They’d already lost one person, and they hadn’t even gotten to the really dangerous part yet. One of the refugees had wandered away from the group, and a Burrowjaw pulled him under. His scream had barely lasted a heartbeat. He hadn’t even been that far away, just far enough to relieve himself in privacy. It happened so fast.
Now, everyone was huddling together and jumping at every noise, and Char was having to keep a tight grip on herself to keep from snapping at them to move faster. It wasn’t their fault that Voss had killed off anyone who got strong enough to challenge his leadership, or that he’d used their fear to keep them in line.
It would take time for them to get past that, to learn to stand on their own in this new world, and right now, they didn’t have that time.
The barriers between the various biomes were breaking down. The weather was becoming erratic, and the storm building on the border between the tundra and the desert could break at any moment. When it did, it was going to be a monster to rival any typhoon. The Thunderbird part of her could feel it.
That part of her reveled in it, welcomed it. The mounting pressure was like the slow buildup to a climax, full of need and anticipation. Every bolt of lightning sent a shiver down her spine. She wanted to run off to where the storm was growing, the edge of the cliff where the melting tundra met the hot desert, to throw her arms wide and feel the wildness of it, but she pushed the urge down. There were too many people counting on her.
So, she pushed forward, leading the way, keeping her focus on the woods around them and the path ahead. Declan was somewhere at the back of the pack, and Lulu ranged ahead. Anais and Mira were doing their best to keep everyone in the middle calm and moving.
The morning was dragging into afternoon when she spotted the yellow cargo strap that marked the location of the scaffolding that would get them down to the desert floor. The tightness in her shoulders had just started to loosen a bit when she felt a jolt of alarm from Lulu.
She felt the hellhound barreling back toward them before she could see the bright spark of her dancing flames cutting through the mist and drizzle. Adrenaline coursed through her, making her skin prickle as Lulu sent her images of a wolf pack, teeth bared and snarling. Five of them, strung out and racing along the edge of the cliff, coming fast.
“Anais! We’ve got trouble incoming. Pass word back to Declan, I need him up here. Then start getting people down the cliff. You see that strap tied to the tree? That’s where the way down is. Be careful, test the scaffold first, it’s rickety.” Char had planned to go down first to renew the connection runes, but that wasn’t going to happen now.
As soon as she saw Anais nod and start spreading the word, she jogged away toward where she could feel Lulu. The farther she could keep the wolves from the refugees, the better. When she reached Lulu’s side, the hound turned to stand her ground, her hackles raised, her teeth bared. Fire raced along her spine from head to tail, shedding sparks and giving the wispy mist an orange glow.
Char found herself excited by the thought of a fight. It was a chance to work out some of the tension and frustration she’d been feeling all morning. Lulu echoed her anticipation.
Then, the wolves were upon them. They were half again the size of natural wolves, and they had thick, rough bark armor instead of fur. Char put her Primal Grace to work, flowing around the first wolf’s lunge like water around a boulder. She used the moment as the wolf flew past her to assess it:
Greater Timberwolf
Level 18
Greater Timberwolves are apex predators, their bodies sheathed in bark plates that harden with age. Their flesh takes on the density of hardwood, making them harder to injure the older they get.
“Oh, lovely. First, we get burning squirrels, now wolves made out of wood.” Char brought around her sword as the wolf’s paws hit the ground, and it changed direction in a flash, lunging for her again. She heard Lulu clashing with another wolf behind her, but she had no time to look.
She caught the wolf across the jowl with a slash, halting its lunge, but its bark hide blunted the worst of the damage she’d expected to inflict. “Tough guy, huh?” She backpedaled, parrying a claw swipe that would have taken her throat. “Let’s see how you like electricity.”
She pulled a thread of mana from her core and pushed it down the length of the sword, then went on the offensive with the sparking, crackling blade. Her supernatural grace let her dance and flow around the wolf’s strikes, staying ahead of it and landing blow after blow on its tough hide.
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Each blow only chipped away at the bark armor, but the lightning charge made the wolf stutter and jolt with every hit. The bark began to steam as the drizzle’s damp boiled away with each contact.
The mist bloomed orange, and a yelp of pain sounded from behind her as Lulu let loose with a cone of fire. Then, two more of the wolves rushed in from between the trees, and what she’d thought would be an easy fight turned into a real challenge.
Sparing a glance at the refugees, she saw that they were only just starting to climb down to the scaffolding. Only a couple of the bravest had gone over the edge, and the rest were bunched up, nervously awaiting their turns.
She didn’t have time to whittle the first wolf down blow by blow. Watching for her moment, she struck like a snake when it came, driving three feet of steel into the wolf’s open maw as it lunged for her. If she couldn’t get through its armor, she could go in another way. With its spine severed, it dropped like a stone, still and crackling with the lightning coursing through it.
