Wolf you Up! - Chapter 106
The day was starting to dawn. He had driven all night to reach Skinwalker territory. The human had forbidden Glen and Eden to come along. If the leader of Blue Moon used dark energy, it could quickly become dangerous for the alpha.
His footsteps echoed in the stillness of the twilight. The animals were already out and he had to discern their sound from the sound of his future enemies. Suddenly, an abnormal rustling drew his attention.
Connor reacted right away by lowering his dao he had detached from his support by reflex. The blade plunged into the neck of a wolf who barely recoiled, avoiding total decapitation.
Unfortunately for him, Connor’s blow was powerful and the blade had dug halfway into his neck, slicing him almost to the trachea. The wolf began to bleed out.
“I won’t go easy on you because you laid your hand the only person you shouldn’t have to.” He twirled his dao so the speed of the movement wiped the blood off the blade and prepared for another attack.
“Who’s next?”
The wolves in front of him watched their fellow fighter that Connor had just mortally wounded as he was bleeding to death on the ground. They then raised their heads towards him, baring their fangs in hostility. However, none of them moved. They had seen the force with which Connor struck and they were now suspicious enough to not act hastily.
The agent looked around. He counted seven wolves in front of him, two on each side, and he expected at any moment to see several cut off his way to the rear.
The increasing luminosity in the forest was to his advantage. The agent would have more visibility on the topography of the land and, thus, he could avoid a trap. The fighters exchanged glances.
Connor didn’t know if, like werewolves, Skinwalkers could use a link or something else to communicate. Even if they couldn’t, he would have to take care of the four north/south/east/west segments at the same time. The agent had to fight and get rid of, at least one fighter on a segment with each attack, otherwise, he would be overwhelmed by the others hiding in his blind spots while he was focused on a segment.
Now that his strategy was set, Connor lowered his dao and squeezed the handle with the fingers of both hands before loosening up his shoulders. He had to sharpen his senses to feel the first attack coming. If his intuition was correct, the Skinwalkers would attack, sending one or more members per segment.
Their goal was to capture him, not kill him. Even though they would surely not flinch at the thought of one wound or two, the agent still had a blatant advantage. They needed him alive. At worst, they would go so far as to inflict serious injury on him if they got into a stalemate, but otherwise, he had a free hand unlike them.
As these strategic thoughts raced through his mind, the man’s ears caught the feigned sound of a branch snapping as one of the two Skinwalkers to his left finally moved. Without turning completely to his opponent, he swung his blade downwards before making the same path in the opposite direction. His first downward blow slashed the belly of a first fighter while the second hit targeted only the next opponent’s face. A large cut had grazed the Skinwalker’s face, slicing through his eye.
The moan that escaped from the wolf’s maw stirred up the animosity of the other fighters who started to bark and growl all at the same time to disconcert Connor. Unfortunately for them, the agent was an overtrained field man.
Even though most of his missions didn’t require him to deal with so many enemies at once, he had already taken down rogues grouped in greater numbers than this one. Of course, it hadn’t been a cakewalk, but he had come out of it unscathed. He had to anyway because he had a boyfriend who freaked out at the slightest cut.
Connor was back in his fighting stance, ready to retaliate. Despite the barking and growling, he didn’t lose his focus. When three Skinwalkers attacked from three different sides, he decided it was time to step up a gear and get rid of the small fry.
Connor slashed the Skinwalker fighter that came in front of him, knocking down his dao and coming back up in a split second to widen the wound he had just made in the wolf’s stomach. His wrist twisted and he changed his grip on the hilt of the sword.
Suddenly ducking, the officer bent down with one knee and thrust his dao into the ground. His free hand drew one of the cinquedae from his arm, which he threw without even looking. He had already spotted, not only the position of his target but also that of his next assailant.
As soon as the dagger left his palm, he fished the push dagger at his left ankle and threw it. The blade stuck in the fur of a grey wolf whose momentum was cut off which fell back to the ground while the one who had been hit par the cinquedae let out cries and moans on the ground after the blade had sunk into his eye until the guard.
Connor didn’t stop there. He placed the hand that had just dropped the last dagger next to the other on his dao and pulled it out of the ground with all his might to take advantage of the momentum. He aimed and cut off the front legs of the two wolves attacking him from the front and the man took a step to the side to offer his back to the wolf he had scarred a little earlier.
