A small clatter to my side distracted me from Eva. My bokken tapped against the rocks with the ripples of the pond, somehow floating its way to me. I forgot about it in the face of the arrival of the other wolf-people; the explosion must’ve sent it over with Eva and I.
Overhead, big billows of white smoke rose into the sky from the peak. Whatever it was that caused the explosion, it was powerful.
Further out in the pound, other bodies were stirring. The only moving figures looked to be the wolf-people; however, floating atop the surface were the twisted and charred remains of other wolf-people and monsters, either killed from the initial onslaught or from the force of the blast.
And whoever caused the explosion was still up there.
The bokken helped me prop myself up, the force of the fall contributing greatly to the agony in my body, then I went to see how to move with Eva in tow. Painfully, I worked my left arm under her and attempted to stand, the action so difficult that I had to bite my lip to focus the pain elsewhere. After much fussing, I managed to get into a crouch with Eva’s arm slung over my shoulder, my other arm trembling with the wooden sword so we didn’t fall into the pebbles of the bank.
When I went to stand, the sound of approaching footsteps stopped me. My breathing halted. Against my building terror, I looked up and stared into the treeline ahead of the clearing.
Stepping out from the dark canopy of foliage, donned in grey and green garb, were two men with hoods drawn.
The mysterious figures or the swords at their hips did not make me quake in fear; it was the two dozen corrupted-beastkin shuffling behind them in a loose cordon. There could've been more, the shadows of the branches inhibited my view from finer details. The bestial silhouettes in the foliage warranted fear, but the true danger lies in the approaching figures.
They stopped twenty feet shy of Eva and I. The larger man of the pair considered me, giving me a view of his wide, angular face. The other fellow, just as tall albeit lankier, looked plain as dirt: brown eyes, a crop of brown hair; an everyman. He had his sights set on the peak behind me, and then inclined his head up.
“That was reckless, Cas!” the man barked, his face set in a firm frown.
“He’s alive, ain’t he?” a woman’s voice shouted back.
I looked behind and saw a woman sitting at the edge of the cliff, kicking her legs merrily as if a raging inferno wasn’t turning the trees behind her into ash.
“Get down here!” the man ordered, then he joined his comrade to scrutinize me.
My attention went back to the woman, and I saw her easily hang over the edge with just her finger tips, then dropped herself a few feet until her hands and feet found purchase on the cliff face. She free-climbed down expertly, going so far as to shimmy sideways and leaping gaps so she could drop down on the adjacent edge of the pond. The root of her skill became apparent with the reveal of the felinine-like tail swishing behind her back as her boots sloshed through the shallow water to join the ominous duo.
“You could’ve ruined everything,” the lanky man said vehemently through his teeth.
The woman threw back her hood, revealing feline ears poking through her bleached hair. She possessed delicate and youthful features, radiating a girl next door vibe. She leaned into the lanky man’s face, the corner of her lip rising in an ugly frown.
“Hey! I’ve been hunting while you were playing sheppard. I finally had a chance to take out those mutts! You saw what they did to Drake and Kar; in fact, had we done it my way, we wouldn’t have had to run around all night!”
“And if Drak failed and they traced his rift shard back?” he bounced back.
The cat-woman known as Cas growled in frustration. “You should be thanking me since we can move on with being miffed.” She turned away with a sour expression.
As the man went on the scold her, I asked, “Who the fuck are you people?”
He and Cas looked down at me, finally acknowledging my presence.
“Our sworn duty,” the big answered in a low octave.
He started towards me, then stopped after a few steps, his gaze going past me. At the same time, the splashing of water sounded from behind, followed by growls and snarls.
A glance over my shoulder showed the golden-eyed wolf-woman wading through the water, three more of her kind trailing behind her.
“Taken them out?” the lanky man observed wryly.
“Go rot, Bricet,” Cas bit back. She unsheathed a short sword from behind her waist and hissed.
The big man drew the wide scimitar from his side and squared up against the furious beasts behind me, looking fully confident on taking on all four single-handedly.
