The four Alphas came sprinting out of the city, running right out into the big, open, grassy field with the hordes of angry goblins right behind them. They ran for what must have been another hour or two, it felt like forever and the endless fields of tall grass seemed like they stretched on for ages. Their bodies were sore and exhausted, they couldn't run much longer, and then like a gift from above they spotted a forest ahead of them.
“Oh thank god! Something other then grass!” Estellese breathlessly called out as they ran for the forest. The rest of the group was staying focused on running and did not speak. The four of them ran straight into the forest, cutting off the goblins' vision of them, then thinking fast Mendores made an order.
“Everyone!” He panted. “Climb a tree, quick before the goblins see us. They seem stupid, they won't think to look up in the trees and will run past us. We only have a few seconds.” He panted, then in a flash he jumped up and grabbed onto a branch, then pulled himself up onto it and turned around, holding out a hand to help someone else up.
Estellese was right behind him, she grabbed onto his hand and he helped her pull herself up onto the branch with him. Zanath was right behind her, he jumped at a tree, kicked the bark of the tree and sprang off it, then grabbed onto a high branch and flipped onto it. Kadin was in the back, being the slowest in the group. He jumped up and grabbed onto Mendores' hand and he too was pulled up onto the branch with Mendores and Estellese. Once they were all up the three of them quickly began climbing a bit higher, on the other hand Zanath didn't need to since he was already high enough to be out of sight.
They barely made it up in time, just moments after they climbed up the branches the massive wave of goblins came running past. Just like Mendores predicted, they were not looking up in the trees, they were looking forwards and just running towards where they thought the humans had gone. It felt like it took forever for the whole herd of goblins to run past, once they had all passed the group looked around at each other, and Mendores shook his head, holding his hand up as if to signal “stop”, he wanted to make sure they stayed in the trees for a little while, just in case the goblins came back or in case there was a few lagging behind.
They silently waited up in the trees for about thirty minutes, just to be clear that there was no more goblins going past, or coming back through. “Alright, I think it's all clear.” Mendores finally said before he began climbing down the tree, with Estellese and Kadin following moments after him.
“Alright, we're in a forest now. Now what?” Zanath asked, before jumping straight down from the branches, and tucking into a roll when he landed to break the momentum of the fall without breaking his legs. “Think this will be safer then the city?”
“Well, nothing is attacking us yet. And we don't have a dragon over our heads ringing a dinner bell.” Kadin replied simply, he was still breathing a little heavily from all the running. He just walked over to the base of the tree and collapsed onto his butt, leaning back against the tree.
“We had moments in the city where nothing attacked too though. Doesn't mean we are safe.” Mendores pointed out.
“True.” Kadin replied. “But for the moment, we are in the clear. We should take the time to rest before something else finds us.” He stated.
Mendores shook his head. “We just had thirty minutes of rest, we need to keep moving and find a safe place to hold up before night falls.” He replied. “This forest seems to grow thicker in that direction, which I think is towards the center. We should head that way and see if we can find an area with a lot of trees grouped together that we can use as cover for the night. The tight space will hinder crowds from swarming us, and stop bigger creatures from getting in.”
Estellese nodded briefly and turned to look where Mendores was pointing. “Sounds like a plan. If we can find some supplies to set up a makeshift camp that would be useful too.” She said.
“Come on, we just got away. We can't rest for a while?” Kadin complained as he stood up, knowing very well that they were right, they had to keep moving. Any time spent resting was time not spent finding safety, and every second they weren't finding safety they were putting their lives at risk.
Mendores shook his head and began walking, leading the group. “Yes, we can rest when we find a safe place to set up camp. A place where we won't be ambushed and killed. Or, at least a place that's a little denser and easier to defend then this.” He explained. The group quieted down as they followed his lead into the woods. They walked for a while, it was a nice lull in the constant danger they had been in before.
As they walked deeper into the forest they noticed some odd herb-like plants on the ground. They definitely were not any type of plant from the real world, they had a red stem and thick white leaves. Thinking the plants may be poisonous, and worried that they could be poisonous to the touch like poison ivy the group decided not to touch them. Although Kadin, being Kadin, was rather interested in the odd plants and had picked a few of them.
He was inspecting them closely, the first one he picked apart the stem and ground the leaves down between his fingers, noting that the white leaves left a reddish powder when ground down. The next herb he grabbed then sniffed and bit a small piece of a leaf off. He wasn't really watching where he was going, but thankfully he was in the back of the group so nobody really noticed him tripping and stumbling over tree roots, bumping into trees, and playing with the strange plants. Well, not until he spoke up. “Hey guys, these smell and taste a lot like the healing potions.”
