Callum's sea of hate abruptly dissipated upon the Witch Doctor's death.
One second, Callum was wholly absorbed into driving his hatchet into the goblin's neck then, the next instance, the descending hatchet tumbled out of his grasp when he entered a weakened state.
Red and green blood covered Callum in equal measure as he knelt over the corpse of his enemy; labored lungs greedily sucked in air after such a violent battle. The aftermath of the savage engagement lay strewn around the small clearing.
Poison and bleeding continued to lower his health as his mind tried to adapt to the whiplash of overwhelming rage suddenly becoming quiet peace. He wearily took in the clearing as his brain re-engaged.
Satisfied that he wasn't under threat, he started to bandage himself back up; his health was just under 100 HP and it continued to drop steadily. However, Callum knew that the poison would soon run its course and the bleeding would lessen with each bandage he placed.
Magic would occasionally flare in small flashes of light as he used
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The Dire Wolf silently stalked towards its prey; the perfect opportunity to pounce had finally arrived, the wolf's target was distracted. Within range at last, it leapt forward and carried the body of its target down to the ground.
A magical glow flashed just before the wolf's weight knocked its target into the snow. It bit deeply into the back of its target's neck, eager to quickly finish it off with a sneak attack before it could resist.
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Callum heard the snarling of a creature and immediately rolled to the side. A goblin arrow and several bolts of magic struck the tree above the dead Witch Doctor; the missiles flew past where Callum had just been kneeling.
He grabbed at his weapons and darted behind the tree, he was wary of additional attacks. Callum carefully shifted his head out of cover and tried to spot what was attacking him. The sounds of battle guided his eyes to the right area.
The falling snow made it difficult to make the situation out clearly. But he thought he spotted the familiar shape of the Dire Wolf darting in and out from among several goblins.
'Did that wolf just save my life from a goblin ambush?' Callum wondered to himself as he continued to observe the battle.
Callum glanced at his low health, before he decided to join the fight. The fight was clearly going in the wolf's favor, and his addition would turn it into a massacre. He started silently running towards the goblins.
'I just hope the wolf doesn't turn on me afterwards,' Callum belatedly worried as he neared the fight.
The wolf repeatedly leapt in to attack and leapt back towards safety before the goblins could respond. The goblins had their backs to Callum as they continued to focus on the Dire Wolf; the wolf, however, noticed Callum's charging form.
The wolf feinted an attack that forced the lone Goblin Brute to dodge to the side, right into the perfect position for Callum to stage his own counter-ambush.
Callum didn't slow down his charge and drove his spear deep into the goblins' head before sweeping the spear to the side and knocking two more goblins down. As he swung his spear to the side, the Brute's lifeless body was flung off and tumbled into another goblin.
Callum brought his spear back to a guard position as several other goblins charged at him; he could now see many more goblins than he had noticed through the snow. He didn't panic though and slowly gave ground as 30+ goblins tried to rush him.
He fell into a familiar routine of using his Strength and his reach advantage to keep the goblins at bay. Despite this, Callum was doomed; his health was low, his body was weakened now that <
Or, at least, he would have been doomed if he was fighting alone.
The Dire Wolf danced around the goblins and kept them in a slow moving blob as the goblins instinctively clumped together in the face of an alpha predator; the deaths of the Witch Doctor and Brute had cowed them.
The goblins were stuck in a quandary; they needed to rush Callum to overwhelm him with numbers, but that meant risking an attack from the wolf. Their only semblance of safety was to group together, denying the Dire Wolf an easy kill.
The goblins slowly died as they advanced on Callum. Free from being swarmed, Callum was able to brutally thin the goblin numbers as they slowly shuffled towards him. The wolf would pounce on any goblins Callum knocked to the ground and didn't finish off.
Eventually, there were only a dozen goblins left. Their morale was low, they were leaderless, outside of the dungeon, and had watched over 30 of their comrades die. With so few left, their resolve was in the gutter.
One broke and ran for its life. This only served to discourage the remaining goblins even further; which caused another to flee in panic. Soon, a chain reaction followed until all the goblins were running for their lives.
Both Callum and the wolf relentlessly pursued the fleeing goblins. No mercy was given, as the two pursuers soon killed every single goblin that tried to run.
Callum stopped running when he observed the last goblin fall to several claw swipes from the Dire Wolf. The wolf turned to look at him, while Callum warily eyed the animal before him. They had been allies, united in one purpose against the goblins.
Now though, the two unlikely allies silently regarded each other. The wolf started smacking its lips and shaking its head. Callum could feel the tension ratcheting upwards with each passing heartbeat.
"Uhhh . . . good wolfie. Callum's got a treat for you. Just don't eat Callum," He implored as he reached into his bag; he still had his lunch inside it, several cooked strips of deer meat.
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The wolf was licking its mouth, trying to get rid of the foul taste of the bad meats. It had avoided having to bite any of the previous groups of bad meats that it had fought. The last group had many bad meats and was led by two pretender alphas, too many to avoid biting.
The strange one made some mouth sounds while the wolf tried smacking its lips, in a vain attempt to eliminate the lingering taste that gave bad meats their name. The wolf curiously focused its attention on the strange one.
The strange one produced some meat from its dead skin thing and threw it at the wolf's feet. Even before it landed, the wolf's nose told it that it was tasty meat. The young wolf quickly gobbled up the tasty meat that took away the taste of bad meat in its jaws.
The strange one pulled some more meat from the dead skin thing, and threw even more of it on the ground between them. The wolf decided that the dead skin thing was a good thing, if it carried tasty meat.
It gobbled up more tasty meat and tried sniffing the air, it was curious if the good thing held more tasty meat. Satisfied that it didn't, the wolf chuffed to the strange one before taking off. It smelled more bad meats in the wind.
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Callum breathed a sigh of relief as the wolf took off and left him alone. He was hoping that would be the case, but the Dire Wolf was a wild animal and there was no telling if it would turn aggressive.
He glanced back the way he had come; he now had to figure out how to get as much of the dead goblin loot back, with a bag that was already full. And he had to come up with a solution quickly, as the dead bodies of dungeon creatures didn't last long before they vanished.
He would have to prioritize the loot from the Witch Doctors and the Brutes, they were bound to have better stuff than a regular goblin.
'At least I have some time, Rage removed a level from the cold debuff,' Callum thought to himself as he trudged back to where the bodies of the Witch Doctors and Brutes were.