Chapter 5
Walking outside to the courtyard, a rather tall stocky man is striding across the training ground toward us. Perseus jumps up and pushes past us.
“Achilles, what took so long?” he shouts. So that’s Achilles.
Perseus runs ahead and I can’t make out what they are saying. Achilles pauses their conversation when he notices me moving toward him.
“You must be the new recruit,” he says.
“Yep this is our new chew toy, Evander,” Frida replies, teasingly.
“Well let’s see what he can do then. Perseus you’re up and try not to kill him,” Achilles remarks, getting right to business.
“I can’t promise anything, you know that. Anyways, isn’t the point to see what he is capable of?” Perseus replies.
When I step onto the training ground, the others gather around. Without warning Perseus lunges at me.
“Duck,” the wolf shouts as Perseus punches me in the face with such force that he breaks my jaw. As I fall to the ground, Frida shouts.
“What the hell, Perseus that was uncalled for.”
“Do you think the enemy is going to take it easy or wait for you to be ready? If you can’t handle what I’m about to throw at you, then you’re as good as dead already,” he retorts, sneering at me.
Not giving me a second to rebut, as I’m still on the ground, with my jaw shattered and in searing pain, he kicks me hard in the ribs, breaking a few of them, before picking me off the ground by my neck as a smirk crosses his face, he throws me across the ring.
“Come on, Achilles, even you know that he’s taking this too far!” Frida starts to shout, but gets cut off.
“No, Perseus is right, if he is going to survive then he needs to always be ready to defend himself,” Achilles replies sternly looking on.
As those words reach me I feel a strange heat enveloping my jaw.
CRACK.
The pain is gone and it’s just like new again. What? Then the same heat envelopes my chest as I feel shifting and popping in my torso, as if my ribs are realigning and healing.
What the hell?
Perseus lunges at me again, but this time as he swings, I catch his fist. Pissed off by the sneak attack, “If you’re not going to fight back I will.”
As my fist then swings by itself, I notice that it’s covered in the black fur again, and the huge, razor sharp claws are back.
Connecting with his chest, I send him flying across the training ground and into the side of a building. I step back and look at my hands, astonished and frightened by what just happened.
“Yes, that’s what you get for pushing him too hard, dumbass,” Frida shouts, then laughs.
Looking down at my hand, back in control, I move my fingers around, and watching as the claws move instead is a weird feeling.
As the anger subsides, the hair and claws slowly fade back to my normal hand.
“What the hell was that?” I ask.
“That was your wolf taking over and giving you a partial transformation,” Achilles tells me.
“It happens when you’re in danger and either don’t respond or can’t defend yourself.
When you learn to control your wolf, you can make these partial transformations happen at will and use them to increase your agility, speed, hearing, sight and as you just saw power.
The hardest part about controlling your power is having the presence of mind to will the transformation in the presence of evil.
As you already know, your wolf’s will is strong and he will fight you for control.
He only wants one thing and that’s to destroy all evil.
Which is why we train like this, so you can learn to work with your wolf spirit, without it fighting you for control. ”
“Perseus, are you still alive over there?” Lucius shouts.
With a groan he staggers to his feet.
“So that’s how you want to play is it?” Perseus sneers. He squares off to me and closes his eyes, then dashes to his left. In a mist of red, and in a flash of silver, I’m slammed to the ground.
Crouched over me with his claws on my throat is a deep silver fur-covered werewolf. It lowers its head, snarling as he lets out a powerful roar that’s deafening. The sight of his giant fangs in his maw are a sight straight from a horror movie.
“Perseus calm down, I’m not going to tell you again,” Achilles calmly mutters.
Perseus slowly raises to his feet, lifting me by the neck, until my feet are off the ground, as his claws continue to tighten around my throat. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to breathe.
Struggling to break free with my vision dimming, I hit his arm and kick his stomach to no avail.
Then I’m suddenly falling to my feet, as a brindle-colored clawed fist connects with Perseus’s face with such force that his head smashes to the ground, cracking his skull as blood starts to pour from his mouth.
Following the clawed fist up to its owner, I see Achilles standing there without emotion, just staring at Perseus, stoic, and unnerving.
“I told you to calm down, Perseus,” Achilles says, quietly.
“Dumbass, when will he learn?” Lucius mutters, shaking his head. “Evander, you alright?”
“Yeah, just give me a minute,” I reply between coughs.
