Even when everything was said and done, we couldn't find the League of Shadows or Shadow Legion. Unlike the other legions, they didn't have a fixed territory to call their home base. We had no idea where their agents might be hiding.
As for the remaining six demonic legions, half of them had joined us, pledging their fealty to me. The last three legions had remained aloof, adopting a wait and see attitude. They weren't openly hostile, but they didn't bend their knee yet.
"They are waiting," Eleanor explained to me. "They want to see if you can subdue the Shadow Legion before they make their decision. At the same time, they don't dare to antagonize you and end up like the insect legion, so they are refraining from hostilities."
"Makes sense," I replied with a nod. Of the three demonic legions who had now joined us, one of them was the prowlers, a legion of werewolves not unlike kobolds. Unlike kobolds, they had human forms, but they transformed into humanoid wolf creatures with fangs and talons. They were related and contained a huge number of kobolds within their ranks, but they were essentially werewolves.
The Alpha of their legion, a werewolf named Owen Wolfe, had challenged me to open combat, as was their custom. Like the dragon legion, the prowler legion only recognized leaders with strength. If I wanted their loyalty, I had to prove myself to them.
The duel was swift and brutal. Owen Wolfe was a massive man when in human form, with three white claw scars over his face. From what I had heard, he had fought his way to the top of his pack, brutally hurling down challengers while scaling the hierarchy in ruthless fashion. His tanned skin matched his wild, unruly dark hair, and he grew a beard that gave him a menacing look. Muscles rippled underneath his sleeveless vest, his biceps bulging. He glared at me with crimson eyes, and despite the white claw marks on the left side of his face, his eye was left untouched.
Cool.
"We only recognize those who possess strength," Owen Wolfe snarled as he sized me up. He was almost two meters tall, and thus towered over my relatively short frame. His lips curled into a sneer when he looked down on my diminutive form. "If you want to be our Alpha Prime, then you must best me in combat and prove your prowess."
"I intend to do exactly that," I assured him with a smile. Pushing my glasses up my nose, I cocked my head to the side. "You have nothing against magic or weapons, do you?"
"Not at all," Owen replied with a feral grin. "Magic is part of your innate arsenal. Denying you its use is the same as forbidding us prowlers from transforming into our true forms. Where is the honor or fairness in that? As for weapons, if we're weak enough to lose to your skill with a weapon, then that's our fault."
He raised a hand and I watched in awe as it elongated and morphed into clawed talons. Owen's grin widened.
"We have our own weapons, after all. It's no fun if we one-sidedly rip you apart just because we deprive you of your weapons."
"Fair enough." I nodded, but I only brought a single weapon with me – my sword, Blood Angel. I left Night Fang, Nocturne and my various weapons and devices to the side, unstrapping my utility harness and dropping it into Stella's waiting hands.
"Are you sure about this?" Stella asked with a frown.
"Yeah," I replied. "I don't want to overdo it. I'm here to prove my strength and convince them that I am fit to command their pack. If I go in guns blazing with a whole bunch of different weapons, I don't think I will be able to earn their respect. They would think I'm too scheming or rely too much on tools and trickery. If I want to persuade them, I need to keep things simple and prevail through my own strength. They won't complain if I win with a single sword."
"You can just crush him with your spells," Stella pointed out, eying Own Wolfe warily.
"Depends on whether I can hit him with my spells," I replied dryly. Prowlers were known for being incredibly fast, after all.
We took our positions at both ends of the arena and watched each other. At the side, one of the prowlers, Erik Carver, swung his hand down to signal the start of the match.
In less than a second, Owen Wolfe transformed into his bestial form. It looked almost as if he was shedding his human appearance, fur erupting all over his body. His muscles swelled and expanded, and his two-meter frame rose to three and a half meters. Claws burst from his fingers, his hands transforming into wicked talons. His bearded face stretched, turning into a snout. Sniffing the air, he opened his jaws slightly to reveal two rows of glistening dagger-shaped teeth.
Throwing his head back, he howled. For a moment, I was taken aback by the sheer volume. It was so loud and intimidating that I almost mistook it for a sonic attack. For all I knew, it might actually be an inadvertent sonic assault.
