Alatar is a small city state between the nations of Elthias, Shael Valley and Desert Triarchy. They are named after the swamps that they were founded on the border of and aside from being known as a city with many alchemists, it is known as a trade route between the three if only for their near monopoly on alchemical necessities such as Instant Ice. Which is of course needed by most in the Triarchy as their mana is needed in the battle against the Southern Darklands.

Lykou

As I do not quite know what I need to do during this strange activity, I wait and watch as the girls form their own groups. The older ones, that I do not want in any way, all stay together and most of the younger group end up in either pairs or trios but not Kythia. She stands alone and she is wearing a grin that I know as her looking forward to a fight.

Once they seem to have finished separating themselves into what is probably their preferences for den sisters, Tallen and one of the older hunters, who seems to be in his twenties, move towards Kythia. Ragnan and the others move towards the others though none choose to go towards the three widows.

I walk towards Kythia, Tallen hesitates for a moment and steps aside while the older male says, “don’t oppose me. She’s mine.”

I glance at Kythia and ask, “are you?”

“No” she answers upset that I’d even ask that question.

Turning back to the male I say, “well, if she does not want to be someone’s then she isn’t.”

The man does not respond but I know that saying it will bring a smile to K. Instead he punches at me only for me to dodge by leaning to the side while taking a step back. He is slower than Kythia, and his technique is rougher than hers too.

I grab his wrist and strike his locked elbow, breaking it before knocking him to the ground in a leg sweep. He cries out in pain and I wonder if I went to far or not far enough.

Too little and he might come back for more but no one ever did tell me where the line in the sand was for this. They let members of the pack die in the last two things I was involved but this one might be different. . .

I look over to Tallen to see him pick up a spear before charging at me. It’s not a training spear either, so more than just an unarmed spar is allowed. I didn’t bring a physical weapon with me. I could shift to draconian form but they haven’t seen that yet and I don’t know if it’ll be accepted.

Just before he gets within striking distance with the spear I form and release a burst of mana from my left foot, Thunderstomp was the original spell but I’ve changed it to a much more concise attack than the massive burst that it originally was. A cone of concussive force expands outwards, not far and not very strong but enough to end the oncoming charge.

I then take a second step forward, and am now within the reach of the spear. He drops the spear to strike at my throat. I catch his hand and hold it by his wrist. I twist it and turn my body while pulling it. Pain and the limits of his joints force him to comply as I pin him to the ground.

I break the arm I’m using to hold him pinned and smile at the snap of the bone. This has been more fun than I thought it would be. He screams more than the other guy did but it was muffled by the dirt. I lean down and whisper, “I’ve killed dragons do you really think you can win?”

He just growls and I feel something hit me on my side, knocking me aside. The first guy is back up. Damn it, I thought a broken elbow would have been enough. I look at his right arm and while it is swollen and discolored, that is going down.

Shit, I forgot about Lycanthropic Regeneration. Tonight is the full moon, so all their powers are at their peak, not just their physical strength. It hurts slightly to breathe and that isn’t going to go away anytime soon. I glance at the forming bruise, might be a cracked rib.

I dodge another kick with a step backwards and begin the chant to Mage Armor as I shape a shell of mana around my body. It’ll only turn away some glancing blows but it will help.

I dodge another kick while thinking just what to do. I need to do more damage, enough to keep them down for a while or break their will to fight me. Do I have any silver weapons in my Void Cache? No, just coins. I should fix that as soon as I get the chance. Should I just make compound fractures of his limbs and put a silver coin in it? No that might be a bit much, and I don’t want to extend my stash on such a thing. I also haven’t actually told anyone about it other than it’s an extradimensional storage spell I remembered. What of partial transformation for my claws and paralyze him? No, the recovery time would be short as the actual physical damage isn’t much.

I fall into the strange trance from the dream memories, it comes easier than before, as I dodge another melee attack from my current assailant. In an instant I decide on leaving him with multiple compound fractures. He shouldn’t die from it, not with it being the full moon but that might keep him down long enough.

I break his elbow again and then twist further. The bones of the forearm then pierces the skin and I let go as a stream of blood leaves through the broken skin and is deflected by my magic. I then mirror my actions on the other arm, snapping the elbow and twisting until the forearm's twin bones are exposed to the outside world. The man screaming in pain as his wounds close at a visible rate, but as he has no way to set his arms the protruding bones stay outside of his skin.

I turn back to Tallen and smile as I ask, “want to join him?” while pointing to my other opponent.

