The Hidden Danger

"Why do you wish to die for selfish people Lion? There's no sense wasting time on that when we should be thinking only of our wants and needs," Fenrir said to his brother as they walked through the streets at night.

"Many may be selfish Fenrir, but there are people who are good too, just like you. You always protect me and take care of me and always make sure I lack for nothing, even if that means you don't get what you want. I just want to think that in the world there are people like you, who have good hearts, who deserve a hero to take care of them."

"I am not a good person. I steal, lie, cheat and even fight for crap that won't solve our lives. I'm just someone who is willing to do whatever it takes to survive and protect his family."

"Ha ha ha ha. If you say so, but I think you would be a fine gentleman if you learned to open your mind more and think of others and not just us." He smiles.

Fenrir had lost track of time, he felt that he had cried for more than a year for his brother while he kept hugging his rotten and almost bones body, nothing seemed to matter anymore, the only person he appreciated in the world was gone, his greatest fear had come true. He was alone and with a pain that no one could comfort, Fenrir arranged Lion's corpse and promised to take him outside so that his body could be in a better resting place, he took a few things from him, including a diary, maybe to know later Lion's last memories during his stay in that place. Fenrir cursed the knights and intended to do things to be on hand with them when he left the nest until he heard a series of threatening noises get loud.

"It doesn't matter that you are the representation of the plague of hunger. I... I... " He begins to remember his brother as happy and alive before he became a knight and ruined his life. "I won't leave until I make it clear to all of you that you picked the worst person to pick on you damned killer insects!"

Fenrir put his brother on his back and adjusted him in an improvised backpack to carry him, with the little time he had he prepared himself with his gloves and boots. He got into a running stance, he would wait for the right moment, he just had to be patient, though his anger was starting to bubble up like lava from a volcano ready to erupt. The shadow could see how that fire-like aura began to intensify, it moved with a violence that betrayed the man's murderous intentions.

"You must only escape Fenrir, jump, run and move like lightning, don't fight... don't fight... don't fight... no!"

A wall collapses behind the man looking like it had taken him by surprise, but the man reacts, he uses the boot to shoot out against some of the rubble and jump like a bullet against the zerbarix behind him. Fenrir pierces the creature with what seemed to be several of its organs, the thief did not know if he had taken the heart, but he considered that he had taken a good handful of the organs that were still moving in the palm of the thief's hand.

The zerbarix turns its head 180° to throw its tongue and roll up Fenrir's ankle who gets even angrier insulting the creature for touching him with its dirty tongue. He spins around using his claws to cut the tongue and throws the organs at it so that the creature would eat it being a cannibal, the zerbarix opens its mouth to eat its entrails, but as a cruel joke, Fenrir uses a lightning claw to destroy the creature's organs to take away its snack. Thanks to that childish outburst, Fenrir realizes something interesting, the organs of a zerbarix were highly volatile and explosive because the zerbarix dropped dead from the lack of its upper body.

"Hell I almost died with that explosion, but it's interesting to know that they are more fragile on the inside than the outside." the man commented.

Using his boots he tried to move with great speed as he cut down some zerbarix, maybe not killing them, but leaving a mark so that the creatures would never forget that he was a more dangerous prey than them, that action annoyed them and only fueled their violent frenzy against the creature inferior to them.

Fenrir moved without any problem, his preparation was undoubtedly the best of all; despite his anger, his mind was still barely working, but at least he prioritized his escape. On the other hand, the vast majority of the zerbarix, realizing that their precision-based attacks were not yielding results, changed tactics, now they would make attacks that involved the possibility of friendly fire damage if they could catch the varmint that was bothering them.

"They went crazy, if they keep this up they will drop their own nest on the heads of all of us." Thought the man evading the attacks without difficulty.

While Fenrir was counting on the boots of Eriquix, known as the son of speed and considered to be relics of great value like the gloves, he was in no danger as long as he did not idiotically expend his relics' energy prematurely. When a herd of purple zerbarix arrived, they noticed the human's movement pattern and launched stingers at the spot where he would land instead of firing at his current whereabouts.

Fenrir noticed how the needle pierced Lion's leg, tearing it apart, but the most curious thing was to see that the leg, which still had some pieces of flesh, melted into a purple viscous pulp. Far from worrying, that had been the straw that had broken the camel's back. Fenrir did not want Lion's poor body to suffer any more mistreatment.

"You think you're better than me at anticipating my moves! Well congratulations, you'll have my attention and priority!"

