Chapter 81

please trust me

Instantly they all moved into action. Wolves and the last warg flew out of the Soulscape to join in the combat. Shannon held her axe solidly, while still shaking from just straight fear. And Natalie shot arrow after arrow from her bow. She was able to six off before she had to switch it out for her own axe, swinging wildly into the oncoming horde. The pack never moved forward to attack, but instead held a solid line of defence, trying not to let too many goblins manoeuvre past them towards their Alpha and the terrified Shannon. Claws clashed, and maws clamped down around necks as the sides confronted one another. All of the hobgoblins held back while the goblins attacked, making Natalie wish she was still able to fire her arrows off instead of fending off the smaller goblins. Of her six arrows, five of them had taken out hobs. That left seven of them, but that was still far too many. The bigger monsters were using tactics and logic to try and win, and that was terrifying her. That, and the fact that the hobgoblins had what could pass of as rudimentary spears. The monsters were getting smarter, and they were getting more beaten down.

As the minutes passed, Natalie brought down a dozen goblins on her own, while the wolves were each nearing two dozen kills. Shannon even had managed to get three of them, each one seeming to bolster her confidence. However, the canines out front were running ragged. The wolves were built for strength and speed, not stamina. The longer this fight dragged on, the worse for wear they got. More and more of the goblin's swipes landed on the canines as they were mulled down. Blood dripped from the wounds the canines received as they stayed their ground, drawing on their stamina to the fullest until the horde may be broken. The Soulscape would give them space to rest afterwards, they just needed to make sure they got there in one piece. That just meant that all of the monsters had to be brought down.

As the horde thinned out and the last goblins ran belligerently towards the line, the hobgoblins finally started to move. In a rough formation, they moved forward holding their spears out pointed towards the canine line. Seeing this, and knowing that the wolves and wargs were already exhausted and sore, Nat moved forward to join them. With her first swing of the axe, she took out the three leading spears as the wolves on the sides took down the last goblins. Together with the wargs and Bryden, Nat rushed into the hob's now broken formation. Together with them, they knocked down and took out the hobs one by one. When the last one had fallen to the ground, Nat collapsed to the ground, panting heavily. She was exhausted from the fight. In direct head-on fight, this had been the most opponents they had ever had at once. The limits of their stamina were becoming blatantly clear.

However, the last hob that had fallen was not quite out. In a last effort, it raised its spear and thrust it directly at Natalie's exposed back. Shannon's voiced cried out, but everything seemed to be in slow motion for Nat as she turned her head. At the same time, she saw the spear tip coming towards her, heard the call from Shannon, and already started to accept what was about to happen. She closed her eyes and waited for the searing pain to come. But instead of a searing pain, she felt warm fur on her back, and heard a remorseful wail coming out from one of the other wolves.

Reopening her eyes, she saw each and every pack member tearing the last hob to pieces, making its final death vicious and bloody. However, all of that seemed to be in gray tones. Slumped against her back, with the hobgoblin's spear sticking out, was Bryden's body. Turning around, Nat moved almost like a machine, checking everything she could to try to save the wolf. However, by the time she had turned around, his pulse had already stopped. Warm red blood flowed from the wound over her hand and down to the ground. It stood out as the one point of colour that she was able to see.

Moving away from what used to be the hobgoblin's corpse, Emily walked over and nuzzled in between Nat and Bryden's bodies. Soft whines were let out, but no actual words were shared between the two, who both were shocked by the loss. Shannon came up and put her hand on Natalie's shoulder, attempting to comfort her partner. The entire pack, got up and surrounded the pair, nuzzling and providing what comfort they could. He had been around since the beginning, and Nat and a lot of the other wolves had grown close to him over these last two weeks.

After a few minutes passed, with the entire pack joining Nat and Emily in their mourning, whining and expressing their sorrows in their own way, Shannon finally spoke up. "Let's leave town, and find somewhere to camp. The gorillas can wait, you need some time to deal with this."

"No." Natalie muttered, "We can press on. We have to. I don't want them to face a similar fate as Bryden did."

"Enough!" Shannon shouted, gaining the attention of every canine and Natalie. "You all have been pushing yourselves to the limit each and every day, and have not taken any real time to rest or relax. The event was two weeks ago! Did any of you have a day off since then?" Silence was all that responded to her, everyone too tired to answer, but smart enough to see that she was right. If they were not already exhausted from all of the previous days, maybe things could have turned out differently, maybe Bryden would still be with them. "We need to take a day or two to relax and recharge. And hold a funeral for our fallen hero." However, just as Shannon finished speaking that, Bryden's body violently erupted into green mist.

Huge thanks to my Elder Wolves Jake, Viktor, Nikolas, Saganatsu, Eeleater, Eric, Corgi, Lachlan, Adam, John, Nicholas, Jacob, Onean, Erudual, Hades, Neal, Sebastian, Sir Hellington, and Kevin for supporting me and my writing! Remember that I keep Patreon ten chapters ahead at all times. Our next goal on Patreon will be getting up to 25 patrons, which I will then open up an official discord for everyone to come and discuss the story in and hang out!