Rise! Rise now, men and women of the North Wall! The enemy is at our gates, and the time for violence has come at last.

Remember that glory is not given freely – it is snatched from the jaws of your enemy. All who stand here, holding the line against our most-hated foe, shall be remembered for all eternity as Unbroken. I have many titles, but by day's end, my name shall be but one amongst a thousand. Our children shall witness our struggle, and our courage will echo throughout history!

Let the kings and queens cower behind their castle walls while we stand on the field of battle alone. What need have we for scholars and chroniclers to document our final stand? Our defiance will be painted for all to see in the blood of our enemies! Our feet shall shake the heavens, and the gods themselves will bear witness!

Hear me now, Hasta. We, who can trace our lineage unbroken to the first people to walk this earth. We, who stand alone against the chaos of a new age. We, of the first men. We have planted our feet, and we will not be moved.

- Excerpt from 'The Great Khan's Ballad – last stand of the Hasta' by unknown author, attributed to before the 2nd cleansing

I endured their glares with a grim visage. The hatred was palpable and seething from the angular faces of the wolves below. Their snarls promised vengeance and a slow death, and their hackles were raised prominently, flaring above their shoulders in a long line down their spines.

It was an impressive sight. But we were in the heart of the hills, and I controlled the terrain. They could spit and slaver and growl all they liked, but they couldn't climb trees. I returned to the small rockpile and selected another heavy weapon, but the wolves backed away now. They were fixated on me, moving constantly and unwilling to sit still within my range.

A shame, but not surprising. I put the rock down and instead propped my new javelin over one shoulder, moving to sit with legs dangling off the edge on the other side of my boulder-turned-temporary-home. A couple of the wolves soon came trotting round, though they stayed well back from the rock itself. After I'd confirmed I was still dangerous despite being stranded, they couldn't afford to let me out of sight.

No doubt they thought I might slip off into the forest while they were distracted, though part of me suspected they were secretly hoping for that. They'd have little trouble running me down in the sparse forest gloom, especially considering their pack tactics and incredible sense of smell. It was one thing to keep ahead of them when I started many miles ahead, but a head start of a few minutes would be whittled down in a blink beneath their paws.

But I was in control now, and they were dancing to my rhythm. I heard the howling from below, and knew the rest of the pack would be heading back soon. It sounded like a call for help to my ears, and I paused long enough to wonder once again where the confidence in that interpretation was coming from. I put it aside though, a thought for later consideration.

I wanted to pick of another one before the rest arrived. Let them see my work before making their decision to flee or stay.

I cannibalised my old cloak pack and wrapped the lengths of vine around my torso to make an improvised holster for my javelin and horn, before leaping onto a nearby tree. While the majority of the valley was covered in thick pine, there were patches of older-growth forest speckled within. Elm and ash had surprised me throughout my weeks here in this endless valley, and the current forest I found myself within was ruled over by the majesty of ancient oak, with flashes of silver sprinkled throughout as willow enforced the king's rule.

I climbed until I burst through the canopy, surveying oak's aged domain and marking my position so I could return to it. Then I was off. I slipped across wide boughs, swung from thick branches. I shuffled my way past thickets of briar and ivy trying their best to choke the life from these ancient forest guardians, and clambered across strong limbs.

The grin on my face was fixed, unmovable, and my laugh was giddy and free. For a time, I didn't have a specific destination in mind, and I just gloried in the freedom of movement. A wolf trailed me below, keeping me in sight with its padded footfalls muffled by the loamy earth, but I paid it no mind. This was the highest stakes obstacle coarse I'd ever encountered, and it thrilled me.

Occasionally I had to double back, finding no safe way to cross the large gaps between trees. But that was rare, and for the most part I slithered along beneath the canopy like an overgrown baboon, whooping with joy and leading my watcher on a merry chase throughout the woodland. I tried to remain conservative with my movement, but it was hard to not lose myself in the fun of it all.

I was faster than I'd ever been, and my grip was iron. I could hang by my fingertips for longer than I could hold my breath, and no matter how I twisted and hung, I seemed to never tire. I lost myself in the wilderness for a while, until a ringing in my head brought me back to reality.

