Chapter 243: v3- - 4: the arena II

The wolf lunged.

The nearest man screamed and ran.

Another captive stumbled into its path.

The first man grabbed him.

Cassian’s eyes widened.

The man shoved him forward.

The wolf struck.

The captive went down beneath it.

Cassian stared for half a second.

Then another wolf came from his right.

He barely saw it.

Cassian twisted away.

Its jaws snapped shut inches from his arm.

He stumbled.

His injured leg nearly gave beneath him.

He caught himself with the spear.

The wolf turned immediately.

It didn’t retreat.

It circled.

Another wolf appeared behind it.

Then another.

They weren’t attacking randomly.

They were spreading out.

Driving the men apart.

Cassian’s breathing quickened.

"Together!"

His voice disappeared beneath the screaming crowd.

He looked around.

The men weren’t forming anything.

They couldn’t.

They were terrified.

These weren’t soldiers.

They didn’t know how to hold a line.

They didn’t know how to respond to a coordinated attack.

They were ordinary men trying to survive.

Cassian couldn’t blame them.

He was one of them now.

A wolf darted forward.

Cassian thrust the spear.

It twisted away.

The shaft struck its shoulder but didn’t penetrate deeply.

The animal snarled.

Cassian stepped backward.

His foot slipped in the blood-soaked sand.

The wolf lunged again.

Cassian brought the spear across his body.

The animal collided with it.

The impact nearly knocked him down.

Its jaws closed around the shaft.

Cassian pulled.

The wolf pulled back.

For several seconds, neither gave.

Its growl vibrated through the wood.

Cassian’s injured ribs burned.

His arms shook.

Then the wolf released the spear and snapped toward his face.

Cassian threw himself sideways.

The wolf’s teeth caught only air.

Cassian ripped his arm away.

Pain tore through his shoulder.

The wolf turned.

Cassian drove the spear forward again.

This time the point caught beneath its jaw.

The animal recoiled.

Cassian shoved with everything he had.

The spear went deeper.

The wolf collapsed.

Cassian staggered backward.

He almost fell.

His chest heaved.

One.

Only one.

And already his arms were trembling.

He barely had time to recover.

A second wolf rushed from the side.

Cassian raised the spear.

Too slow.

It struck him across the chest.

He went down.

The spear flew from his hand.

The wolf turned back toward him.

Cassian scrambled backward through the sand.

His hand closed around a short sword.

The animal lunged.

Cassian raised the blade with both hands.

The wolf crashed into him.

The force knocked the breath from his lungs.

Its jaws snapped toward his neck.

Cassian caught its throat with his forearm.

The weight of it crushed him into the ground.

He couldn’t breathe.

He couldn’t move.

The animal snarled inches from his face.

Its claws raked across his bare chest, catching against the bandages wrapped around his ribs.

Pain tore through him.

Cassian gritted his teeth and pushed.

His injured side screamed.

The bandages began to loosen beneath the animal’s weight.

He couldn’t breathe.

He couldn’t move.

The wolf’s jaws opened again.

Cassian’s grip slipped.

Then he saw the sword.

Still in his hand.

He drove it upward.

Once.

The wolf jerked.

Cassian shoved again.

The animal collapsed against him.

Cassian lay beneath it for several seconds.

Then, he forced himself to stand.

His leg shook.

His side burned.

His hands were slick with blood.

Cassian looked down.

The spear lay several feet away.

He staggered toward it.

His fingers closed around the shaft.

He pulled it from the sand and raised it again.

He had no idea how long he could continue.

He only knew he had to.

Then he heard Robert shout.

Cassian looked across the arena.

Robert was still fighting.

A wolf circled him, keeping just outside the reach of his sword.

Robert swung.

The wolf darted away.

Robert stumbled.

The animal turned immediately.

Cassian moved.

He didn’t think about it.

He simply went.

His injured leg protested with every step, but he forced himself forward.

"Robert!"

Robert looked toward him.

The wolf lunged.

Cassian thrust the spear.

The point struck the animal’s side.

It twisted violently.

Cassian nearly lost his grip.

The wolf snapped at the shaft.

Cassian pulled.

It wouldn’t come free.

The animal jerked again.

Cassian stumbled forward.

Robert drove his sword into its neck.

The wolf collapsed.

Cassian released the spear.

For a moment, neither man moved.

Robert stared at him.

"You all right?"

Cassian breathed heavily.

"No."

Robert let out a breathless laugh.

"At least you’re honest."

Cassian looked around.

The arena had changed.

The pack was thinning.

One wolf lay motionless near the wall.

Another had been brought down by two men working together.

Another was limping badly.

The surviving captives had finally begun to understand how to fight them.

Not as soldiers.

Not as a formation.

Simply as men who had realized that they had a better chance of surviving if they stopped running blindly.

Cassian turned.

A wolf rushed toward another group.

Three men attacked it at once.

One was bitten.

Another struck the animal with an axe.

The third drove a broken spear into its side.

The wolf fell.

Cassian watched.

Another.

Then another.

One by one, the wolves stopped moving.

The crowd remained deafening.

But Cassian barely heard them anymore.

His breathing had become shallow.

His vision began to blur.

He looked down.

Blood was running beneath the bandages around his ribs.

More than he had realized.

His fingers loosened around the spear.

He tried to tighten them.

They wouldn’t cooperate.

Robert noticed.

"Carlo?"

Cassian looked at him.

The arena seemed strangely distant now.

The faces in the stands blurred together.

The stone walls seemed to tilt.

He blinked.

Once.

Twice.

The last wolf was brought down.

Silence didn’t come.

The crowd erupted instead.

Cassian could see the remaining men standing across the sand.

Ten.

Perhaps ten.

He couldn’t count anymore.

His knees weakened.

He tried to stay upright.

He failed.

Cassian dropped to one knee.

The spear slipped from his hand.

Robert moved toward him.

"Carlo."

Cassian tried to answer.

Nothing came.

His vision narrowed.

The arena disappeared around the edges.

The noise became distant.

Robert’s face was the last thing he saw.

Then everything went black.

--

Tbc