"I'll greet them."
Xitraq opened the door, greatly shocking Piers and Vansel who tried to stop her only for her to quickly shut the door, preventing them from interfering. "Just nice...it's been a few months since I last tasted vampire blood on my axe." Xitraq tells the vampire.
The bronze baton Xitraq held began transforming, extending itself and deploying into her battle axe almost instantaneously.
"What the hell? I gotta help her." Piers says, sliding on his wrist armor.
"How can I help?" Vansel checked their corners.
"I don't know. They may look small but they are just as strong as us, faster even. I guess just stay out of the way, no offense." Piers tells Vansel, opening the door to back up Xitraq.
Vansel agreed, quickly opening his door and noticing several more shadowy figures emerging from the trees around them. Dozens of them. Vansel's heart was beating rapidly as he clenched his fists, prepared to do anything to survive. The former marine turned around, trying to grab anything he could to defend himself when he saw Piers and Xitraq both, transforming into their wolf forms and attacking the enemy.
Piers had two wrist blades, each a meter long and in his werewolf form, the young teenager charged at the vampire in front of them, swinging his weapons with such force that Vansel could feel bursts of air with each swing being made.
The vampire dodged with impressive speed, jumping aside only for Xitraq to slam her battle axe into his chest, slicing him in two. "Piers!" Xitraq yelled as the younger werewolf leapt upwards with his twin blades, slicing down a vampire mid air only for another to slam right into him, slashing at the werewolf with deadly speed.
Piers roared in pain, kicking the vampire back as Xitraq caught the vampire by the head, decapitating him in a swing before more began swarming them. Xitraq scanned her surroundings, four...seven...a dozen...two dozen...
"They knew we were here somehow." Xitraq says, helping Piers up who managed to quickly push Xitraq aside as another vampire lunged at him, Piers reacting quickly and kicking the charging enemy against the car that dented upon impact. "There shouldn't be so many...I thought we hunted almost all of them down?"Piers asks.
The vampire got back up, slashing his claws at Xitraq who side stepped, but the vampire was quicker, sinking his claws into Xitraq's waist. Xitraq grit her teeth, tanking the pain as she ripped the vampire away from herself, tossing the monster towards Piers who slashed the vampire apart.
"The Lord himself must have infected a new badge of humans. This is the first sign of activeness from him in years. One of us has to survive. Woxlife needs to know about this." Xitraq suggests.
"I can fight...you mentioned that I can turn right? Tell me. How do I turn?" Vansel asks them.
"I wouldn't suggest it. It takes time for one to control their wolf. "Xitraq quickly answered before stopping herself, the pain at her waist starting to hinder her. Xitraq grit her teeth, tightening her belt to lessen the bleeding.
"Xitraq...if we were to survive this....he has to." Piers tells her, despite being fairly uncomfortable with the idea himself. They were outnumbered pathetically. Xitraq scanned her enemies once more, hoping that she could make the right combat decisions this time as she nods:" Okay Vansel...focus your raw emotions, tell yourself and your body that you want to access these emotions. Your control of the wolf depends on your emotional state so I would suggest a clear, neutral feel in your heart in order to have full control."
"Okay..."Vansel closed his eyes, digging through his memories.
The first time he was in combat, his first shot, his first kill during his service, the first time he had felt himself being shot, his return home, his divorce his Amy, Demi's medical conditions, him losing his income....the pain...the rage all swelled inside him as Vansel roared.
He could feel the muscles in his arms and chest, slowly down to his legs, shoulders and neck growing incredibly unnaturally.
His body itched all over, fur sprouting out from every inch of his skin. His face itself, stretching and distorting itself into the shape of a wolf. He could feel his senses sharpening, his eyesight now able to see through the darkness, his ears taking in every last decibel of his surroundings and his smell...the scent of blood around him was...overwhelming.
Vansel could feel the burning sensation of rage in his heart enveloping every last thought in his head as the wolf overtook him.
"Piers...we've seen his power. We should stay away." Xitraq advised.
