by Max Jager
He heard the other two wolves rushing in to bite his legs and was quick to jump forwards, dropping his club so he could grab onto a tree branch. Then he quickly flipped himself up onto the branch. Once he was safely up on the branch he looked down at the wolves as they growled at him, and he threw the rest of his knives, three at each of the wolves. The first wolf was struck with all three, once in the shoulder, once in the back, and once in the back of the neck. That wolf yelped in pain and collapsed to the ground, not dead but too wounded to keep fighting.
The second wolf was only hit by one, straight in the center of its back. Once the first knife hit the wolf quickly jumped out of the way of the rest and then returned to growling at Zanath. Zanath took the two duffel bags off his back, so he wouldn't be weighed down by them as much, and dropped them down to the ground. Then he jumped down from the branch, tucking into a roll as he hit the ground and sweeping his club up off the ground as he rolled. Of course, the wolf jumped on top of him immediately and pinned him down onto his back, but right as the wolf went to bite him he shoved the side of his makeshift club into the wolf's mouth to stop it from biting. As the wolf struggled and tried to bite the club, Zanath reached around and grabbed the knife from the wolf's back with his other hand. Then in one swift motion he yanked the knife out of the wolf's back, and stabbed it back into the side of the wolf's head.
With the three wolves either dead or incapacitated, Zanath stood up and recollected his knives. He picked up his bags, and he finished off the wounded wolf by quickly cutting it's throat. He didn't want it to suffer with it's wounds, and he knew it wouldn't survive either way. He frowned a little as he looked over the three dead wolves, he was a bit sad that he had to kill them but he shook it off. This was a game, as real as it felt they were not real. He grabbed his things and went to meet the others back at the meeting point.
–
He didn't need to wait too long before the others arrived, everyone pretty much came back around the same time. Estellese was already back when Zanath returned. She looked up at him and asked "Did you find anything?"
"Just the plants." Zanath replied simply, choosing to leave out his encounter with the wolves. "You?" He asked.
"I found a place we can probably stay, and more of those plants. They are all over the place." Estellese replied simply. And as she spoke she spotted Mendelen returning to the camp.
Mendelen smiled a bit "Good because I didn't find anything other then the plants. So we are just missing Kaden then?" He asked.
"Of course, he probably did something stupid and got himself killed." Estellese remarked.
"You don't like him much, do you?" Mendelen chuckled.
"He's cocky! And annoying as hell!" Estellese protested.
Mendelen chuckled softly and after a moment Kaden returned to the group with a handful of the odd plants. "Welcome back," Mendelen greeted "Estell has found a place for us to camp out for the night. We're going to head there now. Lead the way Estell" He said.
Estellese nodded and lead the way to a tiny clearing that was surrounded by bushes and thickly settled trees that made getting into it difficult. The group slipped into the tiny clearing, there wasn't a ton of space but there was enough for everyone.
"I wonder why the trees didn't grow here." Kaden mused. But when everyone else shrugged he just sat down in the middle of the clearing and began grinding up some more of the oddly colored herbs in his hands. He couldn't grind them up too well, it took forever, but he was grinding up several of them.
"You going to give the herbs a test? See if they work?" Mendelen asked. To which Kaden simply nodded. "Alright, I'll help out then." Mendelen added as he sat down near kadin and he too began grinding up a few herbs.
Zanath and Estellese wandered off to different sides of the clearing, both of them were looking for a semi comfortable place to sleep while Kaden and Mendelen prepared a few of the herbs. For a little while the group was quiet. After a few minutes enough of the herbs were ground up into a sort of a powder. With that said and done Kaden took one of his knives and carefully made a small cut on his arm, then he took the ground up herbs he had in his palm and then he dumped them into one of the bottles of water Zanath had brought, and then he quickly chugged down all the water.
"The potions took five minutes to work." Kaden said, just in case they had forgotten.
Mendelen nodded "I know. We'll keep a close eye on you until then. Just to make sure nothing bad happens." He said. "Not that there's much we can do if something bad does come from drinking those." He added.
Kaden nodded a little "I am pretty sure they are ingredients in the potions. I should be okay. If not then I'll figure something out." He said.
Mendelen nodded, and within a minute or so Kaden went numb and had to lay down. The group remained relatively quiet for the next few minutes. They were all a little worried about what would happen. The five minutes felt like they dragged on forever, but by the end of the five minutes the cut had healed and Kaden was back on his feet. "It works, these are used for potions." He stated. "Lets get another one ready for Estell, so we can heal up her burns."
"Already got one. Ground up several more herbs and put them into a bottle while you were making yours." Mendelen replied as he tossed the water bottle that had the ground herbs mixed in it to Estellese, who caught it and cautiously inspected the red water.
"So, just drink it all? And thanks." Estellese replied. When she got a nod from the others she drank the entire bottle as fast as she could and laid down, waiting for it to work. In five minutes her hands were healed and the burns were gone.
With everyone in good health and the group in a semi safe area they all found a place to lay down and went to sleep for the night. One person at a time would take shifts watching over the camp for a few hours each. Mendelen took the first shift, then Estellese, then Zanath.
