Onwards

"Urgh. Jerry need some help over here," Tom shouted as a vandal took a chunk out of his left arm.

Tom and Jerry were still engaged in battle with the vandals. They had succeeded in killing off six of the ten and were looking to finish the remaining four off; however, the vandals seemed to fight even more fiercely as their numbers diminished.

The four paired up in two's and took one human each. The hounds decided the frightened human behind them was of no threat to them, seeing as he only sat back shivering while Tom and Jerry continued to fight.

As Tom was struggling to deal with his two vandals, Jerry was struggling far more. He was covered in cuts all along his arms, back, and legs, and it seemed he would fall at any minute.

Jerry had a pale expression on his face that seemed to resemble someone who had just caught the flu. He could barely hold up his sword anymore and was using it more like a cane to support his own weight.

The earlier technique he used clearly exhausted him, and he'd been running on fumes ever since.

This made sense too because the technique essentially turned the tides of the battle in their favor and allowed them to kill over 50% of the wolves. Had he not done this, let alone the detection mage, he or Tom may have already succumbed to the fate of being mauled alive like Callum had.

The vandals had also realized Jerry was on his last leg and were trying their best to finish the swordsman off, but he was proving just as resilient as them, as he attempted to make a final stand.

"Screw you ya' bastard... got me own problems ta' deal with," Jerry exclaimed in between breaths as he once again raised his sword to fend off one of the vandal's attacks.

'Dammit, Jerry's on his last leg, the detection mage is useless as all hell, and for some frickin' reason these mutts started fightin' even harder!'

Tom was given a brief respite from the battle to think, as the two hounds backed off for a moment.

'Finally, these stupid dogs wouldn't gimme a break. I need ta-'

Before Tom could finish his thoughts he heard a guttural scream coming from behind him. The scream was far too loud and obnoxious to come from the measly detection mage, so he imagined the worst as he briefly glanced to look in his companion's direction.

Almost as if to confirm his worst fears, he saw Jerry, who had been barely holding on, finally fall to the ground as two more vandals joined the fray and latched onto both his shoulders.

Somehow though Jerry didn't drop his sword, even as he was forced to the ground and had his shoulders pierced by the beasts' fangs.

The man still had some fight in him as he performed a miraculous feat of strength and pulled his right arm in front of his face to thrust his sword into the eye of the vandal on his left shoulder.

It was a clean pierce too because the sword exited the other side of the beast skull, as a tiny whimper exited the wolf's mouth and it fell motionlessly on top of Jerry's shoulder with its teeth still buried beneath his skin.

Meanwhile, it's partner, that had latched onto Jerry's opposite shoulder, was enraged once it heard its companion's final whimpers and used the leverage, Jerry provided by reaching his arm across his face, to sink its fangs deep into the back of the swordsman's neck.

Jerry once again roared in rage as he stood to his feet and thrashed around furiously to get the beast off his back; yet, the single vandal wasn't the only opponent he had to deal with. The other two, who had been steadily wearing him down, moved in and each plunged their teeth into both of the swordsman's legs, eliciting another loud roar of anguish and pain.

Tom looked on at this with a complicated expression as he watched the swordsman being mercilessly bitten into by the beast.

He was only given this time to think because it seemed the two vandals he'd been fighting were just as tired as he was. The hounds seemed to grow stronger as the fight went on, but this wasn't necessarily the case.

The wolves were incensed at losing their fellow comrades and entered a frenzied state, which caused the illusion of their combat prowess to shoot up in a sense. However, such a thing came with risks, one of those being the current situation.

The two vandals in front of Tom were hesitant to continue fighting due to being so heavily fatigued and because of this weren't able to capitalize on their prey's weak and vulnerable state.

Once Tom managed to catch his breath, he stopped overthinking his situation and made a decision. He jumped back to grab the detection mage and slung him over his shoulder. After doing so, he made a full out charge in the direction of the wolves that were in front of him and managed to pierce the head of one vandal with his spear and wound the other with a sideway slash.

Unfortunately for Tom, the wounded vandal managed to strike out with one of its fiery paws and left a bloody and burning scar on the man's leg. This caused Tom to briefly stumble, but he forced himself to keep running through the pain.

The wounded vandal didn't seem very eager to chase the spearman either as it limply fell to the ground whimpering at its wound and the loss of another one of its brethren.

Meanwhile, Jerry was still being mercilessly torn into, and his final death throes were the only thing that permeated the otherwise silent night. He threw curses at Tom's cowardice and curses at the beast that made him succumb to such a fate, and in his final moments he cursed himself for partaking in such a worthless endeavor.

All Tom could do was listen to the man's furious screams as he ran away. He grit his teeth at Jerry's curses, but he figured there was no point in the both of them dying, so he continued on into the exact same direction Marcus had vanished previously.