The transformed Vansel towered above them, grabbing the car with one arm and tossing it into a row of unsuspecting vampires who were crushed in an instant before they could even react to the wolf's terrifying speed.
"There goes my only car." Xitraq was in disbelief.
"I think we should get back." Piers shook her.
Vansel's wolf form burst from vampire to vampire, his claws slashing them apart like paper, most of the vampires didn't even have any chance to react to his astounding speed as one by one, the dozens of vampires were reduced to just a few left. Xitraq and Piers watched as Vansel smashed his way through the last rows of vampires, biting and ripping their bodies till there was nothing left, leaving just himself standing in the field of vampire corpses he had just created.
They were all dead.
Every last vampire now nothing more than dead chunks of flesh on the ground.
"What kind of...that's like something only Woxlife could do in his prime." Piers stepped back in fear as he noticed Vansel turning his attention onto them.
"Vansel...your emotions, keep your rage and sadness down. It will engulf you." Xitraq muttered.
Vansel continued marching towards them, his claws drawn and his sharp teeth, salivating. Piers took a combat stance as to what he expected, Vansel pounced forward onto Piers who quickly raised his twin wrist blades to deflect Vansel's claws, giving Xitraq an opening to duck aside and grab Vansel from behind.
"Vansel! Think straight! Hear us!" Xitraq yelled when Vansel grabbed her by the head, tossing the she wolf off himself, sending Xitraq crashing into a tree.
Piers jumped at the wolf, kicking him in the arm before slashing his blades across Vansel's chest, trying to harm him just enough to stop him from continuing fighting. " Come on Vansel! Don't just focus on your rage, I'm sure you have moments of happiness in your life, think about them!"
Vansel roared, punching the ground beneath them and cracking the road open, grabbing a chunk of debris and hurling it straight into Piers, blasting him back with the force of the projectile in pain.
Xitraq got back up, jumping against the side of a tree, building herself great momentum as she swung her battle axe with everything she had, slamming her weapon into Vansel's ribs. Her attack sent Vansel flying several meters back, his huge body flung away from Piers and the trees around them, rustling violently from the wind produced by Xitraq's attack.
Vansel collapsed onto the ground, spilling a little blood from the wound as he growled, the silver in his eyes glowing menacingly against the cloudy weather.
"I think you only made him more pissed off." Piers noted.
"Thanks Sherlock." Xitraq quickly jumped out of the way as Vansel exploded towards them, slamming Piers away with a simple back hand, sending the younger werewolf crashing into another tree before turning his attention onto Xitraq, biting down on her. Xitraq raised her arm as Vansel bit down on her. Vansel's teeth was denting her forearm armor as Xitraq punched him in the jaw desperately, trying to loosen his bite on her to no avail.
"Come on!" Xitraq used her legs, kicking him rapidly:" Remember your son Vansel!"
Vansel's bite loosened, giving Xitraq the window of time she needed to push herself away from Vansel. Piers got up, prepared to jump at Vansel when Xitraq waved her hand at him, telling him to stop. "Vansel...recall why you are here. Your son...Solar Leaf...you need to cure him remember? Remember the first time you held him in your hands, the first time you were called Dad."
Piers understood what Xitraq was trying to do instantly as he retracted his blades.
"Vansel...calm your nerves."
Vansel seemed to understand her as he stopped his violent actions, pausing for a moment. "Vansel...don't let the rage destroy who you are. Focus on the positive aspects on your life...what's making you wake up every morning determined to do something with your life. Your family...you have to get back to them. Put the anger away for now."
Vansel's eyes started fading out as he began shrinking, the fur covering his body, the sharpened claws and teeth all retracting back, Vansel turning back into his human form once more.
"Welcome back." Piers tells him.
Vansel collapsed onto his knees, his shirt completely ripped apart and his pants, barely holding on. Xitraq tossed him a piece of cloth from her armor, giving Vansel the cover he needed as he looked around them, analyzing the wreckage and bodies." I did all this...?"
"Could you hear me just now?" Xitraq asks.
"Only towards the end...it feels so weird, not being able to control your own body." Vansel admits.
