(Samuel site)

[Ice Bolt]

[Ice Lance]

[Ice Bolt]

Necromancer spells flew across the battlefield again and again, each missile fired in a different direction at perfect intervals so as to save as much as possible of the rapidly depleting mana pool. Yet no wolf would give up, so this saving rarely worked.

Big monsters attacked Samuel whether from the right, left and sometimes even from the center. It also happened more than once that the necromancer was attacked from several directions at the same time, for which he had to activate panic mode. Like sharks who smelled blood, the wolf monsters did not even take a step away, perhaps subconsciously sensing in Samuel an easy prey to catch. Or it was simply revenge.

[Ice Bolt]

Patient and tenacious Samuel still by some miracle endured, he continued to defend himself fiercely also without giving up an inch of held ground, or at least without dropping the blood of one of the animals. This, unfortunately, brought with it unpleasant consequences for him, because constantly casting spells, simultaneously repairing the arena , and on top of that healing Randaloph, who had just craved help in the duel, only made Samuel's mana begin to shrink perilously and alarmingly fast, not to mention his psyche.

[Ice Bolt]

The wolves were not stupid, when they bluntly experienced the power of the necromancer's spells they attacked him ruthlessly, methodically but no longer stupidly and dismissively. Even animals possess survival instincts.

That's why Samuel was able to slow down the spellcasting slightly, bluffing full strength or at least not weakening enough to pose no threat. Gaining precious seconds before support in the form of the rest of his army arrived. Time was ticking only that much slower.

[Ice Bolt]

The mindless animals could not have known that the necromancer was already on the verge of strength, so they did not try to finish him off.

