The Lycanthrope Tails. Chapter 35.
The Lycanthrope Tails
Chapter 35
By Roofles
Sveil led Dakota deeper into Fair View Heights, winding down the hallways as if he were following a map. The wolf preferred to remain in the shadows unseen, finding what others hid and seeing the things the world meant to forget. They called these wolf trackers. The best of them were known by a single word. Pathfinders. Sveil was a tracker, a forerunner and a shadow stalker but in a way he was also a guide. Seeing the roads, the pathways others couldn't.
If it was an instinct or something to do with his heritage or more, Sveil did not know. All he understood was the longer he was with them, with these other wolves he began to understand it as his own abilities continued to grow. As if learning how to walk for the very first time, his eyes were clear as he navigated through this place. Learning by doing. By tapping into this ability he'd never have known to possess without them.
Sveil couldn't hide in shadows. He wasn't able to disappear and reappear as he'd like as most thought he could. It was through these unseen roads that he could go where others couldn't. And just like these pathways, the world had forgotten all about them and thus the black fur wolf when he stepped foot onto one. Vanishing from the perceivable reality.
As such it was hard to keep Dakota's attention, the shadow wolf kept having to show himself to the red wolf and guide him down the path the others seemed to overlook and miss. To Dakota it looked as if Sveil walked straight into a wall, only when he followed in his very footsteps did the red wolf see the hallway he had gone down. Even as Sveil stood there, right next to the red wolf, Dakota lost track of where he was at. Sniffing at the air and perking his ears up to locate him.
"You sure this'll help us find Jared?" Dakota only cared for, not even asking about how Sveil could do these things. As they ran deeper into the bowels of this place the red wolf began to show his concern. A slip here and a twitch of a whisker there as those large amber eyes darted to every shadow and every corner, searching.
These were the things Sveil alone noticed where others would miss them.
The red wolf wore his emotions easily enough; yet kept some to himself. The ones he rather others didn't see. Concern, worry, fear. Things that would make him look weak to any other wolf. To Sveil, it made him look... normal. Unlike the blood thirsty killer the red wolf was.
The air was thicker in these lower levels and the place seemed to warm up as if someone had turned the furnace on as they entered these sublevels, below the normal basement.
"It's what we came here for, isn't it?" Sveil just pointed out. "To find the Alpha. If you can deal with all this." The wolf motioned around at the madness they were caught up. "And then rescue the him, won't he be pleased with you?" It was easy to manipulate Dakota at times like this when he particularly vulnerable and the red wolf was just giddy at the thought as he tailed after the black fur wolf.
That thought made this whole trip worth it.
Jared could be proud of Dakota. The wolf would regain the confidence he lost holding back on telling his mate about the other Blood Moon wolf, his brother Ambrose. Jared and the others had suspected something instantly but none would guess the truth behind it; as such their own minds made up their own plausible excuse for it. Why Dakota hadn't told them and what he had been doing to come back covered in blood. Each thought worse than the next.
Dakota was sure Frostbite would be whispering such horrors into Jared's ear. And he couldn't have that. Even if Dakota had committed such acts in the past, things were different now. This was his second chance. Even if he had to do such acts again to silence that silver wolf, he wouldn't lose this.
Dakota was nearly running ahead of Sveil as he quickened his pace. He needed to find Jared before Frostbite did.
The security on these levels had increased tenfold. Dakota using his brute strength to break down one metal door after another. Tearing through them with a grunt and ripping them open like pieces of paper. Tripwires had already been sprung, turrets were disabled and the lights above still didn't work. Only with their inhuman eyes could they see within the pitch black.
Neither of the two brought up or mentioned the dead bodies of hunters on these floors. The security system had been triggered but hadn't helped much more than to trap these unfortunate souls in this place. Some had been trapped between security doors and in the end, chose to take their own life. They could tell due to the decay who had been trapped inside when the securities doors locked and who had come in a month ago searching for something.
Or someone...
And, if awakening at their presence, hands began to reach for the two as they ran past. Not from the dead bodies, but from the very walls around them. Ghastly faces screamed silently in anguished as they pressed against the cement walls, the surface warping and stretching as they tried to escape as if it were a sheet and they were underneath. Arms broke off as they snagged Dakota's red fur, the wolf not even slowing down as he tore them apart with sheer brute force and kept running.
Sveil had slashed out at several of these arms coming from out of the floor with his tail, neatly jumping over them afterwards. The spirits continued to try and grab at them in their pain and anguish, tormented forever in this place. Attempting to trap them here as well; these weren't any humans and the wolves easily avoided most the obstacles.
"How do you do that anyways?" Dakota ended up asking, looking over at Sveil as they made their way down another stairwell. The wolves ended up jumping down the flight of stairs as the steps vanished below them.
"Do what?" Sveil just asked, more concerned with the fact the very building they were in was attempting to kill them. The black fur wolf finally understood why Frostbite was so frustrated by him; Dakota had ADHD or something, unable to keep his focus for long.
"You're tail thing." Dakota stopped at that, looking back at his own tail. It only wagged lazily back and forth. "Mine can't do much." The red wolf just shrugged aimlessly, bumping into the wall as he nearly tripped over his two front legs. More hands reached out for him, snagging his thick hide in their unrelenting grip. Dakota barely noticed as he kept moving pulling them out of the wall and breaking them as he did so.
They were butt stinging insects to the great red wolf. Annoying bugs that could strangle an adult human male easily; they were no threat to him.
Sveil frown only deepened. At a time like this, Dakota was asking about him now? "You can grow ten times your normal size and you're wondering how I can manipulate my tail?" Sveil only shook his head, unable to believe anyone was this stupid. Or rather, careless.