Char didn’t linger to celebrate, turning to face their new challengers. Lulu’s first opponent was on its last legs. Blackened and smoldering, it staggered. Lulu was on it in a flash, her red hot teeth sinking into its neck. The smell of woodsmoke and charred flesh filled the clearing.
The third wolf made to lunge at Lulu as she shook her head, savaging the first wolf’s neck and ensuring her kill, but before it could leap, Declan appeared from thin air, his daggers driving into the beast’s eyes.
Char had no more time to spectate as wolf number four leapt for her. This time, she didn’t bother with hacking away at it. With the elegance of a blade of grass in the wind, she bowed backward and around, avoiding the snapping jaws and slicing claws by barely an inch.
She shaped the pattern for her Arc spell, and as soon as the wolf’s paws were grounded, she let it fly. The brilliant blue-white bolt of lightning hit the wolf like the wrath of an angry god and burned through it, cooking it from the inside out. Dazed, charred, and smoking, it shook its head and staggered as the spell ended, and Char put it down before it could recover.
Declan and Lulu were still fighting with the last two wolves, and she started to move in to help, but stopped herself. They had it under control, and they needed the experience.
If she’d thought about it sooner, she could have pulled a couple of the refugees in to throw rocks or shoot arrows to help them start getting stronger. She’d need to keep that in mind going forward. It wouldn’t do them any favors to fight every fight for them. They were going to need more warriors than just her and Declan if they were going to hold onto the City Tree now that they’d found it.
While the other two mopped up, she checked her notifications.
You have killed
Greater Timberwolf
Level 18
Experience Gained
——————————————
You have killed
Greater Timberwolf
Level 16
Experience Gained
The wolves’ armor made them tough for their levels, but it hadn’t been too dangerous a fight. They hadn’t landed a single blow on her, and it looked like Lulu and Declan weren’t having much trouble either. It was good that they could hold their own. There would be harder fights ahead.
The alien, Zell, told her to find the dungeon in the jungle below the valley. She had no idea what to expect down there, but she doubted it was going to be easy. Shaking her head, she pushed that worry away for now. One thing at a time.
For now, she had to focus on getting everyone to the Sanctuary. If she looked too far beyond that, the sheer weight of what she needed to do might crush her.
She pulled her attention back to the fight. Declan was sidestepping in and out of reality, hitting and vanishing. His daggers weren’t doing much damage against the Timberwolf’s armored hide, but the wolf wasn’t able to hit Declan at all. The beast was slowing. It wouldn’t be long before Declan would find his opening.
Lulu had her final opponent on the ropes. A wolf made of wood was no match for her flames. Her claws and teeth scorched right through bark armor and wooden flesh.
The refugees, on the other hand, were slowly descending into a desert where the creatures were even deadlier than the ones here. They needed someone at the base to fight off any monsters that might come sniffing around. For a moment, she was torn, wanting to stay and make sure Declan and Lulu were safe, but she had to trust them to handle their own fights.
With a silent growl of frustration, she jogged over to the crowd at the edge of the cliff.
Once she was in the crowd, her progress slowed to a crawl as everyone had questions and needed reassurances. She stopped after the third person asked if there were more monsters and took a deep breath.
Then she projected her voice and said, “The wolves aren’t a problem anymore. Declan and Lulu are finishing off the last of them.” She pointed out over the cliff. “We still have a desert to cross, and there will be more dangers, but if everyone stays alert and watches out for one another, we can get through this.”
She swept her gaze over faces lined with worry and pinched with fear. They needed more. “I know this is scary, but bravery isn’t about a lack of fear; it’s about going on despite the fear. If we want to survive in this new world, then we’ve got to be brave, because the only other option is lying down and giving up. I don’t know about you, but I have no intention of doing that.” She saw tiny sparks kindling in a few of them, but not enough. Not yet. “Look. You don’t have to be soldiers. You just have to take one step, then another. If you stumble, someone here will help you back up. That’s how we’ll get through this. Together.”
More faces firmed up, more resolve replaced the fear. A nod here, a shoulder pat there, and she saw them pulling together with renewed determination. She nodded, then turned and pushed through to where Anais was standing at the edge.
“That was well done. They needed that,” Anais said in a low voice. She motioned to the scaffolding tower. “I’m worried about this thing holding together with too many people on it, especially with the wind blowing like this. I’m only letting a few go down at a time.”
“Probably smart. I’m going to head down. There should be someone at the bottom who can fight, just in case. Can you handle things up here?”
Anais nodded. “Leave me Declan and Lulu and I think we’ll be fine. Go ahead. We’ll see you at the bottom."