Estellese stopped and turned around, only to see Kadin with one of the white leaves half in his mouth and a leafless stem in his hand. “Seriously? Didn't we just agree not to touch those because they may be poisonous?”
“I dunno, did we? I wasn't really paying attention.” Kadin replied simply.
“Must you try eating every strange thing we find?” Estellese questioned him. “Seriously? You're gonna get yourself killed.”
“Not everything, Only the things that look like they are good for you.” Kadin said simply. “I inspected it first, it smells like the healing potion, and looks like it may be an ingredient to it, there was a powder similar to what the ground leaves look like in the pharmacy. I even feel a little numb after eating a small piece of one. Just a little.”
“Can we please kill him before he dooms us all with his stupidity?” Estellese questioned.
Mendores sighed softly. “Come on you two, no fighting.” He stated. “Kadin, how sure are you that its an ingredient for a healing potion?” He asked.
“About eighty percent sure.” Kadin replied simply “But I would need to test it, and would need more then one to test it, the effects of just one seem to be minimal and hardly noticeable.” He explained.
“Alright, well don't eat any more. We'll figure out what they do later if you're willing to be a test dummy.” Mendores said simply.
Estellese was shocked. “You're joking right? He eats a random plant off the ground and you are going to tell him to eat another later?”
Kadin nodded “Yeah, I'm up for it. I am pretty confident that these are used in the,- DUCK!” he shouted out.
The four of them dropped to the ground as fast as they could, and with a loud swoosh a massive metal battleaxe flew over their heads and slammed into the tree behind them. “What the hell was that?” Estellese questioned. And she got her answer sooner then she may have wanted.
With a loud roar a ten foot tall, half human, half bull, hulking mass of muscle came stomping out from behind the trees on the right side of the group. The minotaur gave them a death glare and snorted loudly as it stomped it's hoof on the ground. They had trespassed into the beast's territory and the beast wanted them out, now.
The group looked down at their weapons, these tiny kitchen knives and fragile clubs, then looked back at the massive beast in front of them. “We probably can't even effectively damage it...” Zanath spoke up. “Bulls have strong hides, these tiny kitchen knives aren't going to do more then scratch it.”
“It's not attacking, I think it just wants us to back off.” Estellese pointed out.
“Then lets do that.” Mendores replied. “Quickly.”
The Minotaur was getting impatient, it slammed its hoof into the ground again and let out a low growl as it suddenly started charging at the group. Causing all four of them to make a mad dash away from the beast. The minotaur gave chase, but only for a few more seconds before it stopped and went back to get its axe.
The group did not turn back, they just continued running as fast as they could to get away. They ran deep into the woods and didn't stop until they were sure that they had run very far away from the beast. They finally came to a stop near the center of the woods, where the trees were all close together, the forest was cramped and hard to maneuver through here.
Mendores slowed down to a walking pace once they arrived, “Alright, spread out a little and find a spot where there's enough space for us to lay down and rest. We don't need a lot of space, I don't see anything around here we can really use to make a tent. Not easily at least. And while you are searching grab as many of those odd red and white plants as you can.”
“Are you sure it's safe to stay here?” Estellese questioned. “If we run into more of those things we could be in a hell of a lot of trouble.” She stated.
Mendores nodded. “The minotaur has hooves, and was pretty big. I don't think it would be able to easily maneuver around this dense area, or slip in between the trees like we do. Plus it was slow, so we should be fine. We will meet back here by night fall, and hope someone found a place for us to stay” He replied before he split off from the group, not going too far, and began searching for a good place for everyone to rest for the night.
Kadin and Estellese also went off their own separate ways, and then Zanath too split from the group and began searching the woods. Out of everyone here he was having the least difficulty traveling through the denser and thicker woods. He scouted through the woods for a while, it was slowly starting to get dark and he knew he was considering heading back to the meeting point soon to find the others. But he suddenly heard a quiet growling coming from his left. He turned a little and spotted three gray wolves slowly stalking towards him. They were bearing their fangs and growling, slowly circling him as the small pack tried to surround him. He grabbed all seven of his knives in one hand and adjusted them so he was holding one between his thumb and pointer finger, and the rest in his palm. His other hand grabbed his makeshift club and he waited for the wolves to make a move. He considered calling for help, but decided that he would be fine on his own.
