The Moon Goddess' Chosen

446 More Trouble

The prince observed the man’s body, trying his best to keep the rabbit contents he ate earlier from returning. The rogue’s body, after the Rogue King left, had tried to return to its natural state and the results when combined with his injuries were gruesome.

It was a fate the prince would never wish on anyone… even if that person was his enemy.

The man’s limbs were all twisted and his joints bent in odd directions as the muscles tried to contract. The ribs that had been shattered pierced the man’s chest randomly and broke the skin, most probably failing to return to their normal positions when they were already broken.

Drake could guess that the man’s heart had been pierced as well in all this chaos.

It was also clear from the numerous red bruises littered all over the man’s body that he’d suffered multiple fractures because of the odd reverse mutation.

What was worse was that the process had not been completed. The process didn’t end with the man at his normal size nothing like his former self. The only part of him that remained true was his eyes which had long lost their glow.

The only explanation Drake could come up with for the incomplete reverse transformation was that the man had died before the transformation was done and remained stuck in that state.

The prince was torn between trying to figure out what to do next and whether or not he was the reason the man had to die like this.

‘What do I do now? Do I bury him or… no, we’ve never buried rogues before.’

.....

Drake was so wrapped up in his thoughts, guilt slowly overtaking him that he did not realise what was happening behind him.

The second rogue that had been presently watching this whole ordeal in horror was starting to grip his head in pain.

Something was happening to him as well and it had started the moment the red glow left his comrade’s eyes. The man was trying to fight the invasion his friend had just gone through.

He didn’t want to suffer the same fate as his friend had. Alas, this was not going to be the case. His opponent was the Rogue King. He might as well have given up the moment the king commanded his service.

With a low growl, the man’s eyes turned fully red, including the whites. He regarded the prince with a look of bitter hatred.

The Rogue King stared at the prince of Sirius through this rogue’s eyes, formulating numerous ways to rip the royal into pieces. The man had brought down his previous puppet far too easy for him to simply accept defeat and now he was… pitying his enemy.

‘A threat like this one cannot be allowed to live,’ the king thought to himself before forcing something even worse than he had of the other puppet he had enslaved.

He forced the man to shift. The breaking of bones and vicious growls that filled the air while the rogue shifted uncontrollably into his wolf almost went unnoticed by the prince.

Drake turned just in time to witness the abomination of a wolf shifting behind him. On one side, it seemed as though the wolf was going to tower a few metres over the prince’s frame, however, the other was much smaller.

The disfigurement that was happening to the rogue was nothing short of grotesque.

White foam spilt from his mouth as the orders for a transformation took hold. The wolf fell to its larger side, the other being far too small to even touch the ground, however, that was only momentary.

The smaller side soon bulged in size to match the other half. With that came the end of the painful growls the rogue had been making. It was as though the rogue within had finally given up the fight.

A large black feral wolf was soon standing on all muscular fours with bloodshot eyes trained on the prince.

This wolf rivalled the size of a beta alpha and defeated Drake’s logic of what wolves were meant to look like. Instead of the graceful features that blessed the royal wolves when they shifted.

Silken fur that demanded to be touched and an appearance that demanded power while still keeping the feral nature of a wolf at bay. This was what the prince envisioned in all the strong alphas he’d met. It’s what he’d known all his life.

What stood before him was the opposite of that. Its fur was disorganised and matted in several places. The thick ropes of muscle beneath its skin could be seen clearly as if the fur did nothing to hide it.

White foam dripped down its muzzle, exposing rows of jagged teeth that had lost all form and order. It wasn’t even sensible to count the sets of canines anymore. It’s like the abomination in front of him was made to destroy and nothing else. Its eyes held no reason and its long claws dug into the ground with pent-up energy, ready to tear apart the enemy in front of it.

Who was the enemy at this point? Drake could wager this creature was only going to go on a rampage given the chance and kill everything that lived and breathed in its path.

From what Drake had witnessed of its fallen comrade, size did nothing to slow it down. This creature was a hulking mass of murderous muscle that had its target locked on him.

“When I started the Trials, I was sure I would face a lot of things. Maybe find a few rogues that still roamed the wilderness but nothing told me I would be facing a demon controlled by the Rogue King. I must be very lucky,” the prince chuckled to himself.

The wolf, on the other hand, was not in the mood for his jokes and dashed forward to attack him without a second thought. The distance Drake had considered large before was suddenly covered in a few short quick strides. The wolf was large and each stride easily covered a two-metre distance even when it looked like it was trying to keep the strides short.

‘Move, Drake, move…’ the prince’s inner wolf yelled, uttering words for the first time since the prince had been born.

If the prince had stopped to wonder why he’d heard his wolf speak, he would have been devoured by the approaching deranged abomination, but he didn’t. The wolf’s words were what he needed to spur himself into action.

Drake leapt to the right at the last moment as the wolf’s jaws came clamping down on his former position.

His mistake, however, was that he hadn’t considered the speed with which this wolf was able to recover. Normally, rushing at someone at a speed that great would require some energy and time to recover in order to make a sharp turn.

With enough training, this time of recovery could be reduced. Even with that taken into account, nothing had prepared the prince for what happened next. It simply felt impossible.