Chapter 32- The Attack

Waiting outside the east gate on the branch of a high tree with my eyes closed I can feel the first few rays of light from the rising sun gloss over my white fur. A few minutes later the familiar sent of lilies drifts into my snout. Opening my eyes I notice that Litel and Rou are already at the gates waiting. Litel has a scowl on her face and her arms crossed. In a squatting position Rou is digging at the ground with one finger. I can see Alice pop up from the gate as she appears behind the other two.

Alice looks so small with the giant sword on her back. The blue metal blade and handle are taller than her. With her petite figure and short stature she doesn’t match the massively thick and long blade at all. The blue handle sticks out from above her blonde hair like the ear of a bunny.

Litel uncrosses her arms as she walks forward without looking at Alice. “Your late, girl.”

Alice scrunches her face and throws her arms to the side. “I am right on time! The sun only now just rose!”

Rou looks back at Litel then at Alice. “Alice don’t worry she just believes that if you’re not five minutes early you’re late.”

At this point I jump down from my perch. Rou and Litel make no reaction to my movement. Most likely they knew where I was the moment they arrived. On the other hand Alice forgets her anger and rushes up to jump on my back. Even with the giant blade on her back she is still as agile as ever as she slides on top of me while wrapper her arms around my neck in embrace.

I begin to make a motion to Rou and Litel to follow me by swinging my head to one side when Rou gives me a wide grin. “You can just talk to us, you don’t need to make those silly and extravagant body motions.”

Freezing up for a moment due to my forgetfulness I eventually make a nod before speaking. “Errr(But then Alice will be felt left out.)”

Before Rou can say anything else Litel shouts from a short distance ahead of us. “Shut up, stop wasting time, and show us the way already.”

Rou stops his smile and puts a calm and emotionless face. “I was only trying to build a temporary emotional bond to develop the team work. But since that is ruined hurry and move along.”

I glance back at Alice with a concerned look. She shrugs her shoulders in confusion. I guess neither of them is very good with people. I mean the first time we met they did try to kill us, but also in a way kept us alive. I really have no idea how to view these two.

I rush into the forest toward our destination. Due to their speed being slower than mine we will take longer than a single day, but since they’re advanced soldiers they won’t take the full three days either. At most we will only need to take a single night to rest on the way.

After dawn arrives I can feel the pace of Rou and Litel slowing down. I can also begin to feel Alice on my back beginning to feel jittery. She often does a half-meditation while she rides on top of me to help improve her strength, a strange perseverance that probably comes from being reborn, but after a while she becomes restless.

At this point I decide to stop. Litel and Rou stop on both side of me.

Litel gives a glance at Rou before speaking. “How much farther do we have?”

“Rough!(We are half way there.)”

Litel closes her eyes and concentrates for a few moments before a small smirk crosses her face. “Very well let’s rest here. Alice you have been worthless so far so you should patrol the perimeter for monsters and people. Rou and I will set up camp here.”

Alice chooses to ignore half of Litel’s comment and jumps off my back. “Hump, come on Fenrir lets go hunting.”

Litel steps in front of me. “No we need to Fenrir for something at camp. You go on by yourself.”

Alice gives and evil glare at Litel. “Don’t you dare think of petting him. He doesn’t like meanies like you.”

Alice angrily trots off into the distance before disappearing into the forest. After a few more seconds of silence Rou gives a meaningful look at Litel before they both nod their heads. Rou jumps into a nearby tree in pursuit of Alice.

I make a low pitch whining noise in complaint. “Rouuugh(what are you two planning?)”

Litel puts a happier but still kind of angry looking expression on. “We simply wish to test her strength. Rou will examine her fighting style so he can best decide her position in the formation. I scanned the area for hostiles and only found a few sporadic wild creatures. I don’t sense any one from the Helix Executioners so you have nothing to worry about.” At this she reaches out to touch my fur.

I back off a bit to show I don’t want her to pet me. “Ahh, I am sorry.” She grabs her own hand and looks down sadly.

After that the two of us set up camp. It is very simply with a small fire made by me and a few cotton blankets set out as beds. For some reason Litel demanded that I receive a few extra cotton blankets for myself. A strange light of respect similar to how she looked at the chief or the Behemoth fills her gaze when she looks at me. For some reason she tries to hide her feelings around Alice and even Rou but allows herself more ease around me. Is it because I am an animal?

Litel and I are both meditating by the camp fire as the sun is setting. It has been about an hour since Alice went hunting. She doesn’t have very good tracking skills like I do so it could take a while longer.

