Chapter 8 – Blood and Beast
"LUCIAN, DUCK!"
Auron's voice ripped through the frozen air like a blade.
Lucian didn't think. He threw himself into the snow, heart slamming against his ribs as a storm of arrows shrieked past overhead. They buried themselves into the ground where he had stood, the earth erupting in violent sprays of ice.
Screams.
Slaves who weren't fast enough collapsed where they stood. Arrows pierced throats, skulls, and chests; the sound of bodies hitting the frost was a sick rhythm-
thump, thump, thump.
Lucian's stomach churned. He forced himself onto his knees, every breath stinging in the cold air.
From the treeline, shadows peeled away from the darkness. They didn't walk instead they glided forward, purposeful, silent and coordinated.
Beast men. one of the many humanoid species of the continent.
Half-human, half-wolf. Scarred pelts stretched over muscled frames, claws sharp enough to flay a man alive. Red eyes glowed in the night, each pair fixed on its prey. Their movements were unnervingly synchronized, like predators who had hunted together their entire lives.
Auron's dagger flashed. His bracelet pulsed gold as he twisted aside, a spear shattering into the snow where his chest had been. "Cover your Flank! Don't let them circle us!"
Lucian's hands trembled. Fire and frost sparked at his fingertips as mana pulsed wildly through his veins. "There's too many… they're everywhere!"
"Defeating Asher had been survival. This—this was slaughter." lucian thougth
And then the world froze.
From the treeline, a single figure stepped forward. The beast men parted in silence. Reverence. Fear.
Lucian's breath caught.
The man was massive. He was towering over all others, wrapped in a cloak lined with white direwolf fur. His every step pressed down on the air like gravity itself. His presence wasn't simply heavy—it was suffocating, crushing, a mountain given flesh.
Asad Al.
Master of the Artemis Hunters. Bastard son of the Stonefang Horde's crown prince.
Lucian's chest constricted. He remembered whispers, half-drunk slavers muttering about "dire wolf clients" who wanted noble blood. He had never imagined it would be him.
Asad's aura rippled across the snow, bending the very air. His hand rose slowly, and an axe which was colossal, black as midnight suddenly materialized in his grip.
The weapon fell.
The snow exploded in a shockwave, the ground splitting where Lucian had just scrambled aside. The force threw him across the frost, his lungs seizing as the air ripped from his body.
"He's not just strong," Auron hissed, rising, dagger gleaming in defiance. His bracelet burned brighter, his aura a fragile shield against the storm. "He's precise. Every strike measured to kill."
Asad's voice rolled across the battlefield—low, cold, calm. "So. These are the children Asher saved for my rite of passage." His eyes gleamed with hunger. "Interesting."
He tilted his head, predator's grin forming. "You belong to me now."
The words were iron shackles. Lucian's pulse spiked. The idea of belonging to this monster—no, he wouldn't let it. He couldn't.
He drew a breath, forcing fire into his blood. Sparks of crimson flame burst across his hands, frost weaving between them in unstable arcs.
The Wolf moved.
He didn't run. He didn't sprint. He glided, a phantom sliding over the snow. An axe ripped free, spinning through the air faster than thought.
Lucian reacted on instinct. He threw up a glyph, scarlet fire bursting from his palm—Ignis Fracta.
The axe carved through the spell like it was smoke. The flames shattered, leaving only scorched snow in its wake.
Lucian staggered back, eyes wide. "That—"
"You cannot stop me," Asad murmured, his steps shaking the earth. The forest groaned under his aura, branches bending, snow cascading from trees as though nature itself bowed.
He raised his weapon again. "Submit, and your deaths will be painless."
"Not a chance!" Auron roared. His dagger caught the descending blade, sparks screaming as metal and mana collided. The impact boomed like thunder, echoing through the trees.
Lucian's hands blurred with glyphs, ice spires erupting from the ground, jagged fangs of frozen death.
Asad's axe tore through them in a single sweep. Shards sprayed like shrapnel, one plunging deep into Lucian's shoulder. He bit down on his scream, teeth grinding, blood dripping down his arm.
"Auron—he's not just stronger. He's—" Lucian's words choked under the suffocating weight of Asad's aura. "He's something else."
"I don't care!" Auron snapped, golden light burning across his bracelet. "Even if heaven itself stands here—I'll fight them too!"
They moved. Together.
Lucian's magic surged, fire and frost colliding, his body wrapped in a storm of unstable mana. He unleashed volleys of flame, sheets of ice, trying to drown the wolf in chaos.
Auron was his blade, darting in and out, dagger clashing against the storm of axes. Sparks lit the night with every strike. Each step, each heartbeat, cost them blood.
And Asad smiled.
His every move was deliberate, calculated, cruel. He could kill them with a single swing. He didn't. He was playing, savoring their resistance, savoring their fear.
Lucian's chest heaved, his lungs burning, mana ripping through his veins like molten lead. Auron staggered, blood streaming from a cut across his ribs, yet his eyes never wavered.
The battlefield was a nightmare . snow churned black with ash and red with blood, ice crystals glittering like glass knives beneath the moonlight.
Asad's axes whirled, deadly comets slicing through the night. One clipped Lucian's arm, opening flesh to bone. Pain screamed through him, but he gritted his teeth, channeling it into raw fury.
"You thought gnats like you could touch me?" Asad's voice was silk and iron, smooth as it was merciless. He stepped forward, aura crushing. "I offered you mercy. You chose torment."
Lucian staggered upright, blood dripping onto the snow. His voice cracked, but it was iron at the core. "F—ck you. I'd rather burn alive than kneel to a beast like you."
Auron lifted his dagger, golden eyes locked on the monster before them. "If death wants me then it will have to earn me."
Silence.
The forest itself stilled. Even the beast men froze, watching, waiting, breath held as though the world balanced on the edge of a blade.
Asad's smile widened, sharp and hungry.
And then the storm came again.