"I'm coming!" Jack screamed. "Watch where you shoot, I'm coming!"

Words Jack desperately yelled as he raced for the sight of nearly two dozen swarming bodies, brilliant heat images lighting up in his mind's eye as opposed to the far cooler ground, and the dim but ever so slightly warm trees he slid past even now.

Words cried out to give hope to his allies and hopefully distract at least a few of his foes before they completely overwhelmed his friends.

And, of course, to give hope the girl whose beautiful smile blazed in his memory at that very moment... and he didn't even know her name.

And if it meant none of those desperately milling soldiers would hit him with a stray bullet, all the better.

"I'm here!" He cried as he burst from the trees into the small clearing that had become the Shadow Wolves killbox.

Taking it all in, the cooling bodies of four wolves and three men right before him, the group of men surrounded by a howling gale just beyond, understanding in a flash what had happened. They had been flanked and rushed once dusk had turned to true night, and even with a handful of wolves dead who had never encountered riflemen before, it didn't even matter, so quickly had they rushed and overwhelmed their prey.

And it was only because of the howling storm of wind even now surrounding the riflemen and flinging one wolf away even as others circled the humans that they hadn't been completely overwhelmed. Jack's Mage Sight additionally caught the telltale traces of what he could only assume was a witch's hex hindering the wolves, sensing spirit-strands around their oversized paws, making them a bit more clumsy, a bit more cautious than they otherwise might have been.

Thus buying the desperate, overwhelmed riflemen just a bit more time.

Which filled Jack with only a moment's exultation once it became clear from the panicked shouts and screams and lack of gunfire that at least a couple wolves had made it past the wind ward before just before his lover could separate her band from her enemies with a maelstrom of wolves.

And there was absolutely nothing Jack could do to save them.

Not from whatever horrors they were forced to fight in close combat.

But against the near dozen wolves waiting without, gazing on with slavering fangs, that he could indeed strike out against.

But first, he held back his desperate drive to race into their midst. Holding back a panicked grimace as frantic eyes darted around before catching sight of what he most needed. A tall tree with just enough branches for quick climbing, and a crook to brace himself against, and within seconds he was twenty feet above the ground with a single spell sloughing off the pair of branches closest to the ground, so no deadly-eyed wolf would find him an easy mark.

Only then did he line up his targets even as the wolves waited with eager anticipation while their brethren caused devastation amongst the tightly packed humans.

It was with a snarl Jack uttered the words he could only hope would change the course of the battle.

"Sagitta Acidum. Sagitta Acidum!" He roared, over and over again as his Acid Arrows streamed through the air, doubling once, then four-fold before pelting into the flanks of not one but a half dozen howling, yipping wolves with successive castings. Jack refused to let up his fearsome volleys even as the wolves began to howl and scatter, though he prudently reduced his rate of fire to conserve his mana and make every shot count, flashing furious smiles whenever he felt the rush of potency filling his soul and replenishing his mana as one wolf after another fell to his ultimate sniper attack.

You have successfully slain 4 Shadow Wolves!

Acid Arrow is now Adept Rank 3!

"I'm over here, fuckers! Come and get some death!" Jack roared as the remaining wolves, many covered with vicious, ugly, acid wounds, locked onto the sound of his voice and charged in one roaring furious mass of killing intent.

Saving throw versus terror made!

And Jack felt the wave of dread crashing into him as nothing but sheerest exhilaration!

Looking down into the pounding surf far, far below the cliff face he danced upon, before laughing for the sheer rush, waiting for the perfect moment, when the crashing tide was about to cover him with the spray of snapping teeth, before unleashing his favorite spell.

"Ignis Sanguis!" Jack roared, bathing the wolves in flame the color of blood.

You have critically struck three Shadow Wolves! You have saved versus amputation! You have suffered 1 Light Wound (crushing damage).

Before screaming when a single desperately leaping wolf actually managed to chomp onto his gauntleted arm.

Instantly dispelling the armor that had protected his limb, before the monster's teeth could yank him free of the tree and into milling death below.

Even as his bee darted into the milling snapping swarm below, he knew it wasn't enough, wasn't nearly enough.

He needed to obliterate those monsters in one fell swoop, preferably smashing them back to the ground if they leaped this high yet again, and even the three still burning were howling and tearing at the trunk, leaping over their brothers to get to him.

So Jack did the only thing he could, praying it would be enough, that he would be able to cut off the flow in time.

