Lyall's eyes are reflecting the moonlight and his oddly shaped mouth is a mixture of anger and pain. A moment later, he starts running at me as he did at our first fight. This time I roll to the side instead of even trying to make him fall.

He is furious. There will be nothing left from me when he is able to get a hold of me. As our bodies seem to start an awkward dance where our fists and feet are desperately longing for the blood of the other I realize that the only thing that drives him is anger. Is that how I usually appear to my opponents when I let go of some steam? While I move out of his reach wherever I can, he tries to sink his claws into me whenever he comes close enough.

There is not even a single moment as it was at our first fight. There is no respect or unspoken rules. The wounds at my arms and upper body are far deeper. He does not try to show me some boundaries; he is aiming to teach me my place. This time I am at least able to heal, but this is still very exhausting. I can feel my arms pounding and throbbing where I had the burnings from the sun.

While Tristan's blood for sure made me stronger, it does not make sense to deny that the last happenings had their impact too. Even though, this time it is different; this time I will make sure that he gets how serious I am. Nobody controls me like that ever again.

I am not going to stay his prisoner.

Some of the beasts which are closest to Étain started to mark the sidelines and make sure we are staying in the area she seems to feel fitting. I thought that the crowd will start to cheer up Lyall, but they are extraordinary silent. Our panting, low growls, and grunts are the only sounds that are filling the night as the moon starts to make its path over the horizon. Even nature seemed to be interested in our fight, holding its breath and not giving us a single breeze or shake of trees.

We both take a little break after a while, pacing at the opposite side of the circular fighting area. Our senses are sharpened but our bodies start to feel the impact of the tensed fight. Usually, I am fueled by my anger but I ran dry and cannot really distinguish why.

"That show is a little boring, hm?" Tobias states in Celeste's direction.

"You better shut up, stranger," Étain threatens instantly.

"Or what? Will you teach me a lesson, beautiful? I'd show you things you'll never forget again," he licks his lips.

"Tobias," I growl scolding with my eyes still resting on Lyall. His chest heaves and his tensed muscles are clearly visible under his tight black hair. He growls lowly at the fact that I let myself distract from our fight.

"What? She started it!" he pouts.

"We both know that I'd be the one who ends it, no matter who started it!" He does not get what situation we are in, I assume. Or does he? Do I know? What if I am still not back to reality?

"I'd not be so sure about that, ferret," Étain adds with a bad glare into Tobias' direction.

Lyall's angry face stares at me and I straighten out for a moment to ease my stiff muscles. I need to concentrate now. I had to go through so much, just to find Tobias again. It does not matter if it is real or not. I am not going to lose him now and if that means to find my anger and dig out all feelings, I tried to avoid within me. So be it.

~~*~~

Ethan's eyes flash up to a bright green and his stance changes once more. His usual straight face is not plain serious anymore but his grin broadens.

"I'm not going to let you kill any of ours," I state, looking at the feral woman.

"I'm not one of yours, Lady Blackwood," the Hunter points out coldly.

"Don't be foolish, Thomas. Of course, you are one of us," Celeste reaches out her arm to pat his shoulder but he shrugs it off. "You are well aware that I got send away," his eyes are gleaming for a split second only, "And you are also well aware why I am here now."

He sighs before raising his voice to the wounded guards that are standing informally grouped not too far away from us. "What kind of recruits are you? How about supporting your master a little more?"

They stare at him blankly. I do not think that they ever considered Ethan their master. After a few more moments of staring at the Hunter, it is Joe, who starts to shout at the fighting scene with reassuring phrases. The others follow and it does not take long for the beasts to cheer up the two of them.

To my surprise, not all of them are shouting Lyall's name. Some decided to join our guards and try to fuel Ethan's newly found rage. While he started pretty calm and contained this time, he now seems to have been back to his usual grumpy and angry self.

As much as the fight in front of us is fascinating, I cannot deny that I would rather like to know why Ethan and Thomas are so familiar to each other.

"Why is he calling you Tobias?" I ask Thomas.

"Because this is my name," he smiles, not even looking at me.

"Why do you call him Killian?" I continue.

"Because this is his name," the smile broadens and he shows me his fangs. My face darkens.

"His name is Ethan Blackwood, as much as mine is Eve Blackwood. I demand to know in which relationship you are to my first commander and also what your real name is," I cannot prevent my eyes from flashing up and now he is watching me closely. He straightens out, obviously thinking about his answer. Lester also tenses up behind me at my words.

I need to start to behave as Tristan would do, and I know for sure that he would not have tolerated this kind of secrets. Our gaze breaks, as there seem to be some unusual movements on the fighting scene.

