Florian watched the trees pass by, a sinking feeling growing in his stomach as he was ferried away from Leeds. His companion was a horrible conversationalist, and there had been no less than three occurrences of Florian being threatened at the barrel of a gun. Obeying the ancient rules of baseball, he struck out with the third instance, and he left the grumpy driver alone.

The sun, high above them, cast away every shadow on the road, showing a clear path straight to the fork where they’d leave the highway for the sideroad that led up to the castle. And yet, that unsteady feeling of danger only grew. It was too much for it to be simply him missing the structure and safety of Leeds.

And then, one of the shadows deep between the trees moved. Florian startled alert, and he felt his fears come alive. “Hey man, I think we’ve got company.”

When the driver didn’t respond, Florian punched the man in the arm. The truck swerved ever so slightly, and the driver turned to look at him with baleful eyes. “What the fuck, man?”

“Hellwolves.”

The driver slammed on the brakes as his eyes returned to focus on the road, finding that the truck in front of them had stopped. Men and women, all armed with rifles, poured out of the caravan’s vehicles and set up a perimeter. Sounds of combat pierced the din of the shouting traders.

His friend quickly unbuckled, pulling a rifle out from what seemed like thin air. “Get out, wizard!”

The words drove Florian to action, and he followed the man’s example, excepting that his weapon was notably more difficult to remove from the cabin. But he got it out in good time and was armed perfectly in time to see a pack of a dozen wolves break through the tree line, beelining it straight for them.

He held out his spear in the way that had been beaten into him many times over. A woman that he didn’t recognize began unloading her magazine at the creatures, the bullets piercing through the monsters’ scaled armor. Unfortunately, she had only managed to put down a couple before they were upon them. One of those closest to Florian was wounded in its shoulder, a bullet having found a new home in it.

It was a weakness that Florian would abuse. When it made to leap off its wounded leg, Florian empowered his spear with the mana surrounding him. The weight of the universe settled on the weapon ever so slightly, and Florian jabbed the weapon through the wolf’s mouth. It pierced through easily, the creature falling dead at his feet.

He withdrew his weapon, moving quickly to face his enemies. They were beginning to encircle him, forcing him back toward the pickup to find security on at least one of his sides. The crack of rifle fire resumed, and he saw another few wolves collapse, the rifle’s muzzle flashing as the woman brandished her weapon with recklessness.

Fortunately, the golden monsters in front of him were as shocked as he was, and a few split off to go after the woman. No longer ignored by the Hellwolves, she turned and sprinted, trying to find distance and security in numbers. Florian took advantage of this lapse in alertness to spear the nearest wolf through its neck, imbuing his spear with even more mana than before. The spear tip found its target well, and the magic enabled it to finish its job.

And then there was chaos. The four wolves that stayed with him leapt at him simultaneously. Panicking, Florian fell backwards into the pickup’s cabin through its open passenger door. And it just so happened to save his life.

The wolves crashed into each other, none of them able to immediately pursue him inside. Making use of the chokepoint, Florian speared them as they tried to come into the vehicle, bloodying the interior black. As he finished the final Hellwolf, he gave thanks for their continued stupidity. Inside his head, he felt the smallest pressure begin to grow. He let the mana accumulated around his spear tip dissipate and return to the environment around him.

Florian closed the pickup’s door and watched the rest of the battle around him. His driver continued to fight on the right side of the truck, his rifle discarded and his pistol firing in a regular staccato. Wolves dropped as his deadly rhythm continued its song. Riflemen around them worked with deadly efficiency, culling the horde of monsters. The twelve Hellwolves that had attacked him were but a part of the larger attack, and Florian counted more than thirty carcasses on the ground already.

His eyes caught on the woman he had fought alongside earlier. She raised her rifle, taking aim at one of the wolves that looked about ready to leap at her. Florian watched as she pulled the trigger, her determined face turning to one of shock and horror as her weapon failed her. Then it was over. With a single swipe from the Hellwolf’s mighty claws, her throat was ruined, her lifeblood forming a puddle on the black asphalt.

The monster carried her corpse away, but the sight had been thoroughly burnt into Florian’s mind. He’d seen so much death already, but recently… he puked the contents of his breakfast onto the ground in front of him, thankfully avoiding his pants or any of his clothing. His hands dropped his spear, and he hung his head down. There was no part of this carnage he wanted to see.

Fate had other plans. He heard a loud thumping from the front of the caravan intermingled with screams of terror. Reluctantly, he gazed back out, and he’d never seen anything like the sight he saw then. Towering over the pickup trucks was what looked like a giant made of red fire, his skin tinged the deepest of crimsons and his hair glowing with the light of dying embers. His face was smushed in, as if someone had applied a frying pan to it too many times.

And it was picking them apart.

Florian heard the crack of bullets, some kind of steam rising from the giant’s skin as they impacted it. It looked unfazed by the wall of lead. Swinging a giant club that might as well have been a tree, the eight meter giant sent the lead pickup flying into the forest. The vehicle took a pair of traders along for the ride, and the resultant crash left no doubts as to whether the two survived.

He had no clue what that thing was. “We need to go!” he yelled, indicating for his driver to get back in the pickup and drive back the way they came. The man shook his head, indicating at the traders around them. He returned to combat, ignoring Florian’s protestations. So Florian remained in the pickup, knowing that pushing forward with using even more magic might just be the death of him.

For twenty minutes, bullets whizzed through the air, assailing the new enemy from every angle. None seemed to make a difference until one lucky bullet struck the creature in one of its dark, coal-like eyes. The thing screamed a primal scream, glaring at the assembled humans before charging at them. An unstoppable force, it ran over a pair of pickups and three more traders before the crack of a gun put it down.

The driver’s pistol was still raised in the air right where it had been when a bullet had entered the giant’s same eye socket and presumably struck it in its brain. The miniature earthquake it caused when it fell was astounding, but none reveled in its defeat. The caravan had been reduced to a pair of pickup trucks, and the traders down to less than half of the original two dozen that had set out from Leeds Castle.