Chapter 229
He walked out of the room and surveyed the security detail about the castle before making one last destination. The large double doors that greeted him on the highest floor of the palace only brought sadness to him. Even as they protected the king, his life was slipping away from his fingertips. The hunters at the door stepped aside and let the mighty warrior inside.
Inside the room, nurses tended to the dying king as he lay on the bed in the worst condition ever known to a werewolf. The pain was all the man had known for a long time. Werewolves could heal from almost anything and when one got stuck with something incurable, it was torture. All that and the man had held on. “Your majesty...”
“I... read the report your hunters brought to me,” the man’s strained voice came through the mask he wore.
“My King, you should not strain yourself,” the queen rushed to his side, holding onto his hand as though to tell the man he still had more to live for.
The king’s eyes opened for the first time in a while and he turned his head to stare at his wife, “I might as well tell what I know about the situation if it can help to bring this war to an end.” After getting confirmation from her, he turned to face the Mighty Warrior. It was then that Evelyn came barging in, no doubt her senses telling her that she was meant to listen to everything that was going to be said at that moment. The king spoke and he spoke clearer than they had ever heard him in months, making sure to keep his story clear and coherent while he did.
There was much for the Mighty warrior to note down, along with everything he needed to know that would put an end to the war. When the king was done telling them what they needed to know, he went to sleep without a warning. The room was plunged into a deep silence that was much welcomed by its inhabitants. Thorrin turned immediately to leave, his coat waving in response to his sharp movements and with that, he was out of the room.
Thorrin walked through the scores of hunters and wolves that stood about him. He was to lead them to the largest battle seen in a hundred years. It was the largest collection of rogues that had been seen at that time. Standing at the gates of the large courtyard, the man began speaking, “A day like this has not been seen in ages... And to be honest, I don’t know whether I should be happy about it or not. On one side, we’ve been presented with the first chance in a long time to bring the rogues’ number tumbling down.
On the other hand, the rogues could completely outnumber us and bring our numbers tumbling down. Seeing that as the worst-case scenario, I stand before you with confidence that we will succeed. Some of you might ask where I get this confidence from... Many of you will just to the conclusion that it is because I am Thorrin... the Perfect Warrior, but that is not what gives me courage and confidence.
.....
I am confident that the odds are in our favour because I know my enemy. I know his strengths. I know his weaknesses. I know what he wants and what he is doing here. I can use that against him and bring his plan tumbling down. The rogues seek to snuff out the king so that the rogue king might gain the power to control werewolves all over the world...” there were gasps throughout the crowd upon hearing that.
“As most of you can guess, the moment he obtains such a power, he won’t need his army of wolves, for he will be able to command any and all werewolves in the world. This war will surely be over and the rogues will have won if that were to happen. Now that you all know that, defeat is not an option in this battle,” the Perfect Warrior spoke up.
“But what about the rogues... They keep coming. Surely you don’t think our numbers can hold them back forever,” one of the alphas that were present asked the man.
“No, I don’t think that... although I do hope that our numbers can hold out long enough for the Rogue King to meet his end,” Thorrin replied, watching for the gasps and questioning looks they all received, “Yes, the rogue king himself is present for this battle... and he will be my target tonight.”
Thorrin’s senses spiked as the rogues stirred. He turned to face the direction of his foes, “Alas, the battle shall be started by the rogues... I advise that you kill your foes and not simply maim or knock them out... That way, they will stay down when you bring them down,” he said to them before walking out the gates with the army behind him.
The hunters were dressed in leather while the wolves dressed in whatever was comfortable for them. Some packs chose colours to signify their pack warriors while others didn’t bother with formalities. Some of the wolves were extremely well-trained while others weren’t as blessed... All were greeted with welcoming hands and allowed to help out...
“Do you really sense him?” a masculine voice came from the right of the Perfect Warrior.
Thorrin looked to the right to see his good friend and comrade, Jim Gordon, “Yes, Thunder... I know he is here...”
The man beside him sighed, “This wouldn’t be the first time you have felt his presence before, you know...”
“Well, who was I to know exactly how powerful the man was supposed to feel... And to think each time I had detected a phoney king, it had been one of his meddlesome generals,” the man cursed...
“Wait, what are you picking up this time?” Jim asked him, his voice rising a few octaves in panic. Thorrin looked to his side and took in the sight of one of the Mighty Warriors displaying an emotion that was unsightly on anyone bearing that title... ‘fear...’
He sighed and reported his observation, “A good number of his generals are here along with a beta alpha.”
“That’s...”
