~ Crimson Snow ~

SAPHIRA

"Orion!"

Artemis roars her war cry as she charges up the slopes, carving a path through the Wolves that are too slow to get out of her way. Others give her a wide berth as they surge past her to clash with the Hunt and their allies once more. Saphira is about to chase after her lady with a strong desire to help her slay the Archer Giant once and for all, but her path is blocked the enemy. She can't follow Artemis to battle, fearing that Orion may prove to be more than a match for her. She cannot kill a giant alone.

A clap of thunder and crackle of lightning startles her as a bolt arcs down from the sky. The explosive force of the lightning clears away enough of the enemy for Saphira to spot Thalia standing tall with her spear held to the air. The lieutenant makes eye contact and Saphira immediately understands to rally to her. She slips her way past a charging line of campers that collide with the Wolves, shields first, managing to drive them back and reestablish the ranks. Two Wolves intercept her path, but one is dispatched by an arrow to the back, courtesy of one of her sisters in the trees. Saphira hurls one of her knives to impale the Wolf's eye, causing the beast to howl in pain while she closes the distance and flips over its head, yanking the knife free of its skull and landing on its blind side to slash her knife all the way down its neck.

"Thalia!" she cries, finally managing to make it to her side.

"I have to go after Artemis! A giant can only be killed by a demigod and a god working together!" Thalia hastily explains, bashing away a Wolf with Aegis before sticking its flank with her spear.

The girls stand back to back, covering each other and rotating to swiftly put down any monster that dares to attack. Saphira kicks a Wolf in the muzzle hard enough to turn its head and hammer a knife into its ear, hearing the crunch as the blade penetrates its skull.

"I know!" she replies, repelling another Wolf with two slashes of her knives to the face. "We have to break from this carnage and find her!"

"I'll go! You stay here and help the others finish them off!"

Saphira is dumbfounded that Thalia would order her to stay behind instead of help Artemis. "But Thalia-"

"Saph, they need you! Artemis and I can handle Orion ourselves, but you have to kill Lycaon! If the Pack sees him die, they'll panic and scatter!" the sky child warns her.

The strategy makes sense, but Saphira still doesn't like it. Orion is the bigger threat… but Lycaon is the one who controls the Pack. Without him, they are leaderless and Thalia is right. Seeing their king die would break their resolve.

"Okay!" she concedes. "How do we get you out of here?"

Thalia shields them both a Wolf's snapping fangs and whistles a high-pitched tune. Saphira slips around her to stab the Wolf in the throat before turning to see Xenia hurtling towards them, swords in hand, backed by the timber wolves, Anemos and Dankana. The Spartan girl gives Saphira a brief glance in which Saphira thinks she sees mild contempt, but there's no time to dwell on that.

"Sister!" Xenia announces.

"Xenia, I need you and Saph to help me clear a path so I can go with Artemis!" Thalia says. "Once I'm clear, you two have to find Lycaon and kill him!"

Xenia casts Saphira a glare, as if against the idea of working with her. Is she really doing this over Saphira's friendship with Lykos? At a time like this? Thalia didn't miss the glare, despite the carnage of the battle.

"Whatever is going on with you two, put it aside!" she snarls. "I need you both! We all need you both, so drop this bullshit! Work it out after we get out of this alive!"

Xenia concedes to her, nodding her head begrudgingly.

"Good. Now get moving!"

The three girls begin to inch their way out of the mobs, hacking, stabbing, and slicing their way through the enemy. Anemos and Dankana play their parts perfectly, skirting around and attacking enemy Wolves from the flanks and rears, distracting them from the girls. Thalia summons another bolt of lightning to clear a pair of Wolves that stood in their way, and at one point, they are joined by Clarisse, backed by three of her campers. The demigods may be rowdy, wild, and chaotic, but there is no denying their skill or their bravery. They charge the enemy again and again with enthusiastic war cries. The falcons of the Hunt swoop down from the skies to harass and distract the Wolves, diving and slashing at their eyes with their talons. The snipers in the trees provide covering fire, preventing the Wolves from regrouping themselves enough to block their path.

Finally, Saphira, Thalia, and Xenia manage to break free from the carnage just enough for Thalia to charge out.