Litel shoots her eyes open and looks at me with concern. “Which direction is the hide out from here?”

I point my snout south east and Litel’s eyes show a hint of concern.

“We need to hurry a large group of people are heading this way from there. Alice and Rou are about half way from us and that group traveling. Rou doesn’t seem to have noticed them.”

I motion for her to jump on my back so we can travel faster. “Rough (I am much faster than you so jump on.)”

Litel freezes up for the first time since I have met her. She is about to mumble something when I growl out angrily. “Grrrr(Hurry or I will leave you behind!)”

A smile flashes on her face for an instant before she makes a resolute nod and jumps on my back. I can hear her heart beat begin to increase as soon as her hand comes in contact with my fur. I also hear her mumble lightly “So soft.” She grips the fur on both of my shoulders and lightly tugs in the direction I should turn.

We rush toward the others as fast as we can. My speed is triple that of what we had when traveling all together.

After a few minutes of running Rou descends from a tree in front of me. “Litel what’s the problem? Why did you call me through Dei?” Litel must have sent him some type of message through Dei. She must not be strong enough to communicate anything specific and can only send something that alerts Rou to find us.

“Spread your Sei out. We need to set up an ambush.”

Rou closes his eyes and concentrates momentarily. His eyes shoot open and he nods his head in understanding. “Alice is just up ahead. You two circle behind with your superior speed while Alice and I set up a distraction from the front.”

Litel ushers me in the correct direction with her hands and I dash off following her command. As I sprint away I hear Rou begin to speak to Alice but can’t make out his words.

Litel is crouched next to me and slightly in front as we sneak up behind a group of rough looking people. They are all wearing a variety of gnarly brown leather and metal chains. About fifteen men and ten women trudge forward in the dark forest. Their weapons range from small black daggers to large wooden clubs wrapped in rusty chains. They reek of both animal and human blood alike. The people who do not have their wrists covered the symbol of Helix Executioners is visible.

We slowly stalk them waiting for Alice and Rou to begin attacking from the front to strengthen our pincer attack. I have no idea how powerful Rou and Litel truly are except for the moments they caught us off guard when we first fought. I know Alice and I can’t handle this many people so I hope that they are strong enough to carry us.

I know I could eradicate all of them if I could find out how to use those black flames again, but I don’t know how to use them. I also don’t know how powerful I am with just my normal flames since I haven’t had any big fights since gaining my fire.

Suddenly I notice a shadowy figure with a giant hammer shaped weapon descending from the trees directly on one of the leading most people. A large explosion of dust and dirt echoes out in every direction and several people in the blast radius are flung backwards.

I hear a woman from the center of the group yell out “Ambush from the trees!”

The group of people begins to surround the explosion sight while the rest look toward the trees to prepare for the next attack. The ones who were blasted away still struggle to stand but keep their attention upwards.

A small black figure shoot out form bushes near the dust cloud slicing at two people that have their backs turned to the figure with a giant sword. They fall down silently as a gust of wind erupts from the center of the explosion and Rou shoots into the middle of the crowd into another leather clad person.

The thud of club against club booms out form the impact as Rou is blocked. The person who blocks him is pushed back several feet as Rou erupts with another set of forceful attacks. Alice continues her assault and locks her sword with someone wielding two broad swords.

Litel shoots out with lightning speed keeping herself low while she slices away at the people looking in the tree or toward Rou and Alice. She easily takes down seven people before her momentum is blocked and she becomes surrounded.

I notice Rou is leaving Alice behind and is charging in to help Litel out. Both Rou and Litel are surrounded but neither holds fear in their faces. Alice is not yet surrounded but I can see fear creeping on her face.

Before I charge in I shoot a triple barrage of explosive fire balls toward the group. The first explodes in between two people surrounding Litel. This hopefully killed or injured them but definitely stunned them greatly. The second kills an unaware person that stands between Alice and me. The third eradicated the head of a man who was about to attack Alice from behind.

Before the three explosive fire balls hit their targets I am already speeding into the group of people. By the time the third explosion rings out I have already started to launch a fifteen foot long pillar of fire from my jaws igniting any person that comes near me and several that are attacking toward the others. In just a few seconds I have already come within twenty feet of Alice’s previous location and am burning the people who are chasing her retreating body. Besides the explosive fire balls that take up a lot of my strength my flames are not killing them right away. Mostly they are distracting them, forcing them to panic or drop their weapons, so the others in my group can cut or crush them to death with their weapons.

