"Big Guy, should we run too?"
Silvi, who had been sitting on He Ao's shoulder without saying a word, leaned close to his ear and asked softly.
She had listened in on De Norne's entire plan and knew they could not make any noise at a time like this, so she had remained quiet from the start.
"Mm."
He Ao nodded slightly, raised a hand, tucked Silvi into his clothes, and instead of following the combat team ahead, moved toward the wolf pack on one side.
Silvi was rarely this quiet. When she did not speak, He Ao felt like he was about to forget she was there.
With that movement, He Ao also got a clear look at the mountain wolves.
They looked like wolves, yet not entirely. Their bodies were long and narrow, like stretched-out strips. Four even slimmer limbs extended from their bodies, planted on the ground and swinging rapidly.
Their mouths were simply openings split at the front ends of those long bodies, exposing sticky saliva.
Everyone was now less than fifty meters from the wasteland ahead.
For transcendents, that distance was practically within arm's reach.
But the wolf pack was clearly faster.
They were so frenzied and hungry that whenever wolves in front obstructed those behind them, the wolves ahead were mercilessly torn apart. Even their fragments were devoured clean by the wolves behind.
Like a raging torrent, they poured down the cliffs between the mountains, howling violently as they sought to swallow everything in their path.
He Ao lifted his gaze, bypassed the combat team ahead, and broke out from the other side. At the same time, part of his attention remained on the combat team.
The exit between the mountains was rapidly narrowing. The wolves sliding down from the mountains ahead were trying