The Hunger of Rage

Where am I?

Vansel didn't even feel like he was alive.

There was an intense burning rage within him, one that was controlling him, taking over his every thought and emotion. Everything around him was blurry, like he was surrounded by an infinite range of blood red clouds. He couldn't feel his hands, his legs, his senses were not telling him anything as well. Vansel shut his eyes, taking a deep breath, trying to recall what he was doing.

"Vansel? Vansel you gotta listen to me. Listen to your-"

"Vansel?"

Piers found himself looking at a werewolf bigger than any he had seen before. Vansel's wolf form was nearly 3 meters in height, his muscular structure bulkier than Woxlife himself. "Guards!" Piers cried out, taking a step back and trying not to agitate the beast in front of him.

"Vansel, look I don't know how you became a werewolf or why you transformed, but-" Vansel's prison concrete wall exploded like a sand castle, the massive werewolf stepping out and unleashing a powerful roar that made Piers step back in fear.

Before Piers could do anything else, two fully armored werewolf guards entered the cell, pausing for a moment to analyze the massive threat that was in front of them.

"How did he turn?"

Before anyone could answer, the werewolf Vansel roared, landing a punch right at the nearest guard and sending the werewolf flying through multiple walls of bricks with ease. The other werewolf guard turned around, ready to swing his sword when Vansel leapt at him, delivering a front kick that smashed the werewolf guard into the ground with no chance of retaliation at all.

Piers jumped at Vansel, punching the giant wolf in the jaw before charging again, using his own superhuman strength as a werewolf himself to slam Vansel into a wall, attempting to pin him down. "Vansel! Listen to me! You gotta-"

Piers was grabbed by the arm, thrown across the room and burst through a wall, landing onto the main hallway where other werewolves looked at Piers, collapsing onto the ground surrounded by dust and debris. "Run! Get the fighter class wolves here now!" Piers shouted at the other werewolves in the area, most of whom are in their human forms.

"What's going on?" One of the werewolves asks.

"Prisoner broke free! RUN!"

The werewolves in the area turned around, backing off and began going the other direction, fleeing the area.

Piers got up, catching his breath as he watched the massive shadow of Vansel appear through the hole which he was tossed through.

"You gave me little choice Vansel."Piers says as he clenched his fists, allowing his emotions to overtake him. Pier's skinny arms began expanding, growing muscles rapidly as fur overlapped his entire body, his face stretching out into the shape of a wolf and his fingernails, sharpening into claws. Piers was now in his werewolf form, a wolf skinnier than normal ones, but way faster and agile.

Vansel walked out of the hole in the wall, his pupils glowing sliver and his teeth, soaked in saliva, hungry for his next prey.

"Vansel, stop." Piers tells the werewolf in front of him who roared, charging at him wildly without hesitation. Piers readied himself, jumping out of the way as Vansel shot past him, roaring in frustration upon missing his target, the werewolf quickly turning around to charge at Piers again only for Piers to quickly duck under an attempted slash, landing a powerful punch into Vansel's chest, slamming him aside.

Vansel crashed onto the ground, his immense weight cracking the marble flooring beneath him before quickly getting up, completely unharmed.

"What the hell?" Piers was still trying to wrap his head around the fact that Vansel turned into one of them out of the blue as his opponent jumped into the air, Piers quickly ducking out of the way as Vansel smashed into the ground he was on seconds ago, producing a powerful shock wave that made Piers lose his balance, tumbling onto his back.

Vansel pounced at Piers, ready to slash him apart when a blast struck him, sending the newly turned werewolf aside as Huntus arrived, armed with an oversized infantry sniper.

"You alright?" Huntus asks Piers.

"Yeah yeah..."

"How did he even turn? I didn't bite him." Huntus asks Piers who shrugged:" I don't know...but he is strong, stronger than most of us fighter class wolves. We have to hold him back till the other reinforcements arrive. He's still in the first stage, he's not in control at all."Piers slit on two wrist armor pieces from his belt, deploying a pair of twin blades each easily a meter long, taking a stance to fight.

