A few hours of waiting for his mana to regenerate over and over again later, Dennis had learnt how to aim his sparks and had proceeded to light the fire. It was relatively anticlimactic, the spark landing on the kindling and causing a little pale smoke. A second later a tiny flame formed, spreading slowly and surely through the whole construct. Quite pleased with themselves, the boys quickly realised they had to way to cook the rabbit, it wasn’t as if one of them could just hold the meat above the fire. Even so, they hadn’t even skinned the animal, they couldn’t cook it anyway.

In hindsight, Four realised that it may well have been cleverer to skin the rabbit and construct a makeshift spit before starting the fire. Although, knowing Dennis’ aim, he would have been likely to burn any wooden spit to the ground.

In a strangely coordinated show of teamwork, Dennis began to build a rudimentary spit at Four’s direction while Four did his best to skin the rabbit. Neither of the boys had any knives so Four had no choice but to summon his etheric swords for the job. The two rapiers were completely unsuited to the task. They had incredibly sharp tips but no actual blades along their sides. Instantly, the boy knew it would be impossible to skin the rabbit with swords like those. He would be more likely to mutilate the body beyond all recognition, making it inedible.

The boy released his hold on the etheric swords mentally, watching in fascination as the two swords faded into nothing, their strangely pale light extinguished. Focussing his will Four decided to try something new. Visualising his power, the well of mana that rocketed through his body along with his blood, Four dragged the mana towards his fingers. The mana writhed and spun a discordant dance, expanding and contracting in the same movement, spreading outward like a vapour and then being sucked inwards until it was almost solid. Resistant to anything forcing the mana to move, it was an internal tug of war. Four needed his will to be stronger than his rebellious mana. The mana moved at a crawl, so slowly that it took minutes of mental strain for Four to move even a tiny amount of the purple substance to his fingers. Once he had finished his frustratingly slow task, Four visualised a pair of short swords in his hands, their blades would be much shorter than an average sword’s but they would be razor sharp. Keeping the visualisation clear in his mind, Four used his ethereal armoury ability. The mana in his fingers vanished. Surprisingly, two razor sharp short swords appeared in his hands. Their blades were longer than he had imagined and their handle was shaped completely differently to what he had visualised. Four was elated, being able to customise the swords summoned from his Etheric armoury could prove an incredibly useful skill. Even if it mentally exhausted him to do so.

Happily, he went to work skinning the rabbits, even though he could feel fatigue pulling at his senses. He had often been commissioned to skin animals by hunters when he visited smaller towns and begged for work, he had just enough experience to complete the task. Although the swords were unwieldy at best and definitely not suited to the task, they were able to do an infinitely better job than the twin rapiers Four had summoned previously.

When the gruesome chore was finished, Four stood, to see the mage watching him, a primitively constructed spit already standing above the quietly burning fire. At least the fire hadn’t gone out. It could take Dennis another hour to light it again and Four was starving.

Attaching the rabbit to the rudimentary spit, Four and Dennis sat down near the fire, facing each other. Both boys were far too starved for decent conversation, deigning instead to stare at the rabbit meat which was slowly browning. Every so often, Dennis would adjust the spit, allowing a different side of the rabbit to be cooked. Although usually, consuming food would increase HP and heal injuries much faster than they could ever be healed naturally, food that was prepared incorrectly could actually impede healing and lower HP quickly. For this reason, both Four and Dennis were making very sure they cooked the rabbit all the way through before eating it. There was little chance of them finding a healer in the woods after all.

Finally, after what seemed like an age, the meat was cooked enough to be eaten safely. Dennis used his over-shirt as a plate - they couldn’t just put the rabbit on the forest floor, and Four cut it into pieces using his sword. “We really need camping supplies,” Dennis groaned, “We can’t use my shirt every time we need plates. And anyway, I doubt it’s clean at all.”

