Chapter 572: Book 9-8.3: Into the Valley

The wolf sprang for Gwendith’s throat, but she ducked and rolled underneath it. At the same time, the needle she created out of the stream water, slammed into its pelt. It shattered, failing to penetrate the metal fur, but that hadn’t been her goal in the first place. The area it hit, the right hind leg, near the heel, started to freeze. Well, the water spread on it and froze, not the fur or the leg itself, as far as she could tell.

“Watch out!” Asami screamed as her cousin popped out a telescoping staff from her side and slammed it at another wolf, smaller than the first, but equally encased in steel fur.

Twonk!

The staff bent with the force but managed to knock that wolf aside.

“There’s more!” Asami squealed, “They’re coming!”

Gwendith cursed under her breath. The first iron hide wolf was testing its leg, then stomped down hard and broke the ice. It was eerily silent and began to circle her, eyeing the floating daggers warily. Both of them were having trouble going one on one…

Asami backed up next to Gwendith while the second wolf glared at them menacingly. Wait, more of them? Asami’s range was barely twenty or so paces. They were hidden in the bushes and the mists. The only open space was the stream…

“To the water, hurry,” Gwendith whispered, then tugged Asami’s wrist. Her cousin didn’t hesitate and both of them jumped into the shallow stream and pushed towards the centre. The current wasn’t that fast, and the water rose up to her knees, then her thighs.

The first wolf jumped into the stream and rushed at them, slicing to the left while the other wolf followed behind. The weight of their tread splashed water all over.

Fools.

Gwendith’s Ennoia was that of heat and cold. She took all of the heat from the water surrounding the first wolf and shoved it towards the second. Almost immediately, the first was encased in ice all the way up to its chest, and then a gout of white flame rushed towards the second. But fire and heat didn’t seem to faze them much, and the only effect was that the second’s fur glowed orange.

Grrrrr!

Now they were growling. Gwendith slammed a dagger into its mouth, then grabbed the heat around the second wolf and shunted it above. A gout of orange flame jetted up, and then the second was trapped too.

Ptang!

The dagger glanced off the first’s maw, but then she repositioned it towards the eye instead. Then she pushed with all the might of her kinesis.

Puchiii!

Awwwoooo!

“Argh!” Gwendith yelled as she willed the dagger deeper into the eye socket, and a moment later, the wolf collapsed bonelessly into the stream. Then, she faced the second one, though by that time, Asami had bashed its skull enough times to knock it unconscious.

Gwendith looked up to the banks to catch sight of three more ironhides. The wolves glared at her but didn't dare enter the water. They weren’t leaving either. Instead, they spread out.

“Huh,” she muttered. “Now what?”

____________

Heron jerked when he heard the muffled screams. He dropped the axe he was using to chop down a tree and pulled out his collapsible spear and activated his resonating buckler. Head on a swivel, he oriented himself towards the noise, conjured a hardened air shield, linked it to his shoulders, and jogged towards it.

The camp was currently to his left, nearly fifty paces away. The scream came from the right, towards one of the other logging sites. It didn’t take long before he got there, to the sight of a couple of civilians fending off a trio of wolves, trying to prevent a third unawakened from being dragged away. The fallen man was hugging a tree stump while a wolf had its jaws around his calf. The beast tugged hard, and then there was a sickening snap!

“Aieeee!”

The other two, one looked to be awakened from how she had an Animus glow around her axe, were slamming their tools against a wolf each, but aside from a few sparks, the wood axes did little. In fact, it was all they could do not to get dragged away.

“Hey!” Heron yelled as he charged towards the downed man.

The wolf glanced at him, growled threateningly, and pulled one more time. The man’s hands almost slipped from the trunk, and if they had, he would have died as the creature made away with him. But he was luckily able to keep hold, and in another moment, Heron stabbed hard at the wolf’s back.

The beast didn’t care about the attack, probably expecting his spear to slide away. Their fur was made out of grey metal of some sort, iron or steel. It would have turned away an unenhanced weapon, and even one with Empowered Strike would probably not hurt it much. But Heron’s spear was covered with his Anima, and the point sheared into the wolf’s back and severed its spine near the neck. It collapsed with a whimper, but its jaws didn’t let go. In fact, it worried at the man’s bone, eliciting a high-pitched squeal.

“Rotter!” Heron yelled as he pulled the spear away and stabbed it into the wolf, hitting it near the ear. The point sank through the bone as if it were made out of butter, and the thing shuddered and died.

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And then, both of the remaining two bit him on either leg.

His condensed aura stopped the teeth from even touching his pants, and even without it, the Animus Armour Yuriko gifted him would have protected him. Those things were even tougher than forceweave and covered his entire body. The trouble with physical armour of any kind was that it left exploitable gaps. Well, the downside to Animus Armour was that it ate up Animus to function, so it was about even. And it wasn’t as if he couldn’t wear both.