“Cas, Bardol, please, no need to burden ourselves,” Bricet said, a note of impatience in his voice. He reached into the hem of his grey shirt and pulled out a whistle.
With the knowledge of the implications, I trembled, gripping the sword tightly, and Eva tighter. Being caught up between the wolf-people and the monsters would be like jumping into a meat grinder.
Bricet brought the whistle to his lips and blew a low note that seemed to put the world on mute. No growls, no hisses, no rippling of water, no wind, nothing.
A growl like none other vibrated from the tree line after a pregnant silence. The growl sounded like a twisted combination of a lion and an idling Chevelle—low, barely a murmur, yet the ground rumbled from the sheer force of the frequency.
Heavy steps snapped twigs as a large, dark figure stepped past the stationary corrupted-beastkin and towards us from the shadowy canopy. What stepped out sent horrible goose bumps over every inch of my skin.
A true werewolf of nightmares.
The beast met the initial expectations I held for a werewolf: mammoth in stature, corded is thick, bulging muscles, and having the full features of a wolf. The other corrupted wolf-beastkin, while horribly uncanny, still had vague human assets. This creature was all beast. No. All monster. All seven imposing feet, refined monster.
The wolf-beastkin behind me growled in a cacophony of unbridled fury.
“Oh-ho-ho,” Cas snickered. “Pups upset at the sight of their beloved Alpha?” Her platinum eyes gleamed with joy at the sight of the pissed beastkin.
The grey wolf-woman stepped up, sheer, seething rage warming my arm as she passed. The others flanked either side of Eva and I, their tails puffed up and their claws twitching with furious eagerness that needed to be quelled before they explode.
Bardol’s lips pressed into a thin line and re-sheathed his sword, taking a step back to make way for the hulking abomination.
With the corrupted Alpha facing off the quintet of wolf-people, Bricet gave his whistle a quick toot, then said, “Kill the mutts.”
A wolf-person from my side, a female, sprinted the twenty-foot gap in a heartbeat and leapt into the air with both claws raised. A single swipe from the Alpha was all it took to take off her arm and completely decapitate her. As soon as her gory form and lose chunks hit the ground, the other wolf-people howled and advanced.
Two of the male beastkin flanked either side of the beast, the grey woman charging headfirst. The Alpha swiped at the woman with impossible speed, but she narrowly avoided it by doing a corkscrew roll between the Alpha’s legs, where she managed to clip an exposed thigh as she passed. The wolf on the left jumped up and seized the arm the Alpha failed to successfully swipe with, then he wrapped his arms and legs around the limb and sank his fangs in the monster’s bulging shoulder. The other wolf-man made a devastating swipe to the alpha’s exposed ribs. Meanwhile, the wolf-woman unleashed a never ending barrage of swipes at the Alpha’s back, spilling an exceptional amount of blood on the dirt and grass.
The Alpha certainly looked powerful, but the trio proved to be more of a handful.
The circumstances were dire, so the only thing I could do was watch and hope that the fire would give away our location to those who were hopefully searching for us. Eva said we were close to the river by her home. They should see the smoke. The
y will see the smoke.
My hopes of waiting out until help arrived were dashed as soon as the Alpha brought the fight into its favor.
The Alpha caught the wolf-man assaulting his right flank with a glancing backhand, but it was enough to send him sprawling away in a tumble. The Alpha seized the head of the wolf-man wrapped around his bulging arm, pulled him off like a tick, then slammed him into the ground, turning his head into pulp. With two distractions gone, the Alpha did a wild backwards swipe at the grey wolf-woman, narrowly taking her head as well.
The wolf-man recovered from his tumble and charged at the turned back of the Alpha. Leaping up, he wrapped his arms around the monster’s thick neck. Using the opportunity, the wolf-woman dodged a mad swipe and leapt up to slash the Alpha’s face, managing to take out an eye. Finally, the corrupted Alpha let out a heinous roar of pain.
