Wherein Char met Terry

"Fall back! Before we're surrounded!" A grizzled old knight shouted, gripping his spear tighter as he stared down his opponent.

The young man at the rear of the formation backed up, but collided with the sheer cliff face. He nearly dropped his staff, but managed to catch it before looking behind him and up. "We-we can't! We're at the cliffs!"

Beside him, another knight was pushed back, but managed to push a stubborn wolf off of their shield, booting it in the face before stabbing it in the shoulder with her short spear. "Commander Gerhart, we already are surrounded! Char, are you alright?" she glanced over her shoulder to the young man they were all trying to protect.

A massive howl erupted from the tree line before them, followed by a second nearly as loud. The growling and snarling stopped, the two howls seeming to prompt the wolves to fall back to encircle the group against the rocks. The ground trembled slightly as the trees themselves began to move aside like mere grass.

From two places in the treeline, a pair of overly large Blade Wolves emerged. The first was a pure white wolf with a shimmering, blood stained horn, standing easily half again as tall as the party's commander, already a towering beast of a man. The second was a whole head and shoulders taller than that, with deep black fur and dark metal blades shot through with veins of gold.

"No way…." Char starred in abject horror, gripping his staff tightly against his chest in an attempt to avoid hyperventilating.

Commander Gerhart spit some blood to the ground, drawing himself into a much more ready stance. "Well well… Looks like mommy and daddy came to play."

The pair of Greater Blade Wolves growled at the humanoids, their children slowly closing the circle. The father audibly drew in a deep breath, getting ready to howl. A signal of the end.

"WAHOOO!!!!" Echoed down from up above them.

In the blink of an eye, something landed on the back of the alpha, a sickening crack of bone erupting from it a split second before the giant wolf crumpled to the ground. Blood sprayed from its maw all over the haggard party, before it lay lifeless in a growing pool of its own blood. The impact had kicked up an extraordinary amount of dust that obscured the sight, though the white wolf had leapt to the side.

No one and nothing had a moment to really think before a deep, ululating bellow erupted from whatever had landed on the wolf. "AAAHHEEAHEEAAAHHHH!" There was something deeply humanoid about the sound, but there was an undertone of something entirely bestial.

From the dust cloud, the corpse of a smaller Blade Wolf flew at the white wolf. The larger wolf slapped it to the side, but wasn't expecting the human form sprinting at it behind the sight line. While it had defended itself, that only left its leg open to get slashed by some… tribal?

Char watched in pure confusion, along with the rest of the entities present, at what was occurring. A mostly naked, pale, blonde, muscular human wearing a loincloth made of Blade Wolf fur was attacking the White Blade Wolf with what appeared to be a smaller blade wolf's horn. "Wh… Aria, what is that?"

The female knight didn't relax her stance while watching the spectacle, shuffled back towards Char. "I don't know. I don't remember there being any tribes living in this part of the forest. Though, I am not the most well read, my apologies, sir."

Gerhart walked over to the two of them as the few other members of their party converged closer, standing easy as the smaller wolves joined their mother in combat against the strange man. "Not just the forest, he came from somewhere up the cliffs. High enough to neutralize the alpha in one blow with nothing more than the momentum and his own weight. Aria was right, there is nothing about any humans living above the cliffs, though there are legends of ancient training rites that Sword Kings used to go through, that involved climbing to the Upper Forest."

"I've heard about that." A young knight with dirty brown hair and a massive greatsword piped up, brushing some of the dirt and grime off his face. "It's said they would have to survive and train for ten years up there, and return with the heart of a dragon. I thought that was just a myth."

"Well," the lightly armored scout relaxed her twin short sword stance only slightly, "either he's finished his quest, or he jumped down because he smelled prey. Observe, he fights more like a beast or brawler than a sword king."

They watched as the strange man was jumped repeatedly by the pack, never seeming to falter no matter how much damage he takes. A slash across the back, the thigh, the arm. A bite in the shoulder. A deep gash that should have hamstrung him. It seemed to be almost pure stubbornness that kept him fighting.

The Wild Man, for his part, was purely focused on the big one. No matter how much damage he was taking, he just kept fighting. Char couldn't help but stare in amazement, and some admiration. It looked like he could actually do it. Best this A rank monster.

A horn sunk deep into the man's side, the horn in his hand snapping down and tearing through the foolish creature's throat. Picking the corpse up, he used it to pierce another charging wolf, deflecting the attack and dealing a bit of damage. A sneak attack took out the back of his knee, dropping him to kneel.

The mother wolf moved in for the kill. With a defiant roar, he pushed off the ground with his one good leg, leaping into the air to meet the increasingly reddened white wolf. Its massive maw clamped down around his torso, trapping an arm. The jolt shook the blood-slick horn from his free hand, sending it to the ground. A fang appeared to get his spine, causing him to go limp.

The knights and mage winced. The man was obviously going to die from that. Taking up their weapons in grim determination, the commander looked back at Char.

"Char, leave with Vyx. We'll keep them distracted and hold them off." He looked at the lightly armored dual wielder, who nodded once.

"Come, before the wolves return their attention to us." Vyx posted herself next to the mage.

The young man couldn't take his eyes off the spectacle they were witnessing. "We can't. We have to help him. If I can just-"

"Don't be stupid, kid." The greatsword wielder draped the massive sword over his broad shoulders, dropping into a bit of a low stance. "One of us at least needs to get home and tell the others. He's not going to last long after getting chomped on like that. Besides, our job is to protect you, remember?"

"I'm not going to just leave you all, Albert! We have to make it back together!"

Then they heard it. An unnerving laughter coming from the dead man. All eyes stared at the wolves' prey, even the beast's were getting creeped out.

"Got ya, bitch."

The warrior pulled back his free arm, staring the large wolf right in her eye as she chomped down harder. Thrusting his hand forward, the party watched what looked like a knife handed jab, piercing deep into the beast's eye. Gore splattered him as the beast let go, but as his arm was about to slip out he gripped hold of its skull, hanging from the eye socket.

"WHAT'S THE MATTER!? Didn't think I was tasty enough for ya!?" He shouted, using the momentum from the wolf trying to shake him off to land on the back of her neck. "Well you damn dogs aren't that good either, but you're going to be my lunch just the same."

Char watched with grim, sickening fascination as this man grabbed hold of the white blade wolf's head and spun his entire weight around. He couldn't tell if the neck was broken, but the beast was brought to the ground, knocking over trees as it fell. It looked like the wild warrior crawled around to the thrashing wolf's throat, but it was hard to tell as the thrashing was kicking up dirt and dust and dead leaves. A few moments later, the wolf lay limply, twitching and kicking as a deep red slick spread from it, as if it could outrun its death. Char couldn't hold it anymore, and ejected his sickness to the ground.

The group stared in awe. The wolves as well, before one bolting in fear triggered the flight of the rest. The area was exceedingly quiet now, save for the labored, heavy breathing of the human beast that bested the Alpha Pair, variants at that. The four knights brought their weapons to bear as this beast of a brawler, covered in gore and wild eyed from the adrenaline still coursing through his system, turned his gaze over his shoulder at them.