It was a new record, he was certain of it. Only a few seconds inside of the beacon and he had already lost himself. And so, just as it always went, he could only watch as his body moved on its own and started to hack at the wolves with reckless abandon.
He was a prisoner of his flesh, trapped for reasons beyond him and all he could think of at that moment, was how this could actually save him. It was no secret that he laughably weak for a Sleeper. That state, as chaotic as it made him, usually enhanced his chances of survival. This time was not different.
He dodged the furious attacks of his opponents, but only by a hair's length. He could feel the claws nearly tear apart his arms, but each time they missed. The number of wolves had thinned out in an instant, but the momentum the two sleepers had a moment ago had already disappeared.
The wolves circled around them, unsure as to when they should strike. It was Seneos that rushed forward first, unable to really plan his approach as he could not control himself in the slightest. Surprisingly, Hojosa was not far behind. It seemed that the man gave as much importance to strategy as a body working on pure instincts.
Seneos winced and retreated in haste as he felt a scalding heat to his right. At least, this confirmed which role Hojosa filled in his group. The man was a mage, and one who fought unlike anything Seneos had ever seen, despite having spent countless hours watching his betters on poorly filmed videos.
He wasn't certain he understood how a close-quarter mage was even supposed to work, but this unorthodox fighting style yielded immense results. Those were nothing more than simple wolves. Like all animals, they had a natural fear of fire. They could not get close to Hojosa, but he had no hesitation on his part.
What he did could even be called dancing, rather than attacking. Balancing his body on his hands, Hojosa threw kick after kick as he moved across the gigantic room that served as an entrance to the beacon. The ceiling was held by two rows of ivory pillars, and Hojosa used them as support to launch himself at the exhausted creatures. Attacking constantly was not exactly a sound strategy after all. But then again, even if they had been in their best shape, they could not possibly dodge the human-shaped bullet that came hurling toward them.
Seneos was not quite slacking on his part and kept harassing the wolves that kept to the back of the group. He was unsure if they were trying to flee or if fear had paralyzed them, but his body seemed to have decided to take advantage of their momentary pose. He leapt on one of them, running his dagger through its throat from left to right. If he could have, Seneos would have certainly whined at how difficult the blood would be to clean. He would have worn something with shorter sleeves had he known this would happen.
But to his shock, his body froze. It stopped in its onslaught to glare at one of the wolves. Far bigger than the rest and with an attitude that allowed no fear to surface. It slowly approached the weakest of the two Sleepers. Its eyes kept changing targets. It was making sure that the fire-wielding maniac a few meters away was not coming after it for the moment.
Seneos knew that it wasn't fear that had forced its body to cease all movements. He wasn't sure fear still affected him when he was so removed from his own flesh. As though he had become a beast himself, his body was simply gauging its opponent. Had he been in control, he would have already been running as far away from the wolf as possible, yet all he could do at the moment was evaluate in a panic, his chances of survival. Not of victory, mind you, for he knew he could not possibly defeat this foe with a dagger that would probably break if it clashed against anything harder than the soft skin of the wolves.
Another trail of saliva left his mouth as his eyes focused on the movements of the creature. Perhaps calling himself an animal in that state was already too much of a compliment. Even animals did not act as such.
A growl warned him of what was to come, and a second later, the wolf made its move. It was faster than Seneos could follow, and his body would not move faster than he normally could just because he was not in control. He bore the full brunt of the attack and was sent skipping towards one of the pillars. Luckily enough, something far softer reached him first.
Hojosa had caught him right before he could break his entire body against the ivory pillar, but the troubles had only just started. The enormous wolf was not alone, and at least six of its brethren were still alive. There could be more lurking in the shadows, after all the room was incoherently big and had no other sources of light than the beacon.
Perhaps the mage was simply too full of himself, or perhaps Seneos had been unlucky enough to team up with an imbecile, but the man did not seem to catch just how bad the situation had become. Mages were not meant to last in combat. They had little to no endurance and could not take hard hits. While this specific mage was more focused on close combat, he still made use of spells that were originally designed to be used at a distance. He was simply using them in a unique, or quite frankly wrong, way.
He could not handle six wolves and their leader at the same time. At the very least not without dangerously draining his own reserve of magic. If any other threats were to appear after this encounter, the odds of survival were not looking all that bright.
That is why Seneos had to get up. He had to serve more of a purpose in this battle, surpass himself for once. Slashing at random directions with a poorly made dagger had always been the only thing he could do, and suffice to say that had never been all that impressive. But if he could shine before a much more competent Sleeper, perhaps he could finally share some of the spotlight. One could dream. That certainly looked more like a dream than a possible situation at the moment. The wolf was massive, and its body had definitely broken something when it impacted against his.
" You might want to lay down for the next minutes. Would look bad on my resume if I caused someone's death, ya know? Also, what the fuck was that? You looked like you were there...And yet not there? Once again, it's quite shady." Hojosa whispered to him, crouching to grab something Seneos could not see.
Oh, right. He had dropped his dagger. He did not know what Hojosa even thought he could achieve with it, but he was not against letting him have it for now.
Anything would be acceptable if it saved his hide.