However, Gray suddenly heard other voices from up the opening.
"Check it out guys, it's the little sister of the Bloodless."
Gray knew that voice, and from the way Cherry panicked before she retracted, things were obviously not good.
He did not want to. But then he could hear them tease her.
"Hey, what do we have here!? Is that a wooden donkey? Who the hell plays with wooden donkeys these days? Give me that!"
Gray could hear as the wooden toy was rudely snatched from her hands.
"Give... Give that back! My big brother made that for me and Duster!" Cherry's voice was timid and from the way it crackled, Gray could tell that she was holding back her tears.
She tried to reach for it. But the boys were all too big and she was too small.
She jumped again and again, but they laughed as they threw it to each other.
In her anger, she pushed one of them and he did not catch it in time.
The wooden horse fell to the ground and broke.
The moment it did, she fell on her knees, unable to hold back her tears any more.
Her loud cries reached Gray's ears from above, exciting in him very intense anger.
Gray did not like Weres one bit.
But he really hated the bullying and even worse than that, the sound of Cherry's cries.
He could already feel the effects of his mother's blood take effect in his body as strength was given to his tired limbs.
With a bit of difficulty and incredible will power, he pushed himself up to his feet.
Using the walls as support, he headed out.
Cherry remained kneeling as tears fell from her eyes and mucus from her nose.
With much difficulty, Gray climbed to the top.
Luckily, this cave region where the ceremony was performed was a natural dome shaped rock.
It was big on the outside but Hollow on the inside.
Because of the emergency with the Werecats, the older ones had already rushed out into the forest.
Gray made it to the top, his breathing high and hard, with sweat from the streanous climb leaking to the ground, every drop glistering under the moonlit.
With much focus, he stabled his breathing.
"Hey, ass wipes, get away from my Sister!"
His voice was loud and it instantly drew the attention of the three young boys.
Gray was familiar with all three of them.
They were children of pack elders.
All of them were of Gray's age group.
Gray never liked them. Especially the one in the middle that looked more like he was 15 than 12.
This was Goji, son of elder Tam.
Goji inherited his father's natural stature and even at this young age, one could see signs that he was going to become explosively big.
Probably much bigger than his father.
"Oh, look what we have here. It's the abomination," Goji jested and the other two boys laughed loudly.
Even though the Bloodline Awakening ceremony was only a few minutes ago, the news that Gray was a Bloodless seemed to have already reached the other members of the pack.
"I said, LEAVE... MY... SISTER... ALONE!" Gray spoke with gritted teeth.
"Get out of here Bloodless. An abomination like you does not have the right to talk in matters that involve our pack, and last I checked, there is no BLOODLESS in our pack." Goji immediately kicked against the ground as he rushed for Gray.
With a quick jump in the air, his leg raised high as he brought down a round house kick straight for Gray's head.
Werewolf clans were a barbaric bunch, and everywhere, strength determined who was right and who was wrong.
Goji was sure that his attack would hit.
Firstly, Gray was obviously tired from the ceremony.
Secondly, he was smaller than him, and with no Bloodline, he had no sign of being a Were.
However, just when the kick was about to make a landing, his body moved like it was the waves of the ocean, leaning forward.
With a curve as he went for the ground, he kicked Goji's support leg right in knee.
The elder's son did not know how, but he saw the stars and the full moon before he fell on the ground.
This move had taken all of them by surprise.
However, Gray was not a fool.
He knew how battles worked.
Once started, total domination of the battlefield had to be ensured so that the enemy could not come for him.
Without a waste of time, he rushed for the other two.
He was truly lacking in strength at the moment, he made up for that with the burst of adrenaline that accompanied rushed battles.
With a hit on the neck on one boy and a round house kick to the face of the other, both of them fell straight to the ground.
Gray had been precise with his attacks.
He only attacked for one goal and one goal only, and that was to faint them.
He did not have his Soul techniques or Bloodline to fight, but that did not mean that he had lost his fighting capabilities.
After all, he was once at the Apex of Martial arts.
And these boys were just... 'BOYS'.
With a single rush, he had managed to defeat Goji and effectively faint the other two.
He landed steadily on the ground.
However, he staggered a little to the left and again to the right.
With his previous fatigue and the burst of strength he had just used, he was unfortunately now out of strength it was a good thing he did not prolong the fight.
Wobbly, he managed to make it to Cherry.
He bent low over the crying face as he patted her head gently, "Don't worry, Cherry, I'm here now!"
Gray gave her a cheering smile, and she nodded as she jumped into his embrace.
The force of which pushed Gray to the ground.
She was just six, but with the amount of strength he had lost, this was expected.
However, at this point, his instinct screamed the arrival of danger from behind.
Unfortunately, he was too late and too weak to move.
*Slush!*
Claws penetrated from his back into his heart.