The dire wolves seemingly ran much faster than before.
The leader of the bandits quickly drew his bow and shot an exploding arrow at them. He expected them to turn their tails.
To his surprise, the explosion had no effect. They didn't even slow down. They just jumped passed the exploded ground and continued running.
The dire wolves were more afraid of what drove them this way than of the arrows. Besides, they were sick of being tossed around.
"Everyone, gather!" called the bandit leader.
He thought that there were still enough of them to show those mutts whose the boss here. However, his men didn't share his sentiment.
The ones to turn their tails were the bandits.
"Get back here you f*cking cowards!"
They continued running away.
The leader was livid. He continued shouting profanities at them. He got so angry that he forgot about the dire wolves and raised his bow against his own men.
He took aim and released an arrow, piercing one of his guy's head, instantly killing him. Other shots missed, because the bandits started to avoid them.
As he was about to use one of his more devastating skills, the dire wolves arrived.
The wolves immediately recognized him as the one who drove them from their den and killing their pups.
The alpha's eyes blazed with fury. It jumped at the man, tearing at his face. Other dire wolves pinned and bit his arms, making him unable to defend himself.
After it's pack arrived, the alpha stopped biting the bandit leader's face and instead, it started digging through his stomach. Like a dog digging for a bone.
He wore light leather armor. It provided no resistance whatsoever to the sharp claws.
It dug through his skin. Then muscles. It started to dig through his intestines.
The man kept screaming, half of his face was gone.
His only remaining eye watched in horror as his entrails left his body.
His arms were torn away. He didn't even feel it.
All he felt was the excruciating pain of the alpha wolf rummaging through his insides.
After a moment, the screams stopped and the light in his eye dimmed.
The alpha continued until the dead body was split in two.
A torso without its arms. Legs missing their feet, torn away by the remaining dire wolves.
Killing the man in the most brutal way the alpha could think of considerably quelled its rage, but not entirely.
The bandits were gone.
The merchant and the coachman laid sprawled on ground, unconscious. Seeing the dismemberment made them pass out.
Leina and Anneth were moved to the carriage's front wheel, arrows still stuck in their wounds.
Anneth was in shock and Leina couldn't move with the arrow in her leg.
Gared was too far away to help them. Tears started to well in his eyes as he was about to lose his two companions.
The dire wolves turned their attention to the two women.
They growled, slowly approaching.
In a blink of an eye, their fur started to stand and their movement came to a halt.
The same feeling of dread that forced them to come here returned.
They turned toward the direction where the feeling came from and saw exactly what they expected.
A big, colorful bird.
Now, the dire wolves turned their tail. They wanted to head back to their den, but the path was blocked. There was a fire spreading through the area.
Instead, they turned the other way, not thinking about where they ended up. All they wanted was to get away as quickly as possible.
***
"Good job Vel. Very well done. I'm running as fast as I can but I couldn't make it in time," Scias praised Vel.
"Should I kill them?" replied Vel, eager to kill the fleeing dire wolves.
"No. I might need you. Besides, those people could see you."
Vel begrudgingly acquiesced.
"For now just hide. I'm almost there."
Vel flew back high in the sky, away from praying eyes.
Scias hoped he would run into the escaping bandits, to gauge his own strength. But, he was unlucky.
"Oh, I almost forgot. Can you change back into the blue jay?" Scias asked Vel.
Vel kept quiet for a while, unwilling to change his form. He didn't like to be an ordinary bird. But he knew it was necessary and he sent Scias confirmation along with his feeling of unwillingness.
Gared was relieved. For some reason, the dire wolves didn't attack but rather flee. It didn't make sense to him but he wouldn't complain.
He managed to stand up, battered and bruised all over.
At this time, Scias finally arrived.
Seeing the carnage from up close was much different than watching it from high above.
Gared was startled. He was in no condition to fight. Neither were Leina nor Anneth.
He was about to drag the women away from the spreading fire and ten to their injuries even through the pain he felt with each movement.
"Who are you?" he asked Scias cautiously.
Scias didn't answer. He was looking around.
He saw Gared dragging himself to the carriage, the dead horses and dead bodies.
He noticed the two women barely conscious at the front wheel of the carriage.
His gaze moved passed the dismembered body of the bandit leader to the spreading fire.
Scias was thinking what to do first.
'Should I help them? Or should I put out the fire? Also, what the heck did he just say? I couldn't understand a thing.'
At last, he decided to ignore Gared and headed toward the fire, to put it out while it was still manageable.
"Hey! Can you help us?" Gared shouted at Scias.
Again, Scias didn't understand. But, he stopped, turned his head to face Gared and stared at him for a moment.
Then, he continued walking to the fire, not saying a word.
Gared was anxious. He didn't know who this stranger was. Was he enemy or was he ally?
He moved as quickly as he could to Leina and Anneth, to help them.
Scias was coming closer to the fire and started to feel the heat.