The wolves pulled in opposite directions, and if not for his greatly enhanced strength, even if his legs hadn’t been punctured, the force would have wrenched his legs out of his hips. As it were, he squatted down and tried to hold his ground, while striking with the spear to his left, and air shield bashed the wolf on his right. The spear struck the beast’s forehead, skidded over it because of the angle, and then down on its neck. He missed the spine but cleft the muscles and windpipe in twain. A fountain of blood sprayed into the air and the wolf’s grip loosened.

He made a mistake with the shield bash since it struck the wolf head-on rather than at an angle. As a result, with the beast’s grip on his leg, his added force wrenched it, and his knee creaked painfully. He angled the next blow downwards and at the thing’s noggin, which stunned it. The grip loosened too, buying him time to finish off the other wolf before doing the same to this one.

His breath steamed as he panted. That…was shoddily done. If he didn’t have his condensed aura, he would have died. What had happened to him? He would never have charged in like that before. Did the Ancient’s Way inject him with false confidence? Then again, he did succeed and came out of the battle relatively unharmed.

The civilian who broke his leg was still screaming in pain. Well, sobbing, too. The other two were still somewhat in shock, but the awakened woman jumped and hurried to the fallen man. Her hands hovered over his broken leg, and she bit her lip while her eyes swam. Heron grunted and moved closer, although he kept a wary eye towards the bushes.

If another wolf came, or maybe a pack of them, he didn’t want to get caught unawares.

“We have to bring him back to camp,” he said. “You’ll have to pick him up. I need to keep my hands free.”

The woman nodded, and she and the other man gingerly lifted the wounded one. His left leg lolled to a side, bending unnaturally. Was that bone?

Feeling bile rise up his throat, Heron turned away. After a moment, the woman said, “We’re ready.”

Fifty paces wasn’t that far, but it felt like an eternity had passed before they reached the campsite. He expected that they would be on alert, and maybe a hint of panic, but everyone looked steady.

The palisade wasn’t ready, but there was already a small ditch. The guards had their weapons in hand, and they faced the forest nervously. He could see a couple of groups returning from the forest, bringing in the rest of the woodcutters. Everyone had managed to descend from the ridge by now, and even the horses were hobbled in a line. They looked a little wide-eyed though, neighing and with noses flared. Did they smell the wolves?

Hmmm? Where were Yuriko and the rest of the Imperial team?

__________

Yuriko strolled towards the base camp. She was about a league away from the valley wall and had charted a reasonable course towards the obsidian pillar. That place was still several dozen longstrides away, however, and given the undulating nature of the terrain, as well as the obscuring mists, it was best to be cautious.

Yesterday had been disquieting, but she was somewhat used to the eerie silence. Her breath turned into steam, though she barely felt the cold. She’d also removed the poncho she usually wore, finding little need to conceal herself here. Besides, she preferred Imperial-style coats anyway, since they didn’t billow or get caught. Well, here she was wearing only a button-down shirt and pants. She felt oddly underdressed though. Hmm. Maybe she should put on her forceweave traveller’s coat after all. It was at the bottom of her backpack after all and just needed to be aired out. Hmm, once she was back in camp.

Unlike her usual method, she wasn’t using the arboreal highway this time. The mists made observing the forest floor more troublesome, even with her perception aura flared to full strength.

One moment, she was alone on the game trail, the next, several creatures registered in her senses. Two. Three. Five. Twelve. Coming from her flanks.

Another three in front of her, but none behind. Curious. Wolves? But…

She frowned when she noticed their metallic fur. It wasn’t something natural, she was sure, since she saw motes of ambient Chaos swirling around them. She saw the motes convert to earth elemental essence, then specialize to metal. Iron. The way they moved…even the way they breathed! It was in complete harmony with the flow of ambient Chaos, and the resonance between those movements and the earth element were longstrides beyond what she could manage with her Four Phases.

Dumbfounded, she observed them creep closer, all while the resonance intensified. If she didn’t have an innate Chaos sense with her Anima perception, she wouldn’t have noticed it at all! In fact, she activated her Chaos Sight, though clicked her tongue afterwards. The ambient Chaos around the forest was thick and flowed erratically, which drowned out everything else. It also perfectly masked the wolves’ signature. Ah, they weren’t within eyesight either, since the bushes and branches obscured everything else the mist didn’t.

The first two wolves lunged from her left. She easily stepped out of the way and noted how the resonating earth element muffled the sound of their landing. Instead of pivoting back at her, they ran ahead into the bushes, and then another pair attacked her from behind.

She swayed out of the way, then grabbed one of them by the tail. She pulled hard, spun, and slammed the creature against another pair attacking her from behind.

Crack!

The wolf she hit, as well as her impromptu club, squished together as their bones broke, and blood and viscera squirted out of their orifices. The blood spattered against her condensed Anima before dripping down into the earth, leaving her as pristine as always.

Her strike signalled the full-on attack. She ducked and weaved around the attacks, all while observing the flow of ambient Chaos and how their movements resonated with the earth. Eagerly she watched and studied. After all, they were better than she was at it, and this was a rare chance to study.