Peeking outside the window, Jim could see a few startled birds flying in one direction like they were fleeing for something. They were all coming in the direction of the school indicating that they were chasing Troy or one of his men. Turning over to Solaire, Jim said, “I think you should go on the roof and prepare to kill the birds necessary.”
Looking worried, Solaire asked, “Are you sure? It doesn’t seem like they want to fight. I would also lose a lot of energy in the process which could be very dangerous, especially in this situation, where we don’t know about the forces or plans of our enemies.”
Nodding his head without hesitation Jim said, “I’m sure. I had enough of birds and their annoying tricks. If we let them live they could attack from other sides or find a hole in the defense and slip through. That would just result in unnecessary casualties. Just observe them and if necessary, burn them down,” looking Solaire in the eyes he continued, “Every single one of them.”
Understanding Jim’s concern Solaire said, “Okay, I will look out for them. Just be careful here.”
Seeing Solaire leave, Jim turned around and looked down from the platform he was standing on. “Make the spears ready! No one shall break through this wall!” While holding his right hand high in the air, he said the last part with a heroic shout. Joining him was Max and Jake who stood beside him.
Triggering a chain reaction the others also went with the flow and started to encourage each other. It was very important for them to try and keep morale as high as possible, as it was likely that most of them wouldn't survive this attack. But one thing was for sure; they would not go down without a fight.
Peeking out of the window again Jim kneeled down, put his spear on a bracket, and waited. The others followed his movement and soon six spears came out of the wall, while one archer stood behind them able to shoot over them. Emma and Max were both equipped with a bow, as they were the best if it came to shooting, even if Max was also a capable fighter in melee.
They didn't have many arrows so they had to make every arrow count. Thinking this Jim asked Max who was standing behind him. “How confident are you about hitting every shot?”
“I don’t know,” said Max with uncertainty. “A standing target and a moving one are two completely different things. Fortunately, they are limited in their movement on the stairs, but it will be hard to concentrate when your life hangs on the line. I just wish we had an unlimited amount of arrows, then mistakes wouldn't be so dramatic.”
“An unlimited amount of arrows,” mumbled Jim, lost in his thoughts.
Thinking about this he slowly began to hear the cries of the bird's swarm. Looking in front of him Jim could see a black silhouette rushing on top of the roofs carefully maneuvering from one to the other.
The person was wearing a loose black shirt and jeans. On top of his nose, Jim could see sparkling glasses with a beautiful black framework. This person seemed to be the person Jim heard so much about; Troy Fletcher. Squinting his eyes, Jim took a closer look and noticed something suspicious.
They thought Troy would hide the moment he reached the school, but he didn't slow down. He was almost in front of the staircase leading up to the school but he was not going a different way or trying to hide.
This concern only grew as Troy got closer to the wall. Suddenly thinking of a possibility Jim shouted, “Max! He wants to climb the school and kill Solaire. We have to shoot him!”
Confused Max asked, “Wha-?” But before he could even ask, Jim already jumped from the platform and sprinted off into the school. Ignoring everyone and everything around him, Jim focused on one singular goal; saving Solaire.
He was distracted looking out for the birds and wouldn’t observe his surroundings too closely. He was the person most important to survive the attack from the wolves. He also needed time to prepare his ability and couldn’t react quickly to sudden attacks.
Thinking this, Jim accelerated, even more, pushing his legs directly to their limit. Sprinting through the building Jim reached the roof of the school building in seconds, crossing three floors in under a minute.
In the meantime, Max finally realized what Jim meant and reacted accordingly and shouted, “Shoot at Troy!”
While shouting he also tightened the string of his bow to the limit in one fluid motion, locating Troy he realized that he was already using his ability as his vision blurred, which made seeing him much harder.
But this wouldn’t stop him and with the help of his other senses, Max knew that Troy was already climbing the walls on the staircase up the building. This surprised him, as he never expected Troy to be so good at climbing. He was even using some sort of axe for climbing, which made a lot of noise.
Relying on this, Max closed his eyes, concentrating only on the sound Troy was making, and taking a deep breath he held his bow close to his eye. Waiting for the perfect moment he let the arrow loose. The string shot forward launching the arrow into the air with high speed.
Climbing the wall Troy could already see Solaire standing on the building, concentrating on the swarm of birds and didn’t look out for his surroundings. Seeing this a smile crept on his face.