He shakes his head and runs over to the battle unfolding over the other ten teenage girls. I glance at the other pack members who are just watching. They do not however seem to be interested in intervening on behalf of the man who is trying to be very still on the ground.

“You didn’t need to go that far” Kythia says from behind me.

“He didn’t stop earlier” I answer as I turn around.

“Are you going to join the fighting over the others?”

“Why would I? You’re the only one here I want.”

“And if I refuse you?”

“You won’t.”

“Really? I still think you are too weak.”

“We can fight over that later. I am stronger than your other options and treat you with more respect than they would and you know it.”

“And if I reject you anyways?”

“Just let your wolf judge me and we can talk and fight about it later.”

Kythia spares at me for a moment before she answers, “alright but if my wolf accepts you that fight will be in the morning.”

I nod in agreement, good enough for me. I wouldn’t really have anything against us fighting now but I would rather not have anyone see the results of that fight. We stand fairly close to each other and look out over to the other fights currently going.

Unlike the way that Kythia and me fight, they just hit each other with brute force and little to no care to where a fist or kick lands. The only one with some semblance of skill is Ragnan but that is probably only because his older sister is Kythia and he would have had to have sparred with her at some point. Whereas my fight took a few minutes from beginning to end, that brawl is going to take far longer.

“You’re not going to join in the fighting for the other females? You could probably win and their wolves might accept you” Kythia asks.

“I don’t want them. I want you”

I glance over to Kythia for a moment to see a look of confusion and a smile. She doesn’t understand why I am acting as I am but she does like it. I myself smile, even if she doesn’t want to accept it yet I took her heart and she has no idea what to do about it.

I smile at her before turning back to the other fights going on. I see bruises and injuries on all of them. Why are they not healing? They can recover from broken bones fairly quickly, so why not the scraps and bruises?

Their own natural weapons must overcome the resistance, that is the only possibility I can think of at the moment.

Several minutes pass and while I am fairly certain at least one of the other participants isn’t going to be getting back up, none of those watching do anything about it. I suppose this is one of their population control traditions. If the weaker males die then the stronger will get to father more children. Barbaric but I’m on the side that benefits.

I look over to the setting sun, there are only a few minutes of dusk left. At this point the fighting has settled down and the other girls have bunched around the four who can still stand. Ragnan looks over at me and frowns at seeing that Kythia is not fighting me off.

Two others also look at me and then to the man whose regeneration left his bones sticking out of his body on the ground and decided to leave me be as Tallen already had but Ragnan does not. He rushes at me and I smile, I’ve been wanting an excuse to pay him back for how he acts.

I feel my mind move towards the strange state that makes archery easy and sidestep a charge. It comes easier than before and I trip him.

As his face hits the dirt, Kythia says “don’t hurt him too much.”

What is too much? Death is certainly on the other side of the line but are compound fractures? She didn’t like me doing it to that random guy. . .

I continue to dodge as Ragnan gets back up and continues his attack. Every movement being tracked in my mind faster than I ever could without whatever this is. What should I do to him?

Eventually, I make my decision and catch a fist and twist it behind his back while hitting the back of his knees. He falls to the ground, held in place by the pain shifting would place on his right arm. I lean down to whisper low enough that he should be the only one able to hear me, “sister complexes aren’t attractive you know.”

“What? I . . .” Ragnan begins before I push his head back to the dirt.

“If you don’t see your sister as a romantic interest why are you trying to be her mate?”

I let him up slightly and he begins to say, “I’m not going to let you try and take the spot of alpha from. . .” at least until I push him into the dirt again.

“You’re not an alpha. Your sister is, you will never be and you can never have her.”

He growls back at me and I just hold him in place. As I do so the four females, that he had fought off the other males to get their favor, turn to me and start walking over to Kythia.

“What are you doing?” I ask them as there is a low growl from Kythia even if she is trying to keep me from noticing it.

“You just beat Ragnan over us and we’re not against being your mates” the tallest of the girls answers.

Should I take them? Nome of the four are ugly, late teens with decent curves. . . Harem orgy with a bunch of girls and an upset Kythia or just my K? Then again they don’t want to be mine for me, they just want the status of a stronger mate.

“We weren’t fighting over any of you. He wanted his sister.”

“You’re turning them away?” Kythia asks.

“I don’t know them, so I don’t want them” I say while gesturing to Kythia for us to move.

“What?” and “Why?” are on several of their lips as Kythia and me move away from them.

Both of us ignore both them and Ragnan who seems pissed but surprisingly enough not at me for the last few moments before it is truly night.