On the other side of the forest the main attack force of the Blood Wolves had just reached the second clearing. One of the larger wolves stopped and nodded at the other wolves to survey the area. Dispersing like the wind the wolves went in all directions, sniffing the ground and the trees, scratching at the ground and running around the perimeter.Zai held up one hand in the darkness and the soldiers around him tensed with antic.i.p.ation. The wolves had separated so he wouldn"t be able to execute his plan unless they were gathered around together. Blair tapped Zai"s shoulders. In the dark she made hand motions that suggested that she would be bait to lure the wolves to the middle of the clearing.
At first Blair thought that Zai would disagree and she would have to go through with it against his orders, looking cool and bada.s.s as she lured the wolves without a scratch but, reality proved her wrong. Zai excitedly grabbed her shoulders and pushed her towards the opening in the trees. He turned on his comms and whispered lightly.
"Go go go! Thanks for being the sacrifice!" Zai gave Blair one last push and she was falling off the tree. Mid air she stuck out her middle finger and Zai saluted in response, returning to his position. Blair landed on her back and instantly the wolves had noticed her. The larger wolves howled and the scouting wolves rushed back towards Blair. Feeling electrified and angry at the same time Blair got to her feet and began to collect slyphir around her. In waves the wolves charged at Blair, slowly circling around her. Once the circle was complete she wouldn"t have a chance to escape so she dashed right for the nearest wolf and, while dodging it"s claws, punched it in the forehead. A loud crack filled the night.
All at once the wolf flopped to the floor, blood dribbling down from it"s shattered forehead. Blair stepped on it"s head and the already shattered skull felt mushy under her feet. Seeing one of their own killed and humiliated the other wolves charged once again. Blair stayed low and dodged the attacks made by the wolves. Her movements fluid, like water moving around a rock in a river. Slowly she made her way towards the center of the clearing while fighting off the wolves.
On Zai"s communicator a small beep on his right side caused him a bit of worry. He reached up and clicked it. Instantly the scouting leader"s perturbed voice came through.
"Lieutenant, the main pack seems to be unsettled."
"What?"
"I"m not sure what"s happening but the number of wolves alive have decreased by about a fourth."
"Do you know the cause?"
"Our slyphir radars detected an unknown ent.i.ty, it"s how we"ve been tracking their numbers, so when we were doing a check up the numbers had dwindled. At first we thought that some females had been sent out to scout the area in place of the males but when my troops surveyed the area there was no sign of any of the wolves leaving."
*sigh* "And, what about the unknown ent.i.ty?" Silence. Zai had one eye on Blair and was waiting for the scouting leader"s reply when the wolves attacking Blair suddenly parted down the middle. Zai"s first though was that the pack leader had appeared but the other wolves had simply parted, not lowered their heads or their tails, a common sign of dominance. Sighing with relief Zai continued to monitor the situation as his communicator clicked to life.
"I apologize but it seems like my team will need to retreat from the area surrounding the pack leader."
"What happened?"
"The unknown ent.i.ty seems to be challenging the pack leader to a duel and thus the females and other wolves surrounding them have dispersed as well. Our numbers are too small to deal with the thirty something wolves heading in all directions."
"Do you have any idea what kind of monster is challenging the pack leader?"
"It something completely unknown to even my monster expert. She says that it shouldn"t exist but, there"s still a lot we have yet to explore so maybe it"s a new monster from off the coast?" The scout leader didn"t sound too happy nor convinced of his own words.
"Did you get any visuals?"
"Yeah, just now." On the other side the scout captain"s comms lit up and out popped a small blue screen displaying dark fuzzy pictures. "It looks like, a dismantled wolf on, legs?" The scout captain could barely make out the red fur of the wolf"s head and the bright red hair of the unknown ent.i.ty.
"What? A wolf on two feet? Clarify."
"Ah, uh. How should I put it… Imagine a human and they"re very b.l.o.o.d.y, covered in blood in fact, and theres slips of skin hanging off from it"s limbs that dangle and swing with every move. Blazing red hair that flows with the wind. The head looks like a wolf"s but I"m not sure, could be a previous trophy for it…" The scout leader squinted his eyes and stared at the blue screen as it slowly played the pictures taken by his scouts. "…and not much else." Zai"s head was funneling the information and he was trying to narrow it down and figure out what "it" was. Reaching his processing limit Zai closed his eyes tightly and sighed.
"Thanks for the hard work so far. Keep me updated."
"Yes sir!" Zai shut off his communicator and focused on the current wolves below him. Blair had managed to gather nearly all sixty wolves in the center of the clearing, save for the few she killed. The pieces were almost all in place on this board. The same couldn"t be said for the board across the forest where the Wolf Lord was though.
Zai Held up his right arm and opened and closed his fist twice. Pausing for a moment and them opening them another two times. Seeing this Blair smirked.
"I was getting bored defending all the time!" In that moment Blair took out a small capsule, no bigger than her finger, and threw it on the floor. A thick, white smokescreen covering her. Blair opened a small latch in the ground and hopped in with most of the soldiers on standby. Without saying anything Blair tapped the top twice. The soldiers nodded in unison.
The Blood Wolves were frantic. All at once the dark clearing had a bit of light from the powdered smokescreen. The wolves closest to Blair had taken the full blow and were writhing on the ground, their eyes pure white while blood trickled out of their ears and nose. Zai lowered his hand and multiple *thw.a.n.gs* sounded before an ominous rumbled filled the night silence.
From the trees thick logs were released from the tops and collided with the dirt mounds below them, rolling at a frightening speed towards the Blood Wolves. Zai shouted into his left comms.
"Lights now!" The blinding lights used on the younger wolves instantly blazed to life, blinding the wolves. There was panic in the wolves.
Below ground Blair heard Zai"s command through the comms and pointed upwards. All at once the soldiers underground let our an ear piercing war cry. Other soldiers burst out from the ground and began to kill the Wolves, unlike with the young ones their aim this time was not to scare but to kill. As some came up they left a hole with spikes littered at the bottom. It was both a spike pit and a hiding hole. Amongst all this chaos the tree logs tumbling down also crashed into wolves, either killing or injuring them.
It was a blood bath. Zai observed from the tree tops as Blair brought out her weapon and began her a.s.sault on the Wolves, in her b.l.o.o.d.y rage and stress-relief he though that a b.l.o.o.d.y Blair was more comforting than one who was trying to strategize. Although hopeless some didn"t panic but instead fought back. Definitely better than the young wolves from before.
The Blood Wolf who looked to be the strongest was facing of against Blair. Dodging and attacking, almost like a fierce dance, Blair weaved closer and closer towards the wolf"s stomach. Once she had gotten directly beneath it she collected her slyphir, reinforcing her fist. With one punch Blair blew a huge hole through it. A shower of rain fell back onto the other soldiers. The huge wolf toppled to the side, it"s blood flowing and mixing with that of it"s companions. She went onto killing the other, weaker wolves.
The fighting continued when Zai saw a small group of three wolves slip out and were running towards the pack leader. Zai knocked the side of the tree he was on three times and a barrage of slyphir pierced the runaway wolves. Nothing would escape him. With the conduits set aside for picking off any stragglers there was nowhere the wolves could run to. Zai"s plan was coming to a close as the last few of the Blood Wolves died. Although he turned off his right comms to focus on the battle an urgent call would bypa.s.sed the call restrictions.
"L-lieutenant!" It was the scout leader.