A pack of vicious, hungry werewolves were on their way to rip Gob to shreds while the pack leader stood back and watched with an evil smile.

Gob pulled out his flask, raising it to the night sky.

"TO KRUNCH!" he roared and took a swig. He glanced at the White Orc who was locked in battle with what looked like close to fifteen werewolves. He wasn't looking, so Gob took a second swig. And then another. Then one more, for the road.

+1size +1size +1size +1size +1size +1size +1size +1size +1size +1size

He felt the familiar swelling and the rush of power and strength surge through him, and the werewolves' beady eyes boggled as they saw the weak little 'fluffy goblin' transforming into a gargantuan shaggy ice troll before their eyes. Suddenly though, something felt off... his tummy wrenched and seemed to be lurching inside him. He felt extremely sick. It was a feeling he'd been getting a lot since his fight with the spider, but this was the worst he had felt it! Although it was the first time he had Toasted since then... maybe that was just it? He couldn't worry about that now though.

"SERIOUSLY, FOUR SWIGS GOB?" yelled the White Orc over the howls and snarls and din of battle. He was blocking a double swipe from a snow white she-wolf by holding his vortex in front of him like a shield. He deftly swept under it with his runehammer and clouted her on a shapely thigh eliciting a not at all effeminate snarl of rage and a savage snap of her fangs towards him.

"ERR.. YEP, FOOR SWIG" he bellowed back without looking, "DERE IZ A LOT OF WOLFEES OVA HEER." He raised a now gigantic clawed foot and smashed it down on top of the closest wolf. He was careful to keep his balance this time.

CRUNCH!

The stomp crushed the creature into the ground.

emerged:skill:stomp! Crush an enemy by standing on them. (must be > x2size)

To Gobs surprise it didn't kill the tough werewolf, who struggled to it's feet and double swiped his leg in retaliation. Brave as it was, it didn't do much though. His leg was far too thick now.

an i haz too legs! thought Gob.

He shifted his weight carefully and stomped on the wolf again with the other foot. This time the Crunch! had a more sickening finality to it. The creature got stuck to the bottom of Gobs foot and he paused to shake it off.

Leőn had slipped out of the firelight into the shadows where he was more comfortable the minute the battle had started. He suddenly appeared beside a giant jet black creature on all fours, more 'wolf' than 'were' except for the glowing red eyes, and the largest of all the creatures attacking them. The creature yelped loudly then slumped with a whimper to the ground, Leőn withdrawing his long thin obsidian dagger from between its ribs. He straightened up and slid like a blur to another target, disappearing into the shadows before the second dead wolf had even fallen to the ground.

"THAT SHOULD MAKE GOB ABOUT SIZE THIRTEEN IF MY THEORY'S RIGHT. CONFIRM KYLIE?" shouted the Orc.

"THIRTEEN CONFIRMED!" she called. She had been busy herself in between watching Gob, and had just electrocuted a great black beast that was one of the eight on their way towards Gob.

"AND COUNTING, TWO, THREE…" yelled the Orc. The she-wolf, having sensed a distraction ducked under his vortex and locked her jaws onto his arm. He paused his count as he brought the runehammer down on her head twice in quick succession, splattering it with grim finality, then shook his wrist painfully to get her dead fangs out of it.

Kylie noticed his bite. "I HOPE YOU'VE GOT SOME DISINFECTANT! WE DON'T WANT A WEREORC ON OUR TEAM!"

She took up the count "FOUR," ZAP!

"I'VE BEEN INFECTED BY WORSE THINGS THAN THESE RABID DOGS!" the growled back in annoyance as he leapt over the she-wolf's body and finished a scraggly grey beast that Kylie had just stunned with a bolt of blue energy, also crushing it's head with a double blow.

"FIVE," she called. WHUMP! Howwwwwwwlllll!

"SIX," CRACKLE!

