Chapter 13: Awakening

So far, the boys had handled the situation quite nicely, controlling the flow of the battle and not giving any of the wolves the chance to set the pace.

If they weren't caught in a massive trap at the beginning but instead targeted and isolated each member of the pack before taking them down, the battle would have ended in an overwhelming victory for them.

The performance shown by the youths, one unawakened but skilled in the art of combat, and the other low level awakened was worthy of praise as they had taken down 8 of pack members alone.

But the tide of the battle was no longer on their side. Noah now had discovered the disappearance of the pack leader and was trying frantically to locate it before things went awry.

The other wolf was still heating up and creating lots of steam as it ejected from all over its body.

The boys vision were about to be compromised and they were at this point on their last legs. Noah wanted to end this fast, but couldn't as the variable of the pack leader had not been accounted for. He didn't want to make a decision that could lead to the deaths of either of them.

"Well this battle certainly was interesting even for someone that me that's just a muscle head swinging his hammer around, I don't have much left in me, but it's just 2 left, so what's the plan brother"

Val asked Noah as he was the whole reason for this success, he was panicking inside as he knew that apart from one last strike, he didn't have it in him to do anymore, his legs were trembling slightly and his vision was getting cloudy. His strained energy channels, was starting to bite at him.

But before Noah could give a reply to his question, the wolf shot ahead with almost double it's previous speed, it took everything Noah had to push but himself and Val in opposite directions to dodge the charge. They were separated now and had finally became the prey.

The only indicator of wolf was the steam that had fogged up the whole area and the pack leader was still nowhere to be found.

Valdor recovered from his fall after being forcefully pushed by Noah and charged up his hammer for his final strike. He wasn't going to go down without a fight, even if he couldn't kill both his opponents, he was sure as hell that he'd take out one of them to make things easier for his brother

'You've done all the hardwork so let me pull my own weight too' Valdor thought to himself

Severely underrating just how pivotal he was in the whole fight situation. That made him give his best for this moment though

Closing his eyes as his vision was now useless, Val calmed his mind and sharpened his senses. All soul route warriors had a different way of sensing, it was through their weapon. It was a part of their soul and an extension of themselves, if the body was failing him, then he'll just rely on his soul to guide him.

After standing still for five seconds without the slightest movement except for his breathing and the charging of his weapon, Valdor took a sidestep to the left and swung the full length of the hammer from the right to his left.

[Baaaaam]

Then he blanked out

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Using the force from pushing Val away from danger, Noah rolled away to and stopped after hitting his back against a tree trunk.

It was nothing short of a miracle Noah was still able to continue right now. His body was trembling, his breathing ragged and his temperature dropping, he couldn't even muster the strength to get back on his feet.

He had fought multiple beasts higher than his level, endured a high speed chase and overdrawn from his source which all led to the situation he was in. He could only pray that Valdor would survive and somehow find a way to win.

He dragged himself to a seated position and drew his dagger, placing it gingerly on his laps, he calmed his mind, extended his senses and tried to pull aether back into his source.

If Diara was here she would have tell him it all for naught as only ascendants were able to refill their source withe their efforts. The best he could do right now was rest his muscles and regain as much stamina as possible.

A 7ft tall wolf was watching the battlefield from atop a tree, it watched as the boys pushed around his mate and drove her to using her skill to end the battle. It really stung, the pack he was proud of was annihilated and even his beloved had to go that far to get rid of common bugs. Not even the death of those 2 would calm his anger

Since brute strength and numbers didn't work on them, he'd do as they did. It might not be as smart as a human, but being a beast with 20 energy channels open so it had a level of intelligence, he had created the trap and led the operation but things just didn't work out as intended but he wouldn't fail this time.

Although he also couldn't see well as a result of the skill used by his mate, his energy sense and keen sense of smell allowed to have an idea on what was going on. Since his mate had chosen her opponent and was going to end, he should do the same and ensure the death of the human brat, he was already halfway gone but he shouldn't take any chances.

Noah still seated tried to find where the pack leader vanished to, but his senses failed him, so he just closed his eyes to get some rest, after staying in the position for a while instead of getting better it started getting worse.

His temperature continued dropping along with his heartbeat but his clarity started increasing, his senses took a big change increasing his perception and range, he should have been in great distress but instead he felt relish as he had aether started to gather around him.

The wolf sensing the change dashed over to Noah position in a hurry and raised his paw, his claws extended and glowing bright red, he was going to end this menace before it pulled out another trick but alas he was too late

Noah's eyes opened and the shadow of man appeared behind him, the movement of the wolf came to a complete halt in it's attacking position, it's aura subdued in the presence of the formless shadow at Noah's back.

The temperature began to drop an at alarming rate starting from the ground Noah was seated on the area around him, everything was affected, from the trees to the wolf.

Slowly but sure Noah got up and stretched his body, the aether rushed into him opening his energy channels and simultaneously nourishing them, while this was happening the temperature continued to drop and icicles started to form on the surrounding objects.

After what felt like an eternity but was just a minute or so in reality, Noah and the shadow behind him walked towards the now half frozen wolf with icicles hanging of its body, he fucked under it's outstretched paw and laid a hand on it's head.

Noah and the shadow behind spoke in conjunction

""ICE WORLD"

And the wolf completely froze over before is shattered, the only proof of its former existence a shiny red orb glowing in the icy field.

At the same time this happened, a huge sound came from the opposite side. The ice world had changed the whole terrain and gotten rid of the steam in the surrounding allowing Noah to get a glimpse of Valdor siding stepping before smashing his hammer into the wolf that lunged at him, ending her life.

With a step Noah appeared next to Valdor who was falling down already and didn't even know the result of his last strike.

"It's over brother"

Noah muttered as the shadowy figure vanished along with all the ice in the area, gone as if it never existed.

The only trace of it, the glowing orb lying on the forest ground