447 Bitten
Drake had grown used to using this short moment of inertia to either take some time to recover or to counter his enemy. In this case, he was trying to recover from the sudden attack but that proved to be an error in his judgement.
The wolf planted one paw on the ground and with the other raked the prince to the side.
The nimble prince was viciously thrown away from the wolf, bouncing hard on the ground before slowing to a roll.
Disoriented and dizzy, Drake trying to sit up at least. His vision had gone blurry and he was seeing double.
Pain roared through his body, pulsing in many places. Most of it was coming from four lateral slashes across his back.
The wolf had got him good in the back and the pain was excruciating. Disoriented and barely able to tell up from down, the prince was in the worst shape to face another assault from the wolf and yet the wolf was barely getting started.
The rogue king regarded the staggering royal as he walked up to him, ‘I thought he had more fight in him than this. I guess I might have overestimated him. However…’
Reaching the prince’s body, the big wolf bit down on the prince’s shoulder. The wolf’s fangs went deep into the prince’s body in a half bite that curved down and away from his chest and spine.
Since the wolf’s maw was too large to fit its whole bite onto one shoulder, it settled for this kind. That wasn’t to say the pain would be less. This wolf’s teeth were significantly larger than the normal wolf’s set. And its bite force was not to be underestimated.
.....
If Drake hadn’t been in so much pain and his mind muddled from the previous attack, he would have wondered why his bones were still intact. He didn’t get time to make this realisation as in the next second, the pain was all he knew.
The prince let out a scream, feeling the pain of being bitten by another. Drake had almost no scars and was new to this type of pain. He’d never been bitten. How could he when he was a royal himself?
In this situation, he was now at this abomination’s mercy… or at least, he thought he was. Something inside him snapped…
…and in the next moment, the Rogue King regretted his life’s choices.
The vessel he’d taken a hold of reeled back, pulling his fangs out of the prince’s shoulder. The wolf clawed at his maw, trying to get something out of his teeth. Blood flowed out of the wolf’s maw, dripping to the ground.
‘What’s this?’ the Rogue King’s thoughts raged but the damage seemed to only be starting. The pain in the host’s maw spread to the rest of his body eventually knocking the Rogue King’s mind out.
A few moments later, the wolf dropped to the ground… dead.
Drake’s screams had stopped but he now felt like he’d been hit by a mountain. He allowed his eyes to travel to a greying wolf on the ground not far from him.
The prince forced himself up, this time keeping his eyes away from the second rogue to die. The sight of the first one was enough for him to take.
Drake approached the wolf and checked for a pulse.
Victor was still alive.
.............
The king led the girls, with his wife in tow, to the car when Madeline was done with her makeover. Their short rest was finally over and they were now meant to enter the Great Arena.
Honour wasn’t sure what to make of the colossal wall that loomed over them once more as their car approached it.
The large steel gates that allowed them in creaked open, revealing a large tunnel that cars would wheel through. This was the same entrance that was said to admit the wolves that finished their Trials from the Sirius empire.
Honour closed her eyes and took a deep breath as they went through the tunnel. A feeling of dread came from the walls… as if they could close in on her at any time.
The fear was familiar. When her mind couldn’t pick up any such memory, she discarded it and tried to dismiss the eerie feeling of danger that came with mild claustrophobia.
The journey through the tunnel was longer than they’d all initially expected, but eventually, it came to an end. The car continued down a street inside the Great Arena. It almost felt like they were in another city…
Almost…
The difference between this place and a normal city was the fact that this street completely went around the Great Arena, forming a circular highway. Beyond this highway was the perfect augmented environment of vegetation and technology.
It was hard to notice the technology at first glance, but with a little more focus, one could see the cameras that were cleverly hidden within the trees along with the slight grooves in the ground that felt more than coincidence to be there.
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‘Perhaps it’s a transformable arena,’ the goddess thought. Even for her, this thought was a bit on the imaginative side. Then again, it wasn’t impossible.
“This is where Lina, Bree and Crysta will face off against the werewolves of the Lycaon empire,” Honour thought aloud.
Wyatt might have filled in for Bree during the Trials but it was allowed for the royal to use completely different wolves from those they’d used through the Trials… as had been the original plan.
“Yes, this is where… Wait, what makes you think Drake is going to lose? I thought you were his number one fan,” Bree was the first to exclaim, shocked by the girl’s lack of faith in the prince.
“I just have the feeling that Lina will win. She’s been training so hard. I could tell there was so much she was holding in when she set off. Almost like she was ready to let herself loose,” the goddess replied with a smile on her face.
The girls knew better than to deny Honour’s words. She was the one person on the planet that knew the inner workings of Lina’s mind the most.
On this matter, her word could be considered law.