As the wolves shook off the chaos of our first charge, the black cloud seeping into their skulls, we made the turn and came charging back. The desert was hot with the dust of our legs and the world could barely contain the sound of hooves striking the dry earth.

I was drunk on confusion and exertion, the feeling of battle singing in me. The distinction between my mind and the gazelle’s was almost faded to nothing. A brief recollection of who I was in another life, before we put our head down and charged.

At the caravan, the masked giant who led them stepped forward and seized upon the wolves still locked in confusion. In his hands he bore a massive curved sword more like a cleaver than a proper blade, thick spined with a chipped edge and a fierce hook on the back of the squared point, meant for snagging enemy swords from their hands. It whipped about and caught a wolf before the black cloud could take control, the force of the blow taking head from shoulders in a red spray. He kicked into another stunned creature, sending it rolling along the ground - but it escaped instants before his blade slammed into the earth.

The wolves turned and dissolved their body into smoke as we stormed through, feet meeting nothing but the mist. Shine-Catch swung and caught nothing but smog on the tip of her spear. It swirled and reformed above, beasts leaping down on us, carrying slender bodies meant for running to the earth with their weight and ripping. The formation broke, but- the individuals of the herd were still agile and sharp-minded.

As wolves leapt from above, sharp leaps sent their prey flitting out from beneath them. As they landed hooves fell on their skulls, their legs, yelping cries and cracking bones echoing.

Three came for us.

The first I sensed, feeling the faint traces of Arak’s essence in the air behind us. Without hesitation I made my host buck up and kick, Shine-Catch clinging to the horns and wailing as we tilted onto our forelegs and slammed a hoof square into the place where the beast’s upper and lower jaws met. There was a snap as they dislocated and the wolf was sent crashing back, but two more were coming, on either side.

Shine-Catch pitched hard to bring her spear up, and the motion overbalanced her. She topped from our back even as the wolf was struck at the throat and a crackle of lightning seared through its meat to burst out the far side of its neck. The last wolf caught her as she fell, seizing her arm and throwing itself across the ground to twist violently.

Her scream echoed, her flesh snagged around the yellow teeth and tearing. The herd has been pushed away from us, the dust fading, and before we can kick the wolf away from her another has seized our hindlegs, claws gripping our flanks to drag us down.

I heard the dull groan of metal sweeping the air as the masked giant charged in, blade coming low across the ground to catch the beast in an rising uppercut blow that half-split its body through the ribcage. He followed the blade, letting its weight lead him forward, and drew it around in a circling ripple of shining steel that made the air sing out with cutting notes.

The wolf grasping Shine-Catch with its teeth barely saw what was coming before its head exploded.

Around us, the wolves were turning. The black smog trailed from their throats into a cloud of ash and little firefly embers above, guiding them to turn, to seek us. I could feel a presence scraping my mind, sensing me hidden within my host.

The chimera burst forward. In a heartbeat it slammed into the backs of the wolves, tail snapping forward to deliver a quick sting to one as it bounded past and hit a second, both paws smashing into the side of the beast and raking down brutally with its razors. The wolf fell and kicked across the ground in a struggling flail of dark limbs, bounding away with a huge flap of skin hanging loose from its side.

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One, quicker than the rest, leapt for the chimera as it recovered from its charge. My beast swatted it back with a claw, and the armored tail blurred forward in three quick motions.

The wolf transformed into smoke but the venom was already in its veins. As it reformed it toppled over, shaking violently as the toxins ruined it from within.

In moments the battle was turning, the wolves forced to focus on the chimera as it slid into ready position, prepared to leap again. They hissed and howled, darted forward, trying to bait it one way so the rest could pile on.

Shine-Catch was stumbling up, the giant lending her an arm to pull her to her feet. I had no voice to speak but I grabbed his collar and tugged him back.

The wolves were all staring down the chimera.

The chimera growled happily, and flared its luminous marks. A blinding flash cracked open the world in a blaze of white and a dozen flower buds exploded into poison spore. By the time they recovered, howling from the pain in their eyes, it had already ripped the throat out of another one and broken free of their encirclement, leaping along the ground like a shadow.

It ran straight for the caravan and turned, the wolves howling after. In teaching it to work with the gazelles I’d taught it how to bait an enemy.

“FORWAAARD!” The giant called, lifting his sword and his voice. The ragged company of guards and swordsman pushed out just as the wolves turned to chase, putting their sides to the company of caravaneers.

Spears shot forward, swords chopped down, they hit the pack hard with all the strength left in their bodies and felled another four before the rest could escape into smoke. Another bolt of all-devouring Mana caught a wolf as it took shape again, biting through its leg to cripple it.

As each died, the cloud reformed, tendrils pouring from its dead hosts to rejoin the mass. It swept outwards, reaching for the caravan’s troops as they stumbled, momentum spent, already feeling the exhaustion of battle.

Where it touched them tiny sparks of Mana began to burn away their skin. Eating them in the way I ate dead matter.

Shine-Catch was sagging from bloodloss, her entire left arm limp and red. I grasped her good arm and turned her towards the cloud.

“Right.” She sniffed, and bent her lips into a sneer. “Right, right.” We bent down to let her climb onto our back again, her legs barely able to hold her steady, her one arm letting the spear waver through the air as she tried to hold on.

One last charge.

We slammed into the cloud as it began to kill, reaching into its victims to eat them from within. It payed no attention until the spear stabbed into its smoky body. Instantly, the Mana-eating point began to drink, vortexes forming, sparks being pulled into the blade and flickering out. As we crashed through its body we tore it into two pieces, the blade's edge drinking up the last ribbons of smoke that trailed from the wound like blood.

Letting loose a shriek of horror it flew upwards, retreating.

Already there were dark shapes closing in from all sides.

The caravan was struggling, more than half of them wounded. The giant strode forward, bellowing orders, keeping his men moving so the shock couldn’t set in. He strode up to Shine-Catch and bowed his head, sword still in his hands.

“Our debt is great, and your mercy noble.” His voice grated like stone against stone. He pulled a heavy satchel and laid it on her lap. Something within clinked. “We do not allow these things to go unpaid.”

“I- we’ve got a-” Shine-Catch swung atop our back, struggling to make the words. “Come on. We’ve got an oasis. Can’t get caught ou’ here. More bad things coming.”

“An oasis? Here?” He paused for a moment, suspicious. Just for a moment wondering if we were leading him into a trap. But we’d done an awful lot of saving him to go leading him into another trap. “It can only be a miracle. We will follow.”

The edge of the divine protection was close. All together, we led the caravan through as the Black Wolf’s siege closed in, chasing our heels as we retreated to safety.