Huntus took aim as Vansel got up, leaping onto the ceiling at blinding speeds that both Huntus and Piers could not get, both werewolves confusedly looking up to see Vansel suddenly leap back down, landing beside Huntus and striking him in the back, knocking Huntus to the ground before quickly jumping towards Piers who quickly swung his blades, deflecting a slash from Vansel in the nick of time.

"Huntus!" Piers ducked out of the way, kicking Vansel in the ribs to knock him back slightly.

Vansel roared, punching Piers back when another werewolf arrived, Grandyll in his wolf form, grabbing Vansel and using his strength to throw him away from Piers. "Is that Vansel?" Grandyll asks to which Piers nods:" We don't know what's going on. He just turned."

"Xitraq and the Red Claws are reaching soon. I need you to clear the hallways behind me. I'll handle him." Grandyll offered. His werewolf was larger than the average ones, Grandyll could stand a chance."Huntus, cover me!"

Grandyll took a stance, knowing that Vansel's attention was now drawn on him and as expected, he attacked like a wild animal, falling straight into Grandyll's stance as the senior werewolf managed to quickly grab both of Vansel's arms, wrestling him onto the ground. The werewolf Vansel roared, clawing and scratching at Grandyll who grit his teeth, doing his best to endure the pain.

"Vansel! Think! You said you wanted to save your son right?! Prove it to us!" Grandyll roared as blood dripped down his arms.

A loud bang was heard as Vansel groaned in irritation, Huntus raining down shot after shot at him. The bullets were charring his skin but...unable to pierce through, like a child's punch against a ten inch steel wall, almost indestructible like.

"Swarm him! Shield slam!" Xitraq's voice echoed.

Grandyll turned around to see a dozen Red Claws, werewolves dressed in full red battle armors, armed with spears and shields that suited their size surrounding him. Half a dozen of them marched in first, using their shields to push Vansel away from Grandyll who managed to get up in time relatively unharmed.

The Red Claws, led by Xitraq began forming a circle around the rogue werewolf, preventing him from escaping as Vansel growled like a beast, punching at their shields and the Red Claws, holding him back with their own strength. "Push in! Chain him up or knock him out!" Xitraq commands when she noticed cracks forming around the marble floor her men was standing on.

"Fall back!" Xitraq yelled but it was too late.

The ground they were standing on erupted, Vansel's strength completely overwhelming the Red Claws as the rogue werewolf broke free once more, leaping across the gigantic corridor at superhuman speeds away from them.

"Come on we gotta catch him before he causes more damage!" Huntus cried out.

The werewolves in the area all began giving chase, all of them despite having the speed of a basic car still could not catch up to Vansel, who was pouncing onto pillars, walls and structures with such velocity none of them had ever seen. Xitraq, the fastest among the group managed to get Vansel back within her sights first as she threw her battle axe, her weapon hitting Vansel in the back and temporarily stopping him.

Vansel turned around, smacking her battle axe away like a toy before leaping at the she wolf.

Xitraq saw his attack coming, sliding under his attempted pounce before grabbing him by the leg, tossing him like a rag doll into a pillar which smashed into pieces upon impact. The rogue werewolf felt the pain, howling angrily before standing up, grabbing a large chunk of rubble and chucking it at Xitraq who quickly grabbed her battle axe back, slicing the incoming chunk of rubble into half.

"I knew we should have killed you." Xitraq growled.

The other werewolves soon caught up, Vansel upon spotting them quickly took off again. "Where is he going?!" Xitraq asks Grandyll, the most experienced werewolf there who read Vansel's trajectory:" No way...I think he's looking for the Solar Leafs. That is his greatest desire before turning, it would make sense that it's carrying onto his wolf now."

"Then we gotta stop him whatever it takes before he brings this place down." Xitraq suggests.

