บท 99: Frenzy

Artemis was seething in rage after she heard Andrews words. She had witnessed and blessed thousands of "hunts" over the years, hunts for food, chasing criminals, even a few assassins after a target. But the one thing she would never tolerate, was the hunting of a mother or child. There were two reasons for this.

The first was that it disrupted the natural circle. The natural circle was the cycle that all life depended on. If people started regularly hunting the mothers or young, then the cycle would be disrupted due to the populations being unable to replace the elderly.

The second is that it was not honorable. What person in their right mind would be proud of killing a defenseless child, or a mother with a child dependent on her, no matter the species. The most insulting part was that he stated that they'd have the "hunt" in her honor. She had never been insulted like this in her entire existence. If he had begged her for forgiveness then she might have only moderately punished him, but he declared that all the gods were cowards and that a mere mortal was more threatening than they were! She turned to the divine beast at her side, and declared,

"Go and notify the other gods and goddesses, I plan to turn Heliantis into an example to both the divines and mortals." Fenrir stood and left to carry out her order, it was severely offended as well at the words that Andrew said, and wanted to assist in destroying him. Artemis turned to her pond that she used to watch Leo, and started working her divine powers. As her rage continued to grow her realm started turning red, and she worked a new power for Leo.

It was a dangerous ability, one that if used wrong could threaten entire empires overnight. So she made it where it would only be activated when she allowed it, on the nights of the blood moons. It's effects would also disappear at the rising of the sun, burning away all trace of it. She then waited after granting the new power, for the frenzy that followed as she ordered her champion,

"Slaughter them all, let none live in the city when the sun rises!"

***

Curly was in a great mood, he not only got to punish Leo every day, but Iris was almost his. He pleaded with the king, and he agreed that if Iris was a werewolf then he would be one of the ones they used for breeding. If not then when they no longer had any use for her, she would belong to him. He knew he would have to wait several months before touching her due to her pregnancy, but that just meant that he spend the time until then teaching her that her place was on her knees in front of him. He was entertaining himself with the thought as he opened the door to Leo's cell, and saw that scraps of metal that had belonged to his collar and chains.

As curly looked at them on the floor, he also noticed the large hairy feet with sharp looking claws on them. His eyes went up, until they met the glowing red eyes of the monster in front of him. Before Curly could so much as cry out, the monster rushed him and grabbed his horns. He screamed in pain as he felt his horns being pulled, before he heard a crack, and was suddenly kicked into the hallway. He then heard something clattering on the ground, and looked to see his horns bouncing towards him.

"Please, no more." He begged the monster, as he never imagined having his horns broken would be so painful. He looked up, and simply saw an open mouth and razor sharp teeth headed right for him. Curly closed his eyes before he felt the teeth sink into his shoulder, and he cried out in pain,

"AAAAAHHHHHHHHH"

As the beast savored his flesh. Then some soldiers who heard the noise rounded the corner, and saw what was happening. The monster released Curly, and turned towards its next prey. Curly sat there, bleeding out onto the floor from his shoulder wound. He saw some more soldiers rounding the corner from the other way as the monster continued attacking. He tried crawling to them for help, a trail of blood following him.

He didn't notice the pain going away, as the wound started to close. His senses started getting sharper, and he felt more strength in his limbs. Curly looked at his arm, and saw it getting bigger as hair started growing on it. A few short seconds later he was another monster to prey on the soldiers. He turned his red glowing eyes on them, and lunged, as his masters orders were to bite all before him.

He lunged at the first soldier, and before the man could defend sank his own teeth into him. He tasted the sweet coppery taste of his blood, and released him before attacking his comrade. As Curly finished the men before him, he left to find more enemies, not caring when they started growing hairier and larger. He then made his way through the he prisons, then the barracks, and finally into the castle. He attacked all in his way, men, women, and even any children he came across. According to his master all were their enemies.

He soon came across a woman in a servants attire, and flung himself at her. She screamed in fear beneath him, as Curly was about to bite her. He then stopped, and after looking at her for a moment left her untouched. The woman was confused, the monsters were killing indiscriminately, why let her live? She then fixed her clothes collar that tore when she fell, and exposed her slave collar. Not knowing that it was her servitude that saved her, she fled the palace to flee the monsters.

Curly soon looked to the wall surrounding the castle, and started climbing to find more enemies. As he reached the top, he looked out and saw the entire city spread below him. At that moment dozens of his new brothers joined him at the top of the wall, before they all jumped to the ground below, to continue their assault on all of those that angered their new master.

(A.N. So I figured you'd all be confused on Artemis hating hunting mothers and children yet attacking them all like this, it's specifically targeting them that she hates. It doesn't really bug her when they're just dragged into it like in wars.