Suddenly, the wolf in front of him, the leader of the pack, started the attack. The wolf lunged at him, trying to tackle him to the ground. But Zanath was quick to bash the wolf out of the air and onto it's back with the makeshift spiked club. As the wolf flew back he threw one of the knives at it with deadly accuracy, piercing the wolf's throat and killing it with the very first knife he threw.
He heard the other two wolves rushing in to bite his legs and was quick to jump forwards, dropping his club so he could grab onto a tree branch. Then he quickly flipped himself up onto the branch. Once he was safely up on the branch he looked down at the wolves as they growled at him, and he threw the rest of his knives, three at each of the wolves. The first wolf was struck with all three, once in the shoulder, once in the back, and once in the back of the neck. That wolf yelped in pain and collapsed to the ground, not dead but too wounded to keep fighting.
The second wolf was only hit by one, straight in the center of its back. Once the first knife hit the wolf quickly jumped out of the way of the rest and then returned to growling at Zanath. Zanath took the two duffel bags off his back, so he wouldn't be weighed down by them as much, and dropped them down to the ground. Then he jumped down from the branch, tucking into a roll as he hit the ground and sweeping his club up off the ground as he rolled. Of course, the wolf jumped on top of him immediately and pinned him down onto his back, but right as the wolf went to bite him he shoved the side of his makeshift club into the wolf's mouth to stop it from biting. As the wolf struggled and tried to bite the club, Zanath reached around and grabbed the knife from the wolf's back with his other hand. Then in one swift motion he yanked the knife out of the wolf's back, and stabbed it back into the side of the wolf's head.
With the three wolves either dead or incapacitated, Zanath stood up and recollected his knives. He picked up his bags, and he finished off the wounded wolf by quickly cutting it's throat. He didn't want it to suffer with it's wounds, and he knew it wouldn't survive either way. He frowned a little as he looked over the three dead wolves, he was a bit sad that he had to kill them but he shook it off. This was a game, as real as it felt they were not real. He grabbed his things and went to meet the others back at the meeting point.
–
He didn't need to wait too long before the others arrived, everyone pretty much came back around the same time. Estellese was already back when Zanath returned. She looked up at him and asked “Did you find anything?”
“Just the plants.” Zanath replied simply, choosing to leave out his encounter with the wolves. “You?” He asked.
“I found a place we can probably stay, and more of those plants. They are all over the place.” Estellese replied simply. And as she spoke she spotted Mendores returning to the camp.
Mendores smiled a bit “Good because I didn't find anything other then the plants. So we are just missing Kadin then?” He asked.
“Of course, he probably did something stupid and got himself killed.” Estellese remarked.
“You don't like him much, do you?” Mendores chuckled.
“He's cocky! And annoying as hell!” Estellese protested.
Mendores chuckled softly and after a moment Kadin returned to the group with a handful of the odd plants. “Welcome back,” Mendores greeted “Estell has found a place for us to camp out for the night. We're going to head there now. Lead the way Estell” He said.
Estellese nodded and lead the way to a tiny clearing that was surrounded by bushes and thickly settled trees that made getting into it difficult. The group slipped into the tiny clearing, there wasn't a ton of space but there was enough for everyone.
“I wonder why the trees didn't grow here.” Kadin mused. But when everyone else shrugged he just sat down in the middle of the clearing and began grinding up some more of the oddly colored herbs in his hands. He couldn't grind them up too well, it took forever, but he was grinding up several of them.
“You going to give the herbs a test? See if they work?” Mendores asked. To which Kadin simply nodded. “Alright, I'll help out then.” Mendores added as he sat down near kadin and he too began grinding up a few herbs.
Zanath and Estellese wandered off to different sides of the clearing, both of them were looking for a semi comfortable place to sleep while Kadin and Mendores prepared a few of the herbs. For a little while the group was quiet. After a few minutes enough of the herbs were ground up into a sort of a powder. With that said and done Kadin took one of his knives and carefully made a small cut on his arm, then he took the ground up herbs he had in his palm and then he dumped them into one of the bottles of water Zanath had brought, and then he quickly chugged down all the water.
“The potions took five minutes to work.” Kadin said, just in case they had forgotten.
Mendores nodded “I know. We'll keep a close eye on you until then. Just to make sure nothing bad happens.” He said. “Not that there's much we can do if something bad does come from drinking those.” He added.
