War Moon

Starting the fight

The troll looks at them with absent air and slow expression. These animals are not known for their great intellect but rather for their brute force and an animal instinct too enormous, bordering on the uncontrollable; even being a young specimen like this.

"I'll leave you to have some fun. Time to get my competition out of the way and start the time of changes," the faun continues talking as he pulls out of a leather bag: a yellowish luminous glass sphere. He throws the sphere against the troll's head, which explodes with a deafening sound and the explosion of light brighter than the sun blinds everyone.

The troll grabs its head with its hands after throwing the huge wooden mallet it carries, running frantically and aghast not seeing where it is going. Banzai and Kira barely manage to dodge it as the beast waves its arms.

"s**t, that thing is heading to the festival," Kira growls.

"Maldey disappeared too. He probably used that sphere of light so he could flee."

"Rather he used it to buy time. He still has a lot of merchandise, he's going to need time to pick them up. But we have a bigger problem now, come on!"

The two run towards the direction of the screams. They can see in the distance the troll smashing everything in its path as it makes its way quickly towards the festival. The troll roars, grabbing the pieces of one of the tents, running erratically along the way until it reaches the people in the middle of the festival. Causing uncontrollable chaos among the crowd, who try to run away from that thing.

Kira runs faster now, barely avoiding the panicked crowd. Running through the streets, she passes by pieces of bodies laying around, and steps in pools of blood here and there. Soon she sees that the troll holds a child by the legs, ready to destroy the small bones. Kira roars before taking a momentum from her hind legs, burying her fangs in the troll's back, Banzai was left behind unable to act immediately out of fear.

The troll growls annoyingly, dropping the child and trying to get the she-wolf off its back, waving its long arms and taking clumsy steps in circles, while running around the square without noticing if it steps on someone else.

"Kira! Let go of that thing! it will only cause more damage," Banzai yells somewhat coweringly.

That was enough for Kira to distract herself and let go of her grip, just as the troll manages to get a hold of her and throw her into one of the stores full of boxes.

"When you fight, don't talk unless it’s absolutely necessary, Banzai!” Kira growls angrily. “Or do you maybe think that the beast will stop if you just ask it nicely and look at it with your big puppy eyes?" Kira rises from the ground with her muscles creaking slightly, shaking her head from side to side before looking at him. "Think of this as if it were a hunt, let your instinct take you."

"We are only two, if you didn't notice. Most people are still on the run."

"Someone will come or we will have to call them. My godmother should be here soon, unless that man proved to be a bigger entertainment than first thought." Kira begins to transform into a human to take out the phone, when she notices the same group of dwarves following Maldey's orders joining in the chaos and looting. "Just what we needed… More problems."

She squeezes the smartphone and enters the application given to her by her godmother, immediately accessing the phone of the Goat of Oblivion. She doesn't know exactly what to say when they answer the other side.

"Five apprentices are going in that direction, they are the closest. Two adults too but the crowd holds them back. Call them so they know where to go," says the Goat of Oblivion without waiting for her to speak.

"Understood, who are you going to listen to then?"

"Let's see who has the guts to be a leader then, Bluish Crow. Golden Bird told me you descend from an alpha lycan. Let’s see if you inherited that too, and not just that pretty face of yours." He hung up.

Kira snorts, moving her neck somewhat, hiding her tremor in her body a little.

"Come on," she says firmly after putting her cell phone in her suit. "Fear will only serve you to step back, overcome it and dare to push your limits." She pats Banzai on her back before turning into a wolf.

Kira comes out of the boxes and the fabrics, facing the disaster that the band of madmen and the beast are causing. She raises her head in the air and lets out a long howl: the call of the hunt. Almost immediately she receives a response, three being similar howls and a hyena laugh. Kira sees beings joined by Banzai, two werewolves, a coyote, a tigress and a Koibra, a four legged cobra with a spot pattern in the scales.

The werewolves do not take long to recognize what she is, keeping a little low profile. They are not foolish enough to challenge a lycan.

"Let's show what we apprentices are capable of," she growls, closing her eyes and concentrating to be able to connect with each of the other members of her new team.

"Who made you the boss?" says the tigress with a slight growl, although the lycan is somewhat bigger than her.

Kira doesn't respond but instead pushes the tigress out of the way. She just manages to prevent their attackers from smashing a hatchet straight to the face of the tigress. Kira protects the feline under her paws as she growls at one of the dwarves, who looks at them with a sinister smile.

"Let's take care of the dwarves. Koibra, coyote, and Banzai, go for them! The others will serve for the subsequent attack. We need teamwork, do I make myself clear? Even if we are not used to work like this."

