Chapter 19: I Used to Be an Adventurer Like You...

We loosed 6 arrows in less than 2 seconds; arrows are a lot slower than bullets, so it took the arrows about one and a half seconds to actually reach their targets. The arrows were deadly accurate, 2 hit in the throat (Isiah) 2 in the heart (Me). The two arrows that didn’t kill were both aimed at the Alpha, he twitched at the last second, my arrow’s speed was faster than Isiah’s by a hair and it hit him in the shoulder. It made him twitch and Isiah’s arrow that should have hit him in the face, missed. It didn’t fully miss as it carved out one side of the face, leaving a gaping hole where the left side of his jaw used to be.

By the time they realised they were being shot at we had already released our second and third salvos. These weren’t as effective as the first as the combined twelve shots managed to only kill 1 more werewolf. But it did injure 2 others badly. The Beta had jumped in front of the Alpha to protect him from the next volley and 3 arrows struck him, destroying his shoulder. And the other was shot through the knee, there went his adventuring days.

“Silver arrows!” the Alpha said. Actually he said “sphilba avvos!” But half his jaw was missing, so he couldn’t be blamed for his mispronunciation.

The wolves began scattering, moving faster than it would be possible for humans. They were moving for cover behind trees. They had noticed that the arrows were lethal. That meant that not only did we know about their planned attack; but we also knew that they were werewolves.

We had only coated 20 arrows in silver. They had been divided unequally between us. I had 9, just enough for 3 salvos. Isiah was the better shot, so he got the two spare ones. He proved he was the better shot by managing to catch a fleeing superfast werewolf in the ankle.

Out of the 15 werewolves we had managed to kill 5. We had injured 4 others, but it was still the equivalent of 8 or 9 on 4. And now we were out of arrows. We were out in the middle of the woods, outnumbered 2 to 1 facing off against werewolves. We all had superpowers as well but one of us had been a werecat for less than a week. And no matter how far into the future Mathew could see; he was still a human, with human reflexes and human strength.

The werewolves waited behind the trees and started transforming. The clearing was filled with the noises of breaking bones and howling, as the wolves transformed. Isiah also took the opportunity to transform. I stowed away the bow in my void space and brought out my swords: The unsilvered Viking sabre and the half silvered ring sword which used to belong to Graith. The ring sword differed from the later more classic swords because of its hilt. It didn’t contain the later Christian cruciform guards but was a bronze small oval, which had an iron ring embedded around it (hence the name). The pommel was the same as on a roman spatha.

Then I had an embarrassing moment. I was up on the tree branch and I had to get down to the ground; so that I could fight and kill the werewolves, to do that I needed my arms. so much for looking heroic ... I had to put the swords back and then jump down, I landed awkwardly and was windmilling my arms around trying to balance myself. I then redrew my swords. Isiah meanwhile, had changed into his werecat form and jumped down gracefully. Fucking cats, and their natural sense of balance.

That’s when things started going wrong. We went forwards towards the opening and were met by Mathew, who like me was holding two swords, his and Isiah’s, as Isiah wasn’t using it. And Josiah, except Josiah wasn’t in his were cat form, he was still human.

“Why are you still human?” I turned to Mathew, my voice going up an octave “Why is he still human?!”

“Couldn’t transform”

“He couldn’t transform”

They both said simultaneously.

Now it was 10 on effectively 2. Shit.

“Pick an injured one, and be careful!” I said to Mathew. I turned to Josiah and said “hide!” a human Josiah was useless in this battle. He may have been stronger compared to normal humans but against transformed werewolves, he was going to be a lamb to slaughter.

The werewolves had realised no one was shooting arrows at them anymore. I realised my mistake <shit! It would have been useful to have someone shoot arrows at them from the trees, even if they were only steel arrows!>

The wolves came out of the trees; they were in their hybrid forms. They were 7-8 feet tall, furry, with pointy triangular canine ears. Their noses and upper jaws were elongated slightly, to accommodate their longer canine teeth. Their hands and feet had grown bigger, and had small triangular claws. Their bodies were also much wider, almost reaching 5 feet in width. And they were more muscular, built like giant inverted triangles with a head and two arms.

They came out into the clearing as a pack, the Alpha leading at the front. You could tell he was the Alpha as he was still missing half his lower jaw. He was slimmer than the rest at less than 4 feet wide. His body was lithe and agile looking, his muscles rippled under the fur pulsating with a hidden danger. A weird thought went through my head, maybe because of the pulsating muscles. But at that moment I was glad that weres adapted to the animal sheathed genitalia system. I don’t think I could have faced 8 foot tall monsters with their cock and balls swinging around.

