The challenge

The chimes and bells, along with the overhead announcement had gathered everyone who had attended the festival to meet at the heart of the grounds, where the battle stages had been set up in between the beginning ceremonies to now. Banners had been raised and caterers meandered through the crowds as the initial opening of the tournament began in earnest.

Cheers erupted from the crowd when the Wolf King and his mates stood up onto the main podium with the city’s mayor and police commissioner. Waving back to the group of people and reporters as they spoke low enough not to be heard from the onlooking crowd.

“How absolutely disgusting!” Whispered the slightly overweight mayor Akins. “First my city was under siege by lunatics for decades, now its overrun with werewolves and vampires… I half expect Abbott and Costello to show up with the Mummy before the night’s end.”

“Come now Mr. Mayor, a good number of those lycanthropes are voters.” Scoffed Gordon, still waving to the crowd as he took off his hat and filled it with folded paper slips. “And unless you want them to KEEP voting for you, and not for the kind-hearted red spider who happens to be my daughter.”

Frowning, the man eyed the commissioner while maintaining his smile to the crowds. “She’s been rising in the polls of late…”

“What can I say? I raised her pretty well.”

“Well… Let’s just see if she ends up the winner this November.” Stepping forward and taking the commissioner’s hat, the mayor waved to the crowd for silence as he brought up a microphone so he could be heard.

“Welcome one and all to the fifth anniversary of the wolf wars, AND to the Halloween Festivities!”

An eruption of cheers and howls filled the streets as the mayor smiled and bowed his head. Eventually Mayor Akins raised a hand to calm the cheering so he could speak again. “Tonight, we begin the first act of the tournament with one-to-one combat. In this hat are the names of twenty contestants who will be participating for city charity, as per the people’s vote on the competitions.”

Reaching into the hat, the mayor pulled out two names. Reading them over, a droplet of sweat trickled down his brow as he looked like he was anxious to read them before turning his attention to the Vampire King and his wife approaching the podium.

“Our f-first contestants are Salazar of the serpent tribe… A-and Dracula.”

With an almost predatory smile, the count turned to his wife and shared a kiss with the cat woman as he pulled off his coat and offered his hat to Selina as he made his way to the ring. Tugging at the jacket of his finery, the King of Vampires raised an eyebrow when a weresnake with brown and black banded scales slithered his way into the ring and looped his coils around to stand up just a foot higher than the vampire. A smirked on his fanged snout as he hissed a forked tongue back at Dracula. Looking back at the crowd, Salazar raised his hands up in triumph and winked back at his Mistress who sat luxuriously from her seating, overlooking the festival and tournament.

Eyeing the pale vampire count, the man reached into the cuff of his sleeve and produced a gleaming, polished saber, admiring its craftsmanship before eyeing the cobra who crossed his arms and tightened the coils and loops of his serpentine tail.

“You are not the first serpent who tried to best me, and I doubt the last. This city has been generous in granting me many opponents to test my skills against.” Dracula chuckled to himself. With a single swipe of the blade, a humming tune could be heard in the wind, as if the blade itself had cut the air in its sharpness.

“That was half a decade ago, and your time is over old man.” Cracking his fingers together, the wereserpent grinned and loosened his coils, getting ready to strike once the bell was rung. “When I’m done with you, you won’t know the difference between up and…”

Panic filled the festivities when a beam of intense red light cut through the clouds overhead and incinerated the serpent man down to a screaming pile of ash before the eyes of everyone there. Looking up to where the heat vision came from, Dracula found a form slowly descending from high above. Followed quickly by several others. The entire pack of Krypto-wolves had arrived and took positions overhead across the entire city, their eyes a glowing blood red as their leader descended further to be seen by the public still screaming at the act of force.

Karn’el floated several feet overhead the Vampire Count and Wolf King, smiling down at the two most powerful beings in New Gotham. Turning his horned, lupine head over to the screaming crowds, his smile diminishing as he watched the thousands of panicking humans try to flee for their lives.

“ENOUGH!”

His voice carried far, echoing across the skyscrapers and trees, and leaving everyone nearby to clutch at their ears and fall to the ground in shock. Seeing the humans cower at just an example of his abilities, Karn’el chuckled to himself and spread his four arms out wide, smiling down at Dracula and Bruce.

