Under the moonlight, four shapes stood frozen. For Adam, the fear and the current environment was torture. His body and mind refused to function properly. Even his heart, an important component of life, seemed about to give out.
The golem, being a stone creature, was naturally impassive.
Shaking violently, Adam struggled to retrieve the simple spear that had also served as a skewer for the rabbit this morning. It wasn't much to look at, but at least it was a weapon, which was better than nothing.
Spear in hand, he looked around again, this time certain that his heart was about to stop when he saw what was coming.
Seven pairs of bright blue eyes slowly approached. For the moment, it was impossible to tell who they belonged to, but given the current atmosphere, Adam had no desire to know their owners.
Leaving Adam no choice, the creatures continued to advance slowly toward them, their appearances gradually revealing themselves as they approached silently.
Primo stepped forward in front of Adam, interposing himself between him and the approaching threats, while the other two golems retreated to stand beside Adam, forming a defensive wall between him and the intruders.
Now within sight, Adam saw seven wolves with corpse-like bodies, shreds of skin hanging in places, bones and decomposing flesh visible, eyes replaced by two icy blue flames. A kind of dark gray smoke/fog escaped from their bodies, forming limbs that seemed trying to escape from their bodies, as if the souls of their victims were trying to leave the bodies of their executioners.
The largest of the wolves, 1.5 meters at the withers and 3 meters long, was a truly terrifying behemoth, a real beast straight out of a nightmare.
A strange, predatory smile slowly formed on the face of the pack leader, signaling the start of the attack. He lunged violently at Primo in a nightmarish charge, immediately followed by the rest of the pack, which rushed towards the group.
Primo, in a boxer's stance, took the pack leader's charge without flinching, countering with a violent left hook that sent the wolf flying three meters away.
The rest of the pack collided with the other two golems, each golem finding themselves with three wolves to deal with, the pack ignoring Adam, protected behind the three stone giants.
The golem on the left showed exceptional defense, perfectly countering every attack and moving to keep the three wolves facing him, taking advantage of only the wolves' small mistakes to land quick strikes and immediately return to his guard. Despite two minutes of continuous combat, not a single scratch appeared on his body.
The golem on the right was the opposite of his brother, a living demolition ball, dodging only the bare minimum of incoming attacks, content instead to launch devastating strikes at any wolf that dared to come too close to him. The three wolves surrounding him were now on the defensive, one of them with a disabled paw after suffering a violent punch to the shoulder.
The pack leader, clearly unhappy with the current situation, growled and barked harshly at the rest of the pack, giving them an order that Adam couldn't understand.
Following the leader's order, one wolf broke away from each of the two groups and charged towards Adam, who had taken advantage of being ignored to retreat as close as possible to the entrance of the tent, hoping to go completely unnoticed and leave the fight to the golems.
Watching the two wolves charge, Adam regretted not hiding under the tent to remain completely unnoticed, finding himself in danger for a fight that could be won by these golems without his presence. "Great idea, Adam! Don't hide, go ahead, instead of letting the protective golems do their job and staying hidden in the shelter, show your big ass in battle. Next time, just go fight on the front line and let the stone giants made for war watch from afar!"
Dodging the charge of the first wolf on his left with a clumsy roll, he barely had time to stand up before the second wolf crashed into him head-on with its only good paw, breaking Adam's makeshift spear in two as he attempted a desperate parry, instead earning a large scratch on his chest and being thrown backwards, his back hitting the still-open entrance of the tent.
Primo, seeing Adam's situation, immediately charged forward to protect him, but as soon as they turned away from the alpha, it struck him in the back to destabilize him and interposed itself between Primo and Adam, blocking their path to him. The other two golems found themselves in the same situation, with the wolves content to block the path to Adam rather than attack.
Adam was now certain that reinforcements would not arrive in time to save him. He was facing two undead wolves, while he was just a basic human with an earth spear broken in two. The plan would have to be pretty damn solid to get him out of this situation.
And indeed, he had a plan. "Okay, Adam, it's a shitty plan, but a shit plan is better than no plan at all. It's going to hurt like hell, but with a little luck, you'll survive long enough for help to come and save your ass."
Breathing deeply to ease the pain and accept his fate, he looked at the two wolves facing him, one on his right in perfect condition, ready to pounce on him at any moment, and the second facing him with a limp paw, slightly further back to support the healthy wolf.
Gritting his teeth, he slowly lowered his right guard and braced himself on the ground, ready to receive the imminent impact.
Seeing the open guard, the wolf on the right immediately pounced, biting and striking Adam's right arm.
"Arrrrrugh!!!!!!!!!!" Pain violently flooded Adam's mind, his vision turning white and his thoughts focused solely on the horrible pain in his right arm, as if thousands of worms had burrowed under his skin and were slowly crawling up his arm toward the rest of his body, eating everything in their path.
Trying his best not to fall and to focus on the second wolf, Adam saw it charging to finish the job.
As it jumped to attack, Adam let himself fall to the side, causing the wolf to hang onto his arm in its fall. The other wolf missed its attack, ending up under the tent, its attack sending it through the entrance of the tent, missing its target and collapsing on its stomach due to its paralyzed legs.
Seeing the wolf in the tent, Adam immediately reached out with his good arm toward the slab of earth closest to him. As soon as his hand touched the slab, he injected a little energy into it to reduce its size by a few centimeters.
The slab, now too short, lost its support on the other slab and tipped downward, crashing down and bringing the entire tent down on top of the wolf like a house of cards.
(BOOM), (Muffled howl)
Now on the ground, pinned down by a wolf still clinging to his arm, Adam smiled painfully as he contemplated his perfectly executed plan.
Groaning in pain as the wolves sank their fangs deeper into his arm, he thought, "One wolf down, only one left to survive."