“We need to go.” It was Achelois who had spoken. She stepped up besides William and was looking down at the dark form of Nicolas. “You have slept long enough anyway.” She turned her head to look at William. “Lead the way.”
William glanced down to see that Nicolas was in fact starting to get up. He never seemed to argue with Achelois. He didn’t have time to wonder about that. All he knew was that the feeling in the back of his head had reached a full headache now and he had to do something about it. Without a second glance down at Nicolas he moved through the crevasse and out the through the folded entry way of their den.
The ceiling crystals in the underground cavern still carried the illumination of the night sky. He hadn’t slept for long at all. He felt no fatigue and the feeling in his head was growing worse by the moment. He had never had a migraine, but he was pretty sure that this is what it would feel like. He tried closing his eyes against the pain but that didn’t seem to help. He found himself squinting his eye lids against the pain that was now throbbing in his head. He looked back with one eye as Achelois and Nicolas emerged from the den. He had no idea where to go or why. He chose to go in the only direction that made any sense. He headed straight for the fake den entrance where he had last seen Aceso and the others.
The pain in his head wasn’t debilitating and as soon as he began to move the pain subsided into something much more manageable. His senses were unclouded and he ran at the edge of the other two’s limits. He was on all fours and Achelois and Nicolas were running at his heels. He wanted to move faster but he knew that his companions wouldn’t be able to keep up.
William made only slight adjustments to his path. He didn’t have time to cut back or zigzag. He knew that he had to get to the fake den. It seemed very important to him and he wondered why he hadn’t felt this back in the den. He couldn’t help himself and forced himself to run faster, slowly outpacing his companions.
He stopped as he recognized the outskirts of the clearing around the fake den. He waited for the other two to catch up. He studied the surrounding area.
Three of his pack mates were standing in a loose knot in the middle of the clearing. He could see Charles and Aceso facing away from him with Katherine facing towards him. They were being circled by the same three grey werewolves that had attacked Katherine and Charles yesterday afternoon. They didn’t seem to notice that William had arrived. Without waiting for Achelois and Nicolas he charged into the clearing, determined to tackle the nearest grey werewolf.
The grey sidestepped and twisted his body at the last-minute shrugging off William’s tackle attempt. The other two greys were startled by the sudden newcomer. William launched himself off the ground and flew into a barrage of punches and kicks at the grey. He didn’t have time to look but he could hear that his three pack mates were following his lead and had begun attacking the other two greys.
William focused all his attention on the grey that was in front of him. This one was of an equal height with William, and he seemed to be absorbing the blows that William was dishing out. William tried at grabbing the other werewolf only to have his wrist bent backwards toward his elbow and his arm wrenched high in the air. William was able to twist out of the counter move but he knew that some damage had been done. His entire arm felt numb. William backed away a few steps and circled his opponent slowly, all the while trying to rework feeling into his hurt and almost useless right arm.
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The grey didn’t give William any more time to recover. He lunged at William’s legs with a sweep that would have knocked William to the ground if he hadn’t narrowly avoided the attack with a jump backwards. The grey didn’t stop and fluidly threw his elbows out behind him blindly at William. One of the elbows connected with his blocking right arm sending another wave of pain through it. William was able to duck under the next elbow attack and ram his shoulder into the grey’s back. The grey stumbled forward a few steps before turning around. The two circled each other again. William tried to ease the growing discomfort in his right arm.
Keeping his concentration on the grey, William let his ears tell him about what was going on around him. He caught a glimpse of Nicolas fighting someone that he couldn’t quite see. That would mean that Achelois had arrived too. William heard way too much fighting and it didn’t make any sense to him. He knew there had only been three grey werewolves attacking Aceso, Katherine, and Charles when he first got here, so who else had joined in the fight?
The grey attacked again. This one fought with tenacity and a viciousness that William had not expected. It was all he could do to counter and move away from the more devastating blows. William threw himself back onto the ground as the grey tried to tackle William to the ground. While he did so he shoved his hind legs up into the grey’s exposed abdomen. He used the momentum from the counter to grab the grey and hurl him into the air over and behind him. William rolled onto his stomach to watch the grey land hard on his back.
William pushed himself to a standing position and began running in a full sprint. He raised his leg and connected with the grey’s side. He heard a very satisfying crunch and the grey curled around himself on the ground. William didn’t have time to celebrate as an unseen claw raked at his side leaving a painful gash along his abdomen reaching almost around to his back. William stumbled backwards looking at who had attacked him.
William saw a light black calico werewolf covered in white splotches facing him. Its claws were red with the blood that had been drawn from his flesh. The calico werewolf didn’t press the attack but instead choose to stand there and let William make the next move.
William took the opportunity to look around at what was going on. What he saw was chaos. Aceso was being double teamed near the edge of the forest, but she was holding her own. He glanced over to see Nicolas take a massive punch across his face. Somehow the blonde was able to remain standing though. Katherine was fighting and he saw her connect a kick to her opponent’s midsection. Achelois was also dealing with her opponent. Charles was also being flanked by two attackers, but he wasn’t faring as well as Aceso, he was being herded toward the entrance of the fake den.
William knew that Charles was in trouble and if he didn’t act fast his two attackers would have him boxed in with his back against the wall. Aceso and the others looked ok but Charles was in danger. He wasn’t even sure if Charles knew how much danger he was in. He looked to be focusing all of his attention on the grey and the light brown werewolves that were attacking him. It didn’t seem like he had spared even a slight glance to see where he was on the battlefield or where he was being forced to.