“You don’t look like, you belong here. Did you pinch yourself to see? If you’d wake up from a nightmare or could you still be asleep?~♪” I half hummed as I watched out at the forest. With a wry little smirk, I pinched my arm to make sure this wasn’t a dream.

I winched a little and then chuckled lightly. “Little nightmares indeed.” I then muttered before spitting over the edge to the moat.

Before I rose from leaning on the parapet, I noticed something in the forest. It was rather strange. Like a figure dressed in barks and leaves. A mask like a whales skull but with antlers rising from it. I blinked and it was gone.

I growled a little under my breath. I didn’t like that at all. “Perhaps I’ve become paranoid?” I then asked myself before noticing a glint of white in the forest before it disappeared. Remembering the chorus of the song I had hummed I smirked, almost bestially. “Hungry for another one, indeed.”

“So?… Is this necessary?” I asked as I groaned a little. Olive had decided to outfit me with some armour and weapons. “I mean this is really heavy.” I whined as I wobbled out of the changing room. She had decided to put almost three gambesons’s around my body and then a leather armour with steel plates embedded in it.

To be honest I felt a little like that Michelin man figure.

The guard trio had come up to get me when it was time for dinner and a change of the guard. It had been peaceful to just sit and stare for a while. Not that I’d want to be a guard.

The snickers from Olive and Nicholas just sank home the point of how ridiculous this whole thing was. “Har, har.” I said sarcastically. “I think just the leather armour will be fine.” I then said, after all, I had my own built-in gambeson in the form of my favoured ability.

“You’ll still need one Gambeson,” Bertie said, holding his chuckling in a little better than the other two. “That’s the standard for those of us that are fighting.” He said nodding half sagely to himself.

“Yeah…” I started eyeing him with a narrowed gaze. “How do you know it’ll be tonight?” I asked curiously yet vary of them fucking with me after the Charlie horse I’d given them.

Nicholas grew serious and I could swear his face darkened a little. “We’re dealing with wolves. Lead by an old and intelligent one, too. A wolf doesn’t become a worg easily and with the size of that pack.” He said before clicking his tongue and spitting to the side.

“He’ll try to get every advantage he can get to make sure we fall. Tonight is the full moon.” He then said and I started to get it.

“They’ll all be empowered by the moons.” I muttered as I was removing the second gambeson. “Shit.” I spat as I moved to put the leather armour over my single gambeson and moved to see how it hindered me.

It didn’t hinder me as much as I’d have thought, with a little getting used to I’d be able to use my ability alongside this all.

“I don’t suppose you guys have any metal breastplates?” I then asked as I looked at them and saw they wore the same get up.

Bertie looked at me with a knowing smirk. “Unfortunately, we aren’t that rich.” He said grimacing a little.

“YET!” Nicholas then said with a finger pointing up and a cheeky grin on his lips.

I had a hard time disliking the trio. “You guys are like the three stooges.” I said laughing a little to myself. Granted though I only saw that as a saying as I’d never seen the comedy trio but I’d had something similar called the joke-room.

I’d enjoyed watching it while young and I missed them after they’d stopped airing.

“Stooges?” Olive asked me with an almost incredulous look. “Are you making fun of us?” She asked with an almost dangerous look in her eyes.

I simply smirked at her. “I’m saying you guys are amusing,” I said my smirk turning to a cheeky grin.

Bertie and Nicholas simply chuckled as the smaller woman looked irate for a few moments. Then with a loud sigh, she began to chuckle almost defeated. Though I did notice her ears burning a little.

We continued to joke around as we dressed into the armours. I had the clothes I had been given with the armour and I began to feel a little like those adventurers I’d seen during some of my travels in the past. That thought made me suck at my teeth in annoyance.

I had thick leather vambrace’s as well as greaves. I had to admit if I didn’t think too much about it the gambeson was simply like a thick sweater, just a little tighter as the leather armour came over it.

Weapon wise they let me have a short sword which was to be my back up weapon. As my main weapon, it was an axe and shield combo. I had to quirk an eyebrow at Bertie when I was handed an axe as my main weapon when Grandon had trained me with a sword.

“Sorry, we don’t have many weapons and we need to make sure everyone has a back up just in case.” He said shrugging almost exaggeratedly.

I shrugged my shoulders as well. “Fair enough.” I said right as I was about to leave the armoury. I stopped as a thought came to mind. “Don’t you have spears?” I asked as I turned to look at the trio arming themselves.

Nicholas looked up and was about to say something when Olive cut him off. “Ay, we do. Just enough for us guards though. We’re also all trained in using them.” She said before jabbing her elbow at Bertie’s side. “Berty here’s even got his skill to advanced. Dontcha?” She said smirking wryly at the suddenly stuttering and clearly embarrassed guardsman.