Kadin nodded a little “I am pretty sure they are ingredients in the potions. I should be okay. If not then I'll figure something out.” He said.
Mendores nodded, and within a minute or so Kadin went numb and had to lay down. The group remained relatively quiet for the next few minutes. They were all a little worried about what would happen. The five minutes felt like they dragged on forever, but by the end of the five minutes the cut had healed and Kadin was back on his feet. “It works, these are used for potions.” He stated. “Lets get another one ready for Estell, so we can heal up her burns.”
“Already got one. Ground up several more herbs and put them into a bottle while you were making yours.” Mendores replied as he tossed the water bottle that had the ground herbs mixed in it to Estellese, who caught it and cautiously inspected the red water.
“So, just drink it all? And thanks.” Estellese replied. When she got a nod from the others she drank the entire bottle as fast as she could and laid down, waiting for it to work. In five minutes her hands were healed and the burns were gone.
With everyone in good health and the group in a semi safe area they all found a place to lay down and went to sleep for the night. One person at a time would take shifts watching over the camp for a few hours each. Mendores took the first shift, then Estellese, then Zanath.
On Zanath's shift he was looking up at the full moon, he could just barely see it through the trees. He stood up when he suddenly heard a wolf's howl in the distance. Followed by another howl moments later, then another, and another, it sounded like there was a ton of wolves surrounding them. Thankfully it was just wolves, but there was so many that it concerned him when he heard the howls and nearby growling steadily getting closer. It was getting a little too close for comfort.
“Guys, wake up. We may have to fight a few wolves.” Zanath said, repeating the words several times as he quickly rushed to each of his new allies and shook them to wake them. Once everyone was awake and standing together he looked up at them. “I hear a lot of wolves around us and they are getting closer. But I took three of them out earlier, they are easy. We should have no problem standing our ground.” He explained.
“You killed three of them by yourself? Nice.” Estellese replied as the group grabbed their weapons again and prepared for the fight ahead of them.
There was another howl, this one sounding very close to the edge of the clearing. The group turned to face the source of the noise, they could see the bushes moving as something came closer. Then, all of a sudden, some furry, human-sized creature came dashing out from the trees. It was moving so incredibly fast that it was just a blur, and in a split second the beast went from the woods to standing two feet away from the four humans. It swiped it's claw at Zanath who attempted to block with his makeshift club, but it was useless. The beast was so strong that it splintered the wooden club into pieces, knocking Zanath backwards a few feet with the force of the blow.
The group looked up to see a six foot tall humanoid standing on two legs. It had a human torso, arms, and legs but had a wolf's head, and paws for hands and feet with a long tail while it's entire body was covered in fur. It was a werewolf and it was not alone, moments later three more werewolves began running out from the trees. They were surrounded.
Moving quick Kadin lunged in and stabbed the werewolf in the side of the neck with his knives. He jumped back as the werewolf spun around and swiped its claws at him, narrowly dodging the attack. He thought he had landed a good blow in there, the werewolf was bleeding very badly. But as the werewolf turned on him and began walking towards him he watched as the wounds on the beast's neck slowly healed. Within just a few seconds the werewolf had fully recovered. “They heal! We can't damage them!” Kadin called out as he dove to the side to evade another slash from the werewolf's claws.
“Well we can't outrun them, they are too damn fast!” Estellese countered as she turned to the other incoming werewolves, along with Zanath and Mendores. The four of them were almost standing back to back.
“Get to a tree, maybe they won't be able to reach us up in a tree!” Mendores called out as he watched the werewolves slowly approaching and surrounding them.
“Are you crazy? How are we going to make it to the trees before we get mauled?” Estellese countered.
Mendores stepped up to take the lead again. “Run as a group, cover each other's backs. Whoever is attacked needs to dodge, and someone else needs to strike their attacker. Just knock the attacker away and keep running. Go!”
The group began to run, but as they did one of the surrounding werewolves lunged for Estellese. But Estellese was quick to dive out of the way while Kadin bashed the werewolf aside. They immediately continued running for the trees. They couldn't even move five feet before the werewolves were on top of them again. One lunged for Mendores but was quickly bashed away by Estellese. A second one attempted to tackle Zanath but Zanath ducked underneath it and thrust a knife up into its stomach as the werewolf flew over his head. He lost his knife, but he just grabbed a new one from his belt.
