The forest had soaked in enough blood to darken the roots of every tree still standing. Bodies lay piled across the clearing, torn apart in ways that made it hard to tell which parts belonged to which man. The air reeked of death, thick and metallic, clinging to the back of the throat.
Three knights stood together, breathing hard, swords raised toward the tree line.
Then a blur tore through the dark.
Fangs sank deep into the first knight's throat before he could even raise his blade. "AAARGH!" A sharp crack followed, his spine snapping under the force. His body dropped to the forest floor, twitching, eyes wide and staring at nothing. Dead before he finished falling.
The second knight swung his sword in a wide, desperate arc, screaming as he did. A clawed hand caught the blade mid swing. A fist crashed into his face hard enough to send his head twisting at an angle no neck should bend. His body slumped to the ground, still spasming, mouth open though no sound came out anymore.
The last knight watched both of his brothers die in the space of a few heartbeats. His breath caught in his chest. "No. No, no, no." He turned and ran, not thinking, just moving.
A blood wolf slammed into his side before he'd made it ten steps. Teeth closed around his leg. "AAAAAGHHH! PLEASE! SOMEONE HELP ME!" He clawed at the dirt, sobbing, kicking uselessly at the beast latched onto him. More wolves closed in from the shadows, drawn by the smell of blood and fear.
They tore into him without pause.
"AAAAAAGH!" His voice cracked apart under the pain. Flesh peeled away in strips. A leg came loose entirely. His body convulsed against the ground, his hands clawing at the earth until his nails snapped off one by one.
Fangs sank into his stomach next. His ribs cracked open. Something inside him gave a final, violent pull, and his insides spilled out across the dirt beneath him.
His screaming faded into something smaller, then nothing at all. The wolves kept feeding regardless.
Then the ground shook with a heavy, final sound.
One wolf's body burst apart into meat and blood in an instant. A second was flattened beneath a boot, its ribs crushed to powder. The third had only a moment to turn before a sword speared clean through its mouth, splitting its skull down the middle.
The captain had arrived.
There was no hesitation in him. No mercy left to spare.
A beast lunged for his throat, and he caught it by the neck instead, his grip iron even as its claws raked bloody lines down his arms. With a brutal twist, a sharp snap followed, and the wolf went limp in his hand. He threw the carcass aside without a second look.
Another came at him from behind. He turned mid step, his sword already moving, and the beast split cleanly in two before it finished its leap.
The wolves still standing hesitated, ears flattening, bodies low to the ground.
Then they ran.
Not from fear of the captain. From something worse, something moving through the trees behind him that even the wolves understood better than he did.
A low growl rolled through the clearing.
Then the trees ahead shattered apart, wood splintering like kindling.
A monstrous ogre stepped through the wreckage, its muscles bulging beneath skin scarred from old battles, its teeth still dripping with gore from whatever it had fed on last. Behind it, demons circled at the edge of the firelight, patient, their hunger burning plain in their eyes.
The captain spat blood onto the ground and lifted his sword.
"Come, then."
They charged him all at once.
The ogre swung its club in a wide, crushing arc. He barely dodged in time, the impact tearing a crater into the earth where he'd been standing a heartbeat before. He countered fast, driving his blade deep into the beast's gut and twisting hard. Its insides spilled out onto the dirt in a heavy, wet mass.
A demon lunged from his left. He grabbed it by the face and drove it into the ground, its skull caving with the impact.
Another came from the side, and his sword took its head clean off before it got close enough to swing.
He moved through them like something that didn't tire. Kill. Dodge. Cut. Tear. Every motion cost him something, sweat and blood mixing on his skin, but he didn't slow.
Then everything stopped at once.
The air itself seemed to grow heavier, pressing down against his chest like an unseen weight settling over the whole clearing.
A force crashed down from somewhere above, and an ogre along with two demons standing near it simply ceased to exist, nothing left behind but a fine mist of blood hanging in the air.
Then came the pressure. Thick. Suffocating. Wrong in a way he couldn't name.
The captain's breath caught in his throat. His hands, steady through everything else tonight, began to shake.
Something's coming, he thought. Something far worse than anything we've faced tonight.
Then, stepping out of the darkness between the trees, came Wrath.
His frame was massive, far larger than anything human had a right to be, and the ground cracked beneath each step he took. His axe dragged behind him through the dirt, carving deep scars into the earth as he walked.
The captain's pulse thundered in his ears.
This isn't normal. Whatever this is, it isn't like the rest of them.
