THE VROL TRILOGY (69 page)

Miles and Jason hacked and slashed everyone
in their vicinity, while Sally and Sheeva gathered supplies to
bring back to their own camp. Indie was invading tents, looking for
younglings to slaughter, as Max tried to stay one or more steps
ahead, hiding them. When it appeared that he would no longer be
able to properly save the pack's women and children Max streaked
out to the middle of the camp area, jumping into the air and
landing down on one knee while simultaneously punching the hard
earth. His mass gravicantus launched everyone into the air, only to
land completely unconscious. He quickly carried all five Lykanrol
members to the cave, one by one. Throwing them all through and then
following, he moved them far enough away from the entrance that
they wouldn't be harmed by his next action. Holding his palm out,
he focused a heat cantus onto the cave entrance, causing the rock
to melt into molten slag, forever sealing the permanent 3d slip
technology inside a mountain, never to be used, or abused, ever
again. Max then went to Lykanrol's camp and waited for them to show
up. He knew that when they arrived they would be murderously upset.
What they didn't know was that Max was pissed off - extremely
pissed off, and he was going to teach them a lesson.

Miles was the first to regain consciousness
and quickly looked around for his mate. Seeing that she was
unharmed, he gently awoke her and then moved to his pack
subordinates, kicking each one.

"What happened?" he growled. "How the hell
did we get here? And where's Max?"

Miles moved about 3 meters, quickly followed
by Jason and Indie. Scanning the area, they each determined that
they were near the cave entrance. Miles walked up and touched the
warm surface. The vegetation had been destroyed when Max sealed the
entrance, but they were unaware of his activities at the time.

"Looks like Max is screwed, eh?" laugh Miles.
"Well, he wasn't Lykanrol anyway, so it's no great loss. But I want
to find out what happened to the cave, like now!"

Sally sniffed the air, and then looked in the
direction of the clan's encampment.

"Miles, Max isn't back there. He's at the
camp. Can't you smell him?"

Everyone pointed their noses in the air and
then looked at each other. Without another word they all took off
running back to their home in the woods, finding Max Gunnarsson
sitting at the fire pit, stoking the flames with some freshly
chopped tinder.

"Welcome back, guys," exclaimed Max, having
an obviously happy tone to his voice. "I can see you're all safe
and sound."

"You wanna tell me what the hell happened,
Max? How did we get back, and why's my cave blocked?" Miles still
had no real idea what had happened, but was talking tough as usual.
Max looked at the pack leader while wearing a thoughtful
expression, and displayed a soft smile.

"Well, I brought you all back. And as
for
your
cave, I sealed it
up."

"What give you the right to touch my
property?" roared Miles.

Max stood up to look Miles directly in the
face, while the clan leader still waited before making any sort of
move, not fully understanding the gravity of the situation.

"Well, Miles. First off, it was
never
your
cave, nor
your
property. You were right when
you guys said it was left over by a mage. In fact, I could tell you
the exact methodology used to create the slip
mechanism."

"Wrong, asshole - it's
all
mine. So, what happened
to
my
cave, Max? Answer me
what I wanna hear, and I'll maybe let you live."

Max snickered at Miles' comments. The man had
no idea what he was up against, but Max was about to show him. It
was bad enough that he was an arrogant prick, but Max couldn't
tolerate wanton violence against innocents. His short time during
the raid showed him that their victims were not a formidable enemy,
but a peaceful group living together and trying to survive.

"Miles, it's simple. I sealed the cave after
I got you all out of there. You see, I've never had a stomach for
violence against the innocent. That's what I saw so that's what I
did. You're done, Miles. I didn't mean to show up here, but if I
see injustice, well, I stomp on its face until it's dead."

"Who do you think you are, kid? You
walk into
my
world and tell
me what to do? I'm gonna kill your punk ass."

Miles quickly moved forward in Max's
direction, but as he ran towards the smaller newcomer he couldn't
make physical contact - it was like he involuntarily slid around
Max, who had actually created a vertical gravity field around his
body.

