New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Chapter 776 The Valley Becomes Lively

Running away as fast as he could, Alex heard lightning crack behind him, followed by a loud explosion, which he felt blasting past his shoulder. The heat and pressure signalled it had blown up very close, and he gulped.

'Lightning moves too fast for me even to detect it before it's too late. I can't afford to get hit…' he thought.

A cacophony of howls resounded behind him as the ground started rumbling again.

Turning his head slightly to the left, Alex could see the pack of dire wolves had given chase, and he snickered.

"Yeah! Come get me, you dumb dogs!" he taunted them.

He didn't know if they could understand him, but he reckoned they did, judging by the angry snarls and vicious growls escaping their maws.

He rushed toward the valley where the rest of the team awaited him and quickly bolted past the entrance, yelling at the top of his lungs.

"Now, Violette! Split them!"

Grinding to a halt, Alex spun around, looking toward the gap, awaiting anything that got here too fast.

But Violette was ready for him and was already casting her spell.

A wall of water rose from the ground before him, forming an inverted T at the mouth of the pass before turning to ice in a single moment.

The wolves rushing behind Alex were now forced to split in two directions, the path too narrow and their momentum too fast for them to stop. From the valley walls, Jack and Violette smiled.

Immediately, a loud bang of gunfire echoed through the valley as one of the dire wolves dropped dead.

Pulling the bolt on his rifle as the bullet casing flew out the side, Jack grinned.

"One down. Twenty-eight to go."

He wasn't expecting to kill every wolf with one bullet, as they now were aware of his presence. But this first kill was satisfying to him.

The wolves finally started pouring into the valley, where Clark, on one side, and Juan, on the other, greeted them with open arms.

The ice walls did not fool the following Raijū, and they quickly bounded up, bouncing off the pass walls, and landed directly in the middle of the valley, where Alex was waiting for them.

As they landed, he was already bolting toward them, claws out, hoping to get in a few preemptive strikes. But the Raijū were much faster than him and managed to side-step out of his attacks, trying to lunge at his back.

The maws got extremely close to Alex before two blurs shot past them, minor cuts appearing under the Raijū's jaws, their head snapping upward.

They turned their heads to follow the movements of their assailants but were forced to look away before they could get a glance, as a small army of undead was suddenly nipping at their heels.

David had sent his order, and now his undead would fight the Raijū until they dropped.

Jonathan and Margarett swung around the small valley, hitting the dire wolves as they passed near them, ensuring every movement wasn't wasted. Of course, flybys like these were far from accurate, at least for Jonathan.

He may be used to going this fast in New Eden, but even the slightest mistake could prove deadly out here. So, he was much more cautious.

As for Margarett, well, she could fight these mutts with her eyes closed, she believed.

Her only actual threat lay in the lightning attacks of the two Raijū, who were now aware of their existence.

Margarett also kept an eye out for her grandson, Jonathan. She had raised that boy for years and had no intention of watching him die. She had already lost her son, his father, and wasn't ready for another loss.

Both Raijū quickly realized they had stepped into an ambush and suddenly became cautious. They could already hear the death throes of their pack as the group's back-line tried making quick work of them.

This angered them, and they howled loudly, making Alex, David, and Kary shiver instinctively.

Kary was the first to react to this.

"Regroup! The dire wolves are about to rampage!" she shouted.

Immediately after, she focused on her mana, pushing as much as she could without knocking herself out, and formed a thick wall of flames between the dire wolves and the Raijū. She wanted to prevent them from regrouping, as well.

Clark and Juan darted backward, trying to force their way back to the group, but a Raijū suddenly appeared behind the berserker.

Juan felt a shiver down his spine as a shadow loomed over him. Before he could understand what was happening, a powerful force slammed into him, pushing him sideways.

But a lightning-fast claw swipe ripped into his arm, making him almost drop his weapon.

Slamming into the valley wall, Juan howled in pain.

Margarett saw this and used her speed to her advantage.

The massive zombie bear that had pushed Juan aside was already tangled with the Raijū, but it wouldn't last long.

She dashed toward the young merc and grabbed him by his armour. Using her momentum and newfound strength as an awakened, she threw him toward the healer kid.

She could afford to dance with the Raijū for a few moments as long as Alex came in to help her quickly enough.

But another issue arose.

Even though Alex was meant to keep their attention, the Raijū ignored him in favour of taking out some of the nuisances to their pack. This meant another person was suddenly in danger.

Jack's hair rose all over his body, and he reacted off instinct alone, jumping down from his perch.

The next moment, a ball of lightning appeared before it, as the second Raijū clamped its jaw on the now empty air where he had been. But it wasn't done.

It lunged downward, setting its paws on the wall, trying to get its prey.

A column of ice grew out of the valley wall, slamming into the Raijū's body, sending it tumbling back toward the ground as Violette reacted to the threat.

But Jack was still falling to the ground.

He might have a solid body, but the hundred-foot drop would not spare him.

Jonathan saw his grandfather fall, and the image of his dying parents in a burning car flashed in his mind. The fear of losing a loved one gripped his heart, freezing his movements.

Things were beginning to devolve too fast for anyone to react.