8.

image [https://i.imgur.com/vSjJgu0.png]

Mother had once told me: ‘never fight anything that has more powerful abilities than you, unless you have a way to counter them.’ Abilities were king. To willingly fight someone or something who outclassed you was the height of foolishness and would solely lead to a fool’s death.

I could not get her words out of my head as the wolf’s fireball stole the duty of the sun and lit up the world. I did not move because there was no point in moving. There was only death.

Something yanked on my shoulder, and I was flung to the side—

‘Out of the way!’

Kite held his buckler with both hands. Watery maura shimmered around the shield, reflecting the firelight. My eyes went wide. He’s enhancing his shield with water maura. May was one thing but had everyone made enormous progress already?!

No one felt obligated to explain my question. The fireball roared. It was as wide as Kite if not wider, and it was almost comical to see the small shield clash with the ability.

Kite held. By all means he should’ve been roasted, yet he let out a gut-wrenching cry and flung the fireball to the side after it lost most of its momentum. It fizzled out before hitting the forest floor.

I blinked. There’s no way he should have been able to block that…

‘Quit staring!’ Jax yelled. ‘Help me!’

The boy was holding off two wolves. One of which was the beast Kite had dropped to save me. I shook myself awake and rushed towards Jax.

A quick glance told me May and Lynne were fighting for dear life in the back, keeping the two flanking lupine at bay. But they would be alright.

The problem was—I turned. More fire was gathering in the alpha’s jaw. This time the gathering maura felt significantly more thick and powerful. It had underestimated Kite and would not do so again.

‘I can only block one more!’ Kite said.

Thank the heavens for that. If we could dispatch of at least one more wolf before the alpha released its blast, we had a serious chance at surviving this.

The opportunity arrived when Jax screamed. One of the lupine lunged and planted its fangs in his thigh. Jax swung his mace on instinct, swatting the other in-flight wolf out of the air, then he struck the gnawing beast in the head. It let go. Its movements had grown sluggish from the battering. But the blow had not killed it since Jax couldn’t generate the necessary force from that close a distance.

I was on it, however. I almost tackled the beast as I rammed my daggers into its back. I prepared to attack again but leaned backwards when I saw movement in the corner of my eye. Jax’s mace swung down in front of my face and smashed the beast’s spine.

The passing wind generated by the swing ruffled the loose strands of my hair. I glanced to the side. That had been too close. An inch off and he would’ve smashed my head in as well.

‘Watch out!’ Jax said.

I jumped back without looking, and the wolf’s claws barely missed me.

‘I’ve got this!’ I said. ‘Go help May and Lynne!’

None of us could help Kite after all.

He did not argue and wobbled over immediately.

The wolf watched Jax go, then gave me all of its attention. It tried to circle me. But screw that. Time was short, so instead of measuring distance, I simply forced my way into the wolf’s range, powering my legs as I had done before.

I had less energy to work with this time, which made me slower, yet it also increased the number of attacks I had in me.

My blades whined as I chased down the wolf. It weaved between my strikes, edging closer towards the fight with May. I bit my lip. I couldn’t hit it no matter what I tried. That. And the strength I was using to enhance my legs was quickly disappearing. I didn’t have another big leap in me, which was what I needed for a sure kill.

A shrill cry echoed in the back, one of the wolves, and my target’s head whipped towards the noise. I grinned. Gotcha. I pooled my remaining maura and spent it all at once. I launched forwards. Not quite fast enough to make my vision blur, but that was alright. Meant I could aim the blow better.

The wolf jerked in place and quickly hopped out of the way. I tried to readjust mid-flight, but the minute movement was enough to stop me from killing it, and the puncturing blow I had aimed at its throat hit the eye instead.

The organ burst like an overripe egg, and the beasts’s cries joined that of its kin as it fell to ground, squirming and wallowing in its suffering.

‘Ah!’

That was not a beastly scream. I whirled around—

And lost my breath.

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I can only block one more, Kite had said. Somewhere deep down, I had assumed that another fireball was the sole attack the alpha was capable off. That was the furthest thing from the truth, I realised now. It could just tear Kite limb from limb if it wanted to with its claws. And while it had not chosen to do so, it had picked a more wicked option.

Its pride hurt that a mere novice had blocked its ability, the alpha wolf had taken its time to charge up more, intense flames. Flames, which it spewed out like a flamethrower.

Kite’s burning, darkened silhouette was barely visible within the stream of flames gushing from the alpha’s mouth.

‘Help! He—’ Kite wailed.

I couldn’t move. I only watched in horror as his cries became softer and softer, until they vanished altogether—like a candle flame in a storm, as Elder Sui had said. He flailed around and fell. First to his knees. Then, flat on the ground. The beast did not quit its breath of fire when Kite was so obviously dead. It slowly stepped closer and closer, till its mouth was right above Kite’s charred corpse. If I did not imagine it, it was grinning.

My elbows pressed into my side in an attempt to make myself small. I watched the entire thing unfold, yet at the end I couldn’t guess how long it had taken. When the alpha finished, there was nothing left of Kite but ash.

Parts of the undergrowth of the forest had caught fire, their peaks grazing the bark of the trees beside them. The alpha looked up and faced me. Disgusting pride filled its fiery eyes, a sea of flames and destruction surrounding it.

I took a step back. The ash blackened the air, and through the smog, I could smell roasting pig.

