After resting another moment the dizziness and double sight faded, letting Lydis think clearly. She was excited at the idea of a battle with the delicious wolf leader, but she wouldn"t last long without any armor or weapons, much less without proper clothes. Currently she was still dressed in her tank top from training and her combat pants. Lydis looked around the room and found that there was a pair of clothes waiting on a nearby stool.She forced herself away from the drawer and dressed herself, the armor shifting and squeezing against her skin slightly. The open finger glove along with the boots automatically fine-tuned and adjusted to her hand and feet. She slipped the long sleeve shirt over her head and felt it"s comforting pressure against her chest. Next, she put on one of the many oversized jackets tossed on top of her cot. The jacket was big and puffy but at the same light weight and st.u.r.dy. Lydis flexed her hand and felt the same warm feeling except much more numbing. Seems like she really needed to work on her slyphir control.
Lydis checked the pockets of the jacket and found a pocket knife, or at least what looked like a pocket knife. It"s hilt was about the length of her hand and when unfolded twice the hilt and blade expanded. Now the length of the hilt almost reached her elbow. The black blade was thin and st.u.r.dy, no wider than an inch and a half. It"s length almost double of the hilt. She waved it around and found that it was light and fast. Taking a test swing Lydis swung and accidently cut the side of the cot adjacent to the one she had woken up on. Feeling it slice clean through with little to no resistance Lydis was amazed at how sharp it was. Satisfied with her new toy Lydis re-folded it and placed it back into the pocket she had found it in. Having checked her body for injuries and finding none she stretched a bit before opening the flaps. Her mouth curling into a smile from her excitement.
Outside was not as she expected. The surrounding camp was deserted and the lights to the other tents were all dead. The metallic smell of blood still wafted through the air while she could hear faded noises of a battle to her left. The direction of the forest. Without hesitation Lydis began to sprint towards the forest and found that the smell and noises were getting stronger and louder. Faint shouts began to echo in the forest.
"…get mo…"
"Hold…t!"
"…n"t let go!" Lydis was concentrating on listening to the muddled voices and hadn"t noticed the black shadow that was tailing her. After a few more seconds the black shadow unleashed a howl and launched an attack at Lydis"s side. Having heard the howl first Lydis instinctively dodged upwards and saw that the black wolf had jumped at her from her right. It pa.s.sed by beneath her back into the bushes. Hiding it"s presence once more.
Once again the unknown voice repeated information into her mind.
Blood Wolf variant. A rare sub-species of blood wolves that has black fur. More suited to hunting alone and in the dark they can be very dangerous as their ability to blend in and launch sneak attacks are hard to predict. Usually an outcast and follows the main pack scavenging for remains or prey that had gotten away. Stronger than a normal Blood Wolf.
Lydis landed and took out the pocket knife and flipped it open in a manner of a few flicks, she was beginning to really like it. The black blade gleamed in the dim moonlight. As soon as she took it out the bushes around Lydis seemed to change. Like the wolf who had thought her easy prey was now cautious of her. The wind slowed and silence filled the area except for the faint voices that seemed to be moving farther away. Lydis was patient. She didn"t mind that the voices were fading, as long as the smell of blood was still in the air she was certain she could find them again. More time pa.s.sed and Lydis had not moved, nor had the wolf. The voices had faded to a slight murmuring. Lydis stretched and seeing this chance the black wolf jumped out of the shadows and attacked Lydis. Obviously prepared Lydis ducked and moved forward beneath the wolf, letting her blade slice the back foot off of the wolf. It howled in pain and stumbled a bit on it"s landing, crashing face first. The severed paw lay on the floor, twitching and releasing a pool of blood that quickly stank up the area. The wolf"s leg now gleamed with a slight dark b.l.o.o.d.y hue under the moonlight. It snarled at Lydis and bared it"s fangs.
"Come on now, is that all? Rare variant my as*. Even the Blood Wolf that was a part of a pack knew how to do a silent sneak attack." Lydis shook her head and sighed. The Blood Wolf variant did smell delicious but it was nothing compared to the pack leader. Thinking back to the delicious smell of the pack leader Lydis zoned out for a second and the variant wolf took this chance to dash into the bushes. Lydis chuckled slightly. "There"s no point in hiding, your blood already gave away your position." Lydis jumped into the bushes behind her and dodged the black claws aimed at her face. She grabbed onto one and wrapped her legs around it"s paw. In the next moment the whole right front arm of the wolf had been severed by Lydis, she hopped away from it"s arm and the howling wolf. The wolf was frantic, it"s eyes bouncing over everything in order to find a way to escape. With it"s fur raised and slightly trembling stance it didn"t look more threatening than a puppy.
