Chapter 14 - Battle Ends

The wolf yelped as a solid kick from the elk sent it flying through the air to land bonelessly some distance away. The back of Callum's rage driven mind noted this even as he continued his own battle.

Callum ignored his own wounds even as they grew in number. He had a single minded focus on delivering as much punishment to the enemy before him. No thought was spared to his own defense. At this point, it was a race between two health pools.

Callum executed a to the eyes followed by a at the neck. Each of his attacks was swiftly and brutally followed with another one. Many of them were critical hits, more than making up for his weapons' lower stats.

The elk had the greater starting HP, but the wolf had heavily bled it before Callum waded in. Additionally, a gaping spear wound deep in the elk's side accelerated the blood loss. Still, Callum's wounds mounted.

Soon, both opponents dropped below 100 HP. The <> ability allowed both to land critical hits in equal measure. Neither elk nor human blinked as they continued their dogged attacks on the other.

One last to the neck proved too much for the elk and it collapsed.

The combined loss of losing both the <> bonus and entering a 'Weakened' state left him tottering. Fortunately, losing those stats only affected his maximum HP and not his current health. Otherwise Callum would have died.

His health started to regenerate at a faster rate once the battle ended, which helped offset the active bleeding effects. His life was no longer in any real danger as he quickly reused some of his old bandages to deal with the worst of the bleeding.

Had the battle lasted a little bit longer though, Callum knew that his life would have likely ended. He started walking over towards the wolf's body as he contemplated whether using his <> had been the right decision.

His internal debate came to a sudden standstill though as he noticed something. He was standing over the wolf's body and its flanks were slightly moving as it lay there. The Dire Wolf was still alive!

The elk's kick must have struck the wolf's head and caused it to lose consciousness. Callum quickly moved to arm himself even as he realized that the bleeding would soon claim the large predator. He had his knife half drawn when he stopped.

He empathized with the dying creature at his feet. He remembered some of what his uncle had told him about Dire Wolves. Young males would be driven from their packs when they came of age. They would be condemned to wander alone until they found a new pack.

Callum understood that it had to do with genetics. But he felt like the two of them, wolf and human, had something in common. The young wolves could sometimes wander for hundreds of miles before they finally found a new home.

He didn't know how far the wolf had come. Just like he didn't know how far from home he was. Both had been exiled by their former community. Callum reached an unusual decision as he contemplated the wolf laying at his feet.

"Oh, I'm probably going to regret this. This is stupid, I'm being stupid!" Callum talked to himself as he put his knife back.

He knelt next to the wolf as he started to pull out his limited supply of catgut. ensured both needle and thread were safe to use. He quickly worked to close up the large puncture wounds along the wolf's chest and abdomen.

"Why is it even called catgut? It's not made from cats. The whole world is stupid. Why am I doing this again?"

Callum muttered to himself as the wolf's injuries were closed up. Next, Callum applied two bandages to finish his rough first aid of the downed creature. Bandages and some needlework would suffice for what the wolf had suffered.

Callum moved over to the elk and quickly worked to skin it and cut some meat for himself. He needed to leave soon as the wolf would be waking up soon. Its health was still low, but it was finally starting to creep back up.

Callum was able to remove an entire leg and some of the ribs from the elk before he decided it was time to leave. The meat he gathered was already more than what the lynx had weighed. He didn't want to be around when the wolf regained consciousness.

Besides, he was still starving and was very eager to see what elk steak tasted like. He had to restrain himself from eating it raw as he quickly made his way back to the cave.

In order to help distract himself, he started to review his actions in the battle. His thoughts led him to realize that raging had been a bad decision. He didn't have a healer to keep him standing or a tank to take the damage.

<> had the potential to be a great ability, but only if he used it correctly.

In the fight, the elk was already lamed and heavily bleeding. He had also successfully dodged one of its charges and then tricked it to get under the antlers. He had still been at full health at that point.

Everything up to that point had been well executed, especially for an inexperienced fighter like himself. But raging had negated a lot of the good from the first part of the fight. He was simply too vulnerable in that state.

Callum resolved that he'd learn and get better. He had to, as he'd come too close to dying. He understood that he had been one or two hits from dying. The bleeding would have likely finished him off if he'd taken a couple extra hits.

He concluded that he would need to use <> again. It was simply too good not to. Plus it was his only combat ability. But he really needed to find the right situations to use it. Because using it at the wrong time could kill him.

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The Dire Wolf cautiously raised its head to survey its immediate area. It felt weak and very vulnerable and didn't know what was going on. It slowly stood up as it pushed its senses out to take in its surroundings.

It saw the dead elk, but it didn't spot the strange creature. Though it did smell that the creature had been right next to it. Tightness around its healing wounds caused it to look at itself. It did not like the white things around it.

It worked at the strange material with its teeth until they both fluttered down to the ground. A couple of sniffs revealed the strange creature's scent all over them. It walked around the battle site as it took in the scents.

Satisfied, the wolf laid back down to deal with some more strangeness inside of it. Tiny strands of something were lodged in its flesh. It didn't know what they were, but it knew they didn't belong. Soon teeth and claws were used to extract them.

Some slight pain and bleeding accompanied the removal of each one. But the wolf put up with it to rid itself of this strangeness. It continued until all traces were removed. A couple of sniffs were made to verify they were all gone.

Luckily for the wolf, the stitches were no longer critically needed. They had done the job to stop the major blood loss when its health was at its lowest. The minor bleeding caused as they were removed soon stopped.

The wolf licked at its wounds some more before it was satisfied that it was healing normally. The wolf decided to announce its victory before it started feasting.

"Aaaaooooooh."

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A wolf howl chased Callum into his cave. He worked to stoke the fire as he glanced at his makeshift door. He wondered how he could strengthen it. Something he would think about as his elk dinner started cooking.

"Yup, bad idea Callum. You've made some stupid decisions, but saving a damned DIRE WOLF when you're stranded in the wilderness has got to be the biggest one yet!"