We rush through the forest hot on the attacker's trail heading north, our plans for what to do with the attacker becoming more sadistic as we rush on, when suddenly we lose the trail for a second causing us to stop. I turn west slightly and pick the scent up again. Confused, I teleport to the end of the forest on the west side and see a perilous waterfall that would shred the attacker to bits if they tried going that way.
I teleport back, to see my dad, human once more pacing anxiously. When he sees me he approaches quickly.
"did you find the attacker?"
"no, the waterfall is this way so I think the attacker is trying to mislead us to go west so they can escape" I say to him.
"that sounds plausible, but its at least worth it to check if in fact the attacker went west" he says with a thoughtful look on his face.
In an effort to reinforce my claims, I rip a little orange tree out of the ground and launch it as far as I can westward. Before the tree touched the ground, it had been riddled full of knives, poison darts, bullets from an automatic rifle and then just before it hit the ground it was scooped up by a net and acid rained down from the top of the tree directly into the net, burning a hole in the net through which the melting tree fell to the ground causing the grass around it to sizzle out and die.
My dad audibly gulps and says in a scared tone "you know what? I think we should go north, or anywhere except west" he says. Just then a leaf falls onto his shoulder and he turns so fast and runs back south causing me to roll on the ground in a laughing fit.
"It's not funny" he says angrily
"It is to me" I squeeze out between laughs
"You know what I'm leaving you here" he says and stomps off sulking
" Wait up drama queen" I yell out towards him, before teleporting right into step beside him, my sudden appearance making him jump slightly.
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
We continue our hunt in silence and encounter some other delicate traps that were made with such need to kill us that we concluded that this attacker must be a serious psychopath.
As we get closer to the northern boundary of the pack we come under heavy fire from a lot of traps, one eventually nicking my dad in the arm but he heals quite quickly. We make it through and then were propelled forward by a bomb going off right where we were literally 5 seconds ago. We get up,dust ourselves off and turn around to see that the grass and trees we had just passed through was now a crater with trees strewn around and smoke rising out of the ground. A sudden blast of heat forces us to step back as the trees we were hiding under go up in flames. I rub my arms with my palms as I suddenly feel a shiver run down my spine. I turn to my dad and see him shudder too.
"I guess I'm not the only one who is a little scared of this psychopath" I say to him with a small chuckle as I try to lighten the mood.
"I guess I'm just a little terrified at the planning the attacker must have put into this" he says back jokingly
"yeah, if we didn't want to kill her I'd have definitely recommended her to you to help strengthen the borders" I joke back with a smile
"unfortunately, she has to die so, let's get going" he says and then looks off into the distance as his eyes glaze over indicating that he's using the mind link to communicate with the pack
"okay lets go hunt this smartass down before dinner time cause your mom is serving chocolate cake for dessert" he says as he licks his lips hungrily before adding in a frantic voice "also the fire is spreading this way so let's get a move on, hopefully we'll capture her before reaching the packs boundaries. But if not we'll circle back and help the wolves I instructed to put out the fire before it reaches the pack"
"sounds like a plan old man" I reply
"hey I'm not that old" he says in a mock angry tone
"sure cause 54 is the new 22" I say sarcastically to which he playfully punches me on the arm. As we walk we soon come to a clearing in the midst of the trees with werewolf skulls mounted on stakes all around the clearing
"dad when did you add a barbarian style wolf burial ground to your pack" I ask with a puzzled expression
"we didn't son. I believe were in the rogue lands" he says as he goes on high alert. His ears perked up as he stands ready to turn at a moment's notice.
"the traps must have been designed to funnel us right to this spot, but why this spot?" I ask, clearly puzzled by the killer's choice puzzled
"as for the why, I don't really know" he says "but let's just head back to pack lands where it's safe" he continues.
As we turn around we see a group of about 19 werewolves come out from behind some trees and surround us. I look up into the rustling tree branches to find a girl with fiery red hair perched on one of the lowest hanging branches. She has twin katanas secured to her back and a mask covering the lower half of her face.
She looks us over for a few minutes before jumping down and advancing towards us. My dad hides his burnt hands from the wolfsbane behind his back trying to conceal the alphas ring. A movement which causes the girls eyes to narrow for a few seconds, then she nods her head and the wolves start attacking as they hurl their five-foot-tall bodies at us.
