“Back off!” The wolf howled

James got a closer look at the wolf and discovered it was a man. He had a furry snout, silky fur lining his cheeks, a silky grey tail and sharp claws for fingers. James felt sympathy for the man and took off his mask and scarf covering his gremlin-like face.

The man jumped to his feet when James revealed his face. “Yo…You, what are you!” The man waved his claw-like hands in a battle ready gesture, while timidly looking at James.

“He’s cursed just like you are.” Peter said

“Curse? Cursed? I’m not cursed, I’m part of the pack!” Peter felt a hint of bloodlust from the man and drew his blade. “You’re saying you willingly became a wolf?” The man snarled at Peter and revealed his razor teeth. “I’ve always wanted to be a wolf! Free from all restraints! I can do anything I want now! Plus the wolves have accepted me into their pack!”

The whites of his eyes turned red and his breath became heavier. Slightly scared, James stepped back. Peter looked at this wolf-man with disdain and beheaded him.

“Sicko”

“Wh…What was that Peter? We could’ve helped him! Surely that was the curses influence!” Peter didn’t respond and simply continued searching for food. The atmosphere turned sour and the two didn’t talk for the rest of the way. After scavenging over ten store fronts, Peter and James found an intact kitchen. Breaking the silence, James hesitantly said, “I’m sorry for questioning you…”

Peter ignored James again and packed all the bagged veggies, rice and honey. “Collect anything that has a long shelf life.” Coldly ordering James, Peter continued stuffing his bag.

‘Why is he so mad? He never gets this angry…’ James thought

Silently following Peter’s orders, James collected spices and canned food.

Waah!

Hearing Anne scream, Peter left his bag with James and rushed to the opposite side of the courtyard. By the time he arrived, he noticed Anne on the floor and Rem with an obscene amount of wounds. Peter was angry at himself and at the duo. He had warned them not to get involved with the wolves, but they did anyways.

However, this wasn’t the time to rebuke them. Charging head first into the pack of wolves, Peter activated [Body-Enchant]. Entwined with his glowing blue aura was a black aura.

‘Hue hue, you filthy animals, even PETA won’t save you from me.’

Sensing an intense killing intent exuding from Peter, the wolves instinctively switched their target from Rem to Peter. Seeing Peter arrive, Rem exhaled and tiredly fell to the ground. Rem’s trembling hands reached towards his bag as he pulled out a Minor HP potion.

Relieved that Rem was healing, Peter was now worried about Anne. Her body was covered in a puddle of blood and she wasn’t moving at all. ‘Anne… Rem, what the hell were you guys thinking!’

The wolves slowly encircled Peter, but Peter attacked first. Activating [Ghost Walk] Peter dashed in front of the smallest wolf and delivered an elbow to its snout. The wolf fell back disoriented and confused, but it was already too late. Peter re-emerged and stabbed it between the eyes.

As the pup died, an intense rage and sadness overwhelmed the mother of the pup. The mother loudly howled and bolted towards Peter. Sensing a danger from behind him, he adjusted his feet and spun around. A high kick knocked the wolf in mid-air to the floor. Planting head first, the wolf’s head and spine disconnected.

The gut-wrenching crack deterred the rest of the pack from charging head first. Becoming more cautious of the human, the wolves began attacking in pairs. With their incredible speed and cut-throat claws, Peter was forced to go on the defensive. Parrying their claws was exhausting and after two minutes of being relentlessly attacked, he was head-butted to the edge of building.

Cold sweat ran down his back. He was staggering on the ledge and one misstep could mean falling off from the third floor. ‘Shit, shit shit! How do I get out of this?’ Although his face was placid, he was inwardly panicking. The wolves flexed their hind legs and prepared to push him to his death.

‘Push! They want to push me off this ledge? Wait! They want to push me off this ledge!’ An ingenious idea suddenly formed in his head and, without thinking about the consequences, he provoked the wolves with a pinky gesture.

Their eyes turned blood red and three wolves immediately pounced onto Peter. He activated [Ghost Walk] and lied flat on the floor. They were caught-off guard by Peter’s trick, but the wolves quickly picked up Peter’s scent. Hoping to recover from the situation, they twisted their bodies in mid-air. Yet, this exacerbated the situation. Noticing Peter’s evil grin, they realized it was too late; they had already flown off the ledge.

As the pack was processing the death of their kin, Peter re-emerged ten seconds later next to the weakest looking wolf and drove both blades into its head. Before killing the wolf, Peter first ran to Rem and snatched the [Panacea] away. After recovering three quarters of his stamina bar, Peter jumped back into battle and launched a sneak attack on the weakest distracted wolf.

