mwsexcerpt5

      Walter watched the house burn. His family were all inside, the flames consuming them. Tears rolled down his handsome face as he stood watching the only home he�d ever known become an enormous funeral pyre. The framework of the house beside it, never to be completed, caught, the flames licking at it hungrily as the crackling became an intense roar. �Farewell my family,� he whispered.
        He had spent most of the morning cleaning and dressing the bodies, the act extremely hard to carry out. He had performed the �Rites Of Passage� ceremony that was observed when all Lycanthrope honored their dead. He knew he could never return here. Too many memories.
        Gathering up the small cloth sack that held his few meager belongings (a change of garments, his silver amulet on a chain, and as much food as he could carry) he turned his back to the burning homestead, and began to walk . . . .

      The werewolf growled softly, then whined. A tear ran down the creature�s muzzle, a large, paw-like hand coming up to wipe it away. He wanted to howl in long mournful tones at the full moon above him, but did not. To do so meant giving away his presence and location to the prey he stalked. As he watched the windows, his red, glowing, cat-like eyes caught movement from inside. Now, it was time to strike.
        An almost evil sneer crossed the wolf�s countenance in what would have been a grin in human form. The powerful being stood up on it�s large pawed feet, and crept stealthily toward the castle . . . . . .

        The wolf creature reached the window�s ledge and climbed through. He�d scaled the castle�s wall, and was now inside. A torch burned on the wall of the empty room The werewolf cocked it�s ear in the same manner as a dog would, listening intently. All seemed quiet, but in the distance, he detected faint screams coming from deep within the ancient castle
         He padded softly to the open doorway that led out into the hall. Turning from left to right, he found the corridor to be empty. He struck off to the left, stalking down the narrow passageway, following his nose wherever it would take him. The scent of death was stronger now, alerting him that vampires were, indeed, near. The corridor joined another in a �T� shape, the wolf only stopped for a moment to turn his head in both directions. He sniffed the air, detecting a stench coming from his left. Growling, he stalked off in that direction, his blood on fire, eager to kill his enemies.

The passage brought him to a downward spiraling staircase that was lined with torches. It was also adorned with grinning hideous faces, obviously the recent work of a vampire artist as tribute to some group of demons. At the end of the stairs, he found himself in a large, dimly-lit chamber. Torches hung along all four walls, giving him enough light to see the horrific activity going on below. Walter found himself on an open balcony, with no railing.
This place had to be the coffin chamber, the place selected by vampires to sleep during the day. Indeed, there were many coffins littering the floor of the room below. He watched silently as vampires stood hovering over a group of nude victims that lay on several long, wooden tables that had been meant for kingly banquets. Their victims, two men, two women, were chained to the stone wall, and shuddered every time they drew near. Walter estimated there to be at least twenty fiends in all. Knowing those people�s lives depended on him, he decided it was time to act.

He announced his presence with an angry snarling roar of warning. Instantly, the grotesquely humanoid creatures lifted their heads to where the werewolf stood on the open balcony above the chamber. They hissed and growled in evil warning, five flying up to attack him. They grabbed him, clutching his arms in an attempt to pin him to the cold stone floor. He knew what they were after: his blood. If a vampire drank a werewolf�s blood, it would gain power and strength. The older the wolf, the greater the power. That was perhaps another reason Avatar and his brood had killed his family. The thought of his family�s blood flowing through Avatar filled him with great rage. Strength renewed, the wolf swung his arms back, throwing two to the floor. His arms now free, the powerful beast grabbed two other of his attackers by the head, and slammed them together hard.
Bone fragments and blood flew in every direction, as their skulls splintered, shattering like eggshells. Spotting a torch on the wall behind him, the wolf grabbed it, whirling around as the other three bloodsuckers moved in on him. He slammed the torch�s lit end into the closest one�s chest with a sickening squish. The creature let out an inhuman shriek of agony, as it�s body became engulfed in flames. As it burned, the vampire sank slowly to the floor to lay unmoving at the wolf�s pawed feet.

Snarling viciously, the werewolf swiped at the two remaining corpses as they advanced toward him, intent on his death. As his large, paw-like hand made contact with one of their heads, he decapitated it with one stroke, watching it bounce once on the balcony floor, to land on the chamber floor far below.
        The last remaining vampire hesitated for a moment, contemplating if it were wise to attack such a powerful enemy. Finally, it hissed angrily, coming closer to him, baring it�s fangs. The werewolf returned the favor, also baring it�s fangs. The wolf punched through the undead entity�s chest, obliterating bone, with a nauseating crunch as it exited the vampire�s back, holding it�s non-beating heart. Walter withdrew his blood soaked arm, still holding the organ in his grasp, watching the demon fall to the floor below. Tossing the heart onto the floor, he stomped on it, crushing it into a flat, bloody mess.
     Rather than taking the stairs to the bottom, he took a deep breath and leapt off of the balcony, with a flip to the chamber below, landing in the center of the evil group, immediately slashing and killing them. No sense in giving them a chance to kill me first, he thought to himself. The vampires never had a chance to react, each being disposed of as they got close in an attempt to kill him. The human captives could only watch in horrified fascination as the battle raged around them. They only hoped that the werewolf and vampires killed each other instead of them.
     By now, Walter had dispatched all but one of the twenty creatures. As the last vampire attempted to creep away, the wolf came up behind it, a leg on each side of it�s body, grabbed it by the hair and lifted it up to meet a gory end. Standing proudly over the body, the werewolf placed his right pawed foot on the pile of dismembered undead, and let out a long howl of victory. Another group of Avatar�s minions destroyed.