As the two women fought, they each got in a strike here and there against the other, so blood had been spilled. However, with their enhanced healing each cut, gash or puncture was quickly healed over before it became too much of a problem. Lisa’s grin was slowly fading as she was finding that Cassandra would not be such an easy fight as she had first though, while Cassandra remained focused.

They came together again as their blades locked and their faces were only a few inches apart as they each pushed back. ”Getting tired yet, pup?” Lisa asked with a grin.

”No, I’m fine, you look a worse for ware, ya old bitch.” Cassandra replied with back with her own grin.

Lisa did not seem to like that comment and braced herself before pushing Cassandra away and slashing at her. Cass hissed in pain as Lisa’s blade dug into her stomach and carved a bloody line in her flesh as she caught her footing and in a blur threw the daggers she had been using at Lisa. The dagger Cass had been using were not normal steel daggers, they looked much different more stylish, almost like a feather. Lisa’s reflexes allowed her knock away both daggers and they spun away jamming themselves into some of refuse in the alley.

As Lisa closed in Cassandra started to prove that her hand-to-hand training had been going well. She used the leather vambrace on her left arm to deflect the short sword and allowed Lisa’s momentum to bring her close. Cass turned at the same time and drove her right elbow into Lisa’s stomach, stopping the woman in her tracks. In that moment as Lisa needed to recover Cassandra grabbed the wrist that held the sword and twisted, trying to disarm Lisa, but the moment Cass grabbed her wrist Lisa reacted. She used her off hand to drive a hard punch into Cass’s stomach, making Cass grunt, that hurt, even with her leather armour on.

Lisa regained her held wrist and broke Cass’s grip and in a flash of movement Cass was yelping in pain and backing away as blood flowed from a wound on her face. Lisa had drawn a dagger of her own from somewhere on her body and slashed Cass’s face from top right to bottom left across her nose. It was already healing, but that so far was the worst either woman inflicted on the other. Lisa seemed pleased with herself and pressed her advantage moving in again.

Cassandra, ignoring the pain as the wound healed, braced herself. Instead of trying to disarm Lisa this time, Cass knocked the sword and dagger aside with her vambraces and got in close, and just grabbed Lisa. Lisa went to counter what she thought would be some kind of close range strike, but, instead, Cassandra caught her off guard when she heaved up and got Lisa off her feet long enough to throw the woman towards her mate. Lisa spun in the air and did manage to land on her feet at the last moment, but, as she did, she cried out in pain suddenly, making her mate glance back.

From her back Cassandra had drawn more daggers and had thrown them, catching Lisa in her left arm and right leg. They bone bladed daggers were not exceedingly long, the blade itself only about three inches, but they dug right to the hilt into Lisa’s unprotected flesh. Lisa was forced to drop her own dagger to go and remove the ones from her skin, only to have Cassandra throw another one and that found its mark in Lisa’s other arm. Lisa cried out again and now had to drop her sword and used her wounded arms to try and remove the daggers. A flash of motion and another dagger sank into Lisa’s other leg. ”HOW MANY DO YOU HAVE?!” She howled in pain still going to remove the first dagger she had been trying to work on.

Cassandra smiled. ”Just those.” She held her hands out and uttered a sword and the two feather bladed daggers twitched and flew from where they had been laying back into Cassandra’s hands once more. She settled into a ready stance again as the scent of Lisa’s blood filled her nose and the wolf inside started to get hungry.

Lisa removed the bone daggers from her limps and got up, she was now in a rage of her own, no longer calm and enjoying herself. The four wounds were already starting to close as she picked up her sword again. She had heard what Hiro had said about fighting as wolves. ”You know he has a point, we should be fighting this out as our true selves. What say we call this little fight a draw and meet in two weeks time where we first met, you, me, my mate and if you want to bring him that young human who followed you. Fight it out fang and claw under the full moon like proper wolves.”

Cassandra raised a brow. ”Why not do that now?”

Lisa cocked her head in confusion. ”Because it’s only a half moon, pup, or have you noticed?”

It clicked; Lisa and her mate could not shift unless it was a full moon! Cassandra had thought of that until now, she had assumed Lisa would have shifted at some point. Cass had to assume that it was because of Serafina’s blood that she was able to control her shifting to be outside of the light of the full moon. Cassandra started to laugh, oh, yes, this would end very soon then if she had that advantage over Lisa.

”What’s so funny?” Lisa asked, hesitation in her voice.

