Their attention was brought back to the two young women who were facing the direwolves. A howl pierced through the woods as another direwolf was struck by Iris's arrow. The direwolf collapsed on the ground and made a whining sound as blood seeped from its injured eye.
Iris hoped that it would be dead soon, but she was now out of arrows and the only thing she had to protect herself was the sole dagger she usually kept in the hidden right leg pocket of her pants.
She felt the tightness in her chest as she heaved a deep breath, aware that she was almost at her limit now.
They had been trying to fend off the direwolves as soon as the pack pounced on Luca. Amelia was able to chase away the wolf that had bitten his leg, but she couldn't stop another direwolf from slashing Luca on his back with its sharp claws.
While Iris was able to stop his bleeding, Luca had fallen unconscious due to shock. Amelia had brought her enough time to heal Luca's wounds and clean the blood off of him by ripping the edges of his clothes that were stained by his blood.
Iris didn't waste time to clean him and discarded the scent of fresh blood from her friend. Anytime now, it could lure other predators once they caught the scent.
At the same time, Amelia was doing a good job in keeping the other direwolves away from Luca, who sustained the injury earlier. She wasn't doing any better than Iris and was starting to lose her strength to keep fending off the direwolves. If they had known that there were darklings waiting for them in the woods, none of them would have come out today to hunt.
Iris pulled out her hidden dagger and dragged her right foot backwards and bent her knees, putting herself in a defensive stance.
'What do we do?' She wondered, knowing that neither she nor Amelia could take on all the direwolves in their current state. It was only a matter of time before both of them would be defenseless against the remaining direwolves.
They came here to hunt for food, but they suddenly found themselves being hunted by the direwolves instead. Would this be the end for them?
Iris refused to accept that she would die here along with Amelia and Luca. It wouldn't have bothered her if she was the only one, but Luca had yet to start a new life with her younger sister, while Amelia still wanted to pursue her dreams of restoring the honor of the Buchanan family by becoming a knight. It would really be a real pity if these two died with her today.
The remaining direwolves drew closer, encircling around them, making sure none of them would be able to escape. Iris was starting to struggle to keep herself straight, but her eyes never left the direwolves in front of her. They were growling at them, baring their sharp fangs that undoubtedly could easily tear their human flesh.
They were not too far from Calaren Town, but even so, Iris didn't think that the direwolves would let them off easily. Calaren town was a small territory of Dravial. Iron fences were placed around its borders in an attempt to keep the darklings away. Most people knew that they could rely on the treaty they made with the Court of Shadow to keep them safe.
However, now that more darklings' appearances were recorded near Calaren Town, some were starting to wonder if the Court of Shadows had slowly lost its control in Asnar. A millennium was a long time after all and many things could happen and change.
One second passed. Another one followed and no one made a move, until one of the direwolves moved and jumped towards Amelia.
"Amelia!"
Iris was immediately distracted by it and lost her focus on the direwolves waiting for the chance to pounce on her. She suddenly found herself pushed onto the snow covered ground, with her dagger barely keeping the sharp teeth of the direwolf from biting her throat. Its whole body was hovering on its own and then she felt another set of fangs piercing her left leg, making her scream in pain.
'No! No! No!' Iris refused to perish like this.
Suddenly the world went white, and her scream resounded within the woods. Iris felt dizzy and breathless as energy sizzled and cracked across her body. An inexplicable amount of mana rushed through her and burst around her, creating a force that threw off the direwolves from herself and Amelia, who had just fallen on one knee, holding onto her sword for support.
The four demons were quick to back away to avoid the great flash of magical force that emitted from her body, their eyes widened in surprise witnessing the scene in front of them. The ground shook, the wind howled and from a distance, the icy lake started to crack. The gray clouds above them slowly dissipated along with the bright light from Iris's body.
Once the bright light vanished, everyone was left astonished by what they'd seen. The once snow covered ground was now a lush carpet of moss and grass. The trees regained their vitality as their leaves grew in the blink of an eye. The moon shone brightly above the sky for the first time in ages.
Yuri Alistair then turned to look at his lord in disbelief, seeing that his shadows were still thick and lingering on his body, yet it had no effect on the tree he was perched on.
What kind of anomaly was this? He wondered as his eyes returned to the human who just let out a magic that dispelled the effects of Randal's weather spell along the border of Asnar and Dravial.
Her magic was unstable, threatening to burst once again, but Lord Kieran lifted his hand and cast a spell on her.