With the sixth warg waiting outside the melee zone, the monsters’ savagery came to a temporary end.

  Jaelin stabbed at the warg who had him in its jaw. His knife punctured its hide, doing six points of damage.

  Wade tried to do the same, but neither of his dagger strikes got through.

  ‘Take this!’ Auntie shouted at Mila.

  Mila grabbed the one healing potion they had, and ran towards Christoph. Under the maw of the warg, she cradled The Bowman’s head and carefully tipped half of the potion down his throat.

  Ashlyn instantly forgave the girl for her earlier shenanigans.

  But that wasn’t all. As Christoph’s hit points recovered to four and he sat up, she ran towards Twerk. The warg lashed out as she left, its claws raking down her back and causing five points of damage. Still she ran, sinking to her knees besides the gnome as her action points ran out.

  With thoughts of using her spear forgotten, Ashlyn ran at the warg that stood over Christoph. That had almost killed him. With three action points remaining, she unleashed her fury. Greenblade pierced its side, halving the creature's hit points. Her second sword strike finished it. As the warg sank to the ground, its goblin rider lurched forwards and tried to swing its feet out of its stirrups. It took Ashlyn’s shield in the face, knocking its hit points to twelve. With her final action, she hacked into its neck, killing it instantly.

  She was relieved to see Usa put himself between Mila, Twerk, and the warg that had killed the gnome. He attacked the beast with spear and shield. His spear blade slammed into its shoulder, reducing its hit points to 23. He struggled with his second spear strike, but his shield battered its snout, taking it down to 18. Another eight points with his final attack left it on 10.

  The goblins went next. Usa was caught by surprise by the rider of the warg he had hurt. It lashed at him with its short spear, grazing his neck and taking one hit point. He quickly raised his shield, and successfully defended the next two attacks.

  The next goblin lunged at Jaelin, scoring two hits with its spear. They only amounted to three hit points, but it was too much for The Explorer. He slumped to the ground, unconscious.

  Wade was struck twice, for a total of eight damage. It brought his hit points to zero, and just like Jaelin, he slumped to the ground, unmoving.

  Sat so high on its mount, the next goblin was unable to reach the prone form of Fortune with its short spear.

  The final goblin able to attack was the archer. It aimed at Ashlyn—her glowing blade rather drawing attention to herself. The first arrow only just got through her armour, taking a measly one hit point. The second didn’t carry.

  Christoph scrabbled next to her, reclaiming his bow.

  The Hoffmeister ran over to protect his comrade, Fortune. His first two attacks completely failed. Only with his last, did he skewer the warg with his spear, reducing it to 25 hit points.

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  Izil joined his brother. He, too, only saw one spear strike succeed. But the eight points of damage were enough to see the warg keel over, leaving the brothers with only a goblin to fight.

  Pecs took his pike to fight with The Hoffmeister. His first blow wasn’t true, but it had enough power to take three hit points. His second strike was better, puncturing the beast and causing nine further damage. Blows from pike and shield reduced its hit points again, to five. His last pike thrust missed, but an overhead blow with his shield on the top of the creature’s head sent it to the ground, and it didn’t get up.

  Auntie faced off against the mounted warg that had all but killed Wade. With a cudgel. In fairness, a couple of her strikes landed. They just didn’t hurt the thing.

  Bletcher looked quizzically at the warg that stood over the prone form of The Explorer, wondering if the beast truly wanted to harm them.

  The warg turned away from Jaelin, transferring its attention to the warg rider who faced Auntie. It loped towards him. ‘No!’ its rider cried, yanking at the reins. To no avail.

  It lashed at the other rider, knocking it from its seat onto the ground. The goblin defended itself with its spear, yelling at the beast to stop, while its comrade continued to pull at the reins. The warg continued to attack, taking its target down to six hit points.

  The second warg, relieved of its rider, turned its attention to its rogue companion, leaving Auntie completely forgotten. It looked bemused, unsure what to do or whose side it was on.

  At last, Mila was able to administer the second half of the potion to Twerk. Ashlyn wasn’t convinced it would do any good. The girl looked up at Femke. ‘He’s not waking!’ she shouted.

  ‘Use the medical kit now,’ Auntie shouted back to Mila. ‘Patch up those wounds.’

  Ashlyn resolved to turn the tide of the battle while the enemy was distracted. She joined The Hoffmeister and Pecs, who now faced off against the goblin unseated from its mount. Her first strike with Greenblade took it down to eight hit points. After a miss, she slid the sword into its guts and it died impaled on her blade.

  Usa also faced a goblin enemy. He only needed two action points to dispatch it. He wasted no time in coming at the rogue warg from behind. Using the butt of his spear, he knocked its rider from its seat.

  The goblin archer decided to act. Three of its comrades were dead, and two were sprawled on the ground, in danger. Its warg sprang into action, making up the intervening space with two actions. Its rider helped its fallen cronies onto its mount. Evidently deciding enough was enough, it sped away.

  Christoph got to his feet. ‘What now?’ he asked, unsure whether to use his bow.

  ‘Hold fire,’ Usa said. ‘I don’t think we’re in danger any more.’

  Femke got to her knees, unpacked her medical kit, and began to attend to Wade.

  The two wargs who remained standing, were on full hit points, and thirty hit points respectively—capable of doing serious damage. But they seemed uninterested in attacking the Apples. They padded over to the injured wargs.

  ‘Only one is dead, I think,’ Izil said. ‘Back away from the injured ones, and I think they’ll leave us be.’

  They carried their injured squad members to Auntie and Mila. Once Wade and Twerk were patched up, they began work on Jaelin and Fortune.

  ‘I’m nearly out of supplies,’ Mila complained, tying up a roll of bandage.

  Auntie looked up. ‘Aye. Same. But I think everyone’s going to make it.’

  Ashlyn checked on Wilson. She had seen him killed, she was sure. But now he had some colour in his face. ‘I thought him dead.’

  ‘He was, really,’ Auntie said. ‘It was only the potion that breathed life into him.’ She looked across at the two wargs, who were still guarding their fallen. ‘But that’s the last one I had. Next time that happens to someone, we can’t save them.’

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