Enraged, the Alpha took a hold of the wolf-man’s arm wrapped around his neck. The Alpha flexed its fingers, the wolf-man’s radius and ulna snapping audibly like pencils across a classroom. As soon as the wolf-man’s hold faltered, he was pulled off, and the Alpha took a firm hold of one leg in one hand, and the shattered arm in the other, then ripped the wolf-man clean in half, bathing the monster’s wide, harry torso in a shower of blood and viscera.
The wolf-woman witnessed the sight, the blood of her kin spraying into her face from the brutal display as the Alpha slung aside the two halves. Her golden eyes seemed to glow as she reached her boiling point. Every muscle in her toned body twitched from tension, the water soaking her fur steaming off her body. She bared her sharpened canines in a roar that left my ears ringing.
She exploded off the ground in a violent blur of grey, adroitly avoiding the swipe meant for her neck, and countering with a strike that left a deep laceration in the Alpha's bicep. She danced out of his range and maneuvered to his side, dodging a flurry of rapid swipes, matching the Alpha’s dangerous speed, even going so far as to outpace the monster. The sudden boost to her ability left me in awe.
She continued to dance around as a silver streak, counterattacking when she could, taking control of the fight. Her claws flicking through the air like a master’s brush painting a bloody masterpiece.
Just when things were looking up, the Alpha nailed the wolf-woman’s arm with a backhanded strike. She lost her balance and took a glancing skyward slash that rended four bloody rips that started from her right hip and stopped just under her left breast.
She hissed in pain, but still caught herself from falling. Unfortunately, with her blood-rage dampened, she failed to block a full-forced backhand that sent her careening towards Eva and I. She bounced off the ground once, then skidded over the pond’s pebbled bank until she came to a rest just two feet from my side.
The wolf-woman still twitched and trembled, her face contorted in sheer pain, but made no move to rise.
As soon as it had started, the fight was over.
The Alpha stalked closer with slow, heavy steps, all the damage accumulated from the clash doing nothing to waver its strides as it trained one milky eye on the defeated foe near my feet. A low note sounded in the air and the wall of black fur stopped.
Bricet sidled up next to the beast with the whistle between his sneering lips. He clapped the monster on its hip and chortled loudly. “Grand show! To think all this potential waited within this humble beast. A true testament to how flawed nature is in this world!” He was absolutely giddy about the bloodbath that took place.
Bricet, Bardol, and Cas approached, their faces all bearing hostile intentions. I carefully lay Eva next to the wounded wolf-woman, and then fought against my screaming muscles to my feet.
It may be a vain effort to stand against a trio of murderous strangers, a jacked-up werewolf, and a small army of not-so-jacked-up werewolves, but I refuse to go while having tried nothing. I pointed my sword at the group with my good arm, and, to my great surprise, they took pause.
Bardol rested his hand over the hilt of his sword, Bricet had his whistle pursed to his lips, and Cas broke out laughing.
The other two men, sharing my confusion, stared at Cas, who continued to bellow loudly while holding her stomach. After her fit of laughter died down, she looked to her comrades, wiping a tear from her eye.
With a perplexed look, she asked, “What?” She turned to me and her mouth curled into a dark cheshire smile. “The old fart says he can’t do anything with that joke of an artifact.”
Bardol and Bricet shared a look, then trained their eyes back to me, their faces still dubious.
Cas threw her arms up and scoffed. “Cowards!” she chastised, then began marching towards me.
“Stay back!” I shouted, holding the sword up, primed to strike.
Cas continued forward in the same sedate pace. Once she got close, I swung down with all my power only for her to catch the shaft in her hand. No matter how hard I tugged, the sword refused to leave her grasp.
The cat-woman pulled the sword easily from my hand, then cracked me across the face with the handle. The follow up sent me to the ground, then she threw down the sword where it bounced off me and away with a clatter. Like a schoolyard bully taunting the small kid, Cas leaned her head down and laughed pompously.
After gloating, Cas turned to the others and gestured down at me. “See? Whatever the hell he pulled in front of the Grand Mage hardly warrants concern.”