Four nodded his head in agreement, but was too busy stuffing food into his mouth to care. Dennis’ shirt would have been soaked in sweat but at least it wasn’t drenched in blood and filth. The rabbit was simply delicious, it was juicy and well cooked, filled with flavour. It was crispy on the outside, but soft and succulent inside. He hadn’t had such a good meal in weeks. He was ravenous and had little self-control at this point. Dennis wasn’t far behind him. He seemed to forgo any conversation and instead set his mind to filling his stomach.

A little while later, although not that long, both the boys were sated, their stomachs full and their spirits high. Lying on the ground, they laughed together, chatting about good times and Lorlen’s old gossip. The boys gossiped long into the night, remembering their pasts nostalgically, looking to the future with hope sparkling in their eyes. They shared life stories, Dennis explaining his sudden transformation into magehood which had ripped his life apart, while Four explained the events leading up to his planned execution. Four didn’t know how Dennis would react to his class - new classes were practically unheard of, so he kept that information to himself, deciding to tell Dennis at a later date. The boys chattered until they drifted into the calm embrace of sleep. Neither knowing which had succumbed first.

A cacophony of howls split the silence, slashing though the frigid air like a hail of arrows. Snapping their eyes open and jumping to their feet, the boys stared at their surroundings, wondering where the howls had originated from and more importantly if whatever had made them was moving closer towards the two.

Another howl split the silence. It was to the boy’s right. One more howl split the frigid winter air, to the boy’s left this time. More and more howls, shot through the silence, coming from what seemed like every direction. The boys were surrounded. Suddenly, a mist began to encircle their campsite. Curling and twisting like gnarled fingers, the mist was an opaque but pale white. Spinning and writhing it enveloped the ground and turned the forest a foggy grey. Like an inexorable battalion, the mist rushed through the campsite, obscuring everything. Without warning, a roaring wind began to howl through the clearing, devouring the landscape. The roaring icy wind gave no quarter and expected none in return, practically vanquishing the mist. Harsh and sharp as steel, the wind battered trees, causing their leaves to cower in fear. Swathes of fog still spun through the clearing, but they were quickly defeated until the boys could just see their surroundings.

Nine pairs of blood-red eyes stared at them.

From the darkness, nine creatures emerged, stepping somewhat hesitantly into the flickering firelight. The creatures themselves seemed to be likened to wolves. They stood hunched on all fours, their bodies covered in a forest of grey matted fur stained with patches of dark brown. The wolf like creatures all wore a furious snarl, saliva dripping from their ravenous maws. Each creature had a set of terrifyingly sharp fangs, curved and deadly not unlike a sabretooth tiger’s. Each wolf was muscular and strong, toned legs allowing the creatures to pounce on unsuspecting prey. Sleek and streamlined, the wolves looked to be accustomed killers, capable of ripping flesh from the bone. If the wolves were any bigger than the average dog, the boys would have been doomed. As it was, they were still in a huge amount of trouble.

Despite their overwhelming numbers, the wolves themselves seemed to be unwilling to attack. The modest fire’s flames reflected in the wolves’ eyes, promising fiery ruin and burning retribution. Thinking furiously, wondering why the wolves hadn’t slaughtered the two boys already, Four realised that they must be afraid of fire. It seemed the tiny blaze was just unnatural enough to prevent an attack. With any luck, Dennis and Four could cower near their fire all night, hoping the wolves would move on and find easier prey.

A sudden gust of iced wind shot through the campsite. The frozen current kniving the two boys, causing an involuntary shiver. The boy’s fire shuddered at the contact, sputtering and then collapsing into nothingness. Four’s luck had struck again.

“Well shit,” Dennis muttered, before the first wolf pounced, howling into the soft moonlight.

