— Kaden —

“We got words they know we’re coming and have called up the cavalry,” told me Jaxx.

“Huh,” said Mishka next to me. “I thought they would have run instead of forting up.”

“Yeah, I thought that too. Maybe something is wrong. Maybe they have a better defence here. I don’t know. Regardless, we should be careful,” said Jaxx.

I nodded. “Everyone ready?”

“Yep,” said Jaxx.

I had felt five more pang in my chest. Why? Was she under attack? The thought alone drove me crazy.

“Okay,” I said. “We charge in five.”

I walked out of base camp and moved to the front.

I waited for people to gather. There was no need for a pretty speech, none of us were here for this.

“BLOOD!” was all that I screamed.

“BLOOD!” They all screamed back in unison.

Araeya walked to me and began the ceremony she had promised.

She hadn’t been there for the other raids, so I supposed that somehow deep down, she had known it had not been the place. Which only reinforced the idea that this was where she was.

Inside, it was like a part of me knew and wanted nothing but to go to that freaking fort and drag her out of there. She was there. I was sure.

So close, yet so far.

Araeya sang a song with her drum, then killed a chicken, poured the blood in a bowl and mixed in a few other things too.

She was wearing her buckskin dress and antlers again.

She made quite an impression, but the men were starting to really trust what she and Elaeya could do. Since the Luna ceremony, it was hard to find anyone unimpressed by the mindlink. There was also the visions.

She came to me and painted my face in blood, murmuring strange words. Then smacked me in the chest.

It was like being hit by a car, only there was no physical impact. Something stirred inside, I don’t know what it was, but it was primal.

She then dipped her fingers into the bowl and would splash the men by flicking her hand at them while walking through the line, chanting.

I let her do her thing, but I was awfully fidgety, and I noticed, so were the men splattered in blood.

It was like a hunger was building inside me, one that felt like it could never be sated.

When she was done, she turned to me from the back of the crowd and nodded.

“FIGHT!” I screamed. And everyone rushed by me impatient with their own battle cry.

I had thought we should not announce ourselves too much at first, but right now, I just wanted to join them.

I kept my desires in check as much as I could as I walked amongst the men running on either side of me.

I took the biggest, longest breath I’ve ever taken, and released the mother of all roars. The tree further away shook, birds flew out, the closest men to me stumbled and a few fell, and had to rush back up as to not be trampled to death. I was sure anyone could have heard it from a kilometer or two away.

I felt something at my feet and I looked down as I continued forwards. The black mist was coming out again.

Everyone running by me gave me a wide berth now, but no one was undeterred. Plenty of them had already shifted, incapable to hold back their wolf.

I let my claws elongate and I smiled as I began to smell the blood ahead of us.

The first shot resounded like thunder, quickly followed by howls of hunger. Everyone wanted blood.

The wizard was walking not far from me, clearly not motivated enough to run. But then again, he had human stamina.

Bullets came our way, he rose his left hand, muttered a word, and a large transparent dome rose above us. When the bullet hit it, symbols of power shined in yellow light, upon which they rebounded.

He few people gave the man an impressed look before they bounded forward.

He then dropped the shield and sent a massive ball of fire where the shots had come from, as he raised his staff with a cry. The thing was the size of an economy-class car and went hurling through the hair in a straight line to hit the stone wall in an earth-shattering concussion.

I took my sword out and let out another roar.

A massive mass of black passed me by, a ginormous black werewolf with red eyes half crawled with his hind leg giving a few pushes and the front ones dragging its carcass, yet the handicap didn’t stop him from plowing through the crowd like an enraged bulldozer. One of the attackers face twisted in front of the incoming werewolf, showing its ghoulish self, yet the wolf crushed it casually with one of his front paws, the bones crackling audibly under the weight.

The mist around me spread further, moving around my men, and then caught something invisible. I felt it as if the mist was part of me. I turned around and saw the mass move through the mist leaving a circle of nothing. I was about to swing my sword, but decided against it. I felt like I had a new muscle that I could flex, and flexing it I did.

A man appeared where there had been nothing a second ago. The mist sank into his mouth and he contorted before he fell on the ground, his skin turning grey. He smelt of death. He didn’t have long. I didn’t even bother, and continued to move forward.

I heard in the background behind us Araeya’s staff hitting the ground rhythmically, with the loose bones at the top clacking like a macabre maracas. She sang a guttural throat song with sharp consonant and I saw a few corpses stir. I would have normally freak out, but with my present blood-high, I didn’t give a rat’s ass.

I watched the thing crawl up and grab one of its former compatriots to drag it down and tear it apart in ghoulish horror. The men screaming for just a few seconds. Then they both rose up to attack another one of their former allies.

I should make a note to myself never to piss off that woman. That is some freaky shit right there.

I took my handgun and shot a few from a distance but it was unsatisfactory. I wanted to taste their blood. I wanted to feel their gut in my mouth, I wanted it close and personal. I wanted to see the life run out of their eyes. I wanted them to know who killed them.

I was not a man. Today, I was a beast.

I heard someone scream, “YEEHAW!” from the top of the tank that was slowly moving forward.

It got a few cheers as it passed by, another jumped on top and screamed, “YEEPEEKAYAY MOTHERFUCKERS!”

I wasn’t the only one on blood frenzied high, and I guessed what Araeya did, triggered it.

Everyone fought like they had nothing to lose, like it was the greatest thing in the world, without restraint.

There was a massive ‘BOOM’ as the tank released its first shell.

If the numbers were right, there would be a few hundred people in there. I just hoped no one would blow my wife up with their enthusiasm. I sent everyone a quick mindlink to make sure it would not be the case.

I bend down, then propelled myself upwards, over my people, right into the fray.