A week had passed since the incident with the Flame-Maned Plains Runners. The foal that Yin'er named Star was following slightly behind Galaxy, its father, who Jin Shu named, and Sky, its mother, whom Su Bing named. There was a little tiger resting on Star's back, and Jin Shu and Su Bing were on the other horses' backs—Jin Shu on Galaxy, and Su Bing on Sky.
The rest of the herd was left behind for now. Jin Shu had promised to bring them with him when he returned from this journey to the Eastern Region.
Galaxy had decided to follow Jin Shu after it learned that Jin Shu's blood had made it stronger and given it wings. Although he was still a little mad that his once-beautiful, pure black coat of fur was now marred by specks of silver.
Jin Shu found it puzzling that the Living Metal gave Demonic Beasts special abilities, yet as far as he knew, it didn't give him any special abilities other than increasing his healing and allowing him to regrow limbs. He didn't know if the horses or Yin'er had those abilities, and he wasn't about to cut their limbs off to see.
Neigh!
Jin Shu was woken from his thoughts by Galaxy's neighing.
"Huh?" Jin Shu looked up and saw that they were about to cross a long bridge over a canyon. Except, Galaxy wasn't walking towards the bridge; he was walking to the edge of the canyon instead.
"Hey, you're not going to jump, are you?" Jin Shu asked Galaxy, as it was very fond of using its newfound powers at every given opportunity.
Snort!
Galaxy snorted and began running towards the edge of the canyon. Jin Shu had gotten used to Galaxy's various snorts and neighs and could kind of figure out their meaning now. This one translated to something along the lines of, Of course I am, dumbass!
Galaxy reached the edge of the canyon and jumped straight off.
"Ah! What are they doing!?" Su Bing shouted as she watched Jin Shu and Galaxy plummet over the edge of the canyon.
Neigh!
Sky neighed and shook her head in vexation. Unlike Galaxy and Star, she didn't want to consume Jin Shu's blood to gain a strange ability, although Galaxy and Star kept bugging her to try it.
"Woo!"
Neigh!
A loud shout and neigh echoed out from inside the canyon. Jin Shu and Galaxy came flying up from beneath the canyon, Galaxy with his silver wings extended from his back, and Jin Shu with his arms extended out to his sides, as his long hair blew out behind him in the wind.
As they flew around the canyon, the others crossed the bridge and waited for them on the other side.
As Galaxy flew further down the canyon, Jin Shu told him to go back. "Alright, we are getting pretty far away from the others. Let's turn back now."
Snort!
(Translation: No, fuck that! I'm having fun.)
Galaxy snorted in denial.
"Let's go ba—" Jin Shu was going to argue with him when he was interrupted by a scream that sounded like it echoed back from where they came from.
"Aaah!"
"Go back! That sounds like Su Bing!" he yelled hurriedly.
Galaxy spun around and flew as fast as he could back the way they came. It had originally taken them a few minutes to travel about five miles down the canyon, but it only took them about thirty seconds to make it back.
When they reached the bridge, they saw a pack of black wolves with bone spurs sprouting from their backs, surrounding their companions.
Su Bing was standing over Sky, who was lying on the ground with blood flowing from her flank and back legs, staining her white fur a gruesome red.
Yin'er was flying around a massive black wolf, occasionally diving down to swipe at it with her small claws, which tore into the wolf. However, she was too small to deal any real damage to it.
Star fired a beam from his forehead at a group of wolves, cutting two of them in half. However, Star ran out of Qi with that beam, evident from how his mane of dark red flames flickered and went out. This was a sign that a Flame-Maned Plains Runner's Qi had been completely used.
Galaxy dove down from above and landed on a wolf that had circled around Su Bing and was leaping towards Sky. The wolf was completely crushed flat under Galaxy's body, which weighed over two tons.
Jin Shu leapt off of Galaxy while pulling his M1911 from its holster and shouted to Su Bing, "What happened? Where did these wolves come from?"
Su Bing shouted back while fighting off two wolves, "They snuck up on us from the woods when we were waiting for you and Galaxy!"
Bang! Bang!
Jin Shu shot the two wolves attacking Su Bing and threw the Scorpion to her. "Here, use this!"