Sally spirited Sheeva to the main lodge, as
Indie and Jason surrounded the young lycan visitor. Max walked
around the fire pit with an absolute air of impunity. He had
matured much since he began his adventures in the Rhönen Dominion,
but at times he did enjoy sticking it to really bad people - and
Lykanrol was full of nasty, bad types.

Keeping a sizeable distance between himself
and the three men, Max shook his head and responded to Miles'
taunts.

"No, Miles. You aren't going to kill me. In
fact, you're lucky I have morals, or I would kill you where you
stand. What you did tonight was totally reprehensible, and I intend
to-"

"Repre - what?" Miles interrupted with a
growl. "I don't understand that word. You made it up to sound
fancy, didn't you?"

"Not even. That's a perfectly normal word.
You're just a retard who preys on the weak. You see, where I'm
from, vampires are the predators and lycans are noble - protecting
humans and young ones. But you guys are slime. I pity your
offspring - really. So I'm going to let you live, but yes, I closed
off your cave so you can't bother those poor people again. It was
all I could do to shuttle them to safety while you guys ran around
with a bloodlust, killing so you could steal their supplies. Now
I'll be going on my merry way. Think I'll head up north this time.
I have a feeling something's up there."

"No, asshole. You ain't going nowhere,"
hissed a recently-returned Sally as she threw some liquid on Max,
followed by a quick flick of a burning log, lighting him on
fire.

Miles started to laugh as he saw Max explode
into a ball of flames. The four then grabbed their swords and
started hacking away at the glowing figure, while guarding their
faces from the intense heat.

Max screamed in pain and flailed his arms
helplessly, as Lykanrol hacked away at any exposed areas of his
burning body. Sally laughed while she poured more flammable liquid
on him, causing the flames to shoot even higher.

Lykanrol appeared to revel in the demise of
the newcomer who had betrayed them. They laughed and howled as they
slashed swords and smashed clubs down into where they thought Max's
head would be. The more they hacked the more elation they felt.
Finally, after having apparently brought about the demise of the
unfortunate lad, they stopped swinging, each one breathing heavily,
exhausted and having spent all of their resources.

"He's dead, I say. Whatcha think, Indie?"
asked Miles, looking at the smoldering corpse on the ground.

"Oh yeah, boss. He's definitely dead. Shame
though - he needed to feel more pain. I hate it when they die so
quickly."

"Sally!" yelled Miles, "get rid of the body.
It stinks, almost as bad as a Vrol."

But before Sally could even make a movement
towards the body, it moved. Not only did it move, it went up
vertical again, as if it were standing. Max's body was a
smoldering, nuked-out corpse, but it was up on its feet. Lykanrol
all stood shocked as the figure spread its arms out and started to
groan in agony.

"What the hell is that?" asked Indie, as he
watched in horror.

"It has to be demonic magic. No other way a
body could come back from the dead," said Jason.

"I need my flamethrower," grunted Sally, as
she made a move to depart. However, before she could, Max's corpse
reached out and took her throat into its hand, squeezing tightly.
Then, almost as if by magic (which it actually was), the body shed
its scorched exterior, revealing a perfectly normal Max Gunnarsson,
who just happened to be wearing a devious smile.

"Sally, you really enjoying burning people,
don't you?" asked and obviously untouched Max.

"You know it, you bastard. Die!" she screamed
as she went to throw more flammable liquid onto Max, but this time
he waved his hand and caused it to fly off to either side.

"Sally, Sally, please my ugly friend, don't
try to light me on fire. It didn't work the first time, so you can
be well assured that it will not work on the second try."

Max watched astonished Lykanrol packers,
unable to move due to mass confusion. Laughing, he released Sally
and slowly levitated himself into the air while looking down at
them. He had no more need to keep truth from them.

"Kids, here's what it is. You see, not only
am I a lycan, I'm also a mage, and a real one - not one of those
fakers. I come from far away, and in my universe the Vrol didn't
allow Earth to survive - the planet was decimated, so you should
feel lucky."

