The alpha wolf took a moment to reorganize his pack and decided to send only three wolves to make sure they wouldn’t be burned again. This gave them more time to rest and organize their defenses.

For the next hour, the wolves attacked very carefully, wary of the flames that killed so many of them. They lost a sixth of their fighting force in that one attack and were understandably cautious about this new threat.

When the wolves finally realized that whatever the humans did seemed to be a singular accident they increased the force of their attacks again, now fueled with utter rage from their slaughtered family.

Thankfully this was the moment Max awoke from his transformation and after eating and drinking something he was ready to get back on the wall. By now they had only a little over twenty arrows left and decided that Max was the one who should use them, as his senses were at the third rank way better than any of them. This meant that the only person who could continue shooting was Max.

With this, the two sides broke into another bloody battle and continued their struggle of survival, while time flew by…

Suddenly a frantic-looking boy with disheveled brown hair came bursting out of the front door of the school and screamed at the top of his lungs, “We are under attack! Troy is in the basement!”

Without hesitation, Jim abandoned his spear and position on the wall and sprinted to the door. His body was moving faster than his head could think; before he realized it he felt his energy burning, his speed accelerating and his mind focusing.

Quickly reaching the stairs down to the basement he found corpses littering the hallway just like the first day of this catastrophe and ignored them, moving on to reach Troy before he could get to their temporary infirmary, where many wounded people rested - they were completely helpless and defenseless.

Over their expedition, they found many people and sometimes they would be seriously injured and have to be nursed at this infirmary that was similar to the storage built in the basement because it was the safest part of the school, this would be at least the case if you were outside and not inside.

Jim couldn’t understand how Troy could hide right before their eyes and sneak into the basement to use this period - where the battle was at its most dangerous and chaotic - to kill their people.

Because the most important facilities of the school were in the basement, many people went back and forth from this place. It was like a feast served on a silver tablet before Troy who could eat to his heart's content. The numerous corpses that littered the hallways on his way to the infirmary underlined this point.

Rushing past the workshop he glanced inside and saw the cold corpse of Jasper lying on the ground, stabbed multiple times to the stomach. Closing his eyes and moving onwards Jim was boiling with rage and barely able to control himself to not go into a frenzy.

All of this happened because he wasn’t able to kill Troy the first time they met. Similar to the rage burning in him his energy continued to decrease at a yet faster pace, as his body moved to its limits.

Seconds after Jim finally reached the large room - their previous assembly hall - and stormed through the door only to be greeted by a thick stench of iron and a sea of red, as the fifteen wounded people who previously laid on makeshift beds were scattered around the hall.

A man, with a bloody face that hadn’t yet healed, that was red like the skin of the devil himself, knives in his hands, and hair burnt down to the scalp. His glasses hanging loose from his nose, with hunched back and a big smile plastered on his face, slowly turned around to look at Jim. Seeing the teenage bow, he couldn’t keep himself from smiling wider and breaking into a laugh.

“Hehehehe,” inhaling Troy spoke with a cold and merciless voice, “You are too late~”

Not caring anymore about what Troy would say or do he dashed into the hall directly at him, machete in hand. “TROOOOOO-”

Only after a few steps, Jim broke down as his vision was immediately blinded and a splitting headache invaded his mind, which made him unable to form another thought to take action. He would need time to adjust to these changes and before his head could think Jim felt his body moving on its own as a knife slashed along his right arm, avoiding certain death.

Taking every willpower he could muster he subconsciously burned his energy for a short moment at his head, clearing his headache and vision for a moment. This was enough for him to react and swing with his machete at Troy who was about to attack him again.

Surprised Troy wasn’t able to avoid the attack properly and the machete knocked the knife out of his right hand afterwards two fingers and an ear flew through the air followed by a yelp from Troy. Holding the spot where his ear used to be, blood flowed. Looking at his hand he noticed two missing fingers and just laughed.

Compared to the headache he was experiencing, the wound from his ear and finger seemed rather refreshing. But even he knew that he couldn’t keep his consciousness for long and made a run for it.

Noticing this Jim tried to follow him but the splitting headache that invaded his mind was too strong to ignore and he fell over. Punching the ground with his right fist Jim screamed, “TROOOY! Don’t think you can run, I will kill you for this! I swear I will find you-!”

*cough*

Feeling with his fingers Jim knew he had just coughed blood and sat down to calm himself. He was hot-tempered and fuming with rage, but knew it was too late. Whatever he tried he couldn’t catch up to Troy as long as he had this ability. He could just hope that someone would be able to stop him even if it was very unlikely.

It seems like the quick burning of his energy in the head had serious side effects. Besides coughing blood, he noticed that his nose started to bleed. Fortunately, he was soon able to see again and this splitting headache vanished like it never existed to begin with.

