Without any hesitation the monstrous wolf kicked the ground with its muscular limbs and launched itself towards one of the spell casters, its breakneck speed gave the guards little chance to react-
*Clang*
However, the guards weren't greenhorns, they had banded together in the path of the beast with multiple shields, they were pushed back but with the support of multiple people they managed to stop its charge, the beast quickly retreated before the spears of the guards could counterattack and soon after another wave of blazing fire flew from the backlines, although the beast made an attempt to dodge the large majority crashed into it scorching its flesh once more.
"HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWL"
An ear-piercing howl echoed from inside the cloud of smog created by the mass of firebolts, the moment it reached the ears and bodies of the surrounding men their knees made an attempt to buckle and some swayed in place holding their heads, the weapons and other arms clattered to the ground en masse leaving the entire formation in shambles.
"This is bad!" Angus had managed to maintain his stance although he felt weakened, he quickly glanced around to see who else was fine but to his dismay only William retained a competent stance.
"Intercept it! Don't let it attack the other members, we need to let them recover!" He quickly bellowed an order to William which snapped the latter out of his confusion, he glared over at the clod of smog before following Angus in his charge.
As they approached the black cloud began to clear and the figure of the wolf monster came in to view once more, its eyes seemed to want to leave their sockets as they bulged while being completely bloodshot, its entire figure seemed to shake as its body slowly recovered from the countless scorch marks covering its skin, it basically had no fur left after all of the spell attacks.
It saw the two figures of Angus and William approaching it and made a quick decision, it ran in the direct opposite direction towards some figures resting on the floor holding their heads.
"STOP!" Angus had quickly realised it decided to run but not before picking up some takeaway, he had already seen many of his fellow villagers die today he didn't want to see any more, without another moment of hesitation he activated one of the few spells he knew.
In a glimpse of an eye his body seemed to shoot forward with his battle-axe raised above his head, rather than walking he seemed to be gliding through the air.
This was [Sudden Burst] which was a skill that was both favoured and abhorred by close-range specialists, it's a tier 0 spell so the cast time is near instant and it has a great affect, it creates a large amount of momentum in a specific direction to ones body, more fine control of the spell can apply it to only specific body parts, of course the big problem is the sudden acceleration can cause damage to the muscles and tendons of the user if not controlled well enough which can make it fairly detrimental.
Angus quickly caught up with the fleeing wolf as he flew through the air, the wolf didn't seem to be able to react, its hearing and bodily senses had long since been ruined in the attack only its vision remained fully.
As he reached the back of the fleeing monster, he swung his axe down without hesitation, as it made contact with the back skin of the creature it instinctively swayed its body away made the axe only cleave a layer of outer skin off it which fell to the floor and began to rot away at visible speeds.
Having struck with his axe Angus' feet managed to plant into the ground and soon after he tumbled, rolling before coming to a stop and quickly standing to see the result of his attack.
The wolf had also been hit off balance, it had swerved and crashed straight in to one of the large tree trunks before righting itself, however it staggered as it did so, it was barely able to stay on its feet at this point.
It glared with absolute malice at Angus, it was already wounded from before on its side but now it had another one layered on top of that causing it a lot of pain, however its instincts kept it from recklessly attacking in anger.
Angus decided to resume his attack before it could regain its footing fully, he charged at it and swept his axe towards its head, although he was fast, he was still slower than the beast which swayed its head and easily dodged the attack, soon after however its leg seemed to buckle, and its face let off a pained look.
'Got you!' Angus thought, he quickly reversed the swing and even executed [Sudden Burst] on his hands so he'd make an attack before it recovered, however-
"Grrrrrroooooo"
Although quieter than the last, something resembling a howl leaked out of the wolf's mouth reaching Angus' ears, as it hit he felt his balance once more tipping albeit not on the scale as before, however that moment was all the monster needed.
*Crunch*
Its body seemed regain vitality immediately as its jaws closed on Angus' body, he barely managed to sway out of the way letting his right side avoid the jaws, but he realised it soon after-
*Drip*
His left arm was missing, and in its place, blood dribbled out of the wound in resonance with his speeding heartbeat.
"AaaaAAaaAagH" He dropped to the floor while squirming in pain and yelling, his voice distorted with pain, he clutched the wound with his remaining arm, but it didn't help much.
He wasn't sane enough to think about how the wolf had seemingly feigned its weakness to draw him in, he just wanted to stop his blood from leaking or he'd die!
As he rolled about on the floor, his eyes landed on the monster that had taken his arm, it had already swallowed it whole with the only remnant being a line of blood dribbling from the side of its maw.
It turned around and slowly approached Angus who was glaring in agony.
"Fucking monster!" He screamed; he knew anything he could do was pointless so he could only yell his regrets as the jaws approached him once more.
He closed his eyes soon after, he knew it was over, but he didn't even want to watch his last moments.
But soon after he realised the pain from his left arm continued, he was still alive though barely.
His eyelids snapped open, his conscious was already dizzying from the blood-loss, but he saw a figure stood in front of him, before he fainted, he could hear the words being yelled:
"Gather the wounded, I'll take this thing!"
… … …
It felt fear travel through its body, it wasn't quite sure what it was facing but something told it, it should run.
It had merely been hunting as usual, but it had been hurt for the first time earlier on, even when it tried to recover from the wound it never healed, remaining like a hot iron stuck to its flesh constantly reminding it of its failure.
It had run out of fear, the pain had scared it as it decided to never go near that weird 'thing' again.
But its hunger drove it onwards without fail, what was better than a huge gathering than to fill its belly?
It did as it usually would, it used its cloak to hide and approach the prey, though it saw them notice already it didn't seem to care, or rather it didn't occur to it that it had been seen.
It dove into the pack of prey without hesitation, snapping up everything it could in its jaws, it gladly gobbled, chewed and drank the food that was before it, it was in bliss after its earlier encounter.
But soon after it heard a whistling sound in the wind, many of them, it used its cloak since that's what it always had done in the face of a threat, yet something felt wrong, it quickly tried to move but soon after it felt piercing pain on multiple parts of its body.
It didn't understand, what was wrong? It was doing what it usually did yet it was hurt?
Before it could even work out what was wrong it came under the attack of some smaller prey, they tore at its skin continuously as it was still frozen in confusion.
However, its rationale kicked its thoughts to the curb, if it wasn't working why did it care? It won't use it!
Its cloak receded as its body was exposed bare, it snapped up the small annoyances in one gulp and swallowed them whole, something told it this was fine as it felt energy growing in its body as it did so.
Then it quickly became covered in flames, it howled in pain as it felt parts of itself turning in to charcoal, it targeted the source of the flames, but it was stopped, even after the second time it was set alight another prey interrupted it, it even wounded it once more!
Right as it was under attack it felt a pang of weakness in its legs, the prey seemed to see this to become more aggressive putting the wolf in slight panic, however it quickly felt better after it used some of the energy it had stored to heal itself and quickly counter-attacked, getting a good mouthful and disabling the prey.
For the second time in the same day, it had encountered trouble, it didn't realise it but it was certainly full of anger, as it approached the bleeding prey to gobble it whole its mind screamed as its body backed off, in its previous position a blade had left a large indentation on the floor, stood wielding it was a figure it hadn't seen yet stood tall with red hair but similar clothes to the others.
It didn't know why, it wasn't a deep-seated fear or a strong one but somewhere in its mind a sense of underlying terror seemed to leak, its source being the figure in front.