Eric’s transformation erupted outward, muscles and bones reshaping into the massive brown wolf that had dominated her nightmares for three years. He towered over her human form, eyes blazing with that familiar predatory hunger that had once made her want to disappear entirely.
But Kari wasn’t afraid anymore.
Silver light shimmered around her as her own shift began. The change felt different this time—not the desperate scramble of a cornered animal, but the measured awakening of something that had been sleeping.
Clothes receding, Kari noticed a partial shift in her hair, now streaked with gray—the gray of her mother. When she emerged, her fur gleamed like starlight given flesh, power radiating from her in waves that made the arena’s magical barriers flicker and strain.
The crowd’s roar faded to white noise, her focused gaze meeting her brother’s without a hint of hesitation.
All the stupid lies and stupid games… I’m no longer your prisoner, Eric. I’m free.
They circled each other for a heartbeat. Eric’s jaw tightened, infuriated eyes sweeping over her silvery patches of fur and taking in the aura, the confidence in her stance. For a moment, a flicker of something she hadn’t seen before lit in his amber irises—envy.
Then he struck.
His lunge was perfect—years of training condensed into one devastating attack, claws extended and trajectory calculated to tear through vital organs. Kari met it head-on, claws sparking against claws as kinetic force exploded outward. The platform cracked beneath them, hairline fractures spreading like a spider web before chunks of stone broke free and tumbled toward the crowd below.
Eric’s follow-up rake across her ribs should have opened her to the bone—a combination he’d drilled into muscle memory through countless ‘lessons’ he’d given her. Instead, shallow cuts sealed before blood could fall, silver light knitting flesh back together with an efficiency that made his amber eyes widen.
“Your healing is—”
Her return swipe caught him across the shoulder, sending him skidding backward across fractured stone. Real blood matted his dark fur; it was slower to heal.
I hardly felt that… Is he toying with me? I’m not weak!
Kari leaped without hesitation, the arena floor exploding under the force of her launch. Chunks of marble and steel flew in all directions, magical barriers flaring as debris struck them. Eric vaulted to a floating platform twenty meters up—she followed without thought, silver light crackling around her feet as she defied gravity itself.
Their impact when she reached him shattered the stone disc entirely, raining debris on the scrambling spectators below. Magical shields flared to life across the crowd as Elder Caelia frantically tried to protect them from the destruction.
“Why are you running, Eric?! I thought you wanted to force it out of—”
Eric spun around her swipe, left claw aimed at her throat, making her wince as the full blow landed, instantly changing her direction. “Don’t get cocky, Kari,” he returned, ducking under her exposed belly and reverting to his partial form and targeted her heart as she choked.
One foot grounded, he spun, landing a full-force upward kick designed to cave in her ribs. He was too experienced, each movement precise, economical, and deadly from countless battles. She didn’t care, though. She’d never back down again.
“Eric!” she snarled through her restored throat while taking it all, silver aura erupting to absorb the impact that would have put her body into shock a day prior. “Rraaaa!”
“What—”
The force reflected, sending him plowing into the stone, tearing through wards to create a five-meter crater below her.
“I won’t let you hurt Tiri like you hurt me,” she screamed, gathering her internal kinetic energy while sucking in air.
The thought burned through her like molten metal, and something deep in her chest resonated. Silver light writhed around her shoulders, condensing and shaping itself into something that made Eric drag himself out of the rock he’d been imprinted into, eyes wide with shock from inside the hole.
The gashes across his exposed, werewolf frame were already beginning to heal. Yet, his face showed panic as a shimmering sphere of pure, fenris-infused kinetic energy materialized between her teeth. Then, she swallowed it.
A pulse rippled outward, and a massive spectral wolf expanded from her aura, fangs the size of swords opening wide to swallow Eric whole.
He threw himself sideways, barely evading its jaws as he used one hand to propel himself toward a platform edge. Kari jumped after him while her spiritual construct took out a chunk from the arena before following right after her.
“Wow! When did you learn how to use that kind of power, little sister?”
“Just shut up!”
The platform he was on crumbled under his claws as he expertly danced around her strike and leaped to another platform. Her fenris projection’s jaws snapped shut where his head had been a split second before, attempting to pincer him.
The floating disc behind him split cleanly in half, stone and steel parting like they were made of paper. But instead of simply falling, the severed material turned to silver fire, energy streaming back into Kari’s body in ribbons of light. Her eyes blazed brighter, power building with each passing second, every action she took instinctual while projecting everything she’d suppressed.
Eric landed hard on one of the two remaining platforms, thirty feet away, glowing gaze wide with something approaching…admiration.
“This is what I wanted you to show for years! Why now?”
Kari was already moving, leaping between floating stones like they were stepping stones across a stream, her far larger clone launching from the opposite direction. Each landing sent cracks spider-webbing through magical architecture, magical weaves exploding under the pressure of her disruptive force.
