CHAPTER 19: VICTORY

( A/N Please don’t hesitate to comment or drop a review. ENJOY)

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It was the grass; the grass was the reason they were called field fangs, and their skill was somehow connected to their presence on the grass.

’What the fuck, they should have just named them grass fangs,’ He thought, exasperated.

Orion hadn’t noticed, but despite continually getting injured, he was improving; his dodges were getting better, his reactions were faster, the readings and predictions he got from his attunement to space were flowing more easily, and overall, his mindset was improving.

’So they get faster in the grass, stupid ability. I just have to get away from the grass’ he thought, looking around.

’Oh, fuck me, the whole environment is grass, the fluke that occurred was because of a small piece of parched ground, that alone isn’t what I need to ... no, it’s exactly all I need,’ He thought, a smirk forming on his bloody face.

Despite his personal epiphany, the fight continued, the wolves continued the harassment, never letting him rest and never going too deep.

Orion was curious whether this strategy was unique to this pack, perhaps because of their leader, or all field fangs hunted like this.

Needless to say, even the wolves were getting frustrated; they had been harassing Orion continuously without rest and had repeatedly drawn blood, yet he showed no signs of giving in.

Orion didn’t care about their plight. He could tell they were getting desperate. He managed to parry a claw with his short sword. He started leading them subtly to the dry piece of land, dodging, reacting, parrying.

He hadn’t managed to attack once; that burst of speed during their attacks was still overwhelming even with his improvement, but he pressed on until they got back there.

He continued his act until one took the bait.

The wolves weren’t foolish; they could obviously tell their ability only worked on grass, hence why they settled in these parts, yet the rush of battle and desperation to end the hunt made them overlook that one piece of land where their strength was limited.

Even on the land, Orion waited. He needed the perfect target, one weak enough to test; he couldn’t risk failure or them figuring it out. He had to be discreet and make it look like a normal fuck up.

Then it happened, one wolf, fangs drawn, target set on Orion’s arms, the next second.

Squelchhh..., They all stopped, shocked.

Orion slowly pulled his sword out of the limp wolf before turning to the leader and grinning.

"One down"

He had marked the perfect wolf for the job and predicted all of the factors, the direction, the target, and most of all, the perfect position.

Needless to say, the wolves shrank back a little, wary; they had no idea what had just occurred. All of a sudden, the prey they had cornered had taken one of their own.

But it didn’t take long before they channeled that shock into anger; even the rational leader was aggravated, so they pressed harder, and the hunt continued.

’Attaboy,’ Orion thought with a smirk.

The leader was the first to get to him; it didn’t just attack, aiming to injure, it came to kill. Despite his recent win, Orion knew he still couldn’t take on the leader, so he did what he’d done best: dodged.

Before, he wouldn’t have come out unscathed, especially with the leader’s newly attained aggressiveness, but, surprisingly to both him and the wolf, it was a clean dodge.

Orion just grinned, "Oh, you are so done."

Another one came; there were still seven left, and their tactics still continued, and so Orion had his answer. They didn’t try this tactic because of the leader; it was their ingrained hunting method.

A minute later,

Squelchhhh....., it happened again, another down, this time the blood from the victim sprayed on Orion, so he had purple all over.

"Two," Orion said, grinning.

The wolves were bewildered, especially the leader. Was he improving that fast? They could tell the prey was getting better and stronger, but they didn’t expect this kind of improvement; their skills had never failed them, not against equals and certainly not against someone they deemed weaker than they were.

But they couldn’t end the hunt, their prides won’t let them; besides, this wasn’t their first time suffering losses during a hunt, only this one was especially strange.

The dance continued, the wolves did their best to up their game and cut off Orion’s advantage, but their limited cognitive ability prevented them from seeing the whole picture.

Before long, the third wolf was down, and then the fourth, before the leader regained his clarity and saw that things couldn’t go on like this; their numbers were down, and they were burning through too much energy trying to cover up and continue their strategy.