She was getting stuck in now! She was really at an advantage for this one. The werewolves were less interested in her because she wasn't a food item, and so she just flew up above the fight zone and cast electric shocks down from above and cast blue fireballs that made the wolves howl in shock and pain as their fur caught on fire with a whump! She wasn't killing them on every shot, they seemed extremely tough and seemed to have a some magic resistance, but she was certainly wearing them down as well a providing a constant distraction that kept them away from overwhelming the others.

"SEVEN... EIGHT... NINE..." the White Orc continued. The other wolves that had been packed in a tight clump around him had leapt back with the violent death of the she-wolf, so the Orc flung out his runehammer. It spun out and around him in a wide curving arc smashing through some, and sending others howling off back into the darkness in fear.

Gob meanwhile, as the largest target, was drawing a lot of attention. There were now many wolves plus the pack leader surrounding him baying and snarling, and swiping and snapping in turn. Their attacks just seemed largely ineffectual now against his size though.

"YOO DOO LOOK LIK PUPPEES FROM UP HEER!" taunted Gob with a loud rumbling boom. The leader snarled savagely. He was getting angry now.

Once they had all leapt and bit and clawed at him, he retaliated against them as one with a single devastating slicehook sweep, cutting the first werewolf clean in half, decapitating the second and severely wounding the third and fourth who had enough time to jump out of the way of the main attack. He then repeated the same attack from the other direction with his other claw, dismembering one more wolves but missing two others. He was massive, but the size seemed to offset his speed. He felt supremely powerful, but nowhere near as fast as the little wolves that darted around him. Still, it didn't mean he couldn't just brute force them, and he stomped once and stomped again crushing a werewolf with each foot because they couldn't get out of each others way. Snarling turned into yelping, and Gob thought they would have run away but for the savage rallying bark! of their pack leader. They stood their ground, with vengeful growls, ravenous hunger, and the fear of their leader behind them.

One of the four wolves behind Gob launched itself high in the air and dug it's claws into his back, scrabbling up, grasping onto his fur for purchase. Three other wolves locked their jaws savagely onto his legs. The wolf who had scrambled up his back plunged its claws mercilessly into the side of his neck where his skin was the thinnest and the jugular most exposed. Gob smacked at his neck as if swatting a biting bug, pinning the wolf to his shoulder. With his other hand he reached over and grabbed the wolf around the torso, squeezing it until with a

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CRACK!

Something in it snapped and it went limp. He hurled it away into the fray as he collapsed to his knees. The wolf has successfully punctured his neck and black blood was streaming down his fur. He felt weak. And his tummy wrenched and this time spasmed sharply. He felt like he was going to puke. Now down at their level, Gob twisted sideways and bit down hard on the back one of the werewolves that had its fangs locked into his own leg. His tuskybite surged and the creature exploded in a gory shower of splintered bone and blood.

"THIRTY FIVE... THIRTY SIX... THIRTY SEVEN... WRAP IT UP GOB YOU'RE PROBABLY ABOUT TO…"

Gob felt the deflation tickle at the edges of his huge body. The two remaining wolves locked onto his leg disengaged and backed away snarling as the great troll suddenly started shrinking before their eyes.

The pack leader

HOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWLLLLLLLLED!

in triumph and sprung forwards to kill the now little furry creature who had dealt his pack so much death.

KAZAP!

The charging pack leader received an electrocution from above in the form of a dazzling blue bolt of power, leaving him sizzling and smouldering, but still it came on.

Gobs head pounded and his tummy lurched again. It wrenched and heaved.

The werewolf leader's eyes locked onto his own, red, glowing, vengeful, angry. Unbalanced.

Gob puked.

But it wasn't vomit that he puked.

Kylie gasped and her jaw dropped open in abject horror. The White Orc looked at him in shock. Even the remaining werewolves paused their attacks.

He puked again. And again. And again.

Sickly globs of a sticky white substance was splattering the ground around him, with long strings sticking to his mouth where they had come out. The globs wobbled and shimmered eerily.