"I guess..." Dakota started up again, moving forward. "How deep underground do you think we are?"
Sveil had to stop at that. "You do remember we're on top of a mountain right?" Dakota just nodded, not catching on. "I... we... we're far. Far underground," the black fur wolf just grumbled to himself not about to explain. The two just continued down until they reached the bottom.
"Over here!" Sveil spoke up suddenly, bringing Dakota's attention back to the goal at hand.
The tracker had found what he'd been looking for. A hidden door behind a metal wall; Dakota easily tore it off for them. The red wolf would've walked right past it, never knowing about the secret entrance.
Sveil motioned inside the broken elevator, only following inside after the red wolf was in. Due to Dakota size, it was easier not to be directly in front of him when he was trying to squeeze into such a tight space. "We'll have to scale down. The powers still out." Sveil explained. Dakota didn't seem to have a problem with that.
The red wolf got inside, then jumped. His weight hit the ground hard with all four massive paws, dinting the floor and the elevator creaked shifting back and forth in the elevator shaft. The red wolf pushed against one of the side walls with his weight, tossing it around in the enclosed space.
"W-wait!" Sveil yelped as Dakota did it again and the whole thing came crashing down as the cords above snapped. The metal box plummet all the way to the bottom floor as it scrapped against one of the walls, sending sparks flying.
Stars exploded in front of Dakota eyes and he laughed after the dust calmed down. With both hands, he reset his broken leg. It began to quickly heal just like his right side that had taken the brute of the damage from the fall. One of his ribs was sticking out. "Ow. That really hurt more than I thought it would." The wolf just shook his head as if thinking "welp, now I know" as he pushed that rib back in.
Sveil reappeared next to him, holding his chest, clinging to the wall. "Hate. So much hate!" The shadow wolf had used Dakota as a cushion, quickly moving off before the red wolf could notice the black wolf clinging to his back like a frightened cat.
Dakota just ripped the doors opened and walked further inside without another thought about what he had done; even as one of his ankle twisted back towards the front. Sveil's legs felt like jelly as he wobbled along after him.
The two entered a laboratory of sorts. It was a massive open space with cement walls, floor and ceiling above; stretching farther than their eyes could see. A few lights were still on down here, very dim and flickering on and off. This wasn't what caught their attention.
Numerous rows of massive vats were lined up side by side, lining the whole place in thirteen separate rows. Massive tubes connected to the bottom of them, snaking and covering the entire floor. Only a single lone path was visible straight down the middle. Each vat was filled with a semi-clear green liquid. And each vat had something in it.
Human embryos, mutated and deformed were suspended in this thick liquid. Others from infancy to adulthood were lined up next to them. Each different from the next while almost identical at the same time. Only one minor defect separating each, like snowflakes. The same and yet unique. Each vat was numbered and label going from A-M with numbers after.
Dakota landed heavily between two rows on the clear path, looking around. Sveil joined him. The two were already sniffing at the air. It was musty in here, dust had already covered everything. Dakota sneezed, wrinkling his nose as he wiped it off.
"Where's Jared?" Dakota only asked not even seeming to understand the implications of what was right before their eyes. Snot ran down his nostrils and he snorted it out, wiping his nose off and licking it off after looking over at Sveil.
Somehow, that was more disgusting than what was before them and the black wolf just gagged, looking away.
The vats didn't only have human parts. There were also things that were clearly inhuman. Fur, fangs, scales, fins, and teeth to begin with. Discolored organs and clumps of flesh. Brains, fingers, toes. Feet. Hands. Tails. Dakota recalled such a place like this back in the stronghold, when he was reunited with Jared.
The storeroom next to the medical lab had similar containers of the same liquid. Each had a piece of Grimjaw in it, using the gray werewolf as a sort of organ farm before Jared rescued him.
"I don't see him around or smell him." Dakota just turned away to look at the shadow wolf once more. "Where is my Jared..."
"Their doing human experimentation down here and your concerned about the Alpha?" Sveil frowned, not as if he cared about the humans involved. They were most likely from this facility itself anyways or possible orphans or homeless; those people wouldn't miss. It was the monster parts amongst these vats and that worried the shadow wolf. This placed looked mostly abandoned, still he worried Jared might be added to this sick collection of body parts.
Was this where the chimera from the stronghold had come from? Scorpion tails and stingers here, a pair of bat wings there, a jackal head next to them. All the parts were needed to make something like that. They had the resources, they only needed the means to create such a monstrosity.
Sveil thought this over as the two proceeded into the middle of the room. The dead center of the room had been left empty. Not even a stray wire poked out from the vats circling around the space.
"No wonder why..." Sveil stopped at the edge.
A massive circle had been drawn into the floor; Sveil knew this spot was the dead center throughout the whole building. The vats, the beakers, and canisters all revolving around this spot as if it were a sun. Migrating towards this one area in perfect orbit.
The circle had been burned into the ground as if by a torch. It was larger than either of the two and their whole group could easily fit inside. Strange symbols lined the inner part of the circle. Shapes, curves and slashes all swirled inwards with these symbols to the very middle. There weren't any burn marks there in the dead center; only a failed project.
"This is alchemy. The darkest of forms of alchemy..." Sveil was staring at what was in the middle of the circle. Whatever it had been, it was still alive.
Still moving in the dark...
It breathed in and out as the tumors nearly bursting out of its reddish skin. It wasn't flesh but muscle. It looked like a mass of discarded waste. There was dry blood underneath it with bits of bones, an eye and what looks like fur scattered about half hazardously. It was as if this thing had imploded in on itself.