'How? Just how can you snuff out fire with only fire affinity?' he wondered, remembering what Vel said when they encountered a Flame Salamander.
He tried everything he could think of without any success.
To Gared, it looked like Scias just stopped near the fire, staring at it.
Still failing, he decided to stop trying and put out the fire with water. Soon, it would get out of control and even he wouldn't be able to do anything about it.
Scias didn't want to reveal too much about himself, so he didn't use his cooling aura and suffered through the heat.
He wiped the sweat from his forehead and turned around, walking toward Gared who was examining the wounds on Leina and Anneth.
'What should I do with you? Do I try to heal you? Or just address the wounds and let someone else take care of you?'
He didn't know how much to reveal. Would people without Non-Elemental affinity be able to heal using magic?
Are healers rare or common? There were so many things he didn't know.
When he got close, Gared was startled.
'Sera tae linar'shen?' Gared asked if he could help them and stepped aside.
When Scias saw the women's wounds, he knew if he couldn't heal them by magic, Anneth would die from the arrow stuck in her upper back.
He knew that pulling out the arrow and being unable to treat the wound would only make things worse.
By his estimate, Anneth wouldn't die any time soon. She should live at least several more hours.
Thus, he decided to experiment on Leina first, her injuries were in less severe and not life threatening.
He nodded to Gared to convey his intention to help, hoping he would understand.
Gared didn't know why the stranger didn't speak, but he felt no malice from him and let him do what he wanted.
He couldn't help either of them because healing was beyond his abilities.
Scias focused his attention on Leina. First, he would pull out the arrow in her arm and assess the extent of the damage.
If the arrow pierced only her soft tissues, it would be easier. If it hit her bones, things would get more complicated.
Scias yanked the arrow from her arm.
The pain made her open her eyes, meeting Scias's gaze and noticing him for the first time.
She froze and then noticed Gared. He smiled at her and it put her mind to ease.
Scias didn't see any fragments of bone on the arrow tip. To be sure, he closely examined the wound.
'How lucky, the arrow went between the bones. This makes things easier. Now, let's see if I can heal others.'
He gently placed his hand on the wound and smiled at Leina, to assure her that everything would be all right.
He focused, pouring his mana to the wound.
Leina felt her arm get warmer and tingly. Soon, the pain disappeared.
Scias was happy. Not only could he heal others, it was much quicker than when he healed himself the last time, before he became arcane mage.
He checked his mana.
'Good, I still have a lot left.'
He repeated the process with the arrow stuck in her thigh. Again, the arrow didn't hit her bone.
'Selan'tae. Selan'tae drava,' Leina thanked him profusely.
He just nodded, not knowing what she said, and moved onto Anneth.
Just as with Leina, he was gentle while addressing the wounds on Anneth.
First, the arrow in her back.
It wasn't too deep. She got lucky that it hit her rib. If it was slightly lower, it would have pierced her heart, killing her on the spot.
Healing her was more difficult, because he needed to mend her bone. When he extracted the arrow, small bone fragments came with it.
Healing this wound took longer and made Gared and Leina worry.
When he began moving on the arrow in her shoulder, they let out sighs of relief, but stayed quiet so they wouldn't disturb him.
Again, the arrow struck her bone. This time, however, all the bone fragments remained inside her, making the healing slightly easier.
When he pulled the first arrow, Anneth was still unconscious.
But, when he pulled the other arrow, a yelp escaped her lips and she opened her eyes, a pained expression on her face.
"Tae es vara?" she said and tried to get away from Scias.
He held her down and she was about to shout for help when she noticed the worried expressions of Gared and Leina.
They were just standing there, watching.
Anneth calmed down, seeing that her friends didn't do anything to help her. Meaning, this man was helping her.
This time she could feel the healing process.
She felt uncomfortable, but she bared with it. Soon, the pain was gone.
She looked at her shoulder where the arrow struck her and saw a smooth skin.
Scias stood up and offered Anneth a hand to help her up.
She looked at him with a slight blush and accepted his hand.
"Selan'tae drava," she thanked him.
Gared was only bruised and didn't need Scias's healing.
Both Gared and Leina began thanking him for saving them.
Scias felt uncomfortable when he didn't understand a word they said. But, he let them talk and focused on Vel.
"Vel, can you understand them?" Scias projected his thoughts to Vel.
"I don't think so. Without our connection, I couldn't understand you either."
"I think we will be fine since we saved them. Can you come to me? Perhaps you will understand. Even if not, it will be good to see how they react to you."
Vel was back in the sky after changing to blue jay, to get accustomed to this form. It would take him some time to get to them.
Scias didn't know if they would understand, but he tried it. He gestured for them to stop talking.
'Let's see if they can understand me'.
"Hello, my name is Scias. Can you understand me?"
They stared at him, confused.
Then, they looked at each other if anyone could understand him. But, just like Scias didn't understand them, they couldn't understand him.
He tried again, with different languages. He knew three in total. But, each of them seemed useless now.