章節 2: Chapter 2 - Fighting back.

Ivar and Aurora had known each other since they were children, and although they were very different people, they have since come to care about each other quite a bit.

Neither of them had admitted to loving the other yet, but neither had they shown any opposition to this marriage. Not even Aurora, despite the fact she was perfectly aware of Ivar's promiscuous lifestyle.

She may not particularly like it, but she knew it was a fundamental part of the therian culture, where the strong, whether they were man or women, laid claim to as many worthy partners as they could.

The only way she had of stopping this behaviour was to marry and then subjugate him. According to therian custom, this would cause him to become submissive to her while taking her as his only partner.

Of course, the opposite was true as well, and she was perfectly aware that if they got married, he would attempt to subjugate her and might very well succeed.

After all, she may be a prideful woman, but she was also very intelligent and made herself no illusions.

She had many positive feelings about Ivar, and if the rumours about his sexual prowess were to be believed, she was not sure if her virgin body would be able to remain prideful against his onslaught when combined with her feelings for the man.

Still, as long as she could remain his first wife, she had already decided to accept this part of him. But not before she had actually tried to subjugate him instead.

Shaking her head to eliminate these distracting thoughts, she refocused on staying ahead of the qhanrid while responding to Ivar, "Fine, then! But if you are going to stay with the intention of surviving this, I suggest we actually make a plan to do so!"

Ivar nodded in response and transformed into his wolf form while running; it didn't take long for the previously human-looking Ivar to be replaced by a humanoid wolf with grey-white fur, standing at 2.10m (6'11).

He didn't use this opportunity to run off, as Aurora had previously suggested, and instead used his now-enhanced hearing to listen to his surroundings until he found what he was looking for.

He spoke up with a voice that sounded more gravelly than before, "You up for a gamble? I can hear an ongoing fight nearby, but I can't determine who is winning or even how big the fight is.

We might end up with help, or we might end up with even more bugs. Either way, though, I suspect we will be able to find some weapons from fallen fighters, which would allow us to fight back properly."

Aurora didn't think about it long before she agreed, "Lead the way then; I can't wait to have a weapon in my hand again, even if we end up having to fight even more bugs."

Ivar suddenly showed a somewhat terrifying wolfish grin, "Oh, I'll do more than lead the way; prepare yourself!"

As he said so, he suddenly jumped behind her. He scooped her up in his arms before he came to a near-instantaneous stop and turned 150 degrees to the right, nearly going back the way they came and then tensed his leg muscles, jumping into an instantaneous sprint while carrying the vampyr woman.

The qhanrid chasing them did not expect their prey to turn around so suddenly. They started screeching as they saw the people they were chasing zooming past them; presumably, the screeching was their way of expressing surprise and anger.

Unfortunately for them, Ivar and Aurora had already regained their previous lead by the time they had come to a halt and changed their heading.

Aurora was stunned by what just happened, but when she recovered, she quickly punched Ivar's chest while still being carried by him. "You asshole! You could have warned me!"

Ivar grinned, "Sure, but what would be the fun in that? Are you ready to continue running on your own two feet? I am no horse, and you are no feather."

He wouldn't have minded pressing her tight body against his for a while longer, but unfortunately, his stamina was not endless, and they were already running at top speed.

His words only caused Aurora to punch him even harder, though she obviously didn't put any real strength behind it and yelled, "Asshole! But yes, put me down."

Ivar was still grinning as he quickly put Aurora down before they both took off running again.

It wasn't long before they encountered the battle Ivar had heard earlier.

Unfortunately, the battle had already ended, and not in a way that was favourable for the endangered duo. The only silver lining was the many weapons spread out over the ground.

The qhanrid there seemed to have been expecting them, although it was unclear how exactly they knew. Even after two hundred years of fighting, very little was actually known about these bugs.

There were multiple versions of them, some that looked humanoid and some that didn't. Most of them were intelligent enough to use tools, and they obviously had some method of communication with each other, though what method exactly was still unknown.

The most significant debate about these bugs concerned the societal structure of the qhanrid.

The people of Máni had offered the following three options but were unsure which one applied: option one, like the therians and vampyrs, they were all individuals; option two, only some were individuals, and they controlled the rest; or option three, the entire qhanrid species was one giant hive mind.

Regardless of the truth, though, our intrepid duo was currently in a bind with ten bugs closing in from behind and another ten bugs in front of them.

Knowing that Ivar was faster than her while in his wolf form, she quickly told him, "Grab me a weapon, hurry!"

Ivar chuckled in response, "Alright, alright, no need to order me around, princess. Would you like some blood wine aswell?"

Aurora rolled her eyes, "Moons, can you take anything seriously?"

Ivar suddenly looked at her with eyes that seemed to undress Aurora where she stood, "Oh, there's plenty I take seriously." Then, with a wink, "I'll show you later."

Aurora blushed again as she kicked Ivar's shin, "Go! Before those behind us get here!"

The bugs in front of them had been staring at them with caution, waiting for the ten qhanrid behind the duo to arrive, showing that, whatever the truth about their societal structure, they clearly had the ability to follow tactics.

Luckily, none of these bugs were above the soldier level, and since only quick-wing qhanrid were faster than Ivar at the same level, he had no trouble using his sprinting speed, something he could only maintain for a very short time, to dash in and out of the battlefield in front of them, returning to Aurora's side with three weapons in hand, before the qhanrid in front of them were able to stop him.

He handed Aurora the weapon he knew she was most comfortable with, an elegant longsword, while Ivar held on to two axes with long handles.

Ivar and Aurora had both been trained in a large array of different weapons, but they also had their own favourites, and their current weapons came relatively close to that.

They looked at each other and smirked; they may still lack armour, but in Ivar's case, he often preferred fighting without armour anyway, and having weapons gave them a much higher chance to survive.

So, rather than wait any longer for the bugs behind them to finally arrive, they charged at the bugs in front of them.

They were currently facing the most common version of qhanrid soldiers; they had a humanoid body structure but with an exoskeleton instead of skin, antennae on their heads and scythe-like limbs instead of arms.

Ivar arrived first and immediately engaged half of the qhanrid there. The bugs had no good response to his speed, and before they even realised what happened, two of them had lost their heads.

The other three quickly sprang into action and surrounded the now-trapped Ivar as they brought down their scythes.

But Ivar only laughed as he blocked two bugs with his axes and kicked the third bug hard with one of his now-clawed wolf legs before its scythes could reach him.

His kick launched the bug backwards while leaving deep gashes on the thing's exoskeleton. Taking the opportunity, Ivar dragged every iota of power he could out of the muscles in his arms as he pushed back against the two other qhanrid, causing them to stagger lightly.

This action allowed Ivar to free himself from the earlier stalemate. He quickly turned around and buried both his axes in the left bug's chest before he used his clawed hands to rip the third bug apart.

He picked up his axes from the fallen bug and quickly intended to dispatch the last bug he had just kicked away when he noticed it had been smart enough not to engage Ivar on its own and instead moved towards the ten bugs that had been following the pair before.