Chapter 172
Natalie fired an arrow at the goblin as fast as she could, but the damage was already done. All around them, monsters roused from their slumber, looking around to see what may have been the cause. And all of their gazes locked immediately on the four people standing in the middle of the road. By the time that the goblin's body fell to the ground dead, the other monsters were raising calls of their own. It had barely been five seconds, but the four of them had already turned to start running north.
There was no running back the way they came. The sun had already passed through its zenith, marking that they had already been moving for hours on the road, despite it feeling like nothing. They had just been putting all of their awareness on their surroundings, and not on how fast the sun moved above them. And with the horde getting up, they needed to switch to the more active part of their plan. They never thought they would get through undetected, they just wished to do so for as long as possible. Now that they were detected, albeit in a large way, they decided to ramp up in response.
The ten older pups formed a loose perimeter around the three women, moving together in pairs so as to be able to catch any stragglers that may slip through the bigger canines. Almost all of the adults rotated out in three different sets, going out to strike at the monsters before returning. This way, they were hitting fast, hard, and could resupply their energy through Nat when needed. The only one that did not participate in that was Sierra, who was the least physically capable of the wolves. She stayed as basically a part of the last line of defence, along with the gorillas that sat in wait inside Shannon's Soulscape. The entire plan had been devised by Nat and Shannon with a single thing in mind. The wolves and wargs were able to move a hell of a lot faster than they could.
The amount of practice all of them had gotten in with their shifted forms was substantial, and the work payed off. They had faster running times and quicker reflex's than most world class athletes had. And that was before they circulated any energy through their bodies. They moved about the area like lightning, hitting and taking out a handful of monsters in the way, before pulling back to let the next group open access. To the monsters and canines, it looked and felt like a crawling advance, just at the pace of canines moving with top speed and ferocity. For the three humans in the middle of it all, they were just running straight and hard.
They knew that the weakest part of their pack was themselves. After all, if they died, then so did everyone else. Add that to the fact that they were also physically weaker and slower, they would inevitably weigh down the rest when it came to running. To their minds, this and one other option came to mind, but this one seemed the most viable. Especially since the wolves had become far more deadly since gaining an anthropomorphic form, let alone the larger wargs. The other option was to ride upon the wargs in a rotation to get ahead of the monsters, but they would tire out fast, and would take far too long to recover. Thus, they decided that cutting a path through to somewhere they could evade their pursuers would be a far better plan. Orcs and hobgoblins fell easily, with goblins being barely even a hinderance. The small cuts they left on the bodies of the shifted predators were hardly noticed as claws tore through them in masse. As for the larger trolls and ogres, they lumbered behind, but did not have the speed to be a worry as of yet.
The problem came in to the fact that they were still blocks away from where they needed to turn, and almost all of the surrounding area was empty and monster filled. As they passed the fourth block, the wheezing of two of the women was very easy to make out. However, neither Sophie nor Natalie called it quits, and just kept moving forward. Their entire plan had started working quite well, taking the monsters by surprise. But the small wounds that kept coming were accumulating, and were visibly starting to wear down the wolves. Blood ran down their limbs, some of which was clearly their own, and yet they kept up the pressure, taking out monsters that were both in the way and catching up. A few goblins had come close, but Ares and Rogue both took out a leading majority of them, with the others taking out a few themselves.
It was then, that a light appeared at the end of the tunnel, as it were. The flood of monsters coming from the front dwindled as they finished running the distance of the fifth block. So much so that the adult canines only had one or two going out to clear the front of their six-wolf groups. The rest were doing their best to pick off their pursuers and try to widen the gap. Seeing her chance, Shannon led them through a passage between a bank and a larger hub. As they did, Sol and Tank lugged out a giant log with them, tossing it backwards to try and eat up their pursuers time. They did not expect it to do more than buy them all a few seconds, but those could help immensely. Shannon led them along the side of the bank north, moving up the hidden away side as fast as they could while directing the canines to all fall back into Nat's Soulscape. This was their one chance to lose this group soon, otherwise, they would most likely be run down after becoming fully exhausted, and unable to fight back. Jumping over the barriers, they quickly helped Sophie up and over before dipping underneath the bridge that crossed the gap between the two sides of the Whitemud. Collectively, the three of them held their breath and hoped that Shannon's ploy worked.
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