章 22: Redirection
His heart rate increased brutally. At the same time, he thought about who had sent him there. So the senior also thinks that I can face them. Or he just wants to trap me. Anyway, now was not the time to think about that.
The beasts took their time and slowly walked toward him. An afterglow of their type, perhaps. Normal wolves generally prefer to attack fleeing preys. Moss was divided between fear and excitation. With his new abilities, challenging the senior brother was still out of question but what about these? He needed to take the initiative to avoid being attacked from multiple directions, however, and chose to go for the two on the stairs. They were more numerous but their footing was of lesser quality. Moreover, their huge size would interfere with their coordination in such a tiny space.
The commoner used a normal running pace to do so, in an attempt to use a burst to surprise them. For a moment he thought about hitting one directly, but soon changed his mind. Indeed, his improved speed could increase his striking power, but his body would probably not sustain the shock. He would end up breaking every bone in his arm. The way to go was redirection.
At the precise moment he entered their range, one of the wolfs jumped at him in an aggressive bark. Tremendously fast. But not as much as Elehago's stones. Moss used redirection to move away from its trajectory, then redirection again to ram into the beast. Those quick inversions made him move weirdly and unpredictably. His goal was not to hit but to establish contact. When his hands did, the wolf twisted in mid-air in an attempt to face him. That proved useless. Weight shift. The kinetic energy load switched direction and the wolf went crashing against the handrail, smashed trough it and fell on the ground floor in a squeak, amidst the barks of his mates.
The two others had leapt at the instant they saw their brother begin to fly out. Moss got out the way and let them bump into each other. He was still calm and focused. They did not take long to pull themselves together but he did not let that moment go to waste. Blind. The sunlight was not intense in the room so he had to recruit it on a wide range to achieve a useful effect. He could not cast more than one of those ray at a time though. The one wolf he had targeted stumbled in confusion and shook his head. The other approached more prudently and tried to bite him. Clever. They had understood that he could use their large movements against them, so they adapted. But when his foe faced him like that, Moss could also blind him easily. And he did.
It was now clear that defeating these beasts was still not within his ability, but the fight was more balanced. He immediately left his two assailants and ran for the main door. The wolf that had fallen met him at the bottom of the stairs. Moss used blind again, but as he attempted to get passed the beast, the beast swept the space in front of him with his forefoot. That move connected and tore the commoner's skin in a long line from the left of his belly to the right of his waist. The wound was superficial but sensing that, the beast immediately followed up with a bite. Moss was already over the handrail, however. Getting out of the stairs was the safest route to take. That was quite a jump but impacts were, in fact, a valuable resource for him. His feet made almost no sound when they connected with the ground. A huge force suddenly pushed him towards the opened doors. Moss had never experienced such a strong acceleration, excepted when diving from a cliff. He failed to maintain his balance and ended up rolling outside of the building. He was soon on his feet, however, and immediately activated his floating step to close the distance between him and the common parts.
-'Lauren!' He yelled. 'Open the doors!'
Faster and faster. But his energy depleted accordingly. There were a hundred meters between the two entrances. The girl had heard the barks and already stood by the doors. Behind him, the wolfs erupted out of the building. He soon reached her, but when he turned around, he realized that they had given no chase. They just stood there, side by side, looking at them. The one that had fallen from the stairs licked his side.
The girl had a horrified look at the blood that darkened the commoner's clothes.
-'Are you alright?!'
-'It's fine.' He wheezed. 'Nothing serious.'
A bit farther, Elhego stood with his hands in his back, not uttering a word. The wolfs looked at them for a few more seconds and unhurriedly took their leave.
-'It seems that we are done with them for today...'
-'Just go wash your wounds. I will have a look after that. Hurry!'
She seemed relieved, yet angry, so Moss did as he was bid.
-'And you.' She shouted to the senior brother. 'Go to hell!'
The door slammed behind them. The commoner could not help but comment.
-'He is our senior, should you not...'
-'Shut up!'
The sister looked straight before her.
-'For a moment I believed that you had died in there.'
That made him realize how she must have felt, hearing the battle from afar while knowing what he was dealing with.
-'Sorry...'
He could only say this stupid word. As he looked at her, his eyes caught a glister on her cheek. He stopped.
-'Hey, it's alright. I am here. Come'.
She hugged him and put her face against his shoulder. Eventually, the girl had a small laugh.
-'You don't know what you like, huh? You're despite all this cultivation thing, you are still a tiny old man. You make me worry too much.'
-'I am old, you know. It does not really matter if I die. I already lived enough.'
-'No, it does matter. I rely on you. I care for you. We are mates. It is not fine at all.'
She passed her hands on her cloth where they had touched his. They came back red with blood.
-'Look at that...'
He put his hand on her shoulder and smiled.
-'Let this old man take care of himself. On the evening I will be perfectly fine. I will even make dinner. Come on, put a smile on that face.'
She tried to.
-'Let's go.' She finally said. 'I will let that one slide, but now we only venture outside together. Understood?'
-'yes.'
Who was young, who was old, nobody knew anymore.
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