Lydis however was more interested in the wolf"s paws. She picked up it"s arm which was almost five feet long. It"s arm pulsated with muscles and strength. She brushed away the black fur, revealing the pitch-black claws hidden beneath. Each about four inches long. Deadly and strong, the variant wolf had the tools to win the battle but not the experience. Lydis was still examining the wolf"s arm when the wolf suddenly jumped backwards, it snarled and black mist dripped out of it"s mouth. In the next moment a ball of black mist shot out of it"s mouth and exploded on the floor, instantly covering the area around Lydis. She didn"t move and merely waited for the black mist to settle down.
The black wolf had disappeared and Lydis could sense that instead of waiting to attack again the wolf had retreated and was running with all it"s might in the opposite direction from where the voices were coming from. She wanted to chase after it but the thought of the wolf leader stopped her from acting based on impulses. Lydis severed the paw from the severed wolf arm and gathered the other paw. Lydis pulled her arms and hands into her shirt and shuffled around before finally taking off her tank top. She stuffed the paws inside and tied it closed, her trophies from this encounter. She refolded her blade and continued towards the faint voices.
At the scene Valeri was shouting commands towards her soldiers as another wave of Blood Wolves attacked. She had managed to drive them back but feared that they had a pincer attack set up near the base. Blood Wolves had been know to use baiting tactics and pincer attacks against human caravans and settlements. The attack line had let one wolf through and Valeri let out a command,
"Conduits, fire on my command!" The six conduits besides Valeri raised their hands and each conjured slyphir bolts. The Blood Wolf was sprinting closer to Valeri"s position, it"s red fur simmering and glowing in the moonlight.
"Steady…" The wolf was right in their line of sight now, it released a howl and sped up. "Fire!" Valeri lowered her hand in a chopping motion and a barrage of slyphir aimed at the wolf pierced it"s body. Instantly dozens of thick slyphir blades embedded themselves into the wolf. When the slyphir disappeared all that remained was a body full of gaping holes that revealed torn flesh. Some holes were cut cleanly, some had been seared closed while others looked as if a rough stone was used to carve out the hole. Blood spilled onto it"s body, blending in with it"s fur. The wolf skidded on the blood slicked gra.s.s, being stopped by the dead bodied of it"s fallen comrades.
*whew* "That makes eight? What are the front lines doing, letting in so many."
On the front lines Blair was standing firm as a man scratched his head in confusion.
"Ahhh! I don"t get it? Why did the captain make me attack commander? She knows that I"m better suited to defending…" The man continued to sulk as Blair began to tap her feet impatiently. A soldier soon rushed in front of the man, their armor covered in claw marks and blood. A few tuffs of red fur had dried onto the side and front of the armor, blending in with the crimson blood perfectly.
"Sir, ma"am, I have urgent business to report." Blair nodded at the soldier and the man stopped whining and turned his attention to the soldier"s report.
"Let"s hear it." The man gestured for the soldier to speak and he saluted in response.
"Yes sir! The scouts have a spotted a whole pack of blood wolves coming this way, their numbers are around one hundred to one hundred forty!" The man"s jaw would"ve hung wide open if he wasn"t resting his jaw on his hands.
"T-that"s quite large isn"t it? Don"t they usually form pack of forty to sixty wolves?"
"Yes! We believe that it"s because the leader of this pack is a special variant!" At this Blair"s head twitched with interest. She had been hearing about how the number of variants of other areas had been increasing but she didn"t believe it.
"Then what are we fighting right now?" The man"s eyes looked like he had already figured something out but he wanted to make sure.
"The twenty or so wolves we had been fighting seemed to be the scouting force!" The man sighed loudly and let his head fall and hang low.
"And, how far away are they?"
"The scouts said about forty minutes." The man"s head slipped through his hands and slammed on to the foldable desk.
"F-forty minutes?!" The man"s eyes filled with despair, disbelief written all over his face. The man scratched his head with both hands, ruffling his hair even more so that it covered his eyes. The soldier was a bit frightened and gave a questioning head tilt towards the vice-lieutenant. Blair sighed and walked next to the man sitting hunched over the foldable table and whispered something into his ear, his eyes suddenly becoming clear.