Kira advances first, pulling away on one side and hiding among the fabrics of the shattered tents. Banzai, the two werewolves, and the coyote follow her, stalking the dwarves who have fun causing chaos next to the troll, blowing up debris and people everywhere. She can feel the smell of blood and hear people's panicked screams. Kira closes her eyes, feeling her heart pounding rapidly, and her blood filling every inch of her body. Her mind is only preparing for one thing, a single goal.

She opens her eyes again and growls gently at Banzai, who begins to move a little further away, starting to encircle one of the warrior dwarves. Kira does the same on the other side, taking advantage of the fact that the enemy is in an alley between the ruins of shops. She catches the other two wolves out of the corner of her eye and the coyote joins as well, although this one seems somewhat nervous for not being used to pack work.

Kira is the first to throw herself against the dwarf, who upon seeing her raises his war mace preparing to give it a direct hit; but he never touches her when Banzai grabs hold of his arm from behind, burying his teeth in his muscles and armor. The dwarf growls using the free arm to restrain Kira's jaw, using the armor plates as defense. this can hardly stand by the weight of the two animals and their legs are about to give way between pulls. The man throws his head back, delivering a direct head blow to the hyena's head, stunning him enough to let go.

Kira barely sees the mace coming, but manages just in time to release the dwarf and prevents him from hitting her square in the face. Instead he hits her on the shoulder, which makes Kira lose her balance for a moment. The dwarf raises his weapon of war again now aiming it at her skull, but a roar behind Kira catches his attention, before he turns around and runs away.

Kira looks up to find the tigress and the Koibra join the group. She gets up by moving her beaten leg a little, before running after the dwarf with her companions. The group splits again, each depending on their own instinct and fighting mode. This time they should not hesitate and be more precise. Kira lets her mind flow, focusing her ideas of a better plan to the others.

The tigress runs exposed towards the square before releasing a powerful roar, attracting the attention of the enemies. One of the dwarves throws an axe, but she dodges it before running towards him even though the other dwarves are heading towards her. Her body is strong and heavy enough to withstand the impact of oak shields, but the hit still manages to hurt her side. She turns her body, hitting the head of the dwarf with her powerful paws, stunning him by the impact of her claws against the helmet.

Kira roars, emerging from the rubble accompanied by the other canines from different directions, beginning to surround the three dwarves. She jumps on one of them, going straight to his neck but finds a partial blockage by the helmet. The dwarf shakes his fists and arms, hitting her on the cheeks with his gloved hands and metal thorns on his knuckles, and manages to miss her eyes by just a few centimeters.

Kira drags him away from the tigress when she is helped by another of the wolves, holding the prey by the arms, although this one manages to get loose by giving a direct kick to the throat of the werewolf and another blow to Kira’s nose. Despite the blood gushing down her nose she does not let go of her grip. She shakes her head so violently that the armor tied around the dwarf’s arm begins to loosen until her teeth get through to the flesh and her mouth fills with blood, tearing the flesh of the arm.

The dwarf continues to fight when the two other werewolves pounce on him, holding him against the floor. The coyote takes advantage of his position to remove the dwarf’s helmet. Kira goes straight to the jugular at once, cutting and tearing the main vein of the body. The dwarf screams go from a loud yell to strangled gurgle as he is fast drowning in his own blood. Banzai does not wait for the others to react and does the same with another of the warriors while the Koibra and the tigress take care of the last one. The lizard winds its body and legs around the dwarf, squeezing his bones by the pressure of its rings before injecting its venom directly into the small man's bare face, rapidly biting multiple times with its deadly bite.

The screams of the warriors spread above the chaos and distant screams of the people. The troll stops at perceiving the new smell of fresh blood, seeing the group of animals at a distance holding the inert bodies of the dwarves.

"Come on, we only have the biggest one left," Kira lets go of her victim's neck, showing her teeth and bristling her fur.

"My poison is not powerful enough to take down that creature," the Koibra hisses.

"We will need a new and quick tactic, then."

The group disperses quickly when the troll lashes out at them at full speed. The beast is dragging a large tree trunk in one of its hands, which it uses as a baseball bat when it hits the floor against the ground, creating a small crater on the ground.

Kira and Banzai run to the troll, avoiding the arms and trunk, biting directly to the legs, but their teeth barely scratch the leathery tough skin. They don't even manage to get a proper grip. The troll shakes its legs, sending the two canines flying through the air again, throwing them several meters away. Kira crashes down, but jumps immediately when the troll throws the log towards her, almost turning her into a crushed pulp.

"This won't do any good, his skin is too thick," Banzai growls as he moves fast away from the troll.

"Maybe using some of the debris," one of the werewolves dodged one of the thrown boxes.

"It will be like using a toothpick against a shield, we need something bigger," says the Koibra.

Kira suddenly gets an idea. They only have one shot, and they need to make sure that they can get that thing to follow them.

"I have an idea, only one thing can stop it if we manage to get him there."

"Where?"

"The Whistle Swamp."