And, if they listened very closely, they could hear it crying like an infant.
"This is fresh." Sveil noted, his eyes darting around the room quickly. "Someone had created this... thing recently." His head turned to the other side, his tail rising up as he stretched his senses outwards. Other than a faint smell, Sveil couldn't detect anyone else in the room with them. "They seem to be gone now..."
"Created with science and magic..." Dakota spoke up, his voice containing only a sliver of a growl to it as he walked around the circle, not daring to step inside. The wolf examined the markings burnt into the cement. They were still glowing softly as if hot. They smelled like sulfur.
"C-correct." Sveil said in surprise. "They must've grown or collected the parts and stored them in this room. And when the need arose, they would gather the necessary ingredients. Place it within this alchemic circle... and create... life." Sveil could barely say the word.
This wasn't natural. It stunk. It burned at his senses just being this close. His wolf body could feel the revulsion of it. This affront to nature, to life itself.
"Let's just kill it then." Dakota was still pacing around the circle, studying it as if looking for a way to enter inside without crossing the burned marks of it. Dakota was cautious after what happened last time he recklessly went head first into something he didn't know.
He couldn't get trapped like that ever again...
The red wolf just decided it was about time to shift and he was already rising onto his back legs as his front legs twisted and formed into arms. His front feet stretching into hand and the dew claw turning into a thumb. Dakota grunted as his rib cage snapped and broke, changing with him as he went from a normal wolf to a werewolf in the span of only a couple of seconds.
"We don't know how this thing works." Sveil just growled a warning, unable to stop Dakota once his mind was set. "It's clearly the cause of all this shit going on. We don't know who created it or why!"
"How else are we going too? Just wait and ask when they show up?" The red wolf laughed. "No. We'll just force them out of hiding..."
Dakota grabbed one of the nearby vats, focusing on lifting it up instead of breaking the glass. With his strength, it took a precise amount or he'd end up breaking right through it. The wires pulled and snapped as he lifted it carefully overhead.
An alarm went off as the vat was removed, a red light flashing overhead as Dakota gave a loud grunt, and threw it at the thing in the middle of the room. The silent alarm gave everything a dim red glow. The massive vat of liquid came crashing down on top of the thing, the glass breaking as that strange liquid pouring out over the burned runes.
They hissed loudly as the liquid touched them, steam erupting upwards as smoke poured off each one. The liquid bubbled as if boiling and the thing in the middle cried out. A screech that filled the room as it was burned alive in the scalding hot liquid.
"See, nothing to it." Dakota laughed loudly, grinning from cheek to cheek as he bared his fangs. His claws sprung out and the wolf waited for some sort of retaliation for what he'd done. Sveil went into hiding.
...
Elsewhere, trapped within the time loop, Jared was searching for his friend, Gerald. Jared still appeared human to those around him as he quickly searched. It'd be troublesome if he went full wolf right here around all these humans. It wasn't their fault, he didn't think, that they were trapped in this mess. His eyes glowed with an amber light as he sniffed at the air, searching for the fox's scent in this place.
"Come on, come on... where are you." Jared just muttered to himself. The fox had a powerful stench and to his keen nose, he should've been able to pick it up immediately. There wasn't a trace of Gerald anywhere he looked and Jared had to slow down, beginning to draw attention to himself in his haste.
Jared had spit out the drugs they gave him, playing along as the dumb fool until he could discard the pills. The others couldn't tell but underneath the rags he was wearing he had shifted and turned wolf. Not about to let what happened last time happen again. Underneath his cloths, his flesh turned a darker grey with brown fur replacing his hair; it was painful to keep it up without fully transforming.
At least like this, Jared could finish the change almost immediately if it came down to it. The wolf body helped with any lingering drugs in his system, detoxing himself as he searched the second floor.
"Hello, Jared." It was the doctor from before, Hyde. The man was sitting at the circle as if waiting for him, the group session already over. "We missed you today..." The doctor was already making a note about it.
"I'm looking for something orange." Jared just spoke up, ignoring what he had to say.
"Orange?" Hyde asked in confusion, his pen rested on the paper waiting to make another note.
"Yes. I saw something orange and I just wanted to find what it was." Jared gave a convincing smile. "I like the color orange." Jared just played crazy. He was safe, harmless to anyone else but clearly not of sound mind hoping the doctor would play along. The fox had a very distinct coloration in a place like this, if he could find some trace of him it'd be a good place to start.
"Sorry, Jared. I don't think I have." Hyde got up, already late for his appointment with Nero.
"Too bad. I'll see you later, doctor." Jared just smiled, giving him a nod and a wave before heading towards the activities room. "Oh, doctor." Jared stopped at the edge of the large room they used for group sessions. "Be careful. It's the full moon." And Jared left towards the very place Nero had murdered him, the activities room.
Even before he opened the door, Jared came to a sudden halt.
There was a flash and he held his head, unsure what that was. He could recall it, some part of him standing at this place once more. Watching as those doors broke down and the monster known as Nero walked inside. Jared touched at his throat, making sure it was still there. It had been so real... Like a vivid nightmare he had just woken up from.
Jared's nose was bleeding but he ignored it, going into the room to search.
"The first of his kind?" Jared was focusing on what Nero had told him as he continued to search, looking underneath and inside the piano. It was locked and he couldn't open it without damaging it. He just sniffed at it instead, not smelling the fox. "What did he mean by that? And where the fuck was that damn fox..."
The grandfather clock in the corner ticked loudly.