Su Bing caught the Scorpion and hurriedly loaded a round before firing it into a group of wolves pouring out of the forest a few yards away.
Psh! Psh! Psh!
There were at least twenty to thirty wolves surrounding them, and a constant stream of wolves continued to step out of the forest. Most of the wolves weren't Demonic Beasts, but Jin Shu counted about fifteen that he believed were Demonic Beasts.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
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He fired five more shots, emptying his mag into five of the bigger wolves that he thought were Demonic Beasts. Then he holstered his pistol and took out the FN 303 from his Space Ring.
He loaded a magazine of lethal rounds, then fired the first round. This one had Explosion Runes merged with Flame Runes covering every side. When the first round made it halfway to the largest group of wolves coming out of the forest, he fired the second round, which had a Qi Circulation Rune merged with Wind Runes to activate the first round when they struck in midair. In theory, this would create something like an air-burst grenade, which could be collected and reused later.
BOOM!
The rounds struck each other above the large group of wolves, causing a massive flaming explosion to consume them.
"Woah! That worked better than I thought it would!"
The explosion stunned the rest of the wolves, causing them to pause and stare at it for a moment.
Jin Shu put the FN 303 away and pulled his M1911 back out. He used this brief pause to look around the battlefield. Galaxy was rampaging through the wolves; his wings were cutting through them like a hot knife through butter, and he trampled those in front of him with his hooves. Star was lying next to his mother, Sky, in exhaustion, and Yin'er...
"Where's Yin'er!?" he shouted in a panic. He couldn't find her when he looked around. He remembered that she seemed to be flying around a massive wolf when he first arrived, but he didn't see that massive wolf anywhere either.
"I think I saw her chase that huge wolf into the forest!" Su Bing shouted as she shot at the wolves, who were no longer stunned.
"Fuck!" he yelled and started running towards where he saw Yin'er last.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
He shot three of the largest wolves as he ran.
When he made it to the edge of the forest, he heard a shout deeper in.
"Ah! Come back here, mean wolf!"
"Yin'er!" he shouted, but no reply came back. So, he rushed into the forest to find her.
He could hear Yin'er shouting occasionally as he ran.
"Bad wolf, you hurt Star's mommy! Yin'er is going to beat you up!"
By the volume of her shouts, it sounded as if he was catching up. Soon, he could see a massive black wolf with bone spurs jutting from its back, running away from a little flying silver tiger.
"Yin'er, come back here!" he shouted. Now that he was closer, Yin'er could hear him. She turned her head back and shouted in reply, "Daddy! Yin'er is going to beat up this bad wolf because he hurt Star's mommy!"
As Yin'er turned her head back, she couldn't find the massive wolf anymore. "Where did you go, bad wolf?" she asked, but no response came.
Jin Shu had seen the wolf duck behind a hill to circle around Yin'er, so he shouted, "Yin'er, look out! The wolf is behind you!"
He couldn't shoot it because he was afraid of hitting Yin'er, so he ran as fast as he could to get to her.
Awoo!
The wolf howled as it pounced on Yin'er from behind, knocking her out of the air with its paw, which was bigger than her entire body.
"Aaah!" she screamed in surprise and pain.
"Ah! Fuck! You fucking shitty wolf! Get off her!" Jin Shu yelled as he jumped on the wolf's back, throwing point-blank phoenix claws at its back.
Awoo!!!
The wolf howled in pain and rolled over to throw Jin Shu off its back.
Jin Shu fell and rolled off the wolf's back as it rolled over. He pulled his pistol out to shoot it, but it dove behind a tree, zigzagging through the trees so he couldn't get a clear shot at it. He looked back to check on Yin'er. She was lying on the ground with silver blood trickling out of her wings—they had been broken when the wolf pounced on her.
"Aaaa! Daddy! It hurts!" she cried.
"YIN'ER!!!" he shouted in distress as he ran to her side. He carefully picked her up and cradled her in his arms.
"Yin'er, you're going to be okay. I've got you now," he said, holding back tears in his eyes.
Awoo!
A howl came from behind him. He quickly ducked to the side as a huge claw passed where his head had just been.
