Capítulo 33: Fight in the Forest
Getting down from the tree, I walked back to the stream to find the pawprints. Locating the prints, I followed them west towards the mountain. After a bit of walking, I heard a cascade of rustling and twig snapping. Looking over to the source of all the noise I saw a herd of rock deer and, to my displeasure, there were over 40 members. On top of this, they were rushing through the forest with wide eyes, clearly showing their panic. Cursing, I looked for a place to hide. Provoking a panicked animal is a good way to get your hand bitten off or, in this case, getting pierced by rocky antlers. Annoyingly, the trees around me had all their lower branches snapped off, possibly due to the deer often using this area. However, there was a large rhododendron bush nearby, which I pushed my way inside, ignoring the scratches on my face. Balancing awkwardly inside the bush, I looked through the gaps in the leaves to watch the stampede of deer run past.
They were all passing on the northern side of my rhododendron, running to the east. As I watched, I saw flashes of vibrant colour within the forest behind the deer. Focusing my attention on them, I saw a group of 5 large, healthy elemental wolves chasing the heard. To my surprise, the group contained different species; two wind wolves, one water wolf, and one fire wolf. If all the rock deer stood together, they could easily repel five wolves, but they weren't intelligent enough to work that out. As the last of the deer were passing me, the fire wolf used fire manipulation to create a wall of fire splitting off a few deer from the rest of the group. Both of the wind wolves, who were on the north side of the small deer group, ran south, causing the five deer stopped by the fire to also run south. Observing the wind wolves, I noticed they had used their magic to increase their speed, making them much faster than the deer. The wind wolves moved to the east of the five deer, where they split up. One of them ran even faster, moving in front of the deer, while the other remained where they were. Once they were in place, both wolves produced a mana-infused howl, shocking the deer and making them stop. While they were stationary, the other wolves caught up and attacked. The fire wolf created a ring of fire to trap the deer, while the water wolf created a number of thin water spears. The high-pressure spears shot into the ring of fire, piercing every deer. Because the deer were distracted by the fire (which was actually too far away to do much harm), they could not respond at all to the sudden attack. After only one barrage, all the deer inside the ring of fire were dead.
After the deer were all dead, the fire wolf dismissed the ring, before rushing towards the deer and starting to eat one. 'That was... extremely fast' I thought. Wolves are quite intelligent, but I didn't know they were intelligent enough to induce fear into the deer to make them stay still. The original fire wall was very hot, so the deer didn't jump through it, whereas the ring of fire was substantially cooler, but the wolf cast it with a large enough diameter that the deer didn't discover the difference. Watching them dig in, I thought about how I should attack them. 'They have just completed a hunt so they have used some mana and stamina, and they are currently distracted. Luckily for me, I am still downwind of them.' I thought before trying to sneak closer. The rhododendron I escaped from made a bit of noise, but the wolves didn't seem to notice. As I walked as close as I could, I picked my target. The water wolf was the closest to me, and had its back to me. I might not be able to kill it in one hit, but I should be able to inflict quite a heavy injury. Completing my initial plan, I broke cover and ran for the wolves.
Arriving beside the blue wolf's back right leg, I swung, aiming to cut it off. I could have done an overhead swing onto its spine, but that would leave me more exposed after my attack, and could result in less bleeding. Contrary to my expectations, the wolf could react in time. It pivoted on its front legs, spinning its hindquarters away from my sword. However, I jumped forward again, chasing it. However, instead of hitting my target, my sword dug into its side, leaving a long cut on its side between its leg and ribs. The wolf, after finishing its spin, jumped towards me with its mouth open. Steadying my sword, I held it directly infront of me and moved to pierce the wolf's forehead. However, before I could get there, a wind blade hit the side of my blade, pushing it off target. Annoyed, I moved my sword into a reverse grip and mobed the hilt infront of my chest with the blade to the left of my shoulder. Moving slightly to avoid the wolf's mouth, its shoulder hit the flat of my blade, pushing it into my shoulder. Picking my legs off the ground, I used the impact to move towards the fire wolf. It was preparing a breath attack, which I needed to stop. Swinging my sword at its head, it chose to cancel its attack and jump backwards. Breath attacks require a few seconds of mana gathering, and if the mana is disturbed too much, by movement or something else, it can explode inside whatever was trying to use it, so the wolf had to safely discharge its mana if it wanted to survive. However, I was slightly confused by its decision to jump backward, if it jumped to the side it could make a second attack very quickly. Then I realized why. There were still two other wolves in the group.
Both wind wolves seemed to be specialized in self-augmentation spells, which was good for me. If they were specialized in wind blades, it would be much harder to defend against. When they got close enough, they both swiped at me with their claws, using wind magic to extend their reach. Picking up my sword with both hands, I rotated my bodyand hit one of the wolves' attack from the side, knocking it towards the other. The two paws collided, their magic interfering with one another, causing the attack's power to decrease significantly. I kept twisting my body, moving my left arm to my left side, narrowly avoiding one of the paws, whilst the paw that I had previously intercepted hit me on the chest. Due to the angle of the attack, it slid of my chestplate, causing minimal damage. Sadly, as I had already used my built up momentum to redirect the wolf's attack, my hand only lightly tapped the side of the wolf as it went past.