Jared had come crossed several werewolves in his day. Yet, like those accursed belts, he had never seen or smelled anything like Nero. It was more like Nero was wearing one of those belts rather than being an actual werewolf. Still, Nero had been wearing an almost identical outfit Jared did. He doubted he could've missed something that important even during the life and death fight.
"Gerald." Jared hissed now, speaking up as he moved from one room towards the next. He was becoming desperate and not once, but twice he had to give a few of the orderlies the slip. Using his inhuman strength and speed to distance himself in time.
They were getting suspicious but weren't openly searching for him yet, probably not wanting to cause a panic Jared concluded. He hopped down from above a door, hiding right next to the ceiling and watching two of them move underneath him as he hid and down the hallway a couple seconds ago.
"When did Gerald find me?" Jared tried to think that over. "It was near the end of the day." He nodded. "Almost midnight." It was hard to recall. At least that pain in the back of his head was now just a dull hum compared to what it had been before.
Jared wondered if the fox had escaped, coming back in later at night to search for him. Jared was already heading towards one of the fire exits. It was locked and there would be an alarm attached to it. Right now, Jared didn't care as he pushed against it. Using his wolf strength to force the door off its own hinges and open it. The door swung open as a silent alarm went off.
Time was already beginning to run out. Jared didn't have time to wait.
Jared just stared forward at the blank empty space beyond the fire exit. "The... fuck?" Jared took a timid step forward, looking out and over the edge of the floor as the alarm continued to go off. He couldn't see the ground from where he stood, an empty space that fell into nothingness was all he saw.
It was a dark, bluish space that seemed endless in all directions. There was no sky, no ground. It was an empty void and Jared almost dared to take his chances to jump out into it. It was like there was a bubble around the building itself that separated it from reality. Or rather, from time.
"Jared." A voice sharply spoke up behind him, making the man jump nearly out into it.
"Gerald, the fuck!" Jared spun around and was about to wring the fox's neck. Then there was that white flash again and Jared held his head. For a split second Gerald had been nothing more than a limp corpse on the ground, his neck snapped by Nero. Laying there. Motionless, still...
"I've been looking all over for you in this empty place!" The fox said as that image disappeared. Gerald appeared perfectly fine now, unharmed as he had been before. A strong sense of déjà vu was coming back to Jared. That made him worry even more. It was roughly at this same time that-,
And then they heard it. A scream from far down the hallway.
"Nero..." Jared swallowed, that primal fear was already beginning to make him sweat. Was it because he broke the door? Didn't it somehow effect the time in this place? Disturbing the fragile bubble outside?
"Who?" Gerald just asked in confusion looking back over at Jared.
"We need to get out of here. Now." Jared just tried to press the urgency of this moment. "Can you scry our way out or something?" Jared asked not familiar with all the fox's abilities. All he knew was that the fox was clairvoyant in some way or form.
Gerald shook his head. "Normally, I could. It's like... now? When I do it." The fox looked down at one of his hands. "As I see the future, someone begins wiping it away like a painting dipped in water... Erasing it from my sight."
"Fuck..." Jared just shook his head. "Can you at least try again? Or something?" Jared was begging now and Gerald became worried.
"I mean, I can try..." The fox bit his lip, worried about something himself. "It's like there is someone watching, waiting for me to try and then..." The fox shivered suddenly.
Could it be Nero? Goosebumps formed at the thought. Was that why the fox had been separated from him to begin with? Because Gerald was somehow a threat? Nero was dangerous enough without being able to do something like this...
No, Jared concluded. Somehow he knew that this was a cage specifically designed to keep Nero in check. A cage that would rewind itself to the beginning each and every time Nero attempted to destroy it. Trapping him, and everyone else here, in an endless cycle of death.
"I'll be right here." Jared just tried to offer. They didn't have much choice. Nero was already beginning his rampage. If all the exits were like this one? What chance did they have of escaping his wrath? Jared didn't know how to deal with this, wishing Frostbite was here to lend his advice.
"There are many ways to scry something...." Gerald let out his breath, beginning to concentrate as he spoke. "Some can see the possibilities of what is to come. Others can see alternate universes or realities and what decisions will lead to which. Most need some sort of medium to use, tarot cards or a crystal ball. Some call on the spirits or one of the gods..." The fox was staring off blankly now his eyes glowing white. Jared couldn't even see his cat like pupil.
"What do you do?" Jared just asked knowing where he was going with this already.
"I see into the future... by using my future self as a bridge, a link..." Gerald closed his eyes and shook his head. "That's the problem... I can't see my future self!" The fox looked as if he was on the verge of tears as if he knew what fate Nero had in store for them.
The only way he couldn't connect to his future self, was if that future self didn't exist they both concluded.
"Come on." Jared just offered his arm. "Stay with me. I'll protect you... or die trying." Jared just gave a weak laugh and a tilted smile trying to hide his own fears. The fox could smell them. Jared was putting on a brave face for the fox.
Gerald just nodded and climbed aboard as he had done before, wrapping around Jared's neck like a scarf as they made their way down through the hallways. This Gerald had been lucky, stopping just in time...
In an alternate timeline, in the same place at the same time. Gerald the fox of that reality was scrying as well without Jared there to stop him. Focusing and concentrating, letting his guard down as he extended his senses outward. Searching for a way out and opening himself to being seen in the process.
That fox, in that reality, didn't even see the jaws close around him with a snapping crush as, from the ceiling itself, they came down to devour the fox whole. The black muzzle only grinning afterwards, gulping down the morsel and retreating from wince it came...
