At sunrise most of the mercernaries woke up and had started packing up their stuff while others were preparing the meals. They were going quite at it and in just an hour they were almost done, the camp that yesterday was so full was now no more, just some carts fully packed could be seen instead of it. After everything was done, they all sat down eating their breakfast.

But unlike them, someone was still sleeping. Helena was taking her sweet time resting on Shade’s chest. He didn’t bothered her all night nor did he slept, but not because of her, he simply didn’t feel like it.

She was showing signs of waking up from all the shouts and noises coming from outside. “So warm and nice.” she said with a sleepy voice while letting out a yawn, while rubbing her head on his chest, as if it as a pillow but she didn’t notice. She just continued to bury her face in his chest which was warm and cozy.

Shade on the other hand was looking at her, he had a wierd look on his face, he didn’t quite understand all that she was doing, he just stood still. She pulled the hand she had across his chest back, feeling the sensation of skin instead of the material of the pillows. She almost jumped up, making such big eyes while looking at Shade.

She had such a morning face that it was too amusing not to watch her, messy hair and drool on her chin, but her eyes or so wide opened and cheeks flushed red with embarrassment “I-I’m sorry, i must have did that in my sleep. Please forgive me for doing such a thing.” she let her head down as she finished.

Shade did the most unexpected thing, nobody would have thought of it, probably not even Helena expected him to do so. He placed his hand on her head, patting her a little “Its okay, i didn’t mind.”

When she left his hand on her head, she didn’t know what to do, but after hearing that her head rose in an instant, she looked at him with such a innocent and gentle face. He said to her with a gentle tone “You should hurry, everyone is already done packing from the sounds of it.” after which he got up, heading towards the exist of the tent.

Helena immediatly started to change her clothes, even if Shade wasn’t yet out, but he didn’t even try to turn around and peek at her, probably she knew that he wouldn’t or maybe she was in such a rush she forgot about it. Just after being butt naked she realised he was still inside and kept an eye on him in case he wanted to look, but to her surprise he didn’t do anything of that kind.

Once out, Shade looked around and saw that everyone was getting read to leave, all of them were checking out the carriages to be in order while some were puting out the fires. He wanted to turn around towards the tent.

In that moment someone put its hand on his shoulder, making him turn his ehad in an instant, it was Helena. She was wearing different clothes from those that she wore yesterday, this ones were making her look more like a girl, too much if it was to be said. A long beautiful green sleeveless dress that was exposing the middle part of her chest down to her bellym exposing the side of her beautiful breasts. The dress was long enough to reach the ground, but it was made in such a way that it was cut on one side from the hip down, like those eastern dresses.

If you were to compare the mage you saw from before, even after knowing its a girl and the one standing in front of you now, you wouldn’t consider them the same person. “Hey, i’m done packing.” she passed by him, making a sign to follow with her finger.

When Shade looked back the whole tent and all that was there, was gone. Nothing remained in not even two minutes passed since he got out. You could see how surprised on his face, as if he hadn’t seen magic before.

Helena cracked a little laugh when she saw his amazed face “Magic.” she said to him while laughing, “Let’s go find Archeon and the rest.” she continued, then started to walk between the carriages towards the side of where the camp was. Shade was walking by her side.

“Oh, look who woke up early, what are you doing up at this hour Helena?” Nikas asked Helena while smiling, almost about to laugh.

“Nikas is right, what’s wrong with you, i haven’t seen you wear such exposing and beautiful clothes in a long time, they make you really charming.” Raiden added as he started scractching his chin with his right hand while checking Helena from head to toe.

Nikas gave her some quick looks as well since Riaden mentioned it “Its been so long since you took off those heavy clothes that i almost forgot the colour of your skin.” the laughed at her a little “Did you boobs actually grew? How in the hell do you manage to hide such a bossom” he continued while his eyes were almost glued to her chest.

She looked at them with angry eyes, as if she wanted to kill them “The way i dress does not concern the likes of you.” she slapped both of them so hard, she left marks on their faces. “Oh, right i forgot, you men are just that horny in the morning. Well then go find a whore and have your way with her. Actually i think even dogs would work for you two.” Helena responded harshly to her two comrads.

Varris from the side whistled when he heard her saying such things “Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed.” he added after finishing whisteling.

Helena puffed her cheeks “Varris, you too!? Stop it at once or i’ll gauge your eyes out this moment!” she replied to him.

