The Storm Wolf was a massive creature, its size rivaling that of a horse. While in the same rough shape of the wolves he had seen at a zoo back on Earth, the monster that now stalked down the street had little else in common with those animals. Muscles shifted beneath mottled, storm-gray fur stained red with blood from a jagged wound down one side, and several arrows stood upright along its back. Lightning-blue eyes locked on his own but briefly before the Storm Wolve bared yellow fangs and leaped on a young elven woman who was trying to sneak into a nearby alley.

She barely got out a scream of pain at the Storm Wolf’s front claws sinking into her back before fangs the size of daggers lunged down to close with a crunch around her head. With a savage twist, the Storm Wolf ripped the poor woman apart, tossing the half in its jaws to the side. Its first target dead, the Storm Wolf twisted its bloodied maw to the next closest targets.

A human woman crouched in terror, eyes fixed on the Storm Wolf, holding two small children tightly to her side. As her eyes met those of the Storm Wolf, she let out an involuntary whimper of terror. The Storm Wolf tensed its leg to lunge.

“Oi, you storm-cursed mutt!” Klarion cried out, the words slipping free before he could think. He found himself striding forward, greatsword already in hand, though when he had drawn it, he didn’t consciously know.

The Storm Wolf hesitated, great head shifting to look in his direction.

“Yeah, I’m talking to you, you mangy piece of shit!” Klarion yelled, his voice gaining volume. The sight of the innocent elven woman being torn apart in front of him had filled him with rage, and he would be damned if the same happened to another woman and her children. “Why don’t you try me instead!”

The Storm Wolf abandoned the woman and her children, pivoting to step in his direction. It opened its bloody maw wide and let loose a howl that was closer to a roar. The gruesome death of the elf that had frozen the rest of the people on the street shattered all at once as those that remained took off screaming in whatever direction would take them away from the monstrous predator in their midst. All except Klarion and the mother who still crouched petrified with her kids.

Just as Klarion was about to charge in at the Storm Wolf, in the hopes of distracting it from the innocents still frozen in terror, the matted, storm-gray fur along its back started to crackle with a white glow. At first, he did not know exactly what was going on, but as the hair on his forearms began to stand up, Klarion remembered how his dad had told him as a kid how lightning worked.

He plunged the tip of his greatsword into the road in front of him just as the Storm Wolf made a sound partway between a cough and a bark, launching a bolt of lightning at him. The bolt made a connection with his greatsword just as it became lodged in the ground. Most of the blast was grounded, but enough past through the hilt of his weapon to his arms, that Klarion was violently flung back and away from his weapon.

His mind scrambled as his back hit the ground hard. Flipping over several times, he finally came to rest against the wall of a building. Shaking his head to clear the ringing from his ears, and trying to ignore the pain in his arms and chest, he put his hands flat against the ground and tried to get back to his feet. As he stood, Klarion looked up to see what the Storm Wolf was doing.

It remained standing where it had been, though now steam was rising from the fur on its back. Its lips remained curled in a vicious snarl, showing rows of blood-stained teeth. If Klarion had any doubts before about how intelligent the creature was, the clear sense of dissatisfaction it gave off at him having survived its lightning put that to rest. While Klarion stood up, the Storm Wolf began to prowl forward, completely disregarding the remaining people on the street around them.

Klarion’s pulse pounded in his ears as he watched the Storm Wolf stalk closer, clearly intent on dealing with the threat he represented before any other targets on the street. His eyes drifted to his greatsword, still buried in the ground, too far away to reach.

The Storm Wolf shifted its path to cut off his line of sight to his weapon and began to pick up speed. Gritting his teeth against the pain, Klarion clenched his fists and prepared to dodge once it came into range. Every instinct in his body screamed at him to run, but he stayed rooted in place. The Storm Wolf was too fast, he knew his only chance was to face it head-on.

Abruptly the Storm Wolf put on speed, covering the last dozen feet in a moment. In a snarl, it thrust its open jaws towards Klarion. He threw his body to the left, just barely getting out of the way of its charge. In a roll, he came back to his feet, again facing the Storm Wolf. Recovering quickly, it lunged at him again, but this time when he tried to dodge, a paw came whipping around to slam him to the ground.

The front legs of the Storm Wolf came to stand on either side of his torso, and it jerked down to bite him. He was barely able to get a forearm up in front of his face before the jaws clamped down on it. A scream was torn from his throat as the Storm Wolf’s bite began to grind his arm bones together.

“Spears!”

While his world had turned red from the pain, Klarion heard the shout come from somewhere behind him. All at once, the Storm Wolf jerked above him. Its jaws were unclenched with a whimper, and the beast fell to the side. Hitting the ground with a deep thud, it lay still.

While he stared at the deep, bloody holes in his arm, hands reached down to grab him under the arms. They pulled him backward, away from the now-dead Storm Wolf. A voice asked him something, but all he could think about was the throbbing pain that was worse than any he had yet felt since coming to Verdant VI. When he gave no response, a louder voice called out.

“He is in shock!” The voice came from somewhere behind him, but he had a hard time focusing on it. “Hurst! Get over here and heal his arm!”

