“Tribe leader!”
Countless of dead bodies scattered around the battlefield. The blood continued to shed. The had had become unstoppable, but so was Axel.
After Efraim dropped dead on the ground, the arrows stopped. Monique approached Efraim who was in the brink of death, hoping she could save him even if it meant using all her energy. She wanted to rescue him. But as soon as she held his upper body, Efraim was already beyond saving.
“J…. just retreat…” Efraim coughed blood as he tried to give his word. “We can’t… risk our own…”
“Tribe leader” Aliaga cried. “Please… Please, do not die!”
The sudden fall of Efraim broke everyone’s stance. It gave the enemy an opening to attack while the wolves were griefing for Efraim’s life. The allied wolves growled, communicating with the Wesleyeians, who were, right at that moment, on their way to Efraim’s location.
They had seen it.
Before they positioned themselves, they asked for Terrance’s help, and the others. Instead of being the lookout for the divided wolves, the Wesleyeians proposed a plan to help them. Especially after sensing another group of August’s army.
Shooting arrows were only their way of giving their allies an opening. It wasn’t even the plan they thought so hard about. They haven’t even began conducting it. But upon receving a transmission from their lookout, they had to left their places.
Their tribe leader fell. It was more important for the Wesleyeian wolves, who had been depending on Efraim since he became the Alpha. They wanted to save him.
But the moment they got to the place, Efraim was already dead.
“Tribe leader!” The Wesleyeians cried.
But even on their mourning, August’s wolves and prisoners did not stop. They attacked the Wesleyeians who had dropped their guard. They stumbled.
“What are you doing?!” Hansel shouted. “Help the Wesleyeians!”
Some of the wolves from Edward and Axel’s pack panicked. While the Wesleyeians remained shaken and stunned. August’s prisoners attacked, killing those who were careless enough to stood still knowing their enemies were around and were thirst for blood.
The allied pack’s numbers decreased again. Everything became messy. Edward’s absence. Efraim’s death. The Wesleyeians’ loss. And Axel’s rampage. Their connection became dysfunction, leading them to one path.
Defeatedness.
“Aliaga!” Seraphine shouted when one of August’s prisoners held Aliaga’s hair using its teeth.
“You’re one beautiful lady….” August’s prisoner forcefully threw Aliaga in the tree, before maniacally laughing. “If I spare your life, would you accept to be my wife?”
The wolf stepped closer to Aliaga with a merciless look in his eyes. Seraphine, however, who transmusted to attack the wolf who threw Aliaga. She intent to strike him, when the wolf suddenly turned to slashed her head with his claw.
“Seraphine, no!” Aliaga, with her voice scratching, called Seraphine. Her eyes reflecting fear. “No… please. Don’t kill her!”
“That’s not your call to make, little wolf..” The wolf walked towards Seraphine, flashing his canines.
He managed to closed the gap immediately. He stepped unto Seraphine’s chest, weighing himself down. A strong push and Saraphine’s organs were sure to be crashed.
“Seraphine!” A male wolf from Edward’s pack ran towards Seraphine to rescue her. But he was stopped by another.
“You heartless beast….” Seraphine was sure she would transmute any minute now. She was losing blood. “Our Godess will not forsake you for doing this…”
“I do not care about your Godess, she wolf. I only care about myself.” With one swift move, the wolf unsympathetically crashed Seraphine’s bones.
The woman wolf from Edward’s back transmuted. Causing Aliaga and the others who witnessed it to shake in fear. There was no hope. Each of them were getting killed by minutes, whilst August’s army were still quite a number. They were succumbing.
“Please…” Monique held Efraim’s cold hands. “Save us, Goddess.”
“We should retreat…” said the wolf from Efraim’s tribe. “If we stay any longer, we will get killed.”
“No one is retreating, young wolf…” August, on his human form, showed himself to the battlefield together with his eight Generals. “I’m afraid you have to die here…”
“August…” Axel growled, glaring at the Crimson’s Red Alpha. “Where is Edward?”