The four of us left the armoury chuckling, though I took the time to move around the group to avoid being seen by Grandon again. I did not want to be trained again. Nicholas and Olive simply smirked at me wryly while Bertie chuckled a little to himself.

I simply gave then narrowed looks of annoyance. We moved to our spot on the wall as night fully fell. I leaned over the wall a little and stared at the forest. The guard hadn’t been able to put up forward torches as a warning so everyone was on edge.

I thought they were hoping their traps would work as forward warnings. I wasn’t so sure.

“I can’t see anything in this soup.” Nicholas grumbled as he peered into the darkness, a soft layer of fog had rolled in when the sunset.

I simply smirked and after glancing at him turned to look out once more. This was like a cliché horror movie setting, all we needed was a graveyard. I didn’t like it one bit.

The figure I’d glimpsed earlier that day came to mind. Was that somehow connected.

“I don’t suppose there are any druids around?” I asked as I continued to peer into the darkness.

“Hm?” Bertie said next to me before he took on a thoughtful look. Behind us Olive and Nicholas continued bickering in hushed tones. “Not that I remember. Though there could be for all we know.” He then said and shrugged before looking over his shoulder with annoyance at the two behind us.

“If you guys want a room to get rid of that tension between you I’d suggest you do it now.” I said almost growling and I had a hard time keeping a straight face. They both went so red I could have sworn they were tomatoes. Seems I hit a little nerve for them.

Bertie simply chuckled and then he noticed the serious look I had on. “What?” He asked but before I could reply a howl broke through the silent darkness.

I just had to give him a look and he understood what was coming.

“That didn’t sound close by.” Olive said as she hurried up to the edge. Her weapon was a bow while Nicholas was our crossbowman.

“That’s the trap.” I said as I stared at the gathered horde at the edge of the forest. I was glad that the little light around the town simply continued on with my dark vision. “They’re already here.” I said as I felt an honest to god growl almost bubble out of my throat.

Perhaps the skills I had didn’t really make me all that “human” any longer. I hadn’t ever met a dark elf anyway so I had no idea how the race functioned. I felt rather uneasy about that part. I mean hadn’t I just given up my humanity for revenge?

I didn’t get time to think much more as the wolves began to move.

“Get ready!” I shouted out loud as I saw them approaching. Many of the volunteers flinched a little at hearing my voice. Grandon looked at me with curiosity from his command post in the guardhouse. I simply held two fingers pointed at my eyes and then back out into the dark for him to understand what I meant.

“Oh shit!” I heard one scream as the wolves came charging in. I couldn’t distinguish the normal ones from the Lycans as they all moved so damn fast and all were on all fours. I began to simply guess by their sizes.

Right as I was about to lean a bit over to see if there were any getting past the moat or spikes, a white-furred hand shot up. If Bertie hadn’t pulled me back I was certain I’d have been thrown over the wall and into the horde.

The lycan snarled at me as it had impaled itself on the spikes of the parapet. “It’s still not dead?” I asked with disbelief as the thing tried to claw its way onto the parapet. Spikes piercing its flesh and I could swear one had gone straight through but it was like looking at a wild animal with rabies that didn’t feel pain. And hated you guts enough to kill itself if only to so much as scratch you. It was eerie.

“Is this because of the full moon?!” I asked as I swiped with my axe to try and get the hand away from the edge. I managed to cut into the things bicep but it just punched me back and continued to scramble at the wall.

“Yeah!” Nicholas said as he let out as he sent the crossbow bolt straight into the Lycans head. It just continued until Bertie hacked the head off with his rather large long sword.

“This just seems a little more feral yet focused.” Nicholas then said as he hurried to reload.

I was panting already and the night had just started. “We might be fucked.” I muttered as I took up a position with Bertie, acting as his shield.

“Keep going!” Grandon shouted as he kicked a Lycan that had managed to get up on the wall and had stared at him. He held a bastard sword in one hand and an axe, that looked as close to being a great axe as it could without being one, in the other.

As another snarling wolfs head peeked over the wall I rushed to smash the shield into its face. It yipped as it fell back and I heard another as it landed in the moat. I just hoped the spikes would finish it off.

Suddenly I heard Olive grunt hard in pain and as I glanced at her I was shocked. The lycans where throwing wolves over the wall. One was trying to maul her leg.

Charging in I saw Nicholas bash its head with the butt of his crossbow. I followed up with a hard downwards hack with my axe into its back. Olive then finished it off by stabbing a long knife into its head.

Nodding towards Olive, I turned back towards the wall. “We have to take care of each other! Tell us if you are in trouble!” I shouted to all three of my companions. They all nodded.