You have killed a Tarkenzi Maned Wolf (level 13). Experience gained.

I was surprised the wolf had clung on for this long, in all honesty. I hadn't got the best look at it in amongst all the chaos, but I was pretty sure the rock had caved in its ribs, and its heart-rending whimpers before I left were not the noises of a healthy creature, to say the least. Perhaps the animals of this world had attributes as well? They had levels, after all.

Either way, the reminder of the death soured my mood slightly, and I had travelled far enough from the rest of the pack to be willing to risk my next gambit. I kept up my travel as before but focused on the wolf that padded along after me. Time had dulled its caution, and it no longer worried about giving me such a wide birth.

Flitting around a trunk, I dipped out of sight. I only had a moment, and sweat dripped down my forehead as I hurriedly unslung my javelin and held it in place above my shoulder. The moment the creature came around the base of the tree, head held high and sniffing the air atop its sinuous neck, I chopped my arm down, throwing the javelin with all the strength and skill I could muster in the cramped confines of my impromptu tree-nest.

Luckily, it only had a small distance to travel and gravity was on my side, because my shoddy workmanship soon came into play. Rather than puncturing cleanly through the long neck as I'd hoped, the javelin swerved slightly in the air due to its crooked shape, and ended up impacting the creature in the chest. The projectile hit with force, but its sharpened head was still only wood, and the wolf's chest was deep and well-muscled.

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As my feet hit the ground with a rustle of leaves, the javelin fell from the creature too. It hit the ground near silently, with only the quiet patter of blood following from the wound the weapon had carved in the creature's chest. It was deep, and no doubt painful, but it was far from fatal.

We stared at one another, yellow eyes meeting brown. Its hackles were standing on end, and as I clutched the horn in my lead hand, I saw the hairs on my own arm were raised, the flesh pimpled with adrenaline. A growl, low and deep, rumbled from the injured animal, rolling across the open ground between us.

I felt my own snarl come unbidden from deep within, a primal sort of noise that no doubt sounded weak and thin next to the steady rumble of the wolf across from me. It didn't matter though, because mine was not a noise of warning. I wasn't trying to scare off predators, to frighten away danger and convince my foe to turn tail and run rather than face me.

I was here. I was ready to kill. The snarl was simply a verbalisation of that truth.

We face off for what felt like hours. Silently measuring each other with desperate intensity, every twitch and breath noticed and reacted to. I felt a remarkable kinship with this creature in those final moments – both of us knew it could only end in one of our deaths, and both of us were willing to risk it all on the gamble that we would be the victor.

We moved at the same time. Four legs bunched and the wolf propelled itself forwards, darting across the loam towards me. I bolted at it in turn, my eyes wide and my teeth gritted. I activated Check-Step for the first time, instinctively knowing how to use it due to the system drilling the knowledge directly into my brain.

The world slowed, and I saw with crystal clarity how each muscle flexed and loosened beneath the wolf's hide. I marked the saliva whipped away from the slavering jaws by the wind as it dove towards me, noted the soft earth as it was rent by heavy claws. My brain was afire, working overtime to log and compute every possible variable being picked out by my straining senses, and whatever force inside me animated my skills was rapidly draining.

The wolf closed in and leapt, its hind legs pushing it off the ground and high into the air, barrelling in an arc towards my chest, its mouth spread wide. I dropped to the ground like my strings were cut. Any upwards momentum from my sprint was cancelled out in a single moment by the Skill's bizarre properties.

Sliding beneath the wolf, I reached up and grabbed its hind leg as I twisted on my back. It yelped as I slammed it to the ground with a popping of cartilage, and I was already pushing myself to my feet as it hit the earth. I fell upon the creature as it squirmed, trying to push off the ground and prance away, but its back leg was thoroughly mangled from where I'd dislocated it.

The horn stabbed down through flesh. Once. Twice. A third time heralded a mewling cry, and the fourth an end to it. I fell back to my knees, gasping ragged breaths. The gentle breeze caressed my face, cooling the blood that covered my front, and the leaves rustled quietly beneath me.