Wrath lifted his axe with an almost lazy motion, like the weapon weighed nothing at all. His eyes bored through the captain, empty and cold, holding nothing that looked remotely human.
"This isn't just an ogre," the captain murmured, more to himself than anyone.
Wrath cracked his neck to one side, the sound loud in the sudden quiet.
"This is a monster," the captain said again, quieter this time.
Then Wrath grinned, wide and hungry.
"Finally," he said. "Someone worth the effort."
And he moved.
The axe came faster than the captain could track, faster than thought itself. He threw himself sideways as the earth where he'd stood erupted, whatever bodies remained nearby disintegrating into red mist.
He struck back, his sword a blur of steel aimed at where Wrath had been standing.
But Wrath was already gone.
Pain exploded through him before he even saw the fist coming. It crashed into his ribs, and his chest caved inward under the force, blood bursting from his mouth in a violent spray.
Another impact followed almost immediately.
He flew backward, through trees, through the bodies of men already dead, before finally crashing into the dirt hard enough to make every bone in his body scream in protest.
Wrath was already standing over him by the time he looked up.
The axe came down, and he barely got his sword up in time to block it.
The impact rang out like a bell, a shockwave tearing through the clearing around them. His arms burned from the force of it, bones creaking under strain they weren't built to hold.
Wrath laughed, low and pleased. "Is that all you've got?"
The captain gritted his teeth, tasting blood at the back of his throat.
He pushed back against the axe with everything he had left, his sword twisting free and driving forward, cutting deep into Wrath's side.
But Wrath didn't fall. He didn't even flinch.
Instead, he reached out and grabbed the captain by the face.
Then slammed his head into the earth.
Blood splattered across the dirt. The captain coughed, his vision flickering in and out, the edges of the world going dark and bright by turns.
Wrath lifted him by the throat, holding him there like he weighed nothing at all.
"Fight harder," Wrath said, almost gentle in the way he said it.
The captain gritted his teeth against the pain and forced his focus down to his sword, still buried in Wrath's side. Slowly, the blade began to glow.
Blue flames erupted along the steel.
Wrath's eyes flickered, something like genuine interest crossing his face for the first time.
Above them, perched somewhere unseen, Lilith watched with growing curiosity. "Interesting," she murmured to herself.
The captain, bloodied and broken, managed a smile through the pain. "If this doesn't kill you, then I've failed every man I've ever led."
Wrath felt the shift in the air around the blade, the surge building beneath his skin.
Yes, he thought. This is going to be fun.
Then it happened.
The blue flames guttered out, gone as quickly as they'd come.
Wrath's eyes narrowed.
The captain's heart seized in his chest. No.
It was already too late.
Wrath moved before the thought finished forming.
The captain swung blindly, desperation guiding the blade more than skill at this point.
Wrath let the sword pierce clean through his side without so much as a flinch.
Then his fist sank into the captain's chest.
The sound was wet and final. The captain gasped, blood pouring freely from his mouth now, his whole body convulsing.
Wrath didn't stop there.
He grabbed the captain's arm and tore it free from the socket in one brutal motion.
The captain screamed, a sound that carried across what remained of the battlefield.
Then Wrath broke his leg, almost as an afterthought.
The captain collapsed into the dirt, coughing blood, gasping for air that wouldn't fill his lungs properly anymore, his body shutting down piece by piece.
Wrath stood over him and raised his axe high.
"You fought well," he said, and for a moment there was something almost like respect in his voice.
Then the axe stopped mid swing.
The captain, barely conscious, barely holding onto life at all, watched Wrath's expression shift above him.
His eyes weren't burning with amusement anymore.
They burned with rage.
Wrath turned away from him entirely.
Lilith stood at the edge of the clearing, her smirk still in place. "You should be thanking me, Wrath."
Wrath left the captain where he lay and started walking toward her instead, slow and deliberate, the ground trembling with each step he took.
Lilith's smirk faltered slightly as he drew closer.
Then Wrath swung his axe.
Lilith barely dodged in time, the force of the swing tearing apart the trees behind where she'd been standing.
She stumbled back, eyes wide with something close to real fear. "What the hell."
Wrath glared at her, his voice dropping low and deadly. "If you ever interfere in one of my fights again."
He lifted the axe once more, letting the threat hang in the air.
"I will kill you."
Lilith felt the weight of it settle over her, unmistakable.
A promise. A warning, and not an idle one.
She clenched her fists at her sides but said nothing back.
Wrath turned from her without another word. As far as he was concerned, the fight was already over.
The captain's body lay still on the churned earth, empty and cold.
