"Fenris charged at Beowulf with his fists, a first for him. He was so used to using his claws that it had become second nature to him. When his fist was about to make contact with Beowulf's face, Beowulf grabbed Fenris by the neck and slammed him on the grassy ground.
Fenris scoffed in pain. "Not good enough, young one," Beowulf said. He removed his grip on Fenris's neck and took a step back. "Try again."
'He's giving me a chance to attack him once more?' Fenris thought. 'Well, this is training and not an actual fight, so I guess it makes sense.'
Fenris got off the ground and brought out his claws by instinct; immediately, he retracted them. 'This is proving harder than I thought,' Fenris thought.
Beowulf was far bigger and wider than Fenris; his stance was quite intimidating. He was about 2.00 meters in height and was made of muscles.
"What's wrong? Giving up already?" Beowulf asked. "Not even close," Fenris replied. Fenris's eyes started to glow yellow, and his fangs elongated. Beowulf, seeing this, twitched his eye.
"You said I couldn't use my claws. I won't, but I am going to use this form. Is that going to be a problem?" Beowulf sighed. "The point of this is to teach you how to fight without your werewolf abilities, but if you insist, so be it," Beowulf said.
Fenris rushed at him faster than he did before. There was a reason why Fenris had chosen this form. Whenever his eyes glowed and he brought out his fangs and claws, he was stronger, faster, and more durable.
In this case, he retracted his claws, but the effects on the body still stayed the same. Fenris dashed to Beowulf's side to punch him in the ribs. Beowulf caught his ribs, pulled him closer, grabbed him by the waist, and sumo slammed him. The ground where Fenris's head landed cracked. Beowulf got up from the position.
"That form won't help you take me down," Beowulf said. "Lycan understated when he said your fighting wasn't optimal. I've seen everything I need to see. Shall we end this?"
"Not just yet!" Fenris got up. His skull was broken, but it healed within seconds. He jumped back a great distance. He charged at Beowulf and went for his waist. Fenris tried to tackle him, but nothing happened; Beowulf didn't even move an inch.
Beowulf clasped his hands together and slammed them into Fenris's back. Fenris fell, and a loud crack was made; the impact of the blow was so great that those guarding the castle who weren't werewolves heard it.
Fenris struggled to get back up, his broken spine healing quickly since it was the full moon. Beowulf just looked down on him, not saying anything or doing anything; he wasn't threatened by Fenris at all.
"You're like a mountain," Fenris exclaimed in frustration. "I shall take that as a compliment. Now do you surrender, or should we continue this pointless display of yours?" Beowulf said. There was disappointment in his voice; it was obvious he expected more from Fenris. Fenris saw this as Beowulf looking down on him, which infuriated Fenris.
"No!" Fenris exclaimed. "I'm not going to stop until I bring you down." Beowulf, hearing this, smiled, "Brilliant! Truly brilliant!" Beowulf exclaimed.
"You have a warrior's spirit, young one. We could keep fighting until the moon disappears. Our blessing gives us the ability to do so. However, I'd rather not indulge in a meaningless fight. I will train you to become strong, and when you are done, then we will have our true battle."
After saying this, Beowulf rushed toward Fenris, tackled him, and put him in submission. Beowulf had Fenris's arm extended between his legs, with Fenris's elbow positioned over Beowulf's hips.
Beowulf stretched and pulled Fenris's arms, breaking his bones and ripping his tendons. "Ahhhhhhh!" Fenris screamed in pain. "Do you surrender?" Beowulf asked, still holding Fenris in submission.
"No," Fenris said. His arm healed, and Beowulf broke it once more. "Do you surrender?" Beowulf repeated his question. "No," Fenris repeated. Beowulf repeated this process time and time again, but Fenris wouldn't give up.
It was quite horrific to watch, so much so that Buck turned away. It didn't help because Buck could hear Fenris scream. An hour had passed. "Do you surrender?" Beowulf asked once more.
"Fine, yes, fuck yes!" Fenris exclaimed. He had had enough. The continuous breaking and healing of his arm was too much for him; it was starting to drive him mad.
Hearing Fenris's surrender, Beowulf exited the submission. Seeing this, Buck ran over to Fenris, who just laid down on the grass looking up at the sky. "Fenris, buddy, are you okay?" Buck asked.
Fenris didn't reply and just kept looking at the stars. A single tear rolled down his face. "Don't you think you went too far?" Buck asked. His tone showed anger.