I was surprised when I found out that this old man and teenager reached the third rank but humans are still human. If you slit their throats they going to die like everyone else, no matter the rank it's the same for everyone, foolish old ma-
Before he could even finish his thought he heard a whistling sound from his back. Without being able to react an arrow pierced his right thigh. He wanted to scream out loud but forcefully held it in to not alert Solaire who was standing only a few meters above him.
Briefly looking back he saw for just a moment the hateful gaze of a youth with long, red, curly hair. Seeing this Troy smiled. This one is getting quite annoying.
Not wasting any more time he ignored the pain in his thigh and quickly reached the top of the building. Shortly catching his breath he concentrated and carefully sneaked to the back of Solaire.
Even if Solaire was distracted, he was someone who went for years in the military and survived every hardship his job threw at him. How could he possibly let his guard down and completely ignore his surroundings? He was prepared for Troy, who was startled the moment the door to the roof sprung open, and a youth with messy, short brown hair and deep dark blue eyes entered the roof.
Seeing the youth, Troy immediately recognized him as the one that was also of the third rank and didn't hesitate to stab with his knife at the old man who was only standing a few meters away. The situation was getting dangerous and he had to be quick.
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Unfortunately for him, Solaire knew long ago that he was on the rooftop and purposely let him get close and immediately turned around only to find his vision blurring, as he looked at the human shape standing before him.
This didn't stop Solaire for even a moment, as he was already prepared for his vision to be blurry or completely blinded. He knew the knife was coming for him and used his left hand to stop the knife by pushing it into his palm. Jim could only imagine the pain as the hands had so many nerves. But Solaire ignored it and continued to push the knife into his flesh.
Slightly startled by the sudden act of the old man in front of him, Troy tried to rip the dagger out of his hand, but before he could do so Solaire already closed his hand, gripping the dagger firmly in his hand.
Troy wasn’t that strong and was overwhelmed by the situation. He panicked for a moment and wasn’t able to pull the dagger out. Not wasting any time Solaire used his right hand, which held his military knife to slit Troy's guts open.
Surprised by this turn of events Troy swiftly let go of his weapon and stumbled backward avoiding the knife barely as it left a deep cut in his stomach. The pain helped him to clear his mind and concentrate again. Grabbing behind his back he grabbed two new knives.
He had multiple weapons and was now armed with two new knives in each hand, he carefully observed his surroundings and used his ability on Jim who almost reached him.
Taking a deep breath he concentrated and pushed his ability to maximum and temporarily blinded them both. Being prepared for this Jim sprinted onwards without slowing down.
Seeing this Troy threw one of his knives at Jim’s head to quickly kill him, but just before the knife was about to touch Jim’s nose he moved his head slightly to the right causing the knife to fly along his cheek, leaving a cut behind.
Ignoring the pain Jim sprinted onwards not caring for the wound. Shortly after both of them clashed. Troy used his dagger to deflect Jim’s machete to the left side causing Jim’s right side to be wide open.
Wanting to use this opportunity Troy tried to stab Jim’s heart who suddenly used the force of his deflection to rotate his body to the left while doing a round kick with his right leg.
Jim never knew where Troy was standing and relied solely on his instincts. Fortunately Troy didn’t move much causing the kick to be a surprise for him.
Seeing the kick Troy was forced to stop his attack, to barely evade the leg. Realizing what good battle awareness Jim had, Troy abandoned his plan and decided to flee.
His surprise attack had failed. There was no need to stay any longer and risk his life. After all, he was only of the second rank. Quickly turning around he was greeted by a small spark of light that illuminated the darkness around them.
A smiling old man stared at him, while a spark from his cigarette slowly fell in front of his hand, which pulsated with a threatening red hue. Seeing this Troy was shocked as he forgot about the ability Solaire had.
He used the small window of opportunity Jim gave him to activate his ability and without hesitation, guided his energy through his body taking control of the spark to quickly fuel it and let it grow into a sea of bright flames that shot directly at Troy.
He tried his best to compress the flames into one small stream to accelerate the speed of the fire. This didn’t work perfectly but was more than enough to reach Troy and burn his face for a moment.
Quickly turning his head to the right side Troy sprinted as fast as he could away, which was not easy as his thigh was still pierced by an arrow. Without hesitation he jumped from the building, using the wind of the fall to extinguish the flames which remained on his hair and clothes.
