Time stood still. Before his eyes, Jim witnessed how a wave of black and gray moved forward. With red, fierce eyes they crashed down on the small wall that looked so frail compared to the might this army of wolves brought. The only thing standing between them and their immediate death was this exact wall.

If not for the stairs limiting the number of wolves that can attack the wall at the same time to six they would have no hope of surviving for even an hour. For a moment Jim saw his death before his eyes. The sight was too horrifying. They didn't seem to be high in number with about sixty in total and only six running at the wall, but one could not forget that each of these wolves was as high as a man and they were a lot bulkier, heavier, and deadlier than any man.

One such beast would be enough to kill multiple humans on an open field and even if they were only of the second rank Jim wasn't too sure they were that much easier to face than the raven. His heart skipped a beat, he forgot the breath or blink. For a moment Jim just watched the wolves running to them. Never in his life felt Jim so helpless and tiny as in this moment.

Everyone was shocked and frozen in place, they expected wolves, but not in this number and surely not in this size. This was beyond their expectations or wildest thoughts. This was a force they could not win against.

Many wanted to flee. The small fighting spirit they had immediately vanished into the cold and ruthless wind of the night. Some turned around, wanting to flee only to hold in their steps. Widening their eyes they realized that there was no place they could flee to. It was too late. Some started crying, others broke down to their knees in shock, while others refused to believe their eyes.

In this moment of despair, they heard a strong voice from above, bringing them back to reality and breaking their frozen states, a shout so loud that it could compete with the howling of the alpha wolf himself.

“PREPARE FOR IMPACT!!!”

In this moment Solaire spoke much louder than anyone could have imagined for his age. This woke Jim and he regained his cool and steeled his resolve to survive. He fought more than enough mutants and a bigger dog wouldn’t change his resolve. In the end, they only had to fight six of them at the same time.

Hearing Solaire shout made the people realize that there was nothing they could do other than fight. There was nowhere they could flee to or people they could comfort themself with. The only people they had were the few that remained at the school and either they fight and survived or they fled and died. Coming to terms with their most likely demise, the people went back to their position.

Taking a deep breath Max looked at the sea of monsters. “Ready your bows!” Following his command, he tightened his bowstring which the other archers followed. “Aim!” Waiting for the perfect moment Max waited, while the spearman prepared for impact.

“Hold…”

The wolves got closer and closer and the archers slowly lost their patience, in a few seconds the first wave would crash against the wall.

“Hold…” By now the wolves were only a few meters away from impact as the archers finally heard the signal. “Shoot!”

As if time started to flow normally again the arrows whistle through the air hitting the wolves, sinking the arrow deep into their flesh, but this didn’t kill any of them. It hardly stopped their frenzied run, their fur was too thick, and too much flesh between vital organs. They would most likely survive multiple such attacks.

Like a wave crashing against a dam, they began to claw and bite at the wall, trying to get a hold and climb over it. In the process, wood splintered in the air and it was clear that the wall would at this pace never hold against the seemingly endless wave of attacks.

Not long after the first splinter of wood flew in the air, blood followed. The spearman started to put holes through the chest or eyes of the wolves. They were all large and in their mindless frenzy not hard to hit.

The night sky was drenched in the sound of slashing and piercing flesh. Seeing the damage the wolves were doing on the wall Jim grew worried. They were already reinforcing the wall to their best ability and trying to make it as thick as possible. They were cutting more trees at this very moment to get more logs to reinforce the wall.

***

Not far from the school on top of a high building, you could see how five people, shrouded in the shadows of the night, were looking at the school with a glint of greed and madness.

One of the people was throwing a knife in the air, catching it, and repeating the process. Chuckling, he looked at the other people and said, “Hehehe. Look at them, trying their best to survive against the endless attacks of the wolves.”

Standing up the small frame and the bad posture of the person was visible to see. He looked like a hunched-over rat. “How I would love to see their despair with my own eyes.”

“Hehehe” Continuing to chuckle like the madman he was, another one of the people interrupted his chuckle. It was an old man with a long beard and a frame that towered above everyone else. The man was about 1,90 meters tall and had such a straight back that it looked abnormal and would send a shiver up the spine of any normal person.

“Would you keep your mouth shut? I can’t concentrate like this. The situation is not as expected.” Turning around the man looked at the school in the distance, while he closed his eyes and started to stroke his beard with one hand, while the other was behind his back like a butler awaiting orders. “How very interesting.”

Being mad about being interrupted, the rat-like person looked at the old man angrily. “Alfred you are no fun. Always so serious and stern. Loose up a bit, this is the dream we always wanted, hehe,” chuckling, he continued, “ The freedom to do whatever we want.”

Shaking his head Alfred looked at the rat-like person. “Remember that I only work with the likes of you because of Troy. Do you understand me Hakan?”

“Hehehe,” continuing his chuckle Hakan smiled, “No reason to be so serious. Without Troy, such a group would never function,” Looking at the people around him Hakan couldn't stop himself from smiling.