“Right away, Watch Sergeant!” a higher voice responded.

Two tan hands came into his view, cutting off the sight of his wounded arm. After a moment, they began to glow a pale green. As he watched, the pain in his arm began to fade, and the holes were soon shrinking before his eyes. More able to focus, Klarion glanced at the person holding his arm. A young woman in the garb of the Watch, her face was going pale in concentration as she tried to heal him. In moments she let out a slight groan, and the soft light around her hands faded. Breathing heavily, she slumped backward.

Seven other members of the Watch moved up to stand around them. Armed with spears and shields, they were casting wary glances down the street in the direction of where the Storm Wolf had come from. With the current threat killed by the Watch, a number of people who had been attempting to hide along the street were up and moving deeper into Thorn’s Reach. Klarion was glad to see that the mother who had been crouching holding her two children was among that number. She moved as quickly as she could, which was to say not very fast, as her two children were having trouble keeping up. The three of them were soon separated by a gap from the rest of the group rushing in Klarion’s direction.

That was when two more Storm Wolves appeared down the far end of the street.

Slightly smaller than the first Storm Wolf that the Watch finished off, each was covered in blood but otherwise seemed ready to continue hunting. They snarled as they caught sight of the fleeing people, and both quickly broke out into a run to pursue.

The Watch Sergeant saw them at the same time Klarion did. He frantically began calling for the civilians heading in their direction to run.

“Watch Sergeant Bale, Hurst is still tapped out!” one of the members of the Watch near Klarion practically shouted in fear. “We won’t be able to move her for a few minutes yet!”

“Form a line!” Watch Sergeant Bale shouted orders, looking helplessly over the heads of the still-running civilians. “Shields up and spears out! We hold here!”

Stolen novel; please report.

Those at the back, hearing the calls from the Watch Sergeant and then hearing his shouted orders, struggled as one to pick up their pace. The group soon stretched out in a line, the younger, fitter civilians pulling ahead while the others lagged behind. The worst was the mother with the two children at the back. One of the kids had stumbled, and the mother was frantically trying to get them back on their feet.

Klarion judged the distance.

They weren’t going to make it.

In that moment, Klarion realized something profound about himself. Despite the injury that had just been healed, and the very real fear he still felt, he was not someone who could just stand by while others were not risk. Not when there was something he could do to help. He realized that his instincts to protect were what had originally called him to become a doctor. But now that the path to becoming one was closed off for him, he found that his instinct to protect remained, even at his own peril. Fear still bloomed within his chest, but the drive to protect that he felt easily overpowered it.

The fleeing people, the woman struggling to save her children, needed someone to stand between them and the monsters in the dark.

The mother was not able to get her child back on their feet. Giving up, crying out in fear, she pulled both of her kids in close, back presented towards the oncoming Storm Wolfs. It would not be enough to save them.

The face of the terrified mother struck something deep down within him. Something fundamental to who he was. What he was doing here, and what he would be doing at the Imperial Academy, was not about bravery or power. No. It was about protecting others. Protecting others was simply who he was. Even if it meant risking his own life.

He’d already seen enough bloodshed to know that he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he let his fear keep him rooted in place.

Klarion darted between the forming line of the Watch, ignoring their calls to stop. He broke out in a sprint. He was a protector. He would, he had to, save them.

A click seemed to echo in the air all around him, but it just as easily could have come from within his mind. The fear of potentially rushing to his death fell away all at once to be replaced by a grim resolve. Pressure built within his chest, similar to what he had felt that time before out in the forest with Rolfun and Alesin. Rage blossomed within him as he saw both Storm Wolves veer to attack the woman and her children first.

As if sensing the attack, the woman cried out in fear, then threw herself and her children to the side. The first Storm Wolf missed in its lunge, but the second took a swip in passing. The claws on its foot caught the leg of the mother, tracing deep lines that began weeping a dark red as soon as she hit the ground and slid. Her cries of fear turned to pain alongside those of her children. The Storm Wolves pivoted to lunge after her, the second with a raised, clawed paw ready to slam down.

The pressure in Klarion’s chest burst.

His voice rose in a roar of raw, primal fury, echoing off the walls and filling the street. It was more than a shout; it was a challenge, a declaration of dominance laced with the weight of unyielding defiance. It was a command that vibrated in the air, causing the nearest windows to tremble with its force.

As one, both Storm Wolves froze, ears flattening as if struck by an invisible force. Their heads whipped in Klarion’s direction, and for a heartbeat, their wild eyes held the unmistakable flicker of fear.

Their hesitation was all Klarion needed to get his hands back on his greatsword, still embedded point down in the street. Blackened from the blast of lightning, the hilt was still warm to the touch as he yanked it up and free to trail behind him as he continued his sprint. He heard the return of shouts behind him, but Klarion ignored them. The only thing he was focused on was getting within range of the Storm Wolves before they decided to attack the injured mother and her children again.

He smiled as both Storm Wolves reacted to his charge by abandoning their almost prey to charge at him with snarls still tinged by fear.

