"Hahahahaha."
A hysterical laugh completely overshadowed the dying man's muffled screams.
"How does it feel? Does it hurt," Callum stopped laughing to ask the man below him.
Obviously the man couldn't respond to him and was only capable of a muffled scream, but that didn't stop the arsonist from speaking.
"Tsk. Tsk. You should have let me kill that omen. If you hadn't stopped me, this wouldn't be happening right now."
If the man below him wasn't in so much pain, he'd be livid because he had done nothing to stop Callum from killing Marcus. All he'd done was lead Jerome to him and the two of them started fighting. How exactly was the detection mage responsible for him losing his arm.
Eventually, the man's muffled screams were no longer heard as his eyes grew dull. One of his hands had even fallen to the side as it lay burned beside him.
"No. No. NOO! You can't die yet!"
Callum removed his hands from the man's face to reveal a sickening image. The detection mage no longer had a mouth, and you could see parts of his bones and jaw now with black and peeled-back-cracked skin.
Callum stopped the spell and turned the man over onto his back to assess him.
He didn't want the man to die yet, he still had more anger and frustration to vent out.
As Callum was doing this, it seemed Marcus had finished what it was he was doing.
'Hm. This isn't what I was expecting. But I think I can work with this.'
Marcus opened his palms to reveal a small black object. At a closer look the black object was in the shape of a bird and said bird was an eerie black color that seemed to blend in perfectly with the surrounding darkness.
"A crow huh... Just like dad's," Marcus whispered despondently.
Shaking his head to rid himself of his melancholic thoughts, Marcus looked up to access the battlefield. No one was paying him any attention as Callum sat over the detection mage trying to slap him awake, and the other mage still stood there watching as it happened.
'Good. With one of them gone I should be able to escape now. One detection mage was bad enough, but two would be impossible to escape from,' Marcus thought. 'I just need to get up and get away while they aren't focused on me, but it's too dangerous with that fire mage still here so I'll need a distraction.'
As if to answer Marcus's prayers, two individuals came from Marcus's left where the terrified detection mage now stood.
'Perfect!'
"What the hells happened here," one of the men who entered asked.
"...I dunno' but look over there."
The two men looked in the direction of the fire mage who was now slapping the face of a man who seemed to be lacking a mouth.
"Oi! What the hell're ya doin?!"
At this, Callum, the man who'd been slapping the man below him, looked over in the direction of the man who had just shouted at him. His appearance was still demonic and the crazed arsonist had blood dripping all over him.
Callum stopped slapping the man to stand up and observed the two burly-looking men who'd just arrived. His maniacal expression became slightly more reserved and serious. He recognized the two men before him were about as strong as he and Jerome and could prove a serious threat to him if they were start fighting right now.
However, once again, his emotions overcame his reason as Callum shouted insults at the two burly men.
"I don't know why you two gorillas are here but I don't care. Either get lost or get fried. Choose," Callum stated as orbs of orange mana began to appear beside his arm.
"Tom did ya hear what I heard?"
"Yeah Jerry I did, looks like the little firecracker wants ta' tango."
The mage who'd once been frozen in terror only now noticed the men that arrived behind him. As he looked between the two men and Callum, who were now about to face off, he realized he stood directly between the two groups. Noticing this, he slowly inched away towards Marcus's direction in hopes of avoiding another confrontation.
'Screw this, I'm not staying here any longer just to end up like that other guy. I'm getting outta-'
Before the scared detection mage could finish his thoughts, several howls were heard all around him.
Everyone, including Marcus all looked up and around them to find what it was that had howled just now, and he was answered by the sound of dozens of growls that came from where Callum, Tom, and Jerry were now about to face off.
The three men instantly took up more defensive positions in preparation for what was about to come at them.
Soon enough, a dozen bright lights appeared from within the barren and dark forest to form a semi circle around the three men who were about to square off. As the bright lights drew closer to the three men, the appearances of the lights were soon revealed for all to see.
"Grrrrrr..."
*Bark* *Bark* *Bark*
The image of several orange wolves came into view as they slowly approached. The fact that the wolves were orange was already a unique sight to see, but it wasn't what caught everyone's attention the most. What did however, was the medium sized fires that were on the ends of all their tails and the small flames that were lit around all four of their paws.
Every time the wolves took a step, the ground below their paws would instantly catch fire, and so they left trails of small flames flickering behind them as they walked. Luckily the area where the group now stood was lacking trees and greenery because otherwise they'd have all been burned down as the wolves moved closer and closer to the human's they'd now cornered.
"Dammit, it's vandals."
"Shoulda' known we'd run into these mutts when we got to this end of the forest," Jerry said after Tom's previous remark on the name of the wolves around them.
Marcus took notice of what the two men spoke about the foreign beast that he'd never encountered.
'Vandals huh.'
While everyone else was eyeing the wolves cautiously, Callum had turned to look in Marcus's direction.
'Crap'
As soon as Marcus noticed he now had the mad man's attention he slowly and painfully got back up to his feet to meet the man's gaze. He'd recovered enough to stand and at most could limp away when the time came.
A strange silence took hold over the surroundings as the wolves eyed each and every one of the humans around them hungrily, Tom and Jerry both stood back to back prepared to fight, the frightened detection mage moved closer to the duo in hopes of being protected, and Callum and Marcus continued to stare at one another silently.
The silence was frightening with so many glares coming from so many directions. No one knew who would attack who and who would break the stalemate. It was like the calm before the storm and no one had the mind to break it.
Well, no one except Callum.
As soon as the final wolves entered within striking range, Callum disregarded everything and everyone to lunge at Marcus, and this seemed to act as the beginning of the battle as the fighting ensued.
The wolves seemed to recognize the strongest of the humans, so ten wolves out of the twelve charged at Tom and Jerry who were without a doubt the strongest and most able men present. The last two wolves charged after the mad man who initiated the fight to kill him while he was still so badly injured.
Tom and Jerry both jumped into action as each pulled a spear and a sword out from their respective sheathes to deflect a claw strike each from two wolves that jumped at them. While doing so, they moved to form a barricade around the defenseless detection mage from earlier.
"Damn that hot-head. We gotta finish up here quick, or he's gonna steal the gold for himself."
"Shut up and focus idiot, forget bout' the gold and make sure this weakling doesn't die. The vandals already sent two of their own after the prick. No way he'll reach the omen before they reach him, and I doubt he has the strength ta' even fight em', Jerry spoke to Tom as he parried another wolf that had lunged at him. "And I guarantee ya' that omen'll' find some way outta' this mess. His kind's slippery and we'll need this spineless coward's help to track em, so don't let him die either."
Jerry spoke the final statement while pointing a thumb backwards to the frightened detection mage behind him. The mage was grateful the two were protecting him and made sure to position himself as close to the spearman and swordsman as possible while also trying to avoid any wolves that came to close.
Meanwhile, Callum was running after Marcus like a madman. He was moving pretty fast for a man who'd been so heavily injured, but Marcus expected as much so he got ready.
Marcus moved his hand up to his shoulder and the tiny crow he'd created perched itself on it. As he did this, he looked behind the fast approaching Callum and noticed two vandals charging directly behind him. Marcus had recovered enough to stand but this hardly constituted him being ready for a fight.
However, it didn't seem he'd have much of a choice in the matter as he uttered a single word in sarcasm.
'Perfect...'