As the battle roared on around him, Lan stared at the ember that symbolised the remains of his health. Just one more point, he thought. As his mind spun, his lungs pulled in and pushed out air so fast they threatened to burst… It was all over.

[The nature of Health – Likely the most important gift from the Lords of light. What mortals call Health points are far more than just the condition of your body, although they very much play a role. Health points are the measurement of one's life force. Taking shape as an aura of protection, dampening if not stopping you from taking physical damage at the cost of your overall life force. They will not always prevent you from getting injured, but as long as you have even one point of health, there is still a chance of surviving.]

As he listened, Lan’s breathing slowed. He wondered if everyone heard the same things when the voice of the world spoke and why, after he had been hurt so many times over the last nine years, this was only the second time he had heard the voice speak these words.

Despite the situation, Lan found his thoughts turning back to that day.

It was the middle of summer, even still it had been warmer than average that day.

From below, Lan could hear those he had once called friends. Some cheering him on, and others begging him to climb back down.

He couldn’t remember who, but someone had dared him to climb the tree in the centre of the village. No one was allowed to climb that particular tree, which only made him feel like he had to do it as much as he already wanted to.

Swinging up to the branch he had been dared to reach. Lan took a seat, looked down and grinned at his friends. He had known it wouldn’t be as difficult as everyone said.

Once he was sure he had made his point, Lan started down. But the moment he swung his body over.

The branch broke, and he fell.

The high sun-bathed canopy of the tree quickly pulled away from him before he hit the ground, and his sight flashed white; a moment before, someone cried out his name.

Immediately, Lan sat up and grinned to show that he was fine. His heart was racing a little, but he was fine. As if to show him just how wrong he was, a flame appeared in his sight.

[10 hp – 9]

The flame dropped, and the voice spoke to Lan for the first time in his life.

[The nature of Health – Likely the most important gift from the Lords of light. What mortals call Health points are far more than just the condition of your body, although they very much play a role. Health points are the measurement of one's life force.]

[Hp 9 – 8]

[Taking shape as an aura of protection, dampening if not stopping you from taking physical damage at the cost of your overall life force. They will not always prevent you from getting injured, but as long as you have even one point of health, there is still a chance of surviving.]

[Hp 8- 7]

As the adrenaline fled from his slowly freezing blood, Lan felt a pain in his back which grew as he reached back and touched it. Pulling back his hand, Lan found it had been painted a deep crimson.

He had to be told what happened next. Apparently, he just sat there frozen in place as someone went to get his parents and a healer. Even after healing, Lan didn’t speak for three days; it would be a week before he returned to his old self.

As for what he could remember, Lan felt like the world was ending as he watched his health drop. They had barely even been told about it in school, and now he had watched it fall as pain ripped through his body.

He had been hurt before. He had gotten into fights that had left him with bumps and bruises. But never had he seen that flame.

To Lan, it was like the world itself was telling him he was in danger, and what could be more horrifying than that? In reality, Lan hadn’t been hurt that bad. His life force had done what it was supposed to and dampened the impact of the fall. But it hadn’t stopped him from cutting his back on a stone.

Lan Laughed.

That there had been a time when losing three points of health had been the worst thing to happen to him. He would lose much more over the years, with one beating from a few years ago bringing him down to four health points. That time he had barely been able to walk. Although he couldn’t completely understand it. As he flexed his legs, he found he could still move them.

As long as you have even one point of health, there is still a chance of surviving. The words played in his mind.

Those words had once spelt his impending doom. As if to say without it, there was no chance of surviving. Now… it was a revelation. He had said he didn’t go there to die without giving his all and as long as he had a single point of health left. He still hadn’t done that yet. As long as he had a single point, it wasn’t over.

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With a reforged resolve, Lan looked over the battle.

That he hadn’t already been eaten was surprising, and then it occurred to him he was barely an inconvenience, something to be eaten when the fighting was done. The razer wolves would fight to the last; to do that, they were going after the biggest threats. Moving to protect the others when the wolves attack, Drevin made it so they could kill without the worry of being attacked. So the wolves were focused on him.

[New understanding gained – Although called a frenzy, it is a Pack Ability. Cast by the alpha as an order overriding individual instinct for self-preservation and directing them to attack the highest level or the most dangerous beings while granting them greater strength.]

Looking back to Locke and the others, Lan found just that playing out.

A wolf, larger than any Lan had seen, had thrown itself on Drevin’s shield. Trying to get around the slab of wood and metal while the guardian fended off smaller wolves with his axe. At the same time, he twisted his shield to keep the large wolf away from him.

Lan looked for someone to help the man, but everyone else seemed to be in a similar situation.

Locke was facing off with a wolf rivalling the one attacking Drevin. Only this one had pale white fur and seemed to be using some kind of acceleration ability. Both it and Locke moved so fast that Lan couldn’t follow them.