Four stood to meet the wolf’s suicidal charge, his sword pointed directly towards the animal’s gaping maw. Unable to stop its mad attack, the wolf impaled itself on Four’s sword, skewering itself from head to toe. The wolf exploded in a shower of putrid guts and dark red infested blood. While Four had been distracted by the first wolf’s folly, two wolves were closing in upon him, these animals more hesitant. Another wolf pounced at Four, he merely sidestepped it, having no time to create another oversized kebab without the others rushing him. Stepping to meet the next closest wolf, Four slashed with his sword, cleaving the wolf’s head straight from its body. As if unaware of the mortal wound it was afflicted with, the headless body began to walk in disorientated circles. Knowing he had little time to watch the gruesome scene play out in front of him, Four turned, ready to engage the next attacking predator. Except the wolf was much closer to Four that the boy had gambled on. Four couldn’t move his sword fast enough to stop the wolf. The small animal was in the midst of charging, its fangs extended and claws outstretched, straight towards Four’s right leg.

Sweeping his sword downwards towards the animal, Four could only stare in horror as the wolf bit down into his leg, its fangs scraping against bone. Emitting a furious scream, Four cleaved the wolf in two, blood pouring from his leg wound. Two massive gouges had ripped his leg to pieces, exposing bone and bright red tissue. Excruciating pain wracked Dennis’ body, he could no longer support his weight with his injured leg and was forced to drop to one knee. Four could no longer avoid any wolf that attacked him. He was now a very defensive bastion, unable to meet an attacker.

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Another three wolves rushed towards Four wildly, trying to take advantage of his wounded state. In a flurry of blows, Four hit the first wolf hard enough for its attack to miss and throw it out the way, he then turned his swords towards the other wolves, decapitating the first and scoring a deep hit in the side of the second. Howling in agony, the animal paced away, trying desperately to move from Four’s swords. It had no chance though, Four’s second sword already slashing towards it in a fatal blow.

Free of assailants for now, Four turned, wondering how Dennis was fairing. The sudden chaos of the battle had been too intense for Four to spend a second defending his companion. That could have been a fatal mistake, thought Four, sudden terror piercing him. If Dennis was dead, Four would never have been able to forgive himself. He had formed a strong bond with the boy, despite having known him little more than a day.

The sight that greeted Four as he turned towards Dennis was incredible. Dennis was surrounded by three wolves, scraping and howling at him. Trying desperately to attack Dennis. They couldn’t reach him though. A strange sphere of fluorescent blue light seemed to surround Dennis, almost like a magical aura. The light seemed to be impenetrable for the wolves, preventing them from any attack. In fact, the wolves seemed to be hurting themselves more than Dennis, as they threw themselves against his magical barrier. Dennis seemed to be safe. Four sighed in relief, he would probably be able to deal with those three wolves, if he could move closer to them that is.

Preparing to move towards Dennis, Four watched in sudden apprehension as a jagged crack formed in Dennis’ shield, where a wolf had just struck it. Looking towards Dennis, Four noticed that his face was hunched in concentration, sweat beading on his forehead. Dennis was struggling.

Dennis’ plight gave Four a new determination. Unsteadily, Four rose to his feet, his injured leg screaming in protest and wobbling unsteadily. He made a few jolting steps towards Dennis, his left leg taking almost all of his weight. Slowly, he reached the first wolf. Dennis hadn’t noticed Four yet, his eyes scrunched shut in concentration. Four slashed at the wolf, crippling it in his first strike. A pitiful howl of protest rose from the wolf, causing its companions to rush towards it, ignoring Dennis’ weakening shield. Four raised both his swords, crossing them. Sinking to both knees as his leg finally gave out, Four prepared to fight the remaining two wolves.

The animals stood little chance really, they were too small to overwhelm Four and they had no chance of parrying his blades. They would be impaled if they attacked. As if realising their impending deaths, the wolves changed their tactics. Slowly they circled Four until one stood behind the boy and one stood in front. Four was royally and truly fucked now. He could defend one side but not the other.

As if seeing the resignedly fearful expression on Four’s face, both wolves pounced, ready for the killing blow.