“I thought you wanted to fight!” she demanded, reverting to a partial form he had forced her to learn to take. With a spiteful tongue, she screamed, “Are you weak? Bite me!”
Eric’s half-smile faded as she sped up, snapping her tail to the right as she twisted into a roundhouse kick to launch him into her wolf’s jaws. “Don’t get too cocky, sis.”
Firming his stance, he bent backward to duck, her leg barely missing his face, yet taking his nose clean off and sending blood spraying with the backdraft. He didn’t flinch, though, leaning into a backhand spring before his clawed fingers snatched her tail in passing.
Dammit!
Kari’s gravity instantly shifted, g-forces slamming against her as he whipped her around with a laugh and hurled her right into the path of her spectral wolf.
“No skill, sis… You have a lot to learn!”
Jaws gaping wide enough to swallow a car whole, Kari bared her teeth, fists balling up in her freefall. Hair whipping around her, she momentarily caught Eric’s smug face. Mentally, all she saw was that terrified teenage girl, trapped inside a janitor’s closet, hiding from the pain, the image burning a scream from her throat while entering her own kinetic force. Taking all her pain and setting it all ablaze in all directions.
In a ripple of force, her wolf exploded like a 2,000-pound physical bomb, leaving hurricane-like wind surging in all directions. Kari hardly noticed, though, twisting to land in a crouching position on the half-broken stage. Claws extending, toes and fingers digging into the stone, she ripped it up, slowing her progress, refocusing on her brother, nose creased, cheeks burning with tears mixed with every broken memory.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Eric staggered back, blood streaming from his ears as the concussion wave hit him like a sledgehammer to the chest. His amber eyes watered, pupils dilated from the pressure differential as he quickly healed.
Kari rose from her crouch, breathing heavily as stone dust cascaded off her silver-streaked fur, debris raining around them. Her aura only blazed brighter. When she looked at him, her gaze held no technique, no strategy. Just pure, undiluted intent.
“Is that all you can do? Use my own power against me?” she huffed, coughing a little before rubbing away the dust clinging to her face. “What happened to all that power you boast about?”
He merely cracked his neck, not looking nearly as focused or angry as he had been before. Eric almost looked…confused.
* — * — *
She doesn’t even realize what she just did. What she’s doing… No technique. No training… Just raw instinct. It’s almost like…I’m battling Tiri again, not Kari.
Eric’s mind reeled as Kari’s internal kinetic force grew stronger by the second, not weaker. No form, no strategy—just the raw fury of an emotional teenage girl with the power of a full-armed fighter jet and the defense of a nuclear bunker.
This…isn’t Kari. He glanced toward the crowd by the ringside, and all but one lone figure had swiftly retreated. Sora stood firm, a barrier from the Elder protecting her. What did you do to pull this out of her that I couldn’t for…years? It doesn’t make—
In the next instant, his sister’s fist was aimed between his eyes. Immediately shifting stances, he side-stepped, tanking the radial kinetic aura that lashed out even without her fist finding its target; blood vessels in his eyes popped, but he fought past the pain to twist in a sharp circle.
Sweeping her feet out with his tail, he spun back to aim an elbow directly onto her spine, focusing dense spiritual energy into the blow. Kari gagged, but only dropped to her hands and knees as the platform split in half due to the energy transfer that passed through—her hands dug in up to her forearm.
She lashed out with her own tail, forcing him to retreat, his father’s voice a distant echo in his memory returning with mocking clarity:
“Power is everything, boy. The strong take what they want, the weak submit or die. But you… You’re tainted. Weak blood. You’ll never have the power your sisters were born with.”
If that’s true… Why is Kari so weak? He internally repeated, fighting the bile that surged through his veins.
Kari launched at him, a large spectral paw emerging in her swipe as he dodged the first; the second closed in, growing larger by the second.
Have I ever been overpowered like this? He watched it close in, mind blanking. Jin is a 2nd Generation Dragon. Of course, she’s different…but Kari? I have to use it…
Every lesson his father had beaten into him, every refinement he’d made through years of deadly combat—useless. Everything he wanted Kari to be was blooming right in front of him, yet why was it against him? This was everything he wanted from her.
Pain exploded through his chest as Alva’s essence burned hotter, their mother’s soul responding to Kari’s awakening power like iron to a magnet. His Germanic blood rejected the fenris energy more violently with each passing second, copper flooding his mouth as internal damage mounted beyond his ability to heal.
A mirrored silver aura erupted from him, countering Kari’s kinetic force…only for him to be thrown through the cracking platform and back into the stadium.
What did that fox teach her that I couldn’t? What did Sora give her that I never could, to bring her to this point? She’s accelerating the rejection…
Ice slowly creeping through his blood with every tumble over the devastated arena, he barely managed to force himself into a recoverable position.
