— Antheia of Stone Lilly Cove —

As the sounds of yelling and grinding stone was joined by a loud gravely howl, Antheia started to rush to the front of their little convoy. Before she could move far she noticed Keir was instead scanning the tree lines on either side of the simple road.

Antheia was not entirely unused to combat but she knew Keir was vastly more experienced, so she followed her lead. With a thought and a trickle of mana she activated the storage bangle on her wrist and withdrew her favorite sword staff. She had more specialized enchanted weapons but her go to choice had been the same since she was first trained to defend herself and the library.

The haft of her weapon was carved from the silvery white wood of an ancient brine oak tree from the courtyard of the library she’d been raised in. The polished steel blade was covered in blackened Lichtenberg figures. The most eye catching aspect, however, was the intricate filigree of runes inlaid with electrum that she’d spent years building up.

As Antheia readied her sword staff three things happened so rapidly that with the adrenaline flowing through her she would have been hard pressed to put them in order.

Keir flicked her gaze towards Antheia and quietly said “We’re surrounded. We need to guard the wagons and people who can’t fight.”

From the front of the group Antheia heard a voice she was pretty sure was Alasdair call out “Rock wolves, Circle up.

Antheia tensed her grip as at least a dozen large quadrupeds emerged from the tree line, moving with surprising agility and stealth. The fur of the rock wolves was fused into a carapace-like armor in various shades of gray ranging from almost white to dark slate gray.

As she looked around the more analytical part of her mind burst to the fore. From what she’d read and experienced of rock wolves she determined it was likely most if not all of the pack had descended on them. Rock wolves never mated in the fall and the smaller wolves that would come up to around her hips were likely the cubs born in the spring or early summer. From the deep claw marks, especially those on the largest wolves who stood around seven feet tall at the shoulder, showed the pack surrounding them was likely what drove the giant sloth from its territory.

Just past the trees the circle of wolves froze in place staring the group with almost luminescent amber eyes.

Keir spoke up just loud enough that Antheia could have heard it even without her slightly improved undead senses “Don’t let your eyes linger on just one wolf. Move slowly and deliberately into position.”

Anthei thought of a dozen different ways to respond in a moment but decided that it was best to stay quiet and time was very much limited so she simply nodded her confirmation and started inching towards the handful of noncombatants.

With each slow measured step Antheia expected the wolves to surge forward but they remained as still as the statues they so closely resembled.

As Antheia got close to the forming circle it was clear the wolves didn’t plan to react to their movements. Within moments of having that thought the rock wolves made their move. With perfect coordination four of the wolves chosen seemingly at random darted towards the group followed a half second later by six more.

As they’d been somewhat separated from the group when the attack started both Keir and Antheia were targeted by the first wave. Tapping into one of the effects of “Imbue” Antheia pushed mana into her staff and a bolt of kinetic lightning lanced out into the night. For a split second the night around them was banished by the violet bolt. With a crack of lightning and a crunch of bone and rock-like fur, the shoulder of the mid-sized wolf was crushed deep into its chest before its limp corpse landed just in front of one of the still stationary wolves. A wet crunch came from off to her side and when she glanced over she saw Keir standing over a neatly bisected large wolf corpse.

Before Antheia could enjoy her victory they still had to deal with the second wave and the previously stationary wolves were stirring. Though she knew she needed to be cautious of the remaining wolves, her attention was almost entirely focused on the massive wolf that emerged from the trees towards the front of their little group, splintering branches and cracking the trunks of a pair of trees.

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The wolf stood around fourteen feet at the shoulder with a thick rust red coat that looked more like iron ore than the gray rock of its lesser kin. Its teeth and claws were not only clearly very sharp, they were also long enough her mind latched onto different types of swords for a comparison. Deep gouges were scattered across the beast’s face and neck but even through the building worry Antheia could see none of them had actually reached its skin let alone any vitals. As the massive wolf charged forward along with almost all of the remaining wolves, one thought crossed Antheia’s mind; the pack leader was joining the battle.