”I have a confession to make, Lisa, I lied, I didn’t survive because of luck that night. You two weren’t the only ones out hunting, there was another and she found me and saved me.” Cassandra was still chuckling as she sheathed her daggers and removed the cape she had been wearing and set it aside. ”Does the name Serafina mean anything to you?” She asked calmly and the look on Lisa’s face was enough. ”I thought you would. She found me, allowed me to drink of her blood to heal myself, took me in, trained me, gave me purpose. Most of all she taught me control myself, my powers, you cursed me, but she turned into a gift.” Cass smiled as she snarled and fur rippled up her exposed skin.

”You can shift?! No, no no, that’s not possible for our bloodline!”

”I’m no longer part of your bloodline, not wholly anyway. Now, I think it’s time you know what it’s like to be a helpless chew toy.” Cass smiled and then called over to Hiro. ”Remember how he said to keep it between us? Wanna keep it that way for me, please?” She requested as by now Lisa’s mate had turned to face what was going on.

Cassandra howled and dropped to all fours as her changed happened, and it only took a few moments before it was complete. Instead of a human she stood as a huge red wolf, four feet tall at her shoulders and seven feet from nose to tail and nearly a hundred and fifty pounds of pure muscle and claws. The wolf snarled exposing her fangs as she started to stalk forward towards Lisa, her brown eyes glinting in what light there was as she stalked towards her prey.

Lisa was looking nervous as she backed up until she bumped into her mate who was now staring down Hiro. “Move, boy.” The big man growled and raised his sword. The situation had changed, they were on the back foot and they knew it.

Hiro watched as the initial stalemate began to change.  That initial sense of something different in Cassandra's aura was spot on.  She revealed she had partaken in blood of a Goddess, of the Divine.  She received training from the Goddess Serafina, the Infernal Queen.  He'd heard the name before, but never met her, but he had met several other deities, such as Lord Torn formally of Heroics, Lord Drae formally of Magic, and of course Mother Angela Rose herself.  He had actually received training from Lords Torn and Drae, training in combat, heroics, elemental magic, and because of that training, he was able to achieve unique magic.

Hiro laughed and grinned.  "I knew it!  I knew I was right about you, Cassandra!  You are a step above these two!"  She had shifted into her lycan form, a giant red monster of a wolf.  Lisa was definitely looking like she was ready to start running, and her mate was looking like he was going to team up against Cassandra.  She asked HIro to keep the male away from her, while he asked him to move.

"I like Cassandra better than you two, and two on two is more fair than two on one," Hiro's eyes started to glow with sapphire power as heat started to ripple from his body.  He prepared himself, pushing the cloak he wore to his back, revealing an ornate set of red armor with the crest of a golden Phoenix on the front.  He drew his blade from the sheath on his side, revealing a unique silvery sword glowing with the self-same heat Hiro was glowing with.  "Pierce the highest heavens, Empyrean.  My name is Hiro Kouen, Phoenix Knight, son of Sabishii Kouen, Legendary Hero of the Old World."  The male lycan showed a flash of fear, then anger, as he charged toward HIro with his blade.  The man used a longsword which he swung with both hands at the youth, who gripped his own sword, a bastard sword-sized blade, with one hand.  He parried the attack easily.  "Too bad, old man."  The man kept swinging his sword furiously, as Hiro managed to block each attack, he could see the man start to sweat heavily, as the exertion and the heat radiating from the Phoenix Knight was too much for him.  Hiro knocked him back with a powerful shockwave of heated wind from his blade.  Playtime was over.  Hiro gripped his blade with both hands now, and charged forward.  Raising his blade, he swung a vertical slash.  The man tried to block it with his own sword, but found the powerful swing smashed through his own sword, breaking it in half, sending melted metal chunks flying.  A wave of flame erupted, searing the man and sending him flying backwards into Lisa, his mate.  The two of them were stuck in heap.  The man's flesh and garments were burning from the wave of flame, even though the sword did not directly hit him, he still had a burning cauterized cut across his chest.

"Yeah, you're not getting past me.  Cassandra, Ma'am, would you like the honors?  I know you've got a grudge against them, if you'd like to settle it yourself," Hiro said, moving forward a bit, gesturing toward the pair, all wrapped up in a tangled mess of limbs, as they struggled to get up over themselves.

The two males went at each other while the female stared each other down. Lisa had regained her sword and held it out in front of her as if to defend herself. However, she knew that even with the sword, unless she got in a lucky instantly fatal stab the big red wolf could just take the hit and set upon her. By the way that Cassandra was eyeing Lisa, she knew was thinking the exact same thing.

The fight between the two men played out as Cassandra was taking her time and picking her moment to pounce at Lisa. When her mate was thrown into her and the two of them rolled on the ground in a tangle of limbs the big wolf let out a huffing laugh as she eyed Hiro for a moment. Cassandra rushed in as Hiro spoke but instead of going after Lisa she went after her mate. She snapped at his sword arm first, clamping down with her powerful jaws and twisting, the cracking of bone was followed by a howl of pain and the clattering of steel on stole as the sword was dropped.

