I was surrounded. There were a couple dozen of them, and they'd come across me a block away from the store where I'd been doing a bit of Christmas shopping. My back was to a wall and I was cradling an immaculately wrapped package.
They were about a foot tall each, jet black, and looked like a cross between a baboon and a rat. They chittered and gibbered at me, which I doubted was any sort of real language. They wore nothing but coarse fur and carried no weapons - animals, not intelligent creatures.
Letting the predator living in my head take the lead seemed like the best way to get rid of them without a fight, so I didn't fight hard to push back the Wolf. My lips drew back from my teeth and a low growl slid up my throat. The things took a wary step back, and I stepped forward, keeping my eyes on them as I crouched down to set my package on the ground and slide it back between my legs.
One of the creatures was braver than its fellows and launched itself at me, teeth and claws flashing. It wasn't supernaturally fast, so I had no trouble raising one arm to intercept it before it reached me. That is, I would have had no trouble if my hand didn't pass straight through the thing. It felt like sweeping my hand through a pile of straw, and I could see the creature's fur shifting around my swing before its claws bit into the side of my neck, carving a few shallow furrows into my skin. It immediately planted its feet on my shoulder and jumped back out of reach. They weren't deep wounds by any means, but enough of them would add up. With as many of the creatures as I was facing, it could get bad.
When the next one leapt, I waited until the last moment before its claws reached me, then juked to one side while trying another swipe, reasoning that they had to be solid to hit me. It worked. I knocked the wind out of the thing, and it flailed its limbs in the air before smacking into the wall and dropping to the ground, where it twitched a bit before becoming still. They couldn't take much punishment.
That was a good thing, but it would have been better if there weren't so many of them. One at a time, I was sure I'd have been able to handle them relatively easily, but of course they weren't going to keep giving me that option. As though reading my mind, that was when the group of them surged forward. I ducked under one and started swinging, knocking a few away before they started getting past my arms. One grabbed onto me and climbed to my shoulder, where it was about to sink its teeth into my throat before I grabbed it and flung it away. It sailed into three others, and all four went down. That was handy, and a snatched one up to use as a club, until it went intangible and slipped my grasp, leaving me holding nothing but a handful of fur. They kept coming, though, scratching at my arms, neck, and face.
They were about a foot tall each, jet black, and looked like a cross between a baboon and a rat. They chittered and gibbered at me, which I doubted was any sort of real language. They wore nothing but coarse fur and carried no weapons - animals, not intelligent creatures.
Letting the predator living in my head take the lead seemed like the best way to get rid of them without a fight, so I didn't fight hard to push back the Wolf. My lips drew back from my teeth and a low growl slid up my throat. The things took a wary step back, and I stepped forward, keeping my eyes on them as I crouched down to set my package on the ground and slide it back between my legs.
One of the creatures was braver than its fellows and launched itself at me, teeth and claws flashing. It wasn't supernaturally fast, so I had no trouble raising one arm to intercept it before it reached me. That is, I would have had no trouble if my hand didn't pass straight through the thing. It felt like sweeping my hand through a pile of straw, and I could see the creature's fur shifting around my swing before its claws bit into the side of my neck, carving a few shallow furrows into my skin. It immediately planted its feet on my shoulder and jumped back out of reach. They weren't deep wounds by any means, but enough of them would add up. With as many of the creatures as I was facing, it could get bad.
When the next one leapt, I waited until the last moment before its claws reached me, then juked to one side while trying another swipe, reasoning that they had to be solid to hit me. It worked. I knocked the wind out of the thing, and it flailed its limbs in the air before smacking into the wall and dropping to the ground, where it twitched a bit before becoming still. They couldn't take much punishment.
That was a good thing, but it would have been better if there weren't so many of them. One at a time, I was sure I'd have been able to handle them relatively easily, but of course they weren't going to keep giving me that option. As though reading my mind, that was when the group of them surged forward. I ducked under one and started swinging, knocking a few away before they started getting past my arms. One grabbed onto me and climbed to my shoulder, where it was about to sink its teeth into my throat before I grabbed it and flung it away. It sailed into three others, and all four went down. That was handy, and a snatched one up to use as a club, until it went intangible and slipped my grasp, leaving me holding nothing but a handful of fur. They kept coming, though, scratching at my arms, neck, and face.