“Left!” Leodin called with a slight crack in his voice. The party stopped in surprise, Salissa and Edwin craning their neck to see until Bordan hissed “Down!”. They crouched, Edwin huddling next to a tree. “Where?” Bordan asked quietly.
“That way, behind the fallen tree.” Leodin answered, nervously pointing his crossbow in the direction.
“Which one? How far?” Bordan asked, trying to spot it.
“The one, uhm, hundred meters, left of that big tree with the burl halfway up. I saw it move left to right; it went out of sight.”
“You sure it was a direwolf?”
“Yes. Well, definitely something big. Too big to be anything else.” Leodin answered with determination. From what little he had told them, Leodin had done quite a bit of hunting as a teen, so he was probably the most capable of them to make that distinction.
The party tersely kept watch for another minute, but whatever Leodin had seen didn’t reemerge.
“Alright.” Bordan finally said. “Take up formation, we head directly to where you spotted it. I’ll be in front. Edwin, stay with the other two for now in case it tries to get a jump on us from behind. Let’s go.”
They left the trail, slowly advancing through the forest. It was mid-morning now, the sun already high in the sky and warming the forest floor. The last morning dew was still coating the low brush, wetting their boots and pants as they passed. The green leaves made swishing noises and mixed with the natural sounds of a waking forest, listening for movement was a futile endeavor. They arrived at the fallen tree, not spotting anything. They stopped and Leodin looked around where he had seen the beast. He found some tracks leading to the right and further away from the path, and the size of the prints where the wolf had climbed down into the bed of a small stream made Edwin’s stomach flutter.
They retook their formation and followed the trail as best as they could, and for a minute Edwin thought that the monster had smelled them coming and decided to avoid them. That was until they left the low riverbed and saw the direwolf standing not twenty meters from them. It stood unmoving, its intelligent eyes watching the humans that were frozen in surprise. The beast was much larger than a regular wolf, its shoulders reaching as high as Edwin’s stomach. Its paws were as big as a man’s hand and ended in long, curved claws. Its mouth was filled with teeth as large as Edwin’s fingers and the ridge of bony armor that all direbeasts grew protected its back and shoulders, ending in a short, curved horn right above its brow.
“Formation!” Bordan hissed, leveling his spear at the beast. “Leodin, aim and shoot!”
Edwin shook off his surprise, clasping his shield and weapon harder and moving forward, taking his position behind and to the side of Bordan. The wolf hadn’t moved and was still just observing them. Edwin heard the other two shuffle around behind him, getting to a position where Leodin’s shot wasn’t blocked by the fighters, but before they could line it up the large wolf flashed towards Bordan like a boulder thrown from a catapult. The soldier dodged backwards and to the side, thrusting with his spear at the same time. The beast stopped its charge, evading the weapon and dancing backwards. It sat back on its haunches, baring its teeth and growling loudly.
Suddenly, Edwin heard Leodin and Salissa cry out in surprise followed by the sharp twang of the boy’s crossbow. Edwin spun around, realizing the predicament. A second direwolf, a little smaller than the first, its pelt a mottled grey instead of bluish black, had crept up on the party from the side. It too had stopped its charge, although Edwin couldn’t tell if Leodin’s panicked shot had hit the beast or not. Leodin was standing frozen, his spent crossbow still half raised and his eyes big as saucers while Salissa was behind him, slowly backing away in fear. The second wolf growled, tensing its muscles for another attack.
Edwin roared in rage and despair, his powerful legs propelling him forward with inhuman speed. He didn’t bother with his mace, instead locking his shield arm tightly. The large man hit the monster mid-jump like a battering ram, bowling the surprised beast over like a pin. It rolled twice along the forest floor, immediately jumping to its feet with a growl. Edwin set his feet, interposing himself between the wolf and the marksmen that were his to protect.
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“Come on!” he yelled, his limbs shaking with adrenaline. “Come on, dammit!”
