The Storm Wolf was a massive creature, its size rivaling that of a horse. While in the same rough shape of the wolves he had seen at a zoo ba Earth, the mohat now stalked dowreet had little else in on with those animals. Muscles shifted beh mottled, stray fur stained red with blood from a jagged wound down one side, and several arrows stood upright along its back. Lightning-blue eyes locked on his own but briefly before the Storm Wolve bared yellow fangs and leaped on a young elven woman who was trying to sneak into a nearby alley.
She barely got out a scream of pain at the Storm Wolf’s front cws sinking into her back before fangs the size of daggers lunged down to close with a ch around her head. With a savage twist, the Storm Wolf ripped the poor art, tossing the half in its jaws to the side. Its first target dead, the Storm Wolf twisted its bloodied maw to the closest targets.
A human woman crouched in terror, eyes fixed oorm Wolf, holding two small children tightly to her side. As her eyes met those of the Storm Wolf, she let out an involuntary whimper of terror. The Storm Wolf tes leg to lunge.
“Oi, you storm-cursed mutt!” Krion cried out, the words slipping free before he could think. He found himself striding freatsword already in hand, though when he had drawn it, he didn’t sciously know.
The Storm Wolf hesitated, great head shifting to look in his dire.
“Yeah, I’m talking to you, you mangy piece of shit!” Krion yelled, his voice gaining volume. The sight of the i elven woman being torn apart in front of him had filled him with rage, and he would be damned if the same happeo another woman and her children. “Why don’t you try me instead!”
The Storm Wolf abahe woman and her children, pivoting to step in his dire. It opes bloody maw wide a loose a howl that was closer to a roar. The gruesome death of the elf that had frozen the rest of the people oreet shattered all at once as those that remaiook off screaming in whatever dire would take them away from the monstrous predator in their midst. All except Krion and the mother who still crouched petrified with her kids.
Just as Krion was about to charge in at the Storm Wolf, in the hopes of distrag it from the is still frozen in terror, the matted, stray fur along its back started to crackle with a white glow. At first, he did not kly what was going on, but as the hair on his forearms began to stand up, Krion remembered how his dad had told him as a kid how lightning worked.
He pluhe tip of his greatsword into the road in front of him just as the Storm Wolf made a sound partway between a cough and a bark, ung a bolt of lightning at him. The bolt made a e with his greatsword just as it became lodged in the ground. Most of the bst was grounded, but enough past through the hilt of his on to his arms, that Krion was violently flung bad away from his on.
His mind scrambled as his back hit the ground hard. Flipping over several times, he finally came to rest against the wall of a building. Shaking his head to clear the ringing from his ears, and trying to ighe pain in his arms and chest, he put his hands ft against the ground and tried to get back to his feet. As he stood, Krion looked up to see what the Storm Wolf was doing.
It remaianding where it had been, though now steam was rising from the fur on its back. Its lips remained curled in a vicious snarl, showing rows of blood-staieeth. If Krion had any doubts before about how intelligent the creature was, the clear sense of dissatisfa it gave off at him having survived its lightning put that to rest. While Krion stood up, the Storm Wolf began to prowl forward, pletely disregarding the remaining people oreet around them.
Krion’s pulse pounded in his ears as he watched the Storm Wolf stalk closer, clearly i on dealing with the threat he represented before any other targets oreet. His eyes drifted to his greatsword, still buried in the ground, too far away to reabsp;
The Storm Wolf shifted its path to cut off his line of sight to his on and began to pick up speed. Gritting his teeth against the pain, Krion ched his fists and prepared to dodge o came inte. Every instin his body screamed at him to run, but he stayed rooted ihe Storm Wolf was too fast, he knew his only ce was to face it head-on.
Abruptly the Storm Wolf put on speed, c the st doze in a moment. In a snarl, it thrust its open jaws towards Kriohrew his body to the left, just barely getting out of the way of its charge. In a roll, he came back to his feet, again fag the Storm Wolf. Rec quickly, it lu him again, but this time wheried to dodge, a paw came whipping around to sm him to the ground.
The front legs of the Storm Wolf came to stand oher side of his torso, and it jerked down to bite him. He was barely able to get a forearm up in front of his face before the jaws cmped down on it. A scream was torn from his throat as the Storm Wolf’s bite began to grind his arm boogether.
“Spears!”
While his world had turned red from the pain, Krion heard the shout e from somewhere behind him. All at ohe Storm Wolf jerked above him. Its jaws were unched with a whimper, and the beast fell to the side. Hitting the ground with a deep thud, it y still.
While he stared at the deep, bloody holes in his arm, hands reached down to grab him uhe arms. They pulled him backward, away from the now-dead Storm Wolf. A voice asked him something, but all he could think about was the throbbing pain that was worse than any he had yet felt sining to Verdant VI. When he gave no response, a louder voice called out.
“He is in shock!” The voice came from somewhere behind him, but he had a hard time fog on it. “Hurst! Get over here and heal his arm!”
“Right away, Watch Sergeant!” a higher voice responded.