“Catastrophic... I know...” Thorrin did not have to be told twice. He’d faced the generals before and only got the chance to get a glimpse of a beta alpha. The creatures were not normal and they both knew it, having gone against them before...
“The generals shouldn’t be much of a problem for you or me, but the beta alpha...”
“My goal is the rogue king... I do not have time to worry about those beneath him... I shall cut straight through to the rogue king and strike the snake at its head,” Thorrin said, wrapping all his conviction in one statement. A loud horn sounded through the air, signalling the sight of the first rogues breaking the tree line outside the capital.
The hunters and werewolves remained watching them as they came closer. Far behind the main force, archers aimed their bows to the sky and let loose a volley of lethal arrows, each one of them laced with the deadly poison that was used against the werewolves. One of the many things that gave the hunters an edge over the werewolves in a war such as this one.
Thorrin watched with the rest of the hunters as the rogues fell at the moment of contact. The fallen rogues were very quickly replaced by numbers far more than what they had just witnessed. The next volley of arrows was able to down a large number of them. The ones that made it through unscathed were taken care of by the hunters on the ground.
“We’ll take all the help we can. The archers did what they could,” Thorrin spoke in a tone that suggested he was speaking to himself. The message in his words, however, was carried through the ranks of werewolves and hunters as a signal that the time to stand about was finally over. Before the Perfect Warrior could take any action on his own words, those about him rushed forward.
The world seemed to go silent while the two armies rushed forward to meet each other head-on. There was a peace to it. The peace the hunter felt before any of his own had been put down. The rogues had every intention of bringing the world to its knees. Losing a battle such as this one would have more consequences than there had ever been. The two Mighty Warriors stood beside each other watching the battle rage on before them. “Shall we?” Jim asked the man.
The question bothered the Perfect Warrior... after all, he was the one that knew what they were up against. He’d sensed the generals of the Rogue King... It was the largest gathering of the powerful rogues that he’d ever felt in his life and yet even after knowing how powerful they all were, their power in the presence of the rogue king felt like nothing he’d ever felt in his life before...
Noticing the Perfect Warrior’s silence, Jim chuckled, “Does he really feel that powerful?”
“Well, I haven’t felt something like this in my life. I have goosebumps,” Thorrin replied with a shudder and a laugh.
“That’s something coming from the Perfect Warrior. Do you think you can bring him down?” Jim asked.
After the years Thorrin had spent training his body to be the perfect weapon against the rogue king, shuddering at the moment of truth wasn’t something he was surprised would happen. After all, it was as though he was getting to take the final exam that he’d been preparing for a very long time. He was nervous, “You know there is nothing that can faze me anymore, Jim. Of course, I can beat him...”
“That’s good to hear... For a moment there, I thought you were actually scared,” the Thunderbolt chuckled, hopping onto his feet and stretching out his muscles. He could feel the time for them to get going drawing nearer and nearer.
“I wouldn’t use the word ‘scared’, Jim,” Thorrin replied, turning his face in the direction they were headed and letting the Power of his gifts flow into his body. He fastened the buttons at the top of his large coat and got ready, “I would use the word, excited...”
This was what the thunderbolt last heard before his friend vanished before his eyes, tearing through the battlefield with a goal in mind. The man barely wasted a second in following his friend, a smirk plastered on his face as they both raced forward, their coats blowing in the wind.
Jim Gordon, lacking a strength Prometheus gift retrieved a blade from his coat and got to work with each rogue he went by. Thorrin, on the other hand, used his bare hands. One fist from the dashing human would send a rogue crashing through many of its comrades at a deadly force that two more behind it would be killed from the impact. ‘It’s like watching a human wrecking ball in action...’ Jim thought as he did his best to keep up with the Perfect Warrior.
To Evelyn who watched from the balcony Thorrin had stood on moments ago, two loud thunder claps rang through the air along with two lines of blood and dead wolves appeared in barely a blink of an eye as the two beings tore through the force of werewolves, ‘You two better be careful,’ the woman sent her silent wishes. The two of them had been together on missions before during Thorrin’s search for power.
“The rogues... Do you think they will break through?” one of the female hunters that stood with her spoke up, holding tight to her bow.
“I don’t know what will happen, but we are to keep them from getting any closer than they should. Honestly, if we get to fire any arrows, then we might as well assume the rogues will make it as far as the interior of the palace,” Evelyn replied. Her blood boiled to help her fellow hunters in battle, but alas they were to stay behind and protect the king...
“To think all this bloodshed could be put to an end...” she held her tongue before any of her words got out. ‘Walls have ears...’ her brother had told her. Instead, she finished it in her mind, ‘by someone who’s not even here.’