William felt a little excited at hearing this. Not in his wildest dreams did he think that he was going to learn how to be a shape shifter so early. He felt a small smile creep onto his face. “When do we start?”
Ares looked at William’s feet and his gaze drifted up till he was looking William in the eyes. “Do you feel any pain?”
William took the question seriously and took a moment to flex various muscles and rotate his limbs. He felt no pain whatsoever. He shook his head. “Nope, I feel like I’m pretty much back to normal.”
“Then we begin now.” Ares slammed his fist into William’s gut. William coughed hard and fell to the ground.
“What the hell was that?”
Ares didn’t answer but swept his leg out and kicked William’s legs. William’s legs felt like they had just snapped in two. He had to move. His legs miraculously weren’t broken, and they responded when he asked them to. He threw his legs over his head into a backwards summersault. Ares missed as he lunged forward with another powerful kick. William popped out of the summersault and was on his feet.
Ares was already moving toward him, his fist pulled back for another punch. William was ready for it and swung up his hand for a block. It felt like he had just slapped iron and Ares’ punch connected with his shoulder. His whole left arm went numb with the impact. He let his legs collapse from under him and he rolled to the side just as Ares brought his leg up for another kick. Ares’ leg swept through air as William was just able to dodge the kick.
William knew that he couldn’t keep dodging Ares forever. He had to attack. He thought back to their last fight and attempted the same tactic. Ares was expecting the kick between his legs and brought his arms down in a powerful block that caused William’s foot to crack and explode with pain. Somehow, even though he had never suffered a broken bone before, he knew his foot and maybe his ankle were broken. William tenderly placed weight on it and his whole leg crumbled under his weight. Ares didn’t seem to notice.
The werewolf threw his leg out once more and caught William’s midsection. The air was driven out of his body. He couldn’t breathe but Ares didn’t stop. The werewolf picked up William by the vest and slammed him into a wall. With his forearm, Ares pressed his weight into William’s throat cutting off the air supply.
The disturbing thing was that there was no anger in Ares’ eyes. If anything, William thought he saw remorse reflected back at him through those gold wolf eyes. Ares loosened his grip, just barely. William was able to breathe but he had to concentrate and force air to be sucked into his lungs.
“This is no game, pup.”
Ares dropped William to the floor. William coughed and tried to recover but his foot was throbbing with the pain of being broken. He looked down and just below his deer skin pants he already saw the swelling of the injury. His whole ankle and foot were an ugly red. Instead of skin and bone the injury had taken on the appearance of a balloon. William winced as he tried to move it. Using his arms, he propped himself up against the wall as best he could as he watched the werewolf.
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Ares had stepped away from William and was looking at him with the same weighted stare as he had when he had asked William if he felt any pain. Ares looked down at the wounded human.
“I could kill you whenever I want to, pup. Remember that.” Ares crouched down so he was at eye level with William. “First lesson is, never attack an enemy the same way twice, he will be expecting it.” He motioned to William’s broken and now very swollen foot. “By the same token, you must always be ready for an enemy to attack you in the same fashion as they have attacked you previously.”
Ares heaved a heavy sigh and stood up. William had to crane his neck up to see the full frame of the werewolf as he towered over his broken, immobile body.
“The enemies we fight are both arrogant and shadows of their former selves. If an enemy finds a successful way to attack us, he will probably attack in the same manner, hoping to exploit the weakness he discovered previously.”
“What enemies are you talking about? Do you mean other werewolves, like Tasha and her pack? Who seem to be off limits even to speak of?” Ares eyes grew hard and stabbed back at William from the short distance between them, William barely registered the anger that was building in his teacher. “I have been told that we are safe in this mountain even from the shadows that attacked me. Is that who you are talking about? “Or maybe you mean vampires? Huan Li said that those ‘weakling half demons’ were the least of my worries, so, if they are so far beneath us why do I have to learn how to attack them?”
Ares had heard enough and launched a sweeping kick that crunched into William’s left arm. William felt and heard bone snap and his whole appendage erupted in pain. William didn’t even try to stifle the yell that escaped his mouth. The howl of pain echoed around the room and escaped into the city even as he grabbed at the broken limb with his good right hand.
Ares was breathing heavily, and through his tears, William could see the werewolf’s chest heave in and out with the forceful breathing of his teacher. “You forget your place, pup.” Ares spat out the words through his snout and jaws. “Don’t ever presume to demand anything from me. I will teach you as I was taught, and you will learn respect for our ways. If it means I have to break you, then so be it.”
Ares lunged, elongating himself to run on all fours, out the open doorway.
William was left with the pain of his two broken limbs. He would have liked to get up but lifting himself with only one leg proved to be a lot harder than he had thought. With his good arm he was able to push himself up, a little. Holding himself against the wall he moved his good left leg under him as best he could, and with an effort that surprised him he was able to push himself up the smooth glassy wall.
With a lot of pain and some very awkward jumping he was able to move to his bed. He couldn’t lower himself down on to the bed so he turned around and gripping his left arm as best he could he let himself fall backwards onto the black furs of the warm bed. His arm and foot both exploded in pain again and he let out a howl. I am really messed up. The pain was throbbing and every small movement he made seemed to aggravate the injuries he had sustained. It took a long time for the pain to dull into something manageable. With Ares having not returned and no healing expected, William had no choice but to simply surrender to the pain and he blacked out.