Rupture

When Eranor returned to the camp, Kaltmund was busy cooking some beans on a tiny pan while Raione was meditating. Eranor approached calmly and stood still as he studied Raione.

“Kal, is she looking at her skills?” he asked.

“Yes indeed, she said she could feel her bare-handed skill was close to improving,” he said and stirred the beans a bit, “But what have you found?”

“A dire wolf den,” he said and at that moment Raione snapped out of her trans.

“A dire wolf den,” she repeated, and that wolfish grin reappeared on her face, “Where?” she asked and stretched out her legs.

“Just a bit west of here. We should eat first before going in. I heard about twelve of them in there. Not sure what level they are though. Couldn’t tell what sex they were either,” he reported on his findings and settled down next to the fire.

“Doesn’t matter. We’ll kill them all. Get some quarts and perhaps even a rare item. I mean who would think a dire wolf den was just here, in between villages?” asked Raione and leaned back on her arms.

“Are you sure these are not just normal wolves?” asked Kaltmund as he took the pan off the fire.

“Saw the prints. Much too large for wolves. Also, they seem to be leaving one, maybe two at a time. Normal wolves always travel in packs. I’m fairly certain that they are dire wolves,” he replied and held his hands out to the fire.

“Well, I guess we should eat up and get ourselves ready for some cave clearing,” said Kaltmund and filled three bowls with beans.

“Then while we eat, we need to talk strategy,” suggested Raione, taking a bowl of beans.

“Yes, if we charge in, we’ll all die for certain,” added Kaltmund as he handed out the spoons.

“I’ll take lead since I can see down there,” said Eranor and blew on his beans.

“I’ll be right behind you. So that when we spot them, I’ll rush in to engage,” continued Raione.

“I’ll take my support role from the back while Eranor plays the midfield role,” added Kaltmund.

“We’ve hunted together before. The toughest enemy we took down was that elder bear. Dire wolves are on another level. So, teamwork will be key,” added Eranor in between bites.

“Fall back plans?” asked Kaltmund.

“Simple, I’ll burn my stamina to push them back. Eranor, you sweep back any stragglers. Then with this opening made,” she answered.

“I’ll use a spell to buy us time to get out,” concluded Kaltmund. Raione quickly wolfed down the last of her beans as her eagerness began to show. It wasn't much of a plan but the three of them couldn't help but feel confident in their abilities. They are heroes to be and some Dire wolves stand no chance against them

“So, are we heading out?” she inquired. Eranor nodded as he saw Kaltmund fork down the last of the beans.

The sun had set, and in this darkness, the three adventures stood at the mouth of the cave. Raione had removed her robe. Her black and red-tinted warrior armour gleamed under the moonlight. Kaltmund wore a grey and blue mage’s cloak. His grey hood was up, his face and body hidden in shadow. Only his hands and steel wrist guards were visible of his body. Eranor looked over his gear. He gave a few good tugs on the vambrace laces before unsheathing a dagger.

“That little thing won’t do much against the dire wolves, better draw your sword Eranor,” advised Raione.

“I know Rai, but we don’t know how large these tunnels will be. I need movement above stopping power. I’ll draw my sword when we get to the den,” he answered and turned to the cave entrance. They fell silent and as Raione unsheathed her axes, Eranor looked over his shoulders and through his dark locks. “Follow me and don’t stray a single step.” 

The two nodded and into the entrance they went. It was a dramatic change in slope. In the first few steps, their heads were already lower than the ground outside the cave. Eranor didn’t like this entrance, it would make retreat difficult. Yet, he buried his doubts deep inside of him and tried to project confidence. They slowly made their way down until they reached a plateau. Kaltmund and Raione came close and gave him a nod. In front of them was a clear line. The moonlight ended, and darkness began. It was a perfect curtain of blackness. Eranor heightened his senses and the void vanished. He could see the three tunnel entrances ahead of him. He slowly moved forward. When he stepped, he would grind his foot a bit first. Raione and Kaltmund followed in his cryptic foot messages as well as they could. Of the three tunnels, one stuck profoundly of wolves. Eranor realised that the panting in the cave had calmed down a bit. He clenched his fists, hoping that the dire wolves have not detected them. They continued to venture deeper into the tunnel. But movement became hard as it became narrower and narrower. It became so confined that they were forced to crawl through a small opening.

“Eranor, are you sure this is the way to the den? How could these wolves fit through here if they're that big?” whispered Raione as she felt the jab of a sharp rock on her palms one to many times.

