Free Web NovelChapter 709: The Black Wolf Awakens
The golden wolf tore the steel rod from her thigh and rushed him with a broken, limping fury. Even injured, her speed remained horrifying. She crossed the distance, lowered her body, and drove both claws into his abdomen.
Nikolai caught her shoulders before she could rip outward as blood warmed his stomach and his vision turned red. For a second, the world narrowed to her golden fur, her fake scent stolen from Nikita, and the stolen strength gouging his organs.
He could have torn her in half, but his thoughts lagged due to the pain.
If he transformed, he could destroy these women like toys. These abominations would crumble beneath the true thing they tried to imitate.
Yet he remained in his human form.
’I’m such a fool...’
Was it his naivety, or the fact that these women pumped out the same pheromones, voices and sounds as his wives? But he couldn’t take any more damage, so he gritted his teeth and shook his head.
"Get out of me."
He slammed his knee into her stomach, once, twice, then with the third blow, he caught her jaw with a complete stunner. Her claws dragged free from his abdomen as he twisted. Her neck strained. She snarled, fighting with enough force to make his wrists tremble.
Though the flaming clone crept silently, he could smell the scent of her body, so familiar and sweet, she couldn’t sneak up on him anymore.
Nikolai threw the wolf over his shoulder and into the flaming clone. Both bodies crashed through scaffolding, snapping metal supports and tearing plastic sheets from above. The structure groaned, and then a section of the upper walkway collapsed over them.
He watched the steel beams and concrete slabs fall, the impact so intense the ground shook as dust swallowed his vision. fɾēewebnσveℓ.com
"That should be enough, right?"
Nikolai stepped back, breathing heavily, one hand pressed against his bleeding abdomen. His wounds closed slowly, much more slowly than usual, due to the black residue lingering within them.
"Hm?"
Before he could take a good breather, the metal started to sizzle with an intense hiss.
A flash of gold shone from within the dust before flames burst out.
The two clones emerged once more.
However, this time they were both in abysmal states: the wolf’s shoulder dangled, half-torn from the socket, one eye completely dull as it leaked a foul black fluid, and its matted golden fur. The flaming clone dragged her twisted leg, held together by the flames.
Their bodies were damaged, though their killing intent remained sharp.
Nikolai felt a strange calm.
Though the two clones caused several dangerous moments, he couldn’t help but smile. These two women couldn’t kill him, and they were on death’s door.
The fight had stripped away the insult of their existence, the mysterious seduction and his personal disgust.
This time, he stepped forward before lunging at them both.
The golden wolf met him with a roar.
Nikolai slid beneath her claws and drove his fist into the wound on her thigh. She stumbled as he followed with a hook to her ribs, then an open-palmed strike to her throat. Each blow landed where damage already existed.
The flaming clone tried to cover her.
Nikolai used the wolf’s body as a shield, pulling her into the line of fire again. Flame washed over golden fur, and the wolf screamed.
Nikolai used that opening to drive his claws beneath her chest.
He felt the heart.
Even though she was a clone, or mutant aberration... her heart beat like his.
He closed his hand around it.
The flaming clone shrieked, gathering a larger flame above both palms as she panicked, trying to pull away as his hand slowly squeezed. Heat gathered so fast that puddles around them boiled, but Nikolai knew he had her where he wanted.
He leaned closer to the golden wolf’s ear.
"You should have stayed dead."
Squelch!
He crushed their hearts halfway when a strange scent came from the upper levels... he couldn’t help but turn back to see Kumiko standing atop the stone stairs, staring down at him with cold eyes.
His eyes almost tricked him until he saw the perfectly tight abs and the lack of a swollen belly. freewebnσvel.cøm
At first, he wondered if she’d given birth early.
But then snapped out of it. ’No... Kumiko’s pregnant right now!’
When he glanced back to see her figure, she’d vanished, and a pale hand suddenly slipped from the darkness behind him and struck his side.
The blow carried enough force to rip him away from the golden wolf and send him crashing through a concrete barrier. He hit the ground, rolled twice, then dug his claws into the pavement to stop himself from sliding farther.
’What the hell!?’
His abdomen throbbed and burned, while his ribs ached like a bitch.
He lifted his head to see the third woman.
A new woman stood where the shadows thickened near the broken truck. She was different from the others... they were mismatched abominations, but this was a complete copy of Kumiko that matched her almost 90%.
The only issue was her hair.
Long dark hair framed soft, beautiful features that twisted his chest with an immediate, violent anger. Her eyes held no warmth, no timid affection, no familiar clumsy gentleness. Behind her, five tails swayed slowly, each one thick and graceful, carrying the same eerie pressure as the powers stolen from his wives.
Nikolai rose carefully.
His blood dripped into the puddle beneath him.