After missing me, the two wind wolves had been pushed into each other. Whilst trying to separate, they tripped themselves up and fell to the floor. I didn't want to waste this chance, but before I could get close enough, a number of fireballs approached me from behind, accompanied by a few water spears from infront of me. I say 'spears' but their shape is more like ice shards, an long ellipse with pointy ends. If the fireballs hit me, I would be pushed back rather than hurt, but if the water spears hit me, I might be in trouble depending on whether they pierce my armour. As I could be in danger if I kept getting attacked from two directions, I moved out of the attacks, away from the wind wolves. The magical barrage didn't follow me, but they did avoid the wind wolves who were still struggling on the ground. 'Good for me if they can't work together' I thought quickly before refocusing on the magic specialized wolves. They had moved away from me and towards each other, so their assault would be mixed together and come from one side. Between me and them were the two wind wolves, but there was no way I could get close enough to them through their combined barrage. Giving me no more time to think, the wolves created a multitude of balls of their respective elements. Using the size of the attacks (each ball was about 20cm in diameter) they forced me further backwards, until the fire wolf suddenly stopped attacking me. When the fire wolf stopped, the water balls suddenly started changing their directions slightly every so often. However, even with this more advanced attack, there were less attacks so I was gaining ground and had attention to spare, so I focused on what the fire wolf was doing. Looking over, I saw it growling at the two wind wolves entangled on the ground. 'So that's what they're doing' I thought. They were slowing me down while they got the others back on their feet. When it was just the fire and water wolves attacking, I could drain their mana and then land a decisive blow because neither of them were close-combat specialized. As I watched the exchange between the fire and wind wolves, I noticed that the wind wolves were submissive to the fire wolf. 'They are probably inexperienced' I realised. If they were experienced, I wouldn't be able to win against the cooridinated attacks of the four wolves, so I was quite lucky. 'If I can force them to make another mistake, I should be able to finish one of the wind wolves' I planned. I wasn't going to run away just yet.
After the wind wolves got up, they split up, going to either side of me, while the fire and water wolves combined their barrage once again, and the water wolf switched back to spear attacks. To defend agaisnt the barrage, I would try to avoid most of the fireballs, because they were hard to counter, while intercepting the necessary the water spears with my sword. However, due to the nature of fire attacks and the extended of time I had to operate at my peak I was sweating profusely and was starting to feel exhausted. If my stats weren't quite a bit higher than these wolves I might've died already. I can easily understand why they left this request to me, if the wolves are this strong. One of them was already strong enough to defeat a few knights, let alone all four of them fighting together. Suddenly, a claw attack flashed towards me. 'Stupid! Don't get distracted!' As I had been fighting the barrage for a while, I could defend against it without paying too much attention, which lulled me into my own thoughts, where I completely forgot about the approaching wind wolves. Twisting my blade, I parried the attack. As my strength was higher, I wasn't pushed back, but the attack did disrupt my defense from the barrage, and a fireball scorched my leg, reducing my mobility 'How much mana do these wolves have?!' I cursed to myself. Most monsters would have already run out of mana the way they were attacking. Before I could think of any more remarks, the other wind wolf swiped at my back. Grimacing at the pain from my leg, I knelt down, letting the attack fly over me. As I looked back to the magic focused wolves, I saw them stop their barrage. I hoped they had finally finished their mana reserves, but I didn't have much time to speculate as the wind wolf in front of me bit toward my head. Ignoring the protests from my leg, I forward rolled out of the attack, before getting up and stabbing my sword into the wolf's shoulder. The wolf yelped in pain as its white fur was tainted scarlet by its own blood. However, before I had a chance to celebrate, the other wolf clawed me. Luckily my armour was strong enough to hold against the wolf's attack, if it wasn't I would be missing a shoulder right now. I pulled my blade out of the wolf, and turned to slash the other wolf across the face. However, it copied my earlier move and ducked under the attack, before scratching at my upper chest. As my leg was damaged, I couldn't dodge the attack and waited for the impact. Once I felt it on my chest I knew something was wrong. These wolves have four claws, so why am I only feeling three impacts? Confused, I looked down at my body, only to see my blood pouring out of my arm. 'My rerebrace!' I cursed. I had forgotten that I was missing a piece of armour. I could only feel three impacts as the fourth one was sliding through my flesh meeting little resistance. Luckily, as the other claws didn't reach far enough, I didn't loose my arm. As I looked back to the wolf in front of me, I reversed the direction of my sword to swing back at its head. Then the pain hit me. "AGGGHHHHHH" I screamed. The pain was ridiculous. You never would have expected something that looked so smooth to hurt so much. Biting down hard to close my mouth, I knew I had to escape quickly. If I didn't get this injury healed quickly my control of my left arm might be damaged permanently. I activated Light Blade to extend my reach and quickly finish this but before I could press the attack, an explosion detonated next to me. Steam filled my vision and blistered my skin, and I couldn't believe the conclusion I came to. "Group... Casting?" I mumbled, looking toward the fire and water wolves. Group casting is the name given to spells that require any more than one person to cast. They range from massive magics using over 500 people to obliterate enemies in distant places to small groups of three or four to deal more damage. Large group magics are often one spell casted many times and then brought together and controlled as one spell, whereas small group magics combine multiple affinities of magic. They need a group as you need an enormous amount of control over every element involved in the group magic, so if one person tried to do it by themselves, the spell would become unstable and hurt the caster. However, this attack was executed brilliantly.