There was just so many of them though, another wolf lunged at Estellese, but she was quick to dive out of the way and Kadin followed up the attack by slamming his makeshift club down into the werewolf's head, knocking it to the ground. But immediately after he struck that wolf another wolf jumped onto Kadin's back and pinned him to the ground, but in a flash both Mendores and Estellese slammed into the werewolf's side and shoved it off Kadin. But as soon as they did two more werewolves were already moving in on the three of them and a third werewolf was rushing after Zanath.
Zanath was quick to jump backwards to avoid the lunge of the werewolf that was attacking him, and skillfully flung one of his knives at one of the werewolves that was going after his three allies. Striking it in the Achilles tendon in the back of the werewolf's leg, sending that werewolf tumbling to the ground. The other werewolf lunged for Mendores but as planned Mendores dove out of the way and Kadin was quick to bash the werewolf with his makeshift club and knock it backwards a little.
They finally made it to the trees, which hadn't even been that far away. But another problem quickly arose, the wolves were attacking too fast for them to climb up the tree. Zanath tried jumping up and kicking off the tree like he had done before, but another werewolf lunged at him while he was in mid jump and swatted him out of the air with it's claws. Leaving a deep cut in his side and slamming him right back to the ground, causing him to shout out in pain. Before the werewolf could cause him any further harm Estellese rushed over to attack the werewolf from the side, and shoved the werewolf away. As it stumbled back she quickly grabbed the back of Zanath's shirt and yanked him back up onto his feet as fast as she could. She barely made it in time before another werewolf was in front of her and taking a slash at her head.
Estellese couldn't dodge fast enough, she let out a yelp and in a panic she lifted her club in an attempt to block. But the werewolf's claw slammed into her club so hard it just snapped her club in half and went straight through her block, causing her to move her arms in front of the werewolf's claws as fast as she could to protect her head. She screamed out in pain as the werewolf's claws dug deep into her arms and she was thrown back against the tree from the force of the hit. Kadin and Mendores both were quick to rush in and bash the werewolf who was attacking Estellese away with their clubs, but things were turning bad, fast.
Mendores took a defensive stance between Estellese and Zanath, and the werewolves. “You two, get up the tree, as fast as you can. Kadin, help me cover them.” He instructed, watching as Kadin came up beside him to try and cover the others, and as the other two did their best to start climbing the tree. But they were greatly slowed down by their wounds. One of the werewolves tried to run past Mendores to reach the two wounded fighters but Mendores was quick to slam his makeshift club into the werewolf's kneecap, knocking the beast to the ground with a loud crack and a howl of pain. A second werewolf lunged for Mendores, but Kadin was quick to grab his arm and pull Mendores out of the way, then promptly slammed his makeshift club down onto the werewolf's head. Another werewolf lunged for Mendores but Mendores slammed his club up into its jaw, knocking it onto its back. And as the fourth and final werewolf lunged for Kadin he quickly dove out of the way.
They still hadn't even left a scratch on a single werewolf, the ones they struck down just got right back up within a few seconds of being knocked down. But by now Zanath and Estellese were safely up in the tree. “Kadin you're next. Go!” Mendores called out.
“No way, you can't take them all on yourself. And you can't climb fast enough to get up there with them all attacking you. You first” Kadin countered.
“Kadin just go!” Mendores argued as he dove out of the way of another werewolf.
“No. I'm not going until you do. I can climb faster.” Kadin argued.
Mendores could tell that Kadin was going to be stubborn and was not going to give in, and they did not have time to sit here and argue. “Fine, just be careful.” Mendores insisted as he ran to the tree and started climbing up.
Kadin was doing his best to hold out against all of them alone, but without help he could not afford to make a single mistake. He had nobody covering his back, nobody to save him if he got pinned. He jumped to the side to evade the lunge of one werewolf, and barely managed to sidestep a slash from another werewolf. As a third werewolf came in he stumbled backwards to avoid the blow, but then as the first one rushed in to attack again he was forced to parry the attack with his makeshift club. He used the club to try to block and then push away the werewolf's attack, since he didn't directly block the attack and instead pushed it away it didn't break his club and he successfully pushed the attack away from himself.
But then the second werewolf lunged at him, pinning Kadin to the ground. Kadin shouted in pain as the werewolf's claws dug into his shoulders and cussed loudly as he was pinned. He had no way of getting the werewolf off himself, it was much stronger then he was. The werewolf opened it's mouth and moved in to bite his throat, then suddenly there was a loud metallic clang and the werewolf was knocked off of him. He looked over to see that Zanath had thrown the heavy bag full of canned foods down at the werewolf and struck it in the side of the head.
