stood among the trees, glaring at us. It might actually be a wolf, if wolves the size of horses existed.
“Stay back!” the sergeant said in a strained voice. He grabbed his spear with both hands and slowly walked towards the monster. Orthok took his bow from his shoulder and put on an arrow. “Run away,” he said to us. “We’ll stop the beast, so you might be able to escape.”
Indecisive, I looked at our wagon and realized that Dragos had used the time to turn it around and was now spurring the horses. When Tim and Bob noticed this, they immediately ran after him, “Stop the thief! Stop! Stop!” Of course, the merchant ignored their shouts and kept going while the brothers tried to catch up with him.
Nigel ran to the right, to the edge of the forest, and hid behind a tree. After a moment’s hesitation, I followed him. What else could I do? Except for the small knife I had taken from the dead robber, I was unarmed, and I could not have done anything with it against this monster. I pressed myself next to the apprentice mage against the thick trunk and followed the events in the clearing.
The wolf had left cover and was now facing the sergeant, its massive head lowered, its ears laid back. His yellow eyes fixed on his opponent, a deep threatening growl came from his throat. Rieg stood tensely before him, spear pointed at the monster, ready to respond to the attack.
The hunter moved a little to the side to have a clear field of fire. He was firing an arrow when the wolf jumped at the sergeant, causing the arrow to miss its target. Rieg deftly dodged the attack and plunged the spear into the monster’s side with all his might, but instead of causing a serious deep wound, the tip only penetrated halfway and was torn out again by the movement of the wolf, which immediately turned to face Rieg.
“Damn it!” exclaimed Orthok. “The beast is enhanced by magic, I was afraid of it. We have to aim for the eyes, turn him back to me!” The sergeant took small side steps, forcing the wolf to turn in that direction as well. He snapped at Rieg, but the latter dodged him with prancing movements. Fortunately, the size made the monster relatively slow.
The hunter ran a bit towards us to better aim at the wolf’s head. Sensing an opportunity, he quickly sent out an arrow. Since the monster was moving the whole time, it didn’t hit the eye, but pierced the ear and got stuck in it. The wolf gave a short yelp of pain and turned his attention to Orthok.
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Hearing that the monster was magical, I came up with the idea of activating Magic Gaze. In it, the beast’s body glowed a brown color. I had never seen magic like that before, what could it be?
After the hunter’s hit, the magical glow in the wolf’s head intensified and I saw a finger-thick brown line running across the ground toward Orthok. “Get away!”, I shouted in panic, not really understanding what was going on. It just couldn’t be anything good.
Fortunately, the monster hunter had good reflexes and was used to acting quickly. With a leap, he threw himself to the side as long, pointed rock spikes erupted from the ground where he had just been standing. Unfortunately, he was not fast enough and the magical attack hit his legs. He spun in the air and landed on the ground not far from us, where he remained. At least he wasn’t impaled, which probably would have happened without my warning.
Rieg had taken advantage of the distraction and plunged his spear into the creature’s front left leg. He pressed down on it with all his weight and this time was able to sink the entire tip. The monster jumped to the side and growled viciously at his opponent. The hunter paid no more attention for the moment.
“Come on, we have to help Orthok!”, I urged Nigel and ran off without waiting for his reaction. The apprentice followed me. When we arrived at the hunter’s house, he was still lying motionless on the ground, but conscious. His legs looked badly damaged, his pants were torn, I could see long bleeding wounds through the holes, the spikes deeply carved into the flesh. The left leg appeared to be broken, the left foot was twisted and pointed downward while the hunter himself was lying on his back. His face was covered with sweat, he seemed to be in pain.
I looked around indecisively. What could we do? I couldn’t call an ambulance, unfortunately, so we had to act ourselves. I looked at Nigel, hoping he would know what to do, but he just stood there, pale, his gaze wavering between Rieg and Orthok. At that moment, the hunter spoke up, “Nigel, Jason...look for the portal...it’s the only chance...it must be nearby.” Speaking was obviously giving him trouble and he fell silent again.
My magic gaze was still active. I turned in a circle, looking intently into the forest. Between the trees in the direction where Nigel and I were hiding, something seemed to flash. I walked a bit towards it without taking my eyes off the spot and sure enough, there was a magical glow coming from the forest. I turned back around, “Orthok, I know where the portal is! What should we...” I looked at the fighting men and froze in mid-sentence.
The wolf suddenly leaped at the sergeant again. Unable to flee to the side, the latter used his spear to counter the attack, holding it across his chest. As the monster closed its jaws around the middle of the shaft and snapped it in half. Rieg staggered back a step and now had only the spearhead with a short piece of shaft in his hand. The wolf spat out the other half and howled triumphantly.
“Run... through the portal...” whispered Orthok. “Go!”, I yelled at Nigel. “Grab his legs! We’re not leaving him here!” I grabbed the hunter under the armpits and pulled him toward the forest, toward the portal. Nigel awoke from his stupor and grabbed Orthok under the knees. The latter groaned in pain and lost consciousness, which was probably best for all of us in this situation.
As fast as we could, we dragged the hunter into the forest. I could still see the sergeant desperately trying to fend off the monster’s attacks with the mangled spear, then the trees obscured our view of the battle. I had no time to dwell on the fate of Rieg. We dragged the heavy body through the undergrowth, stumbling over branches and bumps on the ground, falling down and picking ourselves up again. Poor Orthok had to suffer agony, coming to briefly in between and then mercifully shutting down again.
After what felt like an eternity, we reached the portal and laid the hunter on the ground in front of it. This portal looked different from Vaari’s. Instead of a uniform oval, its shape resembled a circle drawn by a three-year-old with frayed edges. The surface of the portal wobbled a dirty gray and was streaked with small flashes of lightning. A stuttering hum emanated from it. Somehow, the whole thing didn’t seem inviting at all. I turned to the only available magic expert. “Have you ever seen a portal like this?” Nigel shook his head.
We heard it rustling in the bushes and were horrified to see the wolf approaching. The fight against Rieg had left its mark. The monster was limping noticeably, bloodstains could be seen on its fur, and the ear that Orthok had hit was now missing completely. But unfortunately, there was no sign that the monster was about to drop dead. When it caught sight of us, it stopped, bared its impressive teeth and growled.
“Go on!”, I hissed at Nigel. “Throw your fireball at it!” The apprentice nodded and made the symbols for fire and flight appear. “Phi!... Phi-rer!...” he stuttered. The wolf’s growl deepened, he lowered himself slightly backwards, he was going to jump at us! There was no more time to dither. Without thinking, I stretched my arm towards him and shouted in the primal language, “Fire! Arrow! Fly!” A fiery arrow launched rocket-like from my hand, striking the monster in the forehead and exploding into a cloud of flame. The wolf howled, shook its head in confusion, and ran it across the ground to extinguish the flames.
Nigel stared at me with wide eyes, his own unfinished spell forgotten. I was surprised myself at how well it worked. Quickly, I looked to my mana core. Unfortunately, there was hardly anything left of my mana, 1/15 showed the display. I would not be able to repeat this action so quickly.
The wolf managed to put out the fire on its head and resumed its attack stance. Its scorched head looked pitiful, its left eye had run out, but the right one looked at us bloodthirsty and the murderous growl came out of its throat again.
We had only one way out now. “Quick, into the portal!” I grabbed Orthok under the arms again and stumbled backwards into the portal, pulling the hunter with me. Nigel grabbed his feet and pushed him through, but at the moment when Orthok was already on the other side and only Nigel’s hands and forearms were visible, the portal closed completely unexpectedly and Nigel’s severed limb fell to the floor with a thudding sound along with the hunter’s legs.