The Lupari had broken out of the forest and into a clearing. He struggled to breathe, and his heart beat so fast that it hurt. If the warg’s howling had been enough to put him in that state, what could he expect once he was on the other side of the tree line?

Ben shook his head and dispelled any bleak notions he entertained. There was no time to waste. Humbert was in danger. He freed his leg and ran, joining the others by the clearing’s edge.

Illuminated by moonlight, it showed a cemetery of rotten trees and jagged rocks spread across uneven ground. Humbert was on the other end, surrounded by three wargs, which he warded off with his sword—its blade emanated a dazzling blue light, which made the beasts think twice before lunging forward. Ben noticed that Humbert limped, his calf tore aslant with a nasty gash. The hunter stayed calm.

Another two wargs kept the sorcerers at bay by growling in defiance from the middle. Saliva dripped from their mouths, their snarls contorting their faces into demonic shapes. Their fur was coarse and sharp as needles.

Lunden’s voice broke the silence. “Humbert, hold your position! We’re coming for you.” He glanced at Corin and addressed him in a softer tone. “You know what to do. We’ll join the fray as soon as you give us an opening.”

“Yessir,” Corin answered, and he advanced a few paces. He kneeled with one leg and pressed his hand to the grass. A deep inhalation, and the world became clearer around him. Crisper. He exhaled. “Congeal, Frigid Touch.”

The ground around him froze into permafrost in a split second and rapidly spread ahead. Ben took a step back to avoid getting caught in the spell’s icy grip. The two wargs lunged at them the moment Corin cast his spell, teeth bared. The permafrost reached them before they reached the sorcerers; their bodies stuck mid-motion.

“Attack!” Lunden shouted, and the hunters charged forward. Ruffa tackled the frozen warg on the right to smithereens, while Murley split the one to the left in two with his axe. The fiends did not emit a single whimper, rabid to the very end.

The wargs that circled Humbert howled. Calling for reinforcements, no doubt, Ben thought.

“There is no time to lose. Keep pushing!” bellowed Lunden as he unsheathed his own sword. Ben got ready to follow Ruffa and Murley, but the Luparius leader stopped him in his tracks. “Not yet. We need you in one piece, boy. We protect Corin while he maintains the spell.”

Six wargs appeared from each flank of the clearing as Ruffa and Murley rushed to aid their companion. Corin spread Frigid Touch sideways upon seeing them, losing speed but gaining scope in its stead.

Ruffa came to an abrupt halt and got into a fighting stance. “I’ll fend them off; you stay on course!” she told Murley, and she breathed in. “Fortify!”

Her scream echoed the wargs’ howls in ferocity. A shimmer enveloped her body for a second and it seemed to Ben that she looked sturdier, more solid, if such a thing was even possible. She planted her feet on the ground and met the newest wargs head-on.

There were five of them in total. The two in front pounced at her, jaws ajar and ready for the kill. Ruffa pulled a knife from her left boot and twirled it expertly in her fingers. With a swift and practiced motion, she hurled the blade at one of them.

The knife found its mark with deadly accuracy, embedding itself between its eyes. The warg collapsed into a lifeless heap, but the other warg was still incoming. Ruffa raised her forearm to intercept the attack. The beast’s teeth clamped down with gnashing strength, but Fortify protected her skin from being punctured.

Ruffa wasn’t one to waste a chance. She maneuvered with feline grace, vaulting over the warg in a vertical arc. With a sudden twist of her other hand, she gripped the warg by the scruff and snapped its neck as she landed. She turned her attention to the three remaining threats.

The wargs had learned the lesson. Cautious but still undeterred, they circled Ruffa slowly and waited for the right time to strike. The tactic remained the same, which was to overwhelm her with numbers. They launched a coordinated attack.

And Frigid Touch finally reached them. The magical permafrost shot forward, the leftmost warg caught in it, and it was instantly frozen. The one next to it skittered and lost its momentum. As it slid awkwardly toward her, Ruffa seized the advantage.

She leapt onto the hindered warg; the metallic soles of her boots provided her with a firm grip on the slippery surface. Now within striking distance, she pummeled at her target with calculated brutality—each fist blow might as well have been the strike of a hammer.

The monster futilely struggled. It slowed and slowed until it succumbed to Ruffa’s relentless barrage. Now, only one warg remained. It had wisely jumped back and avoided the ice spell.

Ruffa met its gaze with a confident smile as she got into a wrestling stance. “Shall we dance?”

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On the other side of the clearing, things weren’t looking so good for Humbert. Murley was halfway through dispatching the wargs on the other flank when another horde approached.

“We won’t make it in time!” Corin shouted.

Ben, entranced by the other Lupari’s fighting, hadn’t paid attention to him; he was just now realizing Corin’s own struggle. The sorcerer was under visible strain. Veins popped, and sweat trickled down his forehead from sustaining the spell.

Lunden understood the urgency of the situation. He cursed under his breath. He spoke to his son with a decisive command. “Corin, that’s enough! Break the spell. I’ll take it from here.”

He looked like he was about to argue, but fatigue got the best of him. Corin raised his hand from the ground, and the permafrost spread across the clearing and thawed almost instantly. He let out an exhausted sigh, drained from the continuous magical exertion.

Lunden brandished his sword horizontally, its pommel almost touching his face. He collected himself and spoke plainly. “Quicken.”

