Hammers in the Shadows

Part One: Shadows and Ice - Chapter Eleven

When I saw the device in his hand I shivered slightly at the thought of what he was prepared to do to his own people, to kill them all and destroy his own house to achieve his own mad goals, but that didn't stop me as I moved at the speed only an Alpha Level Were could manage. My right hand, which was already close to the holstered pistol grabbed the butt of the pistol, releasing it from it's kydex holster, deactivating the safety and a fraction of a second later pulling the trigger.

The first shot amputated Vladimir's right hand, taking with it the detonator, the second and third effectively removed his brains as the semi-jacketed hollow point bullets expanded blowing huge holes in his head, causing the body to drop like a sack of wet cement.

Both Rolf and Fedor yanked their swords from their scabbards and dove at the remote before I bulled into them, knocking them away as I drew my own sword. "Somebody secure that remote!" I roared engaging the two mad-cats in a furious duel of steel while the cats that had surrounded the rogues gave us space to fight.

I pushed them away from the remote, fighting furiously to keep the two away from destroying this place and killing everyone in the clearing. Neither of them was really a match for me in a one on one fight, but together they were more challenging as they moved to cover each other's weaknesses and worked together to try and get through my own defenses.

The times they did manage to get through my defenses my armour did save me, though I knew not to rely on it too heavily. During my charge at them both Rolf and Fedor had been injured, Rolf by a crossbow hit to the hip and Fedor by a bullet to the shoulder and I tried to focus my attacks on their weak sides while doing my best to defend against their attacks.

While I fought with the two mad-cats one of the braver cats who was wearing a collar dashed in and grabbed the dismembered hand, and the remote and pulled back before either of the Rogues could make a move towards him. As soon as I saw that I knew that there was less risk of one of the rogues retrieving the device and setting off the bombs I changed my focus to eliminating either rogue.

When I saw my chance to eliminate Rolf I took it, making a slash that unmanned him, causing him to issue forth a thin scream of agony before I finished him by removing his head, cutting of the scream of pain. With him dealt with I focused my attention on Fedor, who was now being engaged by two wolves, one who was wielding a khopesh and the other a falchion.

"Fedor, your time has passed, it passed many years ago, and now you are simply a disease to be cured." I growled as I approached him, though I was panting from the sustained effort of the fight. By Were-Cat standards this was already a long fight and I was beginning to tire, though Fedor was looking, and sounding even more fatigued.

"You are a disease, you brought foul new ideas to pollute the ancient traditions of the Pride!" He gasped, blocking yet another strike from the wolf with the khopesh.

I shook my head slightly as I advanced with studied practice. Fedor was a skilled swordsman, he was well versed in his chosen weapon, and he'd had decades of practical experience with it. However, age and fatigue were working against him as I closed and made three quick, precise strikes against him. One disarmed him, removing his hand at the same time, the second unmanned him in the same manner as I'd unmanned Rolf, and the third removed his stinking stain of insanity from the land of the living.

As soon as I finished him I tilted my head back, shifting my throat slightly so that I could roar out to the Pride in triumph. Into that roar I pushed out my mental call to all cats of the Pride here at Shadow Valley that they now had a true Pride Lord.

As one the cats that had, up until this point, been observing the fight, knelt down and bowed their heads in submission.

I knelt down, cleaned my blade on Rolf's corpse before I stood, pausing for a moment to spit at Vladimir's corpse before I walked over to where Phil was already dealing with the collar on the neck of the young cat who'd grabbed the remote from the ground.