The incompatibility was getting worse. Three years of carrying his mother’s soul had been slowly killing him. Each exchange with Kari made the essence burn brighter, and his werewolf blood couldn’t handle the strain…but he had to use his fenris blood or she’d kill him.
Kari…could kill me. She’s not fighting me, Eric realized with growing horror as she was right on top of him again, spectral paw expanding. She’s fighting some nightmare of me… Why am I the nightmare when all I’ve done is try to make her strong?! She’s so… stupid!
She didn’t stop. Every strike aimed at something beyond him, something he represented in her mind. Her power targeted not his body but a villain—he wasn’t the villain but the brother who sacrificed everything for their family.
But what is she protecting from me? Sora? I welcomed her with open arms! What does she think I’m going to…
His blood stopped as he looked into her teary, spiteful face, a vision illustrating all the pain carved onto her heart. In the light of his demise, he saw his failures written in her glistening eyes.
To protect Tiri and herself…from me?
The realization hit harder than the blow that left his chest open and leaking crimson, barely evading a follow-up swipe that would have taken off his head.
In her mind, he wasn’t her brother anymore. He was the threat that had to be stopped before it could hurt her precious little sister…as he had hurt her.
Have I really become that monster?
More of his father’s poison lessons surfaced unbidden, mocking his taint, cutting at his core and making his blood boil: “Weak. You’re weak. You can never live up to your mother, and power is everything, boy. The strong take what they want, the weak submit or die. Even I can kill you. Weak blood.”
I…became him? The man who betrayed my mom…for power.
His mother’s last words echoed with painful clarity: “Make them strong enough to survive, Eric. You will need each other when I’m gone… They need your strength. You are strong, son. Protect your sisters…”
But she’d meant to protect them in confidence, not fear. United, not dominated through fear. He’d taken her final wish and twisted it into his father’s nightmare of alpha dominance and pack submission… The very thing she fought to prevent.
Our uncles… I became everything she died trying to save them from.
Something within him shattered, like glass striking granite. His silver aura flickered, then collapsed entirely as Alva’s essence burned through his chest like acid. The incompatible energies tore at each other, Germanic blood rejecting fenris soul in violent spasms.
A prisoner by his own hands. All he could do was stare into his sister’s face, a reflection of the canvas that he’d painted of his sister… His face mirrored in her eyes, outlined in guilt—a portrait staring at true colors he couldn’t escape.
Kari’s next strike caught him across the ribs, sending him deep into the arena as the whole structure collapsed to the soil below. He didn’t twitch a muscle, a crater forming around his broken form as his transformation failed completely.
Werewolf now, not fenris, but smaller, weaker, bleeding from wounds that would no longer heal as his vision of her descended upon him. Now, within her shining eyes, he saw who truly was the broken one… Him.
Her follow-up blow never came.
Eric lay in the dust, staring up at his sister’s silver-blazed form towering above him. No fight left. No alpha mask to hide behind. Just a broken boy who’d tried to save everyone and burned every bridge he shared instead.
Kari stood over him, battling tears as hard as she fought him, claws extended but motionless.
A masterpiece, made of his .
* — * — *
The arena fell silent except for settling debris and Eric’s ragged breathing. Kari’s aura faded to gentle warmth as she shifted back to human form, silver light fading to reveal her night-black, thick hair and slightly torn clothes.
Eric lay in the dust, shoulders shaking.
He’s crying. Kari’s strength slowly faded, chest burning and body stressed. Eric is…actually crying.
She’d never seen him shed a tear, not even when eating their mother. He’d been granite, forcing her to stay in line through sheer force of will—a giant.
Now he looked small, human…even broken.
This didn’t feel like a victory.
“What…are you doing?” She felt…empty. “You can’t be done.”
“How can I put your tears back in your eyes? How do I apologize, Kari?”
“Eric?”
Voice lifeless, guilt streaming through with the blood leaking out of his tattered frame, he repeated himself. “How do I apologize…for everything I’ve put you through? I don’t…think I can. Can I?”
A visceral surge of hate, confusion, and white hot pain boiled through the scars in her chest as her fists balled. Small quakes began to work through her bones, breath hastening as she scanned every inch of his helpless state, not groveling, sincere internal agony.
She should claw him apart.
She should lash out.
Instead, she fought back tears. Nose red, emotions raging as she saw the failure in his eyes, and one word cut through her throat.
“Why?”
Eric’s shame-filled eyes fell, unable to meet her gaze.
“I…don’t have an answer right now.”
Silence ensued.
After several seconds that felt like eternity, she turned and walked up the crater, unable to look at her broken brother, teeth clenched.
Why am I running? Why am I…
Reaching the top of the hole, Sora emerged from the cloud of dust, ears pulled back, concern on her face. The fracturing dam broke, and hot tears fell down her cheeks as Sora rushed forward to embrace her, following Kari to the ground.
Sora’s warm tail pressed against her side, her touch a balm to the fire coursing through her soul. It was over. No more blows. And yet, this pain was worse.
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