That thought brought me to an abrupt stop and I started laughing.

I was about to be facing off against a pack of werewolves. We were outnumbered at least three to one, I was about to lose my best friend and most of the people I had grown to care about. My body would probably be ripped apart, but since I couldn’t die; I would have to spend the next few months regrowing my body, in excruciating agony.

But at that moment, the thought of werewolves with human genitalia ... it made me laugh.

Mathew and Isiah looked at me like I was an idiot. “Sorry ... he he ... I’m really sorry, I just imagined werewolves with human genitalia ... he he he, it makes me laugh”

Isiah turned to face me and roared in my face. “GRRRROOOOAAAARRR!!!” which is werecat for “shut the fuck up”, I think.

“Okay, time to be serious” I said, straightening up. I switched the sword in my left hand to an ice pick grip and adjusted the sword in my right.

Isiah turned to the Alpha and roared “GRROOAAR!”

“aaeewwoooo!” the Alpha tried to roar, it came out a little strangled, due to the missing half of his jaw. I would have laughed, but the rest of the wolves also roared “AAAAAWWWOOOOOO!!!” Which was a lot more impressive.

Isiah charged in, crashed into the Alpha. The Beta also charged into the mix, but he was missing one of his arms and bleeding profusely from the wound. Mathew charged in and engaged into the battle and started battling against the werewolf with the broken ankle. That broken ankle had slowed that wolf down a lot so the fight would be even.

But that still left 7 wolves that were fine. They identified Isiah as the biggest threat and rushed towards him, trying to overwhelm him with sheer numbers. Only the other injured wolf came at me, dismissing me as an extra. Actually both Mathew and I got underestimated, or to be more specific; they underestimated our swords, which were silvered. Mathew’s ability allowed him to side step that first lazy step and used the werewolf’s own momentum to skewer him with the silvered sword. He used the other sword in his hand to stab through the werewolf’s neck. Blood came spurting out as the injured werewolf was killed. The werewolf made a strange strangled noise as if he couldn’t believe he was dying. This grabbed the attention of the pack.

My werewolf died an even more spectacular death. He came slashing at me with a huge loping horizontal slash. Instead of moving to avoid that strike, I flicked the sword in my right hand towards the strike. I had coated the edge in void photons to create the spatial edge on the blade’s edge. The entire arm was bisected in two lengthways. I moved, supernaturally fast, spinning behind the flailing remains of that arm, and slashed upwards with the Viking sabre in my right hand. The sword split him literally in half, splitting him from his arsehole to his head, cutting the spinal cord in half. He was dead, but I casually swiped right with my silvered sword cutting the top off of both heads (his previous head was now in two) just for that added flair. It was spectacular, his body didn’t realise what had happened and continued moving forwards, and then exploded. The body broke into four pieces and the blood went everywhere.

The five werewolves were terrified. They had paused when they noticed the death of their injured pack member at the hands of Mathew; they were assessing how much of a threat Mathew was. But when they saw what happened to the other one, at my hands. I immediately became the primary threat; even bigger that the werecat, Isiah. One of them, the most cautious of them all, separated from the group and made eye contact with Mathew.

He attacked Mathew, but not with any killing intent. His objective was to separate him from near me. Mathew allowed this to happen, backing off to the left and into the forest. I kept an eye on him as I observed what the other four werewolves did. They separated and tried to surround me. They were being extra cautious and slow. Mathew and his wolf had disappeared into the woods. I could hear the sounds of angry claws hitting against trees. Mathew was dodging using his future sight and the increased obstacles in the woods were working to his advantage.

The wolves trying to encircle me we being overly cautious; the way I had killed the other wolf must have really scared them. I looked at the battle going on with Isiah against the Alpha and Beta. The Beta was having a terrible time of it. Isiah was holding his own against the Alpha, the Alpha was quick and compact for a werewolf, and he was extremely powerful even when compared to the naturally powerfully built werewolves. But Isiah held the advantage in speed and agility, Isiah’s biggest advantage however lay in his tail. His tail acted as an extra limb, but it was infinitely more flexible and acted almost independently of its owner. It seemed to have a mind of its own and blocking attacks that Isiah couldn’t possibly have seen coming.