“I’m following the strongest scent Rai, so keep your mouth shut,” he whispered back to her. They were enveloped in complete darkness. If it was not for Eranor’s eyesight, then they would never have gotten this far. However, Raione’s question made Eranor think. Why would this be the most travelled path? As they finally got to a part of the tunnels where they could walk. Eranor heightened his senses even greater. He could feel his focus being taxed far more intensely than before. With his sense on overdrive, he heard the reason for this being the route with the strongest smell. Pups whimpering deeper in the cave. The sent he was smelling was so potent because it came from the pups. He began to think of why this route would be chosen. It obvious actually, it had very few corners and tight spots. This was most likely the most direct way to the den and is used as a highway for the pups.

After a while of diving deeper into the tunnel network, the breathing of the dire wolves became louder. He relaxed his heightened senses a bit so he could spare his focus. The small dip in eyesight was rather dramatic. It caused him to stop dead in his tracks and blink blankly into the void. It was almost hard for him to make out anything.

“What’s wrong?” whispered Kaltmund as he bumped into him.

“Are we getting close?” asked Raione in a hushed tone. Eranor nodded his head, before realising they wouldn’t be able to see him.

“Yes, before we engage. Kaltmund, you have to generate a light source,” he muttered.

“I think he knows,” she added. Eranor couldn't but clench his fists. Raione would always have a way of getting in at least a sentence or two, no matter the situation.

“I know, he just needs to make the light faint at first. Don’t want to blind ourselves,” he responded in a whisper. The brief interchange gave Eranor’s eyes enough time to grow used to the darkness. With that, he rubbed his heels into the dirt again to signal that they will continue. They took a few steps further before the ceiling of the cave rapidly increased in hight. They entered a new, much larger tunnel. Eranor scanned the hallway. To the right was a path leading back up. To his left was the den. Wolves the size of elks laid strewn out over the cavern floor. The three slowly made their way to a nearby rock.

“Kaltmund, make the light. Keep it faint,” he ordered. Then from the nothingness, a bright light erupted before Eranor’s eyes. He flinched and closed his eyes. He resisted the urge to make a noise. He had grown so accustomed to his heightened senses that he forgot to relax them. He lowered his sense back to normal. When he looked back at the orb, it was barely a flickering star. Kaltmund then slowly made the tiny star grow. As it swelled the light grew brighter. Raione looked to Eranor. He understood. They both slowly crept out from behind the rock, with their weapons drawn. It was so strange for Eranor. The wolves he saw on the floor were hidden by the nothingness before them. As Kaltmund’s light grew brighter the figure appeared before them. Eranor took his stance. He began to count how many there were.

“Eleven,” said Raione who must have been doing the same thing.

“One’s not here,” he responded. The artificial light that Kaltmund had generated, was now lighting up the entire cave. The dire wolves began to stir. Then whimpering calls of the pups echoed throughout the cave.

Raione shot forward with Eranor following shortly. The dire wolves flung awake, only to find that they were under attack. Raione let out a violent scream and slammed her right axe deep into the skull of the nearest one. The body went limp immediately. She used her free axe to scrape the carcass off. When the carcass struck the floor, a howling erupted. Two dire wolves darted forwards. Raione blocked the bite from one, leaving her side wide open. The other one charged for this gap in her defence. Only to be impaled by Eranor.

“Not so fast,” he cried. He stuck the beast in-between the ribs, driving it back. As the two of them crashed into some rocks, the beast clawed at Eranor. He tucked his arm against his body. The razor-sharp claws caught his vambrace. It kicked and clawed wildly. Then Eranor twisted his blade, the dire wolf frantically yelped. He quickly seized the opportunity and took hold of his dagger. He unleashed a relentless barrage of stabbings, ending in a blow to the throat.

“Eranor, look out,” cried Raione. Then from his rear, he heard the other dire wolves. With little effort, he ripped his sword free and turned to face them. Two leapt at the same time for him. He rolled out of the way but found himself ensnared in their trap. Four dire wolves circled all around him. His eyes darted to see where Raione was. She was busy evading attacks from two more beasts.

“Repulse,” cried Kaltmund. Then a bright flash erupted at the entrance of the cave. A flurry of icicles scattered across the cave. Eranor without hesitation went on the offensive. His blade slashed at the side of one as lunged forward. He quickly rolled to the side to jab at the eye of another. The wolf recovered from the ice barrage in time. It pulled its head away to avoid the blow landing on the eye, but instead, he cut into its jaw. Eranor quickly scurried back and regained his stance. He made a dash through the gap to support Raione, who was cornered by three more beasts.