Two tan hands came into his view, cutting off the sight of his wounded arm. After a moment, they began to gloale green. As he watched, the pain in his arm began to fade, and the holes were soon shrinking before his eyes. More able to focus, Krion g the person holding his arm. A young woman in the garb of the Watch, her face was going pale in tration as she tried to heal him. In moments she let out a slight groan, and the soft light around her hands faded. Breathing heavily, she slumped backward.
Seven other members of the Watch moved up to stand around them. Armed with spears and shields, they were casting wary gnces dowreet in the dire of where the Storm Wolf had e from. With the current threat killed by the Watch, a number of people who had been attempting to hide along the street were up and moving deeper into Thorn’s Reach. Krion was gd to see that the mother who had been croug holdiwo children was among that number. She moved as quickly as she could, which was to say not very fast, as her two children were having trouble keeping up. The three of them were soon separated by a gap from the rest of the group rushing in Krion’s dire.
That was when two more Storm Wolves appeared down the far end of the street.
Slightly smaller than the first Storm Wolf that the Watch finished off, each was covered in blood but otherwise seemed ready to tinue hunting. They snarled as they caught sight of the fleeing people, and both quickly broke out into a run to pursue.
The Watch Sergeant saw them at the same time Krion did. He frantically began calling for the civilians heading in their dire to run.
“Watch Sergeant Bale, Hurst is still tapped out!” one of the members of the Watear Krion practically shouted in fear. “We won’t be able to move her for a few minutes yet!”
“Form a line!” Watch Sergeant Bale shouted orders, looking helplessly over the heads of the still-running civilians. “Shields up and spears out! We hold here!”
Those at the back, hearing the calls from the Watch Sergeant and then hearing his shouted orders, struggled as oo pick up their pace. The group soon stretched out in a lihe younger, fitter civilians pulling ahead while the ed behind. The worst was the mother with the two children at the back. One of the kids had stumbled, and the mother was frantically trying to get them ba their feet.
Krion judged the distanbsp;
They weren’t going to make it.
In that moment, Krion realized something profound about himself. Despite the injury that had just been healed, and the very real fear he still felt, he was not someone who could just stand by while others were not risk. Not when there was something he could do to help. He realized that his instincts to protect were what had inally called him to bee a doctor. But now that the path to being one was closed off for him, he found that his instinct to protect remained, even at his own peril. Fear still bloomed within his chest, but the drive to protect that he felt easily overpowered it.
The fleeing people, the woman struggling to save her children, needed someoo staween them and the monsters in the dark.
The mother was not able to get her child ba their feet. Giving up, g out in fear, she pulled both of her kids in close, back preseowards the oning Storm Wolfs. It would not be enough to save them.
The face of the terrified mother struething deep down within him. Something fual to who he was. What he was doing here, and what he would be doing at the Imperial Academy, was not about bravery or power. No. It was about proteg others. Proteg others was simply who he was. Even if it meant risking his own life.
He’d already seen enough bloodshed to know that he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he let his fear keep him rooted in pce.
Krion darted between the f line of the Watch, ign their calls to stop. He broke out in a sprint. He rotector. He would, he had to, save them.
A click seemed to echo in the air all around him, but it just as easily could have e from within his mind. The fear of potentially rushing to his death fell away all at oo be repced by a grim resolve. Pressure built within his chest, simir to what he had felt that time before out in the forest with Rolfun and Alesin. Rage blossomed within him as he saw both Storm Wolves veer to attack the woman and her children first.
As if sensing the attack, the woman cried out in fear, then threw herself and her children to the side. The first Storm Wolf missed in its lunge, but the sed took a swip in passing. The cws on its foot caught the leg of the mother, trag deep lihat began weeping a dark red as soon as she hit the ground and slid. Her cries of fear turo pain alongside those of her children. The Storm Wolves pivoted to luer her, the sed with a raised, cwed paw ready to sm down.
The pressure in Krion’s chest burst.
His voice rose in a roar of raw, primal fury, eg off the walls and filling the street. It was more than a shout; it was a challenge, a decration of dominance ced with the weight of unyielding defia was a and that vibrated in the air, causing the windows to tremble with its force.
As one, both Storm Wolves froze, ears fttening as if struck by an invisible force. Their heads whipped in Krion’s dire, and for a heartbeat, their wild eyes held the unmistakable flicker of fear.
Their hesitation was all Krion o get his hands ba his greatsword, still embedded point down ireet. Bed from the bst of lightning, the hilt was still warm to the touch as he ya up and free to trail behind him as he tinued his sprint. He heard the return of shouts behind him, but Krion ighem. The only thing he was focused on was getting within range of the Storm Wolves before they decided to attack the injured mother and her children again.
He smiled as both Storm Wolves reacted to his charge by abandoning their almost prey to charge at him with snarls still tinged by fear.
In that brief moment before ing into their range, Krion remembered his fights with Rolfun. Bigger and strohan him, Krion had gradually learo embrace a fighting style of movement and defle. Given the horse-like size of the Storm Wolves bearing down on him, he would need a simir approach to survive their first attacks. A pn flickered through his mind.