Thankfully for him, only his left face and hair were burned to a crisp, and was otherwise mostly unharmed, as the fire wasn’t long enough with him in contact. Quickly grabbing both of his climbing axes he stabbed them into the relatively loose stone walls of the building and reduced the speed at which he was falling considerably.
Somewhat safely landing on the ground Troy quickly limped to one of the walls vanishing into the shadows. By the time Jim could see again and looked in the direction where he heard Troy jump off he noticed that he was long gone.
Making sure that it was really safe Jim looked concerned at Solaire and asked, “Are you alright?”
Nodding his head, Solaire said, “I’m fine. This small wound isn’t going to stop me,” smiling he added, “The sun is protecting me, more importantly…,” pointing at the grim sky he added, “Now is not the time to talk. The birds are here.”
Looking at where Solaire was pointing, Jim shook his head and said, “Right… I almost forgot the birds. Why the fuck has it to be birds? Can’t I just get a moment of rest from these pests?”
Laughing, Solaire said, “Hahaha. Stop complaining. I haven't had so much fun and excitement since I was forty. Finally, I can feel the adrenaline of my youth!”
Taking a deep breath he waited for a moment before he screamed, “In the name of the sun you shall perish!”
Afterward, he started laughing like a madman and prepared to burn the birds to a crisp, but they completely ignored him and his yelling, vanishing into the night sky.
Startled by the birds flying over him Solaire deflated like a balloon and looked sadly at the vanishing birds, he had thrilled himself up so much only to be completely ignored. Noticing this Jim couldn’t help himself from laughing out loud.
After he finished laughing and calmed down, Jim looked below him at the sea of mutants coming their way. They would soon reach the wall and the number of wolves he could see running at top speed in the streets shocked him and felt like someone threw a bucket of cold water over him. “We should get back down.”
Agreeing, Solaire and Jim made their way back down to the others. Reuniting with the others Jim saw the grim expression on Max's face and knew what he wanted to say. They had miscalculated. They expected the wolf to have a pack of about three dozen wolves, but reality turned out to be so much crueler.
Before their eyes stood a sea of wolves stretching as far as the eyes could see. The whole space in front of the school was covered in wolves. Reaching back to the streets, Jim could even see some glowing eyes observing the school from the shadows of some of the houses.
Looking at this scene Jim was flabbergasted, no he was shocked. They didn’t expect the wolves to be double in number what they initially estimated. They were all the size of a human and even worst was the shadow they could see on top of one of the buildings.
Standing proudly on top of the roof was a huge wolf standing two times taller than a man and covered in beautiful gray fur, which had stretches of silver that followed around his whole body, complementing his fierce silver eyes. He stuck out like a sore thumb and this was without a doubt their leader and the rank three wolf they talked so much about.
With his cold, silver eyes the wolf looked at the school where the human vanished that harassed it for the past few days. He was angry. He was the king of the woods, and soon the ruler over the city of these weak creatures. They destroyed his precious forest and he was sure to do the same.
This was his territory; his home. In the past, he was too weak and his pack too small. These annoying humans were always in huge groups, which made it hard to kill them but now the tables have turned. The hunter was going to be hunted. It was time for his revenge, it was time to kill their children, just like when they stole his own.
He was more intelligent than any mutant they faced so far and Jim was sure he saw the wolf smile, that stretched along his whole face. Fletching his teeth the wolf took a deep breath.
*Awoooooo*
A loud howl sounded in the city.
*AWOOOOOO*
Hearing their leader howl, the other wolves joined, creating a sound so loud that everyone in the city could hear it, as it traveled along the streets, the woods, and the houses. This was the beginning of nothing short of a war and looking at the sea of wolves many who stood behind the wall felt a cold shiver run down their back. They had a very big problem.
***
In the meantime, a completely different scene played out on one of the streets in the western part of the city, where a small girl could also hear the sound of the wolf but didn’t seem to notice it. She didn’t even react or move from her lying position as her dull purple eyes stared at the beautiful night sky; the moon. She was completely still as she laid on the road, not caring the least for the world around her.
Surrounding her a sea of corpses stretched along the whole street, may it be human or mutant, no one except the little girl was alive. It was silent; peaceful.