"Who are you? How do you know my name?"
Chercy stared warily at the stranger not far away.
"We've met before. You just never saw what I looked like." The eerie stranger smiled. "Midgard asked me to rescue you, but you've moved even slower than I expected."
"It's you?" Chercy froze for a moment, remembering the mysterious man who had always stayed by Midgard's side. "The Leader, she..."
"Enough talk. You've already wasted enough time." Leonard controlled the figure and stepped aside. "Now go deal with your enemies. They're already trapped in the castle's great hall. Don't worry, they won't get away."
"You're not going to do it yourself?" Chercy asked in surprise.
"I'm giving you a chance to wipe out this humiliation," the mysterious man said with a smile. "Don't disappoint me again. Your failure already smeared mud on Midgard's face."
"Understood. Thank you very much for giving us this chance," Chercy said gratefully.
She understood that he was deliberately giving them a chance for revenge. Otherwise, he could have simply wiped those werewolves out himself.
"Go. That guy is probably almost at the great hall by now. That's the arena I prepared for your duel."
Leonard made the nameless unfortunate raise an arm and point toward the end of the corridor.
"You're not worried he'll get away?" Chercy asked curiously.
"Relax. I've already made preparations. He won't escape." Leonard controlled the wizard to slowly retreat. Once he entered the shadows, his body suddenly broke apart into a heap of vines and vanished without a trace.
They all knew Leonard was skilled at using magical plants, and they also knew he would not casually harm them. Even so, seeing that scene still left every werewolf wizard badly shaken.
"That gentleman is way too scary," one werewolf muttered softly.
"Shut up." Chercy shot him a glare, and the werewolf immediately trembled and fell silent.
"Let's go. Since that gentleman has given us a chance for revenge, we can't let him down."
Killing intent flashed in Chercy's eyes. "Move."
...
At the corner of the castle's great hall, a pair of eerie green eyes shifted restlessly.
To avoid being discovered, Wolver had extinguished the kerosene lamp and cautiously stuck his head out to scout the situation inside the hall.
The hall was pitch black. An ordinary wizard would have been effectively blind here. Only a werewolf could still see fairly well under these conditions.
But what he saw left Wolver stunned.
It was too clean. So clean it looked as if nothing had happened at all.
But he had clearly heard screams coming from this place earlier. There had to be something strange going on here. There might even be an ambush.
That unnatural calm made Wolver hesitate. He could not decide whether to keep watching a little longer or flee right now.
The main door was only a step away. Wolver would only need a dozen seconds or so to rush over and pull open the heavy doors.
As long as he could get out of here...
But before that, should he drink the potion?
Wolver took out the Wolfsbane Potion he had brought with him. He looked at the liquid inside, hesitated, then threw it away.
The potion looked fine, but it had been brought by those monsters. If he drank it, maybe he would be finished.
And even if there was nothing wrong with the Wolfsbane Potion, drinking it would weaken him, which would drastically reduce his chances of survival.
Wolver made up his mind. No longer hesitating, he tossed the potion aside and rushed out from the corner where he had been hiding.
The moment he stepped out of hiding, his werewolf-sharp danger sense told him that something behind him was staring at him with malicious intent.
How was that possible? He had only just run out from cover. How could someone possibly be behind him?
Wolver suspected his senses were wrong. Otherwise, would that not mean that while he had been hiding in that corner, a pair of eyes had been watching him the whole time?
Even as he ran wildly, large beads of cold sweat rolled down his face.
"Screech. "
Wolver came to a sudden stop, the soles of his shoes scraping sharply against the floor.
He spun around violently. His eerie green eyes were bloodshot, and the reason in them was hanging by a thread.
Outside the castle, the setting sun hanging at the horizon could barely hold on any longer. On the other side, the full moon was already quietly beginning to show itself.
The night of the full moon was about to arrive, and without having taken Wolfsbane Potion, Wolver was already on the verge of transforming.
With a rip, the sleeves of his clothes tore apart. A pair of black-furred claws slashed through the air with a sharp, piercing sound.
The claws struck nothing.
Wolver's twisted face froze.
There was nothing behind him, yet that unseen gaze had not disappeared.
It was as if some invisible, untouchable ghost hidden in an unknown corner was sneering at him.
Fear overwhelmed the madness in his blood. Forced into a half-werewolf state, Wolver did not hesitate for a second. He turned and charged straight toward the castle gates.
"Kekekekeke..."
Up in the vaulted ceiling of the great hall, corpse after corpse hung there entangled in vines and opened their eyes. They looked down at Wolver fleeing in panic, split their mouths wide, and let out waves of grotesque laughter.
It was as though they were mocking his cowardice and weakness. The castle hall had become a circus full of laughter.
And Wolver was the clown.
By then, clown Wolver had already rushed to the castle gates. His sharp claws dug into the crack of the door, and the muscles in his mutated arms bulged as he tried to wrench it open.
Amid the strange laughter, the doors slowly opened, and through the widening gap shone a warm, gentle light.
Excitement appeared on Wolver's ugly face, already beginning to sprout fur. He yanked the doors open with all his strength and rushed out eagerly, desperate to throw himself into the freedom beyond the castle.
What greeted him, however, was blood and pain.
A wall of thorn-covered brambles blocked his way. The spikes pierced easily into the skin of his chest, and a faint numbness spread out from the wounds.
Outside the castle, there was no safety and no freedom. There were only thorns and despair.
And that warm light was not the glow of the setting sun. The sun had already set. That light came from clusters of flames burning on the tips of the thorns.
These eerie plants were not afraid of fire at all. The plant-covered monster he had encountered in the corridor earlier had avoided the flames on purpose. It had let him pass specifically to drive him here.
Wolver stared at the wall of thorns before him. The enormous curved barrier seemed to surround the entire castle.
And the thorn wall was seamless. There was no exit anywhere.
"Ahhhhh!"
In despair, Wolver grabbed at the thorns embedded in his chest and let out a desperate roar at the completely dark sky. But that roar gradually turned into a frenzied wolf howl.
The night of the full moon had arrived. Without having taken Wolfsbane Potion, Wolver would become a creature without reason.
And a mindless beast could never escape.