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Two men walked on an almost deserted street in Bucharest, Romania. Only a couple of cars drove around at this hour of the moonless night. The tall, blond Erwin looked at his companion, he was shorter and had black hair, but what was most noticeable were the wolf-like ears and tail.
“Levi, are you okay?” he asked.
“Stop asking me that,” Levi growled in return. “I won, didn’t I? I defeated their so-called ‘undefeated champion’.” He spat on the ground after he said that. “How much further is it anyway?”
Erwin pulled a piece of paper from his coat and checked the name on it. “That’s the hotel right there,” he said as he pointed to a building across the street.” He smiled when he saw how unimpressed Levi looked as he examined the building.
They crossed the street and after they checked in, they went to their paid-for hotel room. This was Levi’s price for winnings todays tournament.
The spacious room was definitely worthy for a werewolf champion and its owner, but Levi barely looked around. In a beeline he went to one of the comfortable armchairs and plopped in. He closed his eyes but opened one to check if he had seen what he had thought he saw and when he confirmed the presence of the coffee table he put his feet up.
Erwin watched Levi rest, of course he was tired. These werewolf fights were tough. He crouched down next to him to examine the wounds. Even though Levi was both an agile and strong werewolf, no-one came out of these tournaments intact.
“I’m fine,” Levi assured him.
“Even so, you need to be ready for tomorrow. If you win…”
“I know, I know, I will get more prizes from the losing owners.” He looked at Erwin. “I don’t care about their prizes. The only reason I fight is that promise you made me.”
“I haven’t forgotten,” Erwin assured him.
Levi closed his eyes again. Erwin had promised to get him out of the world of werewolf fights, a world he had been a part of since he was a pup, but to do that he had to continue to fight in the tournaments. So far, he hadn’t seen anything of the ‘freedom’ Erwin had promised him. In the end he was just another werewolf to use for fights, a replacement for Doug, the other werewolf of Erwin that had died a few tournaments ago. The moon had been full then and supposedly it had been a vicious battle. After that Erwin had asked him to fight again, with the promise it would only be temporary, but who knew how long ‘temporary’ was. It certainly wasn’t freedom, but at least Erwin treated him well. Like an equal. His previous owner had been an abusive bastard and even if he would fight for the rest of his life, at least he wasn’t there anymore.
Once Erwin had assessed the wounds were indeed nothing serious, they would heal overnight, he sat down in the other armchair. “Tomorrow is the last day of the tournament,” he said, resting his elbow on the armrest so he could rest his chin against his fist. “If all goes well it will be your last tournament.”
Levi opened one eye and looked at Erwin.
“We collected enough prize money to move to Germany and build up a new life. The Black Forest, Levi, you will like it there.” As Erwin spoke about that place, his eyes lit up and his lips curled into a gentle smile. “You will be free there.”
“We won so much already?” Levi asked. He hadn’t kept track of all the winnings Erwin received for his victories, only his personal prizes.
“If it had been a full moon today, we would have had enough already.” The winnings of any werewolf tournament were good, but money really started to flow if the werewolf transformed in their wolf-form under the influence of the full moon. Those battles were more vicious, bloodier, and therefore more people came to see them. Which meant both the prize money and the earnings of gambles were higher.
“Whatever,” Levi grumbled. “I’ll fight tomorrow, claim my prize and we’ll leave. Right? To Germany.”
“Unless you’d rather stay in Romania,” Erwin said. “I told you from the beginning, you have a say in things.”
Levi snorted. “I don’t care about this place.” His eyes locked with Erwin. “I want to see this Black Forest of yours.”
When the name was mentioned, Erwin smiled again. “You’ll like it,” he assured Levi again. “Trust me.”
Levi nodded to that, much to his own surprise he did trust Erwin.
The next night Levi stood in the arena again, waiting for his next opponent. He had his arms crossed in front of his chest and he almost seemed bored. His body was sore, but he refused to let anyone see that the hits he had taken had hurt.