The steam cleared quickly, showing me the view of the two wind wolves surrounded by a wind barrier. 'Damn... The fire wolf probably told them the plan when they talked to each other' I thought, tensing my muscles through the pain. I had lost almost all feeling in my left arm, I could only feel a strange cold pervading my limb. My face was blistered and peeling from the sudden heat, my ears were bleeding from the sudden pressure change. The spell the wolves cast was a steam explosion, a water and fire group magic that is extremely effective in a small area. My light blade was still active, and I knew I couldn't waste any more time. I swung my sword once again, ignoring the screams of all my muscles. The wolf in front of me that had damaged my arm tried to dodge backward by jumping, but it still couldn't escape the reach of my sword. I watched in grim satisfaction as my sword bit into the wolf's neck. Looking around me, I saw the water wolf preparing to cast more water spears. Knowing my time was limited, I spun towards the wolf I had stabbed in the shoulder, and swung at it a few times with my extended blade. It had been moving away ever since I had injured it, and my sword only cut it a few times on the ribs.. It was easy to do multiple cuts because even though the blade grew in length dramatically, its weight did not change, so the tip of the light blade moved at very high speeds. I activated the other skill of my sword to keep my body functioning. 'Holy Light!' I thought. Instantly, a relieving, cooling feeling spread throughout my body. Holy Light heals minor wounds and numbs pain, while temporarily increasing all your stats, at the cost of a backlash after a few minutes. Now moving without the horrific pain, I jumped towards the wolf I had stabbed in the shoulder, away from the water wolf. The wind wolf jumped away from me, trying to get out of my path. Without changing direction, I gave it a deep cut in its side. I would have kept attacking if not for a sharp pain in my side. Looking back at the water wolf, I knew what had happened. While I wasn't defending myself, I had been hit by a water spear. It hadn't pieced my armour, but had dented it. This meant that Holy Light wouldn't help, as it would keep healing the bruise or light cut caused by the misshapen armour, but it couldn't fix the armour itself. Recognizing the dire state I was in, I ran into the forest, defending myself from the last few water spears.
After running with all I had for a few minutes, I knew Holy Light was going to end soon, so I had to take a break. As soon as I stopped, I used my right hand to release the metal clips on the inside of my chestplate. When I had first got the armour, I thought that the clips were a terrible design choice, as they weakened the armour quite a bit. But now I was very grateful to the clips, as they let me remove my dented armor without having to take it off normally. Sitting down against a tree, I removed the armour on my left arm, and searched through my spacial artefact for bandages and a few potions. I gritted my teeth and cleaned my wound with alcohol, before pouring some blood clotting potion on it. I then wrapped it as tightly as I could with a bandage, tying it off with my teeth. Then I noticed something odd. Whenever I moved my head, I heard a weird crackling sound and felt like I had two layers of skin that were scratching each other. Pinching my cheek, I realized what it was. Slowly, I peeled off a burnt layer of skin from my face. After removing it, I looked at it in perverse fascination before crushing it and throwing it away. 'That was horrible' I thought, before investigating the rest of my body. Remembering the water wolf's last attack, I twisted my head to try and look at my back. And, to my horror, below my ribs was a large hole in my clothes. Twisting more, I saw that I had a hole in my back, which looked ghastly and unreal as it was slimy, but not bleeding. I realized I still had my abdominal muscles tensed, which I made sure to not relax. I knew I couldn't repair a hole like that with what I had on me, but I had to act fast before Holy Light ran out. Making my decision. I used my second magic affinity to create a flame on my finger. Gritting my teeth, I burnt my insides shut. I'm suprised I didn't crack a tooth with how much force I bit down with. Finally finished, I relaxed my muscles. Blood instantly leaked from the burn, and I knew I couldn't stay like this for long. Then, finally, Holy Light's backlash hit me. I became dizzy from the pain, my arms dropping to the ground. "I.. have.. to... go... back.." I mumbled with a mouth that felt like it was stuffed with cotton wool. I felt so comfortable on this tree root, but I knew what awaited me if I went to 'sleep' here. It was so enticing, like a warm, soft bed in the cold winter... Punching my injured arm, I jolted myself awake with the pain, before storing my items into my spacial artefact and staggering back towards town.
REFLEXIONES DE LOS CREADORES 
Sqwidge
Sqwidge Wow. This got long. I try to write enough detail into my fight scenes so you can easily visualize what is happening, but is it too much? Would you prefer less information in future fight scenes? Please comment your opinions, or you forfeit your right to complain!
p.s. Wow I use 'However' a lot.
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