His sword trembled in his hands as he fought to keep it up, despite the terrible pain in his leg that only continued to worsen. The stalactite had broken off, leaving only the tip in his leg, with the ends peeking through both sides.
The wolf continued to prowl closer, head low and teeth bared, towards the near defenceless Rowan. His breath came raggedly, and he fought to keep tears from gathering in his eyes. Claws scraped against rock as the wolf stepped closer, a devilish smile seemingly forming on its face.
Rowan had barely the presence of mind to notice the crystal flash one final time, before the change began. The wolf's fur bristled in a wave before splotches began fading, turning from black to white. Its features began to twist, as they were reformed in some strange way, as it began morphing into one of the hybrids.
Creaking sounds filled the air as the beast's body twitched and shifted, becoming increasingly humanlike. A wave of recognition seemed to pass through the transformed beast's eyes, before a snarl erupted from its mouth and fixed its gaze on Rowan once more.
However, Rowan had not waited idly while the beast was shifting. He had crept forward, favouring his uninjured leg, and managed to swing his sword down upon its head. The corpse lay twitching and bleeding, not a clean kill, but at least Rowan was safe, for now.
He crawled back to his position against the wall, panting from both the brief physical exertion and the pain gripping his body. He could hardly feel his leg beyond the excruciating pain, and knew there was little he could do now to fight off the wolves.
'But I can't just sit here either, I have to get to the others, we can defend from inside the base.'
Knowing he couldn't pull the spike out of his leg without losing too much blood, Rowan instead took off his shirt, and wrapped the material around his leg as tightly as he could. The pressure amplified the pain, but it minimised the amount of blood he would lose, as well as the danger of dust and wolf blood getting in the injury.
He heaved himself up using the building he had just had his back to, and started shuffling towards where he knew the base was. Luckily, it seemed as though there were no more wolves around, but that might have had more to do with the wall closing in on him than any actual luck.
He grit his teeth as he continued to hobble, trying to outpace the wall as it groaned towards him. Hopping along past the buildings, he wondered how the others were faring. Were they all still alive? The wolves had likely gone to Avery and Nadia, but Aoife could also be cornered somewhere.
'No point thinking about it now. Just get to the base. Just get to the base.'
Rowan continued his path, but found the pain only growing as he continued to walk. After what felt like an eternity, he finally entered the clearing which surrounded their base. He couldn't hear anything over a few remaining distant howls, yet there were many more wolf carcasses scattered across the ground than when he had left.
Picking up his speed, he began hopping without the support of the walls, trying to reduce the amount of time he was out in the open. His burst of speed seemed to be for nothing, however, as no wolves started chasing him, he reduced his speed so as not to trip.
'That's odd... I could have sworn there were still more wolves. How long has it even been since that spike fell on me?'
He knew it couldn't have been too long, judging from the distance at which the ceiling and walls were still away. The ceiling had slowed slightly, yet the spikes were only a dozen or so metres overhead now. And the walls were nearing the perimeter of the base rapidly.
Shaking his head, he continued his way towards the base, praying that the others were inside. After getting close enough to be able to hear their soft voices, a wave of relief ran over him. Leaning against the base wall for support, he panted, exhausted from his short yet tiring journey.
Scanning the clearing once more, he saw the broken bodies of wolves being shoved inwards, some getting lodged under debris, others still weakly moving as they were scraped over rocks. Ignoring the grotesque sounds, Rowan pressed towards the archway, which was closed.
He raised his hand and banged it against the door, the thuds softly reverberating through into the main room. He heard their voices quieten, and wondered if they thought him to be a wolf of some kind.
"It's me! Rowan! I'm injured, I need one of you to check my leg!"
There was no answer for more than Rowan would have liked, waiting in agony outside their main base. Time seemed to stretch on as he waited, and he began to grow frustrated.
"Come on! Open up! There's not even any wolves nearby, and there's nowhere for them to even hide. I can see the whole clearing from here!"
A few seconds after his words had left his mouth, a crack appeared in the archway door, and Rowan breathed a sigh of relief.
'Finally, they must be real paranoid if it took them that long to open the door. Wonder what finally did it...'
Past the corner of the base, opposite where he had come from, he saw Aoife, a grim yet panicked expression on her face. She was waving her hand in front of her neck in a way that Rowan recognised as 'stop' or 'cut it out'.
Confused, he returned his attention to the doorway in time to see who was opening it. A short statured man was crouched, half hidden behind the door way, with only the side of his head peeking out, giving him barely a glimpse of who it was.
But he didn't recognise them. He stumbled backwards, as the boy with white hair opened the door further. Getting a better look at him, Rowan noticed how blood drenched his front, and white and black tufts of fur decorated his body.
A pit opened in his stomach, as Rowan realised too late what had happened.