————
Ah... the wind whirls down the streets as it slowly sweep down the dust, the wind is very strong and sure is windy.
"I see... You did not remember any thing that happen to You..."
A voice speaks, It was Zahiro's as he lean into the wall behind him... Howl was still there in the corner of dead end of the dusty road he was stepping it, he was there shedding bead of tears from what he thinks he have done...
"Don't worry, You're not the one who's responsible for this bloody town... and I think You may need a mirror."
Zahiro spoked down before suggesting down for Howl to look into the shard of glass he pointed.
Howl nods before he stand up, stepping his feet closer to approach the broken shard of glass, he picks it up before he gasped from shocks. He threw the shard of glass as it break into tiny bits that mixed up with the sand-y ground.
"Tell me... Does he kill anyone else?"
Howl's eye shakes as a crimson bead fall from his eyes, Zahiro notices the blood flowing out of his eyes, after a nice mind thinking... He decided to ignore it...
"That's out of my knowledge unfortunately."
Zahiro's voice got low in a bit as he turn into the rising moon as countless howling sound echoes through the starry night sky.
"You may want to join the howling but I can't stay here for longer."
Zahiro spoke his last sentence before his body vanishes, becoming one with the gale as he dashes deep we into this bloody broken town.
"Right..."
Howl's eyes flashes blue for a second as he pull himself to stand up, he slowly put a step forward, bathing himself in the luminous light of the moon as a breeze of wind washes his fur.
"Never get this feeling ever again..."
He sighed as he step forward and soon he met a beast, the classic Neurofugas wolf, the beast swiftly put his paws on the ground before dashing forward toward Howl.
Howl's eyes shines as an enormous amount of blood flows out of his claws, the beast whines from fear as the flashing eyes of Howl put a pressure onto the beast.
Howl take a slight breathe before hardening his. blood into a spear and in just one shot—SPLAT—A burst of blood splatter from the beast head as the spear crush the skull, killing it instantly.
"... How come I didn't feel anything..."
He stared the beast lifeless body, feeling nothing but a large space of void filling his cold and petrified or even hollow heart.
A thumping sound of a step rushes at him, he turn his head around to found a group of human having their eyes locked at him. One of them stepped forward with his gun aimed ay Howl's forehead.
"What are You? Four ears... Never seen it anywhere..."
"... Something I've never wanted to be."
—————
The swirling wind brushes through the leaf of the forest, and yet here he is, Mark trapped in a cave with a strange tiger beast.
"Yeah... I guess I need a helping HA—"
Mark mutters before the tiger's claw flies in front of his lips, shushing him down while the tiger is having that smirk.
A clicking sound of a tongue rhymed down from the tiger's lips as he swung his finger left and right.
"Paw! Okay?"
The tiger chuckles with his orbiter eyes glancing at his paw pad on the palm of his own hand, Mark face finally turn into one of an irritated face.
"Okay I get it... W-Wait, why am I becoming so calm just now?! I SHOULD'VE KILL YOU!"
Mark dashes back before his hand pull out his gun but just in a blink of an eye, the tiger blitzes forward with his ha—erm... Paw taking a hard grip on the gun.
Mark gasped just to find the tiger's hand arcing down at him, Mark pull his head down but the tiger smirked and push his other fist forward. Mark quickly dashes back but it seems it was a blunder...
Mark fell down to the floor before he sees the tiger's claw dug into the floor beneath his own feet, Mark suddenly feels something rushing, his head was turned here and there just to realize it was the ground.
"FU—"
Mark cursed before then—CRACK—the ground roared and pushed into a spikes, immobilized by the spikes, Mark's eyes was closed as he heard the tiger's feet tapping with the rocky ground.
"It is better to be calm than death... Right?"
The tiger spoke calmly as his 'paws' tapped against the rock spike trapping Mark in it. The rock bursted out a rushing sound before the spike shrunk and pull itself into the ground.
"You win..."
"Now do You need a helping paw or not?"
The smirk of the tiger shrunk into something more stern, Mark instantly pull himself to stand while dusting off his ACU.
"Of course I need it!"
Mark bawled before then his eyebrow was raised in confusion when he sees the tiger nodding his head slowly, the tiger quickly rush forward to look up at the place Mark fell down.
"Uhh... I think we need to go the other way... It may be uncomfortable for you but I will assist You out."
The tiger stated as his eyebrow is raised from the realization that Mark actually fell this way.
"And how could I trust You?"
