Before anyone could react, both Noone and Sarah were covered in blue haze.
Initially Noone’s face fell and he began to circulate his energy faster, unsure of what was happening. Out of the corner of his eye he could see that Sarah had glanced backwards but otherwise didn’t react to the light.
Noone focused his divine sense behind him and saw the same blue light emanating from Sally’s palm. Raelith stood protectively in front of Sally while she focused on casting.
“I see…” Noone thought. He easily flicked both axes, testing his muscles. Although only by a bit, Noone was able to sense that his movements had quickened. He was already insanely fast for his cultivation level due to the sheer amount of strength he could exert, but now Noone felt like his body was in the top condition. Evidently Sarah must have been feeling the same thing.
Ten direwolves had already rushed out into the road and were only a split second away from crashing into them. Sarah's eyes were steady and without hesitation she stepped forward jabbing the heavy end of her weapon directly into front most beast.
The direwolf seemed surprised by the sudden advance and quickly moved its head to the side. However, the bladed mace-end of Sarah’s weapon struck into the wolf’s chest. She grit her teeth and firmly planted her back foot into the ground.
Using the wolf’s momentum, she stood her ground forcing the wolf to impale itself onto the end before tossing it to the side.
Noone watched Sarah, amused by her vigor. However, he didn’t take his eyes off the wolves heading for him. Compared to Sarah, Noone was almost twice as massive. However, his weapons were short and sharp compared to hers long blunt range. This meant he had to get in close to attack.
Noone sent energy coursing through his body, fueling his movement and expanding his sight to its limits. Trying to internalize all the wolves’ movements caused a slight throb in his head, but it was nothing he couldn’t stave off for a while.
One axe swept cleanly forward, coming straight down from above. The wolves in front of him seemed shocked by his speed, it didn’t even have a chance to dodge to the side before its brain was split in half by the immense force and sharpened edges of Noone’s axe.
Noone swiftly pulled his axe out, lifting the wolf’s body in the process.
Instead of tossing the wolf to the side, he was quick in leveling a kick at the wolf's chest, sending it flying back into the pack causing them to slow down and scatter out of the way.
Behind him, Feylin couldn’t help but grimace as he watched. "How brutal..." He mumbled to himself. Yet he was unable to tear his eyes away.
Noone's eyes were clear and expressionless as he watched each move the wolves made, planning his next step. Just like when he had fought the epoch tribesman, Noone could feel a cool soothing energy overcome his mind, cruelty and calculation easily suppressed any other feelings.
A red flash caught Noone’s attention and he glanced at Sarah. The corpse of the wolf he had kicked back lightened the attacks Sarah was facing, giving her just enough time to summon her chains.
Unlike the blue chains she had summoned before, her chains now glowed with a red light. Noone immediately recognized the energy emanating off of them and could tell that they were tinged with the power of her god.
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Like poisonous brambles, the chains shot forward in a radius from her and snaked along the ground, ensnaring the wolves’ paws and causing them to slow down even further. Sarah’s mind was calm as two sharpened ends of the chains began to shoot towards the closest wolf.
It tried to jump away, but the red chains on the ground wrapped around its paws causing it to lose balance. It did not have enough time to react before the chains pierced through its heart. The wolf collapsed to the earth immediately.
Noone managed to tear his eyes away and did not hesitate to move even further forward taking care of any wolves Sarah did not ensnare. It wouldn’t be long, he thought, before the wolves tried to circumvent her entirely out of fear. On top of that, he wasn’t sure how long she could maintain such a spell.
His axes swung at an incredible speed, whistling through the air before embedding themselves in the thick hides of the direwolves’ fur and muscles.
Noone fought to cause as much chaos as he could, to disorganize the pack and keep them from rushing towards the party all at once.
Three wolves collapsed, dead where they had stood. Then four. Then five. One wolf after the next were killed by the axe-wielding Noone. However, there was only one of him and dozens of wolves. Even if he was able to kill them in one hit if he was lucky, he couldn’t keep others from circling around behind him.
There was a sharp snap of a wolf’s jaw shutting closed only and inch from his ankle. Noone grit his teeth, barely having the time to lift his foot out of the way. Even with his immense strength, Noone wasn’t sure if he would be able to walk off a bite to the ankle from one of these monsters. At worst it might have shattered it, making him turn useless while surrounded by wolves.
Suddenly a blue light flashed by Noone’s body. An axe similar to Noone’s own imbedded itself into the flank of the wolf that had just tried to take a bite out of him. It lifted up on its own and then struck down again, this time higher up on the spine.
Noone had just enough time to look back at Feylin, who was standing next to Sally behind Rae. He made eye contact with Feylin for a split second before needing to return to the wolves at hand. He had recognized the blue floating axe immediately. It was Feylin’s weapon he could summon. Noone had seen it before when Sarah and Feylin would spar.
Noone wasn’t sure what to think about the sudden help, however he wasn’t of a mind to complain either.
Up the road a little ways, several dozen wolves dashed across the path and then darted down towards the cart in an attempt to circumvent Noone and Sarah.
“Rae.” Tobias said, glancing up the road at the oncoming wave of beasts.
“Got it.” Her singsong voice replied. Like a weightless wood-sprite Rae dashed forward on the balls of her feet, almost skipping with each step.
There was no hesitation as she rushed directly into the middle of the group. Her spear danced across the thick wolf hides with ease, cutting cleanly through their soft joints.
Tobias watched on like a hawk, eyes still focused out into the dark forest.
Suddenly and without warning, a wolf’s howl rushed across the party. It was so loud that it could shatter a normal person’s ear-drums, lifting dirt from the road and causing the leaves and branches of the nearby trees to shake.
Like a general’s command, every surviving direwolf dashed back within the tree line, disappearing into the night.
Noone and Sarah looked on stunned. What?
The growling and whimpers, the padding of paws, and the rush of blood creating a cacophony of noise within the minds of everyone present disappeared just as quickly as it had come. Now only the subtle sounds of exhausted breathing could be heard.
Everything had changed within a split second, and it left them feeling disorientated.
Sarah continued to stand in a field of red chains and bloodied corpses, waiting for another wave to come. Even Noone stood with his weapons poised, watching the trees. They couldn’t believe how quickly the wolves had disappeared…
“It’s over.” Tobias spoke, sighing. “It’s over Noone. Sarah. Don’t worry. Direwolf packs exist into the hundreds. What we fought was only a small contingent. They deemed that we were too troublesome to fight in full force, so their leader called them back.”
Noone stared at the paladin.
Eventually the group’s nerves calmed, and they went about gathering the corpses of the thirty to fourty direwolves they had killed. Noone took the time to clean his axes which had become gunked with blood and flesh.
He glanced towards the forest but said nothing. It seemed that in this world events like this just came and went as quickly as a breeze.
“But…” Noone thought. “Why do I still feel like we are being watched…?”