I stepped out of the hall into chaos.
The night air hit me first, thick with smoke and the metallic scent of blood. Fires burned in scattered spots across the village, casting flickering orange light that turned everything into dancing shadows.
The guards were fighting desperately along the palisade walls, maybe twenty of them total spread too thin across too much ground. They thrust spears through gaps in the wooden logs, fired crossbow bolts at shapes moving in the darkness beyond, shouted warnings to each other as sections of the wall shuddered under impacts.
But they were being overwhelmed.
The beasts pressed against every section of the perimeter, massive wolves the size of horses with matted fur and foam dripping from their jaws, bear-like creatures with tusks jutting from their mouths, things that looked like boars but moved with unnatural speed and coordination.
