Arad and Aella stared at her, confused momentarily before the realization hit him. “Aella, she is the werewolf.” Arad rushed to catch Alcott, “Are you all right?”
Aella pulled her bow and fired three arrows at the ground before Hank’s wife, “Stop right there,” She shouted, but her words fell on deaf ears.
“Aren’t you the monster?” Hank’s wife glared at Alcott, her eyes flashing red.
Awoo! With a roar, her body swollen, growing fangs and fur as her jaw extended. Her voice shook the forest as the small birds flew away.
Alcott leaped back, pulling two short swords from his pocket like it was a magic trick.
“So he was a human,” Alcott glared at her, “His wife was the Alpha.” He growled, taking a stance.
“Say, you are picky. Why would someone like you be satisfied with a human?”
Hank’s wife stared at him, eyes glowing with a blood-red rage. She didn’t even bother replying. BAM! With a single leap, she rushed at Alcott swinging her claw. CLANG! He blocked the attack with one of the short swords and countered with the other.
^Damn it. She’s fast!^ As he regained his stance, his body started aching, and his blood boiled.
With each crash, his bones tingled, and his eyes turned redder. The pain in his tailbone slowly became unbearable as his body couldn’t wait to transform.
Arad watched the two zap across the forest, clashing faster than most people could see.
[Don’t…]
A voice rang in his head, ^Wait? Mom?^
[Kill…her.]
^We shouldn’t kill?^ Arad thought, a smile crossing his face, “Got it, mom,” His eyes flashed purple, and his body disappeared.
“Arad!” Aella shouted, hearing him mumble something before vanishing.
ZON! When the two swung at each other, Arad appeared between them. Glaring at Hank’s wife with the side of his eye.
Like a pulse of magic, Arad’s frightful presence covered the whole forest. The fake red scales on his body turned purple as two black wings exploded from his back, rumbling as the void vibrated inside them.
CLANG! CRACK! Alcott did his best to pull his strike down, but he still hit Arad’s wing, and his blades shattered. On the other hand, Arad blocked Hank’s wife’s attack with his forearm, “Calm down, both of you!” She didn’t care, swinging his neck.
Arad turned his back to Alcott and blocked the wife’s second attack, “We should be healing Hank, not fighting here like idiots. Calm down,” He growled, glaring at her eyes.
BANG! Ginger landed in the forest behind them, quickly rushing in to help, but stopped immediately. “What is going on?” She shouted.
Arad stared at her, “We need to stop the fight. Now.”
Ginger nodded, staring at Alcott, “He’s right. At this rate, you will lose yourself soon. Stand down.” She warned him.
“Hurry and heal Hank,” Arad glared back at them, “I don’t care what you do, don’t let him die,”
Hank’s wife stood down, glaring at Alcott, “That mixed blood welp,” she approached Hank. “How is he doing?”
“Bled a lot, but will be okay.” Ginger smiled, “I’ve seen worse.” She gave her a wry smile, “Alcott got his organs spilled once,”
***
Arad closed his eyes, hiding his wings and scales, “That was close,” He looked at his forearms, ^By bones broke from the impact. But she couldn’t cut through the void scales.^ It wasn’t a matter of strength. The quality of the material clashing determined the result.
^Mom, can you hear me?^
[The curses are calming with the two progenitors close. We might be able to lift them now,]
^You know we couldn’t cure them because you hid them, right?^
[I know now, even if you healed them like that, you would have agitated the second one.]
Hanks’s wife shifted back to her humanoid form, glaring at Arad, “Can we talk?”
“What?”
“You know, I tried to lift the curse off you before. It was after Hank saved you from the griffon.” She sighed.
“It was entangled. If you and Ginger worked together, you could lift the curse,” He pointed at Ginger.
“That vampire? I did sense some vampirism inside you.”
“Let’s carry him to the inn!” Ginger shouted, “I stopped the bleeding with my magic. But we will need a healer to heal him.” .𝘤𝘰𝑚
On their way back, they met Jack, Lydia, and Merida and got their help. Lydia stabilized Hank’s body till they reached the inn and got the nuns to help.