However, I weathered the howl and stood my ground. Gripping Blood Angel tightly, I adopted a defensive stance and prepared to fight.
Then Owen Wolfe disappeared.
"Whoa?!"
I almost didn't see him coming at me. Stepping back in reflex, I avoided getting eviscerated by his claws. I barely managed to raise Blood Angel in time to deflect his next slash, the claws banging against the crimson blade and causing it to vibrate violently.
Clicking my tongue, I swiftly cast a few spells. Icicles rained down upon Owen Wolfe's position, but the werewolf disappeared from my sight once more. The icicles streaked through thin air and hammered into the ground.
Looking around cautiously, I almost didn't parry Owen's next slash in time. This time, I sent blood stakes erupting from the ground to impale him from below, but Owen's preternatural senses allowed him to avoid them, his form vanishing into a blur as he zigzagged across the ground.
My spells couldn't keep up with him. As I suspected, Owen Wolfe was too fast. I felt like a noob in a shooter game, unable to get a target lock on a strafing opponent.
Fortunately, I was able to counter speed with stillness. Rather than contest Owen in speed, I relied completely on my reflexes to deflect and parry his slashes. Once, his head snaked toward me, his jaws attempting to clamp upon my throat, but I repelled his bite with a timely swing of my sword. Even Owen's fangs wouldn't be able to withstand the crimson blade.
Whirling about, he kicked at me, wickedly curved talons poised to rake deep cuts across my body if I didn't block it with Blood Angel. I cursed and tried to send more blood spears shooting out from the ground, but he was always one step ahead of me.
Then I sent a hail of icicles from above. Owen Wolfe evaded the majority of them once more, but I was able to adjust my aim by calculating his trajectory and movements. My enchanted glasses highlighted the paths he was most likely to take and I sent a barrage of icicles to cover all of them.
Owen Wolfe cursed, but he didn't slow down. Instead, he spun about and slashed at the incoming icy projectiles with his claws, shattering them instantly. Frost fragments pelted him, but none of them penetrated his thick fur, which doubled as a kind of natural armor.
The alpha simultaneously dodged the majority of the icicles while swatting away those that he couldn't evade. I switched from icicles to blood spears, but Owen Wolfe continued what he had been doing, the enhanced blood spears – augmented by Blood Angel – proving to be similarly ineffective against his claws and fur.
No wonder he was the alpha and a Divine General. His abilities were certainly topnotch. No ordinary mage would be able to deal with him.
Fortunately, I was no ordinary mage.
"No choice…Absolute Zero!"
Without any hesitation, I cast my ultimate ice spell. The entire arena vanished in an explosion of white. As the dense fog cleared, the whole place was covered in ice.
However, Owen Wolfe was far from frozen. His fur was coated in a layer of frost, but he continued to lope over the frozen landscape and slash at me. Evidently, his fur protected him from the cold.
But that was impossible. No matter how thick his fur was, there was no way any living organism could survive temperatures of negative 273 degrees Celsius.
Then I realized how he was surviving the extreme temperatures. Just like Yvonne and most warriors, such as knights, he had coalesced his battle aura into a protective wreath of energy that guarded him from external elements. Battle auras were resistant against magic, from what I had heard, which allowed knights to fight on equal ground against mages.
As expected of the alpha of the prowler legion. He didn't rise to the rank of alpha for nothing.
Snarling, Owen bounded over the temporary tundra and lunged at me, his claws slashing out. I managed to parry his strike, but the momentum behind the attack sent me spinning to the ground. I rolled away and bounced back to my feet immediately, only to block a second slash. Grunting, I skidded across the slippery, icy surface.
"Not bad," Owen growled, his voice still strangely human despite his current monstrous appearance. He paused, skidding to a halt atop the frozen surface, and raised a paw to his snout. Licking the frost off, he shook more of the ice away from his claws. "I didn't expect that last spell of yours to damage me."
"I didn't expect you to survive that last spell of mine," I admitted with a shrug. "Not that I was trying to kill you, but I thought you would at least be incapacitated."
