Eye for an eye

Dorothy slowly scooted backwards as she tried to get back to her feet. The Wolf and the stranger circled each other. Their eyes were locked on each other; two red, one cyan. As the hooded doctor finally found her footing, she turned to sprint for the trees. She didn't want to leave Cuu, trapped as he was, but her patient had told her to run. She would have, as well; were it not for the new pairs of small, red eyes peering at her through the field. More of those smaller wolves... when had that thing made more!?

"As if you had the heart to kill this host, Nobody." Chides the demon, snarling all the while.

The warrior's glowing arm shudders, as if phasing in-and-out of reality; a bronze blade suddenly appearing in his hand. "I will if I must. But, if he's any bit as stubborn as his mother was, I won't have to..."

The Hood grasps Bobo from Dorothy's hands, shouting in her mind; louder still as the new small wolves approach. "Wicked thoughts, wicked thoughts!"

Fear is no such thought, as the Doctor of Antiquity freezes in place.

...

Nobody glances over to The Hood; wondering just what in the Author's name she was doing. He stomps his glowing leg onto the ground, forcing the limbs of his fallen brothers to rise in her defense. Water-logged skeletal arms, bearing spears, skewer the small hounds that had appeared from the fields. Nobody hears the falling of paws at his rear, and swings out his blade; drawing his rounded shield from his back. Another smaller wolf falls down as it is split in two, splashing onto the fields in a pile of ink.

Teeth meets bronze as The Wolf proper pounces at the distracted warrior, biting as his shield. Another stomp of his leg summons yet more spear-bearers from the earth; the smell of salt now heavy in the air as ten of them emerge to defend their master. The shadows spill forth yet more of the wolf pack, biting down onto his forces; confusing Nobody as he looks for the source of the beasts. As far as he knew, they had to emerge from The Wolf's own ink...

"You damned dogs love your bones, don't you?" He says, grinning at the beast.

It growls in a rabid rage. "I am no dog; trickster king!"

"A shame!" Nobody replies, his grin growing. "Then I suppose you won't catch this!"

From the woods, the whirring noise of an object flowing through the air can be heard; just as Nobody bashes the pommel of his blade down onto The Wolf's skull. Concussed, the beast staggers back as a heavy discus slams into its side. The crack of bone confirms to the warrior that the monster's horrid breath will be tamed for now. Striking out with a series of slashes, he manages a few minor wounds onto The Wolf's flesh as it tries to back away; each healing just as fast as they were made.

"Would you shut up already!"

Confused, Nobody gives a quick glance over to the new Hood; seeing her panicked and angry, yanking at the source of her Tale. The Wolf seems to have taken notice as well, but the look in it's eye is just as confusing; pupils return to the mass of red, each dilating as it scans the girl top to bottom. The demon snarls and shakes its head, its eyes returning to their mindless appearance.

"Enough!" It calls out; but not to anyone seemingly present.

Nobody moves quickly to take advantage of the distraction; mentally ordering his men to give up battling their smaller foes, and to be ready for his command. He kicks off the ground in a super-human sprint, his leg, arm, and eye glowing brightly as he charges his most hated foe. His shield collides into The Wolf with the **** of a chariot; shattering the metal defense into pieces as he drives it up under the monster's chinny-chin-chin. The Wolf is sent flying into the air, and ten spears leave the hands of their skeletal owners, each of them slamming into the flesh of the world-eater.

Nobody winces as the beast comes crashing back to the ground. "Just fade already, you damned monster!"

"C-Cuu!"

The new Hood bolts towards the small crater where The Wolf had landed, but her own attire forces her to remain at a distance. She struggles with it, shouting and cursing at the mass of red cloth. The dust began to settle in the field of wheat... when a noise broke the silence.

A howl to the Moon.

...

The Wolf rose from the crater it had left in the earth, feeling each spear be pushed out of its flesh as it stalked towards its prey. Up until now, it had been playing with it's food. Adjusting to it's host after years of being held back.

No more.

The Moon above shifted once more; the phase flickering from a Waxing Gibbous, to Third Quarter Half-Moon. Its body morphed and shifted, transforming back into it's favored form for duels to the ****. It arose from the dispersing dust, not as a shaggy hound, but as a towering hybrid of man and wolf, just as it had those many weeks ago...

"This time, Telemachus... I take more than your eye. More than your arm. More than your leg-" The beast stood talk as its ribs snapped back into place, a wicked smile forming across it's fanged maw "-more than your sister."

"You did not take her." The man replied, his unflinching facade cracking as he grit his teeth. "She chose her path; she chose to bare her son into this world, knowing her fate."

The Wolf was thrilled to hear such bravado; such heroism. Those were always the most fun to break. It dug deep into it's host's memories; further than the boy could ever hope to reach with his feeble, mortal mind.

"Yes. She was exactly what she knew herself to be." It continued, lowering itself as it readied to pounce. "A mother of nothing but monsters. A failure... and a disgrace."

The little lordling snapped. His body was engulfed in a cyan glow as he barreled towards The Wolf, just as expected. The clever demon allowed the man's blade to sink deep into his hide, through his guts, and glide a inch away from his spine. Just as the blade had fully sunken into The Wolf, he grasped the arm holding it, and slashed away at the shoulder; shattering the armor surrounding the arm, and causing a loud *crack* to echo into the night.