"Go! Kill Lycaon and then wipe out as many you can!" she shouts over her shoulder as she takes off in the direction that Artemis had gone after Orion.

Saphira throws a brisk nod back at her before she and Xenia turn back towards the battle. Their numbers are reduced, but still strong enough to stand against the Wolves. The narrow trail left little room for the enemy to use their superior numbers effectively, as they had almost no space to try for flanking maneuvers. Trees and boulders on the right made it confining, with the cliff wall completely sealing that direction off. More trees on the left, and a steep drop that would almost assuredly mean certain death.

Sweeping her eyes over the battleground, Saphira searches desperately for their primary target. Alas, she spots him, deep within the midst of the chaos; the one Wolf that is more massive than the others. He bats down a camper's spear, throwing them off balance before he catches a sword in his jaws and bucks in almost a full spin to hurl the boy into the waiting jaws of his Pack. A second spear is thrust at him, but he snaps his jaws around the shaft and snaps it like a twig, frightening the camper into retreat.

Lycaon.

Xenia spots him as well and without a word between them, Saphira and she hurtle back into the fray. They carve and force their way through the battling campers, Hunters, and Wolves, inching closer towards King of the Wolves proves himself to be far more capable in battle than his descendants, easily managing to fight several opponents at once. Laura is struggling currently to take him out, fighting him knives-to-fangs. Even with her timber wolf and a camper girl helping her, she can't land a killing blow on him. He's too fast and too strong for her to be able to. He has thousands of years of experience over her and it shows. He springs away from the timber wolf's snapping jaws, capturing it in his own teeth by the scruff of the neck and tossing the wolf like it was just a pup. The female camper charges and thrusts with her xiphos, but he's faster, dipping under the blade and snapping at her legs to flip her off her feet. He then turns on Laura and, with a horrible snarl, he pounces on her to slam her down into the snow on her back, pinning her down with both paws on her chest.

Laura's lips part widely in a gasp as she claws at the snow and at his wrists, but her breath is wheezy and short. He's trying to suffocate her by using his own weight to force the air out of her lungs.

With a cry, Saphira hurtles towards them and growls as she dives at Lycaon with both knives. He lifts his gaze to her just in time to react and spring off of Laura backwards, but the tip of Saphira's blade still nicks his cheek as she soars past him. She lands in the snow with a roll and whirls around to face him again. Lycaon slowly turns toward her with a growl, blood already seeping from the newly opened gash in his cheek. His crimson eyes burn like boiling blood, filled with hatred and the lust to kill.

Then, he begins to transform, reclaiming his human form. He is lean and muscular, with ragged hair the color of soot. His teeth remained as fangs, as did his nails as claws. His cloak of furs flows around him in the blizzard winds. Even as a man, he's still much taller than her, sneering down at her with that disgusting smirk.

"You… I'm going to enjoy tearing you limb from limb," he cackles. The way he says that threat… as if he knows who she is.

"Something personal against me, monster?" Saphira retorts, tightly gripping her knives.

"Do you think that killing my Wolves means what they know will not find its way back to me?" Lycaon points a clawed finger at her, and somehow she knows that he's talking about those two Wolves she had encountered on her hunt with Lykos. "Even from the Pit, I can get information. You are the brat who corrupted one of my own."

Saphira's gaze briefly flickers to Lykos. He struggles and strains against his bindings, managing to snap one rope in half, but it's not enough to free himself.

"He'd be corrupted if he still followed you!" she spits back.

Lycaon's sneer wavers, and he lifts a foot like he's about to take a menacing step towards her, but he's distracted by the sound of Xenia's blades scraping together behind him.

"I hope you enjoyed the little time you had in this world after returning from the Pit," Xenia growls, "because I am sending you right back, beast!"

Saphira and Xenia circle him, tensed and prepared to strike as Lycaon glances back and forth between them. He seems absolutely unbothered at being outnumbered, only throwing his head back and releasing a howling laugh to the sky.

"You will not survive this fight!" he declares, and with that, he springs into action.