There was as tunned silence from everyone on the battlefield. Even the charging pack leader had slowed and stopped. He growled low and warily as the horrific sight, no longer sure he wanted to go near it.

Then with a collective gasp of disgust from every observer, the little white globs hatched.

Out of each sticky shimmering glob, thousands of tiny shining sliver spiders emerged. They flowed out quickly, scurrying in all directions haphazardly, creeping and crawling over each other, moving across the ground like a miniature tide of tiny metal constructs. They weren't metal though. As they crawled they seemed to shimmer in and out of existence, flickering like little silver sparks as they milled around. Their movement seemed haphazard, and they spread out in all directions from where Gob lay. He watched on through the pounding haze of his headache, feeling just as stunned as everyone by what had happened, but relieved that they were out of his tummy. He felt much better down there!

It didn't take long for everyone watching to realise that although the movement of the tiny brood was haphazard, they were moving in a dedicated way: towards werewolves.

The pack leader was the closest to Gob, and snarling with rage he leapt forwards, charging on through the spiders in a reckless attempt to get to Gob and rip his throat out.

Unbalanced... thought Gob. The wolf should have cut and run. Could easily have cut and run.

The spiders swarmed him, flickering and phasing up his legs wherever his feet landed on them, quickly spreading up his stomach and chest. Gob couldn't be clear what they were doing to him, but his whole form seemed to start withering as he watched. The pack leader crashed to the ground, his snout right in front of Gobs face. It snarled a final time, and it's eyes bored fiercely into Gobs own as it's life ebbed out of it and the red glows faded. All that remained was an empty husk of a body.

It was enough to ensure that every other wolf turned and ran with terrified yelps and howls into the darkness.

The spiders paused in their crawling, then with a flash, instantly phased back into Gobs stomach causing him to double over and dry-retch.

"Well that was good timing" said Leőn casually, walking over to Gob while he wiped his blade over with a bloody cloth. He slipped it silently into its sheath, reached down and give him a hand getting to his feet. "I see you've managed to bleed and vomit everywhere again. I saw you do some blocking though, well done... I can't help but notice that you had a brood of tiny phase spiders ejected from your gut though... should we discuss this?"

Kylie flew past Leőn and hovered in front of Gob. "Are you alright Gob?!" she asked him with concern.

Gob tottered then bumped back down into his bottom in the icy bloody mud that had been churned up during the fight. He held his head, it thumped so hard against the inside of his skull he had trouble keeping his balance. He held his tummy as it lurched again.

"As odd as that was, try and get your balance back as quickly as you can Gob, it's important we know your recovery time for four swigs" said the White Orc as he stood there watching, counting, Gob knew, in his mind.

The White Orc knelt down and took out a vial of blood red liquid, pouring some into his bitten arm. The wound hissed and steamed as the Orc grimaced in pain, before wrapping it tight with a clean cloth bandage.

"Leőn were you bitten?" He asked the elf, holding up the vial in offering.

"Of course I wasn't bitten." the elf replied.

"Good. Can you kindly sort out the heads, and then track the two who skulked off?"

The Elf rolled his eyes "And I just cleaned my knife… can we talk about the spiders?"

"We'll get to that." said the Orc. "First, Gob, know your enemy: werewolves. Very fast. Very powerful, very tough. Though I have to say, those werewolves were not nearly as… difficult as I would have thought. They seemed…"

"Weak." said Leőn, "Far too weak."

"What else?" continued the Orc.

"Low magic resistance." Kylie put in.

"Yes, to Bright" the Orc nodded "Less to others though."

"It's weird that you're red and you still cast blue Bright spells" Leőn said to Kylie.

"It's weird that you're an Elf who aligned to NEFARIOUS Might." she retorted. "What does my colour have to do with my Magic?"