I managed to a crouch, head throbbing, blood rolling down my forehead and over my eyebrow. The world went sideways when Cas’ boot met my temple. I cried out when she stomped on my mangled wrist, making my vision go white from the sheer, wrenching anguish.
“This is just a weak boy who can’t fight to save his own life, let alone harness any magic,” Cas said while twisting her foot back and forth.
“Enough,” Bricet warned in a hostile voice. “We need him alive.”
Cas clicked her tongue and gave the man a petulant frown before freeing my wrist from her boot. “Fine.” She looked at the injured wolf-woman, Cas’ ears twitching once. “Do you need to rebirth her?”
Bricet had been inspecting my bokken when he stopped and gave Cas a long look. With a tired shake of his head, he said, “If it’ll keep you quiet.”
“Oh, I’ll be quiet.” She looked back at the wolf-woman, a maleficent gleam in her eye. “Can’t say the same for her. Come here, puppy.”
Cas grabbed a fistful of the wolf-woman’s grey hair and dragged her where the pond’s water met the shore. Clawed hands fought weakly at Cas’, but the wolf-woman appeared too dazed to coordinate her limbs. Cas dropped her unceremoniously into the water, then stomped down on the back of her head, submerging her face into the shallow water.
I watched in horror as the wolf-woman’s limbs thrashed about, struggling desperately for air. Cas let off and gave her victim a second to breathe, only a second, then stopped her boot back down.
Bricet heaved a sigh at the cruel cat-woman. “The things I put up with,” he whined to no one.
“Stop!” I cried, the words tumbling from my mouth in a cough. “Stop it, all of it, you sick fucks, stop!” I forced myself to my knees, the mixing of my rage and fear causing my body to quake. Eva lay still near Bricet’s feet, my eyes brimming with tears at the prospect of what they would do to her. If she was even still alive.
I needed to go to her. My body could hardly manage staying upright while on my knees.
“Calm your—”
“You can’t tell me to be calm, you puckered asshole!” I interrupted with a roar. There was more I wanted to say: all the curse words I ever learned, all manners of threats, and even some pleas if it would spare Eva and the wolf-woman. My throat choked on a sob.
Finally, after the emotional wave passed, I sunk my head. In a broken whisper, I asked, “Why—how can you support something so evil as the Null?”
A hand rested on my shoulder. I looked up to see the big man, Bardol, kneeling in front of me. He threw back his hood and held my gaze with his sympathetic one. He was bald,
middle-aged, lines creasing his face like trails of wisdom that didn’t line up with his perceived character.
“We are servants to the Null because the Null is the truth,” he said, his voice level, almost comforting. The voice he used was far too soft and genuine, like a father telling his son the dog just died. “The One, and all those who support that dogma, are heretics, blindly praising a being that brings about perpetual destruction. We endeavor this noble path to right all the sins of the First, and bring forth the only truth that ever was.”
My mouth fell open, completely stunned at the madness entering my ears.
“You’re fucking crazy,” I said once my voice returned. “Destroying worlds, killing innocent people and turning them into monsters, how is any of that noble? How is senseless death and destruction the truth?”
“So blind, you are,” Bricet said, not in a condescending tone, but one of disappointment. “You cite us as evil and ushering senseless destruction when there is a being already doing that. All of us: you, me, everyone cursed by the One is doomed to a never ending cycle of rebirth and death. Is it not cruel to bring something into the world only to condemn it on a never ending path towards destruction, forever and ever?”
Bricet shook his head then tossed the wooden sword back at my side. He wiped his hands on his pants as if he just held something covered in filth.
“All this,” Bricet continued, spreading his arms wide and doing a half turn, “sickens me.” He brought a hand to his chest and made a dour face. “I’m sickened to know that the One defiled me with its essence. I long for the day where I can escape this, when true bliss may be delivered. But alas.” He turned back and gave a heartfelt smile. “But I do hold great pride in being able to bring about the One’s downfall through its own hubris.”
Heart of the Resonant: Book 1: Pulse (Resonant Series) Page 32