Seeing Lupus standing there with blood dripping down his arms, Gary already knew what had taken place. His chest tightened. Don had been consumed. There was no other explanation. The realization sent his mind spiraling into panic.
‘How much longer?’ Gary screamed internally, stumbling back a step. ‘How much time is left until sunrise? When will the sun finally rise!’
His breathing was ragged, desperate. He couldn’t just stand there. He had to act. He had to do something, anything.
‘Ylva’s body... where is it? I need it. I need it now.’
The thought was the only thing keeping his legs moving. Even if he couldn’t transform into a Werewolf again, consuming Ylva might give him the strength to stand against Lupus. He knew she wasn’t as powerful as the beings he had consumed before, not even close. He doubted eating her corpse would give him much of a boost, perhaps none at all.
But at the very least, it would restore some of his energy. It would allow him to fight alongside the others, instead of watching them die. Because that was what haunted him most, his call for help. His desperate order for everyone to stop Lupus might have been nothing more than sending them all to their deaths.
There couldn’t be much longer left before the sun rose. He just prayed they could hang on until then.
The group standing in front of Lupus knew exactly what danger they faced, which was why every single one of them acted in unison.
“I’LL KILL YOU!” Adam roared, his voice tearing out of his throat. He prayed that his battered body would listen to him, and, for once, it did. His arm warped and expanded, grotesque and powerful, a giant tentacle sprouting forth.
At the same time, the three bird-type Altered, Sadie, Frank, and Crawley, burst into the air. Their wings unfurled wide, catching the wind. Immediately, they unleashed a storm.
Sadie and Frank beat their wings furiously, hardened feathers slicing off like arrows, sharp and fast. Crawley spiraled his own black feathers in twisting currents, each one cutting through the air like blades. Together, the storm of feathers and Adam’s massive tentacle rushed toward Lupus in a wave of deadly force.
But Lupus moved with terrifying simplicity.
He swung a single fist into the air. The force of the punch alone generated a shockwave that ripped outward in all directions. The torrent of feathers shattered, scattered harmlessly away, their lethal edges reduced to nothing in the wake of his power.
Then came Adam’s tentacle. It lunged forward, massive and writhing, but Lupus merely raised his clawed hand. With a single swipe, his obsidian claws sank deep into the flesh. Adam tried to pull back, muscles straining, veins bulging, but it was no use.
Lupus grinned. With his other hand, he clawed into the tentacle, and then, he ripped.
The tentacle tore apart down the middle, splitting in two with a sickening, fleshy sound. Lupus swung the severed halves through the air like whips.
One crashed into Crawley. The impact hurled him across the battlefield, slamming him into the side of the restaurant with such force that the upper floors caved in.
The other swung wide. It didn’t strike Sadie or Frank directly, they were just out of reach, but the sheer force of the swing, the blast of energy that radiated from it, struck them like a wall. Both cried out as the invisible claw-force smashed into their bodies, sending them tumbling through the air and out of the battlefield.
Adam staggered back, arm twitching uselessly, but Lupus didn’t give him a second chance.
With one powerful kick, Lupus launched himself forward. His speed blurred him into nothing but a streak of black. In an instant, he was upon Adam.
A knee drove hard into Adam’s stomach. The impact lifted him clean off the ground, sending him flying skyward. Blood burst from his mouth, raining down as his body arced into the air.
Even before Adam could fall, an ice spear shimmered into Lupus’s hand, forged instantly from his elemental power. Without hesitation, Lupus hurled it upward.
The spear struck Adam mid-air, piercing through his torso. Frost spread instantly, encasing his body in jagged ice. His form twisted and froze, and then plummeted back to the earth like a broken statue. Whether he was alive or dead, no one could tell, but it hardly mattered.
Because Lupus was already moving again.
His eyes, glowing with madness, locked on his next prey, Austin and Midwak.
“NO!” Midwak roared, throwing himself forward. His heart thundered in his chest. Memories surged unbidden, every wrong choice, every bloody deed, every selfish act he had committed for the sake of ambition. For Ylva.
How many people had been hurt because of him? How many had died because of his arrogance? His hands were drenched in blood, his soul tainted with guilt. And for what? For a woman who was now already gone.
Perhaps... perhaps it was time for him to pay.
Maybe this was where his path ended.
His body tensed, ready to sacrifice himself to buy even a second. But before Lupus’s claws could tear into him, a blast of icy wind cut across the battlefield.
A freezing gale slammed into Lupus, forcing him sideways, skidding him across the ground. His right arm crystallized instantly, encased in thick ice.
Midwak blinked. Austin froze in shock beside him.
And then they saw her.
A massive wolf stood between them and certain death, her eyes glowing with a furious red light. Power radiated off her body in waves of frost, her fur shimmering with an otherworldly aura.
“BOTH OF YOU, GET OUT OF THERE!” the wolf’s voice echoed, sharp and commanding.
It was Marie. Transformed at last into her True Luna form.
For updates on MWS and future works, follow me on my social media below. Read full story at novęlfire.net
P.a.t.r.e.o.n: jksmanga
When news drops about My Vampire System, My Werewolf System, or any other series, you’ll hear it there first. Feel free to reach out, if I’m not too busy, I tend to reply.