Chapter 31: Rotten Wolf

The desert was unnervingly silent as Kael walked, the sun now fully set and leaving the landscape cloaked in darkness.

The chill of the night seeped into the sand, and the faint hiss of the wind carried an ominous stillness.

Kael's steps were light, the soft crunch of sand under his feet barely audible beneath his cloak.

Suddenly, a low, guttural growl echoed from behind a nearby rock, slicing through the quiet.

Kael froze, his head turning sharply toward the sound, the glow in his hollow eye sockets intensifying.

From the shadows, a pair of glowing eyes locked onto him, radiating a malevolent hunger.

A creature slunk forward into the faint moonlight its form resembling a wolf, but its body was a grotesque display of rotting flesh and exposed bone. Shreds of decayed skin hung limply from its frame, and its jagged teeth gleamed unnaturally.

"Disgusting," Kael muttered, his skeletal fingers flexing beneath the folds of his cloak.

With a guttural snarl, the creature lunged at him, its claws tearing through the sand as it leaped.

Kael moved swiftly, the air hissing as he sidestepped the attack. The creature skidded to a halt, its claws raking furiously at the ground in frustration, throwing up a spray of sand.

"Trust me," Kael said, his voice steady, yet cold. "I'm not a meal you'd enjoy."

Kael's bony hand swept to his side, and with a brief flash of eerie light, his scythe materialized, the blade gleaming like a crescent moon against the dark.

The wolf-like creature snarled, its sunken eyes narrowing, the hunger within them growing fiercer.

It lunged again, this time swiping wildly with its claws. Kael dodged each strike, his movements precise but pushed to their limit. The ragged wolf's speed was relentless, and the air whistled with every swipe of its claws.

Kael's cloak bore the scars of the assault long, jagged marks where the fabric had been torn. He leapt back, his empty sockets narrowing in frustration.

'Curses,' he thought, his grip tightening on the scythe. 'It's fast.'

The wolf snarled once more, its decaying body coiling like a spring. With a powerful leap, it launched itself into the air, jaws gaping wide to sink into Kael.

But Kael vanished in a flicker of shadow, reappearing behind the beast.

Before the creature could even land, Kael's scythe arced through the air, its blade slicing cleanly through the decayed flesh. The wolf let out a gurgling snarl before collapsing into the sand.

Kael didn't pause to finish it off his hollow gaze darted toward the horizon.

"I don't have time for this," he muttered, already racing forward, the sand scattering under his feet. "I need to find shelter before more of them show up."

But it was already too late.

A mournful, bone-chilling howl echoed behind him, rising and falling like a twisted symphony of madness.

Then another joined it, and another, until the night seemed alive with the cries of the dead.

Kael's steps faltered for the briefest moment. "Oh, damn it," he growled. "More of them."