Josh planted his feet and braced his shield just in time to catch another crushing blow from the direwolf. The impact rattled his bones, forcing him back a full step across the churned dirt. The beast’s golden eyes burned with wild fury, its hackles still flickering with residual flame from Brett’s spells. Its breath came out in hot, snarling bursts, each exhale thick with smoke.

  Behind him, the forest was chaos.

  Bhel swung both axes in a brutal cross?cut, cleaving into the skull of another wolf that tried to leap past him. He snarled as he wrenched the blades free, grin flashing beneath his beard. “Carcan, stay behind me!” he barked, voice rough as gravel.

  Carcan knelt beside Perberos, her staff glowing faintly as she pressed its tip over the mangled ruin of his leg. Her jaw was tight with panic, but her voice stayed steady. “Hold on, Per, hold on, this will hurt, but I’ve got you.”

  Perberos hissed through clenched teeth, clutching the ground. “Just, just do it.”

  Brett flung a lash of fire at a wolf darting toward them, forcing it to skid back yelping. “They’re coming around the other side!” he shouted, breathless. “The den must have another entrance!”

  Josh heard none of it clearly, only distant pieces but he felt the pressure mounting. If more wolves spilled out, the others wouldn’t hold.

  As the direwolf lunged, everything else fell away, his sight collapsing into tunnel vision.

  Josh swung his sword upward in a rising arc, catching the beast’s muzzle and forcing its head aside. The blade bit deep, blood spraying across his arm. The monster barely reacted. It twisted violently, snapping its jaws toward his exposed shoulder.

  Josh raised his shield just in time.

  CRACK.

  The wolf’s bite dented the metal boss inward, teeth scraping and grinding. Josh shoved hard, kicking out with his boot, driving the direwolf back a pace.

  His chest heaved. His arms trembled from the impact.

  But the wolf was furious now.

  It circled him with predatory intent, its growl low and rumbling like distant thunder. Each step was deliberate, flame?licked fur shimmering with heat.

  “C’mon… pick a side,” Josh muttered, shifting his stance.

  The direwolf instead chose violence.

  It pounced, claws extended.

  Josh met it head?on.

  Steel clashed with fang and fire as he drove his sword toward its throat. The wolf swiped at him, sending sparks flying as claws raked across his breastplate. Josh stumbled but held his ground, slamming his shield into the creature’s jaw.

  Behind him, Brett shouted, “Josh! More wolves incoming from the ridge!”

  Josh gritted his teeth. “A little busy!”

  Bhel hacked another wolf apart with his axes, but even the dwarf looked strained. “We won’t reach him in time!” he shouted to Brett.

  Carcan lifted her head, pale and sweating. “Just hold your ground! Perb’s stable enough, I’ll help as soon as I—”

  A wolf lunged toward her.

  Bhel intercepted with a roar, crossing his axes in a brutal scissor strike that split the beast mid?leap.

  Meanwhile, Josh forced the direwolf back step by step, but the beast refused to relent. Every strike he landed only seemed to make it angrier. Blood ran freely down its flank, yet it pressed the attack with savage determination.

  Josh gritted his teeth as the dire wolf lunged again. Its massive jaws snapped shut a heartbeat too late, but the beast was relentless. The next strike came fast, faster than something that size had any right to move. The wolf’s fangs tore into the top of Josh’s thigh, white?hot pain exploding upward as he staggered.

  He snarled through it and drove his sword forward, feeling the blade bite deep into the creature’s shoulder. The dire wolf yelped, fury and fire rolling off it as embers scattered from its burning fur.

  They circled each other, both limping now. Josh’s leg throbbed with every step, warm blood sticking to the inside of his boot. He raised his sword again, blocking a heavy swipe of the wolf’s claws that sent him sliding back across the dirt.

  Behind him, he heard the last of the wolves fall to the dwarf’s axes and Brett’s flames. Carcan’s voice rose, steady and controlled as she finished healing her brother. A second later he felt something tug at the torn flesh on his leg.

  A soft green glow wrapped around him, tightening, stitching. The gaping wound sealed as muscle pulled back together. The sudden knitting sent a sharp, stinging pain through him, almost worse than the bite.

  He hissed through his teeth. “Thanks, Carcan.”

  The dire wolf lunged again before he could breathe. Josh ducked, barely, its smouldering fur brushing his cheek. He slashed upward, scoring across its jaw. The beast roared, eyes blazing with primal rage.

