Chapter 46: Shadow Unmasked
Boom!
The battle was continued elsewhere in the deep and dark woods.
As soon as the moonstone around his neck was broken, Michael turned into the beast he was always meant to become.
The love parade was over and done.
The two animals were no longer making love with one another.
This now had become a brutal battle, during which the both of them constantly hit one another. Slashed one another.
Wolf Michael rapidly ended up with a long series of bloody claw marks on the right side of his face, while he had been able to claw her shoulders a bit.
The battle saw small victories on both sides, but no one was fully able to take advantage yet. The shadow werewolf was too fast, vicious, and cunning for Michael to properly hunt her down. Meanwhile, Michael was consistent and persistent enough in terms of avoiding her various attacks, allowing him to survive up until this point.
Without Michael's knowledge, a third person followed them deeper into the woods…
This person was no other than Maleva.
She was back!
Injured pretty badly, but she was back.
Her right arm was broken.
She couldn't fight anymore...
Oh, wait…
She could!
No one could stop her from fighting, even with only one working.
That didn't matter to her.
She was going to be part of that battle and come to aid Michael no matter what.
Thud!
Right before Maleva could leap out of the bushes to join her hunter friend, Michael painfully received a deadly blow right on his cheek! Sending him flying on the other side of this remote sector in the woods.
Michael!
That wasn't all because the shadow wolf woman never felt like she had enough conflict and violence in her, so she had to continue going after Michael. Almost as if she wished to torture him more. Perhaps she even hoped to go as far as finishing him off. There was no certainty, but the shadow werewolf had to be stopped now, otherwise, the orange-eyed hunter was definitely going to die…
Speaking of which, the deadly wolf woman mysteriously teleported herself from one side to another in the woods, reaching Michael's new position in no time. Towering over him, she was just about to deliver what appeared to be the finishing blow…
"I've got your seeds, now, so I don't think I'll be needing you anymore…" changing her mind about keeping him for all eternity, she declared to him that she had had more than enough of his natural rebellious nature. Which was vastly attractive and interesting to her most of the time, but now, she had enough of him.
Redheart, who was currently turned into his wolf form, had made his choice.
"What? No last words?" wolf Michael snarled as well as he could in his bestial form.
She was done with him.
The menacing wolf woman swung her right arm at him in the hope to crush his skull and finally ending his miserable life…
"No!"
However, all of a sudden, a lady's voice was heard in the background!
Then, in a flash, the deadly attack of the shadow werewolf was abruptly interrupted!
Michael was still alive.
Partially changed into a wolf herself, Maleva was the one who miraculously saved his life right before it was too late. Placing her back right between the tired hunter and the monster wolf.
The shadow werewolf smashed Maleva's back and nearly pierced a hole in her.
Thankfully, she was still breathing, but for how long, exactly?
"Mal…" rapidly inhaling and exhaling, Michael was still attempting to process what had just happened here.
"Are you alright, Michael…?" sweating, this was the only thing that truly mattered to her… She had to know if he was fine or not… She had to know if she managed to save him in time or not…
"I don't freaking care about myself! I care about you! What… What have you done…? Why did you jump in front of me…?" the shaken and vastly inexperienced hunter nervously asked her as he now feared for her life more than ever.
"I… I had to do it to save you…" Maleva, who had been injured for the second time tonight by the shadow wolf woman, this time, quite fatally, only was able to grunt as she replied to her loved one.
"No… You didn't have to…"
"I did…" she argued with him as the shadow werewolf's claws were still painfully digging deep into her back.
Speaking of her…
"What have you done…" the cruel voice of the shadow wolf woman was heard behind her.
The wolf claws were rapidly retracted from the huntress' back.
Sling!
The shadow werewolf did not pursue attacking anymore.
"Huh?"
"What's going on?" Michael asked, confused.
"You weren't supposed to be there… I knocked you earlier… I made certain of it…" the menacing wolf woman declared as she stepped back from the two hunters a bit. Both of them were currently in werewolf forms. Michael more than Maleva was, both of them had turned on to some degree.
Then…
As Michael and Maleva looked up to obtain a new look at the shadow werewolf, they witnessed her turning back into a human for the first time ever…
They didn't even know that she had a human form, to begin with, but she now clearly did.
First and foremost, her face changed and morphed from an animalistic wolf appearance to a human face… Revealing that the shadow werewolf was someone they knew all along…
… Her true identity was revealed…
… Maleva's mother.
"Mom?"
"It was you all along, ma'am?" Michael asked her, absolutely shocked.
"You should have never jumped in front to protect him," mother uttered with a mean, severe, and controlling tone in her voice.
Almost as if she was already getting ready to ground the both of them at the same time. Especially her dear daughter for saving Michael's life.
"Mom! Why would you become such a killer?" Maleva questioned her mother.
"I did everything I did for love, my dear…"
"Mal! We need to go! We need to get out of these woods and find help! We can't defeat her ourselves!" Michael warned her and attempted to do the reasonable thing, which would be to fall back, but Maleva was naturally not interested in any of that.
He desperately wished to go…
She desperately wished to stay with her mom…