Werewolf Mage

by Harry Nix

  It was a good start though – eight weredogs to five in under ten seconds.

  Alex ran towards the blood golem wondering if the core was center mass. He gambled it was, launching himself with claws out hoping to hit something within it but this time it was like hitting into a brick wall. The blood suddenly turned solid. He fell to the ground, ears ringing. Before he could get to his feet the blood golem grabbed him in an enormous hand, fingers of blood closing around him. The pressure was immense and Alex couldn’t breathe.

  He cursed himself as he realized he hadn't put on the shield ring from the mage. It was almost empty but it would have been something. Alex had only one free arm and with it he flailed for a spell, casting Fire Shield.

  It came and went in an instant, flames bursting around him. The golem let go with a roar and he fell to the ground. The golem was shaking its enormous hand as though it had nerves in it. The palm was black and scabbed where Alex had burned it.

  Even in its agony it was still focused on killing him. It tried to grab him with its other hand but Alex dived between its legs and towards the girls who were fighting the five remaining weredogs.

  Maybe if they could wipe them out then the four of them could take on the blood golem, work together to bring it down.

  Alex dived towards one of the largest weredogs that had Nia by the arm. She was slashing at it with her free hand and tearing chunks off it but it had a lot of muscle to sacrifice. Alex landed on its back, driving his claws into its spine. He heaved, pulling out a piece of meat and bone the size of a side of beef. Half its spine went with it and the weredog died. Nia got her arm free and scrambled away as the dead body fell to the ground.

  Juno was firing spells for all she was worth but Alex could see she was flagging or having a Chaos Witch problem. Her fireballs were getting smaller and less effective. She shot one of the weredogs up into the air but did little more than delay it a few seconds. She cast something that held the blood golem for a moment before it shook it off, advancing on them and crushing a garden bed under its gigantic foot.

  “Hey, my tomatoes!” April yelled out. She waved her arms towards the blood golem. Alex heard a faint chime of music before tendrils burst out of the earth, grabbing for its feet. But they failed to find purchase. Every time they wrapped around a foot it became permeable, the vines losing grip.

  The blood golem lost a little blood doing this but not enough to reduce it at the rate they needed.

  Alex and Nia tore another weredog to pieces together. Now they were down to three, but two of them were the hulking giant ones. There was a discordant jangle of music and vines burst out of the ground, grabbing one of them.

  “Get the Wand of Expansion!” April yelled to Alex.

  Feeling the wild rage rising, he leaped up at the blood golem and swiped at its head. His claws passed right through it, simply getting wet from the blood. In return it smashed him, seeing him flying across the yard and crashing through another garden bed and a trellis.

  “They were my grapes!” April yelled out.

  Although he didn't want to leave the girls behind, Alex could see they were in serious trouble. He ran for the house, jumping over the fighting weredogs, trying to hold down the rage he felt when he saw one of them clamp onto Nia's leg.

  He couldn’t afford to black out and become some mindless animal.

  Alex slid into the kitchen, knocking into the table, and winced as plates still filled with food and cheeses crashed to the floor, splattering the contents everywhere. He grabbed the wand and then ran back to the front door.

  He could feel the heavy weight within and knew instinctively how to use it but it only had two charges. If he screwed this up they were done.

  Although he’d only been inside a few seconds things had gotten far worse. The weredog in the vines had broken free and latched onto Nia, who is now trying to fight off two of them. Both April and Juno were casting spells but clearly running out of magic.

  One of the weredogs was getting hit with fireballs no bigger than oranges and easily shaking them off.

  As Alex emerged from the house, the blood golem kicked April, catching her square on and sending her flying across the yard. He heard a chime of music though and plants suddenly sprung out of the ground, cushioning her fall.

  “Now Alex, go for the core,” April yelled and then swore again was the blood golem crushed another trellis, this time with cherry tomatoes on it.

  Alex focused on the blood golem as one of the weredogs turned and raced towards him. He flicked the wand feeling the heavy invisible weight shooting towards the blood golem. The moment it hit he triggered the wand. The blood golem was suddenly shoved forward, the air bubble expanding behind the back of its neck but not inside his body. It stumbled to its knees. The air bubble burst and vanished and the golem stood up, unharmed.

  Alex only had one shot left but the weredog was already upon him. Alex tried to fall back and kick upwards with his sharpened hind claws but the weredog was moving too fast. It hit him straight on, spinning him, and he lost grip of the wand as he smashed into the side of the house. He went into a fury of slashing and kicking and biting. He could barely see the weredog but it felt like it was everywhere. Pain roared in his arm, his leg, his ribs as it attacked over and over.

  He heard a chime again and a single vine burst out the ground and wrapped around the dog, giving him enough time to slash its throat out and then decapitate it.

  Alex cursed himself for not summoning Shield when the weredog was coming for him. He had the mana and knew the move. But in the midst of battle he forgot all of it. Even the small screen floating around showing his health and spells was more distraction than useful. If they survived this, he needed battle training.

  The blood golem was reaching for Nia who gone down under the two weredogs. Alex saw the wand in the dirt, soaked in blood. He took a step and fell as his leg gave way. The weredog had crushed the bone and he hadn’t even realized.

  Alex pulled himself up and hopped, finally grabbing the wand.

  He had to get this right or Nia was dead.

  This time he aimed lower and hit the trigger a moment earlier. For a moment a perfect sphere of blood appeared in the middle of the blood golem. There was an enormous crack as the core shattered. The expanding globe must have caught the side of it, ripping it to pieces, shooting bits of metal and wood across the yard.

  The moment the core broke, the blood golem lost its animation and became mere blood again, hanging in the air. It dropped straight down and hit like a savage flood. One of the weredogs was washed away from Nia but the other held on.

