It is in our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light

The last time we had seen Verus, he had been critically wounded, and horseless. The fact that he was standing before us, ready to take us on again, stunned me. He was the last person I would’ve expected to be in the palace with us. Chiyo was equally flabbergasted.

“It’s the wolf guy! But that should be impossible right? I’m sure we dealt with him back at that shrine.” Chiyo whispered to me.

Verus’ usual dull expression had been replaced with one of bloodlust. His eyes lit up with fiery passion when he saw us standing before him. He bent his head downward to address us.

“You’ve given me a lot of trouble, but it ends here.”

He took off his robes and tossed them aside, revealing a chiseled upper body covered in scars and wide black pants. Where the terrible wound that we’d inflicted just days earlier should have been, there was only a pale scar. For a human body to heal that quickly would be impossible under normal circumstances, but then it hit me.

"Today is a full moon. A wolf-man like him is at his strongest right now. For a wound to heal quickly is only a small feat for them." 

Wasting no time, Chiyo reached out to me.

“Oliver, grab onto me!”

We clasped each other’s hands to face the oncoming danger. If we were together, we could do anything. But unlike the previous times, I felt nothing when we touched. No powerful buzz, no sudden burst of energy coursing through me. Nothing.

Chiyo hadn’t recovered enough strength to be in any shape to fight. If we were going to stand our ground, it was going to be me who would carry this fight. I shouldn’t relying on Chiyo anyway, she had already done enough.

Verus warily approached us, intending to not make the same mistake as last time. He had been too cocky, and it ended up backfiring pretty badly. But now the odds were stacked in his favor.

As he came closer I could make out his features more clearly, which were different from the last time we saw him. His grey hair had grown out by a lot, to the point that they looked like long manes. His eyes gleamed yellow in the moonlight, and he was no longer wearing spiked brass knuckles. Instead his fingers had contorted into thick claws. This was a wolf-man at his full potential.

He circled us like we were predator and prey, not letting us out of his sight for a moment. I unsheathed Serpens Aurum and steeled myself.

“Verus, if you want to get to Chiyo, you’ll have to go through me first! This is between you and me.”

Despite speaking those heroic words, I my hands trembled as beads of sweat formed on my forehead. He came to a halt and bared his sharp fangs.

“I don’t care for your empty words, my orders are to kill the witch. Both of you are going down.”

In a blink of an eye Verus disappeared, only a puff of dust where his feet were told me he moved. He had been fast the last time we fought him, but this was ridiculous. Without thinking I tackled Chiyo to the ground. A gust of wind hit me in the head when I felt my hat and crown be violently ripped off. The crown rolled away and came to a stop on the soft carpet.

I had no time to consider my next move, my body moved on its own. I rolled to the side as a fist crashed down to the floor like a bolt of lightning, only barely missing my abdomen. I scrambled backwards and tried to get up again. Raising my head, I saw how the wolf-man towered over me. His face was shrouded in darkness, save for two bright yellow lights where his eyes were.

Having put some space between us, I raised my sword in front of me and desperately charged at Verus. A guttural scream of determination and panic came out of my mouth, but it was futile. The giant disappeared once again. This time he moved to Chiyo, who was still laying on the ground. He raised his claws, glittering in the moon’s glow, ready to strike.

I used the momentum of my charge to sprint to the two, and just in the nick of time I grabbed Chiyo by the collar and pulled her backwards, right as Verus’ hand came down. I was completely exposed. I tried to dodge but I wasn’t fast enough. I felt his nails ripping through clothes and flesh as he scratched across my chest. I suppressed a scream of pain and staggered backwards. Luckily I had tried to dodge at all, else he might’ve clawed right through my ribcage.

“Do you see how meaningless your resistance is now? What can you possibly hope to do on your own?” Verus scoffed.

He was right, there was no hope of winning under these circumstances. I could plan all I wanted, in the end it came down to an overwhelming skill difference. During the last fight I could at least parry his attacks, but with his current strength and speed I knew that it would not work out. But despite all that, I couldn’t afford to give up. I prayed for a miracle as I got into a combat stance and stared Verus down.

“I see you’ve made up your mind to continue this farce to the very end. Let’s not drag this out.”

Verus bent through his knees, coming eye-to-eye with me. With overwhelming speed he shot forward, destroying the carpet in his way. I closed my eyes and wildly swung my sword left and right. By pure chance it cut into his hand, and went all the way into his forearm, blocking the attack. The tide of battle had turned, or so I thought.

Remaining completely emotionless, he raised his mangled arm up to me, and before my eyes the large wound started closing itself, muscles and skin tissue extending into each other until there was no trace of an injury left, save for a discoloration.

Upon seeing this, I fell to my knees. My head spun and my whole body violently trembled; I felt like I could throw up at any moment. Struggle as we may, there was nothing to be done. Chiyo gawked at the scene with wide, teary eyes. She also realized it was over. The wolf-man towered large over me, a faint smile dancing on his lips.

If I was to die, my only regrets would be that I wasn’t able to protect Chiyo, and that I never properly told her how I feel. One of those regrets could still be fixed however. I turned to the girl of my dreams and laid my feelings bare.

“Chiyo, I love you.”

With tears now streaming down her face, she nodded and whispered through the sniffling.

“I love you too.”

Ah, what a comforting feeling it was to know she felt the same way. This was it, there was nothing left for me to do. I closed my eyes, waiting for the finishing blow, but the Gods had other plans for me.

Instead of a claw ripping my guts out, I felt a sliding sensation on my wrist and confusedly looked down at my sword, Serpens Aurum. The blood on the blade was bubbling and sizzling, as if a great heat was acting on it. The hilt of the blade, two intertwined snakes, had started to move and were now slowly making their way across my hand, before the snakeheads bit into each side of my wrist. It was the first time in decades that the blade had tasted blood, and it wanted more.

“It can’t be…”, I muttered, “I was using an enchanted weapon all along?”

Of course, it only made sense. A great hero of Scaldis like Alicia would settle for no less than a first-grade sword. The sizzling blood on the blade started to smoke, and then it caught fire, which burnt with sparkling golden light. The fiery rod kept extending itself and bent, until I was holding a golden whip of fire.

I got back up, having found a new source of determination and strength. We were going to make it out of here, no matter the cost. Our love story was only just beginning.