“Kal, repulse now!” he cried as he came barrelling towards the three dire wolves.

“Repulse,” cried Kaltmund again. This time the icicles were larger. They penetrated the thick hides of the dire wolves. Eranor dove at the nearest beast. From behind, he rammed his dagger into its skull. With his momentum, he quickly spun around and slashed at the persuing beasts. The chasing dire wolf had its front paws lobbed off. The creature, unable to stop, rammed him into the rocks. Raione capitalised on the chaos. Hacking and slashing. She caught the jaw of one and broke the claws of the other. The wolves recoiled from strike range. Raione coiled her axe back and let out a furious cry. The edges of her axes glowed bright red. When the two dire wolves attempted a second assault, Raione unleashed her fury. In a scream fuelled by rage, she swung her axes. Two massive red streaks sprang forth. They struck the two beasts mid-flight. On impact, the streaks erupted. The orange fire from the explosion quickly flashed across the white light lit cave. The remaining halves of the beasts fell to the floor in a red mist.

“Rai, Kal needs your help,” cried Eranor while evading the rabid bites of the paw-less beast. Raione sprang forward. Kaltmund danced between slashes from the dire wolves. He summoned an ice shield if he could not avoid the blow. The beasts would crash through these layers of ice and miss the fatal attack. His steel wrist guards were scratched dull. Parts of his pants torn open. The blood only made the dire wolves more ravenous. They pounced in circles, forcing the space Kaltmund had to move to shrink. Then finally one of the beasts landed a clean blow. The claws sliced into the opening of his cloak, across the chest. He fell on his backside and scurried quickly on all fours. The dire wolves crept closer.

“Kal, freeze them,” shouted Raione from behind.

“Deep freeze,” he conjured in a panic, and an icy mist burst forth. The hairs on the wolves froze solid and Raione could feel her skin tare because of the cold. It would not freeze them in place but slow them down. Raione leapt high and took off the head of a dire wolf. As her feet slide over the now ice-covered floor, she dug an axe into the floor. As she slid past one of the beasts, she saw it had a slash mark on its side. She swung her free axe into the open wound. The beast yelped and hopped back. She came to rest in front of Kaltmund.

“Alright, you dirty mutts. Now I’m pissed,” she warned before unleashing a powerful scream. The other two beasts lunged forward. Each grabbing her by her arms. It did not phase her. She kept on screaming. An ever so slight aura of red outlined her. The beasts tugged at her arms, trying to rip them off. She however slowly retracted her arms, bring the dire wolves closer to her. They began thrashing wildly. Their fangs deep into Raione’s forearms. WIth a growl of rage. She tugged her right arm closer. The beast tried to resist but an explosion of strength surprised it. Raione bit down hard on the eye of the beast, before ripping it out. It let go instinctively and its partner followed suit. She spat the eye out and gave a wolfish grin.

“Hey pups, you think you’re hardcore. You’re weak. You’re nothing,” she spat out before leaping forward again. She unleashed a savage barrage of attacks. Axe hit after axe hit landed. Soon she was chopping away at corpses. Engrossed in her hacking and slashing, she lost focus of her surrounding. One of the beasts saw an opening. The wounded dire wolf of earlier crawled closed and pounced. Raione’s head turned to the side. Her eyes stretched wide.

“Release,” cried a wounded Kaltmund and sent an ice javelin through the creature’s middle. With the sheer force behind the attack, the wolf was sent flying across the room.

“Kal, conserve your strength. We don’t want you dying on us,” she scolded him as she wiped the blood from her mouth.

“Relax Rai, I’ll live,” he said before standing up in a groan. From underneath his cloak, a smirk could be seen. But his hand mending the chest wound told a different story.

“Touching as that is, I could use some help,” cried Eranor who was pinned underneath the last dire wolf. It had its paws on his blade. Its jaws flailed erratically to bite down on his head. He missed having his head crushed in its jaws by a hair's width.

“Alright then,” cried Raione and threw her axe. It flew through the air and bit deep into its side. Eranor seized the opening. He pushed the beast back, sat upright, grabbed his dagger and stabbed through the eye. The beast thrashed for a short while but Eranor kept his dagger in the eye. He felt it smash its jaw against his forearm with waining strength. When it finally collapsed, he let out a sigh of relief.