"Huntus, flank him from the other end of where he's heading to. Xitraq, come on!" Grandyll yells as both werewolves he commanded nods, Huntus quickly sprinting towards another corridor and Xitraq, jumping at Grandyll who caught her weight with his palm, hurling her at high speeds towards Vansel. Xitraq readied her axe, slashing at Vansel and to her horror, only managing to lightly graze his skin as Vansel turned around, backhanding her in the face and sending her crashing into a row of tables.

"Huntus!"

Huntus made it quickly behind Vansel, landing a shot right between Vansel's eyes, scalding him and stunning the rogue werewolf for a moment. Vansel quickly recovered, ready to attack back at Huntus when the Red Claws re engaged with him, the dozen well trained werewolves ramming him with their shields and pushing Vansel down onto the ground.

"Surround him! Don't let up!" Xitraq cries out.

Vansel's roars echoed across the entire corridor as the Red Claws, each of them using their own superhuman levels of strength to hold him down but even with their strengths combined, Vansel was barely being held back.

"Red Claws, fall back!"

The King himself arrived.

The Red Claws moved back in unison as Woxlife landed next to Xitraq in his wolf form. "He turned...into one of us despite not being bitten...this is no ordinary werewolf, allow me to handle this." Woxlife observes, commanding his men to stand down.

Vansel looked towards Woxlife, the biggest werewolf in the crowd and without hesitation, charged at the King who raised his fist, readying his own attack and as Vansel swung his claws forward, Woxlife catching the charging wolf's arm and with his own fist, pummeled Vansel into the ground with a devastating strike that knocked out Vansel in one hit.

A massive shock wave erupted upon the impact of the punch, sending a violent gust of wind across the entire area and even sending light vibrations crawling throughout the entire mountain, almost like Mount Diros itself was shaking for awhile.

"He's newly turned, chain him up with silver." Woxlife says.

"Yes King." The dozen Red Claws said in unison, obeying the King's commands.

Xitraq watched as her men brought the nearest batch of silver chains, acting accordingly to the King's orders. Piers walked aside, making way for the Red Claws to pass as he walked up to Woxlife: "I don't understand...he turned way too quickly. What is going on?"

"You are certain you didn't bite him right?" Xitraq asks Huntus who quickly responded:" A hundred percent. If I did you would see the marks on him."

"It's not Huntus' fault. I believe him. Now our priority is to understand what is going on. We cannot blame Vansel as well when he is awake. He clearly isn't even past the first stage of transformation yet. There is no way he can control himself."Woxlife tells the wolves when Xitraq stops him:" My King I mean no disrespect but...we shouldn't accept him. Look at what he has done."

"I know what he has done. But I'm afraid something bigger is about to happen soon. Go get some rest, get your men to rest too. I've made up my mind on what to do with him." Woxlife tells Xitraq who tried to argue, but is quickly shut down by the King.

"You are letting him go."

"Xitraq...please. Trust me."

"Look at him! He's so unstable. He showed up one day, the first human to show up here in years, ask for our sacred herb and turned into one of us out of the blue. How are you okay with this?"Xitraq argues as Woxlife nods:" I understand your frustration. But these visions are never wrong. Everything is telling me to allow his wishes to come true. If it ends up hurting the kingdom, I will take responsibility and stop aiding him but so far, he is someone who genuinely needs our help...and we can help him."

Xitraq paused for a moment, thinking about her next action before finally nodding.

Woxlife gave her a trusting nod:" I know you understand this decision Xitraq. You gotta stop letting your past affect your current choices." Xitraq gave him a returning nod as the King began walking away with Grandyll, his oldest friend and advisor. "Woxlife...those visions. They are becoming real?" Grandyll asks.

"I'm afraid so. The only visions so far as those of the next successor...which means my time is almost up."

-

Vansel shot open his eyes, waking up in cold sweat.

The first thing he noticed, tight silver cuffs chaining him to the wall and in front of him, a pissed off Xitraq. His clothes were torn and tattered, his body was sweaty and for some reason...like a enormous amount of energy had just been taken away from him.

"What the hell did you do to me?" Vansel asks the she wolf.