My calf was screaming at me in protest as I tried to stand, the long cuts re-opened by the short melee. Damn it all, I'd hoped to use the javelin this time. A test, to see if I could create a weapon of use. So far, all my successes had come from rocks and the fucking horn.

Still, I was still alive, the creature was dead, and I had food. I limped over to the nearest tree and hefted the corpse up, nestling it in the crook of a branch high up off the ground before acknowledging the system prompt ringing softly in my mind.

You have killed a Tarkenzi Maned-Wolf (level 14). Experience gained.

Skill 'Guerrilla Warfare' has increased in level. Guerrilla Warfare - level 6.

Skill 'Check-Step' has increased in level. Check-Step – Level 2.

I gulped down a few more lungfuls of air, feeling my parched throat burn with the motion. I was still a little shocked that I'd survived a fight, completely unharmed, with a fully grown adult wolf. A big one, too. Sure, I out-levelled it technically, and I'd managed to ambush it, but my opening gambit hadn't really done all that much.

I'd killed a similar creature ten levels ago, and I was a very different man now than I had been once, but still. I allowed the accomplishment to settle around me like a shawl. A cloak of confidence, as it were. Then I got back to work.

I'd navigated my way towards the river earlier when I had been swinging from tree to tree, and I wasn't far from one of it's branching tributaries now. I didn't know how long I had until another member of the pack came to investigate their missing brother. Perhaps they never would, and I could slip away before they realised?

But no, my fire-lighting rune was back at the rock, and besides, I had unfinished business with the pack. I hurried over to the river, filling my belly with achingly fresh water, and then returned to the trees. It was harder on the way back, hauling the choicest cuts of meat along with me the whole way, but I made it well before sundown.

Dehydration was staved off for another day or two, I had food for a time as well, and I'd successfully demonstrated the efficacy of Check-Step in combat, and a means of moving through the forest out of reach of the pack hunting me.

A successful start by my count, but the day was far from over. The sun sunk below the horizon, and while light fled from the forest, my work continued.

You have killed a Tarkenzi Maned-Wolf (level 17). Experience gained.

You have reached level 16. Attribute points available for allocation.

You have killed a Tarkenzi Maned-Wolf (level 15). Experience gained.

You have killed a Tarkenzi Maned-Wolf (level 18). Experience gained.

You have killed a Tarkenzi Maned-Wolf (level 14). Experience gained.

You have reached level 17. Attribute points available for allocation.

I settled onto the hard surface of my boulder, wincing as the ridges and grooves in the stone below me irritated bruised flesh. My skin felt painted on, every movement shifting the coating of drying blood and pulling at the litany of small wounds covering my body. Despite that, my breathing was even.

My eyes drifted closed and a swift application of Heart of the Hills allowed me to drown out the feeling of triumph for a brief moment, long enough to make a decision about how to spend my remaining attributes. Endurance was high enough already, and while it was tempting to invest further to offset the myriad grazes and cuts i'd received recently, I held off. I decided to emphasise strength and agility once again, with a sprinkle into cognition to offset the physical attributes somewhat. I also invested a little token point into perception to bring it up to the join the double-digit club with the rest of my attributes.

Status

Ancestry: Human (unevolved)

Level: 17

Class: Blood of the Hills

Titles: God-touched

Attribute allocation:

Strength: 17

Agility: 15

Endurance: 13

Perception: 10

Cognition: 12

Available attributes: 0

Current skills:

Guerrilla Warfare: Level 6. Passive.

Wilderness Endurance Hunter: Level 4. Passive.

Cloven-Hooved: Level 4. Passive.

Heart of the Hills: Level 2. Active.

Check Step: Level 2. Active.

Hill-Folk: Level 2. Passive.

Open Skill Slot

Open Skill Slot

A single day, and I'd culled the pack beyond recovery. I couldn't deny the fierce pride at my ability to fight back, to make them pay for trying to make me prey. Only four remained of the former pack, and I knew in my bones that tomorrow would see the end of this feud.

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