Four turned to the first wolf, leaving his back completely exposed. He couldn’t take out both wolves but he could certainly kill one, leaving Dennis with a much larger chance of survival. Raising both of his blades, he prepared to impale the animal, standing for one last time. He met the wolf with cold eyes and an unbroken spirit. He would die, but he would not die a coward.

The snarling creature pounced towards Four, thrusting itself straight into Four’s extended blades. Its body shattered, bones snapping and eyes popping, ripped flesh and putrid blood spraying everywhere. Dennis braced himself for the coming blow from behind, ready to receive his fate, his eyes closed in prayer. He felt a sudden wind whip the back of his neck. He had but a millisecond to live. Sending one final prayer to the God, he wished Dennis well.

A sudden fizzing sound exploded through the forest’s silence. Dennis felt a small object slam into his back, knocking him over and causing him to sprawl onto the ground. It hurt like hell and would leave him with a massive bruise. But no claws ripped into his flesh, no animal mauled him to death. The skin of his back felt clean and unbroken.

Confused, Four slowly turned around, mindful of his damaged leg. The sight that greeted him as he turned caused him to burst out laughing. Dennis stood, legs splayed apart and right arm extended in a casters pose, little streaks of purple mana leaking from his fingers. The pose was just so exaggerated and unnecessary that Four couldn’t hold it in. Looking to his side, Four saw the object that had hit him. It was the final wolf, the one that had flanked him. It was dead, a burning hole the size of Four’s fist gaping in the animal’s head. The stench of burning flesh was sickening, but the smell of victory overpowered it. Finished with his maniacal laughing, Four grinned at Dennis: “Thanks for the help.”

“Least I could do,” Dennis smiled back, “You did most of the work anyway; it feels like I’m stealing your exp at this point.”

“I wouldn’t be alive without you,” Four retorted solemnly. Pointing to his injured foot, Four winced: “Don’t suppose you know any healing spells do you?”

Dennis’ eyes widened at the terrible wound, his mouth parting a little in shock. He had thought Four invincible. Cold reality crashed down on him. He didn’t have any healing spells, a mage would be unlikely to get any before level fourty. The wound was likely to be infected soon. There was no way Four would heal naturally, he’d need a boost from something, preferably a healer but a lot of good food would do too. Their victory over the wolves could quickly prove pyrrhic if Dennis didn’t succeed at hunting. After a few moments of contemplation, Dennis answered: “I’m sure that with a little food you’ll be fine. I’ll go throw some manabolts at some rabbits,” Dennis smiled half-heartedly and turned away.

Four knew the wound was a few orders of magnitude more serious than Dennis was implying. It was already bubbling with pus, one edge of it turning slightly green. Hopefully it was just a grass stain. But at any rate, Four was in for a bumpy ride.

After Dennis had succeeded in moving Four a little further away from the battlefield strewn with wolf corpses, by half dragging half carrying Four, Dennis left to go hunting. Maybe if Four ate soon he might be put in a good enough position to recover.

As he was alone, with nothing else to do, Four decided to open his status screen. He dematerialised his swords and then concentrated. A little bit of will later, the purple screen appeared in his vision, a prompt appearing straight away.

You have received 106 exp:

1 exp for killing rabbit

105 exp for killing wolf x7

After dismissing this prompt, another one appeared in its place:

You have levelled up:

Blade God Level 3 (76/300)

(four attribute points available)

Dennis quickly debated where to add his attribute points. He decided to do exactly what he had done the last time he levelled. Adding two points to both resilience and strength would ensure Four would be less likely to be severely wounded in later fights. If he had even one more point of resilience his wound would have been half the size. Resilience and strength worked in opposites against enemies. Four had learnt in one of Akkarin’s books that for every point his strength was higher than his enemy’s resilience, his attack would do around ten percent more damage. Four had also learnt inversely that for every point an enemy’s resilience was higher than his strength, his attack would do 10% less damage. This made it incredibly important that the boy increased strength and resilience early on. After assigning the points, the boy checked his stats once more.