"Because Im a beast, not a vicious ferals."
The tiger mentioned the 'ferals', Mark's eyebrow arced up as he heard that name... The tiger quickly realize that he was confused.
"You... Don't know anything about ferals?"
He asked with a frustrated smile, his veins is popping up to the surface of his neck. Mark step back before answering with his head shaking a 'no'.
BAM!
The tiger's feet slam down the ground, the ground shakes before a chunk of stone flies out of the ground. He quickly arced down a haymaker punch and—CRASH—the stone crumbled down to piece, Mark stares at it with shock as a quiver runs down his bones.
"So that's why You say 'I should've killed You'..."
A surge of chilling feeling soak down onto the deep of Mark's souls as the tiger's mind finally came to a realization.
"Let me break it down for You."
"Like a punch or—"
"Not that dummy..."
The tiger scoffed knowing the human in front of him is the same as EVERYONE he have met, they only have intention to kill and perform a genocide.
"I'll make it simple for You... Ferals is just us but they have no morals nor feeling, they are different from us because we have feeling and brain to tell what's right and wrong."
The tiger gave out a simple explanation as a realization came to Mark as he start to understand why that wolf is not fighting back and seemed to know him.
"Does it have a chance for human that is infected to transform into beast instead of ferals."
Mark asked with a shaky voice, the tiger ears flopped back and forth for a second before he shrugs it off.
"That's out of my knowledge, but I heard there were a strange wolf out there that seemed pretty 'human' with his fighting style and behaviour in the town not far from here."
The tiger replied before Mark quickly beamed from hearing the word 'wolf' and 'strange'.
"Does he have a black stripes on it bodies?!"
"Chill out... And from what I've heard... Yes, he has. But there's one problem."
A smile popped out of his face as he heard the answer, the tiger sigh before he let out the answer he was holding.
"He is a Kyrian Alpha and just uhh... evolved recently..."
He spit out the answer Mark desperately searching for, just then to find the worst possible reality.
Mark's eyes darts at him with a feeling of disbelief lying on his eyes.
"That cannot be real... He won't be killing anyone just like that."
He denies as then he find the tiger's hand to push him off, the tiger's face hints a concern lying on his eyes as he turn back and walks deeper into the dark.
His orbiter eyes shines as he turn his head to swerve his eyes at Mark's. Mark can't see him but he can tell that he tilts his head as his eyes position tilted to the right.
"Follow me, we'll go through the other way that Im talking about."
He beckons before walking backward, Mark roll his eyes before trailing up on the tiger's glowing eyes.
"Watch out, some people might start to attack you when we reach our stop."
He remarks, causing Mark to scoff while stepping carefully on the rocky ground as he follows the tiger's luminous stripe that somehow... Shine bright in the dark, he never sees that before.
Step by step they take on the darkness, Mark can feel the cold water beneath his feet as the sound of splashing water echoes while he continues to walk.
They finally came to a place with a light luminating in it, but wait... This look just like a laboratory hall.
Red trails marking on every sides of the metal wall, broken facility... he continues his walk with his eyes distracted to study every detail of. this place, wires and the ventilation that somehow worked.
"WOOAAAH! Is that a human?!"
"GAH!"
Mark jumps back to a thud as he sees another beast jumping in front of his face again, what a lucky day...
The wolf beast's lips forced up a smile as he look at him with an apologetic looks on his face.
"Really? Twice?"
Mark mutters while getting him up to stand, dusting his ACU off, he finds the chance to study the wolf in front of him.
A weird creatures once again discovered by him, this beast is nothing like the one in the database, shady grey wolf with white marking is available in the database but not with the one with sparkling cyan eyes and root-like marking stretching on his hand to his shoulder with the same color as his eyes.
"Hehe! Sorry there, it was just, wow a human! I've been admiring your kind for a while!"
The wolf beamed with his tail swishing back and forth, Mark's eyes widen when he heard the wolf says the word 'admiring'.
"Wait admiring? Like—"
"Yeah! I love this thing! I actually don't know what this is... But when I click this weird sideway-triangle button, it plays an amazing sound!"
The wolf spit out even more comments while his hand flies to show him the phone, that confused Mark so much just now, first a tiger, now, a wolf?
"That's a phone... When did you find it? It was fully charged."
Mark mumbled the only proper reply that comes to his mind, grabbing the phone from him to open up with a lockscreen of a brown haired guy holding his boy beside him. This must be one of the scientist's phone.
"I found it... five years ago!"