After I sweep through the group, besides my allies, everyone and everything is on fire. After the fire balls hit their targets Alice was the first one to retreat outside the swarm of people. Rou and Litel learned to retreat after I was spraying flames in every direction from me. Screams of pain are pouring out from all around me. I am the only thing not affected within the ring of fire I created. I quickly rip apart anyone within the ring of fire who is rolling on the ground. Alice, Rou and Litel take care of any one who escapes my inferno zone of death.

After the flames burn themselves out and create an isolated circle of ash and bones do I final calm down. As soon as I release the tension from my shoulder I hear a faint whisper from deep within my soul. “More… kill…” It is the same voice form the black flames incident. It sounds as though a thousand men, women, and children whisper in unison. Even the few screams of pain that just moments ago resounded begin to mix into the chorus of voices. Fear begins to envelope me. What is that voice? Is it my own madness calling out to me?

I feel a warm and familiar hand along with the smell of salt and lilies as Alice knocks me out of my stupor. “Oh man that was crazy! Your flames are getting stronger and hotter every time I see you!”

I lick a bit of the salty sweet off of her face as she giggles from my soft pink tong tickling her before I look over to Rou and Litel.

A look of admiration fills Litel’s eyes before it is washed away with her usually angry scowl and crossed arms. “If I knew your flames were like this I would have advised we started with you just burning everything around them while the rest of us took out any one who ran out.”

Rou nods his head while poking some of the burnt remains with his weapon. “Next time I say we let Fenrir take the lead. He may not be able to kill people right away with their Hei, but the fear and pain that he causes would allow the rest of us to clear through them like grass.”

I look back at Alice and give her another lick. She smiles and silently hugs me as well. Death is way too common in this world. None of them seam fazed by this whole event. I know these people are bad but still. They were human. I don’t understand why these people feel nothing. Hell I don’t even feel anything. Is it because I am a wolf? Is it because I have personally experienced death? Or is it because I have killed before?

I still remember the first time I killed a man. I nearly blacked out from shock. Am I getting used to the death or is it simply because I am not human right now that I don’t care? How many lives have Rou and Litel taken before we met them? Why is Alice not freaking out? Did the death of her father break her or something? Or has she always only cared of those around her like I did in my life as a Pyromancer?

I guess one of the biggest reasons no one here is freaking out is because we have all prepared ourselves for this. We weren’t just thrown in to the moment like I was my first kill. We knew yesterday that today would be a life or death event. We have always known this was a kill or be killed world and didn’t live ignorant lives like I did back in my previous life. We knew we might need to kill.

Either way I can feel each person I kill is affecting my soul. The first one nearly tore me apart inside but the second wasn’t as bad. These ones barely got a reaction from me. What will I become if I continue a path like this?

Alice grabs the sides of my face and looks into my eyes. “I know this is hard Fenrir. I don’t like killing either. But we need to keep it together and protect each other.” As I look into Alice’s eyes I notice her holding back tears. It hurts me to see her sad but I am happy to know both of us still feel the weight of killing, even if that weight seems to lighten with each subsequent death.

As the sun is barely rising we continue our journey to the enemy base. The large group they sent out will help weaken their base and leave it a little less defended. This will help us achieve our goal. I am still worried about Alice fighting people but as long as I have these flames I think everything will work out just fine.

There are a few people wondering outside the mossy rock pile on patrol. They seem to be randomly scattered about to prevent people from discovering the entrance. I guess Alice and I really caused a commotion with these guys. Due to their distance from one another Litel is able to silently take the patrolling Helix Executioners out without alerting anyone.

Rou is an expert hunter and has amazing trap detection abilities so he moves in front with Litel slightly behind to silently dispatch any one we see as we descend into the hole. With my excellent hearing and being the fastest I stay in the rear to guard everyone. After we descend about one hundred feet a strange smell fills my nostrils.

This smell brings back memories from a past life; my first life. The image of me standing outside of a car flashes in my mind. I have a pump stuffed into the back end of my car filling the tank with gas.

The smell closely resembles gasoline. Maybe it is some type of unrefined oil? I make a quiet and low pitched wining noise at once with realization.

Every one stops in their tracks and look back at me. “Errr(I think I have some bad news. Do any of you smell something strange in the air?)”

Litel and Rou shake their heads in unison. After Litel whispers something in Alice’s ear she also shakes her head.

Rou whispers back “Whatever it is it shouldn’t be poisonous if they were able to walk around in it. However none of us have a nose like you, maybe we can smell it if we go down a little deeper.”

A bad premonition overtakes me as we continue deeper into the dark cave.

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AN

The next chapter should be out around Sunday night or Monday morning (north american time zone).