Chapter 45: Kurt, the New Alpha

Though Kurt’s roars were strong enough to topple over trees still standing in the forest, Silvana and Duponte both stood their ground as the beast hollered.

The rest of those still alive, Solaris, Angus, Amelia, and Bruce were all left frozen by Duponte’s unwavering magic. Orange sludge dripped down from the blistering welts lacing Kurt’s silver and black furred hide. His once amber eyes flared with the same bright, unhealthy orange.

“What the hell happened to him?” Silvana asked.

Duponte looked at Kurt with absolute and unequivocal disgust.

She said, “He’s tried, rather unsuccessfully, to enhance himself with the blood of a witch.”

With a tilt of her head and sniff from her nose, Duponte inspected Kurt.

“Our blood, Silvana, no less, is what he’s taken” she sneered. “From your father. And look at what it’s done to the mongrel.”

Kurt howled with a raspy, unearthly voice, and driblets of orange saliva flew from his infected and rotting fangs, leaving behind acidic and flaming holes in the ground when they landed in the snow.

Silvana glanced at her father, held completely still in his charge. On his dominant hand, he was missing his index finger, the same finger that Bruce had recovered the ring from in the cabin.

“So that’s what happened to Dad’s finger,” Silvana said to Duponte as if Duponte were an ally, but then Silvana quickly shifted her tone, remembering whom she was dealing with.

“This monster probably swallowed it whole, thinking it might strengthen him,” Duponte cackled, strutting slowly and confidently towards Kurt. “He had no clue that without the proper spells being cast, it would only destroy his body and rot him from the outside. A mere werewolf can’t harness that kind of witch-magic.”

“I am no mere werewolf, you blasted bitch,” Kurt gurgled, his voice strained and gravely. “I am the new alpha. I am your alpha.”

He pounded his claws to the ground, smashing up dirt and orange ooze to his sides. Kurt dug his feet into the ground and began charging for Duponte and Silvana.

“I need more blood to be complete,” Kurt howled. “And who better than you two?”

Silvana spread her feet shoulder length and prepared to roll out of the way, but Kurt didn’t make it far. Duponte glided a hand through the air, creating a marking that burned a flame in front of her, creating a square-shaped sigil. She laughed as Kurt’s fur ignited with storming black flames, and he bolted onto his hindlegs and patted claws upon his lit shoulders and torso, scratching himself as he tried to put the fires out. As a result, he gashed and grazed his skin, and instead of blood, more sludgy orange acid dripped out from his new injuries.

“Fool!” he shouted at Duponte.

Silvana shook her head and watched the drooling monstrosity holler as it rolled about the snow, putting the flames out and spreading more of its putrid orange toxins around. Whatever had remained of Kurt inside that beast was gone, and Silvana felt sympathetic for Kurt, as he had been a man with a weak resolve to begin with, and despite his deception of her best friend, Silvana did not feel as though Kurt deserved to have his body tortured and destroyed by such miserable magic.

Kurt got back to his feet, extended his claws, and one larger claw surrounded by the ooze slipped right out of his finger and dropped to his foot.

It was like Kurt didn’t even notice, for all he did was pound his chest with his huge arm and declare, “There are none stronger than me! I’ve become the perfect alpha. Lay down and die or be torn to bits by my silver claws!”

Again, he made for Duponte, this time with his large claw reared behind his shoulder in preparation for a devastating swing.

“He’s lost all that agility he once held,” Silvana muttered to herself.

Duponte caught Kurt’s blow with her bare hand, and with a simple flick of her wrist, twisted Kurt’s arm the size of her body into a knot. Kurt screamed a guttural bark before returning strikes with his other arm.

As the two clashed in crimson lightning and orange acid, Silvana snuck over to her father. Still, he was frozen by magic, but while Duponte laughed and taunted and mocked the distorted Kurt, Silvana concentrated her magic.

“Tu Fui, Ego Eris,” she said, placing her hand on her father’s shoulder. She recalled what Duponte had said about her father and his lack of appreciation and effort to show her any value, and Silvana’s heart grew heavy.

To her complete dismay, her spell did nothing. Her head was elsewhere, and she couldn’t focus with the whirlwind of magical attacks to her side, and the raiding of furious thoughts upon her mind.

Just as she raised her hand to try a second time, she heard Kurt whimper like a kicked puppy. When Silvana spun around to see what happened, Kurt was being held above Duponte’s head with magic, his limbs held stiff with bindings made of black flames. Above him, an ominous raincloud approached. A bolt of crimson lightning smashed into Kurt’s head, and he exploded into bits of fur and orange ooze.

Droplets of the toxic sludge landed on Silvana and Solaris, and as the sludge burned into Silvana’s arm, she tore the sleeve from her jacket right before the acid burned her to bone and muscle. Solaris, though, wasn’t as lucky, and the acid burned his legs and hand, and Silvana watched helplessly as her father made no noise nor reacted whatsoever to the burns on his body.

Duponte showered in the acid with a devious smile, and the acid fizzled and melted as the lightning surrounding her sparked.

“Oh Silvana,” she said, a light and jovial tone to her voice. “We haven’t finished speaking, my dear.”