Free Web NovelChapter 16: Learning On The Fly
The downed beast cried out painfully as it saw Uhtred coming for it, but before it could even begin to scramble to its knees, Uhtred descended upon it like an executioner. He slammed the radiant, vibrating antlers straight into the center of its blocky skull and released the built-up energy.
A resounding boom cracked the air sharply, slamming the wolf-hyena’s head deep into the river mud, fracturing its skull completely. Its body went rigid for a fraction of a second before collapsing into absolute unconsciousness.
The brutal execution drove the remaining two pack members into a state of pure, unadulterated madness. Uhtred’s wily move to make them give him space, coupled with the fact that he’d actually succeeded in killing another one of their pack mates, drove them into an unthinking frenzy.
One of the wolves launched itself at Uhtred, its jaws parted so wide its jawbones cracked. It timed its strike for the precise millisecond the explosion cleared, aiming to tear him in two before he could cycle his energy to charge the antlers a third time.
Yet they had still underestimated the sheer fluidity of a Primordial-grade core.
Uhtred felt another sharp, stabbing ache flare right in the center of his chest. His core was screaming from the repeated rapid essence draw, threatening to fray under the pressure. He ignored the warning signs entirely. Pushing himself past his physical limitations, he dragged more energy from his core and flooded it into the bone.
This time, however, he didn’t have enough time to bring the antlers to a full critical mass, but he swung them anyway.
The makeshift shield collided with the lunging beast mid-air. Because the charge was incomplete, there was no massive detonation. The explosion was minor, but it was enough to stun the wolf-hyena upon impact. The beast jolted lightly, its front legs buckling as its momentum stalled out.
That split-second jolt was the exact window Uhtred needed. He drew a fourth wave of essence, forcing it into the weapon.
But the antlers had reached their absolute limit.
Before the energy could fully saturate the structure, the main beam of the antlers fractured under the immense thermal and kinetic strain. The internal pathways within the bone shattered, causing the wild, unrefined cosmic essence to leak out in erratic, sputtering arcs of light.
The entire structure didn’t disintegrate completely, but the rupture left the major points — the impact-tips of the antlers, to begin to wildly leak energy that would otherwise charge an explosion.
The wolf-hyenas didn’t understand the physics of the weapon’s failure; they only saw the blinding, erratic light and stayed back, snarling defensively.
Uhtred forged forward regardless, refusing to yield the momentum. He locked his eyes on the stunned beast that had just buckled before him. Raising the fractured antlers like a battering ram, he slammed the ruined shield directly into the beast’s face, attempting to discharge the leaking energy straight into its eyes.
This time, the attack was far less effective. Without the internal structure of the bone to focus the mass, the energy bled out excessively. The explosion was weak, failing to inflict any real damage. It merely singed the wolf’s fur and pushed its head back a few inches.
The wolf-hyena was a seasoned predator. Even in its slightly dazed state, it instantly recognized the difference between the bone-shattering force of the first blast and this weak, superficial flash.
Realizing the party trick was over, the monster didn’t shy away from the next swing. It launched its massive, wide-open maw directly at the center of the shield, aiming for where Uhtred stood behind it.
The antlers snapped right down the middle with ease, the entire structure shattering into many pieces as the wide open maws continued to close downward towards Uhtred.
With his defense eradicated, Uhtred dove laterally into the sand, throwing his body flat against the ground. The wolf’s massive jaws snapped shut on the empty air, missing his shoulder by a bare margin of inches.
The situation had now turned terrible again. Uhtred had lost his shield... his primary weapon. Yet, as he rolled back onto his feet, his eyes remained completely cold. There was no panic in them at all. His hands were still clutching the remaining base of the broken antlers — the shattered remnants had snapped into jagged, foot-long, dagger-like shards.
He tightened his bleeding right palm around one shard and his numb left hand around the other, facing the wolf that was currently shaking its massive head, trying to clear the static of the last minor explosion from its vision. freewēbnoveℓ.com
At that exact moment, the third wolf-hyena, which had been circling the periphery waiting for a fatal opening, saw its chance. With a low, rolling snarl, it charged straight at Uhtred’s exposed back.
Uhtred didn’t even turn around. His enhanced perception tracked the thundering footsteps behind him, but he chose to gamble everything on the enemy in front of him.
He lunged forward, sliding low beneath the chest of the dazed wolf-hyena, using the monster’s own massive body as a physical barrier to block the incoming line of sight from the attacker behind him.
The dazed beast couldn’t see him clearly through its blurred vision, but its highly developed ears tracked the sudden rustle of sand beneath its belly. Realizing the prey was directly behind its paws, the wolf began to stomp and weave its legs with heavy, crushing force, trying to pound Uhtred into the dirt or tear him open with its thick claws.
Uhtred moved like a demon in the dirt. He rolled, shifted, and twisted between the heavy, descending paws, evading the bone-crushing impacts by a hair’s breadth each time.
His chaotic movement directly beneath the beast’s underbelly kept the second wolf completely paralyzed on the outside. The companion circled the perimeter frantically, snapping its jaws and growling in frustration, but it couldn’t find a clean angle to chomp down without biting into its own pack mate’s flesh.
Uhtred didn’t waste the window. Positioned squarely beneath the wolf’s sternum, he raised the two jagged bone daggers.
This time, he didn’t just blindly dump cosmic essence into the bone. His experience with the weapon’s failure had forced a sudden evolution in his control. Instead of treating his energy like a blunt explosion, he became hyper-conscious of the flow. He handled it with a refined, deliberate focus.