All this time Archeon was sitting on a tree trunk watching them go at it, but he couldn’t hold his laugh anymore, the last one filled him up, they all started laughing at her now.

Helena got even more angry “EVEN YOU ARCHEON!? What’s wrong with you men today? Shade please tell me you aren’t weird as well in the morning.” she said while turnning towards him. Almost wanting to take cover behind him from their gazes.

Shade looked at all of them confused, he couldn’t really understand what was going and that was clearly showing even on his face “I don’t know what’s going on, but that dress looks better on you than the clothes you were wearing yesterday.”

His answer wasn’t that which she expect and only made her blush and quickly lowered her head, looking at the ground, everyone around started to laugh even harder. Nikas and Varris started to whistle both, even Elion began giggle this time. Helena didn’t pay that much attention to the rest, she was too embaressed to react.

After a few moments Archeon claped his hands “Oke everyone, that was a good morning laugh. Now since we are all here, no point in sitting around anymore. So, lets get moving.” he jumped up from the trunk as he finished, heading towards his horse that was tide to a tree nearby.

Everyone stopped joking and also went towards their horses. Helena’s horse was prepaired by them so they wouldn’t have to wait for her more than it was already needed. They even got one ready for Shade.

"Come on, get one. We’ll get faster there this way.” Archeon told him, while pointing towards the horse.

Shade looked at the animal, then turned towards Archeon, noticing he was using a similar animal but he was mounted on it “I don’t need it.” he replied to Archeon.

Nikas and Raiden looked at him as if they were about to make fun of him, but Kuang looked a little annoyed, probably couldn’t let go of the fact he was beat by him yesterday, “Fine if you want to walk, make sure you don’t fall behind.” he told him, then went on ahead with his horse at pace.

Archeon looked a little concerned “Have it your way, but as Kuang said, we need to move fast so we don’t waste time.” Archeon added, Shade understood that they wanted to move fast so he responded with a node.

His body slowly started to change, he was getting taller than he already was. His hands and legs grew thicker and fur started to cover his whole body. He was starting to take the shape of a big black wolf, almost the size of a horse if not bigger. His paws where twice as large as a humans hand, his fur grew longer “Let’s get moving” he said to them with a thick and growling voice.

Those around him were shocked, they couldn’t believe he changed his form into a much larger creature. “Shade... What did you just do?” Helena asked him, with a very curios voice, almost like she wanted to learn more about him.

“I’ve changed back to my original form, though its very small to what it used to be.” Shade answered her with the same chilling voice, while walking towards their front.

Helena looked as if she wanted to ask more questions, but Archeon stepped in “Ok, now that we are all ready, lets get going. We need to get to Angelzark by noon.” they all turned their horses towards the direction in which Kuang was heading and charged at full speed.

Kuang heard them coming so he raised his pace so they won’t pass by him like a lightning. He didn’t look behind to see how close they are, he just raised his speed based on their horses gallops, when suddenly a huge black wolf passed by him. It scared both him and his horse, at that moment he looked back with a surprised face almost about to ask Archeon what’s with that creature. He noticed that Shade was missing and in that moment the though “That can’t be.” he said with a low voice.

“Come on slow poke or you are gonna be left behind.” Nikas yelled to Kuang as he passed by him. Which made Kuang rush his pace and start racing with Nikas, of course there was no way for them to even catch Shade, which was quite a bit ahead. Now all of them were moving as fast as they could towards Angelzark.

“We might get there even sooner, considering our pace.” Archeon said to his men while galloping his horse and slowly taking the lead.

Raiden let out a small giggle “No wonder, its more like we are racing there, rather than just travelling.” Varris and Nikas both agreed with him.

“Can’t say this isn’t enjoyable, we should do this more often.” Helena added “Although i don’t really like losing.” she continued, everyone was laughing even Kuang was enjoying it a little.

But soon their good mood desapired when they saw Shade ahead waiting in the middle of the road surrounded by corpses of both men and werewolves. They moved towards him carefuly “What happened here? Did you do this Shade?” Nikas asked him.

Before he could answer Kuang did it for him “He didn’t do anything, look at the bodies, they are here for some time, probably since yesterday.” he dismounted his horse and started to check the bodies as well as look around.

All of them did the same thing, they looked around for any trace of what might be the cause to all this. They checked both of the destroyed carriage as well as the bodies that were laying around. Inside both of them there were only dead bodies, some of those inside seemed like normal individuals, no one of important status.

