Wolf in The Desert of Ice

Battle

As both Shiek and Bull hurried back to Hvall they received one final message from Oki "The Saanbeasts are here, I'm going to end communications."

This did nothing but worry the young man, as he now feared for both his newfound family's life but for Oki's as well. As the two shifters run through the desert a grim sight appeared before them, the wooden wall of Hvall swarmed by beasts; atop the walls, figures equipped with black armour and weaponry were standing along the soldiers carrying the general's crest, firing arrows and crossbow down upon the beasts below.

At the base of the wall, some of those same figures were fighting the Saanbeasts on the ground, seemingly to keep them off the walls, this fight was made easier by the lack of Saanbeasts along said walls, as most of their numbers were gathered in front of the gate where dark magic and shining blasts were cleaving through multiple beasts at a time.

"That must be Oki and the general", Shiek thought before starting to change back, but being quickly stopped by Bull who had proceeded him "Stop, don't change back. These creatures are controlled, commanded find the wizard behind this and we can stop the fight" Bull spoke firmly, already holding his Zweihänder. Shiek followed Bull's commands he concentrated on his hearing and smell. Although the air was filled with the stench of blood and gore and the hair reverbed with the screams of men and the shrieks of beasts he found a trail, he smelled a light fragrance like that of flours and wine, he followed this to the foot of one of the hills south of Hvall, once there two voices were clearly heard by both him and Bull, "You have done a good job, now all that is left is for you to release the king and we will be done" "What about my payment?" "You will receive it. Do not fret" soon after the two voices stopped. Both Bull and Shiek headed up the hill, halfway up both of them heard the sound of metal snapping followed by a deep and guttural roar, both of the dashed atop the hill to find in front of them a beast neither had ever seen before.

The beast was double the size of Bull, easily 4 meters in height, it's body shape resembled one of a Saanbeast but it's body was covered in a dark exoskeleton with it's arms now having two scythe-like appendages attached to them and it's face now resembling that of a spider, at the sight of this Bull had grabbed Shiek and thrown him down the hill shouting for him to go join the general saying that he would take the king alone.

Shiek thought about refusing to go, but quickly decided that following Bull's orders would probably be for the best, he started to change, to return to his human form but he stopped before completely returning to his human form, he kept his grey fur and wolf head along with the added strength which his primal form granted him. He unsheathed his scimitar and started to run towards Hvall and the gate, in front of him stood to beasts. They were giving him their back, so he took the chance to sink his weapon into the first one's head before biting the other one's as well, as he retrieved his weapon, he saw one of the figures wearing black armour laid on the ground, Shiek gave the man one look before restarting his mad dash towards the gate, he was far from his destination and many beasts stood in his way.

He dealt with the beasts as he went, but unlike his first victims, not all of them went down without a fight, as he had gotten near the bigger group of beasts, he now sported three deep wounds which were not healing but with him stood a dozen men which he had saved from the beasts, they were trained and had managed to follow him and even helped him in his fighting covering his flanks and killing beasts that he had left unable to move. Shiek was tired, he could feel the poison from the beasts eating at his flesh, he had gotten close to the gate so close in fact that he could see the white flashes of light clearly cleaving chunks out of the beasts numbers, what worried him was that he could no longer see Oki's magic raining down from the wall. He moved forward, slashing another beast but getting hit in return, he fell to his knees quickly the men surrounded him, protecting him with their shields. Shiek knew he could not continue, he could feel his consciousness slipping away into the darkness, as he felt this his thoughts went to Oki, to her tears which she had held within herself for so long, he did not want her to cry again, he did not want to leaver her alone, with this in mind he forced his legs to stand, he forced his bones to move, he gasped for air, filling his lungs as much as he could before letting out a wild howl and throwing himself back into the fight.

The general had been fighting on the front line for a while now, his 12 swords technique made him able to hold back many enemies at once, Oki had also been fighting using her magic to cleave beast after beast until it had backfired, the magic had suddenly changed direction as she was casting a spell, causing a chain reaction sending her spell back to her, luckily she had only been lightly cut by her night blade. She looked down at the fighting, the general was now the only one standing in front of the gate, 12 ghostly swords circled around him, each moving as it was wielded by a warrior, six defended the general and six attacked the beasts as the got close, it was an incredible technique as it required the user to possess perfect control of magic and knowledge of swordsmanship.

Oki had also noticed that the beast's right flank had been weakened, a group of men were standing in formation around an unclear figure, as she looked at the platoon the figure got up, four open wounds stained grey furred, the wolf head she had seen once before opened it's maw letting out an owl which was heard throughout the battlefield, she witnessed as Shiek jumped back into the fight heading for the general's position, as he did this she noticed the winds of magic starting to gather around his sword, the magic gathered and swelled around his scimitar finally fusing with the blade, each swing now cut through a beast-like butter leaving deep wounds that were immediately filled by ice which started to devour anything it touched. Oki looked at the young man stunned, his movements were sloppy, he was not thinking, but he was able to control ice magic, but as she thought deeper about it, she came to the conclusion that he had probably achieved spirit. She witnessed as Shiek broke through the creatures that were encircling the general followed by a group of soldiers that had come as reinforcements before falling unconscious, the general quickly shouted something and the young man's body was quickly carried near the closed gate the man who followed him than formed a defensive formation around Shiek holding the gate.

A loud shriek was heard quickly after, this initiated the beasts' retreat, as soon as the last one was out of sight, the gates were opened, and Shiek was carried inside.