Ch.11 Wolfen Pact

A Minecraftian teen walks the woods in a sour mood. The news he had received just a few hours ago was saddening. A werewolf had been stabbed in the heart by a sword; killed instantly. He punched a tree out of anger and leaned on its trunk. It was those villagers. The ones that hunt werewolves! He knew it had been someone that carried a sword and the only ones he could think of were the villagers to have that sort of aim.

If it had been anyone else there would have been blood from them and not just the werewolf. He decided that it was time to have the village burned. He wouldn't allow them to get away with this. He sniffed the air and got the scent of another werewolf and…

The teen ran as a blur through the trees towards the scent. Could it have been her? His scouts did say a werewolf had been there also. But he knew she didn't have a sword. He recalled when they had met. She had nothing on her. "She's a noob. Yet she has a werewolf." His feet slowed to a stop.

He stared at the grassy ground thinking. It wasn't her. The stab mark had been made by a professional. They knew what they were doing. It had been the village!

A dark brown werewolf stepped next to him. "Well?"

"Gather them up. It's the village's downfall tonight."

The dark brown wolf turned and sprinted off through the woods doing as he was told. The teen strode off through the woods to a place the woods did not touch. It was a hillside that over looked the village. He stood atop the hill watching as the sun began to sink. The villagers milling about finishing up their days work and preparing for the next day.

There wouldn't be a next day for them. The teen's hand clenched into a fist and a grin spread across his face.

I panted as I blocked another barrage of attacks from Hel. He had been trained by my dad in sword fighting and the like. He was damn good at it too. His skills had not dwindled even for a bit with my dad being gone from the mansion. I stumbled backwards hitting a tree and leaned against it.

"Can we take a break? We've been at this for hours now."

Hel stabbed his sword into the ground with a single movement. "Sure. You're losing your edge. You want me to go back and get some water?"

"No. I'm too tired to defend myself if I'm approached by evil." I panted and slid down the trunk of the tree into the tall grass. I sniffed my nose and scented something. "Hel."

He sniffed the air too and turned in the direction it was coming from. "It's the boy. Werewolves are walking too."

"Why are they out? It's turning dusk."

Hel turned to me raising a brow. "Why wouldn't they be? It's going to be night time. They hunt at night."

"Including you?"

He shook his head. "I hunt in the day time so I don't have to go out at night and face them."

"You did that the entire time at the mansion, didn't you."

He nodded and sat in front of me. "You need to be on your guard. We could be attacked by anything out here. Werewolves, Creepers, Skeletons, and Zombies."

"Wraiths."

He nodded at me. "Those too. Plus the Ogres and wild animals."

I sighed feeling bummed and slightly stressed. So many things to look out for. He ruffled my hair with a heavy hand.

"I know. It's stressful to think of it all. I don't think about it. I just deal with it as it comes."

As night fell upon us we trained a little more before calling it a night. Walking through the woods towards home we talked over my progress.

"You aren't completely doing your swing all the way through."

"I know that! I'm still trying to get the hand of tucking my elbow and then going out."

He chuckled patting my head. "I'll have to drill you on that and a few other things.

As we walked I saw light dancing on the trunks of the trees fading and growing. Was I seeing things? I smelled the air and smelled something burning. I turned towards the direction and saw fire leaping high.

"Hel! Fire!"

Hel spun around with a gaping mouth. "Lets go!"

We raced through the woods towards the village below. Screams of the villagers could be heard faintly. We slid to a stop on a Cliffside looking down below at a lake. I turned to Hel and he looked back at me. He nodded his head. We leapt off the side together and plummeted down into the cold water below.

"Kill them all!" the teen barked. "They don't deserve to live for killing our brother!"

The werewolves all sprinted about attacking the villagers and killing the children that tried to run away. The men of the village and the guards took up arms trying to defend them. There were too many werewolves to deal with. Serdra ran around slashing what she could reach, clearing a path for some of the villagers. She gathered some of her guards together giving them instructions.

"Take them to the underground tunnels. Bar the way as soon as you get them in!"

The guard nodded and took off with them. Serdra and the guards made a diversion while they escaped. The teen stood atop of the lookout tower and saw the plan. He sneered and made his way down. "I don't think so."

Serdra barked orders while fighting the werewolves. The guards did what they could to up hold her orders. The werewolves began to push them back, Serdra realized that it was going to be a loss for the villagers. Before she knew it she and the others had been surrounded by the werewolves. Snapping jaws and snarling was all around them.

"Serdra!" cried the guards. "What do we do?"

She stared into the wild eyes of the werewolves with nothing coming to mind. "We pray."

As she closed her eyes and recited a prayer the werewolves rushed in to finish them off.

"It is not by strength that one prevails; those who oppose the lord will be shattered. He will thunder against them from heaven; the lord will judge the ends of the earth."

A black werewolf sprang up behind the pack of werewolves howling out its battle cry. He landed in front of Serdra and charged into the mass of oncoming werewolves with no fear. I landed in front of Serdra protectively and danced about slashing, hacking, and stabbing those that came near. Serdra stood there with her back against a tree that she had been pinned against in surprise.

"Serdra! They need you!"

She grabbed her hilt and sprang to her guards defenses. One by one they battled rescuing each guard and fighting back to back. Hel bounded around as a blur taking down werewolves that came into his path. I suddenly realized I had placed myself in a throng of raging werewolves that were coming down upon me.

"Hel!"

The werewolves were flung away from me and the huge black werewolf stood over me at my call. He looked down at me and growled. I sprang onto his back grabbing his neck fur tightly with one hand. "Let's go!"