But Varris recognized one of them “They look like the priest’s men from yesterday.” Varris said after inspecting the carriages better “But there were three of them, this are only two of them, maybe the third one managed to get to town.” he continued.

“This was a trap. There are two different armours on this soldiers. Also the werewolves are from too many parts. This is too strange.” Kuang added.

Archeon suddenly turned towards him with a serious look on his face “What do you mean trap, since when do werewolves set up traps, especially when their numbers count so many?” just as Archeon finished talking and a loud howl was heard from the forest.

“Seems like they are coming to check things out themselves now.” Kuang said as he drew his swords.

“Come on, lets get on our horses and get moving, we can out run them.” Nikas said as he rushed towards his horse that was tied with the others by the carriage.

He was stopped by Archeon “If we do that they’ll just jump on us, we won’t even have a chance to defend ourselves that way. We shall fight them for now.” pulling his sword out as well.

Nikas shaked his head “I knew you were gonna say that, fine... have it your way.” he didn’t seem to like the idea of having to fight the werewolves, but didn’t complain too much about it.

They all drew their weapons and formed two lines one facing each side of the road with Hecate in the middle of them, Shade was a bit away from them, he was still looking at something.

“Come here Shade, its dangerous to sit there alone.” Archeon shouted to him, just as he finished and werewolves already jumped form the sides of the road towards them. None of them even managed to reach them for Elion had four arrows ready, she fired each one of them so quickly that you could almost say they were fired at once. All four found their mark in the heads of thewerewolves.

Zhan threw multiple daggers while slowly walking towards the edge at the same time he raised his right arm, the upper part of his armguard begginning to turn into a crossbow which he fired into the chest of a werewolf just as he was about to jump on him. Avoiding its body by moving to the side in a fast and elegant way. He pulled another set of daggers and leaned on his back as another was about to get on him. He cut the belly of the werewolf wide open, making all of its insides spill out.

Varris and Archeon killed all that managed to get past Zhan and Elions volley of arrows and daggers, Kuang was alone between the incoming werewolves. He was dodging and cutting them into pieces with his swords, just as they were getting any close to him he would just evade or use his swords handle to hit and push them away.

While Hecate was shoting ice shards impailing those that were still in the distance, reducing their numbers so they won’t get overran. Nikas and Raiden headed towards Shade to help him out. Although he didn’t seem to need anything help since he took out two of the wereolves without even bothering too much. But a third one took him by surprise and managed to jump on him.

Hecate and Archeon turned to see him with a werewolf on his back, chewing on his neck. You could see the worries on Helenas face when she saw that “GO HELP HIM!” she yelled at Nikas and Raiden while casting more ice spears and throwing some in the direction of Shade. Both of them were still busy with the ones that were coming at them, they were trying to shake the werewolves off and go help him as quickly as possible.

Suddenly Shade started to get up with the werewolf still on his back, he grabbed its head with his right head, crushing it so hard that his eyes poped out of its head. Then rushed towards the rest that were coming form the left side.

Seeing him go like that after having a werewolf chew onto him made everyone look at him in surprise. Even after seeing him impaled by Kuang’s spear yesterday, they still couldn’t believe it.

Shade used his hands to pierce through the werewolves chests like they were made of paper. He grabbed their heads and pulled them out of their bodies along with their spines, using them as weapons. All the werewolves around went towards him since he was away from the rest while also being the biggest threat out of them all. But Hecate and Elion didn’t let them pass so easily, thorwing everything they had at them. Only a few managing to get to him, everyone went towards Shade, with the exception of Elion and Hecate that remaind back to give them ranged support.

Multiple werewolves rushed towards Shade from all parts, he caught two of them by their neck as he jumped, avoiding the two that went for his legs, Making them bite one another. He landed on their backs with all his weight, making them release some painful howls as they were crushed underneath him. He started to look at the ones he was holding in his hands, they were trying to break his grip by clawing at him or trying to bite him. He looked at them up close as if he was examining them out. All the while they were trying to bite off his face, he started to sqeeze their throats while looking them dead in the eye. Both of the werewolves had they heads fall to the ground as their throats were completely destroyed.

It was a horrific thing to watch, but Shade looked so calm, as he was distracted one more werewolf sneaked from the back again jumping on him while six more came from the front. He caught one of those that were coming towards him by his front and back legs. His tail pierced the head of the ones coming from the back as Shade ripped the one he caught in two. He used both body parts to kill the others that came at him.