On Zanath's shift he was looking up at the full moon, he could just barely see it through the trees. He stood up when he suddenly heard a wolf's howl in the distance. Followed by another howl moments later, then another, and another, it sounded like there was a ton of wolves surrounding them. Thankfully it was just wolves, but there was so many that it concerned him when he heard the howls and nearby growling steadily getting closer. It was getting a little too close for comfort.
"Guys, wake up. We may have to fight a few wolves." Zanath said, repeating the words several times as he quickly rushed to each of his new allies and shook them to wake them. Once everyone was awake and standing together he looked up at them. "I hear a lot of wolves around us and they are getting closer. But I took three of them out earlier, they are easy. We should have no problem standing our ground." He explained.
"You killed three of them by yourself? Nice." Estellese replied as the group grabbed their weapons again and prepared for the fight ahead of them.
There was another howl, this one sounding very close to the edge of the clearing. The group turned to face the source of the noise, they could see the bushes moving as something came closer. Then, all of a sudden, some furry, human-sized creature came dashing out from the trees. It was moving so incredibly fast that it was just a blur, and in a split second the beast went from the woods to standing two feet away from the four humans. It swiped it's claw at Zanath who attempted to block with his makeshift club, but it was useless. The beast was so strong that it splintered the wooden club into pieces, knocking Zanath backwards a few feet with the force of the blow.
The group looked up to see a six foot tall humanoid standing on two legs. It had a human torso, arms, and legs but had a wolf's head, and paws for hands and feet with a long tail while it's entire body was covered in fur. It was a werewolf and it was not alone, moments later three more werewolves began running out from the trees. They were surrounded.
Moving quick Kaden lunged in and stabbed the werewolf in the side of the neck with his knives. He jumped back as the werewolf spun around and swiped its claws at him, narrowly dodging the attack. He thought he had landed
a good blow in there, the werewolf was bleeding very badly. But as the werewolf turned on him and began walking towards him he watched as the wounds on the beast's neck slowly healed. Within just a few seconds the werewolf had fully recovered. "They heal! We can't damage them!" Kaden called out as he dove to the side to evade another slash from the werewolf's claws.
"Well we can't outrun them, they are too damn fast!" Estellese countered as she turned to the other incoming werewolves, along with Zanath and Mendelen. The four of them were almost standing back to back.
"Get to a tree, maybe they won't be able to reach us up in a tree!" Mendelen called out as he watched the werewolves slowly approaching and surrounding them.
"Are you crazy? How are we going to make it to the trees before we get mauled?" Estellese countered.
Mendelen stepped up to take the lead again. "Run as a group, cover each other's backs. Whoever is attacked needs to dodge, and someone else needs to strike their attacker. Just knock the attacker away and keep running. Go!"
The group began to run, but as they did one of the surrounding werewolves lunged for Estellese. But Estellese was quick to dive out of the way while Kaden bashed the werewolf aside. They immediately continued running for the trees. They couldn't even move five feet before the werewolves were on top of them again. One lunged for Mendelen but was quickly bashed away by Estellese. A second one attempted to tackle Zanath but Zanath ducked underneath it and thrust a knife up into its stomach as the werewolf flew over his head. He lost his knife, but he just grabbed a new one from his belt.
There was just so many of them though, another wolf lunged at Estellese, but she was quick to dive out of the way and Kaden followed up the attack by slamming his makeshift club down into the werewolf's head, knocking it to the ground. But immediately after he struck that wolf another wolf jumped onto Kaden's back and pinned him to the ground, but in a flash both Mendelen and Estellese slammed into the werewolf's side and shoved it off Kaden. But as soon as they did two more werewolves were already moving in on the three of them and a third werewolf was rushing after Zanath.
Zanath was quick to jump backwards to avoid the lunge of the werewolf that was attacking him, and skillfully flung one of his knives at one of the werewolves that was going after his three allies. Striking it in the Achilles tendon in the back of the werewolf's leg, sending that werewolf tumbling to the ground. The other werewolf lunged for Mendelen but as planned Mendelen dove out of the way and Kaden was quick to bash the werewolf with his makeshift club and knock it backwards a little.
They finally made it to the trees, which hadn't even been that far away. But another problem quickly arose, the wolves were attacking too fast for them to climb up the tree. Zanath tried jumping up and kicking off the tree like he had done before, but another werewolf lunged at him while he was in mid jump and swatted him out of the air with it's claws. Leaving a deep cut in his side and slamming him right back to the ground, causing him to shout out in pain. Before the werewolf could cause him any further harm Estellese rushed over to attack the werewolf from the side, and shoved the werewolf away. As it stumbled back she quickly grabbed the back of Zanath's shirt and yanked him back up onto his feet as fast as she could. She barely made it in time before another werewolf was in front of her and taking a slash at her head.