The wolf's word shocks Mark even more with the fact the phone is fully charged even after a whole year.
"Right, I realize I never introduced myself properly and neither my friend is."
The tiger finally shows up behind Mark with his paws tapping Mark's shoulder. The wolf's face beamed up as he sees the tiger and is it just him or...
Did he hear a zapping sound?
"Im Arthman, sound strange to human isn't it?"
The tiger reveals his name with a smile on his face, well yeah that name does sound strange... But also cool.
The wolf pouted followed with the chuckling of Arthman, putting his hand on the wolf's back before pulling him closer.
"This? The nickname of Zappy Boy sound funny in our place and Im sure it was in yours too, his name is Arlian."
He introduce the wolf though the wolf looked a bit agitated when he heard his nickname was mentioned.
"Right... Arthman, Arlian, got it."
Mark mumbles before handing the phone back onto the paw pad of the wolf. He seems so happy when he got it back.
"Now, where did we go?"
TZZ—ZAP!
"Oh! I can help you with this!"
Arlian dashes forward, Mark felt a tingle flowing through his body as Arlian put his feet further in the frontline with his body zapping out an electric wave.
"What the—"
WOOSH—Just a second and the wind burst Mark back to the floor, Arlian is gone in an instant with the hall's light buzzing and flickering as he disappear with the wind.
"Come on I help you..."
Arthman mumbles, putting his hand on Mark's to pull him to stand before then walking away towards the direction Arlian seemed to dashed out for...
———
His foot thumped down the wall as he hold onto the wall, four ears... It was Howl. He looks terrified with his breathing inhaling in and out at a high speed.
He stumbles before his body slammed down to the ground with his mouth gurgling out blood, his ears flick back and forth as he pick up a sound, a sound of a footstep.
"I will remind you once again, Howl Nexcort. We need you, but it seems we need to use violence for it."
The familiar voice speaks and—CLANG—just as the last word was spoken, the sound of metal clank rings loudly into his ears.
But wait... It's a rare occasion that a swordsman brings two sword at a time could it be...
"Fanny?"
The voice spit out a name that cause Howl to swerve his body to his back to see who it is really.
That voice sound familiar, it felt like he ever heard it before... but now there they is, one tomboy woman with one other person in shady robe... Presumably another woman...
Howl gasped as he winced with his hand pushing himself to stand just to find a furry hand grabbing his shoulder and then—WOOSH—the wind whirls around his body as the person behind him jump high into the building above them, holding Howl as they jump.
"C-Connor?!"
Howl tried to guess the person's name before he heard a burst of laughter coming from the person as a thud banged with the person's smooth landing.
"Not him, you know something about her, don't you?"
The person's gruff voice replies as they slide down into the huge cracks in the middle of the road, Howl's face roughen as they go through the crack into the underground of this crashed city.
The person laughed before throwing him high in the air, Howl gasped before pulling out his blood that shifted into a string.
THUD—Oh but well it was useless anyway, he soon fell to the ground with no safe landing. He rub his head before turning his head round and round to find this underground is filled with light.
It was looking like a huge hall, even an iron wall was defending it from any attack but well... It seems it have become a ruin now that half of the iron on the wall crumbled down onto the ground.
"Just how far we need to walk anyway?!"
A familiar voice speak, Howl definitely recognize those voice he picks up on his ears, but he does not risk anything as he splat out a huge amount of blood before hardening it into s crystal-like spear.
Howl turn his body back to see two beast and one human walking towards his direction, though it seems they aren't searching for it.
That face and spiky hair... He knew it somewhere... But how can he forgot?
The human was the first to stop before then the beast, a bead of sweat fell down Howl's cheeks as he see those beast, it doesn't seem like a regular beast.
"Wait... Howl? Is that you?"
The human called him out with an astonished face, his lips was quivering as he says that. Howl tried to dig it out but well...
It gave nothing.
He dug into the memories.
Nothing...
It seems he must dig deeper...
After a while of digging into his memories, he found it. His eyes widen while his ears perks up.
"Mark? Mark Hunter?"
——To Be Continued——
Author's Love Letter:
Haha, hello there this is the author of the book sending out a (not) letter. Yes I uploaded a bit late, my imagination's not working for a bit.
Plus, Im planning to rewrite a bit of the first four episode, if you don't know. I've rewrited the Chapter 1 before.
Also omaga thank you for 350 Read! (it was reaching 396 by the time I write this letter.)
Here is the new book cover because the previous was lame