  This is more of a challenge than they’d expected. Josh tightened his stance, grip firming on the hilt. A real fight. Alright then… let’s end it. The dire wolf charged, and Josh met it head?on.

  Carcan steadied herself where she knelt beside her brother, the coppery scent of blood thick in the air. Her staff still glowed faintly with healing energy, but her breath trembled, uneven. Seeing Perberos’ leg mangled had sent a jolt of terror through her, one she had forced down only long enough to knit the worst of the damage back together. But then Josh had cried out in pain, the dire wolf tearing into him, and that fear flared sharp and bright once more.

  For a heartbeat she felt the edges of panic clawing up her ribs.

  No. Focus. Breathe. You have a job.

  She sucked in a slow breath, pressed her shaking fingers to her sternum, and closed her eyes just long enough to find the rhythm her mother had taught her as a child. The song had always been soft, meant for calming scraped knees or frightened nights during storms. But here, in the chaos of battle, it was the one thing that could clear the clutter of her thoughts.

  She began to hum, then whispered, then the rhythmic words.

  Follow the sun, little wanderer, go,

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  Chase where the warm golden rivers flow.

  Step through the shadows, you’re never alone,

  Follow the sun, it will always lead you home.

  When the night gathers and fear starts to rise,

  Lift up your heart to the brightening skies.

  Even in storms when the wild winds roam,

  Follow the sun, it will always bring you home.

  Home is the promise the light always keeps,

  Home is the beacon that wakes while you sleep.

  Walk on with courage wherever you roam,

  Follow the sun, and its warmth will guide you home.

  The melody wrapped around her heart, smoothing its frantic pace. Her breathing steadied. Her hands glowed brighter.

  With renewed focus, Carcan lifted her gaze to Josh’s silhouette, still locked in brutal combat with the dire wolf and prepared her next spell, her voice settling into a firm, confident cadence. She had her centre again.

  Around her, the last of the lesser wolves fell in bursts of golden light, their bodies dissolving into motes that drifted away on the forest air. Brett exhaled hard, shaking embers off his fingers as he launched another flame bolt into a straggler. Perberos, kneeling with one leg still tender, loosed an arrow that caught a lunging wolf clean through the jaw. Bhel swung both axes in a savage arc, cleaving another wolf apart before kicking its body aside with a grunt.

  Only when the final wolf faded did the group’s attention snap back to the real threat. The direwolf.

  Josh was still locked with it, blade meeting monstrous fangs as he tried to hold his ground. The beast’s size dwarfed him, its shoulders level with his chest, its fur scorched in patches from Brett’s spells. Each impact of its weight forced Josh back another step.

  Perberos wiped blood from his lip and hissed a breath. “We need to help him. Now.”

  Bhel didn’t wait. “On it! Move!”

  They surged forward.

  Josh saw them coming but barely had time to acknowledge it. The direwolf lunged again, jaws snapping shut around the edge of his shield as it shoved him back. He gritted his teeth, muscles screaming as he forced his sword sideways to stop the bite from closing around his arm.

  Brett thrust his hand forward. “Josh, duck!”

  Josh dropped to a knee at once.

  A searing lash of fire whipped across the direwolf’s muzzle. It snarled, rearing back, flames clinging to its fur before sputtering out. That half?second was all Bhel needed. He slammed into its flank, axes flashing, hacking deep into its side. The force knocked the beast sideways. It rolled once, claws tearing up the dirt as it righted itself.

  Perberos had two arrows nocked at once. He drew back, breath steadying despite the ache in his leg. “Hold it still!” he shouted.

  Josh held the beast as best he could, sword raised, hammering blow after blow against the creature’s thick hide. The direwolf fought like a storm, snapping at him, batting aside his strikes with its massive paws, its amber eyes full of fury.

  Carcan stayed a few paces back, staff glowing faintly as she maintained her battlefield focus, casting shields and heals where they were needed. “I’ve got you all… keep pushing!”

  The beast swiped at Josh with a heavy paw. He brought his sword up, but the impact rattled his bones and sent him stumbling. Before the wolf could follow through, Brett launched a firebolt that burst against its ribs. The creature howled, turning toward him.

  Bhel intercepted, axes crossed. The direwolf crashed into him, the sound echoing through the trees. The dwarf held firm, boots digging trenches into the soft earth. “Shoot it! Now!”