Name: Four

Class: Blade God (level 3) (76/300)

Age: 16

HP: 10/120

Mana: ∞

Strength: 13

Agility: 20

Dexterity: 21

Charisma: 7

Resilience: 13

Intelligence: 10

Luck: 0

The boy was happy with his stats for the moment. It wasn’t like he could really do anything about them anyway. He wished he had levelled up a few more times from the fight though. The wolves had given a depressingly small amount of experience, the boy thought, it seemed odd that after such a hard battle, the animals would give only 15 experience each. The guards the boy had killed were much weaker than the wolves, but had given a huge amount more experience.

A small thought nagged the boy though. Something he couldn’t quite remove from his mind. He had killed seven wolves according to the prompt. The fog of battle had been much too confusing for him to count how many he had killed. But apparently he had killed seven. Dennis had killed one wolf. But he had counted nine pairs of eyes. Looking around wildly, the hairs of the back of Dennis’ neck rose, his eyes widened in fear. He was a sitting duck.

A rustling in the trees to the right of Four alerted him to a presence. A big presence. From the foliage, stepped a creature. It was like the previous wolves Four had fought, only, it was twice the size of a horse. Four arrows covered in dark black blood and infested puss coated the wolf’s side. It was obviously injured and walked with a limp. But its fangs were dripping bright red crimson blood. Staring into its gruesome maw filled with lifeblood soaked teeth and pieces of ripped flesh, Four recoiled in horror. The cavernous expanse of the terrible creature’s mouth was Four’s death. The wolf was massive. Even at full strength Four stood no chance. The creature fixed its blood red eyes onto the boy. They were massive orbs of fiery ruby, enrapturing but deadly. Four couldn’t look away. He saw death in those eyes. His death. But he was powerless.

The wolf limped ever closer to Four. It was now a bare few feet from him. The wolf knew Four was immobilised and was taking its time. Lording over its prey. Practically mocking Four. Agonizingly slowly, the creature approached. The animal was close enough now, practically on top of Four. Raising its head, the creature howled, before opening its gigantic mouth. The stench of rotting flesh and fresh blood assaulted Four’s nose, making him queasy. He wanted to vomit, but was in no position to do so. The wolf opened its mouth, until it was wide enough to crunch Four to pieces in one bite. Descending, the wolf prepared to end Four’s life.

But it was interrupted by a furious roar. The beast, somewhat startled, turned its head, looking for whoever had interrupted its lunch. Dennis – Four thought. Taking advantage of the wolf’s distraction, Four materialised both his swords, stabbing them straight through the chest of the gigantic animal. They only penetrated a few inches, the wolf was too strong. Four heard the tell-tale fizzing of a manabolt. Dennis was trying to save him! The bolt struck the wolf in a blaze of blue glory, but the creature barely reacted, absorbing the bolt easily. Knowing he had little chance, Dennis focussed all his strength on forcing his swords into the wolf’s body. He knew it was his best chance of killing the creature. Even after shoving with all his might, the thrashing creature above him barely even seemed to notice. He was just too low levelled.

Finally shaking off its shock, the wolf above Four moved in for the kill once again. Four knew he had seconds until he was dead. There was nothing he could do. Closing his eyes, Four focussed his final efforts on impaling the creature. Suddenly, a clang struck through the battlefield, accompanied by the whizz of arrows. The sound of a dozen bowstrings being drawn and released in harmony.

The wolf on top of Four shuddered at the impact of over a dozen arrows. It Howled in pained fury, then jumped away from the boy, crashing to the ground and impaling itself on Four’s twin swords up to their hilts. The monstrous wolf shuddered, its whole body shivering with rage and fear. Then, it collapsed, breathing a final breath, the creature became no more than a lifeless corpse. Shaking his head in pained amusement, Four grinned. He may not have had the strength to kill the creature himself, but at least his sword had struck the final blow. They had won. It felt good.

Still smiling to himself, Four collapsed into unconsciousness, fatigue and pain finally besting him.