But before it could signal the rest to stop, it saw something that made its blood boil.

Its mate, hanging on Orion’s short sword, choking on its own blood.

"And then, there were three." At this point, Orion was fully covered in purple blood, smiling like something straight out of a horror film.

He was relishing this feeling, for some reason, he felt so alive, the beasts that had dared to trample on his pride were dead, spread around on the ground, and the best part, he killed them with his own hands.

He couldn’t care less about his mental state right now, he went from shivering in fear to shivering in ecstasy, the feeling was the best.

He raised his short sword and pointed it at the leader, his face turning stone cold, "Come."

And come it did, this prey had murdered its favorite mate; logic was out of it now, it was completely overwhelmed by rage.

"The smarter they are, the harder they fall."

The leader howled, signaling the remaining two wolves, who burst into a full sprint, charging at him.

Orion took his time to watch them again; they weren’t holding back their speed, their rage permitted them no such thoughts, yet they still weren’t as fast as what he’d gotten used to.

’So it’s more of a burst of energy than a dash,’ He thought, his eyes glowing, calculating his next moves.

They arrived, and unsurprisingly, without a strategy, they simply attacked all at once.

As obvious and smart attacking at once might sound, it was dangerously inefficient, at least for them. The point of their strategy was to give the opponent no rest, while they took turns resting.

Their ability, while useful and important especially in such an environment, was taxing; going all at once would be detrimental in the case of failure, and of course, the wolves knew this, but rationality was now out of the question.

They arrived, and Orion, as usual, faced the leader, with that same smirk on his face, while they may not commit to their strategy, attacking from different directions was basic, even for them.

They snarled and charged simultaneously, but surprisingly, Orion didn’t try dodging.

He placed his left hand in front of the leader, and sure enough, it bit down on it hard, drawing the highest amount of blood Orion had seen from his body.

He felt like his hand was getting crushed; the pain was unbearable, a single tear dropped down his cheek, yet he endured.

The leader was exhilarated, finally damaging Orion enough, yet its eyes went wide when it saw its other companions, in the same position it found its mate, the sword.

"Enjoy the arm?" There it was, that same devilish grin.

It removed its jaws from Orion’s arm, red blood splashing out, and warily started moving back. It was terrified, they were three charging at him, and all of a sudden, it was the only one left.

"Oh, no, no, no, you don’t get to run away," Orion said, raising his bloodied arm at the wolf and clenching his fist from a distance.

The wolf was just about to sprint away when it suddenly felt itself falling down, it wanted to run but its legs weren’t responding, and then came the pain, it couldn’t feel its limbs, all it felt was burning pain where its legs were supposed to be.

And then it heard footsteps. Orion walked closer, before standing over the wolf, his body a palette of purple and red, his silver hair no longer recognizable.

"You ever heard a saying, Do not bite the hands that feed you. Yes, yes, I know I didn’t feed you, but yeah, you get the point." He showed his bloodied hands to the wolf, "You bit me ". He muttered with that same unsettling grin.

He didn’t know why he was talking to a soon-to-be-dead mutt, but it felt good, it sounded like something a protagonist would say to a dying villain, and yeah, he was a protagonist, he fucking felt like one.

He brought his sword up and pierced the skull of the wolf, ending its life.

He looked around the prairie, taking in all the carnage, and breathed out.

’I can’t believe I was scared of these stupid fuckers’ He thought, his gaze especially on the leader.

He suddenly felt someone behind him, he turned around with his sword pointed to find nothing, bewildered, he wondered if his senses were failing him when Isolde suddenly appeared in front of him.

He was about to ask what had just occurred before she wrapped him in a bone-crushing hug,

He suddenly felt everything slipping; he didn’t know whether it was because of the hug or the bleeding, but he didn’t have to think long before everything went blank.

(P/S My first fight scene, please let me know how I did in the comments)