“Who would have thought that we had so many people in this small city that have this unlimited thirst.” Seeing the eyes of the people around him, Hakan could see the slight glint of their desires, normally hidden from the eyes of the public.

Stroking along his eyelids Hakan chuckled again, “Hehehe, you all have such strong desires, so thick that you can practically taste them. Some are sunken in hatred, others drown in the pleasure of torture, another wants to empower everything around them, there is one that seeks revenge and one that is so unreadable that he seems to have any emotion at all.”

“Hehehe, while I just want to have fun. I couldn’t imagine a better group to do this. I hope we can still work together even if Troy perishes, hehe-” Hakan abruptly stopped his chuckling as the tip of a rapier grazed his throat.

A boy with short black hair and dark blue eyes that seemed devoid of any emotion looked coldly at Hakan. “Be careful of what you are saying.” Slowly shifting the rapier away from his throat Hakan put his hands in the air in defeat.

“Relax, relax," shaking his head he continued mockingly, "If anything could kill this monster.“ Looking back at Alfred he asked, “So what is so interesting.”

Giving Hakan not even a glance Alfred answered, “It looks like they were able to defeat Troy and are better prepared than imagined. They have bows and an organized spear wall. If they can hold this up they have a realistic chance of surviving.”

“Khyaaa"

With a shrill shriek, a girl came over to Alfred, who sounded at first sad and shortly after very angry. “Who dares to hurt my treasure?! How dare they! Wait for me, my little sweetheart! I will rescue you immediately.”

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“Hold on Isabelle,” grabbing her by the shoulder to stop her from running away Alfred said, “You know what his orders were. He is fine and hiding in the school, apart from the small injury everything is as planned.”

Sighing in relief Isabelle asked, “Are you sure? What injury does he have?”

Looking back at the school he replied, “Just some burn wounds from this annoying priest. He was able to extinguish them so he should be fine.”

“What!?” Calling out in shock Isablle asked with furry, “You call that not serious!? My beloved Troy was burned by some old man!”

Interrupting them Hakan asked, “Don’t let me out on the fun. Who are you guys talking about again?”

Sighing in annoyance Afred said, “For the thousand times the priest Solaire and the teenage boy. Who both reached the third rank. The only people we have to be very careful about, does that ring some bells?”

“Right,” confirmed Hakan. “Now I remember. I still don’t understand how they reached the third rank so fast. We killed so many things and are still a little short of the next rank.”

“Even more problematic is the skills of this teenager. At first, we thought he was just lucky but we underestimated him. He has battle awareness and reflexes no normal teenager can obtain and he is in many ways very… abnormal,” said Alfred with a frown, while his eyes were still closed.

Hearing this, Hakan couldn’t stop himself from chuckling. He knew that this teenager sounded like a lot of fun and was now even more eager to fight him. Alone thinking about it turned his chuckle into a burst of laughter.

“HAHAHAHA” The laugh resounded in the night sky as the group of five watched in glee at the carnage that was happening at the school.

***

While Troy and his group were scheming against Jim and his friends, they had completely different problems and could not think of the threat Troy and his group held, as they were barely holding on against the endless wave of attacks.

First, it was complete chaos and the people were so scared for their life that they tried their best just to survive. At some point, one could hear nothing but the screams of people and the growls of wolves.

The scene was sickening in every aspect. The constant sound of the growling, the piercing of flesh, the sound of scratches at the wall, the scene of blood that could not be otherwise described as carnage.

But most sickening of all was the smell, the thick and stinging smell of blood. It lay so heavy in the air that at some point it was hard to breathe. No one knew how much time went by but at some point, one of the spearmen couldn’t hold himself back and puked over his armor.

Just for a moment, he wanted to take a rest, just one minute. Just for one minute not watching these eyes - devoid of any emotion with a fierce gaze to kill, kill, and kill.

It was just one deep breath, to catch some air before he wanted to puke again, as the air only smelled like blood, iron, and puke which was still warm as it slowly traveled down the armor of the poor soul.

Before he could even think about puking again one of the wolves took the opportunity and tried to slit his throat open. Thankfully being able to doge the man took a step back, only to look at these eyes, eyes that want nothing but to kill.

His vision started to blur. Rubbing at his eyes the spearman realized that he was crying. For a moment he thought of just giving up. Maybe all the suffering would end if we just took a step forward. Give himself to the silent and peaceful blanket of death.

“Oli… yo…Oliver!”

Torn out of his thoughts Oliver realized that someone was calling him looking to his left he could see his best friend screaming at him. His vision was still not clear and he couldn’t hear him.

He saw the mouth moving but strangely there was no sound. Looking down at his hands Oliver tried to understand the situation. It was so hard to think.

What was I doing again? I was doing something important but I can’t recall what. Strange, why is my hand so bloody? It is not my blood, I feel no pain. I feel… nothing.

