Vargas Thanatos is midway in his transformation, this form of a lycanthrop is called the wolf-man. Most Lycans can only become wolves only the elite can actually transform into a wolf-man and remain in that form. Vargas actually prefers the wolf-man form as it has the advantages of a human and wolf. Over using the Wolf-man form contributed to his mindless state, failing the Elite Few is of course the main reason. The Elite Few is the official name for the group Valmont Sharp knows only as the others. In Vargas current state only one thought runs though his mind, kill Valmont Sharp. That is the final human thought he has left. It was Valmont that ruined his life, it was because of Valmont that he is stuck in this pathetic state.
There are sounds all round him, he can hear the foot steps of humans as they search for him. Thanatos can sense the danger and is hiding, he does not want to die until he kills Sharp. He knows he is hurt and that he is bleeding. He is now a creature of instinct and it's telling him to hide.
He climbed up a tree in the Sharp grounds and starts jumping from tree top to tree top. While the wolf-man is fast he is far from stealthy and the trees swing and sway as he jumps it's noticeable. The guards nearest to the tree Thanatos just climbed look up and are alerted to his presence, “Thanatos has been spotted. He is traveling though the trees toward the main house.” These words are meaningless to Thanatos he just needs a safe place to hide.
There are three Wayte Security officers and two Albern police officers running after him on the ground with their guns pointed at him, “Thanatos come down.” One of them calls out.
“Haven't you heard the man's nearly mindless. He can't understand you.” Another one argues.
“So what do you suggest?” The first one called back.
“We keep following him, try to get a shot but don't waste your bullets. That's what the boss said. We should listen to Chief Randal and Mr. Wayte they know what they are doing.”
“We are chasing a werewolf.” One of the men says running with a gun pointed at Thanatos as he jumps to another three. “There is no standard procedure for this. It's not something that anyone knows how to deal with.” This is one of the cops.
“Valmont Sharp knows as much as once man can.” One of Wayte's men answers. “We must trust in what he says. Make your shots count other wise follow Thanatos.”
Thanatos howls at the sound of his name and looks down at the officers. He stops momentarily and shows his teeth at them. “Get him now!” An officer says pointing his gun and firing. The others fire their guns as well.
Thanatos pulls his head away as bullets fly overhead, “Aaaaarrrroooouuuu.” None of the bullets hit him but he feels the heat of a bullet as it flies past his skin. He jumps off to the next tree, now is not the time to fight. He jumps to another tree, once again moving too fast for the guards to hit him. Thanatos looks at the main building, he sees a window on the third floor that is wide open. He is still about a hundred feet away but that dark room looks like a nice place to hide.
“Damn he was right there, I had a clear shot how could I miss him?” A police officer says as he and the others continue following the wolf-man.
“We all missed don't blame yourself.” The officer in front says, he is the one in commend of this unit, “This is unit seven we are still following Vargas Thanatos. He is jumping from tree to tree heading toward the main building.” He and the other officers watch as Thanatos leaps from a branch of the tree and dives into an open window on the third floor. “Thanatos has just entered the main Sharp House hold.”
“Wait by the back door.” It is Nashton Wayte who answered the radio. 'Do not enter.”
“Sir?” The commander asks.
“We are on our way to handle this.”
The security officer puts his radio back on his belt. “Sigh l guess I have no choice.” He mutters under his breath. “Okay men we are to watch the back door.” He says as he heads over into position.
“What? Why? We found the man, we can get him. Is this Sharp playing hero?”
The head of the unit is about to speak when a man puts his hand on his shoulder, “I got this, No it's not that.” It's Victor Randal the one man who probably hates Sharp more then any mindless wolf-man could.
“Right I don't care about that anymore.” Valmont says as he walks next to Randal, “At this point we just need to kill that monster. I don't want any unnecessary death on my hands. I know my house better then anyone. It makes sense that we four go in there.” He is talking about himself, Alfred, Nashton, and Victor.
“I agree with him.” The chief of police says. “We are not even taking his pet camera man.” Little does Randal know but Valmont has a hidden camera in his hat and Alfred Labrone also has a hidden camera on him.
Valmont walks over to the door, “Alright now, follow me.” He walks in first with the other three men following, Alfred takes the rear. Valmont stops he remembers he for he forgot something. He looks at the guards who are standing watch by the back door, “Keep watch of the back door.” He says to the guards. “Call for back up, have the front door watched too. While I'm at it order the house surrounded. Thanatos is inside if he escapes I don't want there to be anywhere for him to run.”
