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Wolves in real life were often nothing like how they were depicted in popular media.
Not always, but often enough. (The book Dracula that Duke had had to read for English class has a lot of issues, but Bersicker the wolf wasn't one of them.)
Take in DnD, for example. One of the aggressors a player could encounter was a vicious pack of wolves. When Duke had first gotten into playing, he'd done a lot of research on the game mechanics of them, and then he'd gotten curious and looked up how they compared to actual wolves. Turned out that unless threatened a wolf was more likely to run away from humans than towards them.
But this?
This was no wolf.
Duke's breathing picked up as he tried to run faster. He didn't look back, didn't need to, to know that he was being followed - chased.
Multiple, eerie voices echoed in the tunnel, raising the hairs on his neck. How were there more of them? There should've only been one. Glowing red eyes in the shadows. Then it'd stepped out, a shadow made shape, teeth elongated. When Duke threw a brick at its head, the thing lost the shape of a wolf, bulging like a squished water balloon. That was as much as he saw before he turned tail and ran.
In the corner of his eye, the shadows undulated. Duke took a chance and dived left. Air rushed behind him with the distinct edge of something just barely missing a bite.
The side of the road dropped sharply into the side of a hill and Duke threw himself over it. Sliding down the hill, he could finally catch a glimpse of what was chasing him.
It wasn't multiple wolves. It didn't even look like a wolf anymore. It was massive. A globbing, oily mass of pitch covered in dozens of red eyes, covered in spindly limbs that it used to crawl across the ground like a mutated spider. It screeched again.
An overhang reared up ahead. Despite how fast he was sliding down, Duke tucked into himself. Behind him, the monster screeched. Multiple voices erupted out.
At the foot of the hill was an empty highway road. They were more than halfway down when a lone motorbike suddenly shot out and veered partially up the hill.
The person on it threw their hand out. "Grab on!"
Duke, still sliding, suddenly got to a part of the hill that swooped and flung up into the air. For a moment he was airborne. His hand stretched out—got it! Duke flailed, sneakers slipping on the dirt and sprinting to keep up with the bike. The person—a girl?—yanked hard, and Duke nearly flew into her trying to get on.
His arms locked around her just in time for the monster to come tearing past and the girl to rev the bike and make it go faster.
They curved back onto the road even as more shadows came pouring around the bend. There were so many of them oh god—
Up ahead, a street light shined down on the highway, a yellow sheet cutting through the evening. It shined down on a group of people trying to drag another one out from under a car while a bristling, red eyed wolf was stalking towards them, mouth dripping shadows—and the bike wasn't slowing down.
Duke made a decision. "We have to get off!"
"What—no! My friends—" the girl shouted back.
Duke didn't wait for her to finish the sentence. He tightened his arms around her and kicked off the bike.
As they went backwards, the bike flew forwards.
It slammed into the monster a—
Heat exploded at them. It shattered the air, throwing them even further out. Duke hit the pavement and the girl fell away from him. He gasped, heart ribbiting in his throat. One, two. Time to go. He rolled onto his back and opened his eyes. Smoke billowed into the sky, reflecting the burning flames erupting nearby.
Surrounding him were the people from before. And surrounding them were the monsters.
"—what the fuck—"
"Oh god, my bike—"
"Guys, is he—"
Despite his ears ringing, Duke slowly sat up. The others—they looked young. They looked—his vision doubled, for a second. Duke blinked them back into focus. The rest of them were gathered around someone still lying on the ground. That…that was a lot of blood.
The explosions hadn't scared away the monsters. In fact, they were closing.
…A few days ago, Duke had learned something about himself that he didn't want to learn. He would've rather it stayed buried it in his past. He would've wanted no one to ever learn about it.
Looks like he didn't have a choice now.
His legs shook as he stood up. Behind him, someone called out, "Hey! What were you thi—"
Beneath his skin stirred a living force, awakening to his thoughts. Far older than him. It hummed, strong and strange and wild. Honestly there was no way to tell if this'll work. But these monsters were made of shadows. It had to work, right?
Right?
Duke centered himself. "Close your eyes!" he remembered to shout.
He breathed in deep and the force rose up. Up and out of his skin into pure, incandescent power.
The light flattened the road. It whited out the landscape and all beyond it. A miniature solar flare radiating outwards, shining for as long as Duke pushed it through his shaking hands.
He pushed until his head suddenly pulsed with pain.
His thoughts scattered. So did the light.
Duke squeezed his eyes shut, gritting through it. It was even worse than the last time. Only when the throb in his head finally receded did he relax. Deep breath in, deep breath out. Deep breathes, darling, his mom had said. It belongs to you. You're alright.
The next time he looked at the road, the only shadows on it were the ones cast from the flaming wreckage of mangled parts.
Speaking of…
Slowly, Duke turned around. Every one of the people there were staring at him. Except for the guy still on the ground. It was hard to tell with the lighting, but they looked about his age.
"…I can't believe it. Those things are gone," said one of them.
Duke turned to them. "Do you know what they are?"
The girl from before stood in front of the group. She took a step towards him, then paused. "…What was that?"
So that means they didn't get temporary amnesia and forget he did that, then. There went that hope.
Something told him he wasn't going to get his question answered first, either. Duke sighed. "It's…a long story."
She looked at him, then at the burning wreckage, then back. "We're not going anywhere."
Right. Of course. The first people he'd met who were getting chased by those things too and he introduced himself by exploding their transport and revealing his biggest secret.
But who knows? Maybe it could go up from there. Only one way to find out.