Tonight was the final night of the tournament, just like the previous night it was fought in human-form, and his semi-final was just over. The unconscious opponent had been dragged out of the ring. Levi knew he had done some serious damage, but he didn’t care whether his opponent would survive. Death was an option in these fights and he had been at the verge of death several times when he was a pup and as a juvenile, but he had become stronger and stronger and now he was a champion. It had been either becoming stronger or die. Because if the battle hadn’t killed him, the punishment of his previous owner afterwards could have. Becoming stronger had been the only way to survive being owned by that man. He loathed the forced battles, but it was the only life he knew. His ears flattened, and he let out a snarl as he looked at him in the audience. Mr. Kaizar. How he hated the man. And next to him was Erwin, although he didn’t seem interested in what mr. Kaizar had to tell him. Levi still wasn’t sure why Erwin had bought him and made that promise to get him out of this world. But he recalled the day.
Levi hadn’t been the only werewolf owned by mr. Kaizar. In fact, the man had owned five at the time, two juveniles and three champions. Erwin had come to visit after the last tournament, his prized wolf had survived and gotten fifth place.
That day, Levi recalled, he had almost died. If Erwin hadn’t intervened he would have. Levi had always been the smallest of the three champions, but what he lacked in body mass, he made up for agility. That was even more apparent in his wolf-form.
The two juveniles, Isabel and Farlan, always followed him around, he had taken a pity on them when they were pups and looked after them as well as he could, teaching them how to fight so mr. Kaizar wouldn’t have to punish them. Of course they did get punished by him, his standards were almost impossible to reach.
They had done bad in the tournament, both had been badly injured and lost in the first few rounds. For mr. Kaizar this had been a particular important tournament and after he had greeted Erwin he said he would check up on his wolves, leaving Levi and his other two champions with Erwin in the parlour.
Mr. Kaizar had gone downstairs and unleashed his rage on them. Isabel had shrieked Levi’s name and immediately he had run downstairs, where he saw mr. Kaizar shouting at them and beating them for their incompetence.
“Stop that!” he had roared, but mr. Kaizar ignored him and kicked them where he could. “You will kill them, stop!” he roared again, but again he was ignored.
When mr. Kaizar continued beating them, Levi attacked him. He didn’t know the others had followed him, watching him in astonishment.
“Get him!” mr. Kaizar had ordered and the other two champions attacked Levi, they beat him to the ground and restrained him. From there he looked at the juveniles, their lifeless eyes looked back at him.
The emotions changed quickly from shock to grief to anger, he roared, pushed the other wolves away and lunged for mr. Kaizar, who quickly put on a knuckle stun gun and punched him in the stomach, unleashing a high voltage electricity. He had crumpled to his knees and after a snap of the fingers he was attacked by the other two champions. The words ‘finish him off’ were spoken and he did his best to defend himself.
A werewolf striking his master would always result in a death penalty.
Suddenly Erwin had stepped up, ordering them to stop with a voice full authority. Then he had offered to buy Levi and they bantered about the price for a bit, until they had reached a price they were both happy with.
As they left Erwin had asked about his past, his life with mr. Kaizar and Levi had explained he had been in that man’s possession ever since he was a pup and he, just like the others, had been mistreated ever since. And how he loathed the battles. That’s when Erwin had promised him he would get him out of that life.
The sound of a metal door opening snapped Levi out of his memories and back to the present time. The other semi-final was done and now the final round would begin. Or so he assumed.
The one entered the silver-barred cage wasn’t a champion werewolf. It was a quivering juvenile. Levi took a moment to take in the appearance, blond hair and tail. Big, blue eyes filled with fear. Short. Skin over bones.
“A bonus round for the two champions!” the commentator’s voice sounded through the loudspeakers. “This will get them pumped up for final battle. The red one has been graciously donated by mr. Yan for Thunderclaw.” The audience cheered when the name was mentioned. “And the blond one has been donated by mr. Kaizar for Black Fang!” Another round of cheers filled the arena.
Levi could only stare at the young werewolf, who had both his arms and his tail wrapped around him as he sat on the ground. “I’m not going to bite a damn pup!” he roared, but his voice got lost in the cheering of the audience. Thunderclaw was probably maiming his toy and the crowd loved it. “What is your name, pup,” Levi spat.
“A-A-Armin,” Armin stuttered. “I-I’m not a-”
“You are a scraggy little pup and not worth my time,” Levi growled. He refused to acknowledge Armin as a juvenile. It only reminded him of Farlan and Isabel.