Back in the other reality, in such an enclosed space, Jared couldn't just stay downwind of Nero. He'd have to distance himself, to try and hide his scent from the other wolf as he figured something out. Jared wasn't sure what to do... no one was coming for him this time. He couldn't rely on Gerald and he wasn't about to force the fox into scrying when he wasn't able too.
"Dakota." Jared held that thought as he pressed forward. If he could somehow get back to that wolf, he knew Dakota could deal with Nero, right? His own fears were getting in the way and he had to stop, slapping himself in the face to try and snap himself out of it.
Fear was a powerful thing. It could turn the bravest of men into cowards and turn a coward into a hero. It could break the minds of the weak and was the force that helped lead evolution. The fear of death, the fear of never procreating to continue one's bloodline. The fear of being alone... Fear. It was the very thing that Nero fed on.
Nero could taste it in the air, like an aphrodisiac it riled him up. That intoxicating scent like the sweetest of perfumes. It made him want to go wild. To fill this whole place with the smell of fear. And then to devour it all.
Gerald didn't say a thing as he just looked to the side. Jared was shaking still as he was trying to decide which way to go. They both could smell the blood in the air. Jared arms had changed into wolf on their own, his survival instinct kicking into overdrive. That rich brown fur covering them down to his clawed hands. He even had a tail at this point, his ears shifting to those of a wolf up and alert.
"If only I was stronger..." Gerald confessed, his nails digging painfully into Jared shoulder. "I could be of some damn use."
"You're fine." Jared stopped then, petting over the back of the fox's head with a finger. "You stink. And you can be a bit of a pig, eating all my snacks..." Jared just smiled over at him. "And sleep in all day..."
The fox just frowned, ears folding back. "And?"
"That's it." Jared gave him a wink and continued to jog forward. Seeing Gerald stress somehow made this easier for Jared; carrying it for him. His fears. Helping another, searching for his sister, seeking Dakota... It all, helping others was what made Jared keep moving even as that fear filled his body like a heavy weight. "That's who you are." Gerald looked away. "And I don't mind that." Jared stopped at an intersection of hallways. "That's who you are and I wouldn't have it any other way. Weaker? Stronger? It doesn't matter to me."
He could smell blood in the air from down one of the side hallways. It was fresh and even by its scent, Jared could tell it was still warm and fresh. Nero had been through here only a very short while ago. Jared was sick at the thought but he could use that to his advantage.
"I don't mind the YOU, that you are..." Jared just shrugged the shoulder the fox's face wasn't resting on. "Cause I know, when you can be there. You will." Jared gave the fox's head another scratch as he headed up towards the roof following down the path Nero had come from before. Where the fresh bodies were. Nero wouldn't pass through there again for some time, or so Jared hoped... "Maybe we can reach the roof?" Jared just gave a silent prayer, climbing up the stairs two at a time.
....
The whole building shook back in the present time and on the second level, Frostbite nails sunk deep into the floor to keep himself from sliding backwards. The floor behind him cracked and broke down to the first level.
"What did that idiot do now?" Frostbite cursed, turning around towards the exit that had formed from the destruction below. He wouldn't thank Dakota for this; and stopped halfway down that makeshift ramp. "Defiantly not thanking him..."
The floor had broken and fallen in a slant giving Frostbite a seemingly safe exit from the second floor to the first. The stench of rotting flesh met Frostbite's sharp nose and a foul breath washed up from that opening as if something was breathing from within it. Gnarled, dripping teeth could barely be seen along the inner parts of the wall and a pool of orange stomach acid was already forming at the end of the make-shift stairs. That acid dripped down from the ceiling and burned anything it touched.
Frostbite took a timid step back, just staring down where he had almost ended up. His rear foot touched something slimy and he recoiled quickly. His glowing amber eyes looked at where he had stepped and knots formed in the pit of Frostbite's stomach.
The ground was moving. It breathed slowly, rising and falling as if with sickening unseen breaths. It was like a body without the skin. Convulsing and quivering every couple of seconds as it rose and fell only an inch off the ground. Frostbite could hear things in the wall. Groans, gurgles, and the sound of breathing...
It was only the beginning.
The ceiling began to drip, that corrosive orange tinted liquid falling from above. The walls around the silver fur wolf began to move and breath with the motion. The air became stale and it was hard to breathe; where there had once been a cold chill there was now an unsettling warmth. As if from a living body.
"Find Jared. Burn this place to the ground." Frostbite just concluded, to hell with anyone else at this point as he took off running.
Like parasites, mouths began to appear from the flesh walls, under his feet and from the ceiling above. Snapping jaws without faces. They snaked their way slowly out of the walls on long fleshy tubes to snap and bite out at his flesh and fur as the wolf quickly ran for it.
Frostbite maneuvered through them skillfully, quickly avoiding each as they struck out like snakes or maybe more like leeches. He wasn't sure how they could see him, sensing him maybe by his body heat? It didn't matter as he quickly navigated a path through them, seeing three moves ahead as these walls began to pulse with peristalsis muscle movements to try and guide him back, further, deeper into this place. Into those gnashing teeth. Into its stomach. To digest the wolf.
Frostbite wasn't about to be someone else's lunch, let alone a building, and broke through the closing walls by the fur of his tail. Frostbite rolled several feet and looked back, the very tip of his tail fur was missing.
The silver fur wolf had broken out onto the roof, breathing heavily in the cold night air and looking back. The door to the roof was opening and closing and he could hear growls from within. The door had sharp teeth around the edges and within.
One of Frostbite's ears perked up and he spun around, jumping back up onto all fours as he faced the two others on the roof.