— Keira —

As the rock wolf pack leader charged Keir pulled blood from her defeated foe to fuel “Blood Thorns” and charged forward to meet it.

Clearly she wasn’t the only one with that idea as the ground split apart before it and stone spikes and thick woody roots rose up to impede its charge. Almost seeming like an afterthought, a hand ax, a crossbow bolt, and short javelin were launched from the circle.

The projectiles simply bounced off the creature's tough hide and as it smashed through the first line of roots and stone they didn’t seem to be working much better. That changed as roots built up slowing and entangling the wolf even as a few of the spikes bit deep into flesh before snapping.

Less than a dozen feet from the circle of defenders Keir reached the beast. With a savage smile she brought down her blade on its partially immobilized foreleg with a sharp crunch and wet splatter. The hides of rock wolves were sturdy, especially those of pack leaders, but they were tier one or at most two creatures and her artifact quality weapon easily parted the limb from its body.

Even as the limb hit the ground with a heavy thud the thorny vines of blood burrowed into the stump.

Keir’s smile grew wider as she felt the rush of regeneration and even more so when she thought about her conversation with Lovisa. The young elven woman had said that rock wolf pack leaders were durable and their charges were devastating. She also said that once they came to a stop they were slow to rebuild momentum and their already poor maneuverability tanked when their limbs were injured. The last piece of information she’d told Keir was the location of a few weaker portions of its armored hide.

Keir easily dodged the lunging bit of the wolf in part because of the entangling roots and stabbed her long blade though a weak point, With barely any real resistance her blade cut through the wolf’s lung before skewering its heart.

With a fair bit more effort she withdrew her sword and turned to aid the others. It was almost immediately clear she hadn’t needed to.

The rest of the pack had either been dispatched already or were beating a hasty retreat.

While Keir moved to insure the prone wolves were actually dead, Antheia and a few of the non combatants started treating the few injuries the group sustained.

From what Lovisa had said rock wolves were a common cause of death for unprepared travelers, even small caravans, but they were a well known threat. Most if not all of the group was at least familiar with the best ways to deal with them so their victory was not a surprise, even if the pack leader may have complicated the matter without a tier three fighter available.

After a short break to harvest the valuable materials from the pack leader and move the carcasses a ways away from their simple road, the group resumed their travels.

Over the course of the night the rock wolf attack proved to be the most excitement they encountered. It wasn’t the only combat but it was the only one that required the majority of the group. Most were resolved by the people on guard duty.

Of more interest was the way that over the course of the night the trees thinned as the ground grew hillier. The ground also started transitioning from the damp loamy soil of the forest to the dryer gravelly soil at the foot of the mountains as well as increasingly large sections of bare gray stone. Keir also assumed the temperature decreased as they traveled but none of the members of the group were sensitive to ambient temperature changes.

As the dense undergrowth of the forest gradually started to transition to hardy grasses, sedges, and colorful lichen Keir spent most of the night talking to Antheia and or Alasdair.

Shortly before sunrise they found a decent campsite in the lee of a steep hillside. Keir pitched in with setting up Antheia and Mycenia’s tent. Partially it was because they were in the middle of talking about the dwarven libraries but it was also so that Antheia would have time to access her book vault.

With her shelter for the day secured Antheia dug through her pack and withdrew a thin rectangular stone tablet a bit larger than her outspread hand. The tablet was marble inlaid with a complex web of electrum runes with seams splitting it into four sections.

Antheia apparently channeled some mana into the tablet as the runes glowed faintly and held it out at about chest level in front of her. When she let go it split along the seams and as the separated they ripped apart space between them. After a few seconds they stopped moving and there was a rectangular black void in between them with faint glimmers of pearlescent light spider webbing throughout it.

They had already discussed what books Keir might want to look over during the day so Antheia immediately reached into the void and withdrew a small stack of books and passed them over to Keir before closing the void and deactivating the stone.

As Antheia ducked into the tent to avoid the coming sun Keir looked down at the four books of various sizes and smiled.