  Alex did a one-legged hop across the yard, slashing at it and then grimacing when he realized one of his hands was broken. He still had one good arm which he used to disembowel the weredog. It died and let go of Nia.

  Alex helped Nia up. She was soaked in so much blood it was hard to tell how badly she was injured. She had large open wounds on both arms and legs and was breathing heavily.

  The final weredog roared at them and got to its feet before running back in their direction.

  Alex prepared to fight it with a crushed leg and broken hand. Before it reached him, there was a tiny jingle of music, the last of April’s magic. A small vine latched on to its foot, holding it in place. Then Juno hit it with a spell, launching it up as the vine pulled down, ripping its leg off.

  That was enough for Alex and Nia to attack it and shred it to pieces. Despite his injuries and his rapidly draining mana Alex checked every weredog to make sure they were definitely dead.

  The first one that had been charred by the fireballs was actually regenerating, regrowing legs. Alex quickly dispatched it before stumbling back to the girls.

  April and Juno were sitting in the grass, which was still soupy with blood. Juno had a hand on the back of Nia's head using what was left of her magic to cast a healing spell.

  Alex collapsed beside them and started drawing on the magic around him, trying to heal his numerous wounds.r />
  That's where they stayed for a good half hour, all of them recovering. April soon lent her power to Juno, helping fix Nia and her own wounds as well.

  Eventually they were recovered. They left the front yard, staggering away from the pools of blood and around to the outdoor showers. Alex stayed in his hybrid form to heal faster.

  April had no worries about modesty – she stripped off her bloody overalls and joined Juno under a shower, the pair of them soaping each other up.

  Despite the battle and near death experience he’d just had, Alex couldn’t look away as April ran her hands over Juno’s body. He was sure April kept glancing at him but every time he looked, she was looking away.

  “I don't know how that blood golem and weredogs got that close without me knowing,” April finally said.

  “They clearly have some incredible shielding. It wasn’t your fault. We’re sorry we brought this to your door,” Juno said, stroking a hand down the side of April’s face.

  Once they were clean of blood and wrapped in towels they went back inside the house and began cleaning up the mess Alex had made knocking the food off the table. Alex and Nia changed back to human form now their wounds were healed somewhat.

  There was a kind of strange silence amongst them in the aftermath of the battle but finally they started talking.

  “Did you see Alex go straight through its head? Splash!” Juno said and they all laughed.

  “It was so funny, the look on your face,” April said with a grin.

  “First time fighting a blood golem,” Alex said, putting up his hands.

  They talked about the battle, chewing it over, repeating the same lines to each other. Alex wondered if this was what PTSD was like.

  “That thing was made of werewolf blood. How many werewolves do you think they took to do that?” Alex asked.

  Nia shook her head in disgust. “A huge number and most of them are probably dead by now,” she said.

  “Do you think the mage in the barn has anything useful for us yet?” Alex said.

  April smacked her palm on her forehead.

  “I forgot about him!”

  The wolf inside Alex was growing antsy. He was angry that someone had come to attack his girls. Alex realize with a start that he'd unconsciously included April in that list. His wolf was inside him howling for vengeance but also he want to grab his two mates and drag them upstairs to celebrate life after coming close to death.

  “I want answers from that mage,” Alex said with a growl.

  They marched out the barn and found the mage still in his chair. He was sweating heavily, his skin flushed, his eyes rolling.

  “They want to hurt but they want to hurt that they want to hurt but they want to hurt but they want to hurt,” the mage was chanting.

  “Who sent you?” April asked. She stroked her fingers down the side of the mages head.

  The main grinned but didn’t answer.

  “Argh,” April said. Alex saw her screen appear and then she cast an impossibly complex spell that sped through in an instant. He only heard fragments of it: light delicate chimes, a low thudding hum and a tone that raised the hackles on the back of his neck, sounding like nails on a board.

  Whatever it was, it hit the mage like a truck.

  “Corvus!” he gasped. Then he died, his head slumping forward.

  “Oh wells, more fertilizer for my tomatoes,” April said with a shrug.

  “Who are Corvus?” Alex asked.

  “Pain mages. They use agony to enhance their magic,” April said.

  “She’s underselling it. They’re Marquis De Sade psychopaths who lash themselves and their slaves half to death so they can cast devastating spells. These nutjobs make the wound, salt the wound and then pour battery acid on the wound. You punch one in the face and he’ll thank you,” Juno said.

  Alex shifted into his hybrid form. He was just over eight feet tall now and finally appeared to have stopped growing. He stretched out a claw that glinted in the overhead lights.

  “What if I slice off their faces?” he said, flexing his paw.

  “Yeah, that could work,” Juno said, seeming transfixed.

  “How do we find them?”

  “I know an outpost in Baxter,” April said. “They have a compound there too but it is insanely well-guarded. Better to take the outpost first. Despite them being insane, they’re allied with other enclaves. We attack and we might bring multiple enclaves down on our heads.”

  Alex stretched his arms and saw the three girls’ eyes widen. He finally felt he was getting used to his werewolf form. With that new confidence came a feeling he could rip through a compound of mages easily.

  “I’m not feeling like I care too much about politics at the moment. I’m thinking more vengeance and death and tearing enough mages to pieces so the rest of them decide to leave us alone,” Alex said with a snarl.

  “Yeah, that could work too,” Nia said, her cheeks flushed and tail waving side to side.

  Alex was brought back from visions of blood and death by the look his two wives were giving him.

  “Time for bed,” he said in a low growl and then scooped both of them up over his shoulders. He came face to face with April who seemed a little pink in the cheeks. She let out a shaky breath, shook her head and then turned away.

  Alex grinned to himself as he carried away his wives kicking and screaming.

  His wolf had found a new meal to pursue.

  About the Author

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  Harry

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