They were hard things to track. No power to sense, and few noises despite their large size. Unless they wanted to be heard. It also meant there was no way to know how many of them were out there. But the howls were beginning to overlap; she estimated more than five. Many more. Most of them only howled as leaders, giving orders to their younger friends who silently obeyed.
Panic was far away, but fear threatened to come closer. For now, though, Isalien was still angry and drunk from that anger as well as the decent amount of power in her reserves. Seeds of doubt had been planted concerning the newness of the power. It didn't entirely feel like power... After all, power had never healed her or energized her like this. Could she expel it as she did power? Or would it just... flop?
The first pair of eyes flashed and disappeared, the second shortly following, far ahead in the underbrush. She didn't understand how they were so quiet, or how they managed to not get stuck in the bushes as they moved through them. Isalien looked up at the sky. It was still dark. That wasn't a good sign. It would only take minutes for the battle to finish, and that was not short enough a time for the sun to appear and chase them back to their dark home. Unless she could hold them off that long. Either way, she was beginning to realize that the energy she had consumed was different from the power she normally consumed. Wasn't it?
She was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't hear the first beast approach her until it was feet behind her. Isalien spun, but the thing only grinned at her, not even growling. Another approached her, again from behind. It was too late to come up with a plan to stall them. Might as well put up a fight before more of them approached. She would have more of chance if she could attack them one at a time. Reaching deep into her reserves, Isalien inhaled and began her fight. The stench of fear filled her head, but she ignored it. She couldn't afford for that fear to multiply. Not in this situation, yellow eyes all around her now. Why had she left so impulsively?
Her hand was shaking as it raised, and both the beasts closest to her snarled, sensing the struggle to come.
Isalien didn't waste any more time. She slashed her hands through the air, once behind her and once in front of her like she was holding a whip in each. To her eyes, she was. Thick ropes of power were attached to her hands, five thinner strands from her fingers connecting into one that moved with her will as well as her hands. The closest mutants tried to yelp, but the noises were only emitted as gurgles where their throats had been cut by the sharp, burning energy.
Like a dam bursting, more wolves leapt forward, each one meeting the same fate until the blood of ten wolves had splattered the ground. It took them a while to bleed out, and in the mean time they attempted to take Isalien to the ground, jumping at her and snapping at her legs. For the wounded beasts, she was too quick for the most part, only getting caught around the ankle by one wolf. It helped that she zapped them all in the eyes with stray energy when they tried to attack her after she had slit their throats. The ones that had caught her ankle --why did they seem fond of attacking ankles?-- earned a hiss of pain from Isalien, but she grabbed it by the fur on top of its head and basically blew up the top of its skull. She kicked it away and continued fighting off attacks from all sides.
How many were there? She had estimated, in the beginning, much more than five. But now she had fought ten, and yellow orbs danced all around her, making her dizzy. There was no way to count them when they were all circling her like vultures.
Her distraction and rising fear resulted in a pair of jaws snapping at her forearm. The teeth missed the delicate skin and vital artery in her forearm, but her ears caught the sickening crunch of small bones breaking under pressure. Seconds later the pain radiated from her hand, still caught in the mouth of one beast, all the way up her arm. It was a two-sided pain, fiery on top of a crushing, throbbing pain. But she got revenge, setting loose a burst of energy inside of its mouth. There was no flying brain-mush, but she heard the sound of the pulverized organ, and the soupy leftovers did drip out its nose. Unfortunately its jaws stayed locked around her small hand even as it sank to the ground, dragging the fangs through her hand until they had nothing left to hold on to, each tooth slipping either off one of her fingers or off the short webbing between her fingers.
Eleven. One had jumped onto her back as she bent down trying to lessen the damage to her hand as the other mutated wolf fell, so there was no time to refocus her vision after the pain. She reached behind her, touching both hands to the belly of the wolf. Those two wounds was the goriest yet, spilling blood and innards over her back before she leaned backward and dumped the dying wolf onto the ground. Briefly she felt the harsh sting of deep scratches on her back, the cool air on her skin reaching her through the rips in her clothes.
Twelve. And there were still more, going around and around, coming at her one at a time, probably waiting until she ran out of power. She felt it wouldn't be long now until that happened. Isalien gritted her teeth, wiped sweat off her forehead, and stood there contemplating her next action.
The beasts just stared at her, somewhat curious at how suddenly the girl had stopped to observe the trees above her. They figured out her plan collectively as soon as she sent power flying at the bases of five trees in the area, and it startled them. They scattered, forgetting their mission in their panic.
Exactly what she had known would happen. Isalien took off back towards the barrier. She had mosied along for about ten minutes on the way out, so running... running would take significantly less time considering she was fast. But she also hurt... There was no use worrying yet. Two yelps came from behind her after the thunderous sound of trees smashing into the earth had echoed around the forest.
Less than thirty seconds later, the wolves had caught up to her. She looked behind her but only saw a multitude of shadows and little yellow spots chasing her. She had figured out that she could manage to use the energy as power, but it was reckless. It was still new. And to her dismay, it began to heal her as she ran, though she would have rather used the energy for attacks. Healing hurt almost as much as being wounded in the first place, especially in her hand. But her ankle was the troublesome part; Isalien tumbled to the ground, shocked from the pain of running while her ankle repaired itself.
Almost immediately, crushing weight fell on top of her, and teeth sank into any part of her that stuck out while she was curled into the fetal position. Shoulder, upper arm, waist, hips. One even tried to bite her head, but its jaws wouldn't open wide enough.
She peeked at them all, all at once right on top of each other and crowded around her, and only one saw the gleam in her eyes of fear, anger, and excitement. It wondered briefly why she was excited. Isalien sucked in a breath, dug deep into her reserves. If her reserves had been a well, she would had dug through the bottom of it to gather every ounce of energy or power left inside.
Then she let it explode out of her being like a bomb. Even for eyes that couldn't see power, there was a light that flashed briefly, illuminating the flying bodies that landed around her loudly. Most of them were still after that.
Standing cautiously, Isalien counted them. Eight. The ones closest to her had their fur, skin, and the outmost layers of fat and muscle burned completely off. The ones that had been crowded around her were raw and bleeding, stunned but most of them still breathing. Well she wasn't going to stand around and gloat at them; she was so pumped with adrenaline that she ignored the pain until she had ducked under the water of the creek outside the barrier and then entered safety. She collapsed blindly onto the cool grass, panting rapidly, only thinking of how close she had come to being dead.
And still there were howls in the distance. But they were different from the howls of the hunt. She had killed more of their brethren. Isalien growled. Just how many of those things could live in one forest not far from human life without being discovered?
Slowly her mind began to work again. She assumed Beal was gone after the hissy fit he had thrown. Not surprising. But still disappointing. At least she was still alive, though she had no idea if she was still wounded or if she had been mostly healed.
((Hm. How?))