Jin Shu looked back. A massive black wolf with broken bone spurs and singed fur stood above him. He stood up and started running to gain distance from the wolf.
"Aaa!" Yin'er yelped in pain as her broken wings were jolted when Jin Shu began running.
"I'm sorry, Yin'er. Just hold on for a moment." he said, trying to minimize how much her wings could move without hurting them more.
Awoo!
Awoo!
Two more wolves dove out from behind some trees. These ones weren't as big as the other one, but they were still much larger than any others that Jin Shu had seen so far.
He ducked one of their claws and took a claw to the back from the other one. "Ow! Shit!"
He braced himself so that he wouldn't fall and continued running.
He somehow managed to dodge the three wolves' attacks for a minute and could see the edge of the forest ahead.
Bang!
"Argh!" He was suddenly struck with another claw in the back. This one sunk deep into his flesh and caused him to lose his balance. He forcefully turned his back so he wouldn't land on Yin'er when he fell. That caused the claw in his back to rip a chunk of his flesh out.
Thud!
He fell on his back. Looking up, he could see the three wolves forming a semi-circle around him. The massive wolf with the broken bone spurs had a chunk of his flesh stuck on its claw.
The two smaller wolves crouched down and pounced toward him.
Thud!
Thud!
Suddenly, their bodies collapsed, landing next to him. He could see a bloody hole in each of their heads.
Awoo!
The massive wolf howled in pain as a bloody hole appeared in its chest. However, it was still alive. It hurriedly turned and fled back deeper into the forest.
Awoo!
It howled again in pain as another bloody hole appeared in its leg, and it continued to limp away, soon disappearing into the dark forest.
Jin Shu turned back to look at the edge of the forest to see Su Bing standing there holding the Scorpion. She was pulling the trigger, but only clicks came from the gun. She was out of ammo.
Click! Click!
"Stop pulling the trigger, you're out of ammo," he said while standing back up and limping toward her.
"Oh, right..." she said, her cheeks turning slightly red in embarrassment.
"What happened to Yin'er?" she asked worriedly as she saw Yin'er in Jin Shu's arms.
Jin Shu looked down to check on Yin'er. She had passed out, likely from the pain. However, her bleeding had stopped, and her wings were magically back in their correct positions.
"Phew!" Jin Shu sighed in relief.
"She was injured by that wolf that got away. Her wings were broken. However, it looks like the Living Metal healed her," he told Su Bing.
"The Living Metal?" she asked in confusion.
"Oh, it's what I call the metal in my veins." he answered, realizing he never told her what he called the metal in his blood.
"How's everyone else?" he asked as he didn't see the horses.
"Galaxy rampaged through the wolves until they retreated. Star exhausted his Qi, but I'm worried about Sky. She was attacked by that same massive wolf that hurt Yin'er, and her legs may be broken," she said worriedly.
They walked back out of the forest, and Jin Shu could see Star and Sky lying on the ground—one panting in exhaustion, the other panting in pain. Galaxy was standing protectively over them, keeping a lookout for more wolves.
Jin Shu hurried over to Sky. He pulled a blanket out from his ring and laid Yin'er on it. Then he checked Sky's wounds. The bleeding had almost stopped, but she had already lost a lot of blood. He could see her broken bones slightly poking from her back legs.
"She needs immediate treatment. However, I have no way to treat her," he said dejectedly.
Snort!
(Translation: Help her!)
Galaxy snorted anxiously.
"I think if I give her my blood, it should heal her," he said uncertainly.
Snort!
(Translation: Do it!)
Galaxy snorted hurriedly.
Jin Shu cut his hand and brought it in front of Sky's mouth. However, she had at some point passed out, likely from a combination of blood loss and pain.
Snort!
(Translation: Do something! Quickly!)
Galaxy snorted in a panic.
"Ah, I don't know how to feed it to her if she's unconscious," he said, slightly panicking as well.
"What if you pour it into her wound?" Su Bing asked hopefully.
"Oh, that could work!" Jin Shu exclaimed.
He moved to her hindquarters and poured his blood into her wounds directly.
After an uncertain amount of time had passed, Jin Shu had cut his hand multiple times and poured an unknown amount of blood into Sky's wound. It slowly began to close, and a silver glow emitted from her body.