Thank you all so much for the support. I know Abrum has been a bit OP thus far, so why not a bit of hardship. Let me know what you guys think of it.

Abrum’s eyes widened in surprise. He was standing before a legend! The one that had forced humanity to its knees, but then spared them. The one that had ended the greed of the humans, for a time. The one that had saved the races. Aleqe, no, Mebaleqe gave him a smile.

“I don’t really want to explain myself right now, I have to train these two.” He gestured to Bella and Tella. “Also, the mad vampire will be too easy if you have already learned the purify skill.” He snapped his fingers and 2 sets of gravity cuffs appeared upon his wrists and ankles. “That’s better. You have fun with the succubus, I mean, Lesser Angaellis now.”

Aleqe snapped his fingers, and Abrum was no longer in the training hall. He was surrounded by trees that were barren. The dead grass crunched underneath him. The wind whistled through the trees. Abrum recognized his surrounding, but he couldn’t quite place where. All of a sudden, the cuffs around his ankles and wrists gained weight. He hit the ground, on his hands and his knees. He saw Lilith was lying a ways a way, unconscious.

Abrum tried to push himself up. His biceps strained and tore at the extra weight that was added. He was panting as he fell to the ground again. His muscles screamed in pain. The weight from the cuffs confined his body to the ground. He lay there looking up at the barren trees, trying to recall where they were from. He was thinking how he was going to be able to defeat a mad vampire in his state when a sound broke his train of thought.

It was a growl. Abrum drew his head up at this and his eyes widened in horror. There was a white wolf emerging from between the dead trees. The wolf was advancing towards Lilith, and that’s when Abrum noticed its eyes. They say the eyes are the gate ways to the soul. What Abrum saw disturbed him. The wolf’s eyes looked… lost. The eyes were infused with madness, the gaze darting about at unnatural angles. The eyes were bloodshot, and the veins were much larger than they should have been. Abrum tried to get up, straining his muscles.

One thing that Abrum realized, and it made him strain his muscles more violently. He saw the primal instinct prevalent in that wolf’s eyes. Hunger. The wolf walked towards Lilth, spasms occurring across its face. The mouth foamed. Abrum strained violently, and managed to pick up one of his hands. His great strength stat did not help him one bit in this situation. The wolf had covered half the distance between Lilith. It stumbled, and fell. Abrum looked hopeful at this, put his hand down. The wolf got up and kept stumbling towards Lilith. Abrum pulled violently and finally got both of his hands up. The wolf had now covered three fourths of the distance to Lilith. Abrum strained his leg muscles, trying to pick his feet up that were weighed to the ground.

The wolf had now reached Lilith. It opened its jaws, just as Abrum fell over. The wolf bit down hard upon Lilith’s leg. Blood spewed from her thigh, and the wolf removed a good chunk, chewing slowly. It looked at Abrum, almost mocking him as he chewed, blood streaming down from its lips, and Lilith screaming in the background. The wolf bit once more, tearing more meat away, and more blood squirted out. Lilith screamed in pain, and tried to push the wolf off.

Abrum stared in horror. Why couldn’t he protect her? Why? He finally snapped when Lilith stretched out her hand toward him and mouthed “Help me… please…” Abrum, gathered all his strength and used his wings to propel himself forward, his eyes gleaming in desperation. He hit the wolf with his body and it went tumbling. Abrum was crouched by Lilith, his wings surrounding her, to protect her. He remained crouching, wings around Lilith, watching the wolf stagger to its feet. Its eyes still portrayed that deep hunger. It licked its blood stained lips and stumbled forward. Abrum just braced himself for the inevitable bite. Lilith seemed to realize what he was doing and didn’t like it. She could feel her pounding away at the inside of his wings, but he didn’t care. He wouldn’t fail to protect the ones he cared for… not again.

The wolf stalked towards Abrum. He tried to lift his hands to defend himself, but to no avail. The wolf jumped at him and bite deep into his arm. His health only dropped about 25 points. The wolf was very weak, but the pain was very real. Abrum screamed out in pain. The wolf ripped away the meat and chewed. The wolf grinned wickedly and jumped at him again. Abrum lifted his hand as hard as he could, and barely was able to block the bite. Still, it cost him some of the meat on his arm.

The wolf smiled as it tore away the meat. Even though Abrum’s health wasn’t declining, he could feel the pain of the wolf ripping away at his legs and his arms. As his screams continued, the blows from Lilith got weaker and weaker until they stopped. When his health reached down to 1000, the once white wolf was now coated in the red of Abrum’s blood. Abrum’s had become accustomed to lifting his arms to protect himself. The wolf grinned wickedly, the maddened gaze meeting Abrum’s eye. Abrum had an idea. The wolves wouldn’t attack without their pack, unless of course they were mad. If he could cure the madness, the wolf would run, or at least it would stop attacking. The wolf came in for another attack, and Abrum stretched out his hand painfully and grabbed for its neck. The wolf dodged and bit Abrum on the neck. This did 300 damage. Abrum screamed in pain, the blood making it sound like a sick gurgle.

Abrum swallowed his pain and grabbed the wolf’s neck with both hands. He used the weight of the cuffs to hold the wolf to the ground. He was on top of the wolf. A thought passed through his mind. It would be so easy just to snap this wolf’s neck. Just a little squeeze would be all it took. Abrum was intrigued by this idea. He could put the wolf out of its misery. Out of its madness. The wolf’s eyes bulged out at him. Abrum was thoroughly tempted by this idea. He was about to start squeezing when he saw something flash across the wolf’s eyes. Fear. The look in the eye that said: I don’t want to die. Abrum knew there was at least the smallest chance to cure the poor thing, so he muttered bitterly:

“Purify”

There was a flash of light and the world went dark.