When Hank’s body stabilized and his life was no longer in danger. Arad, Aella, Alcott, and Ginger sat down with Hank’s wife. “Care to explain the killing?” Alcott growled.
“Care to ask the nuns? Welp,” She stared at him, “My real name is Selena Forcewill. Ring a bell?”
Alcott thought about it, “Where did I hear that name?”
“Forcewill is one of the three great families of the beast lands.” Ginger stared at him, “The wolves, the bears, and the cats,” She added.
“Not that. Selena Forcwill, I hear this name somewhere else.” After a while, it clicked in his head.
“Do you know Jame Forcewill?” He stared at her with a smile.
“That’s my older brother,” Selena stared at them, “Can you guess why I did it now?”
Alcott scratched his head, “That makes it worse,” He grabbed his sword, “Jame was an S-rank, but he caused a massacre at the capital.”
“Killed over thirty priests and kidnapped sixty nuns. I know.” she smiled, “That’s what the church says. Call one of the nuns, and you will understand.”
Ginger stood and walked out, bringing one of the nuns. “Did you need my help?” She asked with a smile.
Selena stared at her, “We’re going to Artoria. You don’t have to put with the churches anymore.” She pulled a small necklace from her pocket and pointed at the nun.
The nun fell crying as a light flashed from the necklace. “The church enslaves beast people and forces them to work as nuns, disposable battle healers, and even bait for monsters.” Selena approached the nun, pulling her head cover off and revealing a pair of severed dog ears.
Selena glared at Alcott, “Alina’s church isn’t in it with them, simply because they don’t have beast people over there.”
“Why didn’t James say anything?” Alcott stared at her.
“He did, but the humans only see us as monsters. Proven by how your first conclusion was killing me,” Selena sighed, “We should be able to take all the nuns to Artoria, a place where they can live in peace.”
Selena stared at them, “Humans aren’t known to like other races, except dwarfs and halflings.”
Ginger stared at her, “Because they have the shortest lifespan and the weakest bodies. Their only way of survival is to be aggressive.” she smiled, “Halflings are too happy to be hated and feared, and the dwarfs are the closest to humans.”
[We need to cure you first,]
“I don’t think my curses will stay stable for long. Can you heal me already?” He asked.
“What is happening inside your body anyway?” Selena glared at him.
“Like I know?” Arad sighed. Jack took Lydia and Merida out to escort the nun to another room, “The curses were unstable due to the long distance. I don’t know how exactly, but my magic colliding with them caused it.”
Arad wasn’t a mage. He didn’t know anything about how the void works, and neither did most mages of the world.
[Ginger made the mistake of infusing you with her curse. That has caused more conflict than it should due to the distance difference between the curse origins. Right now, the two are close, so the error margin is low, and they effectively negate each other.]
^Yeah, I don’t understand.^
“You’re right. Let’s fix you first and then deal with the rest,” Ginger extended her hand toward Selena. Closing their eyes, they reached inside him at the same time.
ZON! opening their eyes, they stood facing a titanic monster. A dragon with scales akin to the night sky glaring down at them.
CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK!
“What are you?” Selena asked, taking a step back.
CLICK! CLICK!
“It doesn’t seem aggressive, the curses are ahead of it, let’s clear them.” Ginger pulled her.
CLICK! CLICK! Mom stared down at them, [They don’t understand psionic. That’s expected.]
Arad was still aware of them. ^What is psionic?^
[We void dragons live in the void of space. Sound can’t travel there, so we created our language of mental waves. You can understand me since I’m speaking directly into your brain.]
^Is there more things you aren’t telling me about us?^
[A lot, mostly things you don’t need to know.]
^ Don’t give me that.^ Arad sighed, ^At least tell me a bit,^
[Elves’ lifespan is between seven hundred and one thousand years. We void dragons can live over ten thousand years with no problems. To get a child, you either have to aim for higher races, (Mostly dragons, devils, and angels,) Or do it a lot each day.]
^Any thing else?^
[You will have new skill trees unlocked after this. I want you to focus on leveling them and nothing else.]