With a smirk, he stopped his movement as soon as the blade was in the position he wanted. Connor took a step back and planted the sword in the belly of the Skinwalker who thought he had it from behind. Unfortunately, he had used too much force in his movement and the blade plunged and pierced right through the wolf before getting stuck in his body.
Seeing that, Connor pushed away with a blow of his boots, the wolf who had received his push dagger in the eye and who was already coming after him. The kick made him change his balance.
With a last effort, the agent pulled his sword out and his smirk widened when he saw that the motion of the move had given him just the right amount of momentum. He impaled the wolf in front of him who was already fighting back after his kick on the muzzle and thrust his blade my half into his stomach before spinning the blade.
The one who could easily claim the title of the best assassin of the WIA intended to show the difference in level that there was between him and his opponents.
Connor sliced through the wolf’s body from the inside, where the blade had stuck. The dao made a semi-circle, and the sound of the blade slicing through the air at full speed drew a slight smile to his lips. He sure liked bladed weapons.
The sword boosted by the momentum of its movement wounded two new wolves whose bodies fell to the ground before the belly started to spread blood on the icy and muddy ground.
Connor broke his position before making the dao slash through the air one last time to remove the excess blood. He looked around and saw the remaining wolves ponder whether they should get closer or not. Of the eleven enemies he had against him four were dead, four disabled due to severed limbs or open wounds that spilled their blood, and two of the three back-ups were already on the ground unable to attack.
There were only four Skinwalkers left in combat condition, and it was time for him to switch to a much more sly type of edged weapon. The agent had learned to master them with a man whose brute strength had made him the number one field agent in his youth. His mentor, Bradley Stevenson.
Connor stowed his dao in its holder and the sound of the magnet pulling the blade so it could stick to it made the wolves flinch. He reached into his pocket and pulled out two knuckledusters, and Connor’s palm closed around something none of the wolves had time to see.
If at first, they thought that the man had lost his advantage by wanting to attack them in close combat, it was before they had taken a look at the pieces of bluish metal that Connor had just dressed his knuckles.
The two knuckledusters were precision-worked pieces of metal and used in close combat, by an assassin, they could inflict deep wounds through which the wolfsbane would infiltrate and finish the job.
The part Connor was putting against his hand was completely normal. However, the part that struck the enemy was a sharp edge of more than an inch and a single glance was enough to appreciate the care with which it had been sharpened to not spare a single injury.
Fists clenched, guard raised slightly below his eye line, legs spread and rooted to respond to any attack, Connor waited for his enemies to move. The four wolves looked at each other uncertainly and one of them took a step back. He was immediately scolded by another with a bark and a growl.
When the other Skinwalkers saw the scene, their demeanor immediately changed and they regained their full aggression even though Connor knew that no matter how determined they were, this fight was coming to an end.
A first wolf galloped off and jumped on the agent who smirked. After taking a step back, he drew his fist back along with his upper body and aimed the wolf on the head. The fist made contact with the Skinwalker’s head, just between his eye and the corner of his maw.
The edge sank easily into the wolf’s flesh and a crack sounded as the skull shattered under the impact of Connor’s fist reinforced by his knuckleduster. The Skinwalker fell back to the ground, dead, and the three other wolves looked at the body. Shocked, one of the wolves suddenly started running and away through the woods in the direction of the village.
“Weak!”
The two remaining wolves lifted their head at the word and glared at Connor. The latter looked at them smugly before resuming his position. Guard on. He was silently urging them to attack him if they dared, and the Skinwalkers realized how wrong they had been to provoke the agent.
They knew how doomed they were if, like their comrade, they fled, but fighting meant death and they now understood that fact. The more aggressive wolf decided not to turn back.
He barked and growled before circling Connor. The man didn’t even bother to follow his movements. He knew that given their nervous state, they were no longer a threat.
Finally, the Skinwalker sprinted to swoop down on Connor, but instead of leaping up he attacked down his body and aimed at his leg. Connor simply dodged the attack with his sharpened reflexes and spun. He, then, revealed what he had in the palm of his hand. A mechanical noise rose above the other sounds around them and the stand-by Skinwalker caught a glimpse of a strange thread wrapped around his companion’s neck.
Thrown by Connor, the end of a chock lace made a full turn and the agent caught it back. As soon as the object was in his hand he pulled, spreading his arms. Thin streams of blood began to trickle down the Skinwalker’s neck and the next moment his head fell and rolled to the ground before a red geyser poured out from his decapitated trunk.
Connor straightened up, looked at the last fighter and his eyes narrowed.
“Now, did you realize that you pissed off the wrong guy?”