Lyall's fist crashes against Ethan's face, because of a misstep on the icy ground. Another snort of Ethan to spit out the blood, another growl from Lyall as Ethan's elbow lands in Lyall's stomach. It is inspiring and frightening at the same time. It reminds me of Ethan's fight with Tristan, but it is still completely different. Lyall is not moving like Tristan and Ethan adjusted his strategy accordingly.

He taught me far more about that kind of things than the other guards. At first, I thought he just does that because he had no faith in my abilities or will to become stronger. Then although I found out that Tristan did talk to him about my progress.

Ethan was allowed to test me, but now and then Tristan showed up to make sure his orders are taken care of. I was for sure a subject of their fights back then. I never saw them arguing as they did in the woods, but I can now imagine why Ethan was so upset back then.

"So that's what he is called now? I don't think he is what you are looking for," the Hunter's answer drags me out of my thoughts. We both are still watching Ethan struggling not to be caught by Lyall's sharp claws. For some reason, he seems to avoid using his forearms too much. He does not do that unless there is a reason for it. I wonder what happened before we arrived here. The beast named Connor only made a vague statement of Ethan's creativity for problem-solving.

"That's not what I was asking for. Answer my questions!" I demand sharply into the Hunter's direction then.

"You proposed to him or did he propose to you?" he then asks coldly and I can hear Celeste slightly chuckle. Her eyes are still red but she does not give in to the mourning at all.

"I thought exactly the same, darling, but in fact, it seems not to be like that. It's the last gift of a deceased leader," Celeste answers for me. My lips turn into a thin line at her words. She did not lie, but she should not speak so easily about Tristan; not now and not in the presence of so many people.

Fortunately, most eyes and ears are on the fight in front of us.

https://youtu.be/leILgz7aG0Q

"Call me Tobias if you want to. Our relationship is a little... complicated, though. But when you say there is nobody special to him left," the blonde haired man closes his eyes for a moment and starts smiling, "Concisely, I would say he still loves me," he then reveals and my brows shoot up.

"What?" I have to blink away my surprise. "What do you mean with 'he still loves you'?"

A pain-inflicted grunt drags my look away from Tobias and back to the fight in front of us. Ethan is sitting on Lyall's chest and starts to rain blows into his face, fixating his arms with his knees.

"Beat him! Woohooo," Thomas, or Tobias, or however the Hunter is called now for real is starting to cheer Ethan up with amusement in his face that is a little irritating. Instead of intensifying his brutality, Ethan stops and looks at the Hunter with wide eyes. Lyall takes the opportunity to free his arms and lifts himself up.

Ethan looks like a puppet in Lyall's arms as he turns the tables by crashing Ethan to the ground. It is his turn to beat Ethan up now.

"Do you give up?" Lyall shouts at him but I doubt Ethan would really be able to give him an answer.

"Come on, brother!" Connor shouts out as the tensions are rising and Ethan's defense is getting to show some weak spots. The other cheers nearly died again at the raw approach the two of them use to overcome each other. Ethan's face starts to swell and heal at the same time. Blood is staining his appearance and I really cannot tell what his real state of health is now.

I also do not know with which force Lyall is beating him, but I know for sure that Ethan is not that easy to defeat. He will not give up. That's not what he is doing, right?

With obviously a lot of effort, Ethan takes some momentum from his free feet and pushes his hip up hard. Even though I would not have thought that someone could move Lyall this way, he trembles forward just enough. At the attempt not to fall over, his knee is pressing hard at Ethan's upper arm. I can hear the crack the same moment Ethan reaches out to ram his fangs hard at Lyall's thigh. It was the only body part within his fang's reach.

Lyall jumps up from Ethan at this unconventional wound. Ethan, on the other hand, rolls away and spits out the blood he was drawing from the bite. His breath is uneasy and I am not exactly sure, if it is because of the pain at his arm or because he just had to contain not to start drinking from Lyall.

"You don't even have an ounce of honor in your body," Étain growls at Ethan.

Ethan starts to chuckle as he rises to his feet. His right arm is hanging on his side lifeless and I am sure it is broken. "This is not about honor, this is about freedom," Ethan keeps on laughing grimly before he licks the blood from his lips.

I have seen many of his fighting faces at the training stations I think, but I have never seen that kind of wicked laugh. Actually, I would not want to cross his ways right now.

"Stop laughing like a lunatic, this is serious! You killed Maria, and as much as I hated that bitch, this guy here killed Naveena without even giving her a chance to explain herself. This is not how we handle things. You are a freakin' savage!"

"I'm hurt, beautiful. Of course, I gave