Lumin started walking, to a place only he knew he was going.
He advances into the forest behind the palace.
He rushes through the bushes and trees, knowing he doesn't have time to lose, he needs to get out quickly, the imperial guard is sure on its way towards the place where the explosion happened, the palace.
He moves as fast as he can, but the poison and the exhaustion of using almost all his mana are catching up.
He starts hearing howls and a dry cracking sound, like branches snapping at the distance, but he pays no attention, only looking forward trying not to crash into any tree with the little light that the full moon displayed through the leaves.
After some minutes walking, almost running, he crashes into a cliff's apron and drops to his knees and starts looking for something.
His sight is blurry, his muscles feels heavy, his breathing is erratic; the poison is worse now that he can't control it with mana.
"Yes!" He exclaimed with emotions after he had found what he was looking for.
He tore off a flower from the floor and shoved it into his mouth.
The flower was dark blue with yellow amber shiny stripes and brown and white spots on its petals; the amber stripes shone with a low light even at night, making it extremely beautiful.
As he ate the flower, a burning pain stirs in his guts acknowledging the power of the flower.
"Aoooouu!" A deep howl resonates through the forest.
"Fuck…" Finally he notices the wolves and a shiver runs down his spin.
Silently, six eyes stare down at him through the bushes; he can barely see anything, and his body isn't answering correctly.
"Rrrrggh!" The one in front of him growled low as the other two pairs of eyes vanished into the darkness.
As the only one visible slowly crept towards him, he felt the leaves of the bushes at his sides sweeping strangely, but there was not even a gentle breeze blowing through that forest.
He hurriedly prepares for the attacks, getting into a defensive stance as he calmly tries to figure out how to get out of there.
He is in the worst position he can imagine: surrounded by wolves, a cliff base behind him, poisoned and suffering from mana exhaustion, wich makes using any spell almost impossible.
The two wolves hiding at his sides leapt to his spot without warning; he was prepared, but his reaction was too slow.
All the damage to his body that had built up to this moment made him curse under his breath as he tried to cover one of the claw attacks, the one coming from the right, with his forearm, failing to do so.
While he was defending his right, the beast at his left take advantage of his lack of defense on his side and buried its fangs into his left calf.
On top of all that, he was heavily harmed. On his right forearm two brutal, deep and long cuts displayed from his wrist to his elbow, with jagged and torn edges that were gruesomely bleeding.
While on the wolf on his left was clung to his leg with its fangs.
Lumin pushed the one on his right with the little strength that still remained in his forearm and punched the one biting his calf as hard as he could on its snout to get it to retreat.
The two wolves swiftly stepped to the sides of the one wolf that was still before him, watching with unbothered and arrogant eyes, watching his every move, deciding what to do next.
Lumin growled in pain as he prepared for another attack.
While still thinking what to do next, the two wolves vanished into the darkness again. However, this time, the wolf facing him walked slowly towards him.
After two seconds that lasted an eternity, in the silence of the night the three wolves rushed to finish off their prey.
But those two seconds gave Lumin the opportunity to gather all the mana he could to cast an intermediate spell.
"Plasma Fortress…" Lumin cried out with all his energy left.
A circle of dark orange and red walls of fire emerged from a rough drawn formation at the ground beneath him, to stabilize the spell that would normally need just a thought from him but now was extremely difficult to cast.
Catching the three wolves unprepared, the firewall protected Lumin from the attack and burned some of the fur and skin of the wolves. Making them squirm and retreat to prepare a second strike when he made a mistake.
Lumin grabbed his lacerated and bruised arm as he walked carefully, never lowering his guard, as he limped out of the forest.
He stumbled over rocks and sticks on the ground, without falling down.
Dragging his left leg through the grass and earth beneath his feet.
His gaze scans carefully his dark surroundings, looking for any signs that the wolves that previously attacked him, or new ones, strike at his vulnerable state.
Finally after some minutes, hours or seconds, he emerged out of the forest. He fell face onto the ground as he finally saw a well-worn cobblestone road.
"Argh… fuck…" He spited tiredly.
His mind began to fade away with his energy left, his heart beating at high pace, as he finally closed his eyes against his own will.