Victor felt the wood give way under his weight as his back hit the wall; his body hit the asphalt on the other side with a thud that knocked the wind out of him before he used the momentum to roll into a kneeling position.

“You’re not at all what I imagined, Fenris” the troll goaded as it marched over to him, its heavy footsteps pounding like a drum “It’s almost like I’m fighting a toddler, were you always this weak? I expected more from someone of your calibre” The troll said as it easily tore through the wall with its large frame; it stepped into the morning light and exposed itself in all its unholiness. Its legs were like two massive tree trunks and its arms were long and cracked like stone, it had a small and flat head which housed two small and beady eyes along with a mouth that slightly jutted out.

“Is that so?” Victor asked as he wiped away the dust from his face with his sleeve “Why don’t you come closer and let me show you what everyone’s so afraid of” He taunted as his hands turned several shades darker and fur replaced skin.

“You don’t scare me, wolf” the troll scoffed “My brother painted you as this monster that was to be feared” the skin above its eyes pulled down into a frown and its grey lips pulled apart as it scowled, exposing jagged yellow teeth “I don’t see anything to be afraid of” it growled as it charged toward Victor on all fours as quickly as its size allowed.

Victor snarled and dashed forward; his plan, however, was not to engage the troll head on, he intended to wear it down by using his smaller size and superior speed. The beast lumbered forward and swung a massive hand down; Victor leapt to the side and swung his claws at its wrist when the creature’s fist hit the street, causing it to crack under its immense weight.

The troll roared out in pain and pulled its hand back; it spun and swung out with its uninjured hand, intending to backhand him. Victor leapt into the air and used the troll’s arm like a springboard to shoot himself forward; he pulled his arm back with his hand like a knife before it shot forward.

His claws pierced the creature’s hide but stopped a few inches in, it felt like his hand was wedged in between two stiff boards of mahogany. Victor pulled out his hand with some effort and leapt back, dark green blood dripped off of his claws as the troll once again roared out in pain while reaching for the wound on its back.

As Victor watched the troll squirm in pain, he felt the beast inside start to awaken as the sound of the troll’s painful cries danced in his ears. He gritted his teeth and forcefully suppressed the rising monster, if he wanted to leave with his psyche intact then he needed to quickly end the fight; otherwise, the years he spent trying to keep himself in check would have been wasted “I don’t want to kill you troll, just tell me who sent you and I’ll let you leave here alive. There’s no need for this to get bloodier” he offered reasonably.

The troll growled with fury in its eyes as it turned to face him, the asphalt cracked once more as it slammed its fists down in anger and roared in his direction. “Is that your way of agreeing or are you just bad at turning your feelings into words?” he asked with a nervous chuckle, his opponent bellowed out its rage once more before charging at him in a straight line.

Victor dove to the side as the lumbering giant ran past him, blasting him with a gust of wind in its mad dash. Victor rolled to a kneeling position and turned to regard his opponent just in time to witness it run into the side of a building, the sound of screams resounded as the troll crashed through the wall, interrupting the house’s inhabitants.

“This dumb troll” victor cursed under his breath, he closed his eyes and exhaled as he resolved himself to do what needed to be done. As he opened his eyes again, his pupils shone with an ominous red light, his body began to darken as black smoke began swirling around his form.

The troll, on the other hand, regarded the house’s inhabitants with mild curiosity as they screamed and threw whatever they could at it, its head twitched as a pan hit it on the nose causing it to growl and release a loud roar into the face of the panicking woman and children cowering in front of it.

The woman went silent as her eyes widened; the troll snorted and turned around to face Victor but paused upon laying eyes on him. A swathe of black smoke swirled around Victor’s body, blanketing his body and partially obscuring him from sight. A serious of popping sounds and grunts of pain came from within the cloud of darkness; inhuman growls could also be heard periodically as the troll stood watching Victor’s transformation apprehensively.

The troll felt an instinctual fear creep down its spine as it watched the mass of shadows writhe around Victor’s body. Two red orbs appeared in the mass of darkness and stared in the troll’s direction, a low growl reverberated through the area before the shadows peeled away and Victor rocketed toward him.

He advanced on all fours; his canine features heavily emphasized as his body took on a more wolf-like appearance. Giant paw prints were stamped into the ground as he charged at his opponent with a mad gleam in his eyes.

