Chapter 20: 20. Campfire

Once the lads had found a particularly large boulder, that happened to remind them of home, they decided to camp for the night. They set up as usual, with their basic Campguard stone active to obscure them from basic beasts and critters by enhancing the smell of their campfire.

Early that night the exhausted trio were woken up by what sounded like the deep, guttural howling of wolves in their midst.

They sat up ramrod straight just as quick as they woke, but it wasn’t enough. All six eyes were drawn to the top of the boulder, where they saw a huge murky green wolf, ready to pounce. No non-magic wolf could have jumped onto that boulder, not even the largest.

The trio scrambled to get up and face the danger with weapons in hand. Kalle had his wand and a dagger, Harold a wooden club he had bought in Salcret, and little Oscar had his tempered shortsword.

That was when they noticed the two other murky green beasts, who had taken advantage of all the attention being on their leader to nearly surround them. They looked like no other wolves the lads had ever seen, with dark matted fur that looked intertwined with some strange murky moss and oversized backs that had the appearance of being criss-crossed with dozens of tumours beneath the moist fur.

Quick as a flash Oscar threw some of their oil into the remains of the campfire and the heat exploded in a gout of flame that went straight into the air. The sudden light distracted the wolves long enough for them to scramble into position with two big trees guarding their flanks. The lads had prepared for this. Harold and Kalle faced the enemies while Oscar guarded their backs against surprises and made sure not to spoil their aim.

The expanding fire had surprised the leader enough to make it jump away from the boulder, and she was still returning to the fight. Harold sent his gang of warrior wasps to harrass the closest target and meanwhile Kalle began casting [Wailing Bolts]. The first couple missed the mark, but the loud, wailing noise, and the third one scoring a hit, made the wolves split back apart to figure out what they were dealing with.

When the leader refused to back down and came on charging it was nearly over. What saved them was Harold draining half his reserves to cast his tier 5 Spell [Ruptured Earth]. The ground ruptured beneath its feet, inexorably shredding a leg and spewing forth a cloud of noxious gas into its snout. It started hacking immediately until it vomited so violently that it was out of the fight.

One of its partners came on from the left and managed to avoid the gas for a final leap at its prey but Harold’s club met the deadly fangs and broke a tooth and despite the heavy animal’s momentum, the strike was enough to shift it into tackling the shielding tree. What he wasn't ready for was for the beast to remain unfazed enough to spin around and go for the back. To go for Oscar.

The wasps were still hanging on and fighting for all their worth, but the strange moss seemed to keep them at bay to a surprising degree and even when they went for the eyes it turned out to deflect them. Meanwhile Kalle fired off another [Wailing Bolt] that missed the wolf on the right, but it was enough to convince it that running straight at Kalle would be a bad idea, it circled instead.

[Roar of the Wild] activated, just in time before the beasts ganged up on Oscar together. It not only increased all of their speeds, but also removed any hint of hesitation. The surge allowed for Harold to catch up to the cunning predator and land stunning blow after stunning blow on the already injured Mosswolf. Oscar displayed some footwork and kept it at bay, using both the casters as a shield with his sword in the mid way.

The one Harold caught was not going down without a fight. Kalle managed to keep its remaining helper at bay with a [Wailing Bolt] that kept it in a state of hesitation. The next blow Harold landed let Kalle follow up with a touch of [Mind Blast] and the combination proved too much, the first Mosswolf died.

The sight of its mate falling enraged the beast that had been dealt with up to that point, and despite Kalle hitting it with another [Wailing Bolt] it managed to power through and bring Oscar to the ground. He had swung his sword just like Brunner showed him, but he wasn’t large enough to do more than lightly injure the beast. The only thing that kept Oscar from his end was a lucky break as he forced his hilt up and made the beast first bite down on his sword. The delay allowed for Harold to send his wasps back over.

The wolf's mouth was bleeding and the wasps kept going for its eyes, but it was no stranger to fights to the death. It knew to target the boy, even without vision it could feel him struggling frantically. It finally bit flesh, but that was when Harold managed to reach his brother. He swung his club at a frantic pace, enough to interrupt the biting, but the stupid beast tried to ignore him, and the frenzied fangs killed another wasp.

The club suddenly went flying out of Harold's hand after a particularly wild strike, but instead of panicking Harold was struck with sudden inspiration and tried using his 7th tier Spell [Spore of Dreams]. It worked. The spores went from his hand and into the giant snout of the mosswolf, its biting slowed within the second, and then stopped completely.

The threat was not over. Harold was straining to produce more spores, his body reaching its limits from the frantic fight and taxing Spells and that was when Oscar finally pulled his sword free and got the angle he needed to cut the throat.

Kalle was stabbing at the ribs, trying to puncture a lung or the heart, and Oscar was finally able to scramble out from beneath the heavy wolf, just as Harold stopped trying to pull the heavy beast off and collapsed next to its bleeding corpse.

That was when Kalle noticed that the Mosswolf leader had been rejuvenating and that her broken leg was fully restored.

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