The wolf circled left and James moved with it, keeping the shield between them.
His left arm was still half-numb from the last impact but the feeling was coming back in patches — a pins-and-needles crawl from his shoulder down toward his fingers. He kept the shield up and watched the wolf's front legs. They would shift weight before it committed to a charge. That was how he'd read it the first time.
The legs shifted.
James angled the shield face left and stepped into it, turning his hip so the wolf's momentum carried it past his right side instead of straight through him. Its shoulder scraped the shield edge and the force went sideways. He drove the sword into its throat as it passed and held it there until the wolf's legs gave out.
[DIRE WOLF SLAIN — 35 EXP] [CALL OF SOULS — MANA +22] [EXP: 32 → 67/400]
Two goblins broke from the press on his right. James blocked the first club strike, turned his hip again, and cut across the goblin's collar on the backswing. It dropped. The second jabbed a spear at his stomach and he sidestepped and drove the sword through its chest.
[GOBLIN SLAIN — 25 EXP] [GOBLIN SLAIN — 25 EXP] [EXP: 67 → 117/400]
A wolf was circling toward Amara's position, not charging yet, testing the angle. James pointed two fingers at it.
"Necro Blast."
[NECRO BLAST — 12 MANA]
The bolt hit the wolf in the ribs and black energy spread from the point of contact, skin going grey and splitting as the rot pushed outward through the muscle. The wolf crashed sideways and dragged itself forward on two legs before going still. James closed the distance and finished it with the sword.
[DIRE WOLF SLAIN — 35 EXP] [EXP: 117 → 152/400]
Two goblin corpses lay three metres to his left. Summon cooldown had just reset.
"Summon Undead Skeleton."
[SUMMON UNDEAD SKELETON — 45 MANA] [MAX CONTROLLED: 2/2]
Black mist coiled up from both bodies and the bones cracked free from the flesh, dragging themselves upright through the smoke. Two skeletons rose — eye sockets burning faint green, rusty daggers still gripped in their fingers — and stood with their joints grinding. James pointed them at the cluster pressing from the left and they lurched forward without waiting.
They drew four goblins off him. One skeleton took a club to the arm that cracked the bone but kept moving and killed one. The other drove its dagger through a goblin's throat before a wolf hit it from the side and scattered its bones across the grass. The first skeleton lasted three more seconds before a second wolf brought it down.
[GOBLIN SLAIN x2 — SKELETON — 50 EXP] [EXP: 202/400]
Eleven seconds. Both skeletons gone, but those eleven seconds had given him room and he had used them.
Six goblins were clustered near the treeline and pressing toward Sofia. Five metres from them lay the first wolf he had killed. He focused on the body.
"Corpse Explosion."
[CORPSE EXPLOSION — 30 MANA] [COOLDOWN: 45 SECONDS]
The wolf's body detonated outward in a burst of bone and torn muscle. The blast caught four of the six goblins — three dropped immediately, shredded by the shrapnel. The fourth stumbled back with something buried in its shoulder. The fifth and sixth broke toward the treeline.
[GOBLIN SLAIN x3 — 75 EXP] [EXP: 177 → 252/400]
Sofia flinched hard from the blast, both hands coming up in front of her face. She turned to look at James and her mouth was open but she didn't say anything.
He was already moving.
"Amara." He didn't look at her, eyes on a wolf angling wide to the right. "Wolves only. Don't waste arrows on goblins."
He drove his sword through the flanking wolf's throat while he was talking and kept walking.
[DIRE WOLF SLAIN — 35 EXP] [EXP: 252 → 287/400]
"Sofia. Fire Bolt on clusters of three or more. Single targets aren't worth the mana."
He glanced back at Lars. Still against the tree, face pale, both hands on his short sword, the blade pointing out from the ground. His left leg was stretched in front of him with blood soaking through the cloth below the knee, but his eyes were open and tracking.
"Lars. Hold your position. Don't chase anything."
Lars didn't answer. He looked at James and tightened his grip on the sword.
That was enough.
Amara's first arrow caught a wolf mid-stride through the shoulder. It stumbled but stayed up. She nocked a second without pausing and put it through the throat and the wolf dropped.
[DIRE WOLF SLAIN — 35 EXP — AMARA]
Third arrow. A wolf circling wide at the treeline. She led the movement and released and the arrow punched through its eye socket. The wolf dropped without slowing, momentum carrying it two metres into the grass.
[DIRE WOLF SLAIN — 35 EXP — AMARA]
Her hands were still shaking. She nocked a fourth arrow anyway.
Eight goblins were pressing from the left toward Sofia. She planted her staff, raised her free hand, and fire gathered at her palm — orange-white and tight, heat shimmering around her fingers. She held it two seconds while the cooldown finished, then released. The bolt hit the ground between four of them and burst into a bloom of flame. Two caught fire and spun away shrieking. One took the edge and stumbled back with burning hands. The fourth broke and ran.
[GOBLIN SLAIN x2 — SOFIA — 50 EXP — SOFIA'S KILLS]
She exhaled through her teeth and watched the two burning goblins collapse. Her face gave nothing away.
A goblin rounded Lars's tree. Lars lunged from the ground — bad leg dragging — and drove his short sword through its gut before it could swing. He shoved it off the blade, pulled back, and stabbed up through its jaw. The goblin dropped on top of him and he shoved it aside and reset his grip against the tree, face grey from the effort, eyes back on the treeline.
[GOBLIN SLAIN — LARS]
He didn't chase. He just watched and breathed through his teeth.