They had arrived at the devil's nest, with both Noah and Val threading carefully as they had been taught, to avoid any of the traps in the location and move to a part that would be advantageous enough for them to mount a counter attack.
The wolves on the other hand were not so lucky, with them triggering a lot of traps which injured them and killed the last 1 streaked wolf of the pack. They might have been left with just 4 wolves to fight but 2 of them had 2 bright streaks running around their backs, one with a 3 dull streaks and the leader of the pack had 3 bright streaks.
This was becoming even more hopeless as Noah started to wonder if he made the right choice be deciding to fight against those beast, but after seeing the state they were in due to his constant harassment with his throwing knives and the traps they had triggered, the wolves overall number and strength had be lowered so they just had to take them out fast enough before they started recovering.
Val had recovered enough to summon his soul weapon and use it, but his instinct told him not do that yet, so he kept wielding the Kali stick in his right hand, he wasn't like Noah as he couldn't handle different weapons efficiently while dual-wielding, so he chose to use only the stick.
Noah stabbed one end his Kali stick into the ground and took out 6 of his throwing knives, throwing them at different points around the designated battlefield, adjusted the grip on his gloves then unsheathed his battle dagger, wielding it in his right hand before reclaiming his Kali stick with his left. He swung the weapons around a little to get used to the grip and get his engines running
The fire wolves has used the short moment to get some of their breath back. Regardless of how strong they were they had been chasing after this bugs for a long time now and even had to face skirmishes from other beast and traps, it was only natural that their reserves was running low and they needed to recharge too.
Not to mention some weird metal kept attacking them out of nowhere making them expend more than was necessary for this hunt. They would have backed off before things got to this point if they knew the opponent would be this thorny, but too many had already died, it only had one answer at this time, kill or be killed. They couldn't allow those humans escape.
If they did, they would be back with even more humans which would spell their doom, if winter wasn't approaching, escaping and moving to a new territory would have been feasible but now that would only spell their demise, they might as well go all in.
"Valdor, we'll go with battle formation 7, conserve your energy and wait for the big finish" Noah instructed
The battle formation was one of the ones they had prepared themselves for. Not waiting for the wolves to take action, Noah rushed forward towards the nearest wolf of the group, gauging his reaction as he positioned himself for a strike.
The wolf targeted by Noah was one the 2 dull streaked wolves that was closer to him and at a distance from the rest of the pack, it was the one that had almost bitten of Val's head from a sneak attack as it was lying in wait during their run towards the devil's nest.
Val had his instinct to thank for the sudden stop allowing the wolf to fly right before him and crash into a tree, before Noah further punished it with a flying dagger to its underside and one of head. He missed the shot to the head but was able to stab deep into the underside.
Valdor followed behind Noah a little after hiding his body from the view of their new victim. Intending to take it out before the rest of the pack realize their intentions and hinder their actions. He charged the Kali stick in hands with his aether ready for a strike
Noah was now in the range of attack to the first wolf, he tossed up his Kali stick such that it went travelled high on a path towards the wolf's head.
The wolf paid it no heed as the tossed weapon was so high up in the air that it wouldn't hit her, she instead closed in on the boy to attack with her massive jaws now that one of his weapons was not in his reach
Noah rolled on the floor evading the lunge by the wolf at the very last second. Val leaped into the air a few seconds after Noah tossed his stick into the air, grabbing the Kali stick and spinning his body to build momentum, before bashing both sticks into the skull of the wolf immediately Noah evaded it's attack.
Noah was just a distraction and a means to set up the powerful strike from Val. While rolling and getting into position, in one swift movement, Noah sheathed the battle dagger and removed 2 throwing knives and sent them towards the approaching wolves that were running forward, trying to rescue their isolated brethren, buying enough time for Valdor to smash the head of his target and secure its death
The two wolves were easily able to evade the throwing knives, closing the distance between them and Noah rather quickly with the youth now defenceless without a weapon at hand
Valdor dashed forwards summoning his soul weapon and getting into position trying to defend Noah while restocked, Noah in turn started running back to retrieve his weapons from the carcass of the defeated wolf.
The pair of wolves weren't going to let this chance go though, as the first one chased after the wide open back, only to be hit by a swing of Val's huge hammer and sent flying. It had fallen for the same trick they used against the first set of wolves they faced.
This left Valdor unprotected though and the second wolf jumped right towards him, blinded by rage. Noah stopped in right before his Kali sticks but instead of picking them up, He activated the runes on his right glove attracting the original 6 knives he had before activating a different set of runes on the left gloves, which changed the target of the attraction from the gloves in his hands, to the 2 knives he had thrown in the direction of the approaching wolves.
The knives went speeding towards the jumping wolves, a few hitting him making it change directions slightly, saving Val from sure death.
This was one of the few ways the weapon set could be used, which he wasn't confident of pulling successfully as him activating the wrong runes lead to him being pierced in multiple spots by his own weapons
Val regrouped, and Noah had his Kali sticks in hands, the had reduced the pack to its 2 strongest members with both slightly injured, The wolf that got pierced by the flying daggers got up and dusted itself free of the the weapons in it. and got ready to strike.
It howled and started to release steam from its body, it was a wolf with 3 streaks and could manipulate the element slightly to empower it and do special skills. The skill the beast was utilising now was one to increase his speed and strength by incinerating the aether in its body as fuel. The steam released was a by function of the burning but it also helped in causing confusion amongst it's opponent
Both boys were distracted by the showy actions the wolf that they didn't notice the strongest member of the pack was no longer in sights. The steam was doing its job already