The pack burst into a frenzy after another one of their kin died. The wolves speed increased two fold.

‘They got faster, but still too slow.’

Running at peak speed, Peter’s surroundings began to blur. However, he could still follow the movement of the pack with his Mind’s Eye. With a red hue, both of Peter’s Falchions drew blood. The extra 150% STR annihilated any defenses the wolves put up.

Burning through his stamina and mana, Peter activated [Furor of the Tyrant] in an unreserved manner. Some wolves were directed bisected, while others were stabbed in the head. As their numbers dwindled, the pressure on Peter also decreased. Their relentless attack was only possible through their numbers, so in a matter of thirty seconds, the entire pack was decimated.

Huff Puff Haa~

After using his entire stamina and mana bar, Peter felt lightheaded and began to lose vision. Rem quickly ran over to Peter, but Peter was face down on the floor when he arrived.

‘What… a monster. Sir Peter is truly a monster…’ Rem had observed the fight from the sidelines the entire time. When Peter was head-butted to the ledge, Rem’s heart popped out of his chest in anxiety. Yet, Peter somehow escaped and re-appeared in front of him. Wordlessly, Rem had taken out a [Panacea]. However, before he could tell Peter why they engaged the wolves, Peter had already run off to fight the wolves.

“Anne… Peter… I wish I could’ve been stronger. I let you guys down!” Kneeling besides both of them, Rem poured his eyes out. He thought back to his child hood, where he donned his red cape and pretended to be a hero. ‘If only I was strong like Thor!’

When the apocalypse happened, Rem thought he found his calling: to be a hero. Yet, barely surviving against one goblin, reality kicked in and fear overwhelmed him.

“Rem, we…will survive this, but… you have to be brave!” Those were the last words from his mother and unwittingly became Rem’s mantra. ‘What…What does being brave mean ma?’ His mother was on her last breath, refusing to succumb to death. She tried to speak, but nothing came out but gasps.

Watching his mother pitifully die, Rem bit his lips and ran in terror. Fast forward two hours and he found his crush trapped in a ring of flames. Extending his hand out, Rem grabbed onto the panicking girl and pulled her out.

Yet, somehow Rem met Peter. Despite only knowing Peter for one day, he was certain that Peter was a true hero. He reminded himself to always address him as sir as a form of respect.

As the flood of memories ended, Rem carried Anne and Peter into a safe storefront. After double checking and making sure there were no monsters, Rem set out to find his father. ‘Sir Peter only killed one pack; I still have to be careful.’ Rem walked slowly in order to avoid stepping on large glass shards. Finally, he reached the right courtyard and spotted a lone wolf.

‘Should I? It’ alone… I can fight it…’ Encouraging himself, Rem unsheathed his [Crimson Blade]. Hiding behind storefront’s broken window pane, Rem waited for the wolf to pass by. Luckily, earlier Rem had coated his clothes and face in wolf blood to hide his scent. The second the wolf strolled past Rem, he lunged at the wolf’s carotid artery with break-neck speed.

Splash

The [Crimson Blade] cut through the wolf’s fur and imbedded into its neck. Wiping the blood off the blade, Rem unconsciously grinned. ‘I’m a brave survivor. To survive, I must be brave. To be brave… I must fight.’ Finally, he saw his father sitting beside a corpse.

“Dad…Let’s go.”

James grabbed the two bags and gave a brief glance at the werewolf before leaving. ‘I wonder if Peter will kill me one day… Actually I hope it’s him; at least it’ll be quick.’ On the way back to the left courtyard, Rem recounted everything that happened, but James remained quiet. However, under his mask, his face went through almost a dozen different emotions.

When James saw Peter and Anne resting on the floor, he nervously looked at Rem. “There okay dad, just tired.” Rem yawned and told his father to keep first watch. Sitting by the broken window pane, James imagined what he would’ve been doing if the apocalypse had not happened.

His heart fluttered and the nostalgia grew stronger. However, the surrounding broken glass, corpses of wolves, and bloodstains forced him to accept this new reality. ‘Lily, you’ve always been the brave one…Rem…he’s just like you. Brave and strong. But me, I’m a coward. Never could stand blood. Glad Rem didn’t get that from me…’ Lost in thought, James didn’t notice a pair of bloody red eyes staring at him.

The pair of eyes continued to stare, but didn’t make any movements. Hours passed by, yet it didn’t attack James. James stood watch for almost eight hours before he heard a low moan. Walking to the room where Anne and Peter slept, he noticed Anne shuddering.

‘Poor girl. So young, yet they have to fight.’ Draping the blanket over Anne, James lightly stalked towards Peter. He was close enough to hear Peter’s snores. He also noticed Peter held onto the blankets like a pillow. Deciding against taking the blanket away, James found another blanket and laid it on top of him.

