Realizing they were at the edge of wolf territory Nash quickly sharpened his senses to the maximum.
He suddenly saw something blur in the edges of his vision and quickly jumped onto Ade. They rolled over the ground together hugging each other closely. A wolf had jumped towards them.
They had only barely dodged it as the wolf let out an ear deafening howl.
"Shit. It won't be long before the elemental beast is here, we need to get out here and fast." Nash cursed picking himself and Ade up off the ground.
Now that the wolf had howled the pack would surely come for them, now their only option was to get to the village, and quickly.
Nash suddenly regretted his parents weren't home today, now he couldn't count on the people Kes would bring with him. Unless there were multiple innate element users he didn't have faith in them taking on a whole pack of wolves lead by an elemental beast. This would usually be a job for the whole organized hunting team.
Nash and Ade both pulled out their knives, both dashing towards opposite sides of the lone wolf that had attacked them.
The wolf dashed forward too and bit at Nash who was already getting out of the way. Meanwhile Ade got to the sides of the wolf and slashed at its thigh.
The wolf quickly side stepped and continued its biting attack on Nash, who had tucked away his knife and now braced himself to face it. Grabbing the wolf by its snout he tried to stop it from biting and tried to temporarily subdue it, but he could feel his hands weren't strong enough to keep its jaw in check for long.
The wolf started swiping with its forepaws trying to scratch Nash so the annoying human would let go of its snout, but Nash stood steadfast dodging as many swipes as he could while still holding the snout in an iron grip. He got scratched pretty heavily a couple times but that was nothing to worry about for now.
Ade did not miss this chance, slashing into the wolf's left hind leg and then stabbing her knife deeply into its thigh. The knife got stuck there but the damage was done.
Nash let go of the now crippled wolf and jumped backwards as quickly as possible, realizing the wolf had hit him in his side with its sharp claws. He stumbled a little but managed to get away from the now limping wolf.
Nash sprung back into action and took out his knife, he ran towards the wolf which was bleeding profusely and trying hard to stay on its paws.
The wolf suddenly jumped towards Nash with a gaping maw, like a cornered rat determined to at least take down a single prey with him. But Ade was quicker, hitting the wolf with an insanely hard Flow imbued punch into its sides sending it into a nearby tree.
Nash dashed over and quickly slit the wolf's throat killing it immediately. He felt his power quickly increasing, killing a predator was different after all the and the gain was immense, but his pain was immense too.
Nash covered the wound on his side with his hands. "I hope you don't mind me taking that kill, but we really have more pressing matters to worry about now. Please take the bandages from my robes patch me up and then we can get the hell out of here."
Ade nodded and quickly took the bandages out of Nash's robes. He was lucky he remembered to take them from the infirmary when he visited together with Kes.
The injury hurt like hell, the five stripes on his side bleeding profusely as Ade quickly bound them up with the bandages immediately turning red. But this was the last of their worries, because they suddenly heard another howl coming from inside the forest.
Nash quickly got onto his feet, grabbed Ade by the arm and dashed into the opposite direction. Imbuing all of the Flow he had left into his body to run as fast as he could, he imagined Ade did the same and quickly let go of her arm.
Dashing side by side they swatted branches out of their way as they tried to make their way towards the village as soon as possible.
They were really running at almost inhuman speeds now, but they still weren't quicker than the wolves. All of them would naturally be faster than them and most would also possess more Flow than them, let alone the elemental wolf. Their main advantage over the wolves was their ability to more proficiently control their flow which would allow them to probably outspeed only the slowest of the wolf pack, it wasn't enough.
Hearing more and more howls approaching them, they ran for their lives, literally.
Nash's body suddenly tensed up. The bloodlust he felt was unlike anything he had ever felt before, and so was the raw unrestrained Flow coming from the beast that was following behind them. This meant that they were in the detection range of the elemental beast already.
The fight with the wolf and patching up their injuries had taken too long, there was no getting away now. There was no way they could make it to the village on time, but running was still their only option, who knew when Kes would arrive with some help.
As Nash was running he suddenly got swept off his feet from something jumping into his side. Rolling through the leaves and dirt lying on the ground he realized what had tripped him over, it was Ade.
He also saw a big black wolf standing imposingly emitting palpable bloodlust at the place he had just been running. He could tell instinctively, this was the elemental beast.