A loud roar tore through the air before Victor collided with the troll’s massive frame, pushing it back a few meters as it held him back with a giant hand, his jaws snapping shut only inches away from its throat. The troll grunted as it tried to hold back the large wolf; it struggled to keep its arm between itself and Victor’s snapping maw.

In an impressive display of strength, the troll grabbed hold of Victor’s fur at the sides of his neck and spun around before throwing him a distance away. Before Victor hit the ground however, darkness once again surrounded him and he vanished from sight, reappearing a distance away in the shadow of a nearby building.

Victor snarled and bared his teeth at the troll, his sanguine coloured eyes staring at it with mild caution and extreme anger. The troll roared at him in challenge, pounding its fists against its chest before turning to the half demolished building behind it. It picked up two large pieces of debris and hurled them at the large wolf one after the other; Victor lowered his head and dodged the first piece of debris with ease, choosing to swat the other out of the way with his paw, obliterating it as his paw made contact.

He opened his mouth wide as a ball of darkness began to condense in his gaping maw; shadows swarmed around him and crawled into his open jaws, slowly increasing the size of the condensed shadow ball.

The troll’s beady eyes widened upon seeing the new development, its heart sank as it felt the air around Victor ripple with an ominous energy and a heavy pressure “What are you doing?!” it shouted with fear laced in its voice “Do you plan to kill us all?!” it asked in a panic.

The edges of Victor’s canine lips curled upwards, causing him to look like a crazed demon. Without a word, the ball flew out of his mouth and hurtled toward the troll. Fearing for its life, the troll sunk its hands into the concrete and pulled out a giant piece of the road to cover itself.

Several seconds passed as the troll waited for the inevitable impact but all that could be heard was panicked shouts of people who were woken up by the noise. Curiously, the troll peeked out from behind its makeshift shield only to witness people pointing at him with disbelieving eyes.

Its eyes scanned the streets in search of the wolf but the shattered street and half demolished buildings were all that could be seen “Did he run away?” it murmured in disbelief, realization dawned upon it as it ran those words through its head once more, laughing boisterously and further startling the already spooked men and women on the streets as it concluded that the wolf retreated due to fear.

“Do you see this, brother?!” it shouted into the sky as it laughed jubilantly “The mighty Fenris ran away with his tail between his legs!” it said in cheer. A loud scream drew the troll’s attention, interrupting it from its celebration. The crowd was backing away in fear as their faces began to grow increasingly pale, a woman was pointing to a spot behind the troll with a trembling hand.

Time seemed to slow as the troll turned around; the image of a gaping maw blanketing his vision before being replaced by the feeling of constriction around his throat.

An anger filled growl was all the indication he needed to understand that the wolf had not run away like he thought previously, it seemed the shadow ball was simply a bluff and he fell right into it. “Seems….I-” the constriction around his throat tightened, causing him to choke on his words. A string of gurgles escaped his mouth as his arms grabbed at the large canine helplessly while he kicked against the beast.

His struggles seemed to only spur the wolf on however; as it bit deeper each time his fists or feet hit it. His vision began to fade and his struggles weakened, his windpipe cracked under the pressure, causing blood to spurt out of his mouth uncontrollably. His hand rose once more and grabbed hold of Victor’s fur, gripping it in a loose fist.

Victor shook his head from side to side rapidly; the action was all it took to completely crush the troll’s oesophagus, ending its struggles once and for all. Victor held on a while longer to make sure the troll was actually dead, giving an extra shake for good measure. Green blood dripped down his muzzle as he finally let go, the creature’s limbs sprawled lifelessly to the sides as blood spurted from its neck and flowed out of its mouth.

He glared down at the dead troll, contempt and anger reflected in his fiery red eyes in equal measure. His head rocked back as he released a long and powerful howl that rattled the windows and shattered them one by one, the crowd screamed and dove to the floor while covering their heads to avoid getting injured as the shattered glass rained down on their bodies.

Victor bit the troll’s neck once more while the crowd was distracted, darkness danced around the two before wrapping them up in a cocoon and melting into a nearby shadow. There had been a whispering in his ear after he transformed which had begun to grow stronger the longer he lingered around, the voices were trying to convince him to slaughter the crowd of people who had seen the fight between himself and the troll; if he stayed any longer in his transformed state then there was no telling what would happen.

Already he felt his control slipping as he hopped from shadow to shadow, there was only one person who could help him now and they weren’t exactly on speaking terms. Another series of harsh whispers put those worries out of his head, whether they were speaking or not, if he wanted the city to remain safe then he needed to help Victor.