Chapter 19

“Sir...! Something is coming, and it’s not a snake!” a paling boy shouted, as he shuffled backwards, away from the bushes. His classmates followed suit, in an attempt to put as much distance between themselves and whatever potential threat was lurking within the dense foliage.

“Stay put!” Horoth ordered immediately, throwing a flat palm in their direction – the sign to cease all movement and keep completely quiet. “If we are dealing with pack animals, they could be behind us just as well. You’ll only back into them, if they’re lying in wait.” The warning didn’t fall on deaf ears, as the entire group froze in their tracks, some of them too afraid to even adjust the awkward positions they had ended up in, fearing a clasping jaw on their necks if they moved even a single centimeter.

“Keep calm.” their teacher said in a soothing tone. “We don’t know, that it’s even anything aggressive yet.” With those words, a quiet growl sounded from the green patches, and a pair of menacing eyes came into view as the first predator stepped out through the rustling leaves. Saliva dripped from the elongated snout of the beast.

“Kovals!” a girl gasped, her mouth falling open, as she took in the sight, that she was certain announced her impending death. A bloody and painful death. She screeched, stumbling and falling onto her ass, as she scrambled backwards on hands and feet.

“I said stay put!” Horoth hissed through clenched teeth, a hint of fear creeping onto his face, despite his best effort to hide it from his students. One can never rid himself of fear, unless he is a fool. But, it can be suppressed and controlled, if one strives to do so. “These creatures have most likely already created a perimeter around us, sneaking up on us from all directions.”

Four more of the hideous beasts slowly came into clear view as they approached the group of terrified students. They weren’t exactly dogs, but they could probably be mistaken for one, if the glimpse was quick enough, or if the lighting was dim or visibility low. Their legs were significantly shorter than other canines, but also much more powerful, the muscles bulging visibly under their short fur.

The fur was either completely black, gray, brown, or a mottled mix between them, providing excellent camouflage as soon as the day settles. However, although they may not be camouflaged as they were, at this time of day, their visage only served to frighten the students further.

While a dog could certainly have a long snout, these animals could hardly be compared, their muzzles making up about a fourth of the length of their bodies. Fangs like broken shards of glass riddled their mouth, ready to rip into soft flesh and tear their prey apart, limb by limb. Only their absurdly thick necks prevented the sheer weight of that head from pulling the kovals to the ground.

Although they might not be quite as quick and nimble as dogs, anyone who had read a book or heard stories from survivors knew, that those short-legged monstrosities were capable of alarming bursts of speed. And once they got a hold of a leg or an arm, or worse, a head, they weren’t going to let go until that body part came off with them.

Horoth waved his hands around as he hissed commands to his students “Huddle up! If any of you brought knives or other weapons, now is the time to draw them. Even a stick will do. We have the numerical advantage.” Most did as they were told, except a few, who seemed to be panicking enough to not hear anything being said around them. They looked just about ready to run off.

“Make yourselves seem as large as possible. If you’re wearing jackets, unzip them and stretch them out with your arms up. Anything to seem more powerful.” Horoth commanded. “If we’re lucky, they’ll decide we’re not worth the risk and disappear before anything happens!” Everyone moved into position, a few of the boys and girls pulling out various shaped of knives and daggers. One boy even drew a polished short sword, that looked like it had never been used against anything before.

“No!” Raiel shouted. “This is not a good idea. They are not afraid of us. It is better to climb trees, since they are very bad at climbing. They’re too heavy to do it.” The prospect of getting off the ground, where the dog-like creatures prowled around them with hissing growls seemed to appeal immensely to the frightened bunch of teenagers.

They looked from the approaching beasts to their teacher and back, then at Horoth again, who frowned in thought, as he frantically juggled their options in his head, the time to act running its course like water through a cracked glass.

He grimaced as he closed his eyes shut, coming to a grim decision. “Raiel is right – I wanted to go on the defensive, because I didn’t want anyone to get hurt, but… I think it’s true, that out best option is in those trees, over there.” Horoth said and pointed to a stand of young, low-branched beech trees. “But, we’re going to have to beat a couple of those ugly bastards on our way there” Everyone looked in the direction he pointed, their faces losing color as two of the dog-like animals sauntered along, wide eyes staring with hungry looks, tongues whipping across pointed canines.