Probably the smartest option was to try and work as a single unit during this wolfpocalypse. God, I hate my sense of humour sometimes.

It continued like this for almost a full fifteen minutes before the Lycans retreated back to the forest. I had mostly made flesh wounds or bad ones with my axe, no killing strikes but I held the battered shield with a little pride. I had least managed to minimize our wounds a bit.

“Oh… this can’t be right.” I heard Olive say and I looked at her. She looked worried as she looked at the few wolves that had managed to get over the wall, or thrown over as the case was.

“These wolves… they are all starved.” She said looking from one almost emaciated wolf to the other.

“Starved?” I asked as I looked at them, they did look like that pack I had fought on my way to the town.

“Oh, shit...” Nicholas said, his face draining of colour, so did Bertie’s.

“What?” I asked getting more than a little worried.

“The wolves that declared war, they were all well fed.” Olive said and now I felt the color drain out of my own face.

“You mean this was just the scraps?” I asked and turned to look at the forest, expecting an attack at my back. But none came.

“Yeah, I think we should tell Grandon about this.” Bertie said with worry and nodded to Olive who made her way to the captain.

“We are boned.” I muttered as I had used almost everything in that fight. I’d had to make use of defensive carapace under everything and I felt there were some serious bruises going to show up soon.

“You can say that again.” Nicholas said as he took a spare torch and lit it, Throwing it over the parapet.

I watched the torch sail through the air, flipping and spinning while the fire held on with desperation to stay lit. When it fell down I saw it landed just beyond the Worg’s legs and it stared right at me.

I froze as I stared back, my body refusing to move. This thing was old, wise and terrifying. It’s pale blue eyes pierced through me and the glimmer of intelligence there was very, very real. This was the mastermind, no doubt in my mind.

Around it came a new group of wolves, Lycans and wolfmen. These all looked fit and healthy, some bulging with muscles. All looking like a taught string ready to be released.

I turned to look at Bertie and he simply stared almost slack-jawed, same with Nickolas on my other side. “We are screwed.” All three of us said as our shoulders slumped and we sighed defeatedly.

Olive smacked the back of our heads. “We aren’t done yet.” She said annoyed at all of us.

All three of us sheepishly rubbed the backs of our heads. Though it was clear everyone felt very uneasy about what was to come. Then the howl came.

If I could describe the first wave it would be like a flood coming over a flood wall. This one was like a freaking tsunami.

First came the healthy and well-fed wolves. Their jaws snarling and snapping at us as they were helped up by the Lycans. One almost clawed through my leather armour when it caught me off-guard as I covered Bertie from another with my shield.

Nicholas simply fired randomly out over the wall with his remaining bolts then took up a spear and began stabbing.

Bertie, Nicholas and I somehow formed a sort of wedge formation with Olive behind us. I used the shield to either cover or funnel the wolves to either side of me where Nicholas or Bertie stabbed or hacked at them in turn.

Then the Lycans came over the walls. I realized what the very first wave had been for then. They had used the starved and near useless wolves to clog up or break the spikes and lower our defences.

With a vicious snarl and swipe with its massive hand, it hit my shield and split it as it sent me flying into the air. My stomach dropped as pain shot up my arm and then I saw the back of the wall as I had been vaulted over it.

With a crash, I landed on top of one of the houses of the village and thanked those five undead for not having fallen farther. I was having a hard enough time to breathe as it was.

I didn’t get much time to try and get air into my lungs as the thing jumped after me, ignoring Olive, Bertie and Nicholas. Snarling it landed on top of my chest and we both went through the ceiling of the house.

I let out a cry of pain as my back landed on top of a dresser and pain shot up my back. I was glad I had everything defensive ability up.

What I wouldn’t give for a proper full-plate armour right now though. I groaned as I turned and fell off the broken dresser. I watched as out of the corner of my eye I saw the Lycan. It had fallen off me when I landed on the dresser and had flown through a door in the room, and apparently down the stairs beyond it.

Now it was scrambling into the room, a large splinter of the door embedded in its shoulder. “Oh… Come on...” I groaned as I slowly got up onto my feet, my half-broken shield held at the ready and an axe in the other.

The Lycan snarled and charged at me. I just managed to get out of the way, though there were deep furrows in what was left of my shield. I lashed out with my axe only to have it get stuck in the hard corded muscles of the Lycan’s shoulder blades.

I didn’t have time to pull at it more than once before it took a wild swing, hitting me in the side.

I almost flew into the opposite wall but managed to stop myself, skidding along the floor. As it came up at me and was about to snap its jaws at my head I swung with my axe once more.

