In just a single moment, at least 5 of the 40 people had been ripped apart and spread all over the place in pieces; The others quickly reacted and backed off, in the centre of the formation the ones holding the tube like devices held them up and a spell circle quickly formed at the base of them and lights shot up high in the sky before expanding creating almost sun like orbs that glared over the battlefield and casted the location far and wide, some others standing near casted another circle which sent out a high frequency noise that was highly discernible, this was the Flare and Echo spell respectively, the battle had begun so they immediately used these spells to notify the other group for backup.
"Enemy attack! Take formation, surround it!" Angus bellowed with all his might, his eyes turning red as he glared at the enemy that had pierced their group.
The entire group shifted formation cleanly, they took a fair amount of distance from the enemy which had ceased moving and prepared their weapons, they encircled it without any gaps to attempt to stop an escape attempt.
In the centre of the formation was the enemy, but it didn't seem to be paying attention to them at all, rather-
*Crunch* *Break* *Rip*
It feasted on whatever parts it could find and lapped up all the blood it could find leaking on the ground as if it wasn't surrounded at all, its figure was enveloped in a dark shadow however everyone could see its distinct figure if they looked closely, they could see its pitch black fur which writhed like snakes and its eyes that emitted the light of insanity, its large fangs effortlessly pierced the armour covering the bits of flesh it could find, crushing it and releasing the fresh meat inside.
'It's wounded!' Angus stared at the large gash at the side of the beast, it hadn't stopped bleeding but seemed to be healing slowly, he didn't know how or what hurt it, but he wouldn't let this chance get away, and it wasn't just him that thought this.
"Ready your arrows!" He shouted an order and the clear minded group answered with their actions immediately, the sight of their friends being torn apart and the sounds of ripping flesh and crunching bones had already completely woken them up from any sort of stupor and put them on high alert with their blood boiling to its limits, they were all the protectors of Mist-veil village, and they knew that this thing could not be allowed to live.
A large portion of the guards took out bows and nocked their arrows, they were well trained and were far from civilian militia in terms of skill, rather than aiming head on and potentially piercing each-other they took aim to the sky and some even nocked multiple arrows.
"Fire!" Angus order echoed in their ears, and they let their strings loose without hesitation, although their group wasn't exceedingly large having 20 or so fire arrows in a rain was more than enough for a beast of this size.
The arrows quickly rose up in the sky before falling in an arc straight for the beast in the centre, it heard the arrowheads piercing through the wind as its ears twitched, a fog seemed to attempt to cover its body but right before the arrows hit it seemed to realise something was off as it quickly tried to escape the rain of arrows, unfortunately it was too late and it was struck by a barrage of arrowheads.
"AGAIN!" Angus saw the results and decided they had time for another barrage, everyone unceasingly nocked the next set of arrows and without even an order to fire another set flew at a near identical timing, aiming for the creature that hadn't yet escaped the inner encirclement.
The rain of arrows fell once more, it managed to strike the tail end of the creature as it escaped the inner circle finally, along with the gash it had on its side beforehand it had now gained multiple puncture wounds which sizzled with black blood, arrows and the arrowheads that remained inside the wound were quickly expelled but the wounds only slowly began to close, it would still be bleeding for quite some time.
"Close the encirclement, don't get too close to it and stick together! Wolves, attack!" Another order flew out of Angus' mouth, seeing the strength of the monsters' claws and fangs the average person wouldn't be able to stand a chance in close combat, so he had them stay away in an attempt to guard the backline, the wolves on the other hand were agile enough to attack it and escape, at least that's what he hoped.
With an orchestra of howls sounding throughout the battlefield the ghost wolves that had been holding back quickly charged towards the large beast and began encircling it forming a white whirlpool of wolves spinning around the beast.
The beast seemed to become confused, its bloodshot eyes darted in every direction in an attempt to discern the threat but its mind didn't seem to be able to keep up, soon the first wolf struck and darted towards the beasts side, using its claws to tear a small bit of flesh away from it, soon after like clockwork the others jumped forth in patterned play leaving scratches and tears on the larger beasts body, it soon stopped moving entirely and stood stock still taking the attacks like it didn't care.
'What's it doing? It hasn't given up, has it?' Angus questioned in his mind, that would be the best scenario, but he wouldn't be that naïve, he tried to figure out what it was doing as he observed the monsters still figure.
"The shadow is receding!" William who was some distance away was the first to point this out, the cloak of shadows which seemed to be covering the beast was becoming more and more transparent until it was gone entirely leaving the monsters figure out in the open for everyone to see clearly.
"Good god…" Someone muttered, they could see the monster in its entirety now without any obscuration, it was without a doubt a wolf, but its weirdly shaped and bulging eyes, its tattered pelt that seemed to be squirming with its own will and fangs and claws which seemed to be sharpened to the limit gave it an appearance that was closer to that of an artistic depiction of a monster rather than a living being.
"It's… It has to be one of them! To think we're this unlucky!" William exclaimed, he clearly knew what it was after seeing its horrendous appearance but it wasn't the time to talk now, the monstrous wolf began to move slowly and right as one of the smaller ghost wolves began to attack it moved like lightning.
'Not good!' Angus had been observing it closely, as he saw its movements change, he immediately gave out an order: "Retreat, get back, don't let it get close!" unfortunately it was too late for a lot of the wolves that were too close.
As the smaller ghost wolf closed in on the monster, the monstrous wolf's body flickered like lightning and changed position, its jaw seemed to unhinge and engulf the smaller wolf entirely before its maw snapped shut with a loud bang, sizzing and whining could be heard for a second or two before it ceased and the beasts throat gulped, its abdomen seemed to bulge before shrinking at an exceedingly fast pace.
It didn't stop there, just as Angus was giving the order it broke the ghost wolves encirclement, one after another it charged towards the small wolves and gulped them down one by one, it wasn't long before nearly 15 or more wolves ended up in its stomach as it squirmed almost to the point it looked pregnant before it shrunk once more, as it did the wounds on its body seemed to close faster and faster with the arrow wounds barely being more than a scratch now, however the gash on its side still remained open.
"Fucking monster!" A man said with fear, in barely more than a few tens of seconds they had lost nearly half of their wolf forces, many lamented since some were even partners but that just made their blood boil even further.
The remaining wolves backed off and stayed with the backline, as they reached it lights lit up in a circle as magic lights glowed bright red.
"Launch the spells!" Angus gritted his teeth to the point of almost shattering them as he sent the order, he hadn't had the others sitting on their asses doing nothing, spells took time to cast especially the ones that were being fired right now.
Bright red and yellow lights quickly flew through the air towards the monster, as they reached near it the monster wolf attempted to dodge but the balls of fire detonated sending licks of flames all over its body and the surroundings.
"GUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARARAAAAAAA"
A gurgling howl came from the bonfire that had formed, sounding like a drowning ghoul that was reaching for life.
This was the tier 2 spell [Fire Bolt] which was the highest-level spell these people could cast, a tier 2 spell contained three processes, Gathering and compressing the fire, giving it movement and causing it to expand at a designated location with high power, it had higher impact power than the tier 1 [Fire Ball] due to the last step and was one of the most popular spells used.
As the flames receded what was left was an almost furless figure covered in burn marks, however its eyes showed no sign of defeat as its wounds quickly began to heal, its eyes quickly moved between the figures that had thrown the spells at it.
"Protect the casters!" Angus had realised this immediately and gave the order, he knew that the monster had designated the ones that used the spells as the biggest threat, it was most likely going to target them first.