"You bastard...you don't remember shit don't you?!" Xitraq muttered to an increasingly confused Vansel who sighed:" What is it this time? You had never liked me since the first second you saw me. Xitraq was it...? If you want to stay mad at me, that's fine. But don't let my son suffer for this. He's just another innocent kid, let me go."

Piers was right next to her in his human form.

"You transformed...into one of us. Into a werewolf. You broke out of here, wrecked havoc across the mountain, injuring several of our guards and scaring the living hell out of our people." Piers tells Vansel whose eyes widened, unable to believe what he was being told. "Me? A werewolf? If that happened...assuming none of you are lying...it's on you isn't it? One of you bit me or something."

"Except none of us did." Piers pointed out.

Vansel paused for a moment, the looks in both werewolves told him that they weren't lying. The former marine's heart sank as his worldview collapsed for a moment.

"The scar on my chest...from Huntus right? Wouldn't this turn me into a werewolf as well?" Vansel asks the two. Xitraq scowled:" Werewolves are only transferred by bite only and this whole biting thing? None of us have bitten any humans since the 20th century when we decided that we are better than our primal instincts."

"Then explain this shit...you tell me I'm a werewolf now?! I can't stay here any longer. Let me leave before more shit happens to me okay, not once have I even tried to hurt any of you or your community. If you don't wanna help me, fine. But at least let me go back and see my son." Vansel scolded.

Xitraq smiled, taking out her battle axe and walking towards him.

"Wait a minute...hold it Xitraq! WAIT!"

Xitraq swung her axe, shattering the silver chains off him. "Lucky for you piece of shit...the King has made a decision. One that you will definitely be happy with but one...that I unfortunately have the shit luck of obeying."

It was dawn. Vansel was led out of the cell which for some reason had a giant hole in the wall. His guts were telling him that something bad had went down yesterday but the only thing he could remember was feeling extreme itch and pain, followed by an uncontrollable rage engulfing his every thought. He was greeted by Piers who waved to him awkwardly.

Vansel found himself being led to a fairly open hall with ceilings as high as a four story building with metal wires and screws decorating the walls. There were spikes at the end of the hallway pointing outwards and dozen of werewolf guards stationed all around. There all had full silver armors with majority of them armed with oversized crossbows.

There were seats, benches, small campfires laid all over the place, something Vansel recognized. Like a werewolf military base...

From a distance, Vansel spotted King Woxlife standing by the wall with spikes, accompanied by four Red Claws. Vansel knew better than to try anything stupid as he walked towards the King, accompanied by Piers and Xitraq himself. "I have considered your case Vansel. I will grant you a compromise between your requests and our stand."

"Please...what do you have in mind?" Vansel asks, walking towards the werewolf King.

"I cannot let you take the Solar Leafs with you. It poses too much of a risk. We werewolves need them here in order to keep us immune to silver and the vampires...too big of a danger if they get their hands on the leaf. However...I will make an exception to your case. I will let you bring your son over here and I will give him the leaf. Xitraq and Piers will accompany you to fetch your son over, just in case." Woxlife tells Vansel.

"Thank you so much. I appreciate it Woxlife. I really do."

Xitraq gave him a hostile growl:" I will watch your every move. Speak anything about what you saw here...I will behead you."

"I will try and make that not happen. Anyway, I'm here too, like it or not. Here's your stuff." Piers says, handing Vansel the camping equipment and stuff that he hiked the mountain with. "Not everything is here but...we tried our best to salvage what we could."

Piers gave him a reassuring nod that Vansel greatly appreciated.

Piers looked at Xitraq, giving her a come on look as she rolled her eyes: "Alright jeez. Give me a moment I'll change." She came back to them five minutes later, Vansel completely unable to recognize her. Xitraq's human form was just a lady in her early 30s, she had brownish blonde hair that was tied into a braid, she was dressed in a plain grayish-purple oversized hoodie with jeans, giving Vansel a pissed off look again.

"That's Xitraq right?" Vansel felt more comfortable with Piers.

