The entire pack was already outside as the night came along. Many had already been training for hours and didn’t see the point of going inside. A lot took it as their last day and just trained, regardless. They had a point; they didn’t know the numbers of those coming against them. It would be safe to consider giving it all, even though they wouldn’t make it out alive. That would be the right way to go.
They noticed the presence of Aaron, and those training out in the open field paused and stepped back from each other.
“The enemy will be here any minute. They will come with forces stronger than ours, probably more savage than ours; however, there is something they don’t have. The zeal we have.” They mumbled their agreement with his words.
“They are coming with the sole aim of taking control, and we will fight with the sole aim of living. They do not get to decide our lives. I know many of you are scared, but so am I. I am afraid, but with that fear, I will use it to fight this battle, and with it, we will win. We are not just fighting against the legion of sages; we are also fighting against death.”
The people who gathered around cheered, fully encouraged by Aaron’s words.
“I’m glad you have your people pumped up.” Aaron heard the voice of Lucius say it from the back. “It will make this battle worthwhile.”
He turned around and found him standing alone with George’s head in his hand. He tossed the head, and it rolled over to Aaron, stopping when it got to his feet.
“I’d like to believe he is yours.” He said that, and Aaron could tell he was taunting him.
Damor growled and wanted to launch at Lucius, but Aaron placed his hand out to stop him. There was a reason he was making these taunts; he was hoping they would take the bait and attack. He was also alone, which was a weird sight because he wasn’t the type of man that would go anywhere without his minion. Without them, he was as good as dead.
“Where are your sages?” Aaron raised a brow.
Lucius faked an offended look. “I do not need my sages to do everything, you know.” He told him.
It was hard to believe, judging from the type of man he was. There was something else at play here, and Aaron wanted to figure it out. Lucius wasn’t an easy man to read, though.
“Then why are you here?”
“Because, as much as you wouldn’t believe me, I am a man of peace, and so I have come to ask for your surrender.”
Aaron scoffed, “Men like you are hardly men of their word.”
“I am a man of my word, and if I say I will spare you, I will. If you surrender, you will live. Well, you, Aaron Hart, will die along with your sage mate, but the rest of your pack, I have no rivals with, and I will let them live.”
“We are being surrounded.” Ivan sounded the alarm, interrupting their talk, and everyone turned around. They turn their attention to the incoming danger instead of the Alpha taunting them.
“You cannot win. No matter how hard you try, the odds are never going to be in your favour,” he said in a malicious tone.
Aaron couldn’t give up the faith that they would win, and no matter how long it took, he would hold on to that faith. There was no one he could trust. No one but his family.
Just like Ivan had warned, they saw werewolves with glowing eyes, ranging from yellow to blue, approaching them. Behind them were sages with glowing, bright silver eyes, coming against them from all corners, and though they had anticipated a dozen, they soon learned that they were more than that number. There were at least twenty sages coming against them.
Aaron’s hand tightened around his dagger. “Remember, we are fighting for our lives!”
With his encouragement, the pack members charged at the incoming sages, not backing down.
Taking down the werewolves was an easy thing for many of the pack members; they had fought and trained and could challenge a werewolf of any rank. “It’s no use.” When Lucius attempted to speak, Damor attacked him and knocked him to the ground before a sage who had been waiting in the shadows for an attack on Lucius pushed him away.
“I see you are this asshole’s ass kisser, and to get to him, I have to go through you.” Damor said.
He slipped the dagger into its sheath, and that made the sage curious. “Aren’t you going to use that?”
“I consider him a coward, and so is everyone who does his bidding. For cowards, I wouldn’t need much of this,” Damor answered.
The sage attacked Damor without thinking about it because his words had angered him.
Damor drew out the dagger and thrust it into his chest, taking him by surprise.
He fell to the ground, groaning in pain. “You said you wouldn’t use it.”
“I never said I wouldn’t use it. I said I wouldn’t use it much.” Damor answered. “But I am not surprised you do not understand that. Wisdom isn’t the virtue of one who follows a coward.”
Zera, just like every pack member, wielded a golden dagger because, though they were sages like her, she knew she needed the weapon if she hoped to kill them. On her left were Sesi and Manon, and on her left were Lionel and Daniel, whom she would have been afraid for if she hadn’t trained this morning. He was a fast learner and had used her attacks against her many times, so though he faced enemies in many numbers, she had faith in his abilities.