“Sorry, kids.” Horoth said sincerely. “I will admit, that I did not expect this to happen… Well, I guess that’s what it means to survive – to be prepared for anything life throws at you. Even a snarling pack of predators.” He huffed humorlessly, drawing the bow that was slung over his shoulder, as well. He quickly nocked an arrow.

“Get ready!” Horoth hissed. “The moment I fire this first arrow, you will all run forward, Raiel in front.” he said, as he glanced over at the boy. Raiel only nodded, understanding his role in the battle. Horoth nodded back, a determined frown on his face. He was glad that at least one student could keep a cool head. Maybe even cooler than himself, if he had to be honest. Fear can not be erased, but it can be controlled. That was his mantra in situations like these. All he could say was: that boy controlled it remarkably well.

That, or he was a fool.

“Those with weapons should spread out through the group, so everyone has some degree of protection.” he ordered. “If you don’t think you can use your weapons, hand them to someone who can.”

He pulled back the string, taking aim at the nearest koval in their path. It was an ugly fella, missing an eye, with a large and ragged scar running from brow to jaw. “Three… two…” Horoth paused, took a deep breath, and exhaled before gently letting go of the bow string. The string twanged as it propelled the arrow forward with incredible speed, the metallic head penetrating the beast, burying the shaft deep in its collar.

It howled and toppled to the ground, wailing weakly as strength was rapidly drained through the fatal wound, until the spark of life vanished.

Not a second later, another arrow flew past Raiel’s head, taking a different koval in the bicep, not quite felling it, but robbing it of both strength and aggression. Horoth called for the advance, and all students managed to follow along, as the group rushed forward, heading towards the trees that would be their salvation, as fast as their wobbling legs could carry them.

With the death of one packmate, and the dangerous injury of another, the entirety of the koval troop was taken over by hesitation. Bloodthirsty as they might be, they were still wild animals. And for wild animals, self-preservation and the preservation of their offspring came before anything else.

Raiel, who had made his way to the front of the line, spearheaded the charge, keeping a careful eye on the growling animals warily circling the group, looking for the golden opportunity to take out a weak link.

The loss of a companion might have sobered them up somewhat, but their deadly goal remained the same. Before anyone could react, a koval along the middle of the group pounced with frightening speed and bit into the thigh of one of the girls, savagely ripping out a piece of bloody flesh. Her scream was shrill and ear-deafening, tearing through the trees, cutting off all other sounds and making Raiel wince.

He looked back, only to see her go down, two kovals testing the waters as they made their way closer to her, slowly and carefully, her death crawling closer as the pair neared. With only a few handfuls of paces left before they reached the stand of trees, Raiel saw the necessity for action, as he spun around at speed, dashing back to where she lay moaning and crying.

Meanwhile, the front he had just left was set upon by a single daring koval. There were a few yelps of fear and surprise, but the situation seemed to be as controlled as could be expected. The group’s momentum was only halted for a few seconds, as six students each drove their sharp, thin blades through the koval’s flank and back. One boy even had a short sword, which he used to slash through the side of its neck, felling it quickly, the agitated boys and girl setting off before the beast even hit the ground.

The unfortunate girl, who had been singled out by the kovals screamed for help, but the students around her either kept running, fear of suffering the same fate driving them to ignore her, or didn’t know how to help her with the beasts sneaking steadily closer.

As Raiel sprinted to make it back to them, the kovals chose that time to put on a burst of speed, quickly cutting the distance to the grounded girl. Her leg was in a bad shape, evident by the thick flow of blood from the open wound. Even now, her face had begun to turn unusually pale, her head bobbing, the blood loss making her dizzy.

The first koval managed to clasp its jaws securely around the girl’s arm, before Raiel cracked a heel down on its snout, eliciting a whine of agony. He had thought that would do the trick, but when the koval’s fangs remained inserted firmly in her arm, he was forced to diverge his attention to the second dog-like monstrosity, as it approached at a dash.