“I’m sorry for Perseus’ behavior. He is a phenomenal warrior, but his temper can get the best of him at times,” Achilles says, looking at me.
Glancing down at Perseus, I watch as his silver fur fades, and he slowly returns to his human form.
I wait for him to rise, but he doesn’t get up and the blood keeps pouring out. Holy shit did he fucking kill him?
“Lucius,” Achilles shouts.
“Sir.”
“Get Perseus up and back to his room.”
“Yes, Sir,” Lucius replies before walking over and picking Perseus up off of the ground, slinging him over his shoulders.
“Frida,” Achilles shouts again.
“Yes,” she replies, perking up.
“You’re up, get in here and take Perseus’ place as Evander’s sparring partner.”
“Yes, Sir,” she remarks with another smartass salute. “Don’t worry, Evander, my bite is worse than my bark.”
“Don’t you mean your bark is worse than your bite?” I ask.
“Nope,” Frida smiles, walking toward me with a playful look in her eyes.
As Lucius takes Perseus away, Achilles moves a few steps back to watch over our sparring. Turning back to Frida, I notice the same devilish grin on her beautiful face just like when we first met.
“I hope you’re ready for this. And don’t hold back, because if you do I’ll turn you into my new chew toy.”
“I can’t hit a woman,” I say, turning to Achilles, but as soon as we make eye contact my feet are swept out from under me.
“I told you not to hold back,” Frida replies as she kicks me in the back, sending me sliding across the ground.
Damn she is a lot stronger than she looks.
Jumping to my feet, she swings at me and I lean back just in time to dodge it. As I do, her arm comes back and her elbow hits the side of my head hard.
When I start to fall, her hand grabs the back of my head and her knee comes rocketing toward my face.
Throwing my arms up to block it, she hits my forearms with enough force to not only stand me up again, but to send me staggering back a few steps.
She stops and places her hands on her hips. “Are you going to take this seriously now or maybe you don’t see me as a threat?”
Before I can say anything she lowers her head, and I feel a strange power emitting from her as it looks like her skin starts to rip and blood-red fur comes pushing through the tears. Her beautiful face looks like it cracks, breaks, and starts to elongate.
Her elegant soft hands are replaced with ravenous clawed fingers. She begins to shake and tear at the loosely hanging flesh from her body.
She stands upright about a foot taller, with her surprisingly beautiful deep red fur. Looking up at me with those entrancing emerald eyes, I swear she has that same devilish grin on her now canine face.
“Frida, take it easy, we don’t want to kill him. He needs to learn how to control his power. Not rely on it just happening,” Achilles mutters in a low, calm tone.
She looks at him and they lock eyes as to say don’t worry about it. “Okay, then proceed,” he replies.
Perplexed by what is happening, she turns back and locks eyes with me and suddenly I hear Frida’s voice say, “Here I come,” but she is just staring at me. Her mouth didn’t even move.
Am I hearing things now?
“No you’re not and she’s about to attack, move,” my wolf shouts.
She hunches over slightly and lunges at me, baring her fangs and claws. Throwing my arms up to protect myself, her fangs sink deep into my right arm. Then she grabs my left arm and right shoulder and lifts me off the ground. Once again I hear her voice.
“I told you I was going to make you my new chew toy,” she somehow says as she actually starts chewing on my arm before throwing me to the ground and jumping back.
“It can’t be,” my wolf mutters.
“You better think of something quick, Evander, because I’m not going to stop her like I did Perseus,” Achilles yells.
“Perseus lost control, but Frida is in full control of her actions. That rage you felt with the demon and the anger that you felt against Perseus, try to manifest that feeling and use it to transform,” Achilles remarks, trying to guide me.
Hearing that, I get back on my feet and square up to Frida. I lower my head, shut my eyes, and try to imagine the demon that attacked me, but I can’t.
“Give me control now, I can stop this,” he shouts.
Reluctantly I give him control, as the blood runs down my arm just like it did from the demon’s fangs.
It’s not rage that builds, but something else as it feels like a fire is enveloping my entire body. The heat is becoming overwhelming and my bones start to break, shift and elongate.
The burn turns into an insatiable itch and I helplessly scratch at my chest and arms, noticing the skin has started to tear, and that jet black fur… no, my black fur starts to become exposed.
The heat subsides in the areas where my fur gets exposed, so I scratch harder, ripping the flesh away from my body as my finger and toenails quickly grow into claws.