The Militet Beast
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It had been almost instant. In his place there now stood a great hulking beast of a werewolf, with fur that was sleek, black and shiny, and eyes that were red as the blood splattered around the room. He towered at least a foot over Lero. His inch-long fangs dripped with saliva, seemingly uncontrollably.
We were looking at a monster.
"My gods," Lero said, hushed. "He really is a Militet. Myra...this beast is not like you and I! It isn't even like a wild wolf. It's...a bloodthirsty fiend."
"I can tell," I responded. "Now, how do we kill him?"
"First, we don't let him kill us."
I met his eyes and nodded, and then the two of us split off. Our advantage right now was numbers alone. If he got us both together, that was nil. I may have only been in werewolf form for a few minutes, but I had known how to fight almost my entire life. And I was getting a lot more used to this body. It could hit hard, and it could shrug off pain.
I liked it a lot.
Eaves tore after me, and I was surprised at first before I realized that in this form he had probably lost all semblance of control. Whatever murder-addled brain was between his ears, it wasn't thinking about preserving me for his plan. It wanted to tear me apart. And I would get very little satisfaction in the ruination of his plan if I was dead. So I moved.
I ran away, darting across the room to get to the arch Lero and I had originally come through.
I wanted to tear into him, but I needed to know what I was up against. How fast was he? How strong?
It turned out he was fast. I thought I had a good lead on him, but the pounding of his huge feet and the clicks of his claws on the stone were right behind me. A glance over my shoulder told me that he was right on my tail.
When I looked forward again I saw the nightmarish scene that was the castle's entryway. Bodies were scattered everywhere; the Baron's men that he had executed himself. There was enough blood to slip in, and I probably would have slid in it if I were in my human body. Like this, though, I had a firm grip on the ground and I was agile enough to leap over discarded weapons and scattered limbs without a second thought.
But with my wolf's nose, the scent of the blood was thick it made me want to choke. I couldn't believe that the Baron would do this to his own men.
I bounded down the hall towards the other entrance into the room I had just left. I could see the arch, lit by a small torch. There was a hall across from it, and from that hall emerged another of the Baron's men. He had a sword and fear written all over his face and he took a swing at me which I easily dodged, turning left to dash back into the windowed room. Behind me, I heard an awful wrenching as the Baron met with his former subordinate. I saw the Baron rip greedily into the man's stomach with his jaws while the guard struggled to no avail.
Horrible.
The full circle led me back into the room with Lero. While the Baron was busy with his kill, I said, "He's fast, Lero. He might have gotten me if not for that distraction out there."
"Let him swing at you," Lero said. "Make him miss. That will give us our chance."
I knew how to fight people bigger than me; I’d had to do it all my life. I did not know how to fight werewolves bigger than me. Would it really be the same?
I trusted Lero. That would be enough.
There was no time to think. The Baron finished his savagery in the hall and came back into the vast room with blood dripping from his fangs. Now he spoke.
"I'll eat you!" Eaves roared. "Mine! Die!"
He was definitely not as eloquent as he had been in his human form. It was terrifying to see how much of him was lost in this form; he was an entirely different beast, one bent on killing us both and not worried about much else. But I didn't come here to be scared.
"Have at me, then!" I ran at him, his bulk filling up my vision. He snatched at me with his jaws, which threw me a little off-guard; I was expecting his claws. Still, I dodged underneath the snapping teeth and raked my claws along his side, but it hardly did anything; his fur was so thick and coarse, it was difficult to even get my claws through it and hurt him.
Lero was right behind me, and he leapt toward the Baron, getting his teeth into the spot between the shoulder and neck while shoving back against him. Eaves howled and ripped himself free, but he was bleeding. He knocked Lero back, sending him stumbling.
I clawed at Eaves' back, then leapt up to sink my claws into his shoulders. In an instant, he reached back and grabbed my arm, pulling me forward powerfully and slamming me onto the ground. I rolled to the side before he could tear into me, and I saw his huge paws smack into the rug where I had been laid out.
Lero got on him while he was bent over the ground, latching onto him again with his jaws and raising a leg to kick at him. The Baron writhed violently, shaking Lero's entire body back and forth.
I sprung up and threw myself into the fray, trying to grab hold of the Baron's massive limbs and pin him down so Lero could dig his teeth in further. But Eaves managed to wedge his fingers into Lero's muzzle, prying him off of the meat of his shoulder and back, and wrenching him violently free. I saw blood fly, and several of Lero's teeth were ripped right from his jaw as the Baron freed himself from the hungry grip.
Eaves grabbed my throat with his other hand, holding me back while he slammed Lero against the wall, hard enough that it seemed the whole castle shook around us. I heard Lero's rasping breath as the air was forced from his lungs. I buried my claws in the wolf-Baron's arm, this time digging in past the fur and ripping into him, and he dropped me to the ground. But he smashed Lero into the wall again, rocking his head back into it, and Lero let out a strangled yelp.
No! I swung my fist into the Baron's dripping muzzle, falling back into instinct. I hit him hard, but it didn't matter. He had his hand firmly around Lero's throat now, and he was bashing him into the unyielding stone wall again and again.
In a blinding rage, I wrapped my arms around Eaves and bit into his side, worrying my teeth as deep into his flesh as I could possibly get them, piercing flesh and muscle and tasting his blood on my tongue.
The Baron howled. The claws of his free hand dug into my back, ripping at me, but I refused to loosen my grip. I sunk my teeth in and thrashed, trying to cause him as much pain as possible. The amount of blood pouring through my teeth was enormous. At last, the Baron threw Lero across the room and got both hands on me, grabbing me around the waist and yanking me off. I took a big piece of him with me, and then I slashed up at his face before he could do to me what he had done to Lero. I cut him deep on the more vulnerable flesh of his muzzle, and the surprising lance of pain weakened his grip. I slipped free and tumbled back, while the Baron blinked away the blood in his eyes and favored the wound on his left side.
"Ha! Got him good. Lero," I said, turning, "let's—let's..."
Lero wasn't moving.
The Baron was still nursing his wound. I got to Lero and knelt by his side and almost screamed. His head was a mess of blood, and it was pooling on the carpet beneath him. His shoulder looked badly dislocated and his right arm was bent at a sickening angle. Worst of all, his chest wasn't moving. I couldn't hear breathing.
"Lero! No!" Now I screamed and put my hands on him, trying to touch him in a spot where he wasn't hurt, but that was so hard to find. My hands grew sticky with his blood as I touched his chest and face.
"Please, no, please..." I shook him gently, not wanting to hurt him further. But if he was dead, how could I hurt him? Gods, no, he couldn't be dead. Not after all of this.
In my panic, I'd forgotten about Eaves. I gasped and looked over, expecting him to be right on me. But instead, he was still standing over there. And getting...smaller? Yes, he was. He was changing back. Why? Had we wounded him so badly?
Lero is dead. The words were icy stones in my mind. With Lero dead, Eaves must have satiated the beast long enough to regain control of himself before he killed me, too.
So it was going to work out for him, after all. Kill Lero, capture me.