With a snarl, the koval opened its maw to take a bite out of Raiel’s face, but its teeth only snapped closed on air when he dropped backwards, his infusion-strengthened hand flying forward like a spear, four outstretched fingers digging into the beast’s windpipe.

An all too familiar grin snuck unto Raiel’s face as he was bathed in the koval’s warm, thick life blood, a gurgle escaping its throat as it died pathetically. There he lay, feeling the red fluid flow over his. face and chest. As the animal’s lifeless corpse sagged on top of him, his own fangs sunk into its neck and his claw-like nails ripped into its abdomen, spilling guts onto his pants, staining them.

As soon as the weight of the corpse began to push down on him, his arm, which was inconveniently mashed between the dead animal and his own torso, was struck by jolts of intense, stabbing pain, and it almost felt like it was breaking all over again. Raiel yelled in frustration, the bloody flesh of the koval’s neck he was biting down on muffling the sound to a barely audible noise.

The boy redoubled his efforts to completely dismantle the body, as the pain in his arm worsened, making his vision go red. He shredded tissue and muscle, rendering the animal a ragged mess, marks and cuts covering most of its body.

A soft wheeze pulled him from the mindless slaughter, and he saw the girl, her arm still stuck within the jaws of the other koval. It had begun to chew as it made its way further up her arm, having already passed the elbow of the ashen faced girl, puncturing her bicep in numerous places. She hardly reacted to the abuse anymore, as her body was pulled around like a rag doll, her eyelids beginning to close. She was dying.

Raiel pushed the dead animal off with a huff of exertion. Without even managing to make it all the way to his feet, he kicked off the ground with both legs, sending tumbling directly into the persistent abomination, that was trying to gulp down his classmate. He was angry. Angry about a lot of things.

Ever since he’d come to this city, every decision he’d made had brought with it a sense of insecurity, an uncertainty whether the decision had been correct or incorrect. He was sure, that some of them had been incorrect.

What if he had done things differently? What if he had tried to save his wolf pup on his own, instead of going along with the wishes of others like a tamed dog? What could have changed then? But then he wouldn’t have met the few friends he’d found here. Were they also worth staying for?

His mind was a constant torrent of thought and emotions, accumulating gradually until they reached magnitudes where they threatened to boil over. Now they had, and not for the first time.

He was afraid, that if he let go of the fury, the dizzying pain in his arm would lay him horizontally indefinitely, defenseless and unable to help. So, he let it flow, along with the essence, that now flooded him, as well.

All that energy was pushing, no, demanding, to be let out and be made use of. Like a weapon with a conscious mind, it drove him further. It was an aggressive and blood thirsty thing, that substance, that was evident. But still, somehow, he felt like it was not always so. Subliminally, he just knew that this was not all there was to it. That there was tranquility, peace, and harmony buried somewhere in that force.

However, for now, the lust for carnage was all he needed. Rapidly, the agony in his injured arm was shoved to the back of his mind, until he hardly noticed it at all. The koval, despite keeping its mandible locked tightly in the girl’s bicep, glanced nervously at Raiel, able to sense something changing in its opponent. It whimpered quietly, but strong instincts kept it from letting go of the prey.

Whether it had let go or not did not matter much, when Raiel plunged a strengthened spear hand into its ribcage, shattering bone and rending flesh and tendons. As his fingers pierced heart and lungs the koval finally let go, overcome by death throes, spitting bubbly blood everywhere.

When the support was suddenly removed, the drained girl simply slumped over in a sitting position, her eyes closed and her breathing shallow, slow, and weak.

Raiel ran to her, followed by Horoth seconds later, who, impressively, had managed to finish off three more kovals since the battle began, hardly a scratch on him, safe for a superficial gash along his thigh, that had ripped up his pant leg. He took the girl by the shoulder and laid her down carefully. He looked her body over with serious worry painted on his face, muttering to himself nervously.