In that brief moment before coming into their range, Klarion remembered his fights with Rolfun. Bigger and stronger than him, Klarion had gradually learned to embrace a fighting style of movement and deflection. Given the horse-like size of the Storm Wolves bearing down on him, he would need a similar approach to survive their first attacks. A plan flickered through his mind.

At the last possible moment, he dashed to the left, coming closer to the leading Storm Wolf but using its bulk to block the arrival of the second for a crucial moment. The beast growled in apparent rage, then swiped out with a paw, attempting to rake his side with its claws.

Using the momentum of his pivot, Klarion brought his greatsword whipping around to bring the sharp edge down on the Storm Wolf’s lunging paw. Its growl turned into a squeal of pain as half the paw was slashed away from Klarion’s blow. Pained fury turned to ear-flattening fear as its eyes rose to meet a descending blow from the greatsword.

Klarion had used the momentum of the first strike to bring the greatsword up and over then back around to slam down into its skull.

A sickening crack echoed in the street, and the first Storm Wolf collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut. It was dead.

A clawed paw came swinging in before Klarion could recover his stance, batting him away from the dead Storm Wolf to land near where the mother looked to be starting to bleed out. Knowing that the other Storm Wolf was right behind him, and not wanting to be pinned to the ground again, Klarion tried to turn his fall into a roll to get back to his feet.

A clawed paw hit him again, slamming him back down into the ground near the family. He cried out as he felt hot knives dig in along his back and shoulder, but he kept his hand closed like a vice around the hilt of his greatsword. Two sets of terrified eyes met his own. The faces of the kids, two young girls trying desperately to stop the bleeding of their mother, were staring in horror over his shoulder. Moving faster than he ever had before, Klarion put his back to them as he thrust out with his greatsword in a single motion.

The blade went right through the roof of the mouth of the descending Storm Wolf. Its weight carried it down, impaling its skull fully, only to bear Klarion to the ground as well. Wind knocked out of him by the weight; he was once again knocked to the ground, half under the now-dead Storm Wolf. In the relief of having survived, he let loose an almost manic laugh at the fact he kept being knocked to the ground like this. Dexterity and Strength were going to be a focus going forward, at least until he got a class, whenever that would be. He shifted on the ground to try to get a look at the mother and kids behind him, which caused the open wounds on his back to grind painfully into the dirt. He struggled to control a hiss at the feeling. Better add Vitality and Endurance to that as well.

Finally, after a little more painful wiggling, Klarion was able to get an eye on the people he saved. Both girls were still crouched over their now clearly unconscious mother, small bloody hands tight to her leg, trying to stop the blood loss.

“Are you both alright?”

They immediately started crying, the fear and stress over everything that had happened in a bare handful of minutes hitting them all at once.

“I’m coming, everything will be alright.” Klarion said, more to let them hear the newly restored calm in his voice than anything else. They likely couldn’t even understand the words he was saying at the moment. “As soon as I pull myself free, I’ll take a look at your mom’s leg. Just a moment, I promise.”

As he had already expected, his strength was not great enough to push the dead Storm Wolf off of his lower half. Luckily for him, however, he did have enough strength that he could slowly, painfully, wriggle the rest of the way out from underneath its body. Fully aware of the still-bleeding woman behind him, the minute that it took him to get free seemed more like an hour.

First one leg, then the other was out. To save time, he half-shuffled, half-crawled over to the injured woman.

As gently as he could, he asked, “Can I take a look at your mom’s leg? I think I can help.”

Sobbing and nodding, the little girls stepped back to hold each other as Klarion put his own hands forward to slow the bleeding. The wounds were slightly jagged but not as deep as he feared. Briefly taking one hand off the woman’s leg, he reached up to his opposite shoulder. Gripping the already half-cut sleeve, he ripped it off in a jerking motion. In as deft of a movement as he could make, he looped it around her leg, just above where the cuts stopped. Working fast, he tightened it as quickly as he could to slow the blood loss. He wished he had something to help lock it in place, but at least the material he had was durable enough to work. Who would have thought those old videos he had watched on tourniquets would be useful, let alone that he would be using one in another world?

As soon as the thought hit him, a wave of exhaustion followed, and his hands began to shake slightly. The previous half-ignored pain across his back flared in intensity. What he wouldn’t give for another one of the minor healing potions Rolfun and Alesin had carried with them. His gaze went up from the leg he was holding to the unconscious woman’s face. No, even if he had one right now, there was no doubt in his mind who he would be giving it to first.

Though he was dead tired, and his wounds hurt, Klarion couldn’t help feeling a bit… happy. Yes. Happy. For years now, it had felt like he had been spinning in place. Working hard to survive and, hopefully, make progress towards becoming a doctor to help people as he had been helped. But he had not gotten any closer to that goal. Not really. His job had been a decent one, but it had been more clerical in nature. Dr. Halter had done all the real work. That had all changed after being saved by Franz, and being first trained and then escorted here by Alesin and Rolfun. Even though it meant engaging in violence and risking his life, he had been able to protect someone. More than someone. For once, he had truly been able to help.

He slid to the side of the woman, hands still tight on the makeshift tourniquet. A nod and a smile helped bring the two girls further relief, though they continued crying.

Hopefully, Alesin and Rolfun would notice that he wasn’t with them soon.