Clink.

James heard glass cracking outside and reflexively held the iron pipe tighter. Slowly creeping towards the counter, James raised his pipe like a batter.

HAA!

James let out a war cry and swung the iron pipe as hard as he could. Remembering his beating from Peter, he didn’t close his eyes this time.

“Ahh! Wait don’t hit me!”

A half man, half wolf, lay flat on the floor with both hands up. James stopped the pipe just before it landed on the man’s chest. Bringing the pipe back to his side, James asked, “Are you a wolf or human?”

“Human! I swear please! I’m human!”

“How did you become a wolf-man then?”

“The…the man said he would spare my life if I became a wolf! I didn’t know what it meant until he brought me to that huge wolf on the roof!” Describing the man, James immediately connected the man in his story to the wolf Peter killed.

“How did this transformation happen?”

“I…it bit me! Then I got the message that I was going to turn into a wolf in seven days!” James sympathetically nodded at the man and asked, “What should I call you then?”

“Mason! My name is Mason.”

“I’m James.”

Shaking Mason’s paw hand, Mason also noticed the discoloration on James’ hand. “You…you’re cursed too?” James replied, “Yes. Gremlin curse.” Mason’s nose twitched and he stared at James with a pitiful look.

“You smell, really really bad.” Mason said

“Well, I haven’t taken a shower since the apoc—” Mason interrupted James and told him that it wasn’t his stench, but his blood that smelled bad. Intrigued by Mason’s comment, James asked, “What does it smell like?” Mason immediately replied, “Wolfs bane, lots and lots of wolf bane.”

‘Are gremlins the naturally predator of wolves?’ James thought. Sighing out loud, James led Mason into an empty room.

“My friends are sleeping in the other room.”

“How many people are in your group?” Mason inquired

“Three.”

“That few? How did you guys manage to survive the first night with three people?”

“Well, there’s one really strong fighter in our group. His name is Peter.”

Mason was surprised, but then his eyes flashed with a hopeful glint. “There is a hospital, not far from here. We have people, food, and medicine there.” Mason listed more perks, hoping to entice James along. However, what caught James’ attention was the word, shaman.

James excitedly spat, “Sha…Shaman? What’s that?” Mason gloatingly replied, “It’s a title! Our shaman can even lift curses! That’s why I didn’t really mind becoming a wolf for the time being.” James gave Mason his biggest smile and hugged him. “Thank god, I don’t have to be a gremlin forever!”

Surprised by James sudden affection, Mason anxiously patted James on the back and pulled him off.

“Shut the hell up you gremlin! You’re even louder than your kid.”

Mason panicked as he saw Peter walk into the room. Peter’s killing intent inundated the small room and Mason forcefully bit on his tongue to keep conscious. Watching Mason resist without any hostile intention, Peter retracted his killing intent and glared at the wolf-man.

“My…my… name is Ma…Mason!”

“I’m Peter. So I hear something about a camp?”

Mason didn’t dare to gloat in front of this monster and reluctantly told him every detail. ‘140 personnel, including 12 doctors and 25 cops?’ Peter was inwardly surprised, but his appearance remained stoic.

“After I kill this damn wolf, we’ll go to your little camp.” Peter, Mason and James walked out of the small room and introduced Mason to the duo.

“Now that our little introduction is over, you both better have a damn good excuse for why you pissed off a pack of wolves yesterday.” The duo flinched at Peter’s furious expression and told everything without holding back.

“Anne told me this morning it was because of her eyes. I believe the wolves felt threatened by Anne.” Rem explained. Peter shot Anne a complicated gaze.

“I thought you were dead yesterday.”

Peter paused and said, “Is there any way to turn off your eyes?” Anne nodded and her crimson eyes slowly returned back to a normal black color.

Hu~

Rem’s loud exhale broke the serious mood and everyone started uncontrollably laughing except the lovers. As the other three were laughing, Anne tenderly looked into Rem’s brown eyes. Ignoring the jeers from Peter, Rem walked over and held her hand. Unlike the last time, Anne didn’t slip away.

As the laughter died down, Mason spoke up. “You guys seem really close. I think you guys would be a wonderful addition to our hospital.” Since the hospital had a shaman, James was eagerly looking at Peter for approval. Peter agreed and appreciatively looked at Mason.

Hearing his stomach growl, Peter yelled, “Let’s all eat some breakfast!” The group pulled any functional chairs and tables from the rubble and quickly cleaned it up. The five sat together, each holding either a can of tuna or beef & corn. Despite traveling together for two days, this was the first meal the four had together, as a team. The meal was shabby, but for the first time everyone had their fill.