Chapter 617 Tactical Retreat

The leftmost Direwolf leaped straight for Keng as Keng gravity punched the other two away. The Direwolf opened its jaw, ready to take a bite out of Keng as Manny turned. Everything moved so slowly. The huge Dance of the Fire Fox swung its front right paw slowly at the Alpha Direwolf, flames dancing off of it as Keng began to slowly pull his right hand towards Manny.

"No!" Manny shouted as everything picked up speed. Keng tossed himself over Manny, screaming in pain as the Direwolf locked its mouth onto his arm. Gravity instantly flew out of his arm, exploding the Direwolf's mouth, sending the monster flying away. Keng cursed as he immediately pulled his arm in. He was losing too much blood for Manny to keep up with. Keng's eyes shimmered as a large enough sphere surrounded the two.

"Protection Dance…" Keng muttered at the Starry Fox. The Alpha Direwolf swung its claws at it, ice sizzling as the Starry Fox flipped in the air, slamming itself into the ground. A rush of flames and cosmic energy rushed outwards, enveloping the ground in flames as gravity shoved everything in it upwards. The Direwolves flew up as the flames pulled backwards, forming the Fox once again.

The fox split into two, guarding Manny and Keng as Keng dropped.

"H-hold on, dude! Yo-you're gonna be okay!" Manny lifted himself up and moved Keng onto the floor. Keng's arm was bleeding with large indentations from the Direwolf's bite. The hole was disappearing quickly as Manny moved the energy to spread to Keng's other wounds. "Just stay still and stay awake, alright?"

Manny incoherently muttered to himself as he occasionally looked behind him. The starry cosmos above was the only thing Keng could see as the Starry Foxes fended off the Direwolves. Flames spewed out of their mouths as their tails whipped behind them. The Direwolves would howl, and pillars of jagged ice would fly out in a straight line towards the barrier.

A Fire Fox would be impaled, only to lose more flame as the other would dive into a puddle of flames. The Direwolves quickly overpowered the Fire Foxes, diminishing their flames into small wisps as two tiny Foxes guarded their master and their master's ally.

Keng grunted as the hole fully closed. It felt like he could breathe again. Manny looked at Keng, moving his hands upwards towards Keng's right arm. The bite hadn't had time to fully sink in.

'This would've been much worse if the Direwolf bit his entire arm off.' Manny thought. He watched as the sweating Keng slowly came back from the brink of death.

"It's better to play it safe when you aren't sure of your victory." Manny reminded him. His eyes were focused on the wound as Keng looked at him. Manny seemed pented up with emotions he was fighting to hold inside. "We could've easily picked them off instead of taking all of them on at once. I don't need you to die one me now." Manny cracked a smile looking at Keng who was staring at him.

The strength grew back in Keng and Manny deemed it was enough to get him by and pulled away. Keng lifted himself up and patted the hole in his stomach. The Direwolves had destroyed the armor Lee Seng had bought like it was nothing.

"Here." Manny pulled something out of his pocket. It was a strange gum dispenser contraption. Manny clicked the top and a small gummy pill flew out of it. Manny began to squeeze it and moved his hand over to Keng's stomach. "This'll patch it for now, but it won't be as effective. It's cold out here, so the last thing I need is for you to freeze to death." The gum-like texture felt cold as Manny spread it around, attaching it to the fragments of armor barely holding on. Keng watched as it grew, piecing itself back together. It was apparent it wouldn't be effective in defending, but at least he wasn't so cold.

Manny turned Keng around and did the other side as the last wisps of the Dance faded. The Direwolves howled, slamming their front paws on the ground. More pillars of jagged ice flew up from the ground. The barrier wouldn't hold with this attack. As Manny pulled away, Keng grabbed Manny.

"What—" Manny began to ask when the two skyrocketed up into the air. The barrier shattered in an instant and the jagged pillars of ice began to climb on each other, finding their target. Keng pulled his feet away, watching as the ice barely stopped itself mere centimeters away. He let out a sigh of relief as he pulled away from the ice.

