The sharp and chilling pain hit Daniel seconds later. For the first time, he was glad about it. Emboldened by the shadows, he let a piece of his soul approach Velkir too closely. It was beyond stupid.

“How was it?” Finnean asked him, his eyes betraying a glimpse of concern.

“Getting there will be dangerous. They’ll likely assault us with magic as we close the distance,” Daniel said after recounting the details still fresh on his memory.

“Do we have enough firepower to blow the cliff to smithereens?” Finnean asked. He looked to the rest of the group, and then to the Paladin.

“That would be a job for the mages, or a whole church’s worth of priests. No - we shall steadily advance under my aegis. Let them try to attack us all they like. However, climbing the platforms is too risky. They shall come to us, that I promise,” Thomas said, and just like that, it was decided.

The moment everyone stepped into the cave, it became blindingly bright. The air distorted from the heat, making every breath strenuous. His mighty shield in front of him, Thomas bravely marched down the cave, cheerfully following the melody of the hymn. Each step bolstered his presence and burned the air.

Moments before he entered the cavern proper, he looked back and raised his mace. “My Heart, Dawn’s Break. Shield of Glory. Mantle of Courage.”

“Now, let us fight in Croelius’ honour,” he said, launching a fragment of dawn into the cave.

Yelps and cries echoed through the cavern as the darkness was dispelled by morning light. Each step carried the Paladin further and further, and behind his shield, now thrice its original size, were his companions. They charged into the battlefield like a tempest.

Three hundred feet separated them and the wolf pack, but Velkir was ready. He let out a maddening howl that reverberated through the stone and caused the ground to shake. Forty Silvermoon Wolves followed his lead and howled at the ceiling, adding their voices to the cacophony.

Daniel felt the intense magic rush through him like a tidal wave. It threatened to tear apart his mind and shred his sanity to pieces. He locked eyes with the priest next to him, conjuring images of how he would look with his stomach throat slit open. Instead of anger and rage, he found compassion in the other’s gaze. Through the howls, he listened to the priest’s holy voice. Each word of the chant filled his body with warmth and comfort.

“Do not falter! Charge!” The Paladin bellowed, snapping Daniel’s mind back to the present.

Instead of growling with anger, Velkir smirked at the words, showing off a menacing grin full of teeth. One by one, the wolves began conjuring silver crescents that danced with a deadly edge. Together, they melded into the swirling vortex of mana enveloping Velkir, growing larger with each passing moment.

Thomas braced for impact, but to his surprise, the attack wasn’t directed at their party. Instead, his eyes traced the silver arc of the spell upwards.

“To me!” Thomas cried out as a deafening crash echoed through the cavern. Above them, the ceiling began to fall apart, and Daniel looked up in horror, only to see massive obsidian stalactites crashing down like a guillotine's blade. Both priests and warriors frantically scrambled, caught off guard.

‘Spiritbound Shield’, Daniel thought, activating his skill before rushing towards the Paladin. Even as the world crumbled around him, Thomas remained confident.

“Sunset Aegis,” the Paladin said, holding his shield above his head. A translucent barrier formed around him, burning with a faint flame. Daniel, however, stared at the thousands of pounds falling from the sky and faltered. He stepped into the limbo.

The Paladin grunted, digging his heels into the solid stone. His barrier cracked and shattered from the obsidian spikes, but his shield remained steady. Skill after skill overlayed on one man as he held up the weight of the sky and prevailed. Nearby, his warriors pushed to clear away the fallen debris, to make the burden lighter.

Stolen novel; please report.

As soon as Thomas lowered his shield, Daniel rejoined the fray, the heat and noise rushing through him like an avalanche. Amid combat, there was no time for others to question where he had gone. Following the Paladin’s lead, he rushed through the cloud of dust, just to be greeted by another barrage of moonlight crescents. The magic shattered against his shield, knocking off a charge. Two more blows and he’d be vulnerable.

A hundred feet was all that stood between the two sides. Despite warriors and priests charging in tandem, Velkir didn’t have a trace of panic in his eyes. That was about to change.