After a short moment, Jim carefully stood up looking shortly at the carnage around him, and then moved back through the bloodied hallways. Coming over to Jasper’s workshop he found Dennis already sitting before his father holding his hands. Solaire, Max and some others were also there.

Stretching his hand out Jim wanted to say something but refrained himself and slowly made his way back to the wall. There were no words that could comfort the sudden loss Dennis had just experienced. They still had to defend against the wolves, the night wasn’t over yet.

Returning to the wall Jim had a short rest and was soon back to stabbing the seemingly endless wave of gray and black. Time passed and they continued their desperate struggle for survival.

***

Finally, after an absolutely arduous battle of blood, sweat, and tears the sun began to rise and the first few rays of the sun illuminated their surroundings, giving the defenders finally some light that they desperately craved.

This whole battle was fought in the night and apart from a few flashlights that already lost their power and the light of the moon, they defended the wall in utter darkness. In the night the wolves had a clear advantage, as they could see better, but in the day they would lose this advantage completely.

In total, the alpha wolf and his pack lost about twenty wolves, while many more were injured which reduced the strong numerical advantage they had in the beginning. The alpha wolf was furious and irritated by the strong defenses the humans had put up. For now, it would retreat, it wasn’t so stupid as to risk his exhausted and injured pack. It would return in the cover of the night.

*AWOOOOO*

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Howling the alpha wolf called his pack back and with a last few glances and growls the wolves retreated back into the city.

Finally, they had the light and time to look at their situation and what happened. Jake, who organized throughout the night the complete defenses was desperate for some sleep and was feeling like he traversed the desert for days without water.

Sadly now wasn’t the time to rest and after some quick organization with Solaire, Jim, and Max he said, “I think that this wolf might be smarter than we expected. Don’t think they retreat in defeat; they will be back. They most likely will recuperate and be back as soon as the night breaks in.”

Nodding their heads they understood the threat of the wolf but more important for them was to find out how big their damage was after Troy racked havoc in their midst. Lighting another cigarette Solaire took a puff and said, “We will first repair everything, look at the damage, how many people we lost, and then talk in private.”

Agreeing with this plan they got prompt to their work and after only a few hours the school was back in top condition, with new reinforcements on the wall and the building itself. They wanted to make sure something like the accident with Troy would never happen again.

After finishing the cleaning of the corpses of the humans and mutants the group found themself standing in the principal office again. They all sat down, the atmosphere was heavy and apart from Jim, Jake, Max, and Solaire the others were somewhere else. The first to speak was Jake.

“After looking at everything we lost, I can say that we suffered tragic losses this time. Everything from before pales in comparison and I, to speak the truth, fear that we won’t survive the next night.”

This only made the already dark and gloomy atmosphere harder and after a moment, Solaire asked somewhat hesitantly, “I sadly have to agree with you, boy. Should I recount the exact losses?”

Jim and the others gave him a firm nod prepared for the heavy news. “First of all from the about eighty survivors that were in this school, we lost a total of thirty-five. Twenty-nine of them were single-handedly killed by Troy and the other six died against the onslaught from the wolves.”

Pin-drop silence remained in the room when they heard this news. Clearing his throat Solaire continued, “This means that forty-four survivors remain. From the eight archers, we lost one, and from the fifteen fighters, a total of five died. This brings us to a total of seventeen who can continue the defense on the wall. The arrows are completely depleted and maintenance of equipment will be hard without…” Taking a moment to revel in the past, Solaire sighed, “Without Jasper; may the sun take him to a better place.”

Taking a moment of silence to grief for Jasper's death they felt at a loss. He was a great person, with a happy attitude, and was someone that helped them a lot to survive in these dark times, this time they truly lost one of their pillars.

Jim didn't even want to think about how Dennis must be feeling right now. A few years ago he lost his mother to cancer and now his father died a brutal death. Unfortunately, similar losses constantly happened over the course of the past few days and were nothing new for the few remaining survivors.

Now they not only had to be wary of the wolves but also of Troy and his group. Thinking this Jim looked at Solaire and asked, “How are you doing?”

“I’m fine,” replied Solaire with a pained sigh, “I underestimated how much energy I had to use to kill all of the wolves, I didn’t think that some more people around would make it that much harder to absorb enough energy to fuel my ability.”

If they were just able to use Solaire’s ability better or at least have more ammunition their chance of survival would increase drastically… Widening his eyes Jim looked to Max and asked, “Why don’t we produce our own arrows?”

“What exactly do you mean by this?” Max asked with interest.

“It is simple,” replied Jim, “We just use the wood from the forest to carve our own arrows. They don’t have to fly far or have metal tips. They aren’t really there to kill the wolves, but to distract them.”

“You are right,” agreed Max with understanding, “I will see what I can do. This could at least give us a small advantage and I will use every opportunity I get to raise our chances of survival even a little.”