"I was not expecting a guest so soon." The lynx was in the suit he had on before. It was worn and tattered and seemed far older than it had been. The black of the suit was fading and there was something off about the feline. It made Frostbite's fur stand up.
"You." Frostbite snarled viciously. "I should've known you'd have something to do with this!" Frostbite took an intimidating step forward.
Ambrose, the crimson red wolf, intercepted his path having stood silently next to the feline until Frostbite moved. Stepping in front of the lynx now. Frostbite just looked at him in disbelief. There was another one? At first, if only for a second, Frostbite had thought it was Dakota. But no. It was another blood moon wolf, he was sure no matter how impossible that was.
After tonight, he wasn't going to doubt it.
"I prefer doing things behind the scenes. Directing where all the pieces are to go." The lynx adjusted his suit once more. "When push comes to shove though, well... that's why I have him." The lynx gave the silver fur wolf a smile as he gestured over to Ambrose.
The crimson red wolf only grinned toothily. "Been a while since I've tasted Tundra Hunter meat." Ambrose took another step forward, his eyes darting back towards the lynx and asking the question without words.
"He's all yours, of course." The lynx only nodded, looking at the wrist watch he wore. "It's almost time..."
"Almost." Ambrose growled at the word, turning back towards. "It's not yet time." The wolf's eyes were already turning red. He drooled, thick tendrils of saliva dripping down onto the roof as he stared at Frostbite hungrily. Frostbite could see the intelligence draining out of those eyes as Ambrose became no more than a feral beast.
"So the gods would even recruit you bastards." Frostbite sneered without fear, his nails digging into the ground beneath them as he stood his ground firmly. Waiting for the other wolf to move first. "Sending us to this accursed place. To our deaths? Cowards."
"No." The lynx corrected, good-naturally still looking down at his watch. "I... was the one to send you to this place." And the feline finally looked back up at the silver fur wolf. "You were all to die here, rotting away forever in these walls..."
"You?" Frostbite quirked an eyebrow, tilting his head to the side. "I don't even know who the fuck you are."
The lynx wiped a hand through his hair. "I'm nothing more than a relic." And he gestured outwards, around him, at the red wolf at his side. To the very building beneath them. The building shifted on its own as if truly alive. "A collector who brings back the forgotten relics of the past."
"Like this place?" Frostbite wasn't looking at the lynx, his attention fully on the crimson wolf. Frostbite would have difficulties enough against a blood moon, let alone whoever this feline was too. Yet, Frostbite licked his lips. He had always wondered what it would be like to fight a blood moon one on one before. He just figured it'd be Dakota in the end.
"Exactly." The lynx checked his watch again. "You see, this place? It's not my doing. Well, to an extent." The cat laughed, shaking his head. "This place reeked of death, of torture. Of misery and sorrow. It was easy enough to connect to the other side from it. Places like this are already so close to it. The doors practically open already!" The cat took a breath of the air around them and shuddering, grinning. "Like death." And he licked his lips.
"Lovely." Frostbite was facing a blood moon wolf and a crazy cat. After escaping a living death house. Tonight was not his night.
"All I did was open the door for these spirits." The lynx laughed now, turning away from the two. "Finish this quickly. I will need your help to deal with the others... Can't let the project be interrupted when it's so close to hatching..."
"Don't order me around." Ambrose snapped his teeth, one ear flicking as his tail waved. There weren't any openings in his defense, Frostbite could tell. Even as the two argued. "Do some of your own damn work for once."
The lynx twitched a whisker, glaring over at the wolf. For a brief second it looked like the cat might strike the wolf across the face. Then only shrugged. "Very well, if I must..." And the cat jumped off the roof.
"Finally. Just you and me, sweetheart." Ambrose chuckled finally taking another step forward.
"So, you're like his bitch or what?" Frostbite motioned back towards where the cat had been. Ambrose snarled at that, jumping forward, and bringing one paw down where the wolf had been, breaking the roof. The two could see the fleshy inside of the building between the cracks. Frostbite easily jumped back to avoid it. "You two lovers have a little tiff?" The silver fur wolf batted his eyes. "Should I leave you two alone, so you can get a room maybe? Get fucked by that feline..."
"Shut up!" Ambrose howled moving forward and slashing horizontally now. Frostbite ducked underneath and went straight for Ambrose's throat.
The crimson wolf pulling back and twisting his muzzle down in time so Frostbite's teeth connected with it instead. Frostbite tore a hole in the top of it. There were fifteen bites in total as the two lashed out at one another in the next few seconds. Teeth snapping as the two wolves hit each other with their bodies, tossing their muzzle side to side as they furiously tried to bite at the other, to connect their jaws against any part.
As quickly as it happened, the two separated. Frostbite spat blood from his mouth and grinned with bloody teeth.
"Lucky your ears are missing or I'd have bitten one off." Frostbite continued to goad the crimson wolf, mocking him without even a trace of fear.
Ambrose only snarled, his body flexing underneath that shaggy, cut up pelt. Frostbite looked like a prize-winning show dog compared to the beat up looking crimson wolf. Even with the blood on his pelt, Frostbite lifted his head high. Proud of it.
Ambrose seemed to notice the difference too.
Gritting his teeth, the crimson fur wolf nails dug deep into the roof as his muscles began to shift and grow underneath his pelt.
"I'll wear your pelt as my loin cloth!" Ambrose viciously snarled, his body pumping up and filling out as he began to grow. Seeing it from the outside like this, it looked as if someone was stuffing muscle underneath that stretching pelt. Injecting the wolf with dozens of steroids at the same time.
