4

I had never seen frightened werewolves. But at that moment scared didn't even seem enough to describe the panic of the people in the stands. The person opposite had moved a few meters away from me, startled, and I took the opportunity to put a little more distance between us.

I exchanged a panicked look with the boy across from me for a moment before we both turned around almost synchronously and started running. I steered as fast as I could towards the door I entered the arena through. Only a few meters separated me from the saving door when I heard this growling noise again.

The incredible volume and power of this sound brought me to my knees and goosebumps seemed to take possession of my whole body.

The next moment a shadow seemed to fly over me. Startled, I jerked my head up in anticipation of something flying at me, but what I saw was far worse.

It was a wolf. An incredible wolf. In the meantime I had often seen werewolves in their wolf form but never one like this. He was huge and his fur seemed to reflect the moonlight as it shimmered an incredible silver.

More importantly, the wolf didn't jump on me, but jumped over me. Surprised, I turned back towards the arena and watched the wolf sprint through the arena with big leaps.

At first I thought he had his sights set on the other exit, until I looked closely again and realized that his gaze was directed elsewhere. Or better yet someone else.

I was sure that the wolf was heading for the boy who had just about ended my life. My thought was confirmed for a few seconds.

The wolf pushed off the ground hard with its hind legs and crashed right into the boy. I wouldn't be able to erase the unpleasant sound of breaking bones from my memory in a hurry.

I wasn't sure, but it was likely that the boy was dead by now. I wished for him because the wolf began to dig his teeth into the boy's flesh and attack him with his paws.

A high-pitched scream of pain told me the boy hadn't been dead just now. I wondered if that was the bloodthirst that was always talked about.

Suddenly the eerie silence in the arena struck me. The wolves that had been sitting in the stands before had long since disappeared. The boy seemed dead. Only me and the wolf were here.

Without thinking too much, I turned back around and grabbed the silver doorknob, which I hoped was my way to freedom. To my own surprise, the door opened and without wasting any further thoughts on what had happened, I ran.

I think in all my time as a fighter I've never been so happy about my good stamina as I am now.

I followed the passage I came from as fast as I could. It wasn't long before the path split and went in different directions. I had no idea where I came from and didn't have the time to think about it for long.

I just kept to the right and ran on and on. It didn't take long for me to realize that I had definitely gone completely wrong, but I was too scared to stop and turn around after seeing this beast pounce on the boy.

So I kept walking and walking. After I turned right again, a gentle breeze caressed my hot skin.

I was out. On the main street. I had only seen her once in my life and that was many years ago.

I stopped for a moment and took a deep breath. There must have been hundreds of wolves on the road, in both their wolf and human forms. They were frantic and seemed in a hurry, but none of them looked quite as panicked as those in the arena.

I stopped and wondered what to do. I could try going back to training camp. I didn't know if they would even take me after my ridiculous failure in my fight. Even if they allowed me to continue being a fighter, after this defeat I would lose all my hard-earned privileges. They would call me weak again, sign me up permanently for cooking, and take everything I had.

But what other option did I have? There ain't no other place I could go, has there? Dimly I remembered the stories of some fighters who had come from another arena. They had said that there was an area north of the city where wolves rarely entered. It would have been so badly destroyed that it wasn't worth rebuilding and using again, so it was just ignored and locked away.

While it wasn't the best place and I didn't know if the story was true, I thought it was the best option I had. At the thought of finally being free my stomach started to tingle and a small smile spread over my lips. It was at least worth a try. North I would just have to follow the road.

I briefly thought about when the best moment would be to mingle with the wolves. Unfortunately, I knew far too little about them. Would you be able to smell that I'm human? would they see it

The decision when the right moment had come was suddenly taken away from me.

This time it wasn't a roar or growl like before. It didn't sound that aggressive, it seemed more like a dark grunt of dissatisfaction. But the fact that it came out of the arena made me think it was the silver wolf again. I had judged the sound to be much less threatening than the previous one, but the wolves on the street seemed to see it differently. They quickened their pace and seemed about to panic again.

This was my chance.

Without wasting much time, I ran and mingled with the wolves. Actually, I didn't expect that this would work. I had expected the wolves to either grab me right away or throw me to the ground in this mass hysteria and I'd be trampled.

But that wasn't the case. At first I even seemed surprisingly good at blending in with the crowd, but that changed quickly.

Instead of glaring at me, the wolves' eyes seemed to be looking in exactly the opposite direction.

Instead of pushing me around, they seemed to keep their distance.

At some point I noticed with some irritation that there was not a person in a 5 meter radius around me. Instead, the wolves squeezed more and more against each other and at the edge of the road, trying to get away from me as quickly and as far as possible.

I stood in the street in disbelief and watched the spectacle for a few seconds. Then I realized that this could change at any time and then they would hunt me down. But just as I turned my gaze north again and was about to take my first steps in that direction, I realized that a muscular chest was looming just a few meters in front of me.