At the st possible moment, he dashed to the left, ing closer to the leading Storm Wolf but using its bulk to block the arrival of the sed for a crucial moment. The beast growled in apparent rage, then swiped out with a paw, attempting to rake his side with its cws.
Using the momentum of his pivot, Kriht his greatsword whipping around t the sharp edge down oorm Wolf’s lunging paw. Its growl turned into a squeal of pain as half the paw was sshed away from Krion’s blow. Pained fury turo ear-fttening fear as its eyes rose to meet a desding blow from the greatsword.
Krion had used the momentum of the first strike t the greatsword up and over then back around to sm down into its skull.
A siing crack echoed ireet, and the first Storm Wolf colpsed like a puppet with its strings cut. It was dead.
A cwed paw came swinging in before Krion could recover his stance, batting him away from the dead Storm Wolf to nd near where the mother looked to be starting to bleed out. Knowing that the other Storm Wolf was right behind him, and not wanting to be pio the ground again, Krion tried to turn his fall into a roll to get back to his feet.
A cwed paw hit him again, smming him back down into the grouhe family. He cried out as he felt hot knives dig in along his bad shoulder, but he kept his hand closed like a vice around the hilt of his greatsword. Two sets of terrified eyes met his own. The faces of the kids, two young girls trying desperately to stop the bleeding of their mother, were staring in horror over his shoulder. Moving faster than he ever had before, Krion put his back to them as he thrust out with his greatsword in a siion.
The bde went right through the roof of the mouth of the desding Storm Wolf. Its weight carried it down, impaling its skull fully, only to bear Krion to the ground as well. Wind knocked out of him by the weight; he was once again ko the ground, half uhe now-dead Storm Wolf. In the relief of having survived, he let loose an almost manic ugh at the fact he kept being ko the ground like this. Dexterity and Strength were going to be a focus going forward, at least until he got a css, whehat would be. He shifted on the ground to try to get a look at the mother and kids behind him, which caused the open wounds on his back to grind painfully into the dirt. He struggled to trol a hiss at the feeling. Better add Vitality and Endurao that as well.
Finally, after a little more painful wiggling, Krion was able to get an eye on the people he saved. Both girls were still crouched over their now clearly unsother, small bloody hands tight t, trying to stop the blood loss.
“Are you both alright?”
They immediately started g, the fear and stress over everything that had happened in a bare handful of minutes hitting them all at once.
“I’m ing, everything will be alright.” Krion said, more to let them hear the newly restored calm in his voice than anything else. They likely couldn’t even uand the words he was saying at the moment. “As soon as I pull myself free, I’ll take a look at your mom’s leg. Just a moment, I promise.”
As he had already expected, his strength was not great enough to push the dead Storm Wolf off of his lower half. Luckily for him, however, he did have enough strength that he could slowly, painfully, wriggle the rest of the way out from underh its body. Fully aware of the still-bleeding woman behind him, the mihat it took him to get free seemed more like an hour.
First oheher was out. To save time, he half-shuffled, half-crawled over to the injured woman.
As gently as he could, he asked, “ I take a look at your mom’s leg? I think I help.”
Sobbing and nodding, the little girls stepped back to hold each other as Krion put his own hands forward to slow the bleeding. The wounds were slightly jagged but not as deep as he feared. Briefly taking one hand off the woman’s leg, he reached up to his opposite shoulder. Gripping the already half-cut sleeve, he ripped it off in a jerking motion. In as deft of a movement as he could make, he looped it around her leg, just above where the cuts stopped. W fast, he tighte as quickly as he could to slow the blood loss. He wished he had something to help lock it in pce, but at least the material he had was durable enough to work. Who would have thought those old videos he had watched on tours would be useful, let alohat he would be using one in another world?
As soon as the thought hit him, a wave of exhaustion followed, and his hands began to shake slightly. The previous half-ignored pain across his back fred in iy. What he wouldn’t give for another one of the minor healing potions Rolfun and Alesin had carried with them. His gaze went up from the leg he was holding to the unscious woman’s fao, even if he had ht now, there was no doubt in his mind who he would be giving it to first.
Though he was dead tired, and his wounds hurt, Krion couldn’t help feeling a bit… happy. Yes. Happy. For years now, it had felt like he had been spinning in pce. W hard to survive and, hopefully, make progress towards being a doctor to help people as he had been helped. But he had not gotten any closer to that goal. Not really. His job had been a det one, but it had been more clerical in nature. Dr. Halter had done all the real work. That had all ged after being saved by Franz, and being first trained and then escorted here by Alesin and Rolfun. Even though it meant engaging in violend risking his life, he had been able to proteeone. More than someone. For once, he had truly been able to help.
He slid to the side of the woman, hands still tight on the makeshift tour. A nod and a smile helped bring the two girls further relief, though they tinued g.
Hopefully, Alesin and Rolfun would notice that he wasn’t with them soon.
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