Shit just got real. Mal and Leo were now standing back to back in the square dedicated to Saint Altera. There were three wolves currently facing Mal and two facing Leonard. It was an uneven number, and Mal made his decision based on how they were positioned.
"I take the three, you take the two on your side," Mal proclaimed. He sounded calm, but he wasn't.
Leo didn't try to argue with him. He didn't try to encourage him or say some emotional stuff before a battle that could very well be their end. He was a soldier, so he knew that every second mattered and every distraction could be deadly. Leonard didn't wait a single moment, and Mal already heard a series of shots being fired as Leonard whispered something.
He also didn't delay. In the same moment his last words to Leo left his mind, he already started to recite a spell to re-glue his tendons again. His head was now spinning at full rotations. He was a fencer—he was even a good fencer, considering how short a period of time he had actively studied the blade. But they always fought one on one. Fencing someone required immediate attention to that person and nothing else. When you were outnumbered, you were basically dead if there wasn't a huge difference between you and your opponent. Films and comics made people believe a lot of wrong things, and this was one of them.
Mal was sure: he could not, under any circumstances, take on three wolves at once. Even two would pose a challenge. That being said, there were some strategies for fighting multiple opponents. The first one was the most logical: take one of them out before the others have a chance to attack.
All of this went through his head in milliseconds, and so as he was finishing the spell on his tendons, he was already dashing toward the one wolf on the right. The two wolves on the left seemed to understand his intentions and started to run after him. They were still faster than him, but he had a head start. That was all it gave him, as he quickly deduced—approximately seven seconds to deal with the wolf.
His spell finished just as the wolf was upon him. It jumped into the air, but Mal was ready and quickly sidestepped. It would now be a race against time: the wolves versus his spell. As the wolf attacked him, he cut at one of its legs and used it to deflect the attack.
"As we were born, we will die."
Mal attacked with his umbrella and the wolf backed down.
"A gift to humanity and a curse to its enemies."
Mal didn't give the wolf a chance to attack and instead stabbed toward it.
"Form in my hand in a bright flash."
The wolf deflected his attempt and its two additional legs slashed at Mal, one missing but one tearing two centimeters of meat from his side.
"And destroy what I want to be dead."
But that was what Mal wanted; the wolf was distracted, and he started to move his left hand—already churning—in an ellipsoid as if he wanted to slap the wolf in its face.
"By the will of Sanguine, Burn!"
Just before his left palm collided with the face of the amalgamation, the flesh suddenly burst into flames, which now collided with its face.
He was hurt on his side and the skin on his palm was burned, but he didn't allow even a millisecond of rest. He immediately sidestepped and prepared to deliver a killing blow to the side of its head. In the last moment, however, the creature slashed at him with its front legs as a last measure of self-defense. It had to be luck that it slashed exactly where he was. If it had slashed anywhere else, Mal would have killed it, but now he was forced to redirect his stab into the chest of the creature. He tried to stab it through the heart, but it simply wasn't possible at that speed. The vines of the red moss around his umbrella made contact with the meat of the amalgamation, and it started to twist in pain. It was blind and in agony, but Mal couldn't finish the kill. In that moment, the other two were on him.
Leo was surprised Mal chose to face the three abominations. From what he knew, the man had some kind of injury on his right leg, and beyond that, he had clear, deep dark circles under his eyes and his skin was deathly white. He wasn't a medic, but he could see the boy has only recently recovered from some serious illness. But he didn't question it. There was no time. He immediately picked up his gun and started to fire at the two monsters standing in front of him. Mal was a dreamy teenager who had read a lot of fantasy and was in his head in magical worlds all the time. Leo, on the other hand, was a soldier. That was why he did what he was taught: just shoot. The wolves were clearly taken aback by the shooting pieces of metal. The majority of the bullets were deflected by their skin and only a few managed to pierce. That enraged them even more, and they both dashed toward him.
He took a few steps back and was still pounding them with bullets as they ran at him. Two lucky shots managed to pierce two legs of one of the abominations, which slowed it down a little. Leo wanted to fall back fully, but Mal was fighting his battle behind him and he couldn't interfere. They both had enough on their plates.
Mal instantly dashed back. This was bad. He had failed to kill the abomination before the other two showed up. Yes, it was now blinded and would be in pain for a little while, but there was no guarantee that the fight wouldn't last long enough to allow it to rejoin. He was now standing in front of the two abominations. They seemed to check on their brother and then looked at Mal as if studying him. The fight was now two on one. He had slightly increased his chances. It was time to implement the second way of fighting more than one opponent.