Zach's lycan body was covered with red, weeping lesions from the attack the octo-creature had made on his being. After a while of fighting the creature, the pain had become so disabling that his brain chose to numb him to it. Running on adrenalin alone, Zach couldn't stop. He'd finished off the creature with endless arms and still wasn't sure how he'd managed it. As soon as his teeth ripped through one arm, another appeared, multiple arms had pulled him under, trying to strangle and sting and tear his limbs from his body. But somehow, the arms slowly stopped appearing until finally there were no more. He'd found the blob of a head with bloodied stumps and killed it with one ferocious slice of fangs into vulnerable tissue.
But now, as early afternoon made the sun high in the sky, here below in darkness, Zach could sense the next of his trials approaching. Frighteningly fast. Red blobs in the distance came closer and closer. He focused and as they came into view, his vision cleared. Two feet tall, red demons with double horns came charging at him. Dozens of them. He began to realize these tests were less about strength and more about endurance.
His hope renewed. He could handle this. He had trekked prey through vast forests for days at a time without so much as stopping for a nap. He would survive this. And something in that thought made him flash back to Willow. She would survive this too. As a mere mortal girl. Purely human. Could he truly allow that to happen? Yet, his choices were to live or die, not the consequences of what would happen to his potential future mate.
At least if he lived, he stood a chance. He could go away, lick his wounds, and return one day to finally fully claim her as his. With a new energy, he clawed, bit, and ripped away the lives of each approaching demon, barely feeling the blows they dealt him.
What felt like minutes for Zach was actually hours passing. Each hour his body was wearing down more and more. Some ribs were broken, his left eye was swollen shut, his ear was maimed at the tip, a tear from one of the little demons. If he lived through this, it would surely be a permanent reminder of a battle he'd lost. Oh, not the battle of these damned trials, but that of losing Willow. For now.
His body was strong, but the hits, bites, claws and kicks he was receiving was definitely doing some serious damage. He forced his mind through the pain, through the uncertainty, even though the thoughts that he didn't know how much more he could take. The endless swarm of little red demons would be overwhelming even to a werewolf in the best of health.
He wondered vaguely if Willow would appreciate what he was doing for her. Killing all of these countless creatures for hours for her. His body was aching, the wolf within was begging for relief.
At one point, as the afternoon soon began to dip lower in the sky far above, his senses were beginning to dull. At a time when the moon would be coming and his senses would normally be embracing the moon's strength, more alert than ever, he was barely on the level of a mere mortal. He could no longer even hear each creature in the distance at it waited its turn for attack. Their growls and scents were lost on him. He was nothing more than a machine now, going on pure instinct. Kill. Kill. Kill. Only in his mind it wasn't the creatures his dark hatred and want for a kill was coming from. It was Oz.
It wasn't too much longer now. The sun would disappear below the horizon and Willow's fate would be sealed. An option grew in Zach's mind. He could simply ward off the attacks and slow down his kills. Keep it up, give Willow just enough time to become his True Mate and then he could defeat them, escape, and go collect her.
Yes, that was what he would do.
He allowed the horrid little demons to bite at him and claw at him, wincing and groaning in pain as he swatted them aside without trying to kill them all. Yet.
Willow. The thought made him smile. Soon, she would truly be his after all.