Two young males placed their dirtied hands on each of Dire's shoulders before attempting to turn him over. But with the first try, they were verbally punished by his dying words.
"Urgh! You bleeders. No wonder why we were defeated!" Dire's pained voice haunted their ears.
Realizing what caused the reaction, the male on his left side noticed the beaten skin and fractured bone sticking into the ground.
"Narshak, vinok shashidy veveria haravik? (Hey, do I turn him over?)" He asked his ally.
In response, the other Feral nodded. Hoping to keep Dire from knowing the obvious pain he was about to endure. Without another thought, the first male wrapped his hands around the arm.
And yanked it out. Dirt and blood erupted from its grave, staining the area around them even more. But most importantly, causing agonizing pain to Dire.
He howled in pain, even kicked his feet. With each hit, he hoped to frighten the other Ferals back. So they could stop injuring him.
But they did not care. Frightened by the bigger threat, the several Infinus packs surrounding them, they only watched as two males prepared their alpha to be tortured.
"Sisilik, (Turn,)" the first Feral ordered.
In unison, they did just that. They turned Dire on his back, landing right on his broken arm. Causing even more pain. Blood poured out the open cut like running water, while his head pounded with pain.
"I'll kill all of you! Every. Single. One. Hell calls to me, but I refuse to answer! When I come back, all of you will be dead. No one survives," Dire howled.
But no one cared. Especially the Infinus forces. Instead, they watched. Amused by the willingness to follow orders without question... which wasn't what they wanted.
Sernatacus walked behind Kellenas. He looked at the rows of surviving Ferals standing a few steps away, hoping to whisper low enough as to not alarm them.
"Are you seriously going to spare them?" He asked, eager to know.
"Look at them. Hurting their own leader without a second thought. Foolish, every single one. I'll give my cue to ambush when it's time," Kellenas replied.
Pleased, Sernatacus shifted his attention to the mobbing Ferals. They formed a straight line leading up over Dire's dying body.
The first Feral loomed over his former leader. Orange eyes looked down at him, secretly and silently begging for forgiveness. Until he reached down for a tooth.
Right as his hand grazed one of the upper front teeth, Dire tried to bite his hand off. Two jaws parted and lunged forward, hoping to catch prey in its return. But ended up worsening his situation.
"Hold that beast into place!" Kellenas barked an order.
Three Ferals got out of line. Each one took a position over Dire's body. One held his shoulders down, while another held his forehead down, and the last sacrificed the palms of their hands by grabbing his teeth and opening his lower jaw.
Dire tried to struggle out of it, but couldn't. Defeated and rapidly losing strength, he just sat back and allowed it to happen. Screams of agony came in waves.
The first male tried again. His hand dropped down to the same tooth. Once he got a good grip on it, he tore it off. Dire screamed, begging for his tooth to be driven into his throat. But they would not obey.
Instead, he stabbed it into his stomach as Kellenas instructed. After he was done, the Feral marched back to see his new alpha. With each step he took, he bowed his head and lowered his body.
Showing his new pledged loyalty to Kellenas, Reinforced by Etek Dur. Something Kellenas witnessed. He crossed his arms as the Feral bowed. Disgusted by the sudden change of sides.
"Being a Feral means being forever loyal to the pack that raised you. If your pack behaved in a hierarchy, then be as loyal to the one at the top. But you - you betrayed him," Kellenas thought.
His invisible words were interrupted by another Feral bowing her head and lowering herself onto one knee. She stood still, hoping to camouflage with the dirt and grass around.
But Kellenas' vicious predatory eyes cut right through her disguise. His heartbeat sped back up to a regular pace. Alerting him the hunt was over, but the conflict was not.
Over the course of the next hour, each surviving Feral tore out a tooth and plunged it into Dire's stomach and chest. Leaving the half-dead Feral soaked in his own blood.
Which was when Kellenas stepped forward. Every survivor stepped aside, allowing their new alpha to walk through unhindered. They watched him stand over Dire, head turned down to him.
"You lived like an animal, fought like an animal, talked like an animal. Now you die like an animal," he spat his poison.
Dire silently watched as Kellenas effortlessly lifted him up by his hair. One hand reached onto the mostly toothless bottom jaw, another to the upper jaw. Blood tainted his hands.
The damp feeling of a bleeding mouth filled his mind, distracting him from what he was about to do. Allowing his body to do the rest of the work.
With both hands, he pulled Dire's jaws apart. Muscles tried their hardest to keep the lower and upper jaw together. But after enough resistance, they snapped.
Kellenas proceeded to rip the rest of the jaw off Dire's face. Effectively killing him in the process. That was the first of many Light Legion leader's death. In his mind, Kellenas knew.
Every elite, every warrior, every leader. Each would bite the tooth of a sword. Head mounted on their chest, a horrific display of anger and might.
"Beast of nature, gone," Kellenas commented. "Gone by the hands he raised using the teeth he spoke through."
He turned his attention to the survivors. "Who was the one who did most of the work? Come to me."
From the very back of the group, the first male stepped through. His fellow survivors silently congratulated him for pleasing his new master with a loyal display.
Unbeknownst to the murderous reason behind being called up to face the alpha.
Kellenas reached out his hand. "What is your name?"
The male reached up to shake the hand of his new leader. "It's - "
Before he could respond, Kellenas used his other hand to deliver an upward strike to his elbow. His skin stretched as his bone rubbed it. Just as he uttered a scream, Kellenas drove the bone into his eye.
With that, the massacre began. Infinus Ferals picked a victim and viciously ripped them apart. The survivors roared in desperate attempts to keep them back.
But each attempt to stop the advancing murderers failed. Instead of slowing down, they pushed harder.
Those that were quickly dealt with became the lucky ones as those that didn't receive such luxury quickly became overrun by bites, punches, slashes.
Each Feral made sure to deal with their prey in the most horrific way possible. Painting the forest red.
Sernatacus and two other Alpha Males watched from afar. Taking in the display of violence with great interest. The treat of a victorious assault.
As he watched, he saw something that made him question his decision to deal with those Ferals in such a bloodthirsty manner.
One male held the hand of a female. They two embraced each other as females clawed their eyes out and males bit their limbs off.
"We truly are monsters," Sernatacus thought.
After ten minutes, the mobbing ceased. Instead of murderous intensions, the Ferals laughed it off. They tackled new friends they made while on their crusades to reclaim Etek Dur.
Some new, closer bonds were made during the attacks. Evident by a Feral who wore loincloth decorated with the name of her pack and the symbol of the Infinus Legion.
She rested on the back of a male who was covered in vile blood. It slowly dripped down his body as he walked with his new mate on his back.
As some blood dropped to the dirt below. A fair amount got soaked up by a large band on his left arm. It had the symbol of Sernatacus' pack on it, the Zeriro pack, colored in the Infinus' colors.
"Etek Dur is yours again," an Alpha Male spoke to Kellenas.
He nodded, pleased with the outcome. "Mine? No, no, no. I did not claim this forest on my own. With the help of every smaller branch of my pack and the efforts of several other packs, this forest returned to me."
"So I ask you," Kellenas opened his arms. "Does your pack want to belong to a forest?"
The Alpha Male turned to see his newfound allies. Each one looked back at him, waiting to hear his response.
"Is there room for them?"
"Of course," Kellenas replied.
Without missing a heartbeat, the alpha responded. "Then yes. We will return to our nature."
Sernatacus slowly drifted to the main group. "With Etek Dur under our command, what's next?"
Kellenas turned his attention to the skies. "Before I answer that question, I have to ask some Variants a few questions."