Abrum dreamed a fitful dream. He was surrounded by lush green trees. The leaves swayed as the wind tossed them. There was a figure in a dark cloak carrying something long, but it was wrapped up with cloth. The figure advanced into a clearing. There was a gathering of 12 proud white wolves. They were much bigger than usual, around 4 feet tall standing. They turned to the figure, and when they saw him, they bared their fangs and flattened their ears.

The figure walked confidently forward, and the wolves backed up. The man strode to the center of the clearing and the wolves surrounded him. Their growls filled the tense air with noise. One wolf jumped at him. The cloaked figure swiped his hand at the wolf, which sent the wolf flying. The wolf hit a tree and slid down. The man proceeded to unwrap the object in the cloth. It was a black long sword. Its blade was unnaturally dark, as if it absorbed all the light. It had a large, red ruby on the end.

Two things happened simultaneously. One, the wolf that had been hit previously stood back up and attacked one of its pack, mouth foaming. Two, the man raised the sword, and the gem let off an ominous red light. The man plunged the sword into the ground, and a crater formed. The grass died inside the crater. The man stood up, leaving the sword plunged in the ground and walked off to the side to watch the exchange between the wolves.

Abrum’s ethereal dream body was confined to watch the scene that played out before him. That one foaming wolf had moved on from its original target. The wolf that had previously been attacked was now foaming at the mouth as well and attacking. It seemed like a zombie outbreak. While the wolves were fighting among themselves, the sword’s ruby glowed a deep crimson. The dead grass continued to extend beyond the crater. Whenever the grass touched one of the trees, it withered and lost all of its leaves. The wolves were unaware of this due to the fact they were fighting the ever increasing amount of mad wolves.

Abrum was forced to watch the scene unfold. The trees dying and the death spreading ever further. The wolves were almost all mad, except for one. This wolf was bigger than the rest, and was fiercely fighting off the 11 wolves at once. The fact that the 11 wolves used no strategy helped the lone wolf quite a bit. She batted them aside with her massive paws. She pounced left and right, lashing out with her jaws. The strange figure began to become impatient and fidget. Striding forward, the man slashed one hand through the air. The lone wolf went flying. Correcting itself in midair, it landed, only to be mobbed by the other 11 wolves. Abrum couldn’t do anything to help. He reached out his hand… stretching, hoping there was something he could do. Anything.

And then he awoke.

As he opened his eyes, he felt two drops of moisture hit his cheek. He looked up puzzled to see Lilith’s face quite near his. She was crying. Abrum wanted to lift up his hands to wipe away the tears, but he couldn’t due to the gravity cuffs. He croaked out to the crying Lilith

“I’m sorry I couldn’t help you Lilith… I’m so sorry…” He apologized with tears in his eyes as he recalled the memory. He had watched her blood flow like a crimson geyser, signifying his failure to save her. He had watched her bleed. He couldn’t do anything…

She moved her hands to dry the tears in his eyes, and smiled such a sad smile. Her tears came at more frequent intervals. She said to him

“I’m sorry I couldn’t protect mi’lord…” She broke down, using her hands to cover her eyes.

“It is a master’s duty to protect his servant, and it is the servant’s duty to protect the master. We both failed today. Failure is the predecessor to success. It is unfortunate that this failure had such consequences. It’ll be okay.” Abrum hugged Lilith with his wings, because his hands and legs were shackled to the ground. They cried for a little while together. Abrum noticed something.

The blood coated wolf was watching to the side. IT was watching. The thing that caused all this pain. Abrum glared at it, and the wolf whimpered pitifully. It trotted over and tried to rub its head against Abrum’s leg. The same leg that it had torn apart with its fangs. Abrum wanted to kick the thing away, make it go away. All he could do was brush it away with his wing. The wolf tried to get close to Abrum. Abrum steeled his heart and batted the wolf away with his wing.

The wolf looked at him. It walked off into the wood, tail between its legs. Abrum watched it go with a few misgivings in his heart, but did not stop the wolf from leaving. Abrum looked up at Lilith who had dried her tears. Then Abrum realized where he was laying. It was a lap pillow. He sat up, his cuffs gouging out a trough in the earth. He got on his hands and his knees and tried to get up. The cuffs wouldn’t allow it.

Abrum realizeds something. There were four appendages that weren’t weighed down by the cuffs. His wings. He gave them a flap to test them out. They carried him off of the forest floor. He flapped his wings again and he shot up to above the trees. Through trials and (painful) errors, Abrum was able to hover above the forest floor. He did not master it, but enough to where he could transport himself.

Lilith also did the same, due to the fact that one of her thighs were injured. Abrum had partially healed. Sleeping was a healing property, however only in long periods of time. Abrum had nightmares, but he had slept nonetheless. Lilith had stayed awake to watch over Abrum. Both hovering over the ground, they made their way through the forest.

They travelled for a long time. Taking breaks to rest their wings, they ate their scarce provisions. Their provisions were running dangerously low after their third break. They were relieved when they saw a hunting party. Abrum folded his wings behind his back and called to them. What he saw horrified him. They turned around, and bent their necks at unnatural angles. One there faces were plastered big smiles. But their eyes…

They were the eyes of madness.