He traversed half the clearing in an instant, blurred ripples trailed in his wake. Lunden reappeared halfway in between Humbert and Murley, his sword held high behind a warg. Before it could even register his presence, the sorcerer cleaved the monster clean in two.

The wargs around him jumped, startled by his sudden relocation. The groups that surrounded the other Lupari thinned as they pooled around Lunden. His distraction was working.

Humbert attempted to regroup. He limped toward Lunden, and as a warg pounced to impede his way, he ducked slightly and slashed it across its chest. It landed on its back, contorted with pain and gushing a torrent of putrid blood. The Luparius dashed as fast as he could across the clearing.

“Wait, stand your ground!” Lunden shouted at him, but it was too late. A white warg, bigger than the rest, darted out of nowhere. It sank its fangs into Humbert’s jugular in a single, lightning-fast movement. It swung the sorcerer violently, his blood coloring its fur as it did.

It hurled the critically wounded Humbert against a tree, who landed with a painful crack. His body slid against the trunk, a shocked expression engraved into his face and half his neck mangled as life oozed out of him.

A heavy silence fell over the clearing as the Lupari processed the sudden loss of their companion. Lunden gripped his sword tightly and surveyed the scene; if he was feeling either anger or grief, he did not show it. The wargs, emboldened, became more brazen in their undertaking.

Ben was shell-shocked. Ruffa had already dispatched the remaining warg on her flank and ran toward him. On the other side, Lunden and Murley were cutting their way back as well, their weapons unmatched against the wargs. Corin shouted something, but Ben couldn’t discern what he was saying.

Corin shook Ben, and he snapped out of his stupor. “Wha—?”

“We need to retreat now!” Corin said.

He pushed Ben, and without skipping a beat, they both thundered back into the forest. Ben and Corin ran blindly through the dense foliage, their breaths heavy and frantic. They could hear the howling of the wargs behind them, an unabating pursuit that seemed to intensify with every step.

Ben stumbled over roots and uneven terrain, his vision completely obscured. This was a different type of terror compared to the witches. This was more raw, more primal. Predator and prey. His desperation surged.

Just then, Ruffa materialized from the shadows beside them, joining their frantic escape. Ben almost had a heart-attack when she saw her enormous frame appear so abruptly.

“Where are the others?” Corin asked her, his words almost drowned out by the sound of the chase.

“Don’t think about it, just run!” Ruffa’s response was swift, and her urgency left no room for questions.

The trio pushed forward. They ran and ran, and when Ben’s burning lungs felt about to explode, they ran some more. Every muscle in his body felt on the verge of collapse.

After what felt like an eternity, Ben noticed a change in the atmosphere. The grim clamor of their pursuers was no more. Had the wargs finally given up? Still, they did not dare slow down until they reached a semblance of safety.

They finally came to a stop by a small mound. Ben gasped for breath, but the Lupari didn’t seem tired at all. More than anything, they looked worried.

“Jollocks! Humbert, you idiot,” Ruffa spat and crossed her arms. She noticed Corin and changed the subject, trying to cheer him up. “Last I saw of your Da and Murley, they were still in one piece—and together, to boot. They should pick up our scent and show up before long.”

Corin put on a smile, but Ben knew he didn’t truly mean it. “Yeah, you’re right. In the meantime, we can’t get caught unprepared. Ben, do not lower your guard. We’re not out of the woods yet.”

“I can see that,” Ben said sarcastically between breaths, waving at the surrounding trees. Corin and Ruffa laughed. That helped ease the tension, and thus they waited for their companions.

They didn’t have to wait for long. Ruffa raised her chin, aware of something Ben couldn’t pick out. “Something approaches,” she said.

Corin closed his eyes and smiled in relief. “Not something—someone.”

The bushes in front of them rustled as two figures emerged from behind them. Instead of the bestial form of their adversaries, the familiar faces of Lunden and Murley greeted the Lupari with a tired grin. Ben felt a weight lift off his shoulders, a sense of relief washing over him at the sight of them.

“Looks like they were doubting us, Lunden,” Murley remarked, his axe caked with the dry blood of fallen wargs.

Lunden sighed, weariness etched into every line of his face. “And they would be right to do so. Always assume the worst in this line of work.” He turned his gaze back to the forest, in the direction from which they came. “May your soul find peace, brother Humbert. We’ll finish the hunt for you. Don’t you fret.”

He then addressed the rest of the group. “As for you, remember, we’re Lupari. We know what we’re getting ourselves into from the day we joined the guild. Chances are we’ll eventually end up like Humbert, or worse, if not during this hunt, then in the next,” Lunden stared directly into each of their eyes for a moment. He wore a solemn expression. “And who knows? Because of our actions and the lives we lay down, maybe others get to keep theirs in our stead. Once we’re done with the hunt, we’ll grieve our fellow hunter properly. Today, we get revenge.”

“Aye, aye!” Ben and the Lupari replied in unison, and their morale boosted.

Determined, Ruffa cut straight to the chase. “What now?”

“Since they ambushed Humbert, I say we return them the favor. We take the fight to them, but under our terms,” Lunden said. “We show them what a Luparius is capable of.”

The others nodded in agreement, fueled by their desire for payback. Even the inexperienced Ben couldn’t help but feel his blood boil. He hadn’t known Humbert for long, but in that short time, he had been kind to him, and the list of people who had shown him kindness wasn’t long.

He felt the heaviness of Lunden’s hand on his shoulder. “Time to play your part, boy.”