Fenrir calculated the trajectories the needles were coming from, while the purple zerbarix did the same. The man lets out an angry snort and launches a claw-shaped lightning bolt to attack the creatures from a distance. These naturally evade the attack without any problem; unexpectedly they are hit by another lightning bolt that was hidden behind the first attack. Fenrir had anticipated the situation quite well, so he calculated the exact angle, anticipated the move, and acted without problem using his enemy's abilities against him.

The shadow was impressed to see the human's abilities and way of fighting, despite being surrounded and having everything to lose, he was fighting as if he were not a human. Anticipation, analysis, and adaptation were the elements that the man used to his advantage to win. The insects began to make their annoying sound, again they seemed to be conversing with each other, Fenrir was afraid of it, more than the headache their annoying talking was giving him, the idea that these mindless things were talking to plan how to finish him off made him question if a zerbarix could learn as well.

"If I don't get away from here soon, that annoying language of theirs will leave me dazed, or worse, I'll pass out in the clutches of these monsters."

The ingenious swindler, taking advantage of his acquired knowledge, notices openings in the corpses of the zerbarix and shoots at them to provoke an explosion and use his boots to jump a pillar that would be propelled by the expansive radius. Fenrir passes by the shadow, and although he doesn't notice it at first, he feels the presence that at that moment, someone or something is watching him, he turns his head to see what it is, but he doesn't manage to find anything.

"I could have sworn, no."

Outside the nest, Aori was looking at the hole where Fenrir had crawled into, several hours had passed and the sun had already hidden behind the mountains. It seemed that what was obvious to happen, happened taking another life into the void of oblivion, she lamented that at least the man had slept with her one night to have a cute child from him.

"You're still waiting for that idiot to come out?"

Asked the elf's human companion, a young man with brown skin and gray hair with heterochromia for his green eye and another yellow one. The man didn't understand why the captain had put some of the few men to guard that entrance if there were more important things to do like preparing a new weapon that could eliminate most of the zerbarix from the nest and see if they could close that terrifying chapter of their life.

"If you want I can wait longer, you give me your turn and you do that important thing."

"Interesting, you don't usually do that sort of thing. Must be handsome man."

"Handsome?! What?!" she blushes.

"Please, when I was Lion, you acted like that because he was a cute guy and if I remember correctly, he had the face of an angel. If indeed that jerk is your older brother, it must mean that he might be maybe cuter."

"I didn't know you had those kinds of tastes. I thought you liked women.", he joked covering his mouth to contain his laughter.

"Of course I like women, I was just talking about your manly tastes!" he replied embarrassed.

"Anyway, I'm not waiting for him for personal things, but to see if he will return with the relic of my home, it turns out that this Fenrir is the thief who has his head with the highest bounty in Fililluw."

"What terrible luck. It looks like you'll never see him again, at least the mystery was solved and justice was done in a way, the thief had his execution."

"I don't think so. My home has the best guards and masters of magical and spiritual combat."

"And?"

"Either this guy is lucky or, perhaps, he's someone with a unique ability?" he sighs. "Maybe I overestimate him too much, but when someone steals from the king of the elves and makes it this far without a visible scar, it means we're talking about someone with a talent in planning."

"Aori you always throw roses at pretty faces."

"Yeah, too bad I can't say the same for your face, Triforn."

Fenrir was running and jumping like a flea from one side to the other, avoiding attacks and other dangers. The situation was getting out of hand, but he did not seem to care. When Fenrir saw that his brother's corpse suffered some mishap because of the insects, he became desperate and confronted that damned monster that dared to bother him. He was wasting time and valuable energy of his relic, so much was his desperation that he had already stopped measuring his physical and magical energy, he only continued fighting as he knew how to do, with strategy and always manipulating the situation in his favor.

However, the swindler was unaware of a terrible threat that was getting closer and closer to him. Three dangerous zerbarix alphas were approaching, these were even more different than the zerbarix the humans had faced so far. Not only were they dangerous and stronger, but they were also analyzing the trail of death and fighting that was in front of them, you could say they were studying the situation to know what kind of enemy they were facing, the three alphas once they had analyzed enough data, Arnab their plan to have the pesky insect assassinated from its nest.

The shadow noticed the presence of the three largest alphas in the area approaching, she could not determine if they were the alphas of the central part of the nest, and deep down she wished it was not them because if so, maybe even she could not intervene against the terrible dangers that the unfortunate human would be about to face.