Elemental beasts, much like humans, did not outwardly show they had formed their innate element. So this, what Nash assumed to be a wolf that had formed its innate fire element, also would not become some kind of monstrous burning beast. It's appearance was basically the same as the wolf they had just killed but one thing was very different, the amount of Flow they could sense from this wolf was incomparable.
Unlike humans, beasts usually did not suppress their Flow and let it run free. This was because most beasts used their Flow instinctively and could not become as proficient at using Flow as humans did. They did usually become more proficient the older they got and the more Flow they gained but they didn't possess the same techniques as humans did.
Different beasts had different specialties. The wolves for example being good at detecting others had instinctively spread out their Flow and located Nash and Ade.
But the Flow the wolf had spread out before was now focused on a singular point. The spread out Flow and emotions of bloodlust that had once been spread out over a wide area had already caused Nash to tense up, and those were now concentrated on a single point.
This caused Nash to freeze on the spot.
'Oh god this is where I die.' Nash thought inwardly.
But next to him he suddenly heard a loud war cry. Ade was screaming with all her might charging at the wolf in what seemed like a last hurrah. This quickly broke Nash out his stupor, as he too screamed and decided to charge towards the wolf. Turning their backs would be useless now it was fight, or die.
Ade dashed in first as a paw quickly swatted for her head. She managed to swerve around it and ended up on the side of the wolf. The wolf turned quicker than she did and formed a fireball. Ade twisted her body with all her might and managed to narrowly avoid it. After she dodged to the side the gaping maw of the wolf was waiting for her.
Nash jumped into action as he used all his strength to jump into Ade and pull her to the side, narrowly preventing both of their heads from being bitten off. This was the third time they had hugged each other like this today, but Nash really wished it happened another way.
The wolf simply swatted them with its right paw, sending both of them flying into the tree. Nash took most of the damage as he was still wrapped around Ade and crashed into the tree. His wound was bleeding even more profusely than before despite being bandaged.
Ade had gotten hit quite severely too, multiple claw marks ran across her cheek and chest.
The wolf now menacingly approached them like the cornered prey they were. He formed another fireball intending to finish them off with the next attack.
As the wolf shot the fireball into their direction, Nash closed his eyes. He thought of his good friend who was out there trying to get help right now. He wondered how mad he would be, probably very mad. He also wondered how mad his parents would become at Ade's family, according to their story Nash was only in the forest because he was chasing after Ade after all. And there would be no one left to refute that story.
He waited for the decisive hit to come, but it never came.
As he heard a loud noise he slowly opened his eyes seeing a large wall of ash forming in front of them. Kes had gotten help in time!
He wondered who it could be, he was sure his parents weren't home, was it Yosen? He didn't think Yosen would be this strong but he was Kes' father after all. He had also heard his own father praise him a couple times, but this surpassed his expectations.
But the visage that had formed the ashen wall shocked him more than Yosen ever could have. It was the old village chief.
"Grandpa!" Ade shouted. "What are you doing here? There is no way you can take on a whole pack of wolves alone!"
The village chief shot her an angry glare. "I don't think you have the right to talk here. After I emphasized it multiple times you still went into the forest. You are lucky Kes came to me, otherwise this day would have been your last."
What happened next was so shocking that Nash and Ade would surely never forget it in their lives.
The elemental wolf let out a howl and formed some more fire. Meanwhile more wolves were coming into sight.
The village chief quickly formed an ashen wall of his own blocking the fire from the wolf. Then he quickly dashed at a speed so fast Nash and Ade could barely follow and drove his palm straight into the side of the elemental wolf, sending it flying.
Multiple wolves proceeded to jump towards the village chief after they saw their pack leader being sent flying. But the village chief formed ash and shot it at them, making the wolves unable to reach him.
He quickly dashed over to the elemental wolf and snapped its neck.
He then let out a burst of his Flow. The air instantly changed, Nash found himself being unable to even breathe. The village chief was strong, stronger than he could even imagine. Nash realized that this was not even the village chief going all out.
Sensing the village chief's Flow the pack of wolves quickly turned tail. They did not feel like throwing their lives away in a fight against this monster. Survival instinct took over and avenging their leader suddenly did not take priority for them anymore.