Max was about to continue with his monologue,
when a loud bang cracked through the night sky. Shocked, he looked
down and saw blood seeping from a small wound in his shoulder, and
then gazed over to see Sally pointing an old rifle at him.

"Asshole! I'm gonna kill you!" she screeched
as she cleared the chamber and attempted to load another round. Max
slowly lowered himself to the ground as his wound cleared, pushing
the bullet out and healing itself. Miles, Indie and Jason looked on
with astonishment as Max stepped over to Sally, and pointing a
finger at her forehead, caused her to freeze in place. Then, with a
look of concentration, Max quietly said, "Goodbye, Sally."

Her head exploded, covering the three
Lykanrol men with brains, skull fragments and blood. Max had
microwaved her brain with a cantus that manipulated electromagnetic
energy. He was personally untouched by Sally's splatterings, as he
had kept a protective barrier around himself since Sally had shot
him. Her body dropped to the ground, making a soft crumpling sound
as the three men backed away, watching as torrents of blood spurted
out through severed arteries.

"You're a demon! Evil!" screamed Miles, now
obviously afraid but still trying to act macho. "Why are you doing
this to us? We fed you and decided not to kill your ass!"

"Miles, you're a dick. This entire world is
messed up, and I was willing to leave it be, but what you did to
that group of people has no excuse. I'm done with you all. Oh, and
I don't like being lit on fire. I gave Sally a bit of her own. Now,
here's a special treat for you."

Max lilted his head backwards, groaning as
the muscles in his back contracted and salubots raced through his
system, effecting changes to his musculoskeletal system. Whipping
his head forward, he stared at three terrified men while the bones
in his face reformed, pushing forward into a muzzle. His legs
elongated, but didn't break and form a stifle. He retained a
semblance of his bipedal form, yet still more resembled a wolf than
a human. Max screamed as his skin was shredded from his body,
quickly replaced by fur, and his human teeth popped out of his
mouth with sickening crunching sounds, only to be replaced by razor
sharp lupine teeth.

A werewolf/lycan hybrid stood in front of
Lykanrol, and if the men were not so terrified they would have
probably kneeled down to worship Max, he so perfectly represented
their ideal - enhanced lycan death. But this was not the case. Max
had done something he had never heard of before. He had voluntarily
transformed to an all-new form, and not even during the full moon.
This was in-between his phase 2 and phase 3 forms, bring the best
of each together, all while maintaining sapience - something that
had eluded him during over a half year of full moon
transformations.

Reaching out with a clawed hand/paw, Max
grabbed Jason and snapped his neck, tearing out his esophagus at
the same time. Miles stood paralyzed with fear, covered with even
more blood as Max stared directly into his eyes. Then, without
looking away, Max pointed at Indie as the man tried to back away.
The lycan growled as Indie looked down as his groin area, which had
started to bleed profusely. Frantically screaming and scratching at
himself, Indie pulled his pants down to see that his reproductive
organs had fallen off into his underwear, filling his
tighty-whities, along with ample amounts of blood. He fell back,
screaming and trying desperately to put his bits back into place,
all to no avail.

Max Gunnarsson, phase 2.5 werewolf mage and
the son of an archangel, had just gone beyond anything that any
other lycan had ever done. He had become a fully-functioning,
bipedal, sapient humanoid werewolf with devastating magical
abilities. To top it off, he had just turned an enemy into a eunuch
via magic. He thought that was pretty cool, and really wished that
Jennie was there to see it. But he wasn't done. Not by a long shot.
He started rampaging through Lykanrol's camp, tearing down
structures and melting any sort of supply he could see simply by
willing it. The only thing he left standing was the main lodge,
where Sheeva was hiding. Max hated what Lykanrol was, but he could
never harm a pregnant woman, as that would bring harm to her unborn
child.

After roughly ten minutes of wanton
destruction, Max sat off to the side of the encampment, casually
licking a hand/paw and watching as Miles stood in the middle of
flaming destruction.

"Why did you do this? What are you?" screamed
Miles, as he tried to understand why any of this had happened to
him. Before he could continue, Sheeva emerged from the lodge,
looking around frantically and in a state of shock.