“Yes sir.” The guards say in unison.
Valmont and his team then enter the manor.
As Valmont and his team search for Thanatos starting on the first floor and moving up someone else is already closer. Carter Fogal, the head of staff for Sharp Manor has been keeping watch around the main building. Under Valmont's orders he had all the staff that did not feel safe go home with pay until the crisis is over. Fogal has been working for Valmont since Sharp Monster Manor was built. He is loyal to Valmont Sharp and the house so of course he has stayed to fight. He prefers to do these safety searches himself to not put the rest of the staff in danger.
Fogal has been head of the house for a long time. He was there back when the show was fake. In addition to being a professional butler he is a professional marksman. It's only a hobby but he has a natural talent. He has won sharpshooting and distance competitions and is a master of trick shots. This hobby of his came in handy once the show became the real deal. Sharp gave him extra pay to train the house staff to use guns in case something like this happened. As for Fogal himself he took training courses under Wayte and his men to be an amateur investigator himself.
Fogal is thinking about that as he checks the rooms carefully making sure each door closed and locked. He is thinking about how Jocasta insistence that the staff be trained is starting to come in handy. He walks into a room near the back of the house and turns on the light, the room is empty and quiet. He sighs and turns away nothing is going on here.
As he walks out of the room he hears the crashing sound of glass from the next room. Fogal's hands move quickly to his gun and his eyes widen. He takes out his phone and calls to Valmont, “This is Fogal, I'm checking the third floor guest rooms and I heard something. Like someone just went flying into a room and knocked over the dresser.” He is walking toward the next bedroom with his left hand close to his gun.
“Remain where you are.” Valmont's voice is tense. “It's Thanatos. Do not engage him.”
Fogal stops a few feet from the door, “What?” He raises his voice.
In the next room there are scratching sounds and then a loud howl, Thanatos heard him. “Graahh!” Fogal hears as Thanatos scratches at the door not knowing how to open it. Fogal takes a few steps back, “He heard me.” He whispers into the phone.
“Get out of there.” Valmont answers.
Fogal shakes his head, “No sir, the beast needs to be watched. You can't lose him.” Fogal is on his feet and moves away from the door but keeps an eye on it. The door is locks and the wolf man is starting to pound on the door. There is a cracking sound as one of his claws pierces though the wood.
“I can't lose you. You're more important. We are on the second floor moving to your location. Just hold on.”
“I can hold my own sir.” Fogal turns off h
is phone and puts it down. He then pulls out his second revolver. He has two six shot revolvers each filled with silver bullets. He spins each gun in his hand and then points at the door. “It's time show them what I can do.” He is sweating, worried, this is the first time he has used his guns on a living creature. He never had any reason to. Trick shooting is very different from shooting a living target and Fogal is about to find out just how different.
A claw busts though the door and Fogal takes a shot. He fires quickly the recoil knocking him back against the wall. The bullet rips though the wolf man's arm blowing off a chunk of skin. The Silver bullet leaves a burning black scar on Thanatos arm as it flies into the wall. Thanatos moves back in pain and stumbles back into the room.
Fogal gives a sigh of relief. He does not put his guns down. He hears the wolf-man recover his balance and howl under his breath. It is a loud menacing sound that makes Carter Fogal's hair stand on it's end. “Come on get here Val.” He mutters.
Fogal does not hunt, he has never shot a living creature before. He has fired at moving targets in contests and has fired at lifelike robots in training sessions but this is different. Still he is remaining calm, keeping a close eye at the door as he slowly moves back. There is a splintering of wood as the werewolf slams his right shoulder at the door. Thanatos howls and backs up, “Not long now.” Fogal mutters. He is waiting to see his target, he could aim at the bulging door but that does not mean he will hit anything. Besides being hit by bullets just makes Thanatos angrier, Carter Fogal knows he needs a kill shot.
Thanatos slams into the door again and busts though like a deranged Kool-Aid man. Pieces of the wooden door fly out in all directions since the stability of the door was already weakened. Pieces of wood are sticking out of Thanatos and the wolf man stops momentarily to pull the larger fragments out. He howls in pain as he pulls the wood out and his wounds are already healing as he turns toward Fogal.
Now is Carter Fogal's chance, he has the gun aimed at Thanatos chest, at the heart. He knows his orders, shoot to kill. The show is not important, lives are important. “Sorry boss.” While Thanatos is still busy ripping large pieces of wood out of his body Fogal fires. His aim is true and right as Thanatos turns and looks at him the bullet fires right into his chest, that would kill any normal man.
