Step, Step, Step!
Sous walked up the steps to the throne room. She pushed opened the heavy doors, the blood covering her dried. Her tears had also dried. She walked with her head held down thinking of the conversation she had with Shadow while Pameon refused to speak with her.
"He was going to kill you," Shadow had said.
CLAP, CLAP, CLAP!
Zhiliary sat lounging on the throne, grinning at Sous.
"Look at you," she said. Her legs thrown over the the arm of the throne chair. "You took my wife. You took my country. Now you're here to take my life. Oh, and sorry about your son," she said holding back a laugh.
Sous slowly lifted her head up. "You could have given your pack that power but you kept it to yourself!" Sous yelled, but Zhiliary only shrugged.
"No regrets," the Alpha said. She stood up and walked down the stairs to the floor, darkness surrounding them with only sunrays coming in from the broken cracks of the roof.
She began to take off her clothes, revealing her body that was covered in seals. Sous' eyes became wide seeing all of them. She gulped.
"Where are my wife and Tany?"
"They're with the witch. The one who granted me these seals," Zhiliary said, walking toward Sous. The seals began to light up, red. Her bones and body popped while Sous stepped back.
Each step Zhiliary took, she grew taller, her fingers getting longer. Her nails turned into claws, and black hair sprouted from her skin.
Her face twisted, her mouth stretching past her jawline. Her teeth grew sharper, her canines becoming fangs. The seals glowed brighter, pulsing as her body twisted and cracked. Sous watched as Zhiliary's spine bent unnaturally, reshaping into something resembling a wolf but nothing like one.
Her arms lengthened, dragging knuckles against the stone floor. The fur that covered her was patchy, ripped in places where the skin underneath was infected-looking and oozing.
Zhiliary's back arched violently, cracking in ways that would have killed any normal creature. The grotesque parody of a wolf-form continued unfolding, her head elongated into a mangled snout, eyes bulging unevenly, one milky white while the other pulsed with sickly yellow light.
Sous stabbed her side of the neck at the same time her father's magae ran through her fist, the blue particles lifting up. Her arms began to transform into the numerous blades she was used to.
This wasn't her strongest seal but she didn't want to go big and regret it especially with the seal on her stomach.
The silence was worse than any battle cry. Sous' blades twitched like the legs of a dying spider, blue particles swirling around her forearms as they reshaped into newer, deadlier configurations, serrated edges forming where smooth steel had been moments before.
Zhiliary's mutated form dripped something thick and yellowish between the gaps in her patchy fur, each droplet hissing against the stone.
Sous ducked under the first swipe, too slow. Zhiliary's elongated claws caught her shoulder, shredding fabric and flesh in one wet rip. The sting barely registered.
Blue particles flared as Sous' blades whipped upward, severing two of Zhiliary's fingers. They hit the ground twitching, blackened nails still flexing like dying beetles.
Zhiliary roared, not pain, but fury, her misshapen jaws spraying thick saliva across Sous' face. The acidic spittle sizzled against her cheekbone.
Sous pivoted on her heel, blades elongating mid-spin to carve a gash across Zhiliary's exposed ribs. Rotten-smelling pus oozed from the wound, mingling with the blood already soaking the stones.
Zhiliary's distended jaws snapped shut inches from Sous' throat, the force of the bite sending vibrations through the air.
Sous twisted, her blades screeching against Zhiliary's teeth as she barely avoided the killing blow. The stench of rot enveloped them, decayed meat, pus, and something like burnt hair.
Blood sprayed in arcs. Sous' blades tore through Zhiliary's forearm, but the wound knitted itself shut almost instantly, flesh squirming like maggots beneath the surface. Zhiliary's clawed hand seized Sous' throat, lifting her off the ground.
CRACK!
Sous' spine hit the pillar with enough force to split stone, dust and debris exploding outward as she slid down, her blades scraping against the rubble.
Zhiliary's monstrous bulk lunged, her distended jaws unhinging further, too wide, too wrong, revealing rows of needle-thin teeth dripping viscous saliva. Sous rolled left just as those jaws snapped shut on empty air, the impact sending shockwaves through the floor.
Blood sprayed as Sous' bladed forearm slashed upward, carving through Zhiliary's thigh muscle, thick black fluid gushed, smelling of spoiled meat and copper.
The Alpha barely flinched; her flesh writhed, tendons twitching like live wires as the wound stitched itself closed.
Sous barely had time to blink before Zhiliary's mangled fist hammered into her ribs.
CRUNCH!
She tasted blood: sharp, metallic, as her body skidded across the throne room, carving bloody furrows into the cracked marble.
Her blades dug in, screeching as they slowed her momentum. Zhiliary was already moving, her elongated limbs scrambling across the ceiling like some grotesque spider, then dropping onto Sous with the weight of a collapsing tower.
The impact drove the air from her lungs as Zhiliary's claws raked down her sides, peeling away ribbons of flesh.
Survival was everything. Sous's blades twisted mid-air, catching Zhiliary's forearm in a serrated vise, grinding through corrupted flesh until they met resistance. Bone splintered, then snapped.
Zhiliary's howl shook dust from the rafters.
Sous barely registered the spray of blackened marrow before rolling aside, barely avoiding the swipe that would've cleaved her skull open. The wind of the missed strike ruffled her hair.
Zhiliary's mangled fist hit the floor where Sous' head had been, cracking marble like brittle glass. The Alpha picked the blonde Alpha up, laughing. She threw Sous as hard and far as she could.
SLAM!
Sous went through numerous walls until she was met with trees and grass, she landed hard onto the grass, getting a mouthful of dirt. The only thing that stopped her were her blades.