"Ignis Sanguis Zephyrus!" Jack roared.

Words he had only dared once before, feeling the same tidal wave of fiery power riding a maelstrom of howling winds, building up to inconceivable pressure and force, his whole body trembling as he swallowed back the flames spurting from his mouth before finally releasing his perilous spell.

Forcing himself to focus as the caustic blast of deadly, roaring flame tore through the wolves below.

Willpower check succesfull!

Finesse check made!

Cutting off the spell just seconds later, right before he risked blacking out, his mana crashing down to zero.

Congratulations! After repeatedly daring oblivion casting compound magics far beyond your level, you have managed to forge your folly into an actual spell!

Windfire combines the essence of Fire and Air into a deadly maelstrom sure to obliterate all your foes. Assuming it doesn't kill you first! Base cost to cast: 8 mana per second.

Note! You lack sufficient levels in the elemental school of Fire to cast Tier 3 flame spells.

You lack sufficient levels in the elemental school of Air to cast Tier 3 air spells.

You lack sufficient levels in the elemental school of Fire to cast Tier 2 flame spells.

You lack sufficient levels in the elemental school of Air to cast Tier 2 air spells.

Your casting cost is 16-fold normal!

You have achieved Adept status in a Tier 1 Fire spell, Firestream, that mimics Windfire.

Your casting cost is reduced to 8-fold normal.

Insight check: Critical success! All Firestream Perks successfully transfer to Windfire.

Windfire is now boosted by Potent Flame Perk. Windfire is now Boosted by Bloodflame Perk.

Tier 3 Windfire is now known at Novice Rank 1.

Jack's eyes widened. Awed to have learned such a spell, the burnt husks on the ground making it damned clear just how powerful a spell it was. Not only being Tier 3, but combining fire and air like the ultimate convection cooker of death.

Yet the way his heart hammered and his limbs shook, so exhausted he could barely move, made it clear just how perilous it was for him to cast that spell, having blitzed through his mana in just seconds.

And with the way the trunk exploded with popping noises and Jack felt the groan and tear of fibrous cords about to burst, his brilliant madness could get him killed still.

For infravision picked up at least a pair of survivors that had leaped before the killing flames could roast them completely, Jack too mana drained even to hold onto the continuous burning damage debuff the liquid bloodfire splatter would have normally granted with his first level version, Jack now barely having enough mana left just to survive.

He forced himself to smile down at the pair of wolves now a short distance away, clearly waiting for him to crash, even as he forced his trembling hand to stillness.

"Think I'm going to be an easy kill, fuckers?" Jack snarled as he pulled free the last dregs of his remaining mana potion from his mother's soul-pouch, swallowing the contents even as he began his slow decent to the ground.

"Think again!" he cried, his blade cleaving through the air as a brilliant shield of ice and blood formed just in time to block the closest throat-ripping maw eager to end Jack's life, his foe's roar turning to a gurgling howl as enchanter-forged steel cleaved into its neck, micro-serrations ripping through even the fell-beast's toughened hide as Jack snarled, pulling his blade free as he twisted his hips, just barely avoiding getting slammed to the ground by the massive beast now spurting a fountain of blood from his neck as it crashed to the loamy soil.

Just a heartbeat before fearsome jaws clamped upon Jack's blood-armored skull, eager to tear his head completely off.

You have saved versus snapped neck! Minor Wound taken in the form of wrenched muscles!

You have saved versus disorientation.

You have fallen to the ground.

"Voco Apis!" Jack screamed as vicious feline claws raked at the blood armor protecting his torso, Jack doing all he could to jab the neck and maw of the furious Shadow Wolf abomination with desperate upward thrusts of his blade to little avail, as his positioning was terrible, he had no leverage, and he couldn't even see what he was doing, only desperately twisting and rolling with the force of the wolf to save his neck from being snapped, his desperate scream channeling his will with the last dregs of his potion-fused mana, rewarded with a single yelp as the wolf let him go just long enough to snap at the creature that had just embedded itself in its neck.

Jack quickly stumbled back to his feet on shaky legs, terrified for a moment that motion alone would cause his neck to snap and him to die, so nauseous and awful did he feel... strained muscles, terror, and perhaps cracked neck bones after all... Jack desperately backpedaled, keeping sword and shield at the ready until his back hit the trunk of another tree, but the beasts didn't follow.