With its speed, Lan didn’t even want to think about what would happen if that thing went unchallenged.

Vulk was surrounded by four wolves, and though he was outnumbered. It didn’t look like they were getting the upper hand on the grinning Dwarf.

Lan still couldn’t see Cassandra anywhere.

Seeing the trapped Dwarf. Sora moved to help him. Slashing the back of two wolves' necks, Sora kicked a third before falling in beside the Dwarf, and as if waiting for this, more wolves moved to surround them.

Vasha’s bow sang as she loosed arrow after arrow, trying to keep as many wolves back as she could. She was moving so fast that it was a wonder that she hadn’t run out of arrows yet. When she did, she danced back from a charging wolf before striking it across the head with her bow. Finishing it off with an arrow from her suddenly refilled quiver.

So these were real adventurers, Lan thought as he watched them. Even after their formation had fallen apart and had been split up, they didn’t lose their resolve.

Suddenly, Lan heard a cry of pain as he saw Olivia’s flame ripple and shrink.

Turning to where her voice came from, Lan saw she had formed a wall of ice, half trapping a wolf in it. Her right arm hung from her side, with ribbons of scarlet drawing down her arm. With a grimace, the mage started to close her fist. And the wall of ice crawled ever more around the wolf that had injured her.

But as she did so, she didn’t see the wolf coming up behind her.

Drevin did see it. But as he tried to break away from the giant wolf, it almost managed to get over his shield. And he had to brace his shield on his shoulder to stop it.

‘Oli-’ Drevin tried before the wolf started to push him back.

Time seemed to warp around Lan, slowing as his mind raced.

This was bad. The bite from the first wolf had dropped the physically fragile mage by a third of her health points. If she took a direct hit… He didn’t even want to think about the damage it would cause.

As the wolf closed in from behind her, another moved to get around her ice wall. The new wolf’s jaw snapped open, and Olivia moved her hand over it, icy vines shooting from the wall, ensnaring and adding the wolf to the ice mass. But the effort left her breathing hard, and the jaws behind her had just opened.

Before anything else, Lan noticed the wind blowing through his hair. Then he realised that his body was moving on its own. Then he was by the mage, and she turned to look at him. Lan’s body set in place as if born to it, his legs tensing as he twisted and drove his spear into the wolf’s head.

‘See me now, bastard?’ Lan said through gritted teeth.

For a moment, time stopped.

Lan was sure he could have gotten an answer if the wolf could speak as though his strike connected. There was no changing the fact that he was at least nine levels below the wolf and using a weapon that matched.

The wolf’s eyes rolled and landed on Lan with a burning hatred. Instead of fear, Lan’s mind was filled with icy cold clarity. He wouldn’t be caught out this time.

But he didn’t need to worry as what he had done registered with the mage. Olivia stared at Lan with wide-eyed bemusement as if a ghost had come to her aid.

When she noticed the wolf behind her, Olivia pushed her palm against the ice wall, shattering it and sending shards of ice blasting into more wolves before she turned. Fast as a whip, she spun, forming a blade of ice over her good hand and lanced the wolf through the neck.

Lan’s spear pulled free as the wolf crumbled.

‘Are you all…’ Lan stepped back as the mage came within a hair’s breadth from him. Lan wondered if he had somehow offended her by saving her as she stared intensely at him. Then she smiled and gave him a wink.

Before Lan could wonder where that had come from, Vasha’s flame dropped, and he moved.

Despite her best effort, a wolf had managed to pin her to the ground. Luckily she had managed to wedge her bow in the wolf’s jaw. Which didn’t stop the wolf from gnashing its teeth just inches from her face.

Seeing this, Sora tried to get to her. But before he could, a wolf tackled him, and he rolled away with the wolf while stabbing it in the side.

The wolf over Vasha pushed down with its mouth open, ready to snap shut. That was just before Lan’s spear found its eye. The hit was good, and the wolf flinched back with its eye closed, but Lan tsked and jumped back as the wolf snapped at him. He couldn’t even damage its eye, just annoy it.

Which he did expertly as the wolf leapt from Vasha before falling down with a dagger in its back.

As Sora retrieved his dagger and moved to Vasha's side, he looked at Lan and frowned. Lan was just about to turn away when Sora nodded. He even looked like he would say something before he and Vasha turned to face more wolves. And Lan saw two wolves on Vulk.

The Dwarf was holding back the jaws of one while punching the other.

Lan’s stab was worse than the last one. And the wolf broke from Vulk’s grip and Landed on him. Somehow Lan managed to keep his spear between himself and the wolf, but its weight was more than his strength.

Vulk’s boot found its side, sending the wolf spinning as he grinned and lifted Lan to his feet.

‘If the fire in one's eye was enough to kill, I would say I was looking at a dragon.’ Vulk laughed, slapping Lan on the back before charging into the Fray, and Lan found himself following.