Chapter 6: Surviving The Hunting Ground

When the morning came and the dust settled a bit, the gravity of the situation they were in was a lot clearer now

They had been attacked and the both of them were turning into wolves.  

Thankfully, the both of them were in human forms at the moment. It was almost as if the sickness that had been making them turn into wolves was gone for the time being. 

“You know? This might have been the most-terrible decision of your entire life… Do you know that?” 

“What do you mean?” 

“I went out for a midnight hunt. I always do that. It’s the first time someone ever came with me and this happened… I told you not to come with me and to go back to the village, but no, you wouldn’t listen, and now, we are both sick…” 

“It’s going to be okay. Don’t worry about it.”

“How can you be so calm?” Maleva asked him as the two of them trekked together through the woods. Voyaging as far as possible from that one cabin, since all of these dangerous wolves surrounded them over there and that this was no longer a safe place to be at. 

“Because I am not alone. I know we can survive and make it back to safety because we’re together.”

“Michael…”      

“This way… I see something… There’s something over there…” 

“Perhaps it would be a great time for me to tell you what’s truly going on around here…”

“What do you mean?” 

“The real reason as to why I didn’t want you to come with me at night for a hunt is the fact that I wished to protect you.”

“Protect me?” Michael abruptly came to a full stop. 

“It’s something  I wasn’t originally supposed to tell you about…”

“What is it?” 

“You are the one most important person in our village. You always were.” Maleva revealed to him.

“What’s that supposed to mean? You’re not making any sense, Mal?” 

“You never realized it?”

“Realized what?”

“You are the only male in our village. And there’s also something more to you that I can’t reveal to you just yet… However, what I must tell you that is the most important thing right now is the fact that the wolves in this region are no normal wolves. You are not supposed to know about this, but the wolves in these woods are no animals—they are monsters. That’s why I’ve been hunting them for so long. It’s up to me to stop them before they destroy everyone…” 

“Mal! Look out!”

However, it was already too late. 

Maleva was sneakily and violently attacked by a shadowy force! 

“Ugh!” 

One blow in her back and she was sent flying in the air on the other side of the woods! 

“Mal!” 

She was down on the ground. Not moving. 

Michael immediately meant to go up to her in the hope to help her, but he was stopped by the same pack of wolves that surrounded them last night at the cabin. Turned out that what just attacked Maleva in her back was them… The pack of wolves. 

Michael was now completely surrounded by them. 

“Uh! What do you want from us?” He asked them.  

The pack of wolves then closed in on him.

He couldn’t go anywhere. He couldn’t escape. 

Then, instead of synchronizing an assault on him, something pretty strange happened…

… All the wolves mysteriously combined with one another and formed some kind of monstrosity. A strange hybrid shape of all these wolves melted with one another. 

This united transformation was required in order to reveal the true beast that was hiding underneath all this time. 

The pack of wolves that had been after Michael and Maleva for the past couple of days was one big, bad wolf all along. 

“What the hell is this?” Michael asked out loud, terrified of what he was seeing before his eyes. Quite frankly, he didn’t really know what he was seeing. Ever since the pack of wolves showed up, it had been getting darker and darker in here in the woods to the point of making it extremely difficult to see.

The only thing Michael was able to make out in the dark following the strange transformation was the tall and large shape of one dangerous wolf standing on two feet. Staring straight at him. 

“Mike… Run…” Maleva succeeded to whisper to him. 

“No way. I can’t leave you like this.”

The werewolf howled one time as it turned completely dark outside and a full moon suddenly appeared in the sky. 

The werewolf rushed toward Michael! Threatening to kill him!                       

“Run!” Maleva warned him one more time. 

“I can’t…” 

Slash! 

The bloodthirsty werewolf quickly reached Michael’s position and suddenly attacked him! Slashing his chest with its claws! 

“Michael!” Maleva grew incredibly worried about him. 

The claws of the werewolf were now digging deep into his chest. Hurting him. 

Everything became silent and no one moved for a certain period of time…

“Ugh…” The young man was in deep pain. He grunted a lot, but he was still standing.

“How are you not dead? It’s okay. I’ll make sure to destroy you before doing the same to your girlfriend over there.” The werewolf finally spoke for the first time. Its voice was mysterious, to say the least. It was deep and dark, but it was entirely impossible to tell if its voice was male or female. The voice was monstrous and bestial. 

“What did you just say…?” Michael murmured as he looked at his wound. He could see the claws digging into his chest, but for some reason, there wasn’t much of an injury there. 

Then… 

… It was when it finally happened. 

Michael began changing again.

Just like he did before and just like Maleva also recently did.

However, there was something different this time… This time, Michael would change completely into a werewolf.   

The transformation was swift, and before they knew it, the young human had successfully turned into a tall and muscular werewolf, standing on two feet with a thick mocha brown fur all over his body.

His eyes were still white, but much brighter than ever before. 

“Michael… No…” Maleva whispered. 

“Another… Friend…?” The mysterious and savage werewolf asked. 

“Grrrooooowlll!” Werewolf Michael at his enemy before pulling his claws out of his chest and ultimately delivering a powerful blow with the claws of his right-hand right at their face! 

The attack was so strong that it defeated the enemy right away and also had the effect of ripping them to pieces by dividing the various wolves of the pack!   

The wolves turned into dark shadows after getting separated!

Soon, they all vanished in the woods and this was the end of combat. 

Werewolf Michael then soon turned to Maleva, who was still lying on the ground.