Sage and the others froze for a moment, their eyes locked on the figures closing in from every direction.
The shock on their faces was unmistakable, what stood before them was unlike anything they had ever encountered. Not in books, not on missions, not even in whispered rumors among Adventurers.
At first glance, these creatures resembled wolves. But the longer you looked, the more unsettling they became, as if they were things that shouldn't exist at all.
Each one towered at least three and a half meters tall, nearly as high as two grown men stacked together. Their bodies were both lean and heavy, with long, powerful limbs segmented more like insects than beasts.
Their entire forms were covered in overlapping green scales that shimmered faintly under the eerie green light from above, giving them a cold, unnatural glow.