"Yeah...she's just angry all the time. You'll get used to it."

Xitraq walked up to them:" Alright...let's make this quick. I wanna come back to this mountain as soon as we can so move your asses."

-

"Yeah your tent...it...crashed."

Alex looked at Vansel who awkwardly handed him his items back. "Did you at least find what you were looking for?" The store owner asks Vansel who nods:" You can say that." Vansel could sense Xitraq's eyes on him like a hawk, ready to strike him down at any moment. "I'm really sorry about the tent...I tried to salvage it but I really couldn't."

"Dude, it's fine really. We have dozens of tents here that haven't been used since the mountain was closed down. In fact you just helped clear some space so don't feel so bad about it. Anyway,good luck mate. I hope your son does recover." Alex says, shaking Vansel's hand.

"Thank you. You've really been a great help Alex. I'll leave a good review for this place, it's the best I can do." Vansel answers him. Alex and Vansel said their goodbyes as Vansel turned around where Xitraq and Piers were both waiting at.

"Alright. Airport next I guess?" Vansel suggests.

"Yeah." Piers says as the two led him towards the back of the town where a parking lot was at. Xitraq fished out a pair of keys, unlocking a red car from a distance. "So who's taking care of your son while you are here?" Xitraq asks.

"My ex wife. She's with the hospital with him now."

Xitraq paused and for a moment, her stern and angry expression faded for a second, almost like she was reminded of something. Vansel could tell from the look in her eyes that something was bothering her, under all that hard shell of a look she was putting up, something traumatizing must have happened to her at some point in time. "Have you called her?" Xitraq turns to him.

"My mobile's out of battery." Vansel showed her his phone.

"Signal here should be bad too. It's okay I can let you my portable. You can try calling her at the airport, let her know to discharge him." Piers tells Vansel who agreed. Xitraq looked at Vansel, remembering the words Woxlife had told her the night before.

"Vansel is important...if he turns and loses control of himself again. I need you to bring him back."

I hope you know what you are doing. Xitraq decided to place her faith in the King.

"Get in." Xitraq tells Vansel, opening the driver's seat door and hopping in first. Vansel and Piers followed suit with Piers taking his seat next to her and Vansel, beside them. "Do you know the way to the airport?" Xitraq asks Vansel who shook his head:" I'm not even from around here."

"GPS man." Piers handed Xitraq his phone.

Just one week ago, everything was still normal for Vansel.

Demi's sickness seemed stable, he was still reporting for duty every morning at the local marine base, Amy was still in her job and Vansel despite not having custody of his son, still visited him every weekend to make sure that he still had a father to grow up with. But now...in just these few days, he quit his job, Demi was dying and he was in a car with two werewolves.

The skies were grey, huge blankets of dark clouds covered most of the sunlight, almost like a huge storm was approaching them.

Vansel looked at his watch. It has been 2 days since he met his son. He couldn't wait to meet him and Amy once more. It felt like an eternity had passed. Vansel looked out of the car, spotting a mist surrounding them and the trees along the road they were on, rustling significantly more than any ordinary tree would.

Something was off.

"Piers...I need you to take the wheel." Xitraq seemed to notice something amiss as well.

The she wolf hopped over to Pier's seat as the confused scout listened to her, quickly going over to keep the vehicle from steering itself into an accident. "What? Is something wrong?" Piers asks Xitraq who nods, pulling out a bronze baton from her belt and sniffed the air, using her werewolf powers to sense her surroundings.

Vansel could feel the temperature around them drop, his breath was turning chilly and ice flakes forming on the vehicle's window.

"Shit!" Piers slammed the brakes as the car screeched to a halt.

Vansel looked towards the front of the road to see a man, his skin as pale as snow, almost like how Demi is. His arms and neck had black veins running down them, his ears were pointy and his teeth, two of them shaped like the fang of a viper.

Chills were sent down Vansel's spine as he instantly recognized what he was looking at.

A vampire.

Next Chapter-Bloodthirsty