The wolf fulfilled his wish, rushing at him again. Edwin tightened his stance, lowering his center and preparing his shield. At the last moment he pushed it forwards, the hard wood impacting the animal for the second time. He swung his mace around his shield but only grazed the beast ineffectually before it retreated. It regarded him cautiously, then jumped left and right as if to test his reaction. Edwin didn’t let himself be baited, keeping the low stance that Mennick had beaten into him, only shifting slightly to stay between the monster and his back line. It rushed him again, and again it failed against his shield, claws scratching deep furrows into the wood. This time Edwin was braver, going for the counterstrike before it had retreated out of his range. He opened his shield to give himself a better angle and swung at the beast, hitting it just below the bone armor at the shoulder.
A shrill cry assaulted Edwin’s ears and the left side of his face suddenly felt like it was on fire. He staggered away, yelping in surprise as a white-hot gout of flame barely missed him, hungrily licking the direwolf. The beast cried in pain as its thick pelt immediately caught fire and burned off, charring the skin underneath. It rolled around on the floor, trying to escape the fire, but Salissa unerringly held her conversion on the monster, screaming all the way. After a few seconds her fire lessened and she let it peter out. The wolf was still spasming on the ground, whimpering in agony. Edwin stared at the creature, torn between relief and pity. Finally, he stepped forward, bringing his mace down on its head with a mighty swing from overhead. The wolf’s skull gave way to the steel mace head and blood, bone and brain matter splattered across the dirt.
Edwin looked at the creature he had just killed in a daze, lifting his dripping mace as an alarmed cry from Bordan pulled him back to reality. During his fight with the second wolf, Edwin had completely forgotten about the first one. When it saw its mate killed, it had taken a shallow wound from Bordan’s spear to run past the soldier and was now almost on top of Edwin, its mouth wide open and murder in its eyes. Edwin staggered back in surprise, reflexively raising his shield to protect his face. The expected impact never came, however, and for a moment Edwin thought the creature had switched targets.
Powerful jaws clamped around Edwin’s leg like a steel vise, fangs easily piercing pants, skin and muscles. Off balance and one-legged, Edwin fell backwards, screaming with the searing pain that shot through his body. The giant wolf bit down, trying to sever Edwin’s leg, but where the flesh had given way, his bones prevailed. Surprised and angry, the wolf set its feet and shook the large man like it would a caught deer, trying to break its neck. Edwin flailed around, the ripping teeth causing agony like he’d never felt before. He tried to grab the wolf, or the ground, or hold on to anything else but couldn’t concentrate through the pain. Yet again, his bones held. The wolf stopped its shaking, looking at Edwin in confused disbelief when a feathered crossbow bolt sprouted from its side, almost immediately joined by the thick wooden shaft of Bordan’s spear that sank into the creature just below its bone armor, all the way to its hilt. The wolf yelped in pain, letting go of Edwin’s leg. The large man scrabbled backwards on his hands and his good foot, his left leg not responding to his commands. The wolf tried to jump back but couldn’t use one of its legs, and Bordan held it to the ground with his spear. Beast and man fought for seconds that felt like minutes until a second bolt joined the first with a twang, piercing the pinned wolf’s head from below and stopping its movement immediately.
Silence descended on the clearing, only broken by the adventurers’ heavy breathing. Edwin lay there, shaking from the pain, fear and adrenaline, looking at the two huge wolves that had been alive moments earlier. Now that the fangs weren’t ripping at him anymore, the pain quickly dulled. He looked down at his leg, and where grey fabric should have been he was greeted by a mass of raw flesh and dripping blood. His leg had held but it had taken a mauling. Thanks to the bone not giving, the meat around it had also not been separated entirely. Edwin sat up, studying the wound with the dispassionate eyes of a master fleshmage. He could see his leg bone through the tear, but the wolf had only shredded his flesh instead of severing his leg or biting a chunk out of him. He would heal, leaving not even a scar if his body worked as intended. He shook his shield from his arm and closed both hands around the wound, partly to stem the flow of blood and partly to shield it from the eyes of his teammates that were rushing to Edwin’s side with worry.
“Anybody got a bandage? I just realized I didn’t bring any.”