"Neat trick." Frostbite just took a slow, deep breath. "Want to see mine?" The silver fur wolf eyes almost closed as he swallowed that breath, letting the cool air freeze in his lungs. And he exhaled, a thick mist seeping out through his teeth.
Frost began to collect on the silver fur wolf's hide. Ice forming around it in clumps of fur, spiking out like ridges along his back. Icicles grew from underneath the silver fur wolf as large spikes of clear blue ice formed along the ridges on his back, along Frostbite's spine and to his tail. This ice flowed down his arms, over his nails and became fierce claws.
"Was saving this trick for the other bastard wolf." Frostbite took a heavy step forward, the ground freezing beneath the ice claw. "But you'll have to do." And the ice wolf met the monstrous blood wolf in battle on the rooftop.
Below, on the bottom floor of this place, Dakota and Sveil were facing their own challenge.
As the lump of flesh continued to scream the vats around them shook. The pieces inside each slammed against the wall closest to it, as if drawn to this lump of flesh through some magnetic force. The glass began to crack and that thick green liquid poured out as piece after piece broke free and joined with it.
The lump of flesh absorbed each one, growing in size. Quivering and shaking.
"Throw something else!" Sveil shouted from somewhere around Dakota. The wolf just ignored him, already trying just that. He took one of the massive tubes connected the tanks together and ripped it apart. Using it like a whip, he brought it down against the fleshy tumor.
The flesh mound bounced at the hit like a beanbag, hitting the ground and rolling backwards. The pieces around them continued to fly towards it and it continued to absorb them, the bleeding wound Dakota had inflicted already healing as it continued to let out a banshee scream.
"It looks like a giant furless scrotum." Dakota gagged, pulling out another wire to take in his other hand. His ears were already beginning to ring from the sound.
"Disgusting. Just kill it already!" Sveil couldn't watch as Dakota mercilessly began smacking it around from one side to the other, not wanting to touch it with his own hands. "Use fire or something?"
"The hell do you think I am? A dragon?" Dakota just rolled his eyes, tossing one of the wires to the side and taking a lid of one of the vats. He brought it down like a frying pan right on top of it.
No matter the damage, it kept restoring by absorbing the pieces of other failed experiments that seemed endless at this point. Dead bodies, legs, feet, tails, fur, teeth. It didn't matter which as they continued to be absorbed right into it. And every one, increased its size.
Sveil tail twitched and his muzzle darted over to the corner. While Dakota was trying to deal with this thing, Sveil slipped through the shadows and down an unseen path towards the familiar scent that had entered the room.
The lynx had come to see how the project was going. Unaware of the shadow slipping behind him as he walked inside to see what the commotion was all about.
"The hell is going on here." The lynx bit his finger, glaring around. "If they break the soul effigy then all this is for naught..."
Sveil walked between the shadows as he appeared right behind the feline. His tail angled upwards as it brushed along the floor, just enough. Waiting for that time. That moment to strike as Sveil hardened his fur to a sharp point like a solid piece of obsidian. And as he did, the lynx didn't even know what hit him as that tail pierced him and burst out of cat's chest.
It went right through. The end of it relaxing just enough to coil around the feline's neck like a python and with a sickening, loud snap the lynx fell over dead.
"I knew there was something fishy about this guy." And Sveil let him go, withdrawing his tail as quickly as it had released. Sveil walked right over the body and back towards Dakota, wondering if the red wolf had managed to figure out a way to hurt that thing.
"Fuck," a voice spoke up from behind making the shadow wolf stop in mid-step. "I did not see that one coming honestly."
Sveil had a second to react, jumping forward and flipping around in the air to face the feline once more as he dodged.
The cat had risen off the ground. From one palm a bladed shard of bone jutted out of the feline's flesh, forming a sword. It slowly withdrew back into his body as the lynx, his head still facing the wrong direction, faced towards Sveil. Using both hands, the lynx spun his head back around and turned it to face him.
"Smart. You went straight for my heart," the lynx touched at the hole in his chest. "And just to make sure, broke my neck also. A double tap. That usually does work on zombies or so I hear." The cat laughed pleasantly enough, sticking both hands back into the suit pocket. "You know though..."
Sveil took a step back just staring at him.
"This suit cost a lot." The feline went on.
"The fuck are you?" Sveil snarled, taking another step back to distance himself. "You should be dead!"
The lynx flicked an ear at that. "True. True." The cat nodded, he took a step forward and every fur stood up on the shadow wolf's body. "And so should you." The cat withdrew one hand to point at him accusingly. "And that fucking mongrel over there." He motioned towards Dakota. "The lot of you should be dead and I should have a few more things to add to my collection. All this should already be over and done with!"
Sveil just gave a low growl in reply to that. "Who are you?"
"I don't get why your all so obsessed with names and labels." The cat shook his head now, his neck swaying loosely, and with a flick of his wrist that bone blade jutted out of his palm once more. The fingers of the hand snapped backwards, forming a living guard for the blade.
"Because." Sveil only replied, his own tail arcing up behind him. "A name gives us meaning in this life. It gives us a sense of self. And it means, we exist. That we are someone."
"What about the dead?" The lynx toyed with the bone sword, looking over the serrated edge of it.
"They existed. They were loved. They had a home a family!" Sveil knew now who had created that circle behind him. The foul magic that was an insult to life itself.
"I see... is that what you're after, then?" The lynx eyes darkened and his body tilted to one side. There was a raspy sound as he took a slow breath. "Is that what the living is after?"