Saphira almost wasn't ready for his surprising speed as he closes the distance to her in a single bound. She deflects the slash of his claws with her knives, but the force of his swing still has her staggering off balance. She barely manages to fend off his next swipe and tries to retaliate with an attack of her own; a swift, low-end jab that he easily sidesteps and backhands her jaw, knocking her off her feet. Before he strike her with a killing blow, he's confronted by Xenia, the Spartan girl assaulting him with a vengeance. She slashes wide with her first sword, followed quickly by the second, driving Lycaon away from Saphira.

Lycaon's footwork is light and perfectly balanced, allowing him to avoid her swings with ease as he continues to backstep and lean his body out of range. He seems to be immensely enjoying this fight, all the while having kept his vile grin. Xenia only seems to be growing more frustrated by the second, if her growls and screams are anything to go by. She tries for an overhead swing, only for her wrist to be caught and her falling sword is abruptly stopped. Xenia's eyes become filled with shock while Lycaon's grin grows even wider before he sends a vicious kick to her chest that knocks the air from her lungs.

Despite Xenia's earlier attitude against her, Saphira has no desire to see her sister be killed and scrambles to her feet and rushes to the rescue. With a war cry, she hurls herself at Lycaon and opens her assault with an attempted stabbing to his gut. He defends, slapping her wrist away and retaliating with a jab of his claws that she narrowly evades by dipping her head low. She slashes at his waist, missing and following with a second reverse-grip swipe. Lycaon jumps back to dodge and steps back in with a outstretched, clawed hand. Saphira sidesteps and tries to punish him for that by throwing a cut at his arm. He's quick enough to recoil his arm in time and throws a hard swipe that catches her bicep, ripping through her jacket and shirt sleeves, slicing the flesh beneath.

"Nngh!" Saphira grunts as she spins away from him for a swift breather. She takes a glance at her right bicep, the fabric of the torn sleeves already turning crimson with the blood soaking through. She looks back at the Wolf King with a hammering heart, feeling the burn of her wound already beginning to make her arm feel numb.

Lycaon raises his bloodied claws to his lips and allows her blood to drip into his open mouth, making her nauseous at the disgusting sight.

"Your blood tastes even sweeter than I hoped, girl," he says, the snide remark dripping like venom and making her feel even more sickened by him, especially by the way he licks his lips as he stares at her.

Her breath escapes her in short, panting rasps. Xenia is just as out of breath, standing back up beside her. Saphira doesn't know how they are to beat Lycaon at this rate. They're playthings to him, mere amusements in his eyes. He's thousands of years old, and all his experience and prowess is being put to good use. He hasn't even broken a sweat yet, while both girls are heaving air in and out of their chests.

"You cannot win. Give up, and perhaps I'll spare your lives so that you may join the Pack," Lycaon gloats, then, with a more perverse glare, he adds; "and perhaps you may become my mates."

If Saphira had eaten anything that day, she would have vomited right there. The crude comment enrages her, but not more than the Spartan beside her.

"You vile, disgusting monster!" Xenia roars and charges, having only one remaining sword in her grasp. Her fury startles Saphira so much that she's almost too stunned to move at first.

Xenia first thrusts at his chest and misses, turning her blade to slash for his midsection and move into a spin that brings her sword from a high-low swing. Saphira recollects her nerves and rushes to join her, dropping herself into a slide over the snow to take a stab at Lycaon's ankles, but the Wolf King simply takes a sharp step to his right and evades her. Rising up with a surging uppercut, Saphira very nearly scores a cut on his chin if not for his quick head bob. Flipping her knives into reverse-grips, she swings both backdown, only for him to slap her attack aside and backhand her across the face so hard that she's seeing stars. Her cheek is numbed from the cold and the impact of his strike.

Lycaon then turns back on Xenia, using his right arm to block the attempted swing of her sword and drops her onto her back with a solid punch to her nose before turning back on Saphira. She leans her head back just far enough out of reach of his first swipe, but she doesn't expect him to follow up his attack with a second swing.

It's as if someone had taken a whip that was covered in razor blades, and lashed it across her waist. The burning, searing pain is so excruciating that she can't even find the air in her lungs to scream as she staggers away, dropping her knives to clutch at the wound in her waist. She's already bleeding profusely, the crimson liquid pouring out of her body like a stream. Saphira's gasps are choked, feeling herself already becoming overcome with shock.

"You feel that?"