"It'll take more than that to subdue me," Owen replied hoarsely. He shook his body about, cracking more of the ice. "But I'll give you credit for hurting me badly.
He pounced on me again. Now, I noticed how much his movements had slowed. Evidently Absolute Zero had injured him severely, to hamper his formerly incredible speed to this extent.
Even so, Owen remained a formidable opponent. I was barely able to deflect his next slash before he whirled about to kick me. If I hadn't brought the hilt of my sword down to block his talons, he would have disemboweled me with that kick.
Scary.
Spinning about gracefully, Owen Wolfe struck me again, forcing me back to the defensive. I allowed one of his powerful strikes to hurl me back, taking advantage of the massive momentum to put as much distance between us as possible.
Not that it mattered. With Owen's speed, he could close in on me almost immediately.
My one saving grace was that he was still hindered by my Absolute Zero and considerably slowed down. So before he reached me, I raised Blood Angel and released its second form.
"Divine Ascension!"
Crimson, corrosive blood flowed off my katana and engulfed the entire area, flooding the arena in an instant.
"Night of the Bloody Armageddon."
"What's this?" Owen Wolfe snarled and recoiled when his fur sizzled upon contact with the corrosive blood. Even so, he gathered his battle aura about him to protect him from the worst of damages. I saw his snout curled into an inhuman grin. "Ho…interesting."
He lunged forward excitedly, slashing at me. I met his claws with my Blood Angel. The impact from the collision sent ripples across the sea of blood that now surrounded us.
"Ha ha ha ha!"
Owen Wolfe chortled as he traded furious blows with me. Blood continued to corrode and eat away at his fur, exposing raw muscle and at times white bone. Despite sustaining fatal injuries, Owen continued to pummel me as best as he could, using a dizzying array of attacks. Slashes, kicks, bites, if he could execute them, he would. Several times, he almost took me by surprise.
I knew that this would be a battle of attrition. Like me, Owen Wolfe had regenerative abilities. I was amazed at the speed with which his wounds healed. Acid burns disappeared and fur regrew within seconds. White bone disappeared underneath knitting muscles, which was then buried beneath fur once more.
With an enthusiastic howl, Owen Wolfe slashed at my neck, forcing me to parry his claws again.
"You're the best!" the prowler alpha bellowed. "The best opponent ever!"
"I'm glad to hear that," I replied while fending off his next strike. "I was worried that I disappointed you."
"No, you didn't. But I'll admit that I did underestimate you."
Owen Wolfe splashed through the deadly sea of blood to tear my threat out, but I spun away. Finally seeing a chance, I lowered my guard. Lost to his instincts, Owen went for my jugular.
Gambling everything on this final strike, I thrust Blood Angel upward just before his teeth could close around my neck.
"Ugh?!"
Owen shuddered as my sword pierced his chest and he stopped just millimeters away from my neck. I could see the drool dripping from his fangs and falling into the sea of blood that pooled around our feet.
"…damn it."
With a frustrated growl, Owen Wolfe finally collapsed, his reserves of energy and battle aura finally diminished. Just as exhausted, I allowed him to slide off my sword and watched him crash into the sea of corrosive blood in front of me.
"You win."
"Thanks for allowing me to win."
I quickly dismissed my Bankai…ahem, I mean Blood Barrier. I didn't want to lose such a powerful subordinate.
"Match is over! It's the Demonic Emperor's victory!"
Erik Carver quickly announced the result of the match before rushing over, along with other prowlers. I was kneeling by Owen's side and checking on him. He had finally shut his eyes and lost consciousness, but his chest was rising and falling in a steady rhythm.
"He'll live," Carver assured me. I gave him a look.
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah. We prowlers are tough. Don't sweat it." he placed a hand on my shoulder and I could feel the unnatural strength coiled behind his grip. He grinned, and for some reason his mouth was filled with too many teeth. "That was a great fight. You did well, my lord. From now on, as our alpha promised, we'll recognize you as alpha prime."
Then, as one, all the surrounding prowlers sank to their knees and offered me their throats. I swept my gaze across them before nodding.
I had just acquired my very own pack of prowlers.