Chapter 97 - The Hounds Of Faldenhorf

"Cough..... Cough.... Yulio...."

He wasn't hugging Yulio anymore. The thin hair of skin grew thick like matted black fur, and his clothes shrink until they eventually burst to shreds. 

He was hugging a beast.

It was him all along. 

His sharp claws that scratched the ancient painting of the Fairy dug into him, causing him to shout. "AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!"

"Shh...." The beast spoke with his mangy maw, teeth protruding like the stalactites and stalagmites of this cave. "This'll be quick. No need to call for them."

"He...lp! Help....! Ha....."

Leron's vision is swimming as he was continuously being crushed, dark circles appearing like ripples. Soon, it will truly be over.

----------------------------------

"Nothing yet on your side?"

"Nothing. Be quiet."

Vladstin and Sangfroid were at the mouth of the cave, with the corpse army and wolves close behind. They divided their area of vantage: Vladstin at the right, and Sangfroid at the left. The howling winds continued to blow on their faces, the image of the swaying trees looking like strange beings celebrating their triumph under the blanket of Mother Night.

Then, Vladstin thought he heard something back at the cave. 

Sangfroid noticed it too. "What is it?"

"Not sure. But I have a strange feeling like.... Like I am being suffocated." He mumbled. 

Then, his golden eyes burned, quickly turning to rush inside in a flash. "Let's go back!"

Sangfroid was surprised and was unsure because the creature may appear the moment they leave, but knowing that going back means returning to Prince Leron and his guest, he picked the more alarming possibility and joined Vladstin with his arrow drawn.

What he saw was.....

SHING!

His hand moved quicker than his mind to process what he saw, and the arrow whizzed through to the thick hide of the creature. The creature groaned, but not a beastly one, a human one that sounded familiar.

The creature let go of Prince Leron which it was crushing with its bare arms.

As he was let go off, Leron did not spare a moment but to reach for a sword he asked to be brought along and borrowed from the Noble Huntsmen, aiming it at Yulio.

Vladstin just blinked dumbly in surprise. "What's this?"

"Your guest!" Sangfroid raised his voice again in frustration. "He's the creature, can't you see?"

"Yulio... You're the creature?" He tilted his head to the side. "Then why didn't you tell us during our introduction earlier?"

"Vlad..... My other brother.... Hahaha!"

He lunged at Vladstin next, moving just as quickly as the vampire in a speed no human could see, grabbing his neck and striking him to the wall. 

"What are you doing colluding with the enemy, huh!? Have you gone soft!? Did water suddenly become thicker than blood, that you suddenly forgot how all your family was killed!?" Yulio growled at him, squeezing his neck. 

"Let go of him!" Leron yelled, slashing the sword on his back---

But Yulio caught it breaking it to pieces with just one hand!

Sangfroid protectively put his behind him, and shoot another arrow. But to Yulio, this just felt like tickles. He somehow managed to make himself bigger, and make his hide thicker. Arrows and arrows stuck on him until he looked like a porcupine.

The humans were filled with dread. This is only a battle an inhuman being can fight. 

"Gone soft? Does killing and burning Ilvedia to the ground count as going soft?" Vladstin grinned, not mindful of all the injuries he sustained from the impact of his body hitting the hard cave wall and blood trickling on his head.

Because he knew no matter how painful, they would heal instantly anyway.

Yulio saw these regenerative capabilities and was surprised, but did not stop choking him. "You want a medallion or a crown as an award? That doesn't change the fact that you are still with him, and he's still alive. If I were you, an invincible vampire, I would have sucked his blood dry the moment I see him."

"Where's the fun in that? I could be torturing him..... Violence is not the only way to commit revenge."

Yulio's ears perked up, interested. "So you're performing an act, huh?"

"I followed you and Raishti's footsteps in acting out our favorite story. I know a thing or two about putting up faces....." Vladstin coughed out blood on Yulio's humongous hand. "But you were professionals, after all, I'm just a novice. I never even suspected a thing when you appeared earlier... Now everything makes sense....."

"Hah, thanks for the compliment, little prince." Yulio gritted his teeth. "It's true that you're a novice because...."

"I don't believe you're plotting revenge on Leron at all. Or at least, not anymore. You're not fitting of the title of Crimson Wolf, the one who bestowed Rouge a chance to make Azul pay. Because you have gone soft."

Vladstin's face became blank staring him in the eyes. Gold to red. Coldly responding. "I'm not soft." 

He gripped Yulio's wrist as thick as a lady's waist, and twisted to break its bones. Despite being the smaller one, he succeeded in doing so. "Ughhhh...."

"I am the Crimson Wolf. The symbol of Crescentia's resilience, how we manage to rise again from ashes. You're just a poor dog who thinks killing the humans that kicked you will make you stronger. " Vladstin flashed his fanged grin again. "Never learning that revenge is just a neverending cycle that leaves you emptier than you were before."

Yulio chuckled despite the pain, but he was visibly affected by this, and his wrath heightened. "Haha, you're now speaking so much philosophies that I thought you'd never learn from Auntie Vanesda.... I much prefer the older you, the one who speaks with his fist. You've become too much like that traitor with blue eyes."

"You said you wanted to die, to lose immortality, right?" Yulio gaped his maw wide open, strings of saliva, connecting his rows and rows of scythe-like teeth. "Death is right here. I'll bite your head off, let's see if you could still live after that!"

Leron pleaded with him in desperation, "Let him go, Yulio! It's me you want!!!"

Sangfroid couldn't allow it. "Prince Leron, don't say such things!"