The roar of Thunderclaw filled the arena and the crowd cheered even louder. Levi knew that wolf, it was one of mr. Kaizar’s champions. He snarled thinking about him, he’d kill him right here in this arena.
“That’s it for little red, she tried to escape but Thunderclaw was her superior in every way!” the commentator said and again the crowd cheered. “But what is that? Black Fang has not moved from his place. Don’t you want to play a little, Black Fang?”
“Kill him! Kill him! Kill him!” the crowd chanted.
“Get on with it, Black Fang. We can’t do the finals unless you fight your opponent.”
“I don’t want to!” Levi roared. “This pup is no challenge. Give me a challenge!”
It was no use, Levi knew they wouldn’t listen to him. He watched the shivering Armin and walked to him. He grabbed him by the throat, punched him once in the stomach and dropped him to the ground. “There. Done.” He walked away from Armin, waiting for the gate to open so the staff could take him away.
“Ohhh, looks like we have a tough one,” the commentator said.
Levi quickly turned around and watched Armin get up, wheezing and coughing as he tried to catch his breath. “What’s that?” Levi growled. “Stay down, pup.” He walked over and kicked him in the stomach.
Armin doubled over, one arm over his stomach and supporting himself with a hand, coughing as he tried to catch his breath.
Again Levi kicked him, and Armin fell on his back. “Now stay down,” Levi ordered.
“Can’t…” Armin wheezed. “He’ll… punish me…” Slowly he turned over, got on his knees and pushed himself up.
Levi stared at him. These bonus rounds were often done with the two biggest losers of the tournament, to get the blood of the champions pumping and get them ready for the final round. Sometimes they used donations, like today. It were usually the big players who offered their weakest werewolves as a toy for the semi-finalists. Levi was certain this ‘gracious’ donation of mr. Kaizar was to mess with him, so he would lose to Thunderclaw. He narrowed his eyes. That was certainly not going to happen.
“Let’s start the clock!” the commentator suddenly announced and after the sound of a buzzer, a digital clock started to count down.
That meant Levi had to end this before the clock reached zero, or he would be disqualified. He growled, he certainly didn’t want that, but he didn’t want to maim this pup either and the pup refused to stay down because of his fear for mr. Kaizar, who undoubtedly had given special instructions to make this hard for him. He looked for Erwin in the crowd and locked eyes with him.
Lose… Erwin mouthed to him.
Lose? Was Erwin insane? Why would he want to lose? Although… his loss would end this round and still allow him to fight the final battle. Usually if it was one of the lowest ranked werewolves of the tournament, it was a chance for redemption, so they fought hard to earn that. The win or loss in this battle didn’t affect his rightful place of the championship round, but the earnings would be higher if he won this round too.
Levi walked to Armin with big, determined steps, grabbed him by his throat and pulled him up. “Listen here, you brat. You have to defeat me.” He released him and punched him in the face, giving the impression he was properly fighting. “So, listen carefully, we werewolves have certain p-”
“Pressure points,” Armin quickly said. “Right. But why…”
Levi started at Armin, how could a werewolf this young know about that? He couldn’t have done enough battles to know about the locations. Most werewolves learned about them through experience. After a quick glance at the clock, Levi ran towards Armin. “No time to explain, do it now!”
Armin saw how Levi exposed one of his pressure points with the attack. All he had to do was hit it. He made a fist, lunged forward and hit him at the exact place.
Levi gasped and fell down.
For a moment it was completely silent in the arena. The clock was stopped and when Levi still didn’t rise, someone entered the arena to check him. The doctor declared him unconscious, but alive.
“Well, that was… unexpected,” the commentator spoke. “Armin won! He will receive the price money and when Black Fang regains consciousness we will continue todays tournament!”
A small break was added, the people in the crowd could get something to drink and place additional bets based on the last rounds if they wanted to.
Armin remained in the cage, unsure what to do, when he noticed two men enter. He didn’t know the blond one, but he cowered when he saw mr. Kaizar behind him.
“You little mutt,” mr. Kaizar growled. “You weren’t supposed to defeat him!”
“Be proud of him,” Erwin stated. “He did will.” He crouched down next to Levi to investigate him.
“Whatever. I will check on Thunderclaw. Come, Armin.”