“Get up here! Now!” Mendores called out as he reached the higher branches in the tree, then leaned down and held out a hand to try and help pull Kadin up faster.
Kadin sprung back onto his feet as fast as he could and made a mad dash for the tree. The other three werewolves rushed after him, and would have caught him long before he reached the tree. But Zanath was quick to throw three knives down, and with pinpoint accuracy hit all three werewolves in the face with a knife, which made them recoil in pain and slowed them down just long enough for Kadin to reach the tree.
Kadin jumped up and grabbed Mendores' hands, but as Mendores tried to pull him up the werewolves recovered from their knife wounds and two of them grabbed onto Kadin's legs, digging their claws into him and tearing at his legs. Kadin shouted out in pain and Mendores tried to pull him up but the werewolves were holding him down and trying to pull him back. The more both sides pulled, the more the claws tore up Kadin's legs. “Get them off! Quick!” Mendores called out.
“I can only reach one of them! My view of the other one is blocked” Zanath called out, but he promptly threw a knife down into the face of one werewolf. The werewolf howled in pain but refused to let go and instead dug its claws deeper into Kadin's leg, causing Kadin to scream out in pain. Zanath quickly threw a second knife down at the werewolf's face, again to no effect. When that didn't work and he realized he only had one knife left he knew he had to try something different. He needed something heavier to knock the werewolf off Kadin and he didn't have anything he could throw that they didn't need.
Zanath took a deep breath, and quickly calculated his move in his head, then suddenly he jumped down off the branch and landed right on the werewolf's shoulders, slamming his feet down onto the werewolf as hard as he could as he landed. He used the werewolf as a springboard, slamming it down to the ground while jumping off it and back up into the tree. He whimpered in pain from the movement, the slash in his side made moving extremely painful, but that wasn't all. The wound also slowed him down, it stopped him from jumping as high as he normally could. As he jumped up and reached out to grab the branch to get back up, it was just out of his reach, and he started to fall back down.
In a flash, something grabbed onto Zanath's arm, catching him before he fell too far. He looked up to see Estellese, who was now screaming in pain as she tried to hold him up with her torn up arms. “Get up! Quick! I can't hold you for long!” Estellese shouted out, her voice wavering in pain.
Zanath grabbed onto Estellese's arms, but realized that the other werewolf was still clinging onto Kadin's leg. “I'm sorry!” He said quickly, before he swung himself at the other werewolf and slammed his heel down into the werewolf's elbow, causing the werewolf to howl out in pain as it's elbow was broken, and forcing the beast to let go with that arm. But the swinging also pulled Estellese's arms and made her scream in pain again. Zanath then cringed in pain as he pulled himself up her arm and grabbed onto the branch they were sitting on, then let her go and pulled himself onto the branch. He only just barely pulled his legs up in time to avoid being grabbed by another werewolf who replaced the one he knocked down
Meanwhile, once Zanath knocked one werewolf off Kadin and knocked one of the other werewolf's arm away, Mendores took that moment to pull Kadin up. He yanked Kadin's arms as hard as he could. The werewolf was still clutching his leg with one of its claws, and that claw tore into Kadin's leg as Mendores pulled, but with it only having one hand grasping Kadin, Kadin was pulled out of the werewolf's grip and up onto the branch with Mendores.
Everyone was finally up in the tree, just out of the werewolves' reach. But it wasn't over, the werewolves couldn't jump as high as the humans could, but they instead moved to the base of the tree and dug their claws into the bark, then began climbing up.
“No... They can climb trees? You're kidding me...” Mendores panted out, then turned to look back at his three wounded friends. None of them were in any condition to fight.
“How the hell do they expect anyone to survive in this game?” Estellese nearly shouted.
“We need to climb higher, it's the only place we can go.” Mendores stated.
“Are you crazy?” Kadin groaned. “I can't move my legs, they are torn up too much.” He stated, his voice was weak and laced with pain. His legs were in very bad shape and he was losing a lot of blood. “Blood loss is setting in, I am lightheaded and my vision is slowly going black.”
“We have no choice, up is the only way we can go. Use your arms if you can't move your legs.” Mendores stated before he grabbed Kadin and lifted him up near a higher branch.