Jack took deep heaving breaths as his mana slowly trickled back up. Breath easing as the pair of wolves' dying breaths grew more ragged, one's throat abruptly closing with a final strangled gurgle as Jack's bee delivered the last of its venom before dying, twisting and squirming and for a heartbeat Jack felt pity... until he heard the cries of his doomed friends still.

Congratulations! Blood Bee is now Apprentice Rank 4!

Elemental Armor is now Journeyman Rank 2!

Wilderness Survival, Stealth, and Climbing have each gone up 1 rank!

Jack gazed down at the final wolf, panting rapidly as the blood continued pumping from its spurting throat.

Before stopping at last.

Filling Jack with yet another surge of sweet, sweet power that left him both exhilarated and sickened to his core. Unable to deny, with the surge of potency now flowing through him and the way his neck seemed to heal as the final light left his enemy's eyes, just how like vampires he, and perhaps all who walked the Path of Peril truly were, reveling in the feast of his kills, now shriveling to husks before him.

Before being jerked free of his momentary daze, now lurching forward toward the screams of men and women still in peril with sword and shield at the ready, and less than 20 mana to his name.

The circling winds were gone, and much to his surprise, no wolves emerged to intercept him. Only one remained that the exhausted blood-covered soldiers were still struggling against.

A huge alpha wolf of a monster that roared its challenge, effortlessly ignoring the bayoneted rifles that desperate soldiers thrust like well-trained spearmen into its flank, crimson eyes locked upon a screaming captain flailing desperately with his sword... before massive jaws clamped onto the man's armored skull, and with a fearsome, hideous yank, the beast tore the captain's head free in a fountain of blood.

Instantly shattering the morale of the panicked screaming men, all of them fleeing en-masse, leaving only corpses and a dazed looking witch behind.

A wide-eyed girl too shocked even to move. Eyes caught in the predatory gaze of a massive alpha giant as large as a warhorse, great jaws clenching as tortured steel bent and snapped, before spitting out the mangled remains of a bloody helmet, licking its massive maw clean of the blood and brains that had been Captain Lindon's desperate final moments, just heartbeats before. All the man's hopes and dreams, arrogance and confusion, forever gone. The seat of his awareness, the house of his soul, devoured as if it were no more than paste by the monster of a predator gazing down at the shaking witch now too terrified even to move.

And what made it worse, so much worse, was the evil grin upon the predator's face. The grin of a monster that was no simple killing machine, but well aware of what it was doing. A creature that reveled in the pain and despair it caused.

Jack froze. Refusing even to move as the monster that reveled in panicked woman's despairing cry opened its mouth wide, showing off bloodstained teeth.

Before blinking in almost comical surprise as spinning grapefruit-sized balls of inconceivably caustic liquid slammed into its gullet.

Just a second before it could tear out the throat of the girl Jack now knew he'd do anything to save. Embracing the madness of racing forward with a fresh bee by his side as the massive beast roared and howled, spurting blood and its own flesh as its throat was dissolved from within.

Predatory eyes alight with fiercest hate glared down upon the shuddering witch, her dusky skin unable to hide the pallor of her terror as the thick cloud cover finally broke, washing them all in moonlight.

Only then did the wolf turn to the shouting source of all its torment, as one acid arrow volley after another crashed into its flank.

"That's right, asshole! I'm the one you want! I'm the one that killed all your pawns! I'm the one that lit you on fire! I'm the one that butchered your entire damned den! I'm right here waiting for you, motherfucker! And I gotta a present I know you'll love! it's called death! Right here, on the tip of my sword!" Jack roared as the infuriated monster of an alpha gave a gurgling howl in turn, its stumbling gate turning into a charge as the bull-sized beast slammed into Jack, his sword flying free.

Blood bee successfully stings Alpha Wolf!

Blood bee has been crushed to paste!

You have been critically hit! 2 Ribs broken! You fail to save versus disorientation!

Sending him cartwheeling through the air, no matter that the creature's mouth was now a pitted ruin, blood and bile spurting everywhere. The gurgling wheeze of fluid filling lungs and the disciplined crack of a handful of rifles firing as one did nothing to stop the sky and ground trading places once, twice, thrice as Jack hurtled through the heavens, in a dazed moment wondering if it had been worth it as he fell back down to earth.

There was no answer he could give the terror in his soul, but the memory of a certain girl's smile made him grin in turn, just before crashing to the ground, drowning in blackness once more.