Chapter 433: Running From Wolves
"I’m not sure how to kill it!" Malz shouted as Anko jerked her out of the way of another set of ice spikes. "We should focus on getting away!"
Ferro was already working on that, trying to bring them further south.
As they dodged and fled, Malz tried to consider their options. Her suit felt close to half-full mana wise, but she’d used it far less than Ferro and Anko. The homeostasis functions, while they’d been walking through the cold, didn’t drain the suits much, but they had slowed the rate at which the suits would store mana.
And the suits had a lot of functions in addition to a versatility Heaven would have killed for. The lightness of the material, its durability and ability to self-repair - as Ferro had confirmed when ripping the crotch of his open in order to urinate - were comparable to godflesh without any of the setbacks. Like needing to lose part of one’s flesh to incorporate it.
But for all their benefits, their limits were something they had to deal with now.
And one of those limits was staring her in the face.
Just behind the nape of Ferro’s neck, the bar centered on the back of his suit collar was descending from orange to dark red.
It’s because he cleared the path for us, Malz realized. If they’d been more cautious, they would have conserved more mana for their suits, perhaps relying on Ferro’s magic instead. But they hadn’t known to be cautious since Malz had assumed the snowstorm would drive anything dangerous into hiding.
She’d only ever heard of snow before coming to Ayther, but Anko had lived in a city and didn’t trust her own experience. Not when Malz had been trained in survival. In other words, she’d made a bad call, and now she was the only person with enough energy in her suit to potentially save them from their situation.
"H-hey! Watch it!" Anko yelped as Malz climbed along the demon to get a peek at the back of her collar. Her battery light was already in the red.
"Shit." Why was Anko’s suit already in the red? She’d used it less than Ferro... It’s because she’s carrying me. Malz needed to decide now, and she needed everyone to be aware of what the situation was. Against a foe like the one below them, with her magic as useless as it was at the moment, running was still their only option, and flight was the best way to do that.