Truth be told Droy didn't have any idea how he was still standing. May be he was just that scared, maybe it was the blood of Ares as even now he felt the desire to fight the big wolf even though he knew it would be useless or maybe he knew that his last day had come and there was no way to escape. Even better he would not be dying for real just leaving the mortal world for the realm of gods.
The two of them, Droy and the beast stood there. They seemed to be in the middle of an intense staring match. As he looked into the beast's glowing red eyes they looked like blood pools. In them only coldness, anger and viciousness could be seen. The snarl and the teeth seemed to make the promise to kill.
As the intelligent beast looked at it's prey it could see a weak human. It could feel the fast pulse from Droy due to fear but that's as far as it went. The kid wasn't trembling, his face was devoid of any emotions, his black eyes were cold and with the red glow from the beast's eyes reflecting in them he looked like a demon.
"If I go down in flames I might as well burn bright." Droy suddenly spoke up with a smile on his face as he headed towards the dried up hickory tree and picked up a weapon. Or at least that's what the spade was meant to be used as. The beast was amused by the side and let Droy get done with what he was doing.
This journey to the mortal world was a breath of fresh air from it's work as cerberus' subordinate guarding souls in the underworld. Some sort of a business trip you may say.
'I seriously haven't the slightest idea what they feed these war-god children ' the beast thought as it saw Droy get into a fighting stance and holding the spade with both hands and waited for the beast to pounce. Still, the beast was just standing there passive just staring at Droy.
"Come on damnit." Droy shouted at the beast. He did this to charge his courage to face the beast. He was cheering himself on. The big wolf was loving the show Droy was putting on but the plot took a sudden twist as the boy suddenly charged towards it with the spade in his hands.
Living in the underworld with the dead and hearing their pleads to be returned to the world as Charon brought them ashore the beast knew that even as humans saw the end was near, no matter how hopeless it seemed they would do anything to last one more minute.
"Truly he is the son of war, I can see the battle lust taking over. He will surely increase the silent god's armies." The wolf thought.
Droy was charged up his morale and battlelust had reached the apex. As he ran forward he was roaring wildly. That's when he felt the tattoo covering his chest begin to pulse releasing waves of heat throughout the entirety of his body. His physical strength and speed were enhanced as he suddenly increased his speed and dashed forward.
It wasn't at great speed that the beast couldn't follow. It was just that it came as a surprise. It had not planned to attack just yet, but then....
Paaaaaa!
Suddenly a slap was landed across it's face. Looking slightly to the side the wolf was surprised to see Droy standing clutching in his hands a broken handle and by the ground close to him was a deformed spade blade.
It came to the realization that Droy had just spade-slapped it. All in all it didn't hurt and just felt like a gentle tap. This was because this wasn't the actual size of the beast. It was much bigger. It had shrunk it's size but retained it's mass.
As Droy looked the beast as it came to the realization of what happened and it's face morph into many complex expressions he couldn't help but flash a smug smile.
He felt some satisfaction in what he just did. Even though he knew his end was near he was happy that in his last moments he was brave. Of course he was afraid, who wouldn't be afraid of: One,an apex predator (wolf), two, an apex predator the size of a small car, three, a mythical apex predator the size of a small car and lastly a mythical apex predator the size of a small car with a body made mostly of flames, but in the end he was able to control the fear and for that he had no regrets.
This was the nature of the children of Ares. They never back down. Some retaliation, rebellion and recklessness was in them.
The big wolf looked at Droy flashing a smile as if mocking it in his last moments.
It wasted no time though. Darkness had already started being driven away. The sky was grey and the stars no longer visible. As Droy looked further behind the wolf in the forest, he could see an orange line in the horizon jus above the tree tops and when he saw that he smiled knowing that nothing was lost and with the light of a new day what was lost can be found.
In the next second the wolf howled into the sky. The intense red flames burning in it poured out via the full like structures on it's ribcage and surrounded Droy as it spun like a tornado. Inside the flames Droy screamed in pain. His other thoughts shut of and the only thing in his mind was pain.
His skin felt like it was being ripped off, but the worst part was when he tried to breath in the fire would flow inside him like water from a hose.
As Droy burned though, outside the tornado of fire something strange happened. From the emerald fire mane on the beast ghostly cries and shrieks could be heard, and in the next moment, a portion of the emerald flames burning with an even brighter emerald colour with ghost shapes flowing in it separated from the mane of flames and flew into the burning red two-metres tall tornado.
As it flowed into the red fire, the two fires seemed like two snakes trying to coil around each other with a screaming Droy in their midst. Where there was contact between the two flames (red and emerald green), a bright yellow light could be seen shining with intensity that could blind.
Time passed by with Droy screaming, the wolf watching Droy screaming and Droy's mother in the house sleeping. The strange thing was that other than the wolf and some few creatures whose existence wasn't normal could hear Droy's cries nor see the wolf and the raging fire.
Thirty minutes had passed, the fire tornado decreased it's speed. At this moment the fire formed a cocoon around Droy striped with emrald and red, and yellow where the two colours touched moving like snakes forming the cocoon.
Then all of a sudden the cocoon began to collapse within itself and shrinking in size.
It went from the size of a man, to a ball, to an egg, to a pin and then there was nothing left. Seeing this, the big wolf howled towards the sky and disappeared in a burst of emerald flames.
****
As Droy opened his eyes his vision was blurry and distorted. He felt as weightless as a feather as he floated around aimlessly with no sense whatsoever of direction in a strange space that kept changing colours as if he were swimming inside a rainbow.Strange sounds could be perceived but couldn't be made out as they just sounded like howls in the wind.No matter how much he called out all he got as a reply was his own echos repeatedly, and gradually decreasing in volume until they eventually faded into the unknown. It was now that he realised what happened. Droy was leaving the mortal world and entering the realm of gods.