"It doesn't..." said Leőn, "I just said it was weird. I'm Ok with weird as you have so rightly pointed out. I only mention it because if you like being red, and you like casting fire, which I didn't even know you were capable of until I saw you burn a wolf just before, which, by the way is EXTREMELY inadvisable for a Bright Mage and I'm surprised Gervais would have tolerated it at all, MAYBE you should rethink your alignment."

"Rethink my alignment?" said Kylie with surprise.

"Can we talk about the spiders yet?" Leőn asked again.

"We need to finish talking about werewolves first." insisted the White Orc. "For Gob's benefit. What else do we know?"

"too clor ataks an a bite atak." said Gob, still looking down squeezing his head.

"Indeed. I saw you do the same, swipe, swipe then bite, that was well done. You should be able to do that every turn if a suitable target is in chomping range."

"And Gob can stomp! now too!" said Kylie, remembering with excitement.

"Did you fall over?" Leőn asked with a smirk.

Gob nodded, "but not from stompin.. i falld ova coz i blokked a bite bi kikin da pak leeder in da balls"

Leőn burst out laughing, "You are all style my little friend!"

"And you learned that falling over wastes a turn too..." added Kylie.

"Be careful of that, Gob." said Leőn a bit more seriously, "Losing your balance can lose you a lot more than just a turn. Can we talk about the spiders now?"

"One last thing about werewolves," said the White Orc. "Like you Gob, they can regenerate. Not nearly as well as you can, it's a much lower level version of the ability, but nevertheless, possible... which is why before we talk about spiders, Leőn is going to go around and remove all their heads as a precaution... just to ensure no more wake up calls during the night."

The Elf sighed, took his blade out and silently slipped away into the darkness.

Gob squeezed his eyes shut against the headache, then took a deep breath and stood, though unsteadily.

"Good" said the White Orc. "Your recovery for four swigs this time was actually better than three swigs back in my cave. That means you're improving. Numbers Kylie?"

"Four swigs, about size thirteen for forty counts, sixty five counts until recovery… Umm now, I know the spiders were a surprise. Gross. But that's just what Gob's like. Can we just talk about something else first... WHY THE BLAZES DID WE GET ATTACKED BY WEREWOLVES AND WHO IS THE ICE PRINCESS!?"

"Yes, both good questions Kylie. I can answer the first one but not so easily the second." He looked thoughtful.

"A werewolf is a similar sort of creature to a vampire… usually. They are often ancient and intelligent, though werewolves tend more towards open savagery rather than nefarious sneaking around nabbing their victims in alleyways. The wolfmen we met today weren't that though; they seemed... young. Underdeveloped. Messy. Much more deranged and desperate... the more I think about the more I think they were supposed to look like werewolves but were actually some sort of hybrid."

"I noticed you treated your bite like you might be infected" Kylie said

"Well, I treated it like a werewolf bite to be sure, but I don't know. Something here doesn't add up. Ancient werewolves have bloodlines and they're all members of a pack who were bitten by a Primary... a werewolf progenitor so to speak. I've never heard of werewolves with any other allegiance, and I certainly haven't ever heard of an Ice Princess."

"i woz bited too." said Gob.

The White Orc nodded, "Yes but you have troll blood. Even if they were bloodline werewolves any infections you might have got would have been destroyed by your regeneration. You don't need to worry about morphing into a wolf any time soon."

"I don't think he could get any uglier anyway" commented Leőn sarcastically, slipping back into the firelight.

"well at leest i don hide mi prity fase in da shadows all da tim" Gob retorted quickly.

"Oh Ho!" laughed Leőn "the runt is getting tusky!"

"If you add hybrid wolfmen to summoned elementals and talk of an Ice Princess, it all suggests we've overstepped someone's boundary and they aren't too happy to have us." continued the Orc, "Question is, 'who' is she and how likely are we to run into her?"

"Somethings coming" Leőn said urgently before flashing to his feet and dissolving into the shadows beyond the firelight.

The others were all silent, listening, waiting. The White Orc raised his hammer.

STOMP! STOMP! STOMP!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRR!