Or so Traxex, the Drow Ranger, hoped, because the towers on her road, the bottom road, were still standing but if she was honest she didn't know how it was going on the other roads. She was okay at the bottom, together with the Undying, an undead creature. They were sided against another undead with a scythe and some beast that constantly sprayed quills, looking like a huge hedgehog. They just had to be a little carful because the wolf man, a lycanthrope, was somewhere to their right side in the woods. They had placed an Observer Ward, which gave them better vision under the trees, to be able to see him approaching. But he could morph into a wolf and in that form he was unbelievably fast.
Traxex kept an eye on the trees and the shadows underneath all the time to be able to spot the wolf early enough to be able to get away. Oh, he would chase her, she was absolutely sure of that, because she was an easy kill for him. She didn't have much armour and therefore he would deal massive damage when he attacked her. But the prospect of a fight with such a strong man made her heart beat faster instead of fearing it. She was definitely exhilarated because, let's face it, most fights were just too boring and the speed of the wolf man made it both thrilling and dangerous to fight this war. It was, finally, a challenge for her. And she loved challenges. Her face remained absolutely expressionless but she was all giddy inside, impatiently awaiting his first attack.
She killed the enemy soldiers in front of her, bought a few things when she had enough money and shot frost arrows from time to time at the enemy heroes to keep them at distance. And all the while she imagined how her first encounter with the wolf would take place.
When he appeared, she wasn't in the least prepared, though. She saw him early enough, when he was still human, and turned around, running in the direction of the tower, shouting. "Undying! Get back!" She kept looking at the man to be able to judge his intent and briefly she forgot that he was her enemy in this war and just marvelled at his body.
He was tall and he was big and it was definitely all muscles that made him big. His wide shoulders were made even wider by black shoulder armour, rimmed with gold; his wrists were covered by matching armour that ended with two blades protruding over the backs of his bare hands. A heavy belt and black plate on his shins were the only other armour on his body. He wore a well-worn red shirt that was tight enough to show the muscles on his arms, stomach and back and black trousers. His short black hair was combed away from his face, sideburns reached as a beard over his cheeks to his mouth and on his chin was a goatee. Two fangs jutted out from his mouth, white and sharp, and together with his frown it made him absolutely dangerous. He looked like a man, strong and capable, and when his yellow eyes, glowing softly when he was standing in the shadows of the woods, focused on her, a shiver raced down her spine. The hunt had just begun and she was definitely the prey. Two wolfs were standing on each side of him and they were also looking at her. Surely he could command them.
Traxex tried to run faster, to reach the safety of the tower before the man could morph into a wolf and outrun her. And this time it worked. Under the tower she turned back and saw that the lycanthrope hadn't even morphed. But he was, together with the other two enemy heroes and the wolves, going for her ally, the Undying, now.
Remaining in the relative safety of the tower she then tried to save the Undying. She used her Frost Arrows, arrows that were like their name said coated in frost, because they, in addition to the damage they dealt, slowed the target and would therefore make it possible for her ally to escape. She aimed at the lycan first, because he was nearest to her but switched her focus immediately after she had released the first arrow. That way she wouldn't deal that much damage to one enemy hero but would be able to slow them all down. It was a lifesaving action and not designed to get her a hero kill. And it worked. The wolf man stopped and headed back into the woods. He looked at the Drow Ranger before he turned around, his gaze promising retribution. She thought she heard a soft growl before he vanished in the shadows of the trees, his wolfs following.
She took a deep breath and lowered her bow. She was totally aware of the fact that they had only survived because the man hadn't morphed into his stronger form. And she was sure they wouldn't be that lucky next time.
The Undying headed into their town without pause to regenerate inside of the safe zone. He was too heavily injured to stay on the road were a wolf could come out of the woods at any time. He thanked her for her rescue as he passed.
Alone on the road Traxex concentrated on killing the normal soldiers while shooting Frost Arrows at the enemy heroes from time to time to harass them. She was very careful and didn't venture far away from the tower and always kept away from the woods, sticking to the opposite side of the road to have at least that little more space between her, the trees and a possibly advancing lycanthrope.
Even after the Undying had joined her again she was wary. The hedgehog and the undead didn't try anything, they were rather passive and Traxex wasn't sure if they were afraid of her and the Undying or if they just waited for the right moment to start their next attack, the moment when the wolf would join them again and therefore outnumbered her and her ally.
The Drow got good money from killing the soldiers. Making the last hit and delivering the killing blow to them granted extra money and she was able to get nearly all last hits because the Undying left them all for her. Originally she had wanted to buy something from the money that would grant her live steal, which would make her able to regenerate according to the damage she dealt while attacking an enemy, but under the circumstances she really wanted to have something that would help her escape. So she decided to go for a Shadow Blade as first item, simply because it would give her the ability to go invisible for a short time and she was sure she would be in need of that ability often. She could buy something to grant her life steal after she had a Shadow Blade. So she didn't buy anything, not even Boots of Speed to make her faster. The Shadow Blade had the highest priority and everything else could wait. It was unusual to go for it first, but the Drow felt too unsafe with the wolf only a jump away. The Boots of Speed would never be enough to safe her, as was any item for life steal. The only thing that would be of use against the wolf would be the Shadow Blade, and so she would buy it first.
It went on like that for a time, a little uneventful but reliable, until their allied hero from the middle road, the Tinker, came to help them. He neared through the woods, seemingly unaware that the lycan was on the hunt there somewhere. But it had worked so far so they should just attack quickly while they had the advantage of numbers.
They were in the middle between the two towers, the enemy heroes a little behind their soldiers. But they had a good piece of way between them and the safety of their tower. The Tinker remained in the shadows of the trees, invisible for the enemy heroes. Traxex switched her arrows, now using the frosty ones, and immediately started to attack. The Undying joined the attack by placing a tomb stone that would create ghouls depending on the number of creatures around the stone. The ghouls would mindlessly attack all enemies in their reach and even follow them. They were fast and their bites slowed. Together with the Frost Arrows that the Drow had started to shoot, it was as if they were moving in slow motion.
Concentrating on her aim, Traxex never took her eyes of the retreating undead and the hedgehog. And then two rockets hit them, just when the Undying sucked the strength out of them while dealing damage. The undead collapsed, his scythe hitting the ground but the hedgehog passed the tower, injured but able to escape. Since she didn't want to get in firing range of the enemy tower because it dealt too much damage for her liking, the Drow Ranger stopped, her gaze on the back of the retreating beast. He was still spraying quills, like he had done almost nonstop during the attack, even while he wasn't in range for the quills to hit someone. He had taken embarrassingly little damage from her arrows and it must have something to do with the quills he sprayed. Or it was because the arrows only hit his back while he ran, which looked as if he had some kind of plate there, like a shell. It could be some kind of armour that protected him from attacks from that direction and it would explain why he turned his back towards them suspiciously often.
She would keep that in mind and try to attack him from the front next time, just to see if she was right. If so, than it was just a matter of positioning to get the kill. If it was a passive ability of his, it was even more important that she buy the Shadow Blade, because she could upgrade the weapon into the Silver Edge, which disabled all passive abilities with the first hit. That would do the trick as it disabled the protection the hedgehog got on his back. If it was a passive ability, that is.
When she and the Undying headed back after getting a few hits on the tower, the Tinker was already gone. He had just fired his rockets and had then vanished again. Traxex just hoped he had been able to get back to his road safely and without encountering the wolf.
With enough money to buy a Shadow Amulet, the first part for the Shadow Blade, the Drow felt a little safer already. The amulet would make her invisible as well, but only as long as she remained standing on one spot. And it had a second fading time in which she would still be visibly but had to stop moving already. It wasn't the best solution in case of an attack but it was better than nothing. The second part of the blade would follow soon and then she could relax.
The next wave of soldiers appeared and they followed them. At the tower they saw the tell-tale sign of two heroes teleporting in. They must have bought Scrolls of Town Portal, which were one time use items that could bring the bearer to an allied building of his choice. And then they heard the howling of a wolf coming from the woods, almost at their back. "Oh no," the Drow Ranger whispered, dread evident in her voice. The lycan had circled to their backs while the other two were in front of them, at that moment materializing after the teleport and fully regenerated. When she turned around, the blood pounding through her veins and the adrenaline rushing through her body, she saw the wolf man. He was standing in the middle of the road and he was grinning, showing his sharp teeth. He was directly looking at her, definitely selecting her as his target. Or his prey. Then he howled again and transformed. The two wolves at his side already raced forward, going for Traxex, while the wolf man needed a second to morph into a beast.
The Drow Ranger didn't wait for the transformation to end, though she had for a second the urge to watch, to see how this powerful male morphed into an even more powerful beast.