"Close call." Keng commented. He watched the Direwolves as they ran around. The Alpha kept its eyes on Keng and Manny as Manny watched. "Now what do we do…?"

"I think… We should just meet up with the others." Manny answered. Keng nodded. He did have a point. Manny was practically defenseless against the Direwolves and Keng didn't have enough firepower to fight them. Keng's eyes flickered as his eyes looked off to the right. The burning corpse of a Direwolf was left to smother in smoke as a Fire Fox alerted him of its accomplishment.

[One Snow Direwolf has been slain. A reduced 140 souls have been added to your soul bank.]

***

Keng set Manny onto the ground before his feet hit the floor. The town was creepily alive around them. They had somehow made it to the downtown district. Manny's eyes scanned the area while Keng took time to stare at his personal screen.

Solarium was marked as one of the sub-types move sets, he had access to. It was different in Gravitum in every way. It dealt with the 'light' aspect of Keng's powers. Since the passive effect of Second Sun had given him and Lee Seng a passive way to inflict fire damage, it wasn't too off course Solarium would boost that part of his moves through Cosmos.

'Gravitum deals with more gravity and earth-based attacks while Solarium deals with space and fire-based attacks… Out of all of the Solarium spells I had on hand, I used the most energy consuming one…' Keng sighed as Manny waved his hand in front of him, catching his attention. The invisible screen disappeared as Manny pointed over to a set of people running.

"I think that's our friends." Manny announced. Keng glanced at his watch and noticed four dots coming closer to them.

"That's our friends." Keng confirmed.

"Come on! Let's go." Manny jogged towards them with Keng trailing him. The six met in front of an old hardware store. Olivia and Ritsuka looked a bit roughened up as they came to a stop. They took time to catch their breaths as Liz and Evan looked quite the opposite. They were unscathed.

"You made it." Liz pointed at Keng and Manny. "I take it you lost the Direwolves?"

"We tried to fight them, but they almost killed Lee Seng." Manny replied. Worried looks began to scan Keng for injuries. They noticed the odd colored patch on his stomach and the somewhat roughened up winter coat arm. "Don't worry, he's fine. We managed to get away with him flying…" Manny burped, covering his mouth with his fist.

"Will you be okay?" Liz asked Manny. "You don't deal well with anything faster than a car." She hovered over Manny as he brushed her off. He leaned forward a bit with his fist in front of his mouth.

"I-I'll be fine." Manny replied.

"Are you feeling any better?" Olivia asked Keng.

"I'm fine." Keng nodded. "A bit drained, but I don't think those Direwolves will be able to follow our scent. I flew high enough in the air that they were specks… The more concerning thing is this abandoned town. It's a functioning town."

"Mmm, I was going to bring that up, too." Evan spoke up. "It's strange that the entire town is fixed up except for the cars. I wonder who or what's even capable of fixing a town like this. It's too pristine." Evan was right. Besides the rusted cars, everything was fixed. Spots of the sidewalk or road were cracked, but other than that, the homes and buildings were just like they were twenty-five years ago.

"I guess you haven't met the people living in them, then." Ritsuka spoke up. The group looked over at him as Olivia folded her arms, sighing. "Those bandits you and Manny saw, Lee, they were probably the same thing we saw. Ice Elves living in the homes."

"Did you kill them?" Keng asked.

"Not all of them." Ritsuka shook his head. "Their ice magic made it hard to close the distance."

"There wasn't much to dismantle either, so we ended up fleeing after we heard from you two." Olivia continued. "Thankfully they didn't follow us."

"Which I find weird." Ritsuka pointed out. He looked at Olivia, clearly already trying to find a reason to their enemies' sudden behavior shifting. "They fought us when we entered their home but as soon as we left, they were nowhere to be found… Something's not right about this…"