Ashes of the Fallen

I thought it strange, scary even, eyes as large as my fist glowing a deep red in the moonlight. Then the head, the size of my chest, fangs as long as my hands, and the body itself, far too large, far too large to be normal.

We stood frozen in place while staring at the massive creature until it made its move. Katherine broke into action first, blinding the creature as it charged and giving me the time to hit it with a single lightning bolt. The beast crashed to the ground shoveling dirt along with it as it dragged for a second.

Shaking off the dirt and springing back up, it charged again and with its massive length, covered the distance between us almost instantaneously.

Meeting the charge, my halberd swung with full force collided with its body as I was knocked into the air and sent flying. Crashing into a tree, a few ribs broken, I coughed as I threw my hands up and channeled an arc lightning.

My weapon, still stuck in the beast's side, dangled awkwardly as the beast slowly moved forward. Arc lightning had failed to completely paralyze the beast. It continued to power through my spell, resisting my God-tier magic as if it were a small annoyance.

Katherine hit it with another spell, a holy blast that should have knocked it down.

Yet it shrugged off the damage as if it weren't a thing.

Then the paralyzing effects of my lightning diminished to nothing and the beast lunged forth. Dodging with a roll, the wolf bit the tree nearly in half as it started to teeter. I yelled to Katherine, to dodge the tree, as the wolf continued to attack.

Another golden-white explosion hit the beast, right as it mounted on top of me. The blast did nothing, as I stared down the jaws of the wolf. It tried to bite me, to eat my face but I wrapped my arms around its neck and clung to its body.

Knives pulled out, I stuck them both into the thick muscular neck of the wolf as it tried to buck me off. Katherine switched to a holy barrage, and sent the homing balls of energy flying in my direction.

Even with the erratic movements of the wolf, the spell swerved with it and exploded right on target. The wolf finally reacted, as I pulled my one-handed axe and started to hack away. The knives, firmly planted into the nape of the wolf served only as pegs for which to hold.

Sliding and bouncing, I continued to hack away at the wolf until I was finally thrown clear off. Falling to the ground with a hard thud, the wind had been knocked out of me.

Large red prideful eyes filled with anger, glared at me in the darkness of the night.

And then I saw the soft-white hue form underneath it, and immediately ran towards the wolf to keep it in place. I grew angry too, rage filling my mind at the thought of losing to an overgrown wolf. I entered the enraged state, I went into a frenzy.

I clipped the nose of the wolf with my one-handed axe, causing it to recoil in pain as a plume of holy fire shot up underneath it, engulfing it partially in flame. It yelped once before jumping to the side and out of the fire.

It had been burned, cut, and stabbed… but it was fine.

The two of us circled each other, as Kate regained mana in the distance.

We were both angry now.

Tired of the beast's patience, I charged with blind aggression overwhelming me.

Jumping up and swinging down I cleaved into the face of the wolf as it managed to bite through my chest. Pain immediately shot through my body as blood filled my lungs. Grabbing the axe I yanked, tearing through the side of the mouth of the wolf and forcing it to let go. I fell to the floor once more, as I began to feel numb to the pain.

My state of mind beyond gone.

I ran back in, only to slide underneath the wolf and grab at the halberd that was still stuck in its side. Utilizing the momentum of my slide, I pulled on the halberd and ripped it free, taking a rib or two with it.

The wolf growled a nasty growl that should have sent a shiver down my spine.

Except, I was nearly immune to negative mental effects.

Tilting my head slightly to the side, I stared at the beast.

We locked eyes, challenging each other to see which of us was the more dominant.

I raised my weapon.

It turned and ran.

That, was the first encounter.

The first time Katherine and I had ever seen a dire wolf. To say the experience was a frightening one, didn't give the beast enough credit.

Yet the funny thing, was what came next.

I soon found a single dire wolf wasn't much to a group of casters. They weren't much to a group of warriors with a team of healers behind them either.

Still, the sudden influx of Goblins, Rattanorv, and Dire Wolves was a surprise. The game called this state of affairs, an Infested Zone. An ever-changing game state that evolved to the needs of the surrounding players. The more we hunted and the faster we hunted, the quicker the game would adjust the difficulty.