Rowan raised his blade as he charged towards the wolves, moving around the side of a toppled building, aiming to meet them at the corner. It raced forward, growing nearer and nearer with each passing breath.
When it was finally close enough, the beast lunged, jaws outstretched. It aimed for Rowan's thigh, but he cut down faster, passing almost clean through the beast's shoulder and then neck. Surprised at its efficiency, Rowan stepped towards the next wolf with more confidence. With seemingly no self-preservation, the beast mimicked the actions of the first, and Rowan cut it down just the same. Rowan whipped his around for the third, wondering where it had gone, but realised with a sinking feeling that more wolves had appeared.
Groups of varying sizes had gathered around the perimeter of the toppled houses, and now snarled from a distance, the occasional hybrid joining in as well. Rowan spun in a circle, unsure of what to do, when he felt tremors echo through the ground once more.
'Did they do it? Have they figured out the Hell?'
Yet the system did not appear to confirm their success, meaning it had been another close guess that had just agitated the wolves further. They began bounding towards him, with reckless abandon. Running over the collapsed buildings, they charged in a straight line, ignoring any hazards in their path. Some fell, tripping over the rocks that tumbled as weight was put on them, but many, many more continued on their path to Rowan. He knew that he had to do something; the wolves would tear him apart from every direction if he did nothing, so he repeated what had worked the first time.
He charged in the direction with the fewest wolves, which were only a few dozen meters away from him now. His feet pounded on the rocks as he ran, and he began to hear the wolves panting breaths over their snarls, realising they were catching up to him. He grit his teeth and pushed through the fear, past the mental hurdle of how many wolves were out to kill him.
Meeting the wolves midstride, his sword passed through the first easily, but the second was already upon him. It leapt at him from the side, aiming for his shoulder with flecks of spit spraying from it's wide open mouth. He quickly swept his sword up, tearing it free of the first wolf's torso, and swung it backwards, feeling the brief collision of metal on bone before the sword's sharpness succeeded, and the wolf tumbled to the ground, dying.
'I've lost my momentum already! I can't give them time to surround me, I have to keep moving!'
Ignoring his fear, he pushed forward, regaining his speed step by step, as he continued to slash at any wolf that got too close. He rapidly lost track of how many he had killed and how many he had cut, yet he still ran.
His breathing came laboured, yet he continued to run, drawing the wolves into one flood that followed behind him with ravenous intensity. Many of the hybrids fell behind, their screams of pain and frustration mingling with the wolves that chased Rowan. He paid them no mind, however, as he was growing steadily more aware of the ceiling rushing down to meet him.
What had started as a gradual drop was now significantly faster, and it would continue to grow faster until they figured out what the core was, and then killed all of the enemies.
'They shouldn't be too far off from figuring out what the Hell's core is, so I'll keep killing as many as I can!'
He continued to cut down those in his way, and upon realising the majority of the wolves were chasing after him, he felt a cold bead of sweat go down his back.
'If I stop, they'll overrun me. But I can't keep running forever...'
As he neared the edge of the village, Rowan noticed that the walls were startingly close to the outermost buildings, which were still intact. Realising this was the solution, he began running perpendicular to the walls, changing his running direction sharply.
He briefly lost his momentum, and the sounds of growls intensified, before starting to fade as he ran as hard as he could, just for a moment.
'Thank god their claws aren't made for these rocks, else I would have long been a goner!'
He continued his dash along the wall until finally the distance between the buildings and the wall was close enough for his plan. He pushed as hard as he could and ran through the quickly closing gap. He squeezed through the other side and spun on his heel, cutting down the single wolf that had managed to slip through behind him.
Panting for air, he marvelled at his success. He had managed to free himself from being chased and crushed the unlucky few that had been too close behind him. Rowan decided it was probably time to head back to the base, and to make their final stand as Avery and Nadia figured it out. He began at a light jog, not wanting to push himself too hard now that he had the chance to breathe. The occasional wolf came across his path, and he cut them down without much hassle, now finally comfortable with his skills as a fighter.
Midway through his return to the base, a brief flash of light was all the warning that Rowan had, as a Stalactite descended upon him. He barely had the time to roll, his body crashing heavily on the ground. He tumbled for a few metres before the agony caught up to him.
Embedded through his right leg, was a dimming stalactite. Gasping through the pain, Rowan choked back a scream, knowing that he was in no way able to fight like this.
Yet his efforts were for naught, as a wolf rounded a corner, snarl stretched across its snout. Rowan scrambled backwards, praying he would be able to fend it off.