Estellese couldn't dodge fast enough, she let out a yelp and in a panic she lifted her club in an attempt to block. But the werewolf's claw slammed into her club so hard it just snapped her club in half and went straight through her block, causing her to move her arms in front of the werewolf's claws as fast as she could to protect her head. She screamed out in pain as the werewolf's claws dug deep into her arms and she was thrown back against the tree from the force of the hit. Kaden and Mendelen both were quick to rush in and bash the werewolf who was attacking Estellese away with their clubs, but things were turning bad, fast.
Mendelen took a defensive stance between Estellese and Zanath, and the werewolves. "You two, get up the tree, as fast as you can. Kaden, help me cover them." He instructed, watching as Kaden came up beside him to try and cover the others, and as the other two did their best to start climbing the tree. But they were greatly slowed down by their wounds. One of the werewolves tried to run past Mendelen to reach the two wounded fighters but Mendelen was quick to slam his makeshift club into the werewolf's kneecap, knocking the beast to the ground with a loud crack and a howl of pain. A second werewolf lunged for Mendelen, but Kaden was quick to grab his arm and pull Mendelen out of the way, then promptly slammed his makeshift club down onto the werewolf's head. Another werewolf lunged for Mendelen but Mendelen slammed his club up into its jaw, knocking it onto its back. And as the fourth and final werewolf lunged for Kaden he quickly dove out of the way.
They still hadn't even left a scratch on a single werewolf, the ones they struck down just got right back up within a few seconds of being knocked down. But by now Zanath and Estellese were safely up in the tree. "Kaden you're next. Go!" Mendelen called out.
"No way, you can't take them all on yourself. And you can't climb fast enough to get up there with them all attacking you. You first" Kaden countered.
"Kaden just go!" Mendelen argued as he dove out of the way of another werewolf.
"No. I'm not going until you do. I can climb faster." Kaden argued.
Mendelen could tell that Kaden was going to be stubborn and was not going to give in, and they did not have time to sit here and argue. "Fine, just be careful." Mendelen insisted as he ran to the tree and started climbing up.
Kaden was doing his best to hold out against all of them alone, but without help he could not afford to make a single mistake. He had nobody covering his back, nobody to save him if he got pinned. He jumped to the side to evade the lunge of one werewolf, and barely managed to sidestep a slash from another werewolf. As a third werewolf came in he stumbled backwards to avoid the blow, but then as the first one rushed in to attack again he was forced to parry the attack with his makeshift club. He used the club to try to block and then push away the werewolf's attack, which caused his own club to splinter into small pieces and sent Kaden stumbling backwards, but successfully pushed the attack away from himself.
But then the second werewolf lunged at him, pinning Kaden to the ground. Kaden shouted in pain as the werewolf's claws dug into his shoulders and cussed loudly as he was pinned. He had no way of getting the werewolf off himself, it was much stronger then he was. The werewolf opened it's mouth and moved in to bite his throat, then suddenly there was a loud metallic clang and the werewolf was knocked off of him. He looked over to see that Zanath had thrown the heavy bag full of canned foods down at the werewolf and struck it in the side of the head.
"Get up here! Now!" Mendelen called out as he reached the higher branches in the tree, then leaned down and held out a hand to try and help pull Kaden up faster.
Kaden sprung back onto his feet as fast as he could and made a mad dash for the tree. The other three werewolves rushed after him, and would have caught him long before he reached the tree. But Zanath was quick to throw three knives down, and with pinpoint accuracy hit all three werewolves in the face with a knife, which made them recoil in pain and slowed them down just long enough for Kaden to reach the tree.
Kaden jumped up and grabbed Mendelen' hands, but as Mendelen tried to pull him up the werewolves recovered from their knife wounds and two of them grabbed onto Kaden's legs, digging their claws into him and tearing at his legs. Kaden shouted out in pain and Mendelen tried to pull him up but the werewolves were holding him down and trying to pull him back. The more both sides pulled, the more the claws tore up Kaden's legs. "Get them off! Quick!" Mendelen called out.
"I can only reach one of them! My view of the other one is blocked" Zanath called out, but he promptly threw a knife down into the face of one werewolf. The werewolf howled in pain but refused to let go and instead dug its claws deeper into Kaden's leg, causing Kaden to scream out in pain. Zanath quickly threw a second knife down
at the werewolf's face, again to no effect. When that didn't work and he realized he only had one knife left he knew he had to try something different. He needed something heavier to knock the werewolf off Kaden and he didn't have anything he could throw that they didn't need.
Zanath took a deep breath, and quickly calculated his move in his head, then suddenly he jumped down off the branch and landed right on the werewolf's shoulders, slamming his feet down onto the werewolf as hard as he could as he landed. He used the werewolf as a springboard, slamming it down to the ground while jumping off it and back up into the tree. He whimpered in pain from the movement, the slash in his side made moving extremely painful, but that wasn't all. The wound also slowed him down, it stopped him from jumping as high as he normally could. As he jumped up and reached out to grab the branch to get back up, it was just out of his reach, and he started to fall back down.
In a flash, something grabbed onto Zanath's arm, catching him before he fell too far. He looked up to see Estellese, who was now screaming in pain as she tried to hold him up with her torn up arms. "Get up! Quick! I can't hold you for long!" Estellese shouted out, her voice wavering in pain.