"Thank you for the offer, but it's futile. I still wouldn't die. I would be a walking headless man, I already know it deep in my heart."

Vladstin added, turning to look at Leron and Sangfroid. He pointed to them. "Besides, I already chose that my death must be through him."

"Him again?" Yulio gave Leron a glare. "Haven't he killed you enough? You're smitten with him that much?"

Sangfroid knew he misunderstood, but felt strangely flustered to correct it. He watched as the large wolf let him go. 

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Yulio slammed his fist on the ground, causing the stalactite to shake dangerously, like he was throwing a tantrum. He breathed through his large nose that was like a snout, very frustrated.

"If killing you is no use, and you're hell-bent on protecting these humans, then we'll be sitting ducks here. How boring." Yulio suddenly just sighed and sat on the cave floor with a sulk. "This is just like that pesky dragonfly....."

Leron was confused by how quickly he just gave up, but he didn't lower his guard. "Vladstin, come over here!"

Vladstin rubbed his neck and dashed to their side. Leron immediately tried to hug him, but he pushed him away. Then he tried to leech on Sangfroid, wrapping his arms with a grin. Sangfroid just nudged him away. 

"Are you okay?" Leron asked, too relieved to feel jealous.

"Sangfroid, thanks for trying your hardest to save me!" Vladstin embraced him again. "Though it was a waste. It would have been better if you spend all those good arrows on me instead of Yule-dog instead."

"Stop calling me that! Ugh!" Yulio suddenly complained in exasperation. "That's a nickname I never want to hear ever again! And I'm a manhound, not a dog!!!"

"Same difference."

"I didn't do it to save you. " Sangfroid said cooly. "I kept shooting after what he did to Prince Leron."

As he said this, he released another arrow, aimed at Yulio.

But the manhound as he called himself just caught the arrow before it hit his sclera. Still, Yulio gave him a lazy applause with his gnarly wolfish hands. "Good shot."

Leron's curiosity took over him, and he spoke out of turn. "Manhound..... That's how the Faldens call werewolves, right? Beasts that are half-human and half-wolf."

"Oh, I've heard of your 'werewolves', and we're different. We're much larger. Said to be descendants of either Crimson Wolf or Rogue himself."

"The Faldens believe in the Tale of the Reborn Hero too?" Vladstin shook his head to the side, his crushed neck now good as new after mending itself. 

"That's not the only thing they 'believe' on. Actually it was more of 'knowing' about it and 'acknowledging' that would be more accurate." Yulio the manhound scratched his belly. "It prides itself as the Kingdom of Knowledge and Adaptability, waving the blue-green flag for the tortoise that symbolizes these ideologies..... I basically memorized their whole anthem now."

"A tortoise symbolizes knowledge and adaptability?" Again, Sangfroid was not well-informed about the other kingdoms besides Ilvedia and Crescentia.

"Tortoises live for a long time, so it is believed that they carry knowledge and wisdom with their shells. And their eggs hatch on land, before they move to the sea. It's a very simple analogy--- Anyway!" Yulio shook his head. "That's besides the point. I don't want to talk to any of you right now, I'm pissed out. Leave my cave now."

"This is yours? You drew all this?" Leron asked. 

"No! I'd rather make art with a sword or my claws than paint. I found it before you, so it's mine now." Yulio scrunched his nose. "Get out."

"It's raining. Human can't travel in the rain or they get cold." Vladstin jumped up to the stalactites again, swinging on them again like an acrobat. "You don't have any 'official papers' for owning this, so you can't kick us out."

"Grr..... Brats! All of you! Pesky children that only bring trouble!!!" Yulio grumbled, but he truly have seemed to calm down compared to earlier. 

"Hehe, you sound like Lady Wilhengard."

"She's right, that's what you all truly are!"

"She actually says those words about you, not us."

Yulio went silent, just growling like an angered dog.

Sangfroid put down his bow. "How did you become what you are right now? Can't you revert to human at will?"

"I could, but why would I want to?" Yulio rolled his wolfish eyes sarcastically. "You'd shoot me again, and though I won't die, it's more troublesome to be injured in human form. And I don't have any more spare clothes with me."

Sangfroid blinked at the last sentence, but it truly was reasonable. 

He still distrusts this manhound, but he knows when a draw has been reached, and both sides must withdraw or come to an agreement. He doesn't seem to be planning to attack again after learning how invincible Vladstin's immortality is.

"As for how I become like this... We just did when we died. Me and the remaining soldiers." Yulio rubbed his head. "Ughhh, I really don't want to talk when I still haven't ripped someone to shreds.... It's frustrating...."

"You're not the only one of your kind?" Leron was surprised. "All the inhuman beings we met we're practically the only one, or more special than the rest."

"How much have you met? I've only encountered that stupid dragonfly and this wannabe-Crimson Wolf." Yulio gestured to the painting he scratched then to Vladstin with much contempt. "Which doesn't make any sense, because I'M the wolf-like creature, and vampires are associated with bats anyway----"

"How did you meet with Mandrien? The fairy?" Sangfroid brought him back on track.

"Stupid dream, of course. Showing me that blue-eyed bastard's face...." Yulio suddenly glared on empty air. "Where is he, anyway?"

The three thought he was referring to Leron since he was the one with blue eyes. But that doesn't seem to be the case. 

The prince with blue eyes asked. "Who.... Who are you looking for?"

Yulio stared at them , like he's asking if they're serious or joking. He stood up in full height, fist clenched. 

"My Azul, of course."