The Last Primal

Separated, Aiden walked a few steps into the right hallway before he stopped and turned out to see as Drake's figure vanished in the other corridor. 

Once he was certain that he trekked a decent distance in his own hallway, Aiden's grin under the cover of his mask turned vicious. The eye sockets basked in golden light momentarily. 

With a low sadistic undertone, he growled into the air.

"I know we discussed to keep a low profile… But they hurt Lily! There's a price to pay for that…"

As the sinister grin took its rightful place on his face, the golden luster kept the eye sockets radiating their glory to the long eerie tunnel that was in front of him.

Steel-framed doors ruled the journey ahead, tightly placed to his left and right. The weak, faint muffled moans and hollow cries warned the outsider to their miserable existence. They were all slaves, some used for the nightly gladiator matches, some served as servants while others used for other… services. 

No option was better or worse than the other. If you were placed as a warrior, you had to put your life on the line just for the entertainment of some nobles and the like. Fighting against the other slaves in usually a life and death battle, or sometimes together against captured monsters, only to be mauled or eaten. 

If you were picked as a servant, one would think you lucked out. Sadly, being a servant meant to humiliate yourself to the lecherous nobility, serving them drinks and food as they took their places and in the case of VIP's your body as well. They could beat you, torture you, mutilate you, or just simply use you. The death rates for this line of the job was almost as high as for the warrior route.

Then, there was the third option, where you were directly used as escorts or just straight up prostitutes. While this was the safest in terms of life preservation, it was still counted as the worst of the three. The amount of mental damage one suffered through this line of work was tremendous. An ordinary slave usually could handle at most two to three months of service before they were considered broken beyond repair and used as substance for the captured monsters.

Life wasn't good for these people. Some of these were political captures, some came from military conquests, some were transferred here from the city jails, and some sold themselves as a means to provide income for their families. The contracts they got made sure that even if they were to decease, the family would still continue to survive.

So, it came to no surprise that none of the wails that slipped through the cracks between the steel frames and the rocky surfaces were hollow. 

Gritting his teeth, and clenching his fists, Aiden walked past them, not offering his help. They have already agreed to focus on their objective for now and leave the rest for later. Number 3 and Granny told Aiden that Drake was a member of royalty, the highest-ranking family in the entire kingdom. His family, while troubled and suffering, still carried the highest authority and could command the military and city guards at ease. 

The last part of their plan actually relied on their family's power and authority to make sure that this hellhole would be closed down for good.

Well, it was a good plan, but Aiden had some other plans. Every time he heard Lily's desperate plea or pain-filled cry ring in his mind, the rage and anger that he kept locked away in the depth of his soul started boiling, threatening to overwhelm his senses, turn him berserk as it erupted like a volcano.

He followed the route that he already mapped out with his system without stopping. Reaching the end of the first hallway he was greeted with a similar intersection that Drake found; three identical tunnels going the same direction. The same wails and cries echoed through the walls reaching his ears. 

Since he already had the route set, he decisively picked the rightmost tunnel and entered the dark corridor. As he was paying attention to the road ahead, he wasn't surprised when the first sounds of the guards reached his ears. In fact, he was already grinning from ear to ear under his mask. 

His arms at the ready, his muscles tensed, his hand contorted and ready to swipe at a moment's notice he walked in front of the two armored guards standing in front of a small corridor that would reach further into the tunnel system, to the rest of the slaves.

The two guards were garbed in similar uniforms as the pair Drake met. Both wore a sleeveless padded leather vest protecting their upper body. The edges of their chest plates where the front and back connected were etched with heraldic designs and laced with bits of gold leaf. Beneath their belts, their reinforced pants were similarly decorated.

Hanging on their sides, both had the same dark brown leather sheath with a short sword resting in it. The sheath had their group's emblem, the red eagle logo crudely painted on it. Both had a black cloth piece serving as a mask, hiding the lower half of their faces and only leaving their glowering, sinister eyes free for everyone to gaze into.

They stopped their heated discourse as they noticed a frail-looking masked youth casually walk towards them. Puzzled by this, they both instinctively reached for the hilt of their short swords and were looking at the long black-haired boy.

The first one to break the taut silence was the guard on the right. He had a large deep and ugly scar run through the top of his bald head all the way through the top of his left eye, which was miraculously spared. 

"Who the fuck are you and what are you doing here, runt? How did you even get in? This is a closed-off area, fuck off before we throw your dead body to the wolves!"

Contrary to their expectation the boy did not run off nor did he show any signs of being scared. Instead, the small eye sockets on his white faceless mask glowed in golden light, and a sinister snort could be heard. 

The boy then spoke, first in a normal albeit deep, rich tone. 

"Ahahaha! Interesting…" As he continued to speak, his voice gradually changed, turning deeper, acquiring an unnatural eerie vibe. "...Wolves you say? Fine, let's go with that then." 

At the end of the speech, his voice almost turned into a howl. The air around the boy vibrated, his figure blurred. In the next moment, his shape changed, doubled in size. New strands of muscles formed at the right places and his attire magically vanished, his dark thick fur revealed itself. The length of his arms grew, the nails on his fingers transformed into black claws. 

His face also transformed, although the strange mask he was wearing kept up with his new elongated nose and animalistic features, still covering his features.

The whole transformation didn't take longer than a second. As Aiden morphed into his Worgen form, a sinister howl resonated under the mask, shocking both guards stiff.

"Ahahaha, here, I give you guys a wolf then. What do you say now?"

Both men, albeit they have seen many strange things in their many years serving as mercenaries, the sight they were greeted with was a first. At one moment, a weak, frail-looking boy was in front of them, and in the next, he turned into a huge humanoid wolf-like monster dwarfing over them both in size and in power.

Grabbing their sword both of them simultaneously pulled it out from its sheath and nervously placed it in front of their bodies. Their proud and powerful aura that their years of service should have formed was nowhere to be found. Their nervousness was visible on their faces and represented with their shaking hands.

"You… you monster! What the fuck are you?! What do you want?!" The guard in the right asked. The one on the left nodded, with similar thoughts plaguing his mind.

"What am I? Monster? Hmm… I'm your worst nightmare come to life. I've come to take the price you will ALL have to pay for your arrogance. I'm your executioner. That's what I am." Aiden growled menacingly in response, still not taking a step further. 

His clawed hands were stretched out and his muscles in his arms tensed. Resting his eyes on the man on the right, then slowly pacing it to the one of the left, he continued to growl, as if taunting the guards to take action.

Both men looked at each other and with an affirming nod, they gulped. They knew that running for their life was futile, so their only option was to gaze into the abyss and charge against the certain doom. 

With that one last loud, audible gulp they swallowed their fears and gathered their courage, and with a loud reckless shout, they charged at this abomination, this monster.

Looking at the incoming lambs, Aiden snickered silently.

"Perfect…"