Zachary swung his spear left and right in wide arcs, holding several beasts back. When one still dared to attack, he smacked it across the snout, making it whimper. Still, they were facing a sea of black fur that had no end.

He briefly wondered if this was what human ancestors had to go through eons ago. Without summoning, the only advantage of humans was their greater intellect and the ability to wield tools. With just that, how far could they have gone? The novice and adept ranks were probably okay. But, the expert rank was probably impossible.

In the seconds it took to contemplate the struggles of their species, Zachary and Katherine finally fought their way to the land bridge. He tried to summon Oakley again and this time he was successful. With the tall treant blocking half of the width of the narrow patch of stone, it became much easier to defend.

He turned and quickly recalled Onkie and Hammer in succession. It was just in time as Onkie was bleeding all over, having suffered several gashes and bites that went through its fur. Hammer was still fine as it had only lost three out of its eight legs. It could still stand up and walk.

“Let me recover a little!” Zachary said, “So I can resummon.”

“No need, Aaron is here!” She said

True to her words, Aaron’s group had successfully fought their way through the beast encirclement. They were quicker than he expected but it wasn’t surprising to see why. With Zachary and Katherine creating a distraction, the two of them became a ray of hope that galvanized the survivors to put everything on the line.

“Charge!”

“Keep going, we’re almost there!”

“Open a path!”

After a few more moments of barely controlled chaos, the survivor group arrived at the land bridge. Katherine stepped aside, letting the first bunch through. They were the ones without any summons and were already exhausted from fighting. The rest brought up the rear with a rag-tag force of about a dozen summons.

Aaron White was the last person. He was tall and well-built. His summons included the powerful mantis and furry pig akin to Onkie, only it was about twice as big. It even had a pair of curled tusks that seemed quite deadly. Even after being in a life-or-death situation and fighting so many wolves, his expression was calm, as if he was far from being pushed to the limit.

“Hi, I’m Aaron,” He extended a hand.

Zachary expected Katherine to take it first since she had come up with the plan. However, she had somehow appeared behind him so he had to take the handshake.

“Zachary, this is Katherine.” He replied simply.

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Zachary wasn’t a short man by any means but this Aaron was still taller. Standing in front of each other, he had to tilt up to meet the other’s eyes which shined with appreciation and relief.

Aaron shook his hand vigorously. The grip was strong but Zachary didn’t mind and returned the greeting. There was a refreshing air about the man, one would not expect from a death row prisoner.

“Good man, thanks for the help,” Aaron said.

“We’re not out of the woods yet,” Zachary said.

“Not out of the woods… Hahaha, I like it! Don’t worry.” Aaron broke the handshake and turned to the crowd of faces around and them on the land bridge. “Finn, Henry, Chloe, Bella, James; heavies in front, ranged in the back, maintain the defensive line! Adrian, Jensine, Georgi, Mia; you guys don’t have any summons, go back and bring back some ripe soul orbs. We need to replenish our forces!”

Zachary and Katherine stood by and watched. With only a small patch of dirt to defend, the superior strength of the summons shone through. The wolves suffered many casualties while not being able to cause any damage.

Aaron continued to shout orders, “Keep fighting! Pull the wounded wolves in, don’t let them run! Grab the dead wolves too! We’ll need them for food! Where are the soul orbs?”

“Here!”

One of the female survivors, either Jensine or Mia, came back holding several soul orbs with the front of her shirt. They were perfectly round and clear as crystal. Even in the mist, they sparkled with mysterious light.

“The others are still sorting through the orbs on the ground. Many are already broken.” She explained.

Aaron reached over to grab a soul orb and presented it to Zachary, “Zachary, here. You saved us so you should get the first wolf. Meatball, drag one over.”

The large furry pig grunted and snorted as it dragged a wounded wolf by the legs. The beast had suffered a spear through the chest and was bleeding heavily. It had no strength to fight back.

“I got it,” Zachary said as he pulled out a summoning card, “Onkie, come out.”

His furry appeared next to the larger one. The two stared at each other in surprise before they started snorting loudly and sniffing each other.

Aaron laughed, “Hey, you have one too.”

Zachary laughed as well, “You’re lucky, you got the male one. It’s pretty big.”

He wanted to ask how strong it was but he held back. It was bad manners to ask for the soul cultivation of another’s summons. One could still ask but the other wasn’t obligated to tell the truth.

“It’s okay. Yours is pretty tough. It isn’t backing down from Meatball even with so many wounds.” Aaron said.

“Yeah. Anyway, I’ll take the wolf. I need some time to recover my soul energy.” Zachary said and looked at his summon, “Onkie, bite its forelegs.”

It did as he asked and he grabbed the wolf’s hind legs. With his summon’s help, he dragged the wounded beast away. As he left, Aaron distributed the few soul orbs to the rest of his people.

Katherin followed Zachary. Crossing the narrow bridge, they found a patch of bare stone a few steps away from pinecitta tree. A few of the survivors were taking a breather nearby. The battle was still ongoing but it had decreased in intensity. They only needed three or so people to defend at a time.

“See, it worked out.” She said with a grin, “The power of teamwork!”

He shook his head. He wasn’t convinced yet. The situation had progressed exactly as she predicted but what happened from here was still uncertain. Would the wolves continue to attack or would they give up? What would they do if they were trapped on this small patch of ground for a long time?

He glanced at Aaron who towered above the others. There was now an imbalance of power and numbers. Zachary had always disliked large groups. He was never the type to trust others easily. After the betrayal that caused him to end up here, he was even more reluctant.

He signed and looked at the soul orb in his hand, “All for this? Yeah… I guess it’s worth it.”