"Yeah...you'll have to learn it soon. Now...you smashed our car so, we have to go back to Mount Diros. Night will be upon us if we decide to take the route to the airport now and we are not even close to it. If we head back to the mountain there's still a chance we get there by night." Xitraq tells them when Vansel noticed blood dripping down from her arm.
"You alright?" Vansel pointed out her wound.
Xitraq looked down, not even noticing the bleeding as she quickly ripped another part of her armored skirt out, wrapping her arm:" I'll survive. We better get going just in case more of them show up. We have to report this to Woxlife."
"Get on my shoulders, I can carry you back." Piers offered.
-
Woxlife looked around him, not able to recognize where he was.
This was not his memory.
Whoever's memory he was peering at, he was fast, leaping over buildings like nothing, skyscrapers that loomed over cities were easily now beneath his feet. The ocean was moving towards him, almost like the sea itself was alive and judging from how modern the city looks...it was safe to assume that this was a future memory.
The scene changed.
It was back in Mount Diros, but one that Woxlife didn't recognize. Everything was...modernized. There were cleaner walls now, made out of smooth steel with beams of light lighting up the hallways. Woxlife looked around him to see the wolves themselves, armored with what seemed like oversized automatic rifles. "We have to prepare for the Headhunters." One of the werewolves said.
Finally...Woxlife's scene changed one more time.
He was surrounded by thousands of wolves. Huntus, Grandyll, Piers, Xitraq along with other comrades he recognized, almost all the warriors of Mount Diros assembling outside their mountain. In the sky, a horrifying swarm of bats and winged vampires, a legion of them about to charge right into them.
"Wolves! Today we make our final stand! It's them or us!"
Woxlife shot his eyes open, getting up from his bed covered in cold sweat.
This may not be his first time experiencing visions of the future, but not once has it not failed to scare him in some way. The feeling of uncertainty, the confusion if his choices could led to the betterment of the future that he saw. Day and day again, the visions were increasing but with each passing vision, everything shown to him was getting more and more vague.
Huntus was there...? Wait...that means. "Woxlife!" A voice broke this chain of thought as a knock on the door was heard. Grandyll's voice poured in:" My King! Xitraq, Piers and Vansel had just been involved in a vampire attack. They claim that there were dozens of them."
Woxlife got dressed, immediately summoning the trio to his work room.
The three werewolves were in their human forms, served warm tea by their King who had already prayed for many years that such news will never come. "Dozens...?" Woxlife asks.
Xitraq nods, confirming her report to the King.
"It seems like what we have feared for the most is about to come. I've fear this day for years now. I think it's time we try and figure out what's going on. Vansel and Piers, do you mind giving the room to us? Piers, if you don't mind, just give Vansel a history breakdown on our natural enemies. I'm sure he needs a ton of questions answered."
"Yeah...yeah that would help." Vansel says as Piers led him out.
Xitraq could tell something was wrong in an instant:" You must have had visions of all this right? Is there anything new you've seen?" Woxlife nods:" I've already confirmed that my next successor isn't Huntus. I've recently seen a new vision, the entire army of the mountain in a final stand against the vampires and among the army, Huntus. "
"So if he's in front of whoever memory your successor is..."
"I suspect...Vansel Being is the next King." Woxlife got straight to the point.
Xitraq laughed, her natural response to hearing something she couldn't believe." The stranger? You believe that this man who just randomly showed up for a few days is fit to lead this kingdom?! Woxlife...tell me you aren't joking. Huntus still doesn't know he has royal blood right?" Xitraq remembered.
"No. He doesn't." Woxlife whispered.
"The fact that Vansel could transform into one of us...one so powerful nevertheless with just a mere scratch from one with royal blood....it is possible." Grandyll analyzed. "Woxlife, how many inheritors did you manage to see?"
"I used to believe it's multiple. But now I think it's always been the same person. Just one."