Cassandra’s eyes widened as the taste of fresh blood made her own blood rush and raise her bloodlust. Cass then turned and clamped her jaws around the male’s throat, or, she would have, but he moved at the last moment in his pain and confusion and she ended up with his face in her jaws. Well, that was close enough. The red wolf applied all of the raw power in her jaws as he yelped in pain as she started to crush bone. Lycan’s or not, they were still in human form, while stronger than humans, bones were bones at the end of the day. She shattered his jaw with a sickening cracking before releasing his face.

By then Lisa had managed to get back to her feet, but she was without her sword, it was under her mate. In a panic she turned and started to run, not towards Hiro but further down the alley. Looking up Cassandra inhaled and let out a loud bark and from her bloodied maw came a kind of shock wave. Debre flew up and about as it past and it was strong enough to knock Lisa back down again as it connected with the back of her knees. She went down, hard, on her face, her nose breaking and spurting blood as it hit stone.

Since her primary goal was Lisa, Cassandra casually finished the male off by swiping her claws across his throat. The gashes were almost deep enough to take his head off as he gargled for breath as the wolf stepped over him towards her intended prey. Lisa had recovered from her fall and turned over to see Cassandra padding towards her. ”Please, no, I’m sorry I’m sorry!” She pleaded and tried to get up and flee.

Cassandra was after her in a heartbeat and barrled her over again into the deep shadows of the alley behind some refuse. Unless Hiro came closer the only sounds from down the alley now were that of a frenzied wolf devouring its prey, alive.

After a few moments Cassandra let out a howl into the night sky.

From the black of the alley Cassandra walked out again, back in her human form and utterly covered in blood. Most of it around her face and running down her chin onto her chest. She was breathing at a furious pace to get her emotions under control and her heart from racing. She carried her grisly trophy in one hand, Lisa’s head, by the hair, and by the ragged mess of the neck Cassandra had chewed through it.

She dropped it down next to her mate still breathing rapidly as she collected her thrown daggers from where Lisa had dropped them. She glanced to Hiro as she did. ”Thank you.” She stated simply and with sincerity, she did manage a smile, but all the blood kind of took away from it, more so what was still on her teeth.

Cassandra sat down, she had to, at least for a moment, they would not have long before guards came along and found this mess. ”Fucking bastards.” She swore. ”You heard most of that I assume? I was out hunting for deer in the Virens Forest one evening. I made a mistake and didn’t remember that it was a fool moon, and a thunderstorm rolled it and made it dark far sooner than I had anticipated. They tracked me down out there and, well, you know the rest. Serafina found me, she was out there to, gave me some of her blood to heal, nursed me back to health at her place. She’s trained me to control it, embrace it even, at least I can go and see my parents and siblings without fear of losing control around them. I don’t trust myself to stay with them, so I stay with Serafina, work for her, do what I can.”

She dragged herself back to her feet. ”I’d kiss you, but…” She gestured to the blood on her face. ”At the least, I can buy you a drink, hell, I’ll buy you all the drinks you want. We need to get out here anyway, feel like traveling to Vilpamolan for that drink?” She asked. She was physically unharmed, but she was emotionally drained at the unexpected turn of events for the night.

Even Hiro had to wince as he let Cassandra took care of the Lycan couple.  She tore apart the male mate first, he had to turn away, and check to see if anyone else was watching.  No one was nearby, but it was likely to be a different story soon, considering the racket that was going on: sounds of carnage, flames, howling, and general ultra-violence.  Hiro didn't savor this kind of primal thing.  He wasn't a lycan in anyway, so this thing was alien to him.  It was gross.

When it was all said and done, Cassandra emerged from the alleyway with the head of Lisa in her hand, and utterly covered in blood and gore.  "You weren't joking about mounting that head, huh?" he forced a laugh.  She thanked him for his assistance and told the whole story about what happened.  He figured most of it from what he heard between them, but now he knew she had a family in a village, and she was able to visit them, but was afraid to stay, in case something happens.  He felt bad about that, since he missed seeing his own family after what happened to them.

"I'll accept that offer of a drink.  Name's Hiro Kouen, by the way.  And yes, we need to get the hell out of here before any guards show up.  And you need to probably clean up too," Hiro said with a laugh.  "Let's get out of this place," Hiro gestured chivalrously, ladies first, toward the way out of this alleyway.  Hiro was looking for adventure this evening, and it looks like he found it.