64 MONSTER WOLF (1/2)
All of a sudden, things got murkier in the twelfth deck's hall. With the mist out and the wind at a low roar, and with the hotness of the neighborhood upping like never before, everyone gawked at the shadowy figures in the mist clump together into something stout and stalwart.
With breaths held, all men's eyes widened into the misty setting as they witnessed a staggering scenery unfold.
A growl akin to that of a monster cast parts of mist away and poured out into men's ears, also putting portions of a whaling fiend to view.
Black mist burst out of the beastly being that stood tall as a giraffe and had limbs the size of an elephant. All the veins and the outer muscles that showed out through the reddish-brown skin cast the onlookers' legs into boneless tails.
The whole hall went crag-still, not counting the thumping heartbeats of men and the scarce cry of the wind.
As if breaking the petrifying silence, the mysterious figure's foot stamped onward in a vibrant thud, and the mist spread further in every direction around the foot. As his towering build strode forth into sight, his eyes that declared devoutness to never again let the enemy escape out of sight were too much for the onlookers to take. Some men shook in their shoes, wrought from dread and dismay as their eyes lay on the big, bald beast of a man who seemed to lack an arm, the left one. There was nothing on him. No wig. No hair. No brows. No beard. No clothes. No underwear. Nothing. However, one couldn't see everything of him because of the mist that coiled around his body, including the slanted '8' symbol on the rear side of his leg at ankle-level that subtly glowed. Every part of him resembled that of a human; the difference in size, however, was too much to slight.
”W-Who are you?” the men standing relatively close to him backed away on trembling feet, but they go no response.
Gorka, who was watching the whole thing through smokecast, uttered two words with a beaming face. ”A monster wolf… named as Hardy.”
Back in the hall, disquiet danced through men's minds, and trepidation continued to tremble their feet.
”W-Who are you?” one man was taken aback, with fright written all over his face.
”W-What do you want?” Hesitancy filled another man's tone as he and most others grew as vigilant as ever.
With a wave of the hand, the beastly man, Hardy flung four men through the air, and their eyes whitened before they hit the ground. The four men had surely defended themselves with cross-blocking of their arms, but seeing how their defenses got utterly destroyed, none in the hall moved anymore as if a strange aura enshrouded every living soul in the test hall.
As Hardy's body hummed with hauteur, his eyes scanned across the hall and finally settled on a young boy with part black and part white hairs. His hands tightened into hard rocks, and a grievous, guttural voice followed, ”What Hardy wants is right there.”
He scuttled straight toward Lirzod, and the bursting mist around him rolled through the air and threw nearby men into a collapse without him even having to touch anyone. Like a monster wolf slaughtering sheep just for the sake of it, his fists also put many men to sleep before they even knew what happened. The moving mist around him confused many eyes, and some couldn't see him in entirety.
As horror hung heavily in the air, loud thuds of bounding feet gained in on Lirzod, accompanied by the mist which was ready to bind him for the nonce.
Lirzod turned back and ran into the cat home—the entrance of which wasn't big enough for an almost four-meter-tall man to fit through, but Hardy's barrage of fists battered the wooden walls, and the echoing vibrations shuddered men's souls, and especially, the cats inside the cat home were left scared shitless. Relentless meows came from every corner inside the room as cats looked for a way out and fought among each other to escape through the ventilation grills.
Against the vigorous punches, the wall eventually gave away. Hardy barged into the room, and with hundreds of cats still scrambling for freedom, there was an unruly atmosphere inside that not even he could tame. With every step he took toward Lirzod, he crushed a cat or two to death, causing Lirzod, who had his back against the wall on the opposite side of the room, to pick up Leggy back into his arms. Mikey, the assistant referee, cowered away into a corner, inwardly praying that Hardy wouldn't look in his direction.
Shrieking at the top of their lungs, most cats now escaped the room through the large opening in the wall that Hardy had made.
”Stop right there,” Lirzod voiced aloud, ”you don't want to do this. You are ending so many lives.”
”Whatever you may be saying, it's too late,” Hardy's hard look stayed the same. ”You should have flexed your foolishness elsewhere.” He popped his knuckles. ”No one gets to humiliate Hardy and get away without experiencing worse.” A squealing sound made him look down, and his foot was atop the lower half of a cat. He lifted his foot and stomped on it a whole before clearing off most of the mist between him and Lirzod.
Lirzod couldn't quite understand Hardy's throaty voice that got muffled by the mist, but his actions stirred Lirzod's stomach. ”You bastard… How many of them are you going to kill?”
”As many as it takes to quench a bit of Hardy's thirst for blood,” he ground his foot, cracking the bones of the dead cat, or at least what was left of it, ”but looks like cat lives don't make a tad of difference.”
Lirzod gnashed his teeth. ”If it takes an apology for you to stop, then…” He tilted his head down, ”I'm sorry—for everything.”
”What kind of an apology is that?” Hardy felt insulted. ”You are not even on your knees. You can shove such a sorry up your ass.” He waved his hand in displeasure. ”Hardy wants nothing but a fight, one with lives on the line.”
”But, haven't we already fought enough? There's no need to—”
”All we did is talk,” Hardy firmly clenched his fist. ”And Hardy is sure anyone with balls knows this much—a fight is when you throw fists, not words.”
Lirzod's eyes scanned across the room, and having understood that most cats already escaped cat home in the past few seconds, he took a slightly deep breath to calm himself down. ”You seem to want a fight so badly.”
”Yeah. Hardy cannot face his mother without wearing a necklace studded with all your teeth.”
”And this fight would accomplish just that, huh…” Lirzod's eyes didn't blink in the past minute, yet they seemed a bit watery. ”Got it. If you want a fight that badly, then I'll give it to you.” He walked straight toward Hardy whose lips slowly but surely formed a grin.
Leggy, who hadn't moved much despite all the anxious look on his face, now panicked to get out of Lirzod's arms as they got closer and closer to the mountainous man.
Meanwhile, outside the cat home, men still held reservations as for what to do.
”What are you all dozing around for?” Jehez barked at the men, who were sweating all over. Especially after all the cats escaped the cat home, his mood had worsened like never before. ”Don't just stand here like trees. Either save your skin or save my honor. But before anything, know that five gold is more than enough for a family to live a normal life for a few generations!”
Jehez's words couldn't have put it any more straightforward.
”I don't know how those brothers transformed into that monster,” one man began to hurriedly walk away, trying to control the shivering of his hands, ”but that thing walked through a dozen men as if they were nothing. I'm not going to fight a losing battle.”
”Yeah, we should better get the hell out of here while we can. Who knows when his attention turns to us!”
”His sheer size alone is raising all my hairs. I don't want anything to do with him either.”
As many men were on their way to exit the hall, Jehez said,”Forget about sharing the reward. Whoever sends that monster into sleep can have all of it.”
His words made many men stop in their tracks.
A corner of Jehez's lips curled down a little before he ardently continued, ”The last blow is all that matters.”
Inside the cat home, tension filled the air.
Hardy slapped his chest twice and roared, ”Come and give all you got.”
”If I do that, you'd be a goner,” Lirzod replied, changing from walking to scuttling.
”Heh, we'll see who will ruin who beyond recovery,” Hardy pulled his fist all the way to the back of his head, ”One punch is enough for punks like you. Take this…” As Lirzod came into his hitting zone, he unleashed his fist.
Hardy's fist tunneled through the wind, bringing about a ghastly screech as it sought the approaching youngling.
Just as his mighty fist closed in, Lirzod slid under the advancing fist and skid through the space between Hardy's legs. After getting past Hardy, Lirzod didn't stop and continued to run away.