"It's just stupid Woxlife. No bloody way that wash up is our next King. I refuse to accept it." Xitraq complained. "This is all just a theory for now...of course we don't know exactly what is going to happen next but if Vansel does end up being the next King...it is fate...something none of us can do anything about but to accept. "
"Still...do we have any clue when?" Xitraq looked at the King.
"No. We don't." Grandyll helped Woxlife answer.
Before the trio could have some peace, their door was knocked on frantically.
"Come in, what is it?"
Huntus himself entered the room, covered in cold sweat along with several more wolf scouts behind him. Xitraq could sense that they had just been out of a battle as she looked at the Red Claws behind Huntus:" It's another attack isn't it?"
"Blood Knights. I have evidence that they are about to attack a town."Huntus reports.
-
"What's this?"Vansel looked at the red soup in front of him.
"Tomato and beef stew. You realize we aren't savages right?" Piers tells Vansel who took his first sip of the soup, his taste buds confirming Piers' words. Vansel admired his surroundings, he was led into another hall in what seemed like a gigantic canteen.
Hundreds of benches and tables filled the massive hall with dozens of wooden huts that were serving out different cuisines to the werewolves who were mostly in their human forms. The whole place was essentially a giant food court where anyone could enjoy their meals. "How do you guys have all these food? Do you have farms?" Vansel asks.
"Yeah we do. It's mostly towards the upper parts of the mountain though. We also have imports coming in with food, I mean how the hell can we farm fish in a mountain right?" Piers was munching down on his own plate of noodles.
"How many levels are there?"
"13."
Vansel now realized what he was in. The wolves weren't exaggerating when they called this mountain their kingdom. The population of them was...in the ten thousands. "Okay Piers...if you don't mind, I have a stupid amount of questions."
"Be my guest." Piers offered.
"Vampires. What's the deal with them?" Vansel asks. Piers shrugs:" I'm gonna be honest with you buddy...nobody knows much about them. But what we do know, vampires are...monsters, like what you humans, I mean you aren't human anymore-"
"Just continue."
"They are...infected people. Vampires are like us, infecting others through their bites and when infected, their humanity is erased. However unlike us who managed to figure out how to keep our wolves and humanity under control, vampires have their thoughts fully on survival mode, seeking out blood and hiding from the sun." Piers explained when Vansel asks:" So why aren't they all dead by now? Sun is their weakness which isn't yours, so why haven't you taken advantage of the day to kill them all?"
"We did. It is our natural purpose to be enemies with the vampires. That's how there's so little vampires these days, well at least before today. Now...if all vampires out there were like the ones we faced this afternoon, things would be so much more easy. But unfortunately, some legends are true. He exists...the one you humans call Dracula."
"Count Dracula? The original vampire?"
"We call him the Blood Lord. He is the first vampire and by far the strongest one. He has killed four werewolf Kings with his power and not to mention he can infinitely infect anyone he wants to serve him as a vampire. That isn't even the worst. "
"What can be worse?"
"Six Blood Knights, his top ranking vampires. Each of them with insane abilities and powers that could wipe out legions of werewolves on their own. We haven't seen one in awhile but they are out there. The reason why Mount Diros has such military prowess is to prepare for them. So that one day when we inevitably clash, we have a chance of winning." Piers' voice lowered, almost like he was remembering something horrifying.
"How about you wolves...if your natural purpose is to kill the vampires, now that I'm one of you, what does that mean for me?"
"It's not like we force anyone who's a werewolf to stay here. There are a ton of werewolves out there as well, it's just a majority of us live here. There are still hundreds of others in the outside world, living normal lives. It's just...most of us choose to be here because we feel safer from the vampires, we are united here after all and our strongest fighters are here. If you choose, we can let you go back into the human world, just keep in contact with us. After all we are threats to the vampires, which means they naturally want us dead. "
"That's relieving." Vansel puffed a sigh of relief when the ear shattering blast of bells were rung.
Piers placed down his food instantly, looking up as several werewolves around them stood up, all of them recognizing the dreaded sound.
"What's going on?"Vansel asks.
"Vampire attack...the first one in ten years."
Next Chapter- The Fifth Knight