With this little trick, Samuel could probably have prolonged the fight for a good few more minutes or even longer.... had it not been for some unexpected incident beyond his control.

~~~~

Out of nowhere, Samuel was attacked by another wolf which appeared as if from underground. Exactly from the side that was undefended by the eager shieldmens, so the attacker had a straight path directly to the necromancer.

The only thing that saved Samuel from death at this point was his paranoid inspection of his surroundings, merely every once in a while. By looking back he gained a few precious seconds before the monster's maw was about to reach him and crush his bony head. And of course also...

[Ice Walk] Shouted Samuel with desperation in his voice when the wolf's fangs appeared before his eyes.

"Gawain you idiot" Shouted Samuel with all his heart, so that everyone on the battlefield managed to hear him.

Luckily, a tough wall stopped the momentum of the young, impulsive animal, but even it did not forbid the mobile beast to simply and logically go around it or jump across it.

Thus, wounded in many places, the wolf did just that then without delay once again attacked the innocent necromancer.

[Ice Bolt]

[Ice Bolt]

[Ice Bolt]]

With the ease of a dancing ballerina, the wolf dodged the projectiles fired in his direction, getting closer and closer to Samuel who, after putting up an ice wall, moved away from him and fled as far as he could. The other wolves, meanwhile, were also not idle, as every one of their assaults without counterattack and assurance from the necromancer ended up destroying at least one undead if not more. The house of cards began to crumble.

"It's over..." Samuel thought as the snare of destiny began to reach him.

"Mana is missing, I am surrounded on two sides and Gawain back up is not visible.... what to do?"

"..."

"I may be about to die but I have no intention of giving up."

"If I am to die once again then at least this time with a weapon in my hand." Thought the necromancer as he began preparing a new spell. "It's time to pull the last ace out of my sleeve and pray to my new boss for victory, if he's watching me, of course."

Samuel, as he said so he did, immediately ran to the nearest shieldman, who was not threatened by the attack, and who still managed to stay alive. Then he took weapon from him and bravely charged at the wolf.

Yet a moment before he reached him with his hands Samuel stopped in place and then crouched down, drawing the sword he was holding in front of him. As if to impale the monster leaping toward him.

No longer threatened by the ice spells, the wolf foolishly jumped on the necromancer, completely unconcerned about the protruding sword which it would easily evade, it attacked with its fangs.

[Ice Lance] Whispered Samuel when the young monster evaded his obvious trap.

The ice casting magic with his right hand barely scratched the wolf who quickly and safely managed to get in advance of the spell. Sliding through the air slightly to the left.

Straight at the oncoming sword of the necromancer which the latter moved exactly there.

The wolf, unable to dodge the attack this time, quickly closed his mouth wanting to mitigate the damage he would receive, but receiving blows already with exactly such swords wof knew that it wouldn't hurt him too much. So he did not panic further.

[Ice Enchant] Samuel thought and the rust-colored skeleton's sword got surrounded by a glowing blue aura with fragments of ice wandering around it.

And when this happened, the necromancer at the same moment struck the sword straight into the closed mouth of the wolf, only further strengthening the rush.

The reinforced sword surprisingly pierced the animal's lips with ease, incidentally destroying several teeth that stood in the path of the blade. Pointed upward, the blade went through like butter, slashing first the wolf's palate and then its entrails, until the necromancer's entire hand was inside the beast, and even beyond.

In the end, Samuel lost his hand and the wolf lost its life.

"From now on... call me Tyr," the new one-armed undead shouted with an ecstatic smile as he looked at the discarded carcass of the beast.

"..."

"Never mind... it don't look much like Fenrir... too small."

"..."

The goddess of luck this time favored the necromancer in the duel.... but maybe it wasn't the goddess that helped.

"Not even close..." Thought Samuel as he once again survived the deadly clash, then fell into downright wild joy. Fortunately, he had come to his senses in a moment and stopped raging, knowing that the danger to his life still lingered.

The fight continued but Samuel was alone this time because while the necromancer was fighting for his life, other wolves had wiped out the necromancer's remaining guard. The race with lives on the line began.

[Minor Death Touch] Samuel said as he began pulling vitality from the wolf's carcass. But he kept looking to see if the rest of the wolves rushed toward him.

"Better than nothing.... right?"

"Now all that's left for me to do is..."

"Gotta go fast..." Thought the necromancer and then threw himself into a run towards the remaining army.

---

(Gawain/Samuel site)

Gawain ran as hard as he could until he saw his master, directly in front of him. Who was just as desperately running as he was. The only difference being that Samuel on his back had three menacing monsters sitting on his tail.

"How good to see you Gawain," Shouted the necromancer as he approached his knight. "I've never been so happy to see someone before."

"However... we need to talk after..." Extracted Samuel, but he didn't even have time to finish the sentence because the nearest wolf jumped directly at him.

At such moments having an undead giant comes in handy.

Gawain raised his damaged shield and prepared to strike the animal as his master safely retreated behind the back of his defender.

Bang

The only surviving juvenile hit the bone giant with all its force, but even with all its mass and speed, it barely moved him backwards.

SLASH

Knight did not wait for the next move of his opponent but swung his blade with all his might, aiming perfectly at such a place that the big wolf would not have a chance to avoid it, or at least not damaged.

The young female, as expected, tried to dodge the blows, but to no avail as she was not experienced enough and Gawain, already decently familiar with the reflexes of her species, knew well how she would behave.

SLASH

The second cut only finished the job and stripped the wolf of her head. The other two wolves right next to them, seeing what had happened, stood still as if they were in a daze. Whether from shock or fear.

The wolf coward began to shake and hesitation, his eyes showed hesitation. He turned his head in different directions and after a short while most simply threw himself into escape.

Nevertheless, seeing his companion's behavior, the other wolf quickly calmed him down with his growl and stopped his tactical retreat.

For this, the 'old one', unlike his companion, behaved unexpectedly. Every now and then he would only growl threateningly, anger and rage poured out of his eyes.

"Ohoho..." Exclaimed Samuel from a safe position and a considerable distance away. "Could it be someone close to you wolf..."

The animal only growled at the taunt and kept still, stewing all that anger inside. All the time looking with his eyes for the best opportunity to attack, unfortunately for him, Gawain's defense was as impenetrable as ever, or at least for an enemy of his caliber.

"Maybe a family ... hmmm...a mate?

"Not too young... um... maybe..."

"A daughter.... yeah daughter.... just which one is a partner now?" Said Samuel comparing the two wolves, and after some time he realized that they looked very similar.

"I'm sorry for your loss.... I don't really ... but you know what I mean."

"Wait do you understand me.... you're just a dumb animal.... so probably not..."

"Ehh... and why am I even trying, I'm producing myself for nothing. Gawain would you be so good and move a few steps forward so I can take care of the animal corpse.... I mean... wolf lady."

At the time the standoff occurred the rest of the undead army arrived on the scene, surrounded Samuel in such a way that not even the smallest piece of space was undefended.

"Go on..."

At his master's command, Gawain took a step forward and then another and another, all the while approaching the larger wolf. He stopped only when the big monster was practically at his arm's or rather blade's reach.

To the slow movement of the undead knight the 'old one' did not seem to react at all, just continued to look ahead unmoved and unconcerned by the encircling net.

But in fact, with each step Gawain took, the wolf's body tensed up more and more, adrenaline pumping faster and faster into brain with each passing second. Yet this impasse continued.

This deadlock Samuel decided to break. With slow steps, he approached the headless corpse of the wolf, obviously surrounded all the time on all sides.

And just as he was about to touch the animal's corpse with his bony hand and suck the vitality out of it, the 'old One' decided to finally attack, starting the final phase of the fight and throwing everything on one card.