...

Telemachus cursed himself as he kicked off the beast; grasping above the stump of his arm. His shoulder had been dislocated, of that he was certain. The arm he had summoned from one of his men, too, was broken; snapped off at the elbow. The Nobody pulled his helmet free from his head, and allowed his mess of hair flow free. His empty eye-socket filled with cyan light as he stomped his foot once more, calling forth his men from the depths of the Ever-After...

All of them.

The water-logged hands of ancient warriors each emerged from the fields, raising high into the air; six hundred hand. Six hundred men, each under his command. The one closest to him held a shield in his hand, which he took with the grace of a king. A light arose from each hand, flowing towards their captain; the sound of a raging sea echoing through the air. Each collects inside the chest of Telemachus, his heart racing as the power he fought so long to obtain finally finds a use; the strength of an army, in a single hand.

"Wolf. I will only say this once-" Nobody calls out, his voice echoing with those of his Tale's army; his face twisting into one of determined anger. "-give me back my nephew."

The beast pulls out the blade from his belly, tossing it aside; its sickening smile growing ever wider.

"What, was the infant not enough?"

...

"This is insane! This is insane!"

Dorothy finally managed to make it to the trees; swearing all the while that those creepy, skeletal hands were grasping at her heels. Her heart was pounding like a drum, and her mind raced like a rabbit in spring. The raw power in the air from the two fighting in the field was palpable in the air, **** her heavy breathing as she tried to supply as much oxygen as possible to her brain; but it never seemed to be enough.

The Hood quickly envelops her whole body as a chunk of earth is split from the ground by the newest round of super human feats. The flying debris shatters against the cloth, but knocks the wind straight out of it's struggling Wearer. Dorothy, now dizzy as can be, tries to stand back up; her grip on her patient's stuffed bear tightening.

"This only ends one way, Lordling!" A blur of black ink dashes around the fields, almost too fast for Dorothy to keep track of. "With a tragedy!"

The man deflects horrifying blow after horrifying blow with seeming ease, his determination remaining unwavering.

"No." He replies, catching a missed swing of The Wolf's claws. "It ends-"

"-with a triumph!"

A loud snap echos through the field as The Wolf's left arm is sent flying from it's body; blasted off by a sickening shield strike that sounded more like the ringing of one thousand church bells. The beast screeches and yelp in pain, just as a follow-up strike buckles it's right leg backwards. The glowing man drops his shield, now pounding away at The Wolf with a single, bare fist. Each hit sounds like a cannon being fired; not unlike when Cuu had tossed that horrid straw-man what seemed like an eternity ago. With final punch, The Wolf is sent reeling, skittering tens of feet away from the man in bronze armor.

Dorothy felt her heart skip several beats as she saw The Wolf struggling to stand; its wounds refusing to close. The ink began to settle from its odd smoke-like state, and slog off in great globs. The Wolf was spent...

Cuu, was spent...

Yet the man in bronze continued to stalk towards the beast, his body overflowing with both power, and murderous intent. Dorothy felt a tug. Not from The Hood, as it had so many times pulled her from danger. This tug was something else. A call to action; the thing that had called her back to this field to begin with.

She bolted through the fields towards the stranger and The Wolf, each step leaving behind something rather odd.

Patches of emerald-hue bubbles.

...

Cuu could feel two things.

His faculties returning... and a ceaseless wave of agony in every inch if his body; well, everywhere but his left arm. As the ink slid from his face, he could only rasp weakly as he gazed up at a new face. The man he saw was missing an eye, but that was barely visible under the cyan aura streaming from his body. Cuu couldn't speak; that damned thing still had his throat.

The Wolf spoke, as if feeling the poor man's struggle for control. "Oooh nooo, I seem to be fading away! Maybe you've dispelled me... or maybe it's just like when we first met. Oh, how savory your flesh was."

More ink slogged off Cuu's wounded body, with fresh blood now tasting the air of the night; soon, the early dawn. Cuu knew a good few his ribs had been broken, his father trained him to know that pain specifically well. As well, he knew why his arm was the only part of him not aching. His leg, cracked the wrong way, wobbled under him as he fell to his back, causing yet further pain. Worst of all... his wounds were not closing. His guts were screaming for any amount of food; meat most of all.

"D-d..." Cuu could barely speak as his throat became his own once more. "Doctor..."

The warrior in bronze loomed over him, fist raised; seemingly unsure of wether or not the threat had passed. The sun had begun it's peak over the horizon; directly behind the unknown man. The power surrounding him faded, and the shadow cast by the early dawn now cloaked his face completely.

"When next you feel his call, Cuu."

The young man looked up at the shadowy figure as he spoke, shaking violently as his body began to fail.

"Remember me."

A friend's guidance? An enemy's threat? Both?

Cuu would have asked which, but when he next closed his eyes as he shuddered in pain; the man was gone. Odd sounding footsteps quickly made their way towards his limp, dying body... but that smell. That earthly perfume.

"Doctor..."