‘Thonk’

“Thonk?” I asked as I looked at the axe only to see that the thing had somehow hit me hard enough to snap the metal part of the axe, the head still in the Lycan. I’d just hit the massive troglodyte werewolf with a stick.

It stared at me, looking rather pissed as I took a few steps back only to throw the stick to the side. “Uh… fetch?” I nervously chuckled and got a furry fist in my face for the joke. I deserved it.

Taking a side step to the left as I took my shield with both hands and slammed as hard as I could with it. Splintering it on the Lycans head, causing it to stagger a little and almost whimper as it shook its head.

Reaching for the nearest object, which happened to be a chair, I screamed as I hit with all my might with it. “Prison rules it is then!” I screamed as I took the two chair legs that remained in my hands and stabbed them down as hard as I could.

The Lycan seemed to just shrug it off and shoulder decked me into the wall. I felt a bubble of blood come up my throat and dribble out of my mouth and nose. I was getting more angry than afraid now. This was like boxing with a freaking dump truck.

Snarling myself I gripped a table and slammed it overhead at the charging Lycan. It splintered and the Lycan continued with me hit in the stomach and bowed over its shoulder. Then through the door frame and at the stairs.

Scrambling over the Lycan before it got a chance to grab me, I managed to jump as it went over the rail on the stairs.

Gripping the edge of the floor I dangled over the lower floor as the Lycan went head first down to the ground floor. Kicking into the air, I began to climb up. I had just gotten my upper chest over the lip when I noticed three things.

First, The Lycan was getting up and it sounded rather pissed off. Second, My short sword was right in front of me still sheathed just a finger length out of reach. Third, I heard the cries of a woman and two kids.

With a groan I kicked to reach up a bit more. Then felt the clawed hand of the Lycan at my leg and I was pulled down. The breath rushed out of my lungs as the Lycan slammed me down onto the floor. I saw my short sword just dangling over the edge, but not enough to go over and be of help.

Then the Lycan loomed over me, snarling and growling as it came in to finish me.

“That's IT!” I screamed as I suddenly let out a snarling growl as I let out my bone claws and attacked. The Lycan seemed to not expect that as it backed up a bit, but not before I had stabbed my claws into it’s right pectoral.

I took a good grip and then used it to pull myself up.

Snarling right back at me, the Lycan tried to rush in to bite me. I just managed to angle my head though it did take a bite out of the edge of my ear. With a curse, I bit down on its neck as hard as I could while stabbing my free hand’s claws right up into its trachea.

It let out a cut off roar as blood came out of its mouth. I continued to stab with my hands, one after the other, one gripping hard as the other stabbed. I held my bite as long as possible as well. It clawed at my back before it managed to grip me and throw me off it.

I felt like my jaw was almost ripped off but I had taken a chunk out of its neck when it pulled me off itself. Spitting the piece out of my mouth I stared up at the Lycan as it stumbled back and held one hand over it’s still bleeding neck. The other was swiping at me as it fell back onto its knees.

“Don’t like your own medicine huh?” I snarled, my back was in so much pain and the taste of blood filled my mouth. Spitting the excess of blood out of my mouth I retracted my bone claws as I noticed the woman huddling with her children in the corner of the room.

She clutched a kitchen knife so hard her knuckles where white. Noticing I was looking at her and then at the knife she threw it to me, letting it slide along the floor.

The Lycan was getting back to its feet and was about to stand up and maul me. Jumping for the knife I gripped it and brought it up with all my strength. A strangled yelp was all that greeted me as I felt the knife sink into something hard.

In front of me where the teeth of the Lycan’s jaws, I had driven the knife up through the bottom of its jaw and into its brain. Killing it.

I was relieved before it’s momentum made it barrel me over and lie dead on top of me. Again the air rushed out of my lungs. “H-Help!” I squeaked out as I stared at the woman pleadingly.

She was slow to start standing up. With a few coaxing looks and words, she helped me push the Lycan over to its side. I sat up slowly, huffing and puffing, hoping my heart wouldn’t beat a hasty retreat from my chest. My lungs were burning with exertion and my back made me feel like a ninety-year-old man with a cane. Bad was not an apt word but was close to how I was.

“Thank you.” The woman said as she gestured for the kids to come to her. I nodded with a slight smile as I helped her get out of the house and to a safer one deeper in the village.

Once that was done I made my way back to the house to retrieve my sword and right as I was making my way back to the wall. Stumbling all the way, I noticed a wood chopping axe in a stump. I simply shrugged and moved to pick it up.

Every little bit helps in this current situation after all.

I could feel my regeneration helping take just a little of the edge off. However, it wasn’t enough to take the pain away. I had to hope to get something out of this whole mess and enough to upgrade it.

Reaffirming up my defences and offences, I went back into the breach.