19. The Mountain Wolf Attack
Eryndor looked forward and panicked as all he could see was white everywhere, the only shades of brown were from the tree barks, there was nothing else but the blowing of snow.
As he peered deeper into the distance he felt something strange happen in his left eye.
[Relics (Golden Eye) had been activated
Relic Rank: Divine
Relic Description: Eye of the dragon monarch, it perceives the movement of heat]
If it had not been due to the ability that came with his left eye he would not have noticed it. Looking deeper he could see three huge balls of red mist, now they numbered five. He cupped his hand over his left eye and looked with his right eye to see nothing but snow, he took his hand off his left eye and looked deeper with it
There were indeed five blurs of red barely a hundred feet away.
"Heat signatures?" He asked.
The eye responded:
["They must have been stalking us for long. If it had not been for all this snow I would have sensed them sooner.
Kid if you have any survival ability, I advice you use them now"]
But did Eryndor have any useful skill of his own? Honestly he had no such thing, all he had was the basic control over wind magic and that was mediocre at best. As the five red blurs started to creep closer to him and the unconscious Thalor, he went into a widespread panic.
"Curses! Why the hell did I have to play so much when Celyndor trained me? Why was he not hard on me? No! I have no one to blame for my own incompetence but me!"
["Damn right about that"]
The eye responded with a hint of sarcasm.
Now that the blurs of red were much closer Eryndor could make out their frame. They looked very much like wolves, their furs were so white that it would have been hard to sight them with normal eyesight. Infact if he did not have the power of the golden eye he would have not seen them till they were within earshot.
For one he was grateful to the once useless eye but what could he do to prevent the inevitable? If it was one wolf he would have at least had the confidence to attack it but there was more than one. Five wolves meant a pack of trained hunters and he was just a weak child who was battling ending up being a living frozen replica of himself.
He tugged at Thalor who was in a much worse state as his heartbeat was starting to slow down.
Eryndor was faced with two choices ringing in his head. The first was his own instincts screaming at him to run and abandon Thalor to his already sealed fate. Truthfully he chose this option, the other one was more daring and not his cup of tea. To stay and protect Thalor.
He paused and tried to think but his thoughts were jumbled up. The fear did not allow him to think clearly.
Even if he ran he had no way to tell the way back so he was dead either way. In his state of paranoia Eryndor failed to notice the first wolf already charging at him, it was now barely ten feet away as it lunged at him, leaping into the air with his paws outstretched in what would be a very unwelcoming embrace.
Eryndor's eyes widened as his breath stopped, the world seemed to slow down as he watched his reflection in the wolf's eyes. It did not see him as a person but a simple meal, the feeling made him feel sick to the stomach. His heart seemed to stop beating, he saw his life flash before him literally.
The next thing he saw was the huge fangs of the wolf spreading out and covering his head, it was over.
A teardrop slid down his right eye and he cried within. "Please, someone save me."
As if answering his call something huge swatted the wolf away from the side. Due to the rush of adrenaline still pumping in his body Eryndor found it impossible to listen, his ears were deaf with fear.
But from the rush of wind that brushed his face he was sure that the force of the blow was truly devastating. In that moment he remembered to breath again and took in a deep breath. He hated it instantly, the feeling of the cold mountain air rushing back into his body all at one caused his insides to freeze and he shivered as a result.
A huge shadow covered him and he looked up to see the back of a huge muscular frame, the body of his saviour was over four times bigger than that of Thalor. It made the guard look like a mannequin. Muscles rippled on the arms of his saviour like coils of barbed wire. The sight caused Eryndor to swallow hard.
The figure was a male who wore a sleeveless white fur coat and huge thick trousers. Big mountain boots and by his side a longsword. The man had a wide neck rippling with muscles, long elf ears that stood up. Eryndor could not see his face aside from his locks of braided white hair he counted to be around ten, he pictured his saviour to have the face and body of a gorilla.
Without saying a word more his saviour vanished from sight and appeared a couple feet away his hand holding up a bloody skull of the first wolf that had lunged at Eryndor.
"H— how?" Eryndor said almost breathless.
His savior boomed a deep throaty laugh that sounded very much like thunder, "You little dogs try to eat my guests, big mistake." He sounded overly confident, Eryndor guessed he did have the power to back it up.
The four other wolves lunged at him from different strategic angles, "Watch out!" Eryndor could not help but scream to his saviour but it was too late.
His savior waved his arms at a low level and muttered some words with intent, that was when Eryndor's eyes captured the most beautiful sight he had ever seen. Rivers of red danced in the air, drawing a line as the huge elf waved his hand in the air, it grew larger and larger till it exploded into the bodies of the four wolves.
They let out a loud yelp as the fire burned through their fur, from the sound of their cries Eryndor did not want to be them.
["Flames that are unaffected by the temperature here. That man is truly remarkable"]
Eryndor could not help but marvel at his very first encounter with flame magic and the beautiful, controlled and powerful display of it. "It's beautiful." The words slipped out of his mind.
Two of the wolves that had been affected by the fire dropped down unable to fight against the flames. There remained two other wolves that had managed to roll on the bed of snow beneath them long enough to come out with burnt fur.
His savior looked at them and boomed. "Common, don't keep me waiting. Bring it on."
Eryndor's breath escaped him, he expected to see another beautiful display of magic but what he saw was even more beautiful.
His savior unsheath his longsword in one swift motion, there was a loud noise of steel cutting through the the air and in two quick swipes the two wolves were dissected one diagonally and the other vertically. The entire sword encounter lasted one second and the whole fight six seconds. But to the young prince it felt like minutes.
"What was that?" He asked as his breathing slowed and his head got dizzy.
His left eyes marveled and said:
["Impressive. The twelve cycles of the moon shadow sword technique"]
Those were the last words Eryndor heard before his body collapsed on the patch of snow, the cold eventually reaching to him. The last thing he saw was the huge man standing over me.
He thought to himself. "Please kill me while I sleep."