Thanatos howls in pain as he falls to his knees, the shot to the chest missed his heart by a half inch. He would have died if it him there. He also would have died if he was a normal human. Since the bullet is silver he does not heal from it instantly, “RRAAAWWWRRR.” The beast man glares at Carter Fogal, his eyes are blood red and burning with rage. He jumps up to strike the man.
Carter is not in the best shape. He is in his mid fifties and a bit over weight, he can't fight off a werewolf. He should have ran after his shot. Still he stays calm and aims again this time at Thanatos head, now this will kill him. If he gets a chance to shoot.
Thanatos is on him with lightning fast reflexes. Even as Carter Fogal pulls the trigger the werewolf slams the man hard with a clawed arm. The bullet flies wild out of the gun and flies right past Thanatos head and slams into the ceiling above. The powerful smack knocks both of Fogal's guns out of his hands and sends the man head first into the wall.
Carter feels like his head has split open and his entire body is aching. He cannot tell if anything is broken but he has trouble moving his arms and legs. His sight is blurry and he looks at Thanatos as he moves closer and closer to him. Fogal looks around for his guns and sees one of the magnums with in arms length. He tries to reach for it and intense pain is shot to his brain, “Ahhhhh, No that's not going to work.” He says with a weakened voice.
“Heh heh heh...” It is a creepy hyena like laugh. In the man's degraded mind he sees wounded pray. The perfect target, a quick kill. He moves in slowly wanting to enjoy his victory. He is then stopped as a loud blast goes off behind him. The light bulb above his head bursts and splinters of glass rain down on him. Thanatos turns around quickly to see what is going on. He does not have much of an attention span these days.
Fogal heard the blast as well and the sound he heard fills him with hope and he sees some blurred forms behind the Wolf-man. Carter Fogal smiles, the cavalry has arrived, “I have held him off as long as I could sir.” The head of the house staff mutters. It is not loud enough for Valmont to hear him. “I will let you take over from here.” Carter Fogal then closes his eyes and faints, he did all he could to remain conscious until his boss made his grand entrance.
Vargas Thanatos looks into the eyes of his nemesis. The other three people might as well not be there. The wolf man does not recognize them, he does recognize Sharp. He growls and his face folds up into a cruel smile, “Shhhhhhhhhhhhppppppppp.” He hisses in a failed attempt to say Sharps name.
“It is time to finish this Thanatos. You are going down.” Valmont grabs the cane in both hands and with his right hand slowly pulls out a foot and a half long silver blade. He swings it once it once and points it at Thanatos.
Vincent Randal's gun is still smoking, he was the one who shot to get Thanatos attention. He is standing next to Valmont with Alfred and Nashton standing behind them. He looks at Valmont with an angry glance, “What are you thinking Sharp?”
Valmont smiles, “I'm giving Thanatos what he wants, a one on one fight.”
Randal is doing everything he can to control his anger, he shakes a fist at Valmont and raises his voice, “This is not the time, we should kill him now.” While this is going on the werewolf is watching the situation waiting to attack Valmont, looking for an opening. Valmont is not giving him one.
Valmont does not look at Randal, “I am. Come on if I lose I die and then you win.” Valmont tips his hat to Vargas, “Really Vincent what have you got to lose? If I win Thanatos is dead and if Thanatos wins he's also dead. Keep a close eye on him and if it looks like I lost blow him away.”
“This is stupid Valmont.” Randal reaches for him but he's pulled back by Alfred and Nash, “Come on Wayte why are you letting this happen?”
Nashton Wayte is extremely calm, “That is the risk Valmont takes every day. This is his life. He knows the risks and takes them because someone has to.” Alfred Labrone nods, “I know you don't like him but he does know what he's doing. So watch and wait and never put your gun down. Be ready to fire and kill at any time.”
Vincent Randal nods in agreement, he do es not like this but he has to at least trust Valmont on this. “Fine.” He points his gun at Thanatos head, “You better win Sharp.”
Valmont is still staring at the wolf-man’s eyes he knows that if he shows any sign of weakness Thanatos will make the first strike, “Thanks.” Swinging the silver sword in a crescent slash he follows up by pointing at Thanatos. He then charges the wolf-man who does the same with his claws aimed at Valmont's chest.
Chapter Thirty Two
Valmont Sharp: Monster Hunter Page 34
