The claws dug viciously into Abbie's back, piercing deep into her flesh. She cried out in pain as the blow flung her forwards, and she crashed face-first into the snow. Her left hand immediately went to the wound on her back. She felt 4 wide, inch-deep holes in her skin.
It was a dreadful injury. Her fingers became sticky with blood and she was assaulted by a wave of pain when she touched it, but she was actually relieved. The attack had missed her spine. Breaking the snow wall had also reduced the claw's power, otherwise the wound wouldn't have stopped at just an inch deep.
Abbie was lucky the damage hadn't been worse, but her life was still in danger. She knew this, so she didn't waste time rolling around or screaming in pain. She raised her head and hurriedly scanned for the wolf, trying to see if it would attack her again.
It was about 2 metres behind her, panting heavily after using the phantom claw ability again. However, it was common sense for a wolf to attack injured prey. When it saw Abbie was hurt, the beast shook off its tiredness and pounced at her.
Abbie tried to scurry away. She winced at the shooting pain in her back, but tried to battle through it. She scrambled desperately, but her boots couldn't find any purchase in the snow. Her movements felt painfully slow. She wasn't going to make it...
*Phwoosh*
There was a strong gust of wind as something flashed by Abbie's left.
*Claaaang*
It felt like the air itself shook with that sound. Abbie looked up, stunned. She was just quick enough to see the majestic clash between man and beast. Sparks flew as Isaac's blade collided with the wolf's fangs.
Abbie watched the clash tensely since the outcome could decide whether she lived or died.
It was an even contest. 2 fangs broke, while a spider web of cracks ran down the sword. Isaac recoiled 2 paces back, while the wolf retreated 1 step. It shook its head and released a long, mournful howl. Meanwhile, Isaac expressionlessly created a new sword. He steadied himself then stepped in front of Abbie and shouted,
"Johan, administer emergency first aid! Eva, hold off the beast with me!"
Johan and Eva were a short distance further down the path, lying in wait in case the wolf tried to escape. However, they immediately came running when they heard Isaac's shout.
Meanwhile, Isaac was in a stand-off with the wolf. He was hesitant to attack, since he was worried the wolf might get past him and kill Abbie. On the other hand, the wolf was exhausted after using each of its innate abilities twice.
Unlike humans, wild beasts didn't have a Qi Core or possess their own Qi. Instead, some of them were able to harness the ambient Qi in the environment to activate certain abilities. However, these innate abilities couldn't be used without limit. They were immensely taxing on the user: changing into shadow form damaged the Sarcevic Wolf's body, while using the phantom claw was extremely exhausting.
The wolf stared Isaac down. It panted heavily, trying to recover while also looking for holes in Isaac's defence. It couldn't find any.
The confrontation lasted for a few seconds, then the wolf heard 2 people running towards it. It realised that waiting any longer would be bad, since more enemies were about to arrive. It panicked slightly – it knew it had to attack Isaac, but it didn't know how.
In the end, animals are still animals. The Sarcevic Wolf was no smarter than a regular wolf; it was just more aggressive and bloodthirsty. It leapt towards Isaac without any kind of plan. However, it failed to account for its injured forelimb. Isaac had severely injured its front paw earlier, so the wolf couldn't jump as far as it thought it could.
Its leap was rather lacklustre and Isaac easily defended against its attack. He even countered with a thrust towards the left side of the wolf's chest. The wolf dodged with impressive agility, then it launched another attack to Isaac's right.
The pair traded blows for several seconds, giving Johan and Eva time to reach the fight. Eva ran directly past Abbie to join the combat. Meanwhile, Johan stopped and knelt down by her side,
"Turn over."
He said in a solemn tone. Abbie did as she was told and rolled over onto her front. She grimaced and let out a hiss of pain.
Johan inspected her back with a serious face. He'd learnt a lot about treating wounds, but he'd never had a chance to practice it so he was at a bit of a loss when he saw Abbie's grievous wound. He decided to do the basic things first. He tore 4 bits of cloth from inside Abbie's already-destroyed coat and stuffed into the claw marks on her back.
"Ah!"
Abbie tried to grit her teeth but couldn't help uttering a short exclamation of pain. Johan tore another piece of cloth and handed it to her,
"Bite down on that. If you end up biting your tongue, things will only get worse."
After Abbie put the cloth in her mouth, Johan went back to treating her wound. He used both hands to apply strong pressure to the cloth. The bits of cloth were pushed deep into Abbie's wounds.
There was a muffled scream as she shouted into her fur gag, and she clenched her fists so tight that her fingernails cut into her palms. However, Johan didn't stop. He had to keep the pressure on until her bleeding slowed down.
Meanwhile, the battle raged on.
Isaac focused on staying in front of the wolf and not letting it get to Abbie or Johan. Meanwhile, Eva circled around it looking for any opportunity to attack. She'd struck it thrice by now, and different patches of its fur were ice-crusted after being hit by her Palms of Northern Frost Anima
Eva's typically deadpan face was filled with joy as she fought. She danced around the wolf, looking to get her 4th hit in. Then she spotted the slightest of openings and dashed in to take advantage of it. The wolf reacted quickly. It turned its head and tried to bite Eva, but she didn't try to dodge. Her fighting style went something along the lines of 'You can take my flesh, but I'll crush your bones', so she almost invited the wolf to take a bit out of her shoulder while she aimed a palm strike at the centre of its forehead.
Her palm glowed pale blue and a thin layer of frost covered it. The wolf had already experienced – and learnt to fear – her self-destructive fighting style, so it chose not to trade blows. It stopped its attack and pulled its head away, swivelling back towards Isaac. However, just taking your eyes off Isaac for a second was a mistake. When the wolf turned back to look at him, it was startled to see a sword flying towards it. It couldn't dodge in time and Isaac's sword penetrated its soft chest, stopping just centimetres away from its heart.
The Sarcevic Wolf cried in pain and quickly retreated a few steps. For the first time since the fight started, it realised that its life was in danger. It had initially deemed its assailants as pesky vermin who would be easily dealt with, but that opinion quickly changed once they began to fight. Now it had seen the true strength of its opponents and questioned whether it was really worth fighting them.
The answer to that was a rather emphatic 'no'. It had attacked them for 2 reasons: the first was that they looked like easy prey, but now it realised that was not the case. The second was that they looked bothersome; but risking your life over something 'bothersome' would just be stupid. Therefore, the proud and regal Sarcevic Wolf let its survival instincts take over.
It gave the group one last hate-filled glare. Then it turned and ran.
Isaac simply watched as it fled into the forest. Eva quickly complained,
"Shouldn't we chase it?"
"No."
It was a quick and firm denial, but Eva still wasn't satisfied. Maybe she just wanted to fight some more, or perhaps she disliked the idea of her target escaping,
"So, are we just going to let it go?!"
"Hold on a minute – I never said that..."
Isaac spoke in cold, calm tone but Eva saw the ruthless glint in his eyes. She shook her head and smiled slightly – it seemed that Isaac didn't like his prey escaping either...