Chapter 14: Brutal Battle
He dashed forward to meet the first wolf-hyena. Now that he had committed to the attack, there was no room for doubt. His mind focused entirely on a single goal: suppressing any advantage the pack possessed.
The fact that one of the wolf beasts was leading the charge with enough distance meant that if he could decapitate it or put it down quickly, he would significantly lessen the danger of facing the remaining two.
However, Uhtred had thoroughly underestimated just how powerful a frontal assault from the beast would be. Perhaps his effortless success with the first wolf had made him overconfident, but the moment the charging beast collided with his makeshift antler shield, he quickly realized just how thoroughly fucked he was.
Even though he dug his heels into the wet sand to brace for the impact, the wolf-hyena plowed right through his defense. It rammed its head forward, completely unheeding of the sharp antler points piercing into its face. Its wide jaws clamped down in a savage frenzy, trying to snap at Uhtred from behind the protective bony shield.
Thankfully, the antlers proved much more durable than Uhtred had anticipated.
He thanked his lucky stars and held onto them tightly, refusing to let the antlers slip from his grip as the powerful momentum of the impact launched his body backward.
It was this firm grip on the antlers that helped slow his tumble and acted as a physical barrier, saving him from a follow-up bite as the wolf-hyena relentlessly pursued after him.
Uhtred’s vision swam in a daze, but he refused to let the disorientation paralyze him. Tightening his fingers around his other weapon, he whipped his right arm around, swinging the bulbous end of the heavy leg bone with everything he had to smack the wolf’s head away.
The blow took the beast by surprise, hitting its left eye and eliciting a pained, angry yelp from it. Uhtred pushed forward immediately, hoping to reproduce his previous success — to slip underneath the wolf’s guard and drive the sharp part of the long bone weapon into its softer underbelly.
He could already see the remaining wolves closing in from the edge of his eye. If he didn’t finish this one now, he would be completely overwhelmed.
But this wolf-hyena was smarter, or perhaps more alert than its slaughtered pack mate. It didn’t overextend. Instead, it stayed low and mobile, moving its blocky head to close the gap with a menacing bite at where Uhtred had wanted to dash to.
Uhtred halted his charge immediately. The opportunity had been nothing but wishful thinking. He was forced into a defensive position again, swinging the massive antler shield and shifting nimbly on his feet just to keep the wolf’s snapping teeth from clamping down on him.
Then the situation turned for the worse. The two wolves following after this one skidded to a stop in the wet sand and descended on him along with the first.
The difficulty of the battle multiplied instantly. Uhtred was now moving violently, a blur of desperate motion as he waved his improvised shield and weapon to ward off the three apex predators at once. He was smacking left and right, his breathing ragged, as the trio of beasts circled and lunged, looking for any gap in his defense.
Eventually, one of the wolves timed its strike perfectly, its massive jaws clamping directly onto his second weapon. With a loud crunch, the beast’s sheer bite force snapped the long bone hammer, instantly crushing the bulbous joint into splinters.
The beast didn’t stop there, either. It pulled at Uhtred immediately, intending to use the successful bite and Uhtred’s grip on the weapon to yank him out from underneath the antler shield that prevented them from mauling him. However, Uhtred released his grip before the force could transfer to him fully.
He let the shattered weapon go, but in doing so, its sharp, dagger edge on the other end sliced deeply across his palm, spilling blood in an instant.
Uhtred hissed in pain, but he had no time to focus on that. He was now down to just the antlers, smack in the middle of this death trap, with the three monsters closing the angles, snapping and snarling as they looked for a blind spot.
His mind raced a mile a minute, frantically searching for a strategy, an opportunity, anything that could get him out of this alive.
But he found absolutely nothing.
The crude bone weapon he had thought would significantly increase his odds against the certain doom of facing these beasts was gone, save for the antler. And even that was soon to be destroyed for sure.
This task had been an impossible one from the start, and no matter the crude weapons he’d struggled to get, or any better plan he could have come up with, his demise had been certain the moment he laid eyes on these higher leveled beasts.
The situation was grim. Yet, to his own surprise, Uhtred found that he wasn’t feeling an ounce of fear. There was no panic, no unwillingness, and no regret. Instead, a burning, absolute fury ignited in his chest.
He watched the three wolves press their assault and a cold rage filled him, bringing with it a hyper-focused clarity.
By all logical metrics, he was about to die. There was no sudden "transcending the limits," or anything of the like that could save him.
But as he stared death in the face, in that state of cold clarity, he noticed something incredibly odd.
Why aren’t they fully committing...? Why am I not dead yet?
It was just an antler blocking them. Even though the antlers had pin-prick points that could pierce flesh, Uhtred had already witnessed the very first wolf completely ignore that pain when it rammed straight into him at the start.
These monsters weren’t afraid of being poked. Yet now, every single time he waved the massive bony antlers in their direction, the three wolves reared back at the last possible millisecond. They were hesitant, staying on the defensive and refusing to commit fully into a killing blow.
The neurons in Uhtred’s brain fired at breakneck speed, analyzing the situation. What was different about this time compared to the first time?
