Chapter 135: The Town
Rowan's Strength, Agility and his main weapons were gone or severely suppressed, without these, his combat ability had dropped to the bottom, but he still had his Spirit. He had awakened Aether, and he had his flames and his other Ability runes. They would have to be enough.
The golden wolf was as tall as twenty feet, a single storey building, and its head was the size of a cow, with many dagger - sharp teeth. Its golden fur rippled with the wind as it lifted from the ground and fearlessly attacked the falling Rowan.
Rowan and the golden wolf collided with the sound of a large thunderclap, that silenced the entire chaotic battle.
Rowan shoved the bone into the open mouth of the wolf, which was not a hard thing to do, as the head of the golden wolf was as large as his body.
He tried to edge to the side, as the green flame around him acted like an explosive that shoved his body to the side, while the red flames poured into the open mouth of the golden wolf.
But his speed was too fast, and he clipped the side of the wolf's snout, and at the speed they came together, every motion carried a devastating force.
Rowan emerged as the losing party of that clash, his body nearly folding in half, as he dodged the large claws from the golden wolf with the slightest of margins, his body was sent crashing to the ground.
The ground did not serve as any form of obstruction to him as his body plowed through the floor, leaving a trench for hundreds of meters before his body was bounced by a long metal tubing inside the ground. He slammed into the side of a building that resembled a factory with a loud bang.
Rowan's body tore through the entire structure, before his momentum was arrested, and he slid for another fifteen feet before he stopped.
Rowan was a little dizzy as he slowly stood up, he hurriedly scanned his clothes and boots and seeing them in great condition, he smiled, he had wrapped them in a field of Telekinesis during the descent and clash, and it was nice to see that the force diverting properties of the Telekinesis field he cooked up worked well enough.
He had no method to counter such a large amount of force with his fledgling Telekinesis ability, but he could divert them to the closest surface he was touching, like the ground or the building he slammed into, reducing the amount of force that reached his body.
This was a new application of his abilities that he was excited about, and he would strive to refine it, until he hoped, one day, he might be able to divert a hundred percent of the force exerted on his body.
The building he crashed through collapsed with a loud rumble, he had been flung deep into the broken town, which resembled an industrial complex of some sort.
He had landed before a group of bedraggled individuals that carried heavy wounds and were trying to flee, there might have been less than fifty left; they were all males, most were young with only three that should be in their fifties.
Rowan looked around him, at the surprised faces that looked at him as if he were either a freak or a messiah, he had gotten used to such looks and not minding those faces, he glanced ahead at the golden wolf that had slammed back to the ground in the midst of its armies.
It landed on its back with a furious snarl and hurriedly returned to its feet. Their eyes met across the distance, and it snapped at him, Rowan smirked and brought up his hand that previously held the bone and showed his empty palm to the wolf.
Rowan knew this creature had cunning for he could see awareness inside its red eyes that were set deep into its skull, most likely a defensive adaptation to protect its fragile orb, but it just made the wolf appear incredibly malevolent.
Those sinister eyes narrowed in contemplation and Rowan smiled as he snapped his finger, and another loud rumble echoed on the battlefield.
This time it was coming from the stomach of the giant wolf. It howled loudly as blood and large pieces of its viscera were explosively shot out of its mouth, and it began bleeding from all the orifices in its body. It shook and nearly fell to the ground.
Yet, this was only the start, the stomach of the golden wolf began to expand, and its desperate howl began to increase in intensity, as it seemed to be sending out a message.
The horde of wolves attacking the nearly destroyed town began to retreat towards the golden wolf, and it began to snap at them as it consumed their flesh.
They fearlessly crowded around it, serving as a wall of flesh to protect it. Whatever it was trying to achieve by consuming the wolves was still too late, as the reaction occurring inside the stomach of the wolf reached a breaking point and it exploded.
The explosion was like a red rose blooming inside a field of black and gray. It expanded in a circle as it consumed thousands of wolves around the golden wolf, who had called the majority of its army to his side.
Their dying howls were like a symphony of pain being stretched out for an uncomfortably long time, as Flesh Light vaporized them until the bones, which only lasted a few seconds before it too was consumed, and this dastardly flame made sure to preserve their lives until the last moment.
Rowan himself winced from the sound of ten thousand wolves howling to their deaths.
Flesh Light was a powerful tool against creatures of flesh and blood, it tended to melt them down into gooey soup as it fed on their blood for sustenance.
The bloom of heat emerging from that inferno made Rowan take a step back, while the rest of the people who still lived ran back in shock and pain from the dreadful heat.
Rowan hoped that the sounds from the flames would not tear apart the sanity of some of these folks, but he doubted it. The forces he was currently able to control were not too suitable for the eyes or ears of mortals. Rowan stood alone, and the flames colored his eyes scarlet.
The howl of the golden wolf continued for a while inside the depth of that conflagration before it stopped, most of the wolflike creatures had already hurtled towards the golden wolf before the Flesh Light exploded and only a small amount were left barely in their hundreds, while more than half the town had turned to ash due to the heat from the flames.
As if freed from a spell, the remaining wolves began to flee, and Rowan searched for the spot where most of them were clustered together, and he activated the Ability Rune for Bone Fire.
Aether freely poured into the Ability Rune that resembled a green bamboo, and he straightened his right hand, the air in front of him shivered as if it was a battered wife anticipating the inevitable blow from the abusive husband.
He was nearly pushed back when a pillar of flame that was about half the size of half his body shot out from his hand like a cannon.
The green flames sliced through everything in its path and reached the spots with the greatest clusters of wolflike creatures and began tearing its way through them.
Rowan began moving his hands steadily to the left, as the flame left a trail of devastation along its path. Anything it touches would be melted through and a second later, it would explode.
After making a 90° sweep through everything in front of him, Rowan let the flames die out, shaking his hand as if discarding a phantom flamethrower. The wine he held in his left hand still had a quarter of its content left, and it was a very fine wine.