239 Chapter Two Hundred Thirty Nine
Thorrin rushed through the forest beyond the capital of Lycaon, keeping track of all the major rogue general signatures in his mind. As it seemed, the rogue king had split his forces into platoons and spread them around the capital to spread the attention of the hunters. Taking calculated routes with the Thunderclap on his tail, the two men rushed through the scores of rogues bringing down as many as they could that stood in their way.
The forest echoed with the sound of thunder from the two beings that tore through it, bringing an end to scores of rogues. However, the numbers were far too many for any of them to count they kept going forward with only one being in mind. Finally feeling his presence come closer, Thorrin came to a stop right before they reached a clearing. Jim stopped right next to him. The rogues were completely gone from this part of the forest. There wasn’t a single general near them from what Thorrin could tell. “What is it, Thorrin?” Jim asked, wiping his blade of the blood that covered it.
“He’s toying with us. The rogue king ordered all his generals to leave him alone,” he replied.
“What? Why would he do such a thing? Are you telling me the bastard is out there on his own right now?” Jim panicked.
“No, he’s not alone. There is one other that’s comparable to him in power. His beta alpha, no doubt about it,” Thorrin spoke up. We’ll have to be very careful here. We can’t just charge in without a plan.
“A plan... that’s a new one coming from you,” Jim chuckled.
“Yeah, well, it’s not much of a plan than an insurance strategy,” the man said before pulling two katanas from his coat, “I won’t be using my bare hands this time.”
“Are you sure you know how to use those things?” Jim asked him with a raised brow.
“WHAT??? Of course, I know how to use them. I am called the Perfect Warrior for a reason. There isn’t a weapon in existence that I can’t use,” the man argued, feeling highly insulted.
.....
“Whatever you say, man, just be careful where you wave that thing,” Jim flipped him off.
“I don’t think that will be a problem. We are going to separate the two of them. You’ll take the beta alpha and I’ll take the rogue king,” Thorrin suggested.
Jim turned to his friend and yelled at the top of his voice, “That’s your big plan?”
Thorrin backed up, “Yeah, what’s wrong with it?”
“It’s bonkers, you idiot. It would never work for...”
“Would you two just come out here already? You know we can hear everything you’re saying. Oh for crying out loud, they are like a couple,” a deep voice resonated from the clearing. The power from the being that spoke out loud was undeniable and it sent shivers through the two Mighty Warriors.
They both came out of the woods to meet a large man standing next to one that wasn’t so bulky. The less bulky man, despite the appearance, bore blue eyes and radiated a more dangerous aura compared to that of his beta alpha beside him, “So, that’s him, huh. He really isn’t one of the members of the royal family after all.” Jim observed.
The Perfect Warrior turned to look at his fellow hunter with a raised brow, “What gave it away?”
“Well, there has been all this talk about his plan to kill the king of Lycaon so that he would gain some sort of power, but I never thought it would be true. Come on, you can’t tell me you weren’t the least bit curious?” Jim asked him.
“It’s that kind of doubt that I wanted to sow out of the hunters so that we could all work as a single unit,” Thorrin said to him.
“And yet here you are, facing the Rogue King on your own. Do you really think the two of you could face me and live to tell the tale?” the man’s deep voice came again.
“Oh, we are more than capable of putting you in your place?” Thorrin replied.
“Well, I don’t think that to be accurate one bit. I do admire your confidence before me, however. The way you bicker like a couple before me is simply astounding. I haven’t seen something of the sort in so many decades. Armies have come after me and they have never succeeded even with the power of Prometheus at their fingertips and they have failed. I don’t see how the two of you can...” just as the man was still talking, the loudest thunderclap burst through the forest.
Thorrin was right above the man within the blink of an eye. It was as though he’d just appeared from thin air. His katana was already taking its path through the air aimed at the man’s neck. Everything seemed too slow for the two of them... ‘The entire world has wanted to know of the day that you come down. Might as well be in the middle of an obnoxious speech just as the one you are making right now.’
An unknown force yanked at Thorrin’s coat right when he thought he’d make the cut, yanking him backwards with more force than he’d ever had the chance to experience from another being. The Perfect Warrior flipped through the air, obeying the pull that had just been exerted on him and steadied himself as he flew back in the direction he’d just come. His hands shivered with the katanas in his grip... He’d just been tossed back even at the breakneck speed he’d been using and the beta alpha that had done it had made it look like a walk in the park.
