SYSTEM ASCENSION

”Claude?” Davon’s voice cracked. ”As in—”

”As in the guy who is our student council president,” Fayera said, already moving. ”Yes. Ask questions later.”

She didn’t wait for agreement. She threw herself down the slope, tentacles snapping out to catch her descent, skidding to a stop between two of the men holding the chains.

”Let him go.”

They glanced at her and flinched, almost letting go of the chain.

”It’s a Kadil. Jackpot!” The nearest one yelled.

”Yeah. Jackpot.” She mimicked.

Her ability lashed out, a tentacle wrapping the ankle of a man, yanking him off his feet, and slamming him against the ground.

The man hit the dirt with a crunch and didn’t get up.

”Stop standing there!” Fayera shouted.

”Right! Right!” Kael caught Davon by the collar, spread his wings and flew down. Quil jumped.

The chain-holders scattered into a loose ring. There were at least fifteen of them, and none looked like the type to run.

”The priority is the chains!” Fayera said, snapping another tentacle at a man swinging a spiked mace. ”And the spikes! Pull them out before he passes out!”

”Which ones?” Kael yelled.

”All of them!”

”What do you mean before he passes out?” Davon asked.

”If he goes unconscious, I’m taking the portal trip back to the Salvador empire the next minute.” She yelled.

Quil looked at the werewolf. Long iron spikes jutted from its shoulders, ribs, and one thigh. Blood matted the gray fur around every wound.

”Great,” he muttered. ”Very specific.”

A man lunged at him with a short spear. Quil sidestepped, grabbed the shaft, and drove his elbow into the man’s jaw. The spear clattered away. ”Davon! Cover me!”

”I’m covering! I’m covering!” Davon planted his feet and threw up a wall of vital energy barrier just as two crossbow bolts slammed into it. The barrier cracked. ”Ow. Okay. That one hurt me personally.”

Kael cut through a man’s chain-hook mid-swing and ducked under a follow-up strike. ”Why are there so many of them? We killed a general an hour ago!”

”Maybe they’re the general’s friends,” Quil said.

”That’s not helpful!”

”GRRRHHH!” The werewolf thrashed, and the chains groaned. Two men holding the left line were nearly yanked off their feet.

”Hold him!” one of them screamed. ”Don’t let him break free!”

Fayera’s eyes flashed. Two tentacles shot out, coiled around their waists, and flung them in opposite directions. They crashed into the corpses of their own men.

”Quil, the shoulder!”

Quil vaulted over a body, reached the beast’s flank, and wrapped both hands around the nearest spike. It burned. He hissed through his teeth. ”It’s hot! Why is it hot?!”

”It’s suppressing his regeneration! Pull!”

He put his whole weight into it. The spike slid free with a wet, awful sound, and the werewolf shuddered, letting out a long, ragged breath. The torn flesh around the wound began, very slowly, to knit.

The huge gray eye rolled toward Quil.

Quil froze. ”...hey.”

”Don’t talk to him, just keep pulling!” Fayera barked.

”Behind you!” Kael shouted.

Quil dropped flat as Kael’s flute swept over him and cleaved through the chain of a man trying to stab him in the back.

”I thought the flute was for music.” Quil asked.

”You all just have to say something huh?!” She snapped at them.

She spun, tentacles whirling, and swept three men off their feet at once. She landed beside the wolf’s ribs and grabbed a second spike herself. ”Kael, the thigh! Go!”

”On it!”

They worked in a frantic rhythm, one pulling, one guarding, the werewolf’s breathing growing stronger with each spike that came free. Its growls shifted, less pain now, more rage.

Fayera pulled the last spike and dropped it. She looked up into the beast’s eye.

”Hey Vadok!”

Its eyes snapped down to her.

She changed language and said something, a string of sounds that didn’t sound like the Salvador empire tone.

The werewolf went still. Then, turned his gaze.

”Uh,” Davon said weakly. ”Fayera? What did you say to him?”

She stepped back, tentacles curling protectively around her friends.

”I told him to break them,” she said.

Claude rose to his full height, and the students held their breaths. Their whole height was his ankle. He shook out his fur, and he moved.

The first man didn’t even have time to scream. Claude’s jaws closed around his middle, and the sound that followed was something none of them would forget. A second man tried to run. A single swipe of a claw the size of a door sent him tumbling across the clearing in two pieces.

”Don’t look,” Davon whispered, turning his head. Then he looked anyway. ”Oh, I looked. Why did I look?”

”Vadok,” Quil glanced at her. ”Did you say Vadok?”

”His real name.”

Kael’s flute was still raised. ”We... we came down here to save him, right? We’re not going to end up on the menu?”

”He knows us,” Fayera said. She stood perfectly still, her tentacles drawn close. ”He knows me. Stay behind me anyway.”

”That’s not comforting,” Kael said.

”It would have been better if his mate was here.” She shrugged.

”His what?” The rest chorused.

Within a minute, the clearing was quiet. The fifteen men who had held the chains were gone, some fleeing into the trees only to be caught in a few enormous strides, the rest lying where they had fallen. Claude stood in the middle of it all, panting, blood dripping from his muzzle, the four horns dark against the evening sky.

”GRRRRHHHH.”

It wasn’t a roar this time. It was lower, almost tired. Massive legs buckled and he hit the ground.

”Is it over?” Davon asked.

”I think so,” Kael said.

That was when they heard the clap. It came from the rocks at the edge of the clearing.

All four of them turned.

A woman was sitting on a flat boulder, one leg crossed over the other, chin resting in her palm. She had clearly been there the whole time.

Kael’s mouth fell open. ”The second queen?”

”Claude’s teacher,” Davon breathed. ”She was here, this whole time?”

She hopped down and landed beside them.

”Your highness.” They bowed.

”I figured I’ll let him fight loose, since he looks like he hasn’t done it in a while.” Sienna shrugged.

”Now, we have to deal with the aftermath.” Fayera said.

”What aftermath?” They asked.

They heard a groan behind them, drawing their attention to him.

He had already shifted back when they were talking and he just stood there, panting heavily, with his eyes unfocused.

”Uh...what’s happening?” Davon asked.

Sienna narrowed her eyes. ”This is not good.”

Fayera nodded. ”Whis is why he hate shifting. He starts convulsing.”