"Maybe I did. But the fault doesn't lie entirely with me," Beowulf said. "Your friend could have given up at any time, but he chose not to despite the agony it caused him. At the beginning of this, I wasn't impressed with him, but now he has shown me his resilience and perseverance. He will make a fine fighter. The next step will be to work on his fighting technique. Tomorrow. He's clearly not in the state of mind to learn anything right now."
Beowulf left Fenris and Buck and headed back into the castle. "Hey buddy, I'm going to take you into the castle, will that be okay?" Buck asked. Fenris said nothing and just kept staring into the night sky. But he suddenly nodded to Buck.
"Alright, I'll try and be gentle." Buck helped Fenris off the ground and placed his hand on his shoulder. "I don't know if you can understand what's happening, but try and follow my lead, okay?"
Fenris slowly walked with Buck into the castle. 'Beowulf really did a number on him. Fenris's mind is all messed up. I swear something is truly wrong with that guy; he's a fighting fanatic,' Buck thought.
"Since you probably won't understand what I'm saying, I guess I should say some things to you that you'll probably forget," Buck said. He sighed. "I'm really glad you're here, Fenris, truly."
"You're my oldest friend. Well, the oldest friend that I know who isn't dead. What Lycan is having us do gives me hope. Every time I joined a pack, I used to fake being hopeful, but now I'm not faking it anymore. For the first time in my life, I'm actually hopeful. We can fight against the humans who have been hunting us for centuries."
"Hell, we can do more than fight; we can win. We can make this whole kingdom ours and fight the rest of the world, help werewolves not just in Pyros but in all the other kingdoms."
"It wouldn't feel right not to have you here with me when that happens." Buck smiled, then looked at Fenris, who was still in a daze, his eyes wide open, leaning on Buck as he walked into the castle.
"I know you don't remember your family, but I remember mine. I had a Ma and pa, and older brother, and three younger sisters. My parents were both werewolves and so were me and my siblings."
"My older brother Lucas and I, we fought a lot—scratch that—we always fought. About the dumbest things, he was rude, aggressive, and was kind of a loner."
"Honestly, you remind me a lot of him. I guess that's why I'm so attached to you." Buck cleared his throat. "Right, back to my origin story. My family and I lived in a cabin in the woods. We barely made contact with humans, and when we did, we always hid. I thought it was so unfair how we lived—always hiding, never exploring, traveling, or doing anything—we just stayed in the same place doing nothing."
"I wanted more. I wanted to venture out into the world and have my adventures like the heroes in the stories my Ma would read to me. Boy, what a dumb kid I was. Now I look back on those days and realize that might've been the happiest I've ever been."
"I woke up one night to find our cabin was on fire. Naturally, being the scared kid that I was, I screamed for my mama, but she didn't scream back. I ran outside, thinking maybe my family left."
"When I got there, I saw the backs of my Pa and my brother. I was relieved, but I didn't see my Ma or my sisters. Then I smelled something. I was eleven back then, so I had my werewolf abilities. I smelled something familiar, comforting, mixed with something I didn't like."
"My eyes followed the scent, and that's when…" Buck stopped for a moment, and he was breathing heavily. "That's when I saw them, my Ma and my sister, dead and bloody."
"They had holes in them. It seemed like my Ma was fighting, trying to protect m
my sister. I also noticed my Pa and Lucas had blood on them as well."
"I looked in front of me, and that's when I saw them, the monsters that killed my ma and sister. Those damn hunters! I'll never forget their faces. If I ever see them again, I swear I'll tear them limb from limb and make them beg for death." There was rage in Buck's voice, his eyes turned yellow as he vented.
"My Pa told me and my brother to run. We were kids, so we did. We ran, Fenris, we ran as fast as we could. I noticed my brother stopped running, so I stopped. An arrow had pierced his heart."
"He looked at me and dropped dead, Fenris. Do you want to know what I did? I ran. That's all I could do. My own brother died in front of me, and I just f*cking ran."
"I don't know how long I was running for, but I know I didn't stop for a moment, and I didn't look back." Buck stopped and realized he was in front of Fenris's room. He walked him in and placed him on the large bed. "Well, after that, and some time had passed, I met you. A kid my age in a pack with no family, just like me."
Fenris lay on the bed with his eyes closed. It seemed he had fallen asleep. "It's too bad you probably won't remember this, but then again, you were never interested in anything I had to say."
Buck was about to leave Fenris's room but stopped at the door. "Good talk, Fenris." Buck left Fenris's room.