Page 61 of The Heartless Archer

Noora knew from countless encounters with wolves that it always was most important to not let them corner you, a wolf pack was most efficient in cornering their prey, mostly going for the neck or flank and the instant kill.

But this was different.

Though the four wolves appeared as a pack, somehow they were trained to focus on only one participant.

The wolf closest to her broke out into a run and Noora was just standing there, frozen. She could hear its paws hitting the ground as it gained speed, advancing as quickly as lightning.

The wolf howled as Noora dug her boots into the dirt gaining ground, her hands began to prickle with something she tried to swallow down all her life. But she knew this was not the time nor the place to unleash whatever was slumbering inside her veins.

There was no point in running from the wolf and as she crouched and drew her teeth back, staring the animal straight in the eyes its feet faltered for a moment.

She could hear the others already fighting, a deep howl sounding in the cheering arena as Noora focused on the wolf circling her.

They both mirrored their advances, both taking steps to the right when the other did, coming closer, drawing back.

She needed to focus. Noora did feel the adrenaline pumping through her veins, knowing that whatever mistake she would make, it would be the last one.

The wolf growled again and the people started to sneer, trashing and throwing useless slurs at her.

“You think I don’t know what you’re trying to do?” she called at the wolf and for a moment something glittered in its eyes, as if it could understand her.

The wolf snarled and its teeth caught the reflection of the sun.

There.

Something was wrong with its right canine, it was oddly coloured, glinting almost in a lilac way. It was an amethyst shaped out to function as a tooth and now she could understand why it was so angry.

With one last breath, she broke out into a run.

The moment her arms wound around the flank of the wolf and both their ribs collided felt surreal. The wolf and Noora rolled in the grass, its sharp jaw snapping at her repeatedly as her knees scraped against dirt. Her jaw took a hit of its hind legs but she kept on holding on. She tried to produce enough strength to break some ribs but her arms failed and the wolf found a way out.

Landing on her knees, she quickly rolled to the side, barely escaping the predator’s snapping jaw.

A grunt left her lips as she got up on her knees facing the raging animal. The wolf pounced again but this time it was more efficient, fainting to go for her left leg, only for it to tackle her whole to the ground.

Panic crept out of Noora’s heart and wound around her lungs squeezing tightly—or maybe it was just the paws of the seventy-kilo animal pounding on her ribs.

She cried out when she felt one breaking and her hands flew up in a failed attempt to fight the animal off with bare hands.

All it did was make her erupt in a high-pitched scream as the sharp canines of the wolf got ahold of her hand, burying what felt like blades into her flesh.

Tears stung her eyes as she desperately tried to get her hand out of the animal’s jaw but it was no use, she knew that if it once clamped down, there was no way out.

She met the eyes of her predator through a blurry gaze, her hand already going numb, they were blue like the shade of the ocean.

Whatever it was she saw in those eyes it made her take a burning inhale, feeling her diaphragm expand and brush the broken ribs.

She whimpered at the pain but somehow swallowed her panic down, the wolf tearing at her hand and somehow forgetting that she had a second one too.

With a pained scream, her hand went for the throat of the animal, squeezing through fur and muscle but the animal did not let loose.

Grunting, her hand wandered to its neck andthere. Her hand took hold of the fold pulling with all her might, her nails digging in hard until she felt the flesh give away.

The wolf howled but did not fully let go of her right hand but its jaw eased off enough that the hand inside its mouth wrapped around the glinting amethyst and pulled.

Noora swung her legs up, circling them around the middle part of the animal's body, and yanked it into the mud.

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