Lycaon's smug voice reaches her ears. She can sense him standing over her, but she can't bear to bring her eyes up to stare at him, focused entirely on her blood that now stains the snow around her.

"That's called fear. Despair. The knowledge that your life is soon to end, but unable to accept it," he sneers. She can sense his claws beginning to rise, preparing to finish her, yet finds her body unwilling to respond to her. Move. Move! Move!

"Get away from her!"

Xenia's furious cry breaks the lock on her body as Saphira snaps her gaze up to see Lycaon whirling around to meet a furious Xenia, her sword already in motion and aimed right for his neck!

Her sword doesn't meet its mark.

Faster than lightning, Lycaon snatches her wrist, stopping her swing, much to her surprise. As if he were handling a child, he easily twists her arm sharply to the side at an unnatural angle. Xenia cries out in pain, a sound that haunts Saphira as she has never once heard the Spartan girl make such a noise. The sword falls from her hand into the snow, leaving her defenseless as Lycaon continues to crush her arm in his grasp. Desperately, Xenia tries to punch him with her free arm, but she can't reach him without twisting her gripped arm even further.

Shiiink!

Saphira's gasp is trapped in her lungs. Xenia's eyes are wide, staring into Lycaon's cruel gaze, almost if he wasn't there. A drop of blood trickles from her mouth as she slowly casts her gaze down to her midsection… where Lycaon had impaled her stomach with his clawed hand.

Saphira is frozen, helpless, useless to do anything but stare in horror as the mighty Spartan girl is lifted high into the air over Lycaon's gloating face while her life-force pours crimson onto the snow. In only seconds, Xenia's body slackens and goes limp, dangling lifelessly before the Wolf King throws her away as if she meant absolutely nothing.

"X-Xenia…"

Saphira can barely manage to speak the girl's name, staring at her body lying in the crimson snow.

Lycaon turns towards her, the blood-lust burning in his eyes, burning straight through her's as he stalks closer.

"I told you. You would not survive this fight." He saunters closer with swagger in his step, his arrogance and his confidence overflowing at the brim. In a last-ditch effort, Saphira snatches up one of her knives and tries to throw it at him, hoping to impale his heart, but his reflexes are too quick. He catches her knife and tosses it away before leaning down to yank her up by her hair. Too late, does she try to stifle any cry, but one escapes her lips before she can clench her teeth together. Keeping his grip on her hair and using his other hand to practically crush her wrist, he holds her defenseless, not that she has much strength remaining in her to fight back.

"I'm going to savor the taste of your blood!" he gloats, sharply turning her head to expose her neck to him. Saphira's breath would be rapid and short if she wasn't already weakened by blood loss. Her hammering heart doesn't help her to retain her life-force and her strength. She's helpless to do anything as Lycaon curls his lips to bare his fangs, leaning closer towards the pumping vessels in her neck. She squeezes her eyes shut and prepares herself for the end.

"Argh!"

Lycaon's grunt of surprise, accompanied by a ferocious snarl and a force that rips the Wolf King away from her has Saphira's eyes snapping open again. She collapses onto the snow, disoriented and struggling to recover her senses. There is a thud in the snow around her, and she half-groggily looks up to see a Wolf standing over her, bearing streaks of white on his chest and shoulders, with a white tipped tail. When the Wolf casts a quick glance down at her, she can see a final white mark on his forehead, and his eyes staring directly into hers.

His icy, yellow eyes…

"L-Lykos?!" she chokes out. H-how did he get free?

Lykos replies to her with a gentle, rumbling growl that deepens when he returns his glare to the stunned and angry Wolf King. Her heart swells with both joy and fear at the same time. Her best friend, once so terrified of Lycaon that he didn't even want to linger on the subject about him with her, now places himself between her and the King of the Wolves. Lycaon is wide-eyed, but the rage is still evident in his stare. Yet, Lykos does not waver or recoil. His snarls only grow louder and more ferocious as he engages in his standoff with his former king. Despite her initial happiness at his coming to her rescue, Saphira is afraid. He has to know that Lycaon is far more powerful than him. Looking at his bristling fur and protective stance, she realizes that Lykos doesn't care. He clearly has only one thing on his mind.

No matter what, he's not letting Lycaon anywhere near her.