My dad immediately shifts into his eight-foot-tall wolf, the sheer size and power emanating from his werewolf forcing the rogues back for a few moments before they start to attack again. I lock eyes with the one rushing in my direction and place my left hand on the hilt of a silver tipped dagger I keep on the waistband of my jeans. As the distance between us grows shorter I start counting down
10m, 9m, 8m, 7m, 6m, 5m, 4m....
the wolf dives forward with his maw open, the sharp teeth inside aiming for my neck. I step to the side and pull the knife on my waistband out and with one fluid motion drive it into his throat and withdraw my hand quickly as the werewolf crashes to the ground with blood spraying out of its neck and the life draining out of its eyes as quickly as gas escaping a punctured aerosol can.
that is if you punctured it with a buzz saw.
the fighting quiets down as the rogues look on in awe at the human that killed a wolf single handedly. After the moment is passed the fighting resumes with 4 wolves peeling off from attacking my dad to attack me. I stick my hands behind my back again as I stick my fingers into the pocket and bring out a few more knives laced with silver.
A sudden searing pain in my shoulder forces me to the floor with a scream that draws my dad's attention away from his fight and gives a rogue the opportunity to bite into his shoulder. An opportunity that I halt by burying all the knives in my hands into the five wolves surrounding him and adding them to the pile of dead wolves at my dad's feet.
My stupid sacrifice leaves me open to the four wolves already lunging for me as the pain clouds my brain and gives me no chance to defend myself. I close my eyes and accept my fate when a black blur knocks all the other wolves into a tree. And then the 7-foot-tall monster makes quick work of the rest of the wolves before coming back over to me and licking me in the face.
"cut it out snow you're getting dog slobber all over me" I say with a smile as the pain recedes, he stops licking me but nudges me with his head as his tongue sticks out of his mouth
"i missed you too buddy" i say as i get back to my feet. I open the first three buttons of my shirt to notice a new tattoo on my skin. My former tattoo of a lightning bolt that I got when I became blessed of Zeus has morphed and in its place, is a hammer stuck in the ground during a lightning storm and right above the clouds is....
That's impossible...
I decide to deal with it later and button my shirt back up. I scratch snow's head as he sticks his tongue out and wags his tail. I turn to my dad who looks extremely concerned for me.
At least as much emotion as you can read off a wolf
"I'm fine" I say to him with a reassuring smile before continuing more solemnly "but in a few minutes, that's going to change"
"why is that? We already won, we killed all the rogues" he asks after shifting back,with confusion written all over his face
"because our friend up there in the trees has the most brutal gift of all" I say as I pick up a large cassette tape from a broken cassette player on the floor, grabbing the springs and jamming them into the center of the take up spool and the supply spool. I open it up and run the tape onto the other reel until its half and half. Then using a little alchemy from my bro Hermes, I turn the tape into thin elastic silver ropes and close the cassette after tying the ends of the rope to two 6 inch long knives and dropping the knives to the floor.
The satisfying sound of the rope being sucked back in and the knives fitting perfectly into the contraption I hooked to my back has me very hopeful as I turn to my dad.
"her gift comes from the one person the giver of my new blessing hates, and the most hated god on Olympus" I say to him as snows ear's perk up and he starts to growl
"you can't possibly mean..." my dad says shocked
"it is" I reply
"it's not possible" he says while shaking his head
"it's the only explanation for my new gift, he's choosing me as his champion" I reply
just then an arrow whizzes past us, the feather tickling my ear as it passes.
"if you're done talking I would like it very much if you could just drop dead right now. It'll save me the hassle of having to kill you myself" she says in a sickly sweet voice
"Awfully sorry but we'll have to pass on your offer, I very much like breathing" I reply
" Then prepare to die" she says and then she draws her swords and charges right at us
'People blessed by Ares are so fucking impatient' I think to myself as my Athenian blessing kicks in and my brain starts analyzing ways to kill her.
Long story cut short she apparently wasn't alone which is evident from the 34 extra werewolves who burst out of the woods.
we are so royally fucked.....