“Come at me, you filthy mutts,” Thomas bellowed, banging his mace against his shield. To Daniel, it was nothing but loud noise. To the wolves, it was like a demon had descended from hell, screeching a dissonant and infernal song.

Velkir growled commands at them, but it was of no use. In unison, they leapt from platform to platform, rage consuming their every thought. What Daniel wasn’t prepared for was the sheer speed at which they moved. It took barely a second for them to cover the distance and descend onto the party.

“Keep your distance! Focus on those flanking the warriors!” Raph shouted, leading the back line in a retreat.

Whirling around, the warrior faced a wolf face to face. His swords distorted in the heat, striking from every angle. They cut into the monster. It was not deep enough. The beast barreled into the warrior, knocking him to the ground. Wasting no time, its teeth glistened as it bit down into his neck, tearing out a chunk of flesh.

But, instead of a scream, the illusion merely smiled. From above, two curved swords drew blood, descending on the beast’s vulnerable nape, but even that wasn’t enough to slay the creature. It turned around, only for a lance of fire to tear straight through the wolf’s insides. Finnean flashed a smile at the warrior, flanked by his solemn puppets.

Next to them, the priests cast skill after skill, indiscriminately firing into a horde of beasts. Even then, it was unthinkable that four warriors could hold off forty wolves. Daniel changed his mind when he saw how brightly the Paladin was shining, how gracefully he was moving. Skill combined with skills and levels, and turned the man into a whirlwind of death, the rest merely his background actors.

For the first time, Velkir’s face contorted in anger as he looked down upon his pack being slaughtered. He was consumed by nothing more than primal rage. He leaped into the air, and his body blurred. An afterimage of soft mist lingered where his figure once was. Daniel looked left and right, but instead, he should’ve glanced back.

A breath of warm air.

A torrent of blood.

The screams of those around him.

Never before had his heart beat as fast or as loud. Time slowed. Whirling around, Daniel faced the crumpling body of the oldest priest. Only his legs remained, along with the memory of a kindly face. Now, he was nothing more than a pool of blood.

Velkir grinned.

Chaos broke out instantly. Raph’s blades screamed as they tore through the air, but the wolf’s magic was superior. A glimmering topaz barrier, hovering mid-air, blocked the frantic assault, and a moonlight double of the wolf engaged the warrior in melee. Instead, Velkir turned to the closest “priest” - Finnean.

The mage reacted immediately, giving orders to his constructs. A thick chain lashed out from the first puppet, while an onslaught of six swords took flight from the second. They both charged at the monster. As for Finnean, he finally dropped his priest act. Interlocking his fingers, he conjured the phantasmal image of a young spinstress. She pirouetted through the air, spreading out an ebony web in front of them. It crackled with ominous dark lightning.

Daniel looked for any opening he could, but therein lay his weakness. The wolf was blindingly fast. A single step and it blurred past the two puppets, staring them down with malice as it reared on its hind legs and slammed down into the ground. The mana in the air rushed in a torrent, forming underneath the thin puppet. Seconds later, Daniel stared in horror at a sixty-foot glacier spearing through its body. He was unsure of how a puppet died, but this was it.

Velkir didn’t stare. He didn’t even slow down. It was through a lucky break that the only remaining puppet brought down its chain on the wolf’s body, but if Velkir was injured, he didn’t let it show. In exchange, his head snapped towards the puppet faster than eyes could follow.

Though Velkir's fierce jaws couldn't penetrate the metal, he improvised, gripping the puppet in his teeth. Velkir’s eyes locked onto Finnean just as crackling dark lightning impacted his body. Instead of singed fur, what greeted the wolf was rotting flesh and spreading disease. A ray of hope blossomed in Daniel’s mind. The beast could be hurt.

Yet, Velkir grinned through the pain. A bright red ray of fire emerged from the creature’s throat, shearing through the puppet’s body and soaring through the air with a piercing shriek. The mage tossed himself to the side, but he was too slow. A terrible explosion reverberated through the cavern as the fiery beam clashed with the lightning web, overpowering it..

The shattering of numerous barriers masked the sound of crunching bones as Finnean hit the cavern wall. Like a puppet without strings, his body dropped to the ground, completely motionless.