There was another shout of pain behind me. I couldn’t get myself to whip my head around. Instead, I slowly turned as if I expected to see nothing but a passing car.

May had fallen. One of the wolves—the other was dead—had gouged out part of her calf. Gazing beyond, I saw the retreating backs of Jax and Lynne. They had abandoned us.

That was it. We were dead. We had tried our luck, and fate had found it wanting. The sense of calm that overtook me at that realisation was strange. I did not cry or shout for my mother, who would not come and save me. Rather, I silently sheathed my daggers, swayed backwards and collapsed against a nearby tree.

I glanced at the overgrown alpha wolf. It glanced back at me. This time I was sure it was smiling and salivating. It could’ve left Kite intact so it could eat him. But I understood why it hadn’t. This thing did not kill for dinner—but for sport.

In the back of my mind, I heard my inner me yell. Get up. Fight back! There was no point. May and I couldn’t fight it. Neither could I run. Not even if I abandoned all my honour and discarded May like the others had done. My maura was depleted, and the strength in my legs had finally evaporated completely. All that fighting had made them as weak as a blade of grass.

The one solace was that I knew for certain Lynne and Jax were dying, too. Their situation hadn’t changed from the start. The wolves would chase them down after they were done with us.

In front of me, the lupine I’d injured finally recovered from its shock of pain and stood up. It growled and glared at me with its singular eye. That would not be a painless death. Guess it was payback for the fox.

I considered slitting my own throat and ending it quickly. But something stopped me. An instinct, maybe. I at least wanted to feel alive with pain when I died.

I was about to close my eyes, but May was screaming.

Not because she was hurting, I saw. She was still laying on the ground. The lone lupine left on her side of the battle lunged for her repeatedly, but the girl would have none of it. Gritting her teeth, she swung her blade again and again, forcing the beast back when it wanted to go in for the kill. Her entire weight and being were behind those strikes. So much so that she overswung repeatedly, and her red hair tumbled everywhere. But when she crashed to the floor, she fought to push herself off as quick as she could and prepared for another strike.

My shallow breathing caught in my throat. There was a ferocity there more primal and animal than any of the beasts surrounding us.

She wasn’t dying. If she was, she would do so fighting.

May’s visage riled something within me that I didn’t know existed. I unsheathed my daggers again. The wolf I’d injured was about to rush me. It stopped.

I did not speak but the pose of my body said it all. Not you, I said. Unless you want to die. I wasn’t dying to a beast as weak as this. If it wanted to live through this, it better call the alpha to finish the job for it.

It snarled. The hate and rage it felt were so palpable they rippled over its fur. Yet it didn’t take another step.

A harsh and sharp sound came from my left. The alpha snorted. It had waited to give the kill to the smaller wolf but moved forward itself now that the lesser lupine had shown its cowardice. It closed the distance, opening its wide maw so it could devour me in a single bite.

‘Screw you,’ I said weakly.

I threw one of my daggers. My aim was steady. The dagger would’ve planted itself to the hilt in its socket if the beast didn’t swipe it out of the air.

The alpha lupine chuckled.

Fine, it said, and flames built within its maw.

I smirked. It felt like a victory. That feeling quickly went up in smoke when light flashed and heat raced towards me—

An explosion of sound burst my eardrums as a blur sped past my side, and the enveloping heat vanished before I could scream as Kite did.

What?

My eyes whirred around. The alpha was gone. The injured lupine before me howled, and I followed its gaze. Two large shadows were engaged in a tug of war between broken trees.

I frowned. Huh?

Flames flashed to life, and I saw the alpha’s face for a split second. I didn’t catch the other. But the body was long and sinuous and wrapped around the alpha like a snake.

It must’ve hid in the forest behind me, waiting for an opportunity to strike, I realised.

The alpha whined as it struggled to free itself. I didn’t think it was going to win. Neither did the smaller wolf in front of me from the way it was slinking back.

This time when my inner me yelled for me to get up, I struggled to my feet, using my dagger as a prop.

The wolf watched me, its snout whirring between me and its leader. It was stuck in indecision. Should it help the alpha or finish me off?

‘Hesitation is defeat,’ I said, remembering an old quote my mother had told me years ago.

It could not understand me, of course, so it didn’t help it decide.

I brandished my dagger, and the metal gleamed in the surrounding firelight. Then, I crouched, lowering my centre of mass.

The beast cowered. Its legs were shaking.

‘Strike true,’ I advised. ‘You won’t get another opportunity.’

My voice fizzled out into the crackling fires and burning leaves. I inhaled the stench of overcooked pig and waited. Moments passed before the beast came to a decision, but the wolf’s legs steadied, and its singular eye fixated on me. It charged.

Whether I could’ve dodged the assault and killed it would remain a mystery: a streak of metal soared into my line of sight, piercing the lupine’s flank and pinning it to the forest floor. The beast howled and flailed helplessly. I glanced to the side, where a heaving May lay with an outstretched hand. She was grinning madly. Beside her lay a dead lupine.

While the pinned wolf was singing its death throes, I retrieved my dagger that the alpha had swiped away. Then, I wrenched the sword out of the fresh corpse and returned to May’s side.

The alpha was still locked in a terrible struggle when I propped myself underneath May’s shoulder. Neither one of us said anything as we limped out into the dark forest.

We were not out of the woods yet. Not until we arrived home.