Steel Wolf

Wolf and Witch

Howls and snarls all around. With her back pressed against the wall, fighting for her life, Tanaya saw from the corner of her eye a massive wave of wolves of all colors and sizes, almost as far as the eye could see. The undead faced a new threat, by ones and twos turning to deal with it and forgetting the Guard. What the hell...? Almost all of the guards had stopped to watch the mass of canine death machines, the occasional blade being swung almost as an afterthought. The wolves were attacking only the undead and the demons.

Regaining her composure, Tanaya clawed her way out of the mass of bodies. She made her precarious way back to her original position atop the piles of the undead, her blades of death singing as she went. Reaching the channel through which the horde came, she spied a huge one-armed undead soldier alongside a wild-haired redheaded woman who appeared to be a sorceress. Ducking out of direct line of sight of the woman, Tanaya turned around to survey the battlefield, leaning for a moment on the stone slab at her back. The wolves fought tooth and nail with the undead. Their speed and power were incredible as the wolves tore into the soldiers, ripping them apart swiftly and then moving to the next. The guards went unmolested. Some raised their faceplates to catch a momentary respite, then dropped their faceplates again to fight beside the wolves.

Tanaya took a deep breath, lowered her faceplate and charged back into the fray, a new strength welling within her.

-o0o-

Mynletta stood with the general, watching the battle on the other side of the passage. She caught the moonlight's glint from the blood-and-gore spattered armor of an immense Guard as the figure dashed away, swords whirling to devastate more undead soldiers. She had expected an intense fight, but not a massive loss as this was turning out to be. That food source of a guard had said there were about seventy, Mynletta had over two thousand at her disposal. These people should have been crushed within seconds.

"General, the large one who just ran back into the fight; bring that one to me for questioning."

"Yes, my Mistress," his gravelly voice intoned, as he drew his newly acquired double-curved sword and ran after the receding figure. As he leapt atop the piled bodies, they shifted underfoot, throwing off his balance.

Nearly two hours of constant fighting had inflicted a heavy toll on the mages. A few had retreated inside the protection of the tower to recharge their mental batteries, others just pulled their swords to cut whatever came close. The healers had the most difficulty, as they were reduced to relying on their very basic healing spells, their brains and powers threatening to shut down at any moment.

A healer fired a spell at a guard who had taken a slash across the abdomen. She missed, hitting the undead that had attacked the guard. The undead screamed in pain as his kneecap was blown off. A healing spell doing damage? The healing mage fired the same spell at the same undead soldier, hearing him scream again. It made sense, she thought, they were revived dead and subject to a different set of rules as far as physiology was concerned.

The smallest healing spell inflicted the most damage to the undead. Soon, the air was joined with a new sound as the undead writhed and twisted in sheer pain, the guards also taking advantage of this revelation.

As Tanaya was busy laying waste to the undead, the General picked his way across the piled bodies, swinging his double-curved sword in a slash to her leg. Since her back was to him, she didn't see him. Another defender did, though. Seemingly out of nowhere, a strawberry-and-lilac scented raven-black wolf shot over Tanaya's shoulder, barely missing her head. It slammed into the General's chest, knocking him off his feet. Tanaya sliced the undead she was fighting in two and whirled just as the wolf started to savage the General's throat. He moved his arm beneath the wolf and brushed it aside, sending it flying.