"...Franz."
It was one thing to make half-assed mutants, another to play with his wife’s likeness, but to attempt to fully clone or reproduce them filled Nikolai’s throat with a sour taste.
"Hello, Darling."
The clone smiled, her voice a little eerie, but similar to his kitsune wife.
Then each of her five tails unfurled.
Behind her, the air warped, as a shimmer of pink mist flickered rapidly, before one became two, two became three and three became five.
In the span of a breath, five identical Kumiko clones surrounded him from different angles, each carrying the same scent, the same face, the same power pressing against his instincts.
’He can recreate blood arts... this is bad.’
Nikolai snapped his arms, extending his claws.
For the first time that night, Nikolai felt the fight slip beyond what his human form could handle cleanly.
His mouth curved anyway.
Blood ran down his chin as he lowered his stance.
"Fine, you’ve done well. I must admire your tenacity and commend your powers that almost surpass the real deal."
Nikolai’s voice remained calm, though the taste of blood filled his mouth.
The golden wolf snarled behind him.
The flaming clone gathered more fire ahead.
The five Kumiko faces watched him with identical smiles, waiting for him to lose balance, waiting for him to make the obvious mistake of focusing on the newest threat.
However, he didn’t do that.
He quickly snapped out and grasped the golden werewolf tightly, his claws sinking into her chest like soft butter. The fake’s heart pulsed against his palm, hot and frantic, like the thing still believed it could survive if it struggled hard enough.
"Sadly, you’re still fakes."
His hand clamped shut.
Squelch!
The golden wolf’s body stiffened. Her claws scraped against his back, tearing cloth and skin, yet the strength left them a moment later. Black fluid burst from her mouth, running through her golden fur as her stolen light flickered.
Nikolai didn’t let her fall gently.
He slammed her body into the flaming bitch, avoiding her fire as it swallowed her corpse and burned her golden fur black.
The flaming clone screamed, perhaps in rage, perhaps because some borrowed instinct recognised that the thing before her had once been an ally.
Nikolai stepped through the burning corpse before the flames scattered.
The black residue inside his stomach churned, fighting his regeneration, yet he ignored it and crossed the space in three strides.
The flaming clone tried to retreat.
Her broken leg dragged behind her, held upright only by the roaring fire wrapped around the joint. She raised both hands, gathering enough heat to melt the concrete beneath her feet.
Yet it was too slow as Nikolai caught her wrists and yanked them apart.
The fire exploded sideways, tearing through pillars, scaffolding and hanging plastic sheets. The entire lower floor flashed white for an instant, and the rain outside turned to steam along the entrance.
Her flames spewed against his palms.
His skin split and charred.
The clone’s hidden face finally lifted. Beneath the wet hair, he saw a beautiful copy of his lovely vampire princess, but it was hollow.
Though she carried Selene’s face, lips and eyes, she lacked the elegance and aura.
That annoyed him most.
"You copied the shape."
His claws pierced her ribs.
"But you don’t understand the soul."
He ripped upward and tore into her chest.
A burning core pulsed between blackened bones, wrapped in the same dark residue slowing his healing. Nikolai grasped it, feeling the flames chew into his hand, then crushed it until the light burst between his fingers.
The fire died at once.
The body collapsed into his arms, then fell apart as wet ash across the ground and silence returned.
"Wow, you actually killed them so easily."
Until the five clones spoke in unison behind him.
The Kumiko clones moved in unison, soft feet touching concrete without sound. Their faces remained gentle, almost sweet, and that resemblance made his patience collapse faster after he had already killed his wives twice. Nikolai glared at the women, breathing heavily as he felt the Obsidian Tide raging in his bloodstream.
’I should’ve just torn them apart from the start.’
He regretted this moment... if after seeing their faces, and the subtle expressions as they died, it left a bitter and slightly jarring ache in his chest.
A searing heat brewed in his stomach, his chest... he wanted to smash the stone walls, crush the steel pipes... and rush home to see them and check they were alright.
The Evil God’s blood inside him answered.
It was cold, ancient and arrogant, spreading through his veins like black mercury.
His heart slowed.
His pain intensified for a moment before it vanished as if he fell deep into the ocean.
The wounds in his abdomen were sealed shut as the black blood quickly devoured even the strange black lines that once threatened his life.
His bones cracked as his muscles tore.
Dark fur burst across his arms, chest and shoulders, drinking in the red light around him. His claws lengthened until they scraped the ground. Horn-like ridges pushed through the black mane around his skull, while his muscles expanded with a brutal pressure that made the concrete beneath his feet fracture.
Nikolai raised his head.
His dark eyes locked on the clones ahead of him.
The black werewolf opened his jaws, and an extremely deep, distorted voice came out.
"Now, pretentious bitch. Let’s continue."