“Alright, now that we talked about the damage we have to think about how we can survive the next…” While Jake and the others began to talk about plans to survive all of this Jim was distracted with his own thoughts.

He wasn't in the mood to plan and didn't have any ideas and just thought about the last battles, reviewing what was good and what was bad. He did this recently to improve his fighting skill. At least it felt like he was improving this way.

“Jim!” Looking at Jake, Jim was torn out of his thoughts and without hesitation, pulled his machete out of a small leather strap hanging from his left side and with one smooth motion, beheaded Jake, and dashed to the next person in the room-

“Jim!!” This time really being torn out of his thoughts, Jim shook his head. What the fuck was that? Do I begin to hallucinate now?

“Hello!” Getting annoyed at Jim for ignoring him for so long Jake pulled on Jim’s right shoulder forcing him to look at him. “What is going on?”

Still distracted by the scene that played in his head Jim just waved his hand. “I’m fine. I was just… just lost in thought.”

"Yeah, I saw that. Did you even listen to what I was saying?”

“No, sorry.”

Sighing in frustration Jake explained the plan again. This time Jim listened but was still distracted by what just happened. This felt so… real.

Before Jim could think more about this strange vision he was distracted by Jake explaining their possible plans, so he soon put the matter in the back of his head. After a while of listening, Jake came to their current biggest problem. “How can we make sure that Troy and his group don’t come back for another attack?”

Thinking for a moment Max said, “I think they shouldn’t be a problem for the near future. Troy seemed to be seriously injured and with all the mutants surrounding the school, it is very unlikely that they could sneak past them and their superior senses. Unlike us humans, they are not so dependent on their weight and can utilize their other senses to a greater extent.”

"How was Troy even able to escape?" Jake asked with a frown, as he wasn't present when he fled.

Sighing in frustration Solaire said, "It seems like everyone who got past him, including myself, was blinded by his ability and experienced a splitting headache. In the end, he was able to just walk past us, without any form of obstruction, out of the back door and vanished into the night."

Still in disbelief, Jake asked, "He was able to really go just like that? After he casually killed so many of our people; friends?"

"You didn't experience it for yourself," replied Max with a bitter expression, "His ability is really dangerous and he somehow evolved into not only blinding us but also causing a headache so intense that it was hard to formulate a thought."

Having to accept the situation for now Jim interrupted them and said, "More important than how he did it, is to find out how to prevent it and how we can survive the night. Burning this energy strongly around the head seems to clear the effects, but has some serious side effects, which doesn't help us much as no one can burn their energy at will, I was doing it by accident."

This had to wait for later for now Jim asked, "Be it Troy or the wolves wouldn't it be best if we just go out and hide somewhere different or go back to the school?”

“Sadly not,” replied Jake with a brief shake of his head. “They have left some wolves behind who are keeping watch and even if the other wolves wouldn’t arrive immediately we couldn’t outrun them. The only option would be to kill every wolf standing guard but the commotion would be big and we don’t know their exact numbers.”

“Not to mention that we wouldn’t stand a chance against them in the open field,” added Max with a troubled expression.

Realizing how dire their situation was Jim realized that they were stuck between a rock and a hard place. They had to find some sort of salutation for this. He thought of many ideas and possibilities, but in the end, they always ended in some sort of failure.

He couldn't think of a single proper salutation and after a while said, “I hope someone of you has a great idea because the only thing I came up with is to play sitting duck and survive until the wolves either give up or we slowly kill them off till no one is left.”

“This seems to be the best we can do,” said Solaire while he fell back on his chair, “Let us pray that the sun is with us and maybe we can survive through some miracle.”

Max and Jake were like Jim at their wit's end and agreed to this ‘plan’ if you can call this even a plan. In essence, they were only delaying their inevitable doom, but it was the only thing they could do; fight to their last breath.

Turning his attention back to Max, Jim stood up and said, “I hope with you reaching the third rank, you can reduce the number of our losses. You have the best senses and can react with the bow from a distance.”

“No problem,” replied Max, standing face-to-face with Jim. “Who do you think led all these people while you were away? I know each and everyone here like a friend and I will do my utmost to keep them from joining the fallen ones.”

“Thank you,” responded Jim with a smile, “I will trust that you can organize the rest I would like to rest. I still have some side effects from my use of the energy.”

Nodding his head Solaire said, “We have everything under control, get some rest boy. We need you tonight for the next attack.”

“Thanks, see you later.” With these words, Jim quietly left the scene, while the smile on his lips vanished and was replaced by an expression of concern.

What was that vision? Is this some side effect of Troy’s ability or am I finally losing my mind? This whole situation doesn't make any sense. It will surely go away on its own after some good rest. We have to survive this, I still have to find my family… I will be fine. I have to.