Sveil shuddered then. He knew there was something off when he connected with this things chest. It was almost hollow on the inside, like a husk.
"You're dead too..." Sveil brain was already going into overdrive trying to think of every way possible to kill something that was brought back to this world. "You belong in this place, not us! Give our Alpha back!"
The lynx only tilted his head at that, the neck seeming to still be broken. His head rested on one shoulder.
"Back? I didn't take him." The cat looked around, as if seeing something even the shadow wolf couldn't. "No one has died here in a long time..." And the cat grabbed its hair, lifted its head back up. Once he let go it fell backwards. "Well this is annoying... Can't even face you, like a gentleman." And the feline turned around so he could look at the black fur wolf upside down. "This sort of works..."
Sveil just clenched his jaw tightly and his tail moved, even his own eyes couldn't keep up with it as it struck again. Shooting forward like a nail from a nail gun.
The lynx blocked it, the shoulder of his arm snapped behind him to protect his face; even backwards the feline had managed to block his attack. The bone blade parried Sveil's tail and with the same motion knocked it to the side. Backwards, the lynx lunged at Sveil liked a trained fencer.
The shadow wolf was startled but managed to block the next three thrusts from the lynx. Each one quicker than the last. And on the forth, the cat's unrelenting assault soon drew blood as that bone blade dug deep into Sveil's shoulder. He howled in pain, spinning around and using the large bulk of his tail to knock the cat back.
The lynx spun around with the motion, stopping himself on one foot. With a hand, he pulled his head back up to face him.
"En garde." The cat just offered, lifting his bone sword up still standing on one foot.
"If this is a duel, shouldn't we introduce ourselves?" Sveil just growled back.
"That would be far more sporting, before I gut you and stuff you like a thanksgiving turkey." The lynx smiled, already thinking of seven ways to make wolf. "For a name? Call me, Nohbdy."
"Original." Sveil almost rolled his eyes, not daring to let his guard down however. "Where do you come from? Who are you working for?" The shadow wolf just pressed. It was Sveil job after all to collect as much information as he could about possible threats.
"Nohbdy." The lynx only replied.
"Cute." Sveil turned to one side, keeping his tail fanned out in front of him like a shield. "I guess names don't really matter to things like us?" And the two lunged at each other at the same time.
Tail met bone and bone met tail as they attacked each other. Sveil pushed Nohbdy back at first but the lynx quickly got the upper hand and forced Sveil back the next second. Where Sveil needed to breath, to focus, to listen; the cat did not. The lynx didn't tire, didn't waver, and kept up the assault without even an ounce of hesitation for his own wellbeing. Not even bothering to protect his body.
The lynx just pressed forward without concern.
Sveil was waiting for that and his tail wrapped around that bone blade, stretching out and snaking its way around it to go for the main body. Like a whip he had entangled the blade; and with the tip of his tail was going to end this here and now.
Sveil nearly connected at the shoulder, planning to break the very arm off, when Nohbdy slashed out with his other hand. It too had turned into a bone sword and the double-bladed lynx managed to catch Sveil off guard for a third time.
That was really getting to him as Sveil jumped back, recoiling his tail quickly.
With a broken neck, a hole in its chest and two bone swords where hands should be the lynx took another step towards him.
"You see. I can't die." Nohbdy just began with a raspy laugh. "Because I'm already dead. They killed me a long time ago."
"Then why are you still around." Sveil needed him to keep him talking as he searched, looking for a path he could use.
"What I seek?" The lynx stopped at that as if forgetting it for a second himself. "I seek justice." And he lifted one of those arms up. "Justice for what they did to me. To my clan. To my family!"
"And so you attack us?" The wolf laughed now. "Pathetic creature. Go after the ones responsible."
"Oh, but I am." Nohbdy laughed now, that raspy sound as if he were on his death bed, again. "Once I add the final ingredient to my concoction. Even the gods won't stand a chance. It will kill them for me."
"An you think a couple of wolves will accomplish that?" Sveil was already stepping onto that path, vanishing into the shadows and from view.
"Interesting. You don't even know who you have in your possession?" The lynx stopped at that. "Well it matters not. As they will soon enough belong to me." And the cat didn't move, standing there perfectly still.
Its chest didn't rise. Its ears didn't twitch. Its crooked face a blank mask. It was motionless, rigid like a dead body and stiff. Cold. Unbreathing.
Sveil didn't dare to attack. This was out of his expertise. The feline had that second blade literally hidden up its wrist. What other tricks did it have? Sveil wasn't one for a full-on fight, preferring to take out the target without them ever even noticing.
There was a crash to the side and it drew both their attention. Dakota had been flung from one side of the room, half way towards the other. His massive body hit the ground hard, skidding over the broke glasses and metal wiring.
"Ah, its finally awaken." The lynx just smiled towards them.
A massive arm came crashing down, breaking the floor with the talons of a bird of prey. Another arm covered in thick gray scales landed next to it; the komodo dragon claws scratching over the ground. A hind leg of a gazelle or some other hoofed animal landed behind them. And the last was the leg of a lion.
With a massive finned tail like a fish, a massive feathered wing and a fleshy bat wing it roared out. Each of its half dozen heads making a different sound. Jaws snapping, eyeless faces twisting around up above as it moved forward on Dakota.
"The ultimate creation!" The lynx only laughed happily. "A Chimera Hydra."
And the lynx lashed out, clipping Sveil's shoulder. The wolf jumped back at that, unable to believe he had been seen on one of these paths.
"Think you can hide on a Dead Man's Path to a necromancer?" The lynx turned on him. "I think not..."
And Sveil couldn't hide any longer.