Demon Wolf

Fifteen Qi-enhanced knives flew, noiselessly piercing Hare Tribe sentries’ larynxes. Qi detonated upon contact with their spines, frying the unsuspecting warriors’ brains, granting instant death.

Guards’ corpses swayed, still unsure of their passing. The brief moment it took them and the gravity to realize the abrupt change from living to nonliving gave Foxes enough time to cross the walls and silently lay their bodies against the breastworks.

Fifteen weakest infiltrators assumed the lookouts’ posts. Their builds and heights differed, but with their backs turned and torches blinding anyone viewing their backs, nobody could spot the inconsistency.

Mia faced an immediate choice; descend the wall or go around the battlements and kill the watch. Her decision would’ve been different if she had troops to lead. But for a stealthy assassination, she made her call in a blink.

She crawled over to the edge, double checked the stairs, and confirmed Ronit had left another group of three sentries at their base.

Those are reserves, too. She noticed the guards stood straight, focused on their task, despite their droopy eyes.

Never mind. She scanned the ground and found a mound of beast corpses which could obscure their descent. Bunnies treated their wounded away from the smelly carcasses piled next to the latrine. The disgusting blend of scents and diseases ensured a zone devoid of manlings, perfect for Mia’s needs.

She scuttled back to the breastworks and secured a length of rope, while her warriors threw the dead guards’ bodies over the wall and onto the eternally silent heap of monsters.

Shortly, a party of fifteen descended, leaving the other half of her group to guard their escape path in case things turned south.

After waiting for yet another patrol of three to pass, Mia and her followers rushed into the tents and started their bloody work, always keeping close to each other.

***

“Don’t worry. You’ll make it. You’ll even have a nasty scar to show your husband once you find yourself a man. Right Matriarch?” Fiona exclaimed and laughed.

She and Ronit walked around the camp visiting the wounded, raising the morale, and attracting as much attention as possible. Wolf and Kira pretended to be their attendants.

For observers, it was natural for Fiona to take her daughter with her; however, the warleader did not wish to expose her child to such a risk. Yet, Wolf forced her, saying he would not let Kira out of his sight while potential assassins prowled.

Ronit’s face was red. She grunted, hardly uttering a word as she gripped her right arm behind her back, hiding a bruise she got when she suddenly tested Wolf’s strength. At least he did not smack her cheek the way he had slapped Fiona. He simply blocked Ronit’s punch with his forearm; his adamant guard almost snapping her bones.

As he received her blow, he did not budge. He did not even blink. Without circulating Qi, he rendered Hare Tribe’s most powerful warrior helpless. His flippant move infuriated Ronit, but it also awakened a desire in her. She was forty-three. It was high time she birthed an heir, and Wolf was an excellent candidate. Better than the delicate househusbands from her tribe.

She cared little about his marriage, or children. She wanted a successor, not a lover, especially not a stronger partner.

An elbow jabbed her rib.

“Play along,” Fiona hissed as she tugged her towards the next group of wounded.

Ronit grumbled, glancing towards Wolf and blushing Kiki. She locked gazes with him for a second. Then, the beautiful young man stopped chewing, his nostrils flared and his pupils dilated.

A moment later, the hair on the back of Ronit’s neck stood straight. Her hands reached for the twin daggers which hung at her hips as she condensed Qi shields to protect her vitals.

“Fiona!” she shouted, but her warleader was just as experienced as she was.

The two women brandished their curved ornamental knives. The sound of metal rain filled the air as they deflected a storm of throwing blades. Book appeared in Wolf’s hand and he parried the stray missiles darting towards him and Kira.

Ronit did her best, but knives swarmed her. Although she blocked most of them, two slashed her thigh and one nicked her hip.

Wincing in pain, she caught a glimpse of Wolf catching a Qi-infused blade mid-flight with two fingers of his off-hand. Without pausing, he flicked it back at the attacker. Ronit clearly saw the glint of Qi flicker out once he grasped the projectile, and it returned whence it came without empowerment, screaming through the air at twice the speed.

It tore through a tent’s open flap and with a squelch, found the assassin’s chest. The wounded Fox Tribe’s elder shrieked and staggered backwards.

