If the wolves decided to rush them, it was over. Reyland was spent. His head pounded, likely with a concussion from earlier. His rib was broken from the final shove the beast had given him. His arm was bleeding heavily, and the four claw marks running down his chest were slowly staining the front of his armour red. Every bit of energy he had left was spent in holding himself up. Even raising his sword into a ready position for too long was likely more than he could handle.

Somewhere in the distance, a rumbling sound met Reyland's ears, but he was in too much pain for it to really register.

If this doesn't work... it's over.

Time slowed to a crawl, as they waited to see what the beasts would do.

One beast snapped at another, growling deeply and drawing the attention of all the others. It barked loudly, before stepping forwards. It levelled its eyes at Reyland, glowing orange eyes meeting unwavering gold, before the beast howled a warcry, lowered its head, and sprinted at them.

Forcing his body to move, Reyland sucked in breath in panic and raised his weapon to meet the chargin beast...

...As a thin, dark shape blurred through the air, piercing the flank of the wolf with a wet thud.

The beast yelped in shock and turned towards the direction it had been struck in, only for half a dozen more blurs pelted the side of its body, and it fell to the ground with a shriek.

...Crossbow bolts? Reyland realised, his brain freezing up at the revelation.

"Yaaaaaaaa!" With the warcry of dozens of voices, the entire area was suddenly plunged into the bright orange light of torches. The wolves reacted with panic, yipping and shrinking backwards as the sudden onslought caught them off guard.

Dozens of crossbow bolts flew throught the air, thick as rain and heavier than hail. The wolves shrieked back as several of them fell to the ground, pierced throught he eye or the spine, others yelping in pain as they were hit in the flanks or hearts. Three of the wolves turned and broke rank, sprinting off into the woods with their tails between their legs.

The thundering noise that Reyland heard grew exponentially louder, as Reyland finally recognized it as the galloping of horses. In that very moment, he finally put it together, and a genuine, beaming grin appeared on his face.

"Oi, oi! How'dya like it now, when the numbers're even, aye?!" He shouted, waving his blade in the air triumphantly.

The wolf that had tried to charge him glared at him with death in its eyes and several wooden bolts sticking out of its side. It snarled, and moved to try and charge him again, before a dark, blurred shape charged past it.

The horse and its rider blew past, the dark cloaked man thrusting a long spear down into the beast, simply letting the spear go as it got caught in the creature's ribs. It shrieked at him and turned to try to follow, only for a second rider to come from behind, stabbing another spear down into the back of its neck as she passed, killing the beast instantly.

The two riders, dressed in nearly identical black armour to Griff and Reyland, dropped off their horses before they had even finished moving, both drawing longswords and cutting down another wolf in tandem.

Beside Reyland, Terry was watching with wide eyes and shock written all over his face.

"...Reyland, whats happening?" He asked faintly.

Reyland grinned back at him, leaning up against the broken edge of the wall to rest.

"You didn't think the Order only had two members, did ya?" Reyland answered with pride.

Terry shook his head, watching outside as dozens more black armoured riders flooded into the clearing, finishing off the wolves that hadn't already run.

As Terry took it all in, his knees shook, as the realisation that they weren't going to die settled in. The young man collapsed, landing on his rear on the hardwood floor, but seemed not to even notice. The spear he had been carrying clattered to the ground, forgotten by the young man as traces of tears filled his eyes.

From the front of the church, a colossal roar, many times louder than the beast they had just killed, rattled the building.

Right, Griff! Reyland realised with a start, as he remembered that the largest of the wolves had been just about to break down the front doors while they had been fighting. Reyland shot back to a stand, glancing worriedly over at the front doors where his mentor had been earlier.

The beam holding the doors shut was all but destroyed, barely holding the doors shut enough to stop the giant wolf from coming in, but only just. Griff stood silently in front of the mostly open doors, with no fewer than a dozen wolf corpses at his feet, standing in a puddle of orange blood that covered nearly half the floor.

Griff casually stepped over the bodies, black boots splashing in the gore beneath them as he walked up to the doors.

Reyland sprinted over, pausing to grab the discarded spear as he went. He reached Griff right as the man was about to step through the large opening between the two double doors.

Griff took in Reyland's wounded appearance in a heartbeat, before wordlessly turning back to the doors, lifting the beam out of the way by himself, and dropping it with a thunderous crash to the floor. He grabbed the edges of the doors and pulled them open wide, letting the torchlight pour in around them.

Reyland lost some of his confidence when he saw the beast on the other side. It was even larger than he had imagined it to be.

The black wolf that stared down at them was ten feet tall at the shoulder. Its head, if fully raised, would have been almost twice as tall as a grown horse. It was black, like the other wolves, but the fur around its neck was longer and shaggier, and ended in deep purple streaks that pulsed and glowed in the dark, just like the long trail of hair that hung off to the sides from its spine. Its lips were peeled back to reveal each and every one of its yellowish fangs, the largest of which were the size of Reylands forearms.

The beast was surrounded on all sides by dozens upon dozens of black cloaked riders, each with crossbows loaded and aimed at the beast. The Order members were fifty strong, at least, their faces distorted by the flickering of the torches they carried.

Griff strode out onto the steps of the church, hefting his greatsword over his shoulder with a single hand.

The gargantuan beast slowly turned to watch Griff, the dozens of crossbow bolts sticking out of its neck seeming not to even bother it. It was simply too large.

The bolt sticking out of its left eye though, that one seemed to bother it.

"Not how you imagined your hunt to end, beast?" Griff said, breaking the total silence in the clearing.

The beast, of course, stayed silent.

Reyland readied the spear in both hands, sheathing his shortsword at his hip. There was no chance he was getting close enough to this thing to ever hit it with a shortsword. The sweat dripping down Reyland's back turned cold as the night breeze caught him, whipping the cloaks of everyone in the clearing into a frenzy and the fur of the wolf into a billowing wave.

The beast averted its eyes from Griff, sparing a glance down at Reyland instead. The apprentice's heart clenched, skipping a beat as the monstrosity of a beast in front of him held his gaze.

Those eyes are intelligent.

That was the only thought that Reyland had, and it terrified him. The gaze he saw wasn't that of a mindless beast. There was something... more behind it.

Somehow, that was more terrifying than the creature's size.

But right then, as the entire clearing held its breath, the creature burst into action.

Most of the Ordained fired their crossbows, as shouts filled the air at the beasts' surprising speed. For a creature that size to simply blur when it moved... it was beyond terrifying.

But the creature hadn't charged Griff, or Reyland. Or even any of the Order members. Instead, it turned and in a single leap, cleared the ring of riders and their horses, landing in the clearing at the edge of the forest.

Horses panicked and nearly bucked their riders off as the wolf flew over their heads, but the wolf didn't spare them a second glance. It disappeared into the woods as a shadow, and in seconds, the beast was gone.

Reyland leaned back against the wall, before flopping his head back to hit against it in relief. He sighed, all the breath and strength leaving his body, and his grip on the spear loosened from the death grip he had held it in.

It was over.