Chapter 82 82 Battles V

Chapter 82 Chapter 82 Battles V

She frowned as her lithe body gracefully leaned forward, and leaped to her feet. She also searched the darkness;

"If you heard something, then it's probably something. . ."

Nexus glanced beside her and saw a pile of ash at her feet, along with some stubs of wood that met together at a point, forming a some kind of horizontal tripod;

"Mon," he called softly; "Did you actually light a fire?"

She didn't lie; "It turns out I overestimated my own strength. . ." her lips was pressed in anger;

". . I lit a fire with the hope that the heat would keep me awake, but I ended up warming myself to sleep." she looked away;

"I'm sorry but I fell asleep on the watch Ni Yang. The battle earlier on drained me of a rich portion of my mana and stamina. It seems I was just running on the post adrenaline rush. . ."

She was a professional. She gave no excuses whatsoever, and Nexus appreciated that.

He tried to say something comforting, but he himself couldn't shake off the bad feeling that was dogging his every thought. The system was always right. If it said a looming threat was imminent, then it was almost for certain that something bad coming.

He turned towards the cold, dead pile of ash, and mumbled under his breath;

"You know, maybe a fire isn't such a bad idea after all. . ."

Grateful for the pack of matches in his side pockets, Nexus reached down, and quietly separated the dead ash, and isolated the remains of the combustible wood.

clack!

The match stick struck the red phosphorous surface, and a small flame was kindled. But the wind blew it out immediately. So, this time, more carefully, Nexus bent his head lower to the earth. Almost bowing, he struck the match again. His right hand let go of the box, and he swiftly moved to protect the budding flame.

Edging it towards the stubs of dry wood, he gingerly laid it at the intersection and placed his palms around the baby flame- guarding it jealously as an eagle would guide its chicks from rain.

His efforts began to pay off. Wisps off smoke began to curl out of the smoking pile. He opened his barrier a little bit, and let in a little bit of oxygen- feeding it just enough air to grow, and also protecting it from being snuffed out by the howling wind.

Really, he could have just blasted it with his Heavenly Flames. But he didn't want to expose his ability just yet. All his attention devoted to building the fire, he heard Monica gasp behind him as the cackling flames rose;

"Don't worry," he assured her; "It'll be fine."

But that was not true. In fact, at that moment, nothing was fine.

Behind, him, Nexus heard her gasp again. This time, she called out his name quietly, fearfully- urgently;

"Ni Yang. . ."

Nexus caught the note in her voice, and jerked his head sideways towards her.

In the light of the growing flames, Monica's face had turned deathly pale- her eyes were round in shock, and her face echoed her astonishment. She was looking at him, but not at him. Her gaze went beyond him, to his back.

With a start, Nexus realized that she was staring- at something behind him. Instantly, his whole body jerked upwards. Abandoning his rapidly growing flames, he swung his neck in the direction of her gaze.

This time, he was the one that gasped.

As the cackling flame devoured the wood, it grew in size, and in magnitude, covering the span of the clearing- exposing the ambush of the big black, nasty wind wolves!

Chest pounding, and eyes round in shock, Nexus slowly rose from the ground- stealthily, quietly, not making any sudden movements. As he rose to his full height, through the light of the fire, he saw a the large, looming, shadowy figures of wind wolves.

He gasped again. It wasn't their size- it was their sheer numbers. Back to back, in seemingly endless rows of concentric circles, standing in disturbing arrays of coordinated formations, completely surrounding them- was the single largest gathering of wolves Nexus had ever seen.

The system had seriously buried the lead on this one.

This wasn't a threat.

This was a fucking invasion.

Comfort disappeared in an instant.

The air hung still- almost stagnant.

The temperature took a deep plunge.

Suddenly, Nexus felt the overbearing weight of dozens of black eyes burning into him from the shadows- hot, wicked, laden with malicious intent. Eyebrows shot up in surprise, he gulped, trying to organize his thoughts;

What the. . .? When did they. . .? How did they even. . .?

His stream of thoughts melted away in a puddle of shock as his eyes drank in the sight before him.

It was the stuff of nightmares. The stars overhead were all but useless. The moon seemed to collude with the wolves- betraying Nexus and Monica by hiding behind a thick dense cloud. Blotting out every light completely, and covering the entire landscape in a blanket of darkness.

On all sides, like tigers creeping stealthily through the marshes, the pack of big black wolves stretched out for yards and yards in rows and rows of concentric circles. This time, there was a certain intelligence, awareness and audaciousness about the black creatures that was just unnatural. The perpetual blackness of the night seemed to exacerbate their disturbing boldness.

The dark, shaggy haired beasts, continued to creep along the floor of the grasslands in short unhurried steps- thoroughly taking advantage of the cover of darknesss, zigzagging in between the shadows of the tall grasses like a nest of big black serpents on foot.

Their black, pupiless, glossy eyes gleamed with vengeful lust. Their large heads collectively bobbed up and down with each step they took. Their beefy shoulders bulged unnaturally as they put forth their thick long legs forward.

Patiently, they angled their paws for perfect stealthy, quiet movements- leaving their fat bushy tails swinging slowly behind them.

Monica gasped in unbelief as rows and rows of four feet tall wind wolves closed in on them. Silently, they inched their way towards the rocky enclave, tightening the circle and enclosing them in a noose they could not escape.

As they trudged on, their trained their dozens of eyes upon the both of them with a disturbing unflinching focus.

Their presence came with a raw, hot, homicidal rage. It seeped into the air like a toxic gas, fouling the peace and tranquility of the night time.

Not giving a damn about the sudden burst of weak flame, and certainly not bothered by the fact that they had now been spotted- their silent, noiseless advance pushed on, surrounding the den completely. Leaving no way out.

"Fuck. . ." Nexus cursed under his breath.

His whole body rang with a palpable tension. His voice box suddenly felt hollow. Even breaths came out in hot gusts.

Even from that distance, as he and Monica looked upon the overwhelming incursion of large fucking black wolves, they could both taste their rage, their hate, and their murderous angst. It boiled in their blood, and curled out into the air in hot, hateful steams- almost visible to the naked eye.