Seeing the state his friend was in he couldn’t stand still. Leaving his position he stabbed the wolf, who was still trying to grab Oliver by the throat, accurately in the eye, drilling through its brain and killing it instantly. He let go of the spear and with the momentum of his run, used his left hand to smack his friend with all the might he could. Not reacting in the slightest to the incoming hand, the hand landed perfectly on his right cheek, sending his head flying to his left side.

Distributed from his thought process Oliver felt a slight pain that slowly got stronger, as his dull eyes slowly regained their focus. Slowly turning his head he looked at his best friend. Slowly the sounds around him got louder, he smelled the blood again but was distracted by something completely different, the stinging pain on his left cheek that got stronger by the second.

Before he could do anything else his best friend grabbed his head with both hands, forcing him to look directly into his eyes. Putting his forehead against Oliver's he said, “Oliver! Get it together! We have no time to lose our temper.”

Being able to calm down he slowly nodded his head. “You a-are right.” Still, a bit out of it Oliver shifted his gaze away from the eyes of his friend.

Forcing Oliver to look back in his eyes, he took a deep breath and said. “Oliver. Look at me.” Following his instruction, Oliver looked directly into the eyes of his best friend, who was only a few centimeters away from his face. Taking a moment just to look at the eyes of his best friend Oliver was able to calm down. He was not alone and the eyes of his friend had a determination he had never seen before.

“We can do this Oliver. Like always. You and I, as long as we are together, we can do anything right?”

Nodding his head Oliver was able to completely return to reality and knew what he had to do. “You are right. Thank you, Theo.”

Now able to think straight again, Oliver immediately stabbed the next wolf, who tried to get through the wall. Seeing that his friend was fine Theo grabbed his spear and returned to his position.

Not knowing how many times he already stabbed at the wolves, Oliver just kept stabbing, stabbing, and stabbing. At some point, the wolves started to pile up, even if they were overrun by the others and resembled more a hill of squelched blood and fur. Slowly the hill got bigger and bigger.

At this rate, it would at some point be high enough to let the other wolves jump over the wall and break through. Seeing this Solaire decided that it was the right time to intervene and burn the wolves down. By now ten wolves were pushing and shoving each other to get closer to the wall and it was a perfect opportunity.

He gave everyone a warning and they took a step back from the windows. Not long after they stepped back, they saw a spark falling down as the red-orange glow slowly grew in size and soon enveloped the wall.

From behind the wall, one could only see a madly smiling Solaire - hanging from the corner of his mouth was a cigarette. Taking a last puff of the cigarette Solaire inhaled the smoke, as the small spark flew down to his outstretched right hand.

Seeing the small spark the wolves stopped growling and attacking. They had a strange premonition that this human was… dangerous.

Before they could even decide if they should run, they witnessed how the puny spark quickly grew into a small fireball, which afterward grew into a torment of flames, which engulfed their complete field of vision.

For a moment the night transformed into day, as if the sun descended on the battlefield, giving the humans new hope, while the wolves felt nothing but despair, as their miserable cries resounded in the silent night. Burning everything and everyone to a crisp that was in front of the wall.

Remaining from this fire was a cloud of smoke and ashes, which made the air so thick that every breath felt painful. They couldn’t waste this opportunity and led by Dennis they swiftly repaired the wall and strengthened it in its most vulnerable spots.

The spearman finally had an opportunity to rest and while the wolves were still confused and their vision obstructed they could prepare for the next attack. Breaking down to the ground, Oliver looked down on himself only to see that his armor was drenched in a mixture of dried blood, puke, sweat, and tears. People came over to help him sit on a stool, while his armor was removed and carried away for cleaning and repair.

As they had not many fighters they had prepared spare armor for everyone. The idea was to wear one armor, while the other was repaired and then switch between battles to make sure that the armor and the weapons were always in top condition.

Looking at his bloodied and bruised hand Oliver realized; he couldn’t stop shaking. Feeling a strong hand on his right shoulder Oliver looked over only to see Theo smiling at him. “See I told ya we would make it. The first time is always the hardest, now we only have to rinse and repeat.”

Tiredly nodding his head a shiver ran through Oliver’s body at the thought of doing this, who knows how many times. Knowing that he couldn’t rest for long he used the opportunity to the fullest.

The only good thing about all this fighting was that Oliver could feel how he was quickly getting more of this energy gathering in him. It wouldn’t take too long for him to reach the next rank if they kept this pace up.

Thinking this he noticed that Max broke down from the wall and his heart skipped a beat. Max was their leader and the person he relied the most on, as he followed each of his commands over the last three weeks.

He trusted him the most and relied on him more than on Soliare or this Jim where he couldn’t guess his skills or character to lead. He wanted to spring up and help him but Jim, who was standing directly behind him, caught him and ensured that he was fine. He said he was just undergoing transformation for his third rank.

This was very good news, as every increase in their strength was very important. Max was after all very close to the next rank and didn’t need much more energy, which was the reason for him being able to undergo transformation, even if the energy was split between so many people.