She focused on the fight before her, and after taking down the first sage that came up against her, another attacked. A female.
She stood confidently before her with shiny red hair that fell over her shoulders. “I heard you were the first sage in the last hundred years.”
“If it makes you feel better, I didn’t know I was even being talked about,” Zera answered.
She scoffed. “It doesn’t make me feel better, but killing you will.”
“Oh, I don’t know who you are, but that is going to be a hard one. See, I am not dying today, so I do not know how you’re going to go about it.”
“My name is Trist, and my face is the last face you’ll see before you die.” She said that and attacked Zera.
They two fought, and she was just as tough as the first sage. If this had been two years ago, she might have been a challenge, but now she was anything but a challenge.
Zera threw Trist to the ground, and before she could recover, she drove the dagger into her heart. The life in her eyes faded, and she was dead.
Zera rose to her feet and said, “I told you I am not dying today.”
Ivan ripped in shreds two sages by turning his golden dagger into smaller, sharp daggers and sending them into their bodies. Then he controlled those daggers now in them until they pierced through their hearts, and they dropped dead on the ground. Still not getting the satisfaction he needed, he searched through the crowd of faces, looking for the one who had told him he was responsible for Xoe’s death many days before. He wanted to find him. He believed he owed him death and wouldn’t be happy unless his death came by his hand.
He soon found him standing before Daniel, about to challenge him, and Ivan stepped towards them. “I’d advise you to step aside, Daniel; this fight is between this man and me.”
Daniel turned to him, but he said nothing. “Do to him as you wish.”
The sage smirked. “What are you going to do? I had my hands around your little neck before; don’t think I would waste as much time as I did the last time.” He said it in confidence.
“You were lucky the last time; sadly, luck hardly happens twice.” Ivan answered.
“What? You are going to do some magical tricks? You really believe that is going to stop me?” he mocked.
“You can rest assured that I will not fight you with my hands, but you will regret not killing me when you have the chance.”
Ivan snapped his finger, and the dead body of a werewolf on the ground rose to her feet and walked up to Ivan. She stopped walking when she got to where he stood, waiting for his command.
“What are you doing?” The sage asked.
Ivan’s finger dug into his wrist until his blood poured out, and he traced it over the corpse’s body. He silently mumbled the resurrection chant into its ear, and though it was brief, it was effective. Her eyes, which were once a cold blue, soon received warmth, and her orbs changed from blue to indigo. “I told you I will not kill you with my hands, and that is because she’s going to do it for me.”
“Am I a joke to you?”
“You actually are.”
“That thing is no match for me. I kill her in a blink, and then come for your head.”
Ivan smirked. “How do you kill that which is already dead? You killed her, remember? You snapped her neck; you said it yourself when she was defenceless and meditating in her room. This is Xoe, the one you killed like a coward, and she is back seeking payment.” He turned to the corpse that he had resurrected the soul of Xoe into and muttered, “He’s yours.”
Xoe attacked the sage, and though he was ready for the fight, there was so much he could do to an already dead body. He snapped her neck and ripped her legs out, but she only grew them back stronger.
Xoe ripped the sage up into shreds, and he laid on the ground, bruised and battered with both magic and violence.
“Finish him up, Xoe,” Ivan said, tossing her the golden dagger. She picked it up and, wasting no time, drove it into his heart, leaving him dead.
Xoe rose from on top of the now-dead sage and made her way back to Ivan.
He stretched his hand to stroke her face tenderly and said, “It is over. You can return, knowing that it is over.” He placed his head against hers, and his eyes fluttered. “You can find rest knowing that you have avenged yourself.”
“Ivan,” she called out softly. He pulled back, and his eyes fluttered to look at her. “Thank you.”
As the word left her mouth, her soul departed, and the body fell to the ground, becoming as it was before Ivan woke it once again.
Ivan’s eyes grew glassy, and though he feels happy that he helped Xoe get her revenge, he wishes he could have spent time with her a little longer.
“Are you okay now?” he heard Daniel ask from behind, and he turned around to find him standing not so far away from him. He nodded, and that motion pleased Daniel. “Good, because we still have an ongoing war and we need you back in.”