The blood flowing from the girl’s grievous wounds had lessened somewhat, but Raiel could only assume, that it was because she was running dry.

“I… I don’t understand…” Horoth muttered, as he moved frantically to apply whatever first aid he could manage with next to no tools. “We’re not even remotely nearby any koval territories. And I know all of them.”

“Maybe they moved without your notice.” Raiel suggested, his breathing quick and ragged, anger flaring despite his attempts to calm himself.

“No! The relationships between the various packs would never allow them the freedom to do that, and they know it!” he snapped. “Something else must have driven them away… Damn it all! This should never have happened!” Horoth desperately bandaged the girl to stop her from losing the rest of what little blood remained inside her.

“Go, Raiel. Help the others get to safety. You won’t be of any help here. Thanks for saving her.” Horoth said somberly without looking up from his patient. “You’ve done well.” he finished.

Raiel only nodded, and turned to go, only to be called by Horoth.

“Wait.” Raiel directed his attention to his teacher again. “Take this.” Horoth said, as he cut a few deep incisions in the dead koval with a knife he took from the ground next to the unconscious girl, staining the blade with blood. He offered the weapon to his student, who reluctantly accepted it with a frown.

“Uuh, to be honest, I don’t really know how t-…” Raiel began, but was interrupted mid-sentence.

“You want to explain to the rest of your class how you managed that bare-handed?” Horoth enquired with a raised eyebrow, showing a bit of his witty side from earlier, as he gestured nonchalantly to the lacerated corpses.

Raiel stared dumbfounded at the man for a moment, before exhaling in resignation. “No.” he muttered.

“Thought so.” Horoth said, going back to his work, the gravity of the situation returning to him.

Raiel sighed again, and hurried back towards the group. A few persons at a time, they were making their way up into the trees, while the bravest boys and girls held two wary kovals at bay. Another three – the last of them – were approaching, as well, preparing to overwhelm the shrinking force of humans.

Wanting to neither risk another possible death, nor to be exposed for the relative powerhouse of physical might that he was, Raiel decided to make the pack come to him, instead of engaging them out in the open.

He made a sharp turn, crashing head first through dense foliage, slipping out of sight from his distracted classmates, as well as his similarly distracted teacher. He ran a few more paces before he stopped and caught his breath. Raiel inhaled deeply several times as he stretched his neck, preparing to attempt something he had never done before, and wasn’t sure he was physically capable of. If he was to succeed in luring them away, he would need the kovals to think that there was something dangerous enough to their survival, to warrant their immediate attention.

Not that that wasn’t the truth.

He planted both feet firmly on the forest floor, as he drew in the biggest lungful of air he could manage. When he willed the mysterious energies to flow through his lungs and all the way to his throat, he was relieved to feel the substance react accordingly, the subtle, yet distinctive sensation of a still alien power rushing to abide.

The continuous threatening barking of the kovals was instantly cut short when the primordial roar of an ancient beast tore through the canopy, throwing everything in the vicinity into deathly silence. And the silence remained, as Raiel considered, with a sinking stomach, that he might have overdone the act.

Of all the beasts he had seen during his years alone in the forest, only a few had stuck as rigidly in his memory as the scaled behemoth whose roar he had just attempted to imitate. He was not sure exactly how long ago it had been, but that monstrosity was something he would never be able to forget. The sighting of it had been from a considerable distance, to say the least, but had still shaken him to his core. The thing had trudged through his forest with not a care in the world, it seemed, and almost half an hour after Raiel had lost sight of it, that haunting howl had all but frozen solid the blood in his veins. That was the first thing, that had come to mind, when he had thought of something frightening.

Not that he, for even a single moment, thought he had done the actual being justice with that impression. But, even so, he was afraid that he might have gone a bit overboard. Reassurance washed over him, however, when the barking of the kovals resumed, this time quickly approaching his position.

He hurried to set off in the opposite direction, snarling loudly to keep them on his tail. The grin reappeared as he felt his heart beginning to pound furiously in his chest in anticipation of the slaughter to come. He would eat his fill.