“The hunters these days don’t even have the manners to listen to a man while he’s talking,” the rogue king spoke, running his hand across his neck. A drop of blood seemed to trickle from a cut made by the katana before healing right before their eyes, “You got quite close... although, I don’t think that could have helped you if I’d decided to move.”
“Thorrin, what did I just see?” Jim asked him, gripping his own blade until his knuckles turned white.
“You better believe your eyes, Jim. These two are on a level all on their own...” to the rogues, he yelled, “How... How is it that you can manage to attain so much power without a blessing from a god?”
“Oh, so you haven’t noticed have you? The colour of our eyes only tells us how much power the goddess we are able to access through the gift she gave us. Your own Man god values the ingenuity of the humans far more than the power they seek, so it is quite clear that he gave you part of what our goddess gave us to even the playing field. Your powers are no more than a cheap mockery of what the werewolves were blessed with. After all, we are the apex predators and the hunters of the wild. It’s ironic honestly... to think humans could ever dream of standing a chance against us,” the man went on, narrating stories as though he really enjoyed the sound of his voice.
“It doesn’t matter how many stories you have to tell. Today will be the day that you meet your end or at least today will be that day that you see your shady empire tumble to the ground,” Thorrin argued, gripping his blades with firmer. This time when he got reached the man, the beta alpha had completely blocked his way. The speed at which the creature moved astounded him. Switching his blade strokes, he made a lateral slash aiming for the beta alpha.
With a swifter movement than Thorrin had anticipated, the man got down to the ground just in time to dodge the blades. Instincts kicked as the Perfect Warrior let go of the blades and leapt back, reaching for a throwing knife within his coat. The beta alpha was right on top of him before he could throw them. His face was locked in an expressionless face... ‘No, it was a face that someone only wore when they were confident of their abilities.
Thorrin dug deeper into his abilities in an attempt to move faster than he already was. Retrieving items from his coat seemed to be a waste of time as it offered an opening every time he did it. The two men soon got involved in a fist fight, the two of them locked in a blurry draw. Shivers went through Jim’s spine as he watched movements that even his experienced eyes couldn’t quite follow.
“If you can’t even deal a decisive blow to my beta alpha, I don’t see what makes you think you can fight me,” the rogue king spoke up in a bored tone. A grunt of pain reached Jim’s ears and he looked back to see Thorrin’s body stuck in the bark of trees several metres from the beta alpha. The Perfect Warrior pulled himself from the Thorrin-shaped groove and dropped to the ground on all fours coughing and trying to regain his bearings, “How is he, Thane?”
“Well, he’s definitely more powerful than any of the ones I’ve met. The generals weren’t lying when they said there was one of them that was worth fighting,” Thane responded.
Jim was beside the Perfect Warrior in a flash, helping him up, “Hey, that looked like it hurt. Are you okay?”
“It’s surprising how you can worry about me when the enemy is right in front of us,” Thorrin replied amidst his coughing fit. He turned to the side a spit a considerable amount of blood, “Damn it... we can’t heal as they do. We are at the disadvantage here.”
“I can only tend to you because these two are acting like we are mere flies to them. They wouldn’t even think of a sneak attack as we would,” Jim said.
“Why would we do such a thing? It’s useless,” Thane spoke up, his deep voice punctuating his confidence in the power he bore.
“The higher-ups made an impossible request of me, Jim,” Thorrin said to his friend.
“What do you mean by that?” Jim asked.
“We were asked to capture the rogue king alive. I never thought the man himself would be as powerful as what we face today. I don’t think I’ll be able to fulfil that request,” Thorrin announced, opening the top buttons of his coat.
“I’m glad you’re finally seeing to reason. You would never be able to defeat...”
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“I’ll be killing him here and now,” the Perfect warrior’s voice cut through the clearing stopping the man in his speech. A pungent smell made its way to the rogue king’s nose. Thorrin held a small knife in his hand and had shed his coat. However, the knife was laced with far too much wolfsbane.
“I see the gloves have come off...” the rogue king said in a more serious tone. He could tell the man had changed his entire opinion of the situation they were in, “Maybe now you’ll fight like half the descent warrior worthy of fighting me.”