Some werewolves rushed towards Helena and Elion, both of them being taken by surprise. Elion rushed to cover Hecate as she threw a fireball at one of the werewolves that was the farthest while Elion dealt with the two that were closer. Cutting ones front legs with the limbs of her bow which were blades, then unlocked the bows grip turning it into two long blades cutting the werewolfs head and the rest of its body into pieces, the last one meeting a similar fate.

“Is everyone alright? Shade?” Archeon asked while sheating his blade, everyone shouted that they are fine, Shade started to walk back towards the place he was before the werewolves came, without answering.

“This ones were just scouts, i think there are more to come.” Kuang reported as he was looking at the werewolves they’ve just killed.

Varris was a bit shocked when he heard that “Just how great are this packs numbers, to send forty werewolves only to scout, not to mention the numbers that were lost from yesterday.”

Kuang shacked his heads “I have no idea. I’ve never seen one so big before.” as he got up.

Nikas looked a little troubled “Hey, Hecate can’t you just burn them all?” he asked her, almost begging. He really seemed to act like a coward, but in fact he was just being lazy and wanted to avoid doing anything, unless necessary.

She replied back in an instant with a harsh tone “Are you an idiot? If i would do that the whole forest will burn as well.” as they were talking about what to do, the ground started to shake, all of them felt it, a great number of werewolves was coming. It was at least three if not four times larger than the one earlier.

This time Shade got up looking towards the left side of the forest “All of them are coming from there.” pointing towards the side he was looking at, everyone was getting ready for the second round. They formed a line with their weapons at the ready.

“Don’t do anything, just sit there and make sure not to move.” Shade said to them as he continued to walk towards the edge until he was in front of them.

They were a bit worried about what they just heard and started to look at one another “Are you crazy? Do you want us to get eaten alive?” Kuang furisoly shouted at him.

He was calmed quickly by Archeon who put his hand on his shoulder “Are you sure about this Shade? Do you have a plan or something?” Hecate asked him kind of worried of what he asked of them.

He replied only with a nod “Lets do as he said, we won’t move, if they get as close as three meters, kill them.” Archeon gave them the order, all of them getting into offensive position with spells ready to launch, arrows draw and swords lifted to cut.

The wereolves were getting close and closer, those at the front could already be seen. In just a few moments they were right at the edge of the forest. In that moment Shade raised his right hand up slowly, with his palm facing upward. In an instant in front of him thousands of black spears raised from the ground piercing through the incoming werewolves, all of them were dead in a blink of an eye with their bodies pierced of so many spears. He lowered his hand making all of the spears vanish“So weak.” Shade said to himself with a low voice. He lookied a little disappointed, but what was he disappointed about?

“Wow, that was so cool, why didn’t you do that before also?” Nikas said to him the rest of them were just as amazed by what was displayed in front of them.

“Because you were moving too much. Or you wanted to join them as well?” Shade replied with a straight and cold voice.

He made Nikas back down a little when he heard that. “Hecate, can you burn the werewolves without setting everything ablaze?” Archeon asked her while looking at the place which was filled with bodies of dead werewolves and humans.

She looked at him a bit, then started to think for a moment “Only those on the road, i can’t do anything about the ones in the forest.” she replied back, Archeon only answered with a nod. With just a clap from Hecate all of the corpses that were on the road were set on fire and were quickly reduced to ashes.

They went to get their horses that were tied by the carriage, but four of their horses were killed by the werewolves while they were fighting. There seemed to be a few werewolves killed by Varris’s horse which was massive compraed to the other horses in both size and height.

“Now we got a problem.” Varris said “We got no other option, we’ll share the horses.” they mounted two on the remaining horses with only one exception “Sorry guys but i can’t take any of you with me, the horse already has more than enough weight on him.” Varris said, he did have a point, his body was massive and if you took into consideration the armour he was wearing it was a surprise the horse was still managining to hold him, despite it being so sold and big.

“Who’s left without a horse?” Archeon asked at which Helena stepped forward.

“Can’t you use some flying magic or a broom? You are a witch after all.” Nikas said as if he was making a joke.

That got her angry “How about i turn into into a frog as well while I’m at it?”

While the two were going at it again, Shade had already turned into a wolf and walked over to see what was happening “What’s the problem.”

“We lost four horses and Hecate was left out.” Archeon briefed him as shortly as possible.

“She can come with me then.” Shade replied, as he moved closer to her, sitting down in order for her to get on top of him.