“Mia?” someone shouted as Mia backed off and disappeared among the tents.

“Get them,” she shouted, then hacked a wet cough. Wolf’s shot had pierced her lung. The wound was fatal. Left untreated, it would drown her in minutes.

The foxes’ moment of confusion bought Fiona and Ronit time to form up, and Ronit moved to cover Fiona’s back. She saw her warleader’s condition was much worse. She had dragged Ronit, involuntarily acting like a shield and taking most of the missiles.

That’s got to hurt. She saw Fiona yank a dagger out of her hip, scraping bone.

She wanted to order Wolf to join them when the crazy son of a bitch threw Kiki into a vacant tent. Then he jumped for cover on the opposite side, rushing towards the storm of daggers.

Before Ronit got to ask herself what was happening, shrieks, snaps and gurgles echoed from behind the tents.

“Gods! Spare—” A sickening squish cut the cry short.

“Run!” Mia screamed, already fleeing. However, there was no escaping Wolf.

Screams continued, hardly growing distant before dying.

“Leave one alive!” Fiona suddenly shouted, fostering a deranged smile.

“Run! Warn the matriarch! They have a mon—” Mia’s shout abruptly ended. A moment of silence followed, before exploding into a flurry of activity from the startled hares.

“He already killed them?” Ronit mumbled dumbstruck.

Wolf took a dozen seconds to eliminate ten-odd assassins. Several seconds later, he jogged over from between the tents. He carried the bleeding Mia like a sack and dropped her to the ground.

“Nobody else?” Fiona asked, watching a red puddle form beneath the Fox Tribe’s elder. The woman was out cold, soon to be out of blood.

“You were too slow.” Wolf shrugged, moving over to see whether Kira safely landed.

Fiona slapped Mia. “Wake up! Wake up, you stupid she-whore! If you don’t shield your lungs and plug the wound with Qi, you’ll bleed out like a bitch.”

Mia opened her groggy eyes. Blood oozed from her mouth and flowed out the hole in her torso. She took a moment to understand what had happened, then reached for her close combat ornamental daggers.

The warleader grabbed her wrists. “Don’t bother. If you don’t want to play along, you can die like a bitch. I have no reason to let you die cleanly.”

Mia’s gaze darted everywhere while her brain worked frantically. Then she saw her way out. She recalled that the male who attacked them did not bear Hare Tribe’s insignia. He was not a member of the tribe. They purchased his intervention. What others bought once, she could buy again; assuming she got the opportunity to discuss terms.

To do that, I must stay alive. Mia cast her gaze down, acting subservient, like she had lost. She nodded, then mobilized her Qi and stopped the bleeding. Now, I need to act like I can’t speak immediately and find a chance to negotiate with him. Dammit. Even Matriarch’s perfect plans can’t account for everything.

Mia opened her mouth, but instead of words, red flowed. She coughed, vomiting blood, and apparently Fiona bought the act. Mia wanted to pale and shudder, then realized she was already doing it, and that there was little need for her to pretend she was dying. If she let nature take its course, she would become a corpse in five minutes, probably less.

“Check our losses!” Ronit shouted two steps away from Mia, somehow sounding like she was yelling from the next mountain over.

I’m dizzy. I can’t keep this up for long. Don’t you people have some medicine? You want to interrogate me, but you can’t do that if I die. Come on, don’t stint.

She struggled not to smile as she caught Wolf’s blurry figure dancing about up and down, swimming through the air and into the ground. He held someone’s hand moving over.

“She’s useless. We won’t get any information from her.” Fiona said from the depths of some ocean, her voice distorted. “Did you kill the others?”

Mia could confirm that, assuming she could speak properly. She focused her full attention on keeping her blood vessels closed, but blood still drowned her, as did the dread of what she saw moments ago. The rusty sword sheering Aria’s head; a great-ax flicked like a dagger, smashing Emilia’s torso like rotten wood; her desperate effort to form a Qi shield.

She hoped their sentries heard her scream; they had to. She hoped stupid bunnies were too disorganized to pursue.

“I can heal her if you compensate me with their holdingrings. I killed them anyway,” the heartless words reached her ear. Mia did not quite understand them, but then warmth started spreading from her mouth, down her throat, and throughout her perforated chest.