“Up here, perhaps.” August teased Axel, pointing his pointing finger on the sky. “He probably reunited with your friend, Efraim.”
Axel’s face darkened. He pressed his foot harder to one of August’s wolves neck, slowly crushing it. He was fuming mad. The way his eyes expressed bloodshed was a proof of it.
“But I guess he won’t be that sad…” August tilted his head. “Seraphine is probably on her way to follow her Alpha..”
“You heartless monster…” Monique stood up, cursing August with her eyes. “Do you even have a heart?”
“Stop talking like a goddamn human, she wolf. Of course, I have a heart. We have a lot of that, literally speaking….” August continuously taunted the emotional healer. “But if you’d like to see for yourself, you can come and try peeking…. if you can.”
August’s evil laughed engulfed the whole area. The fight that had been going on for a while halted. The Crimson Red stopped attacking for a while, as if paying respect to their Alpha’s arrival.
But to the allied group, it meant something. The time when August would eradicate them in one swoop had come. The time they’d lose after all that had happened to ensure their victory. The battle would finally come to an end.
“Efriam did not die just for us to be defeated….”
In the Wesleyeians, Western, and Eastern Border’s silence, Terrance, on his human form, spoke to break the fast spreading misery. He walked out of the darkness, together with the other high ranked wolves who had save their energy since the minute the war started.
They stood tall, speaking for those who were unable to.
“Terrance…” Monique uttered his name.
“We have prepared for this.” Slowly, Terrance trasmuted. “Let us not allow August to manipulate the war’s outcome.”
Not even the slightest it brought the Wesleyeians out of their sorrowful moment. The passing of their Tribe leader was a wound deep enough to unable them to function properly. Without Efraim, they were nothing but empty cans. Efraim was the only one filling them.
But somehow.. they wanted to win.
“Manipulate? You’re less than a thousand. How can you fight against my army?” August ridiculed Terrance. “You’re nothing but all talk, just like Efraim.”
“We’ll have to see….” Gondol, who was just crying a few minutes ago, turned to his wolf form. “Let’s do it now…”
The Wesleyeians glanced at each other, as if communicating through telepathy. They weren’t on their best state, physically and emotionally, yet, after Gondol’s invitation… they felt encouraged. Especially when their Alpha had just been insulted.
Slowly, each of them walked towards each other, transmuting to their wolf form. There was one ting they planned after Axel gave up on honing their courage to harm their enemy physically.
Thus, they were given a chance to use their intellect.
“Stop them, Asval..” August commanded his General when he noticed the sudden movement of the Wesleyeians. “They’re up to something.”
The horde of August wolves had leaned down to attack again. But they were stopped by Terrance, Johnson, Roger, Albert, and the other high ranked wolves who had been with Axel since centuries ago.
“You have to make sure that’s worth risking my life, Wesleyeians…” Jacob threw a joke, lifting everyone’s emotional state.
“Thirty minutes…” Rafal spoke. “Teresa’s spell will last thirty minutes.”
“Spell?” August moved forward. “You associated yourself with a witch?!”
The Wesleyeians compressed.
A few days ago, the Alpha of the Western Border told them to think of something. But amidst of planning, a woman named Teresa came to see them. They offered a deal, in which Teresa will steal a year of their lifelines, in exchange of something they had been contemplating for.
The special ability.
“The seer….” Monique mentioned. “But Teresa’s help comes with a price…”
The Wesleyeians ignored Monique, and began the incantation Teresa told them to pray with all their hearts. August, however, was both alert and displeased with the vague conversation of the allied wolves. He felt threatened, thus, he ordered his General. But they were stopped by Axel.
“You will have to face me…”
“Don’t monopolize all the fun, Axel…” A familiar voice spoke, catching Axel’s and August’s attention. “Don’t you want to fight along side me?”
Axel’s eyes squinted as he focused his attention towards his right, where the voice was coming.
Edward.