78

78
Chapter 78
Aric Darkclaw.

The smell of blood was already mingling with the damp earth when I saw the first shapes approaching down the long tunnel.
Humans with dull, clouded eyes, corrupted by dark magic. Orcs wielding axes stained with dried blood. Hooded sorcerers whispering spells to the wind, warping the air around them with their impure witchcraft.
No. They would not get through.

My muscles contracted, and my eyes sharpened like blades. I felt heat crawl across my skin until it broke the limits of human form. Bones cracked, flesh reshaped, and in seconds my body assumed its true nature.
A wolf black as night, with eyes flashing fury and loyalty. My claws tore the earth beneath my paws, and my teeth clenched with contained rage.

“Now!” I cried in my mind. “They’re coming. Don’t let them get close.”
The wolves answered with a unison howl, deep, resonating off the stone walls like thunder. Beside me, Ronnie—already transformed—snarled, his fur bristling and fangs bared; his howl rose higher than the others’, a war cry.
And we answered it.

We surged forward.

The arrows came first, cutting the air like rain above us. Some sliced my skin, lodging in my back, but I did not stop. Pain was a reminder that we were still alive, and I had no time to die—not before I fulfilled my purpose.
I drove my claws into the chest of an orc that dared come too close. I heard bone crack under my weight, the thud of a body collapsing dead. I leapt to the next, tore his throat out, and warm blood spurted on my muzzle.
I did not stop. I never stop.

“Advance! Don’t let them through!” I howled, and the wolves answered, fanning out along the defensive line like swift shadows, killing without hesitation.
The elves followed, elegant and powerful; their bodies danced between enemy strikes with graceful, deadly movements. Blades glinted, spells burned at their fingertips. I saw one elven mage raise both hands and unleash a jet of blue flames that consumed three shadowy humans at once.

But the enemies seemed endless.
The orcs felt no pain; they hesitated not. And the humans… they were different, faster. As if something pushed them—an ancient, dark power hung over them.
A war spell, it could only be. Magic to increase their physical capacity.

I felt one of them launch a magical blast at us. A purple flash struck me and hurled my body through the air, rolling among branches and mud. I felt a rib crack. An arrow lodged in my shoulder, but I rose anyway, gasping, howling so no one would fall back.

“Ronnie!” I called in my mind.
“I’m with you, alpha,” he answered immediately. “Always. Until the end.”
“For blood and honor,” I declared firmly.
“For our princess,” he finished.
And together we howled; the other wolves answered back, a ferocious chorus that tore the night.

The fight continued, a cycle of slaughter and resistance. The elves raised barriers of wind and light, but the dark magic corroded everything slowly; many of ours fell—I felt each loss like a dagger to the chest—but we could not yield.
We could not allow them to reach Elowen. Or Aeloria.

I saw Render, even with a wounded leg, throw himself onto two orcs, bringing both down before a spear struck his hip. Yet even then he laughed, the mad laugh of one who knows he has won because he protected whom he must.
I saw Arannis, the youngest elf in the group, fire an enchanted arrow straight into the throat of one of the human sorcerers. The impact opened a black hole in the enemy’s chest, and he dissolved into ash.
And still, more came. As if forged from the earth itself, shaped from hatred.

“Aric!” Ronnie screamed in my mind. “We’re being pushed back!”
“Reform the line!” I snarled. “Protect the chamber entrance! If they get through, all is lost!”

I charged forward once more. My muscles cried out; my vision was already beginning to blur at the edges, but I did not stop. I could not. I thought of Elowen, of her expression when she hugged me, of the quick kiss we exchanged before I left. A small gesture, but full of everything we didn’t know how to say.
She trusted me, and I could not betray her.

A larger orc came at me swinging a golden axe. His eyes were completely black. I leapt onto him, but he struck me in midair. The blow ripped my side, and blood sprayed.
I hit the ground hard, but I got up. And I leapt again. This time I sank my teeth into his throat. He howled. I twisted my body, ripped the flesh. The giant fell.

And I went on.
Until the last howl, until the last breath.
If I were to die, let it be defending what I love.

And on that field of war, among magic, broken bones and a sky stained with smoke, we fought. Together.
For Elowen.
And for the promise that she would no longer have to bury anyone alone.