"WUYA!" Zhang Buyan screamed, his golden aura becoming disordered as he prepared to charge toward his injured junior sister. For a moment, every other thought about the larger battle, the other foes, all of it faded away leaving only a burning need to come to Jin Wuya's side.
"Buyan, hold!" Wu Ling shouted, his sharp voice piercing through the fog of worry and rage that threatened to overwhelm the other man. "You have to draw them to you! I'll get Wuya."
"AAAAARRR!" Zhang Buyan roared in frustration. Wu Ling was right, if he lifted his feet from where he stood, the energy of the tides he'd summoned would disperse and the wolves would have complete freedom of movement. But seeing his junior sister's blood staining her golden robes, he couldn't bear to be apart from her.
"COME!" Zhang Buyan shouted at the Blood Moon Mist Wolves, thumping his chest mightily with both hands. If he couldn't run to her side while the other wolves still threatened his companions then he would draw them all to himself and crush them until there was nothing left to stop him from reaching her his junior sister!
"COME!" - THUMP - "COME!" - THUMP.
Golden energy swirled around him like a whirlpool, tugging at the limbs and fur of the wolves. Beside Zhang Buyan, Xiong Dahuo took advantage of Zhang Buyan's tide to plunge his nine-ringed saber deep into the chest of one of the few remaining Red Mist Wolves that had been desperately trying to escape from the swirl of golden energy.
When Xiong Dahuo killed the Red Mist Wolf, the Wolf King once again devoured the spirit of the slain wolf, feasting on its strength and using it to refine its own power over the remaining members of the pack. Soon, it would give rise to a pack like none that had ever hunted these mountains before!
Wu Ling wasn't idle when he shouted at Zhang Buyan to hold his ground either. With Yue running alongside him to extend a barrier of ice between himself and the wolf savaging the barrier, he darted out of the protection of Fang Lin's formations to wrap his arms around the injured Jin Wuya and drag her back into the protection of the formation where Yu Jinqi could tend to her wounds.
"I've got her," Yu Jinqi said, kneeling in the mud beside Jin Wuya and feeling along her arm before pressing sharply down on a series of acupoints to block the pain and slow the flow of blood. "Brother Wu, stop the wolf at the barrier!"
Su Xiang had already turned away from the barrier, dashing to reinforce Xiong Dahuo and Zhang Buyan as soon as she saw Wu Ling retrieving Jin Wuya. The barrier, meanwhile, continued to crack and weaken under the assault of the Red Mist Wolf, and less than three breaths after the young alchemist spoke, the second layer of the barrier shattered into motes of sparkling light.
"Yue, go protect the others," Wu Ling commanded his diminutive Guardian. This time, since one talisman hadn't been sufficient to end the life of the wolf he'd attacked, Wu Ling pulled two. The first one bore the character 'Earth' and when he threw it, he drew on the strength of Fang Lin's formation to use the thick mud as a sticky binding hand that locked the wolf's limbs to the ground. The first talisman was followed moments later by one that read 'Ice.' This time, he hurled the talisman like a spear, shaping its icy energy into a meter-long icicle that pierced through the heart of the snarling wolf and shattered its beast core.
Killing the wolf did little to quell the rage burning in Wu Ling's chest after seeing the pain on Jin Wuya's face but he firmly painted over the seething hot red of his rage and tried to summon a chess player's detachment as he returned his gaze to the ongoing battle.
Blood flowed from half a dozen small cuts on Zhang Buyan's body as two Blood Moon Mist Wolves circled him, their fearsome jaws snapping at him with tentative bites and pouncing in unison to leave him no room to defend himself. Yue had found a perch on the burly man's shoulder and created barriers of ice as rapidly as she could but even when she was successful, the powerful jaws of the snarling wolves broke through the ice with enough force for their sharp fangs to inflict numerous small wounds.
Perhaps the only waving trace was that, because of Yue's interference, they weren't able to lock their jaws on the powerful brawler the way one of the Red Mist wolves had done with his Junior Sister. While the toxic droll of the powerful wolves made it impossible for Zhang Buyan to suppress the bleeding with his martial energy, none of the wounds they'd inflicted so far were deep enough to truly threaten the burly man's life.
"You. Will. Not. Keep. Me. From. Her!" Zhang Buyan said through gritted teeth, golden energy surging within him like a rising tide. For years he had battered at the thin wall that separated the middle and late stages but no matter how hard he drove himself, no matter how close it felt, the thinnest sheet of rice paper holding him back might as well have been made of the strongest steel.
Now, however, he cared nothing for his breakthrough. The only thing coursing through his heart and mind was that he needed to break these wolves like waves hurling them against rocks so he could rush to his junior sister's side!
"Yue, let them come," he roared, turning all of his attention to the closest wolf as his energy surged, dragging both wolves half a meter closer before one leaped toward him with its fangs bared. This time, the burly Brawler did nothing to stop the beast from colliding with him, in fact, he welcomed the claws that raked along his chest, spilling blood and tearing flesh.
The enraged Brawler welcomed the pain, bellowing into the night as he summoned his golden martial energy to launch his counterattack!