“I… I am Karn’el, son of the Wolf King AND of Kara Zor’el. I am the master of the krypto-wolf pack and I declare a challenge against the king of the dead, the vampire human.”

Narrowing his eyes, Dracula turned his attention to Bruce and the others, their faces just as surprised and horrified as the onlookers around him. Standing poised with his saber tip to his feet, Dracula exhaled and spoke up to the large flying wolf to get his attention.

“I see it that this was not a plan of the Wolf King. You act alone?”

“Alone? Look around you dead thing, I control ALL the Krypto-wolves, they are mine and mine alone, even the ones NOT of my pack.” With a gesture from one of his clawed hands, five of the super wolves descended from the rest of the pack keeping the entire city hostage, their eyes glowing red, but their faces were drawn, tired, lifeless. Bruce was shocked to find that one of them were Kara, but he could not recognise the others until he examined their fur colour, gender, eye colour and apparent age. Even though none of them were remotely human, Bruce’s eyes narrowed as his ears darted back and he growled.

“You turned Superman.” The words hit hard enough to catch the attention of everyone near him. “You turned Lois Lane, Super Girl, and Super Boy, and the only way you could have done that is if you left the city of New Gotham.”

“I had granted you amnesty to go to the Superman’s sanctuary to learn more of your people.” Looking above him to the rest of the krypto-wolves still in the air with their eyes glowing, Dracula merely scratched at his chin. “It would seem you have learned MUCH in your departure. What do you seek?”

“This was all prophesized.” Explained Karn’el, finally landing on his feet and looming over the man by almost a meter taller in height with his arms still outstretched. “That I would be the one to slay you and be king of all.”

“A prophecy…” It wasn’t even a question, turning his red eyes over to Bastet who watched from her perch atop a building that overlooked the ceremony and arena. “Where a wolf would face me in mortal combat? How do you not know that said wolf is not the Wolf King?”

“Simple.” Snapping his attention towards Bruce, the heat vision struck the black wolf square in the chest, scorching fur and flesh and sending him back until he collapsed onto a parked car, burning alive as the heat of the sun burned down to his rips and right through his back to ignite the automobile behind him. The explosion caused a panic in the crowd and the red and white wolves to cry out in horror. Strands of smoke sizzled off his injuries as the rest of the wolf pack ran to surround and protect their King, staring back at Karn’el’s betrayal with shock and horror. “Because he is in no position to fight you, I am!”

“And if I refuse?”

Sneering with bared fangs, Karn’el looked to the terrified crowds of people dressed up for the season, all held hostage by the flying Krypto-wolves overhead and grinned. “Then I burn this city to the ground. We don’t need it anymore. I have a new hunting ground, the world itself, MY world! And you have no place in it.”

Turning his attention back to the injured Bruce and to his wife who tended to the wolf’s injuries, she gave him a look in return, one he had not seen in many centuries. Shocking everyone there, Dracula began to laugh, a chuckle at first before breaking down into hysterical laughter, that left him clutching at his stomach with his free arm as he struggled to maintain his composure.

“Stop laughing old dead thing, my name is Karn’el, and you are…”

“Dead.” Dracula stated softly, just loud enough that Karn’el could hear with his enhanced hearing. The air suddenly grew cold and Dracula’s eyes glowing a bloody red as harsh as the rest of the krypto-wolves orbiting the city. “You dumb, over-confident animal, you do not realise it, but you have signed your epitaph.

Growling with his spines rattling, Karn’el hunched down with his four claws brandished and ready to strike, his tail snapping behind him as his eyes burned.

“My wife, my beloved has given me permission to show you just what I am capable of. Feel honoured dull creature, only the Wolf King has known the full extent of my powers, and unlike YOU, he was WORTHY of it.”

The sky began to churn with darkness, blotting out the full moon in what appeared to be dark storm clouds, obscuring the city in darkness save the damaged streetlights. But there was a sound, a chorus of screeches and chirps Karn’el did not recognise, not all in one place. Looking up where the moon finally disappeared, his eyes could make out just what was causing it. Bats, millions upon millions of bats.

“Listen to them. Children of the night.” The vampire chuckled; his arms outstretched looking at the vortex of bats blotting out the moon. “What music they make.”

With that, Dracula lowered his hands to point towards Karn’el, and with a cacophony of hungry screeches, the flock of bats descended.