Val was totally spent after that strike, his soul weapon, dissipating right afterwards but now wasn't the time to rest, he made his way over to the wolf that trapped Noah under it's body, and turned it over, pulling up his friend from under it
"The rest of the pack should be here soon and I definitely know I don't have enough in me to face 6 more wolves of that standard so let's get the hell out of here"
Val commented as he ripped out Noah's Kali sticks from the wolf corpse intending to use for himself. Noah picked up the other and tossed Val one of the daggers he had on hand, the other was strapped to his right leg for easy access
"Alright brother, follow me carefully"
And thus the two youths started yet another race to escape from the pursuit of the wolf pack
Noah pushed his senses to the limit to find a safe route, the Kali stick grasped firmly in his right hand, ready to strike at any approaching body or clear a path.
Every now and then they could hear the howling of the wolves and sounds of skirmishes around them, they were getting closer but thankfully they had also encountered some problems. Well the more trouble the wolves went through, the better it was for them so they gladly welcomed it
"Oi Noah, at the rate were going it won't be long before they catch up to us, any plans brother"
"I got one, but it's so crazy, you'd regret asking, so you better think about it again before you make me tell you Valdor"
"Well would you look at that, even in such a situation that pretty head of yours won't stop working, anyways the sounds are getting closer, so just tell me already, not like we have much of a choice"
Valdor kept running behind Noah as he waited for his reply, Noah gave it thought again to be sure he was making the right choice and how high the chances of survival was if they pulled it off.
'High enough to ensure we get out of here in one piece, it's better than running out of stamina and get caught by those wolves' He concluded.
"Alright listen up, we'll slow down, then lead them to the devil's nest, try to refresh your channels as you'll need to work them again pretty soon, you take the lead and set the pace, as for any stragglers we pick up I'll deal with them, just that I never thought I'd have to use Diara's gift here"
Noah informed Val of his decision and they slowed down their pace, it was a difficult task to get the body rested and ready for battle and still be on the move at the same time but the two of them were pulling it off somehow.
Val switched positions with Noah and switched directions to the devil's nest. He held the Kali stick in his hand prepared to strike anything that entered his range while using aether to nourish his energy channels. The path to the devil's nest itself was not one he would have like to thread in normal circumstances as it was filled with lots of deadly traps ranging from mechanical to magical.
According to the stories told by the fogies back in town it was made then in an attempt to clear out most of the beast's residing in the forest then. They were even more powerful than they are now and the nest did do it's job as only the lowest level of beasts could be found in this part of the forest. The scary part of the nest though was that according to his father who was a part of the creation process, the amount of traps left in the nest wasn't even up to 5% of the original and it lacked the dread and power of the original.
Noah put the Kali stick in hand back to its spot on the backpack he carried. Sliding the back on one arm to the sides he opened it and took out a pair of gloves, carefully taking his time to put them on, then he retrieved long layered piece of cloth from the pack and held it an end of it with his mouth, before closing the backpack and wearing it properly again. He did all this while on the run, ensuring the ends of the gloves were taped and fit perfectly before releasing the long piece of cloth from his bite and strapping in around his waist, carefully without messing up the form.
The gloves and strip were a gift from Diara after he *graduated* from Ryan's training. It was a weapon set she had before she was chosen and had to live her old life behind. According to her it was a set of 12 throwing knives and 2 pairs of fingerless gloves that had been augmented with a metal element based runes for magnet and force control.
This allowed the user to recall thrown knives by simply running aether through the runes on the gloves which would then synchronize with the runes on the knives, pulling the knives back to the gloves, but it was tricky to use as both gloves controlled all the knives that were out of the ridiculously shaped sheath, and it needed lot of control to grasp the timing and proper use of the equipment.
It had other functions but Noah didn't have the energy channels or means of utilising aether to use most of them yet. The bit he was using for the first function was from his source and overusing it had dire consequences.
Even now Noah wasn't sure he could properly use the set, the aiming and throwing parts he knew he could use without an issue but the recall part was were his concerns laid. but now wasn't the time to think about it. Their lives depending on his performance and he couldn't afford to mess it up.
About halfway to the devil's nest, their luck ran out as Noah sensed the first wolf emerging from the shrubs on the side. Without looking or panicking, He took one of the throwing knives from its sheath and launched it towards the wolf in quick succession.
He had practice the quickdraw and launch style multiple time back at home and the rewards were coming running towards him. His first strike perhaps because of the speed the wolf dashed in, or the shrub it emerged from hindering its view hit the wolf dead in its left eye, piercing into its skull and killing it.
Noah didn't even stop to confirm the kill, a glance was all he needed to know the knife had hit it's target. He ran aether from his source towards the rune on the gloves calling it back. The knife flew out of the wolf's skull from a different outlet than it entered confirming the kill if the wolf wasn't already dead.
Noah clicked his tongue as he caught the knife, the streak on the wolf indicated it one of the weaker ones with a single dull strike, while it was good they where able to reduce the amount of wolves chasing after them, he found it to be a shame he only took out one of the weaker ones,
'If only it was one of the stronger one, my plan would have had a higher chance of success ' he thought.
But he didn't get hung up on it. They continued their run towards the devil's nest with Noah sniping any wolf he sensed and forcing them to retreat with minor injuries.
Unfortunately he wasn't able to kill any more. They where five more wolves to face and the final battleground was in sight. Which side would survive the battle, only time would tell.