Hel leapt across the fighting guards and charged through the burning village to see where the other half of the werewolf pack had gone. In the distance I saw something silhouetted in the moonlight disappear behind something.

"Hel, in the distance."

He growled. "I'm aware."

We slowed to the entrance of the tunnel that had been mined out of the side of a mountain. I took a torch from my bag and went into the mouth of the tunnel. I turned back to Hel to see him in his human form following behind me. I sniffed the air and reassured myself we were on the right path before bolting down the tunnel. Whatever the werewolves were up to the teen would be with them as well.

The teen strode through the darkness without the need of a torch. His eyes a glow with his heir abilities. He could smell the fear that the Minecraftian villagers had as his werewolves kept them in place. The villagers crowded and clumped together in a circle with the children in the middle of them.

"Well, well, well. We have the killers themselves trapped like rats in their own escape tunnel."

The villagers glared at him as he neared. "What do you want?"

"You know how it feels to lose a friend to one of your guards?"

The villagers wondered what he was talking about. "We've hunted the werewolves in the past but we never touched them again after you came along and took up for them. We don't know what you're talking about."

"Liar!" the teen barked jabbing his face into the mans. "One of the guards killed one of my friends! I told you all that night if any one of you touched them again I'd kill you all!"

"We never killed your friend!"

The teen stared at the man and looked at the villagers. Crying, weak, pathetic Minecraftians. "You still deny it. You're still denying it to my face after I picked up the scent of one of you that was there on his body! I saw the stab wound in his heart! You still say that none of you did it?"

"No!" the villagers cried out pleadingly. "We didn't do it!"

The teen lifted his arm to come level with his chin. His finger came up to point at the villagers. "Kill them!"

The werewolves snarled and snapped their jaws considering which to take down first. A child stared at the werewolf with tearful eyes shaking his head no. The werewolves leapt without further hesitation.

"Please! No! Someone help us!"

A jet black werewolf leapt into the throng of the villagers snapping at all the other werewolves making them step back in confusion. One of them was opposing their actions?

"Is this truly what an heir of a Skeletal Lord is supposed to do?"

The teen whirled around to see me walk into view. I shouldered my sword cocking my head to the side. "Were you not taught kindness?"

"Where's the kindness when they kill one of my friends?" the teen looked at the villagers with hate. "They killed him without mercy!"

"They didn't kill the werewolf." I said staring at the teen. He seemed to stop for a moment before turning to me.

"How do you know this?"

"I know what happened to the werewolf. I and Hel were there. It was I who stabbed the werewolf in the heart. It was I who killed him." My eyes looked past the teen to the villagers who seemed surprised that one of them hadn't done it for real. "Do not punish them for something they didn't do. Turn your hate towards me. He attacked me first though."

The teen clenched his fists tightly, slightly shaking. "You? You couldn't kill a bug if it was flying at you!"

Hel bared his teeth at the back of the teen and snapped his jaws angrily. "How dare you insult her that way!"

"It's fine, Hel. Let him say his fill." I took the sword away from my shoulder and let it fall to the ground loosely. "He isn't the one that the prophecy speaks about."

He glared at me. "What do you know of the prophecy?"

"I'm going to challenge you to a fight. If I win, you will leave the villagers alone and leave this place. If you win you get to kill me and the villagers." I tilted my head down and grinned. "You can also go join the Lord of the darkness."

The teen grabbed me by the front of my shirt in a flash. "What did I tell you about him?"

"Heh." I smiled at him. "Then it's settled. A fight at the edge of the village. No werewolves can interfere or help. That goes for mine too."

Hel gave me a skeptical look. I nodded to him slightly before looking at the teen. He set me down and strode out. "Leave them. Head back to the woods."

The werewolves stalked past us, their fur slightly ruffled with agitation and anger that no blood had been shed. I looked at the villagers who had all gone weak in the knees and collapsed onto the stone floor. "You all ok?"

"Thank you!" gasped an elderly woman. "You've rescued us!"

He stepped past the adults and crouched at my side. "Don't get too excited. She still has to win the sword match."

"I'll manage," I replied shouldering my sword. "You've been training me this afternoon."

"Yes, I have, but his skills might be more than yours!" Hel reared up staring me in the eye concerned. "You've hardly rested between sparring. How are you feeling?"

"Not bad." I moved past him. I was slightly sore but ok for the most part. "What better way to test my skills than to have an actual match?"

"He's going to kill her, grandma," muttered one of the village children who stood next to his grandmother grasping her apron.

The child's grandmother shushed him with a stern look. "Don't be saying that in ear shot!"

"I still heard you two." I turned to them as they all flinched at the mistake. "It's ok. Come on. We don't got much time."

Hel stalked behind me keeping the villagers behind him. As we exited the tunnel I stared at the ring that had been burned onto the ground. I turned to Hel and rubbed his head.

"Thanks."

Hel's brow furrowed at the gesture. "Don't thank me yet. I haven't fulfilled my job to the fullest. My job ends when I walk you back home fully prepared."

I smiled and nodded turning away. I strode into the circle, I felt something odd as I passed over the ring. What was that?

"What's your name?" the teen asked pulling out his iron sword from his bag.

"Sell. Daughter of Skeletal Lord Rien." I let my blade rest on the ground. "You?"

"My blood line doesn't matter. As for you," he held up his sword to point at me. "You've got a blood lineage that you can't dirty. Too bad for you though. You'll die here tonight."

"Why do you say that?"

The teen grinned. "Because of the Pact that I signed. It protects me from death."

Above us the lookout tower bells clanged. Birds in the trees around the village cried out taking flight.

Immortality? How can this be?