The teen reluctantly joined mr. Kaizar, but he looked at Levi. He knew for sure that if tonight had been a full moon he would have died. Werewolves in their true form had less control than they had in their human form.
“P-prize…” Levi uttered.
“What did you say?” Erwin said and mr. Kaizar also stopped to look at Levi.
“Prize,” Levi repeated a little louder, opening his eyes. “If I win I get a prize from the owner of the loser. I want the pup.”
Erwin rose to his feet and looked at his former friend. While he had considered Kaizar a friend once, after he saw how he treated his wolves he had severed that tie. “It’s obviously a weak werewolf,” he said. “If he’s so worthless you donate him for the bonus round, give him as the price when Levi wins.”
Mr. Kaizar looked from Erwin to Levi and back to Erwin. “If he wins,” he said and waited for Erwin to confirm that with a nod. “Agreed. You can have Armin if Black Fang wins. But, if Thunderclaw wins, I want all the money you won in this entire tournament, not just the last rounds.”
Erwin didn’t hesitate. “Agreed,” he said as he held out his hand. They shook on it and with that it was decided and agreed upon.
When mr. Kaizar and Armin left the arena, Erwin returned to Levi to help him up.
“Why?” was all he asked.
“You don’t want that pup in his possession any more than I do,” Levi said curtly. “We both know he will not survive.” He paused, locking eyes with Erwin. “And I think you’ll like him.”
“How so?”
“It’s a smart little pup, but that bastard won’t appreciate that. I didn’t need to explain about the pressure points.”
Erwin’s eyebrows rose in surprise. Exactly as Levi had expected, it sparked the interest in Armin.
“Just make sure you find a good place for the pup,” Levi growled. “I don’t want him to join us to that Black Forest of yours.” While he couldn’t let Armin stay in the hands of that abusive bastard, where he would most certainly die, he didn’t want to share that special place of Erwin with him. He had taken pity on the pup, that didn’t mean he liked him.
Erwin had a kind smile for Levi. “I promise. We’ll keep him with us for a short while, because I want to get to know him. Then I can find a suitable place for him and we will go to Germany together.”
The final round began, the commentator mentioned some stats to the crowd, who chanted either name. Levi looked at his opponent.
“I will devour you,” Thunderclaw stated.
“You have human teeth; how do you suppose to do that?” Levi growled. Maybe Josh was strong, he certainly wasn’t the brightest of Kaizar’s pack.
“I will break every single one of your bones, you traitor!”
“You may try,” Levi replied curtly. There was no chance he would lose. If they would lose all their prize money, they wouldn’t be able to go the Black Forest. And he wanted to go there, with Erwin. And he would allow that pup to join them, because if he wouldn’t, the pup would die. Just like Isabel and Farlan. And he didn’t want that.
A bell sounded and the fight began. Levi ran towards his opponent who had his fists ready. With ease Levi dodged the first blow and used his elbow to punch him in the stomach. Josh was bigger and more muscular, but Levi was fast and agile. And even though he didn’t have the bulky muscles to show it, he was strong.
The two werewolves fought with fists and feet, Levi got beat to the ground several times, but he quickly got back up. One blow cracked his ribs, but he ignored the pain and retaliated, breaking the jaw of his opponent.
At one point Josh ran towards Levi, who grabbed the arm and used the speed of his opponent to fling him over his back and on the ground. For a moment Josh was dazed and Levi walked towards him with a cold look in his eyes.
“It’s nothing personal,” he said.
Josh was about to ask what Levi meant, when Levi rose his foot and stomped on Josh’s throat. He grabbed his throat, making choking and gurgling noises, a bit of blood dripped from the corner of his mouth.
Levi walked away as Josh was dying and waited for the words that would free him from these fights.
“Black Fang wins!”
The fans of Black Fang, those who had bet money on him, cheered and chanted his name. Levi couldn’t care less. He searched for mr. Kaizar in the crowd and soon found him. That look of rage was utterly pleasing and Levi found himself smirking. He saw Erwin pull Armin to him, to keep him safe. One pup saved, one big financial blow to the bastard and soon he would be free. This night was good.
He rose his arms in the air and the crowd applauded and cheered. He had won, in more than one way.