Wrath looked down at him for a long moment.
"A warrior's death," he said quietly.
Then, without anything more to say, he walked away into the dark.
. . . . . . . .
The night air hung thick with the scent of blood and fear. Two knights led the group of slaves through the dense forest, their breath ragged, sweat soaking through their armor despite the cold. Behind them, the snarls of cursed blood wolves cut through the dark, mixed with the heavy footfalls of ogres crashing through the trees. The slaves, men, women, children, stumbled forward on legs that had long since stopped listening to reason, clutching onto hope the way a drowning man clutches at driftwood.
Then they stopped.
A sheer cliff rose up before them, jagged rocks scattered at its base, a river raging somewhere far below. There was nowhere left to go.
Panic broke out at once.
Cries of despair filled the night as the truth of their situation settled in. A mother pulled her baby tight against her chest, whispering prayers too fast to make sense. A young boy sobbed, yanking at his father's sleeve like he could somehow pull them both to safety. The older knight turned to face the horde closing in behind them, his sword trembling slightly in his grip, though his voice didn't waver when he spoke.
"We have to jump!" he barked. "It's the only way any of us survive this!"
"No!" A woman among the slaves shrieked, her voice cracking. "We'll die if we jump!"
"We'll die if we stay!" the knight shot back, his tone sharp enough to cut through the chaos. "Which death would you rather have?"
The chubby man from before staggered forward, his eyes blazing with a mix of terror and fury. "This is your fault!" he spat, jabbing a shaking finger at the knights. "You burned our homes! You dragged us out here in chains! If anyone should die tonight, it's you, not us!"
Murmurs of agreement rippled through the crowd, fear curdling fast into something uglier, something that needed somewhere to land.
Raphael, barely able to keep himself upright, watched the scene unfold in disbelief. His vision kept swimming in and out of focus, his whole body worn down to nothing from exhaustion, but even through the haze he could see the wolves. Closing in. Fangs bared. Eyes glowing like dying coals in the dark.
Something in him snapped.
With a burst of strength he didn't know he still had, Raphael lunged. The chubby man barely managed a startled gasp before claws tore into his stomach.
A wet, gurgling scream ripped through the night air.
Raphael twisted his hand, feeling flesh give way, bone crack under the pressure. The man's eyes bulged wide, his mouth working open and shut with nothing coming out but blood.
Raphael didn't stop there.
He drove his claws in deeper, past muscle, past whatever remained of the man's resistance, until his fingers scraped against the ridge of his spine.
The screaming cut off all at once.
The other slaves recoiled in horror, some clutching their hands over their mouths, others stumbling backward, but there was no time left to process what they'd just witnessed.
The wolves reached them.
A blur of black fur and glowing crimson eyes crashed straight into the crowd.
Screams erupted on every side.
Blood sprayed across the dirt.
A woman tried to bolt, but jaws closed around her throat mid stride, tearing it open before she'd taken three steps.
A man shoved his own child forward, desperate to buy himself a few more seconds, and the boy was dragged down instantly, his small bones snapping like dry branches underfoot.
The older knight let out a roar and threw himself into the fray, his sword carving wide arcs through fur and flesh. He fought like a man who already knew how this ended for him, each strike aimed to take one more of them down with him. Wolf after wolf fell beneath his blade.
But there were simply too many.
They swarmed him from every side at once.
Teeth sank into his arms, his legs, tearing and pulling in different directions until his balance gave out.
His sword slipped from his grip.
They pulled him down and tore him apart before he hit the ground.
The younger knight, his eyes wide with a horror he couldn't hide anymore, grabbed Raphael by the arm. "You have to survive this," he gasped, dragging him back from the chaos. "Do you hear me? You have to."
A wolf lunged for them both. The knight twisted at the last second and drove his blade straight through its skull.
Another leaped in from the side.
The knight shoved Raphael out of its path, his own body taking the hit instead.
Fangs sank deep into his shoulder, and he cried out, stumbling under the weight of the beast latched onto him.
More wolves closed in around him within seconds.
They dragged him to the ground.
"GO!" he screamed, blood already staining his teeth.
With whatever strength he had left, he shoved Raphael backward, off the edge of the cliff.
Raphael's whole world tilted and spun as the ground fell away beneath him.
The last thing he saw before the fall took him entirely was the young knight, screaming as the wolves tore into him without mercy.
Blood sprayed against moonlight. Flesh gave way beneath teeth and claw.
Then the world went dark.
The icy river swallowed him whole, and the cold closed over him like something final.