“Are you sure its okay Shade?” Helena asked him while thinking of what happened in the morning “Yes.” he replied in an instant. She grabbed on his furr, pulling herself up. Once she was done and got comfortable they resumed their task.

After they left, at the place where they were attacked. A few more werewolves showed up, they were nothing like those they fought, this ones made the werewolves they fought look like nothing but a childs toy.

At least three times that of a normal werewolf but that wasn’t the only thing that was out of the ordinary, they were also wearing armour and carrying weapons. They looked around for a few moments, then after just glancing at one another disappeared into the forest in a blink of an eye.

Back on the road Shade and the others almost reached Angelzark, its gates could already be seen through the trees ahead.

“Shade, let’s stop here.” Archeon atenttioned him “We shall part ways here, the city is close, but i recommend going there at night so you don’t stand out too much. And also don’t draw too much atenttion. This city isn’t really warm towards those that look like demons...” Archeon continued.

“Its okay Archeon, i’ll keep him company till he finds that star. Plus i don’t even have a horse so all the more reason.” Hecate interrupted him as he was going on, as she was patting Shade on his back.

“What? I mean, why would you leave all of a sudden?” Archeon was wondering what could the reason be this time.

“You know we talked about something a while back, that which helped me get out of that place, I will take a leave.”

Archeon made a slight pause then let out a sigh “Fine. But this time don’t cause anymore trouble. I don’t want to have any surprises when you’ll come back.” you could see how worried he was all over his face.

“Its not me that causes the trouble. I just... solve it.” she replied to him in a instant almost feeling proud of what she said.

Nikas bursted into a laughter while Raiden and Varris were trying to hide their faces as they giggled, Archeon’s face looked even more concered than before “Just, don’t do anything that would cause too much problems.” Archeon told her, she replied with a hand wave as she turned around, heading towards the city one foot along with Shade.

Archeon turned around his horse, going back with everyone the same way they came. Heading towards the kingdoms capital.

As they were heading back Archeon turned his look towards Elion “Did you notice anything about him while he was at camp?” he asked her as his face turned serious.

“No, i didn’t find anything, but one thing is for sure, i can’t trust him at all. Someone that can conceal that he is breathing and even the fact that his heart is beating. Not to mention emotions when he fights were inexistant, he clearly isn’t someone that should be played with.” Elion replied to him.

“So, in other words he it was like he wasn’t even there.” Archeon tried to confirm what she said at which she noded in an agree.

“Except, for that time when you two were alone and you asked him about the star, he got angry so angry that he could swallow everything up.” she said.

He looked at her a little bothered “What kind of man can remain so calm, yet get so angry? Rage can easily be seen, it just burns in their eyes.”

But Elion shaked her head, disagring with him “His anger was completely different, it wasn’t like a storm or a raging fire. His was like an ocean, huge and calm ready to swallow everything.” that put everyone around in thoughts, taking notice to not anger him in the future. “And also there was one more time he showed up some emotion, when he whispered something to you, he showed compasion and sadness.” she continued her report which left Archeon thoughtful.

“I don’t think that anything he showed was real, he just made those to not give away his true motives about the star. Either way we all know what he’s gonna do to her once he finds her. Like any demon, he’s gonna eat her and grow more powerful.” Kuang said with an angry tone.

Archeon didn’t say anything he was still thinking. “Archeon.” Kuang called out to him a few times.

He didn’t really hear him at first “What is it?” Archeon came to it.

What did you ask him and what was his answer?” Kuang asked straight away.

“I asked him why he wants the star as for his answer...” everyone’s faces just went long from what they heard, they couldn’t even believe what they heard.

What kind of joke is that. I’ve never heard just bullshit in my life. We all know how much mana that star contains, she’s bursting with it.” Kuang said, nobody else said anything else, they kind of agreed with Kuang one way or another, they didn’t even know what to think of that.

After a while Nikas said “You know guys, if he was that strong before, do you really think he needs that star? I mean he could easily kill anything in his way, you can’t sense him, he can’t be wounded and regenerates faster than anything we’ve seen. But I do wonder how strong he’ll get after he gets that star if what you say is true?”

That question made everyone wonder, thoughts which he broke as well when he continued “I hope we get to see that city in one piece, considering that Hecate is with him.” they all looked worried now, but their conceren wasn’t for Helena’s well being or Shade, but for those living in Angelzark and for the city itself.