“I’m impressed Eranor, those were some quick reflexes,” said Raione as she walked over.

“I guess I’m quicker than I thought. Hell, that was a lot tougher than I thought,” admitted Eranor as he inspected his wounds. He had scratches and bite marks but none were too deep or too serious

“Much harder than the elder bear we hunted a while ago,” added a limping Kaltmund.

“By the Goddess, Kal. You look terrible,” he said before divining into his pocket, “I’ve got a healing crystal with me. I could patch you up?”

“No need, these wounds will heal naturally,” he said and dipped his finger into a gash on his leg. He grunted as the pain jolted through his body. But with the swish of his fingers, the wound began to crystalise.

“Real tough Kal. Come on, we’ve got some quarts to collect and pups to kill,” said Raione and walked over to the remaining corpses of the ones she exploded. “Looks like my detonating strike technique is a bit overkill,” she noted and flexed her bicep.

“Overkill on your magic as well, it dipped immensely after you used that,” interjected Kaltmund, bringing an end to her posturing.

“Yeah, that’s why I don’t use it very often,” she grumpily explained and kicked the jaw of the corpse.

They patched and bandaged their wounds and used potions of recovery to speed up the healing time. Then they proceeded to cut out the cores of the dire wolves and harvest what materials they could. It took a little bit longer than usual due to the wounds they sustained, but they eventually finished up.

“Alright, that looks like everything,” said Kaltmund as he wrapped everything of his items up in a wolf pelt.

“So, it would seem,” said Eranor, doing the same.

“Now on to our last bit of business,” said Raione and slung the wolf pelt over her shoulder. She unsheathed one of her axes.

“You really think this is needed Rai?” asked Eranor as she headed over to the squealing pups.

“Kill or be killed Eranor, besides these little ones will only cause trouble when they grow up,” she remarked. While Raione dealt with the pups Eranor turned his head away from the sight. He knows that they are dangerous and only want to kill. But it never makes it easy for him.

“Done,” declared Raione as she came upright, “Strange that they didn’t run.”

As she finished the sentence a massive dire wolf dove through the cave wall. Its massive paw clawed at the open midriff of Raione and sent her flying. Her body tumbled across the floor, leaving a streak of blood.  The beast unleashed a powerful howl and charged in for the kill.

“Raione no!” cried Kaltmund as he watched in horror. Eranor felt time freeze. He pressed with everything inside of himself to move. His mind pushed as hard as it could against his body. Yet he would not budge. Time slowly began to tick, and the dire wolf slowly came closer. He was horrified at watching this. In his terror, he continued to push and trying to move. Wishing himself to act.  He wanted to be stronger. Strong enough to move and stop that beast. With this desire growing with each passing tick, he felt something. He tried again and his body felt less resistant. The beast drew closer to Raione, now only a few steps away. He felt something snap inside of him. “Raione,” he cried.

Kaltmund watched as in a blink of an eye Eranor flashed across the room, right into the path of the giant dire wolf. Not only did he step in front of it, but he stopped it. His hands held the jaws of the behemoth dire wolf open. 

“Kal, do something. Kill it,” he cried as he struggled against the beasts. Kaltmund snapped from his stupour and took his stance. He began emptying his magic reserves.

“I call upon water,” he began his chant.

“I call upon the cold of the north.” Eranor’s lean figure had transformed into a bulkier state. His muscles bulged like never before. 

“Hear my call and answer it,” Kaltmund continued, the air began to chill.

“I summon you, element.” Eranor felt his strength waning. The sharp teeth of the large dire wolf began to dig into his hands. 

“Take form and grant me your power,” he began chanting louder as the ice began to form in the air.

“See my foe before me.” Eranor’s physique began to return to normal. His footing began to give as he slowly slid back. The jaws of the creature began to win the battle. 

“See the foe and smite it,” he began shouting and an ice spear formed in the air.

“Smite it in all your glory.” Eranor felt the foot of Raione against his. He had surrendered all the ground he could.

“Kal, do it now,” cried Eranor as his arms began to shake and buckle.

“Show my foe,” he said calmly as the spear took full form and fell into his open hand.

“Your rupture.” A massive boom echoed through the cave as the spear burst forward. In a flash, it went straight through the dire wolf and carved a massive crater in the wall behind it. Eranor collapsed with the remaining parts of the dire wolf. 

“Raione, no, no, no, no," Kaltmund cried and dashed lightheaded to Raione’s blood-covered body. "Please don’t die, Raione. Please don’t leave me. Raione!"