Kadin whimpered in pain but caught onto the plan quickly and grabbed onto the branch, then pulled himself up. Thankfully the werewolves could not climb nearly as fast as they could run.
“Estell, grab onto my back, I'll carry you up.” Mendores instructed, being the only one who wasn't wounded he had to help everyone else get up. There was no way Estellese could continue climbing fast enough with her arms torn up like this.
“You sure?” Estellese questioned, but when he nodded and crouched down she got onto his back and he stood back up, giving her a piggyback ride. “Zanath, come up right after me.” Mendores stated before he started climbing up the tree as fast as he could with Estellese on his back. He was struggling to climb with her added weight, but thankfully he was strong enough to climb relatively fast. And Zanath was right behind him, struggling to move with his wounds but pushing through the pain and climbing as fast as he could.
Mendores and Zanath climbed right past the branch Kadin was on, going up the tree without him. Mendores, as he passed by the branch he ganced at Kadin “I will be back for you Kadin. Estell, keep an eye on him.” Mendores ordered.
“Got it.” Estellese replied. She looked down at Kadin and the werewolves that were closing in. She watched as they climbed higher and higher, but the werewolves were slowly closing in on Kadin. Kadin grabbed his club and was trying to swat them down, but the blood loss was making him weak, he couldn't put enough force into his swings to knock them down. Estellese bit her lip, then acted as fast as she could. She pulled her duffel bag of food off her back, using her legs to hold onto Mendores, then threw the duffel bag down at the werewolves as hard as her wounded arms would allow. Her bag was full of food, mostly cans, and that made the bag heavy. As it struck the first wolf in the head it hit hard enough to knock the werewolf off the tree, which in turn made the werewolf fall and knock all the werewolves underneath itself off the tree too. But all the werewolves just got right back on the tree and started climbing back up.
Mendores finally reached the highest branches that could support their weight. He quickly put Estellese down on a branch and immediately started climbing back down as fast as he could. He was about halfway down when he realized that the werewolves were getting a little too close to Kadin again, they could almost reach him. He grit his teeth, he didn't want to throw away even more of their food, but he had no choice. He pulled his bag of food off his shoulders and hurled it down at the top werewolf. But as the bag fell down towards the werewolf the beast let go of the tree with one hand and swatted the bag away, it was not going to fall for the same trick twice.
The werewolf that was the highest up on the tree grabbed onto the branch that Kadin was sitting on, Kadin was repeatedly hitting it in the head and hands with his spiked club but his body was too weak from blood loss. The werewolf was just completely ignoring his feeble attempts to knock it down, it was hanging from the branch and was slowly starting to pull itself up.
Mendores saw his bag miss, and saw how close the werewolf was. There was no way he could climb down fast enough to get there in time, he was too far up the tree. He cussed lightly under his breath, then in a reckless attempt to save Kadin, he let go of the tree and fell. He was not even close to being as agile as Zanath, he couldn't pull off the fancy tricks Zanath did. As he fell he grabbed onto the branch Kadin was sitting on to break his fall, with a loud pop and a shout of pain he felt one of his shoulders break as his shoulders ended up taking the impact of the fall, and his hands were cut up on the tree bark. It was far too big of a jump to simply catch yourself like that. But that didn't stop Mendores, as soon as he grabbed the branch he swung forwards and kicked the werewolf that was hanging from the branch as hard as he could in the chest, with both of his feet, Knocking the werewolf off the tree and right back down to the ground. The fall knocked the werewolf out, and it seemed like the werewolf did not recover from unconsciousness as fast as it recovered from everything else.
Mendores cringed in pain as he pulled himself up onto the branch and looked down at his hands, they were covered in blood but he couldn't tell if it was his own or if it was from one of his friends. It felt like his hands were cut up by the branch though, so he assumed it was his own. The second werewolf grabbed onto the branch now that the first one had been knocked off, and it too started pulling itself up onto the branch.
“Lets go.” Mendores said as he crouched down and let Kadin grab onto his back. As soon as Kadin was holding on he began climbing the tree again, as fast as he could. He was exhausted, and in severe pain from his broken shoulder and torn up hands, but running off adrenaline he was pushing through the pain and climbing fast. The werewolves were quickly falling behind, thankfully they were very slow climbers.
Mendores made it almost all the way to the top, but then suddenly he felt Kadin leaning back and felt Kadin's grip slowly loosening. Kadin had lost too much blood, he passed out and was no longer holding on, he was slowly slipping off Mendores' back. “Get a potion made up for Kadin! Now! Have Estellese drink one too, but get Kadin's down here first!” Mendores shouted up to the others, who were about fifteen feet above him. He grabbed Kadin to stop him from falling off and quickly moved onto the nearest branch where he leaned Kadin up against the trunk of the tree, he couldn't both hold Kadin up and climb at the same time.
“On it.” Zanath called out as him and Estellese quickly grabbed some of their herbs and began grinding them up as best as they could, then they would to mix them into two water bottles.
The werewolves were slowly catching up and getting close, Mendores gripped his club tightly and was prepared to swing if they got in range.
“Done! Catch!” Zanath called out. He waited for Mendores to put the club down and look up before Zanath tossed the water bottle potion down to him. Mendores went to catch the bottle, but with his hands being so torn up and numb from the climb, and his hands also being covered in blood and slippery, when he tried to grab the bottle he couldn't grab onto it tightly enough and it slipped right out of his hand, falling down to the ground at the bottom of the tree.
“Carry it down Zanath!” Estellese shouted at him in a panic. She handed him the bottle she had made for herself then quickly got to work on making another one. They had collected a lot of herbs, but it was only enough for about ten or so potions, that was the second one they made and it was wasted, and they were going to need four more to heal everyone. They were going to run out in no time at this rate.
Zanath took the bottle from Estellese and put it in one of his pockets, then quickly began climbing down the tree as fast as his wounds would let him.
The werewolves were starting to reach the branch now though, the one that was the highest up on the tree grabbed onto the branch and started pulling itself up. Mendores grabbed his club, and then grabbed Kadin's too, holding one in each hand. Then he started wildly smashing the spiked clubs into the werewolf's head and hands repeatedly, as fast and hard as he could. The werewolf howled in pain and was struggling to hold on and trying to pull itself up, but it was getting wounded faster then it could recover. After many hits, it's hands became too torn up to keep a grip on the branch and it fell all the way back down to the ground, it too was knocked out and did not get back up, for now. But the other two were not far behind.
Zanath reached the branch Kadin and Mendores were on, and quickly rushed over to Kadin. Pouring the drink into his mouth and forcing the unconscious man to swallow it. Meanwhile the second wolf grabbed onto the branch and Mendores began bashing it's head and hands just like he did to the last one. It again took many hits to bring it down, but it eventually lost its grip and fell to the ground, being knocked out by the impact like all of the others.
The last of the werewolves saw the failures of the other two and tried a different tactic. Instead of climbing onto the branch everyone was on, it started climbing onto a nearby one, out of Mendores' reach. Once it was up on the limb it turned to the humans who were across from it then jumped across to their branch, landing in between Mendores and Zanath.
The werewolf swiped its claws for Zanath's head, but Zanath ducked under the swing and carefully took a step back to get some distance. Mendores stepped forwards and slammed both clubs into the werewolf's side, trying to knock it off the branch, he made it stumble but it didn't fall. Zanath saw his opportunity as the werewolf stumbled, he dove forwards and tackled the werewolf, throwing both himself and the werewolf right off the branch.
As they fell, Zanath grabbed onto one of the first branches he fell past and caught himself. He shouted in pain as the slash in his side was torn open even more and just hung there for a moment, watching the werewolf fall the rest of the way to the ground where it too was knocked out and joined the others in laying at the base of the tree. Zanath pulled himself up onto the branch and collapsed onto it, panting heavily. His wound was just a slash in the side, but he too was starting to feel the effects of blood loss setting in.
But, they were safe for now. With the werewolves out of the way Mendores laid back on his own branch, panting for air. Once the five minutes were up and her wounds were healed, Estellese made two new potions and climbed down, passing one to both Mendores and Zanath. But she noticed that Kadin's five minutes were up, and his wounds had not completely healed. They were mostly healed, but there was still a few deep cuts and scrapes. Thankfully, he took the potion before he bled to death, but it was a very close call.
“Hey, the potion didn't heal Kadin all the way.” Estellese pointed out.
Mendores shrugged and shook his head after taking a look. “I don't know...” He said breathlessly. “His legs were really badly torn up, maybe there's a limit to how much damage the potions can fix. We'll give him another one, maybe that will heal the rest.” He stated.
And that was what they did, a second potion was able to heal Kadin the rest of the way, and after that they went back to sleep up in the tree for what was left of the night. Each of them would take shifts in keeping watch over the others, including Kadin when he woke up.
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