  Perberos released. Both arrows hit, the first piercing the direwolf’s shoulder, the second sinking deep into its throat.

  The creature roared in agony, thrashing wildly, blood pooling out of the wound to it’s throat.

  Josh seized his chance. He dashed forward and vaulted forward in a burst of momentum. His sword arced high and came down in a brutal strike, burying itself into the direwolf’s spine.

  The monster bucked, nearly flinging him off.

  “Finish it!” Bhel roared.

  Brett’s hands ignited again. “Josh, get clear!”

  Josh ripped his blade free and threw himself aside.

  A jet of flame blasted across the direwolf’s face. It collapsed, howling as Perberos fired again, the final arrow driving straight into its exposed eye.

  The direwolf shuddered… then its massive body sagged. Its glow dimmed, its form dissolving into swirling golden motes that drifted upward like dying embers.

  Silence followed.

  Josh lay on his back, catching his breath. “…That was a bit much.”

  Bhel offered him a hand, one axe still dripping. “A bit? Lad, that thing nearly made a meal of you.”

  Perberos limped forward. “But it’s done.”

  Carcan finally exhaled, shoulders slumping with relief. “Everyone… still breathing?”

  The forest fell into a heavy, breathless quiet as the direwolf slowly started to dissolve into a swirl of golden motes that drifted upward like embers from an unseen fire. One by one, the other fallen wolves dissolved as well, their remnants joining the glowing haze until nothing remained but the churned soil and the party’s ragged breathing.

  Josh staggered back to his feet, bracing his hands on his knees as he sucked in air. His thigh still throbbed, even after Carcan’s healing, and streaks of dirt and blood clung to his armour. Brett hurried over, fire still dancing faintly across his fingertips before he flicked it away.

  “You alright?” Brett asked.

  “Define alright,” Josh replied weakly, but he managed a grin.

  Bhel planted one axe into the dirt and leaned on it. “Well, that was a bloody warm?up,” he muttered. “Forest’s got a nasty temperament out here.”

  Perberos limped closer, his newly?healed leg still stiff. “I’d rather we not do that again today.”

  Carcan gently swatted his shoulder with her staff. “Next time, don’t get tackled by a wolf twice your size.” Her words were teasing, but her eyes still shimmered with leftover fear.

  Brett crouched near the den entrance where small piles of loot shimmered faintly. “Alright, let’s see what we’ve earned for almost dying.”

  The party gathered around as he sifted through the items.

  From the normal wolves, they gathered several wolf tails, tufts of coarse Forest Wolf Fur, that Carcan thought would be perfect for crafting cold?weather gear, a handful of sharp wolf fangs, good for jewellery or alchemy and a curious a smooth grey pebble that rattled faintly when shaken, though it made no sound - Perberos said he thought this might be a Wolf’s Hollow Stone.

  Then Brett reached the final item that lay where the direwolf had been. A large, softly glowing charm shaped like a fang the size of a dagger. It pulsed faintly with power.

  Carcan inhaled. “That looks special.”

  Bhel crossed his arms. “What is it meant to do?”

  Brett held it up as the system text flickered for everyone to see.

  Direfang Charm (Rare)

  Grants the wearer +2 Constitution and +2 Strength.

  Once per day, allows the user to unleash a short?range shockwave howl, staggering nearby enemies.

  Attunes to any warrior?based class.

  Josh blinked. “That’s kind of cool.”

  Perberos tilted his head. “Seems like something for our frontliner.”

  “Yeah,” Bhel agreed, nodding toward Josh. “You were the one getting tossed around by that overgrown mutt. Could do with the extra sturdiness.”

  Josh looked around at them. “You sure? It’s a party drop. If someone else wants it…”

  Brett snorted. “Mate, look at us.” He gestured at his robes, then at Carcan. “We’re the non?getting?bit members.”

  Perberos added dryly, “And I’m injured enough today.”

  Carcan smiled softly. “It’s yours. You earned it.”

  Josh hesitated only a moment longer before accepting the charm. It was warm in his hand, humming faintly like a heartbeat.

  “Alright,” he said, tying it around his neck. “Let’s hope it doesn’t make me howl in my sleep.”

  “If it does,” Brett replied, “you’re sleeping outside.”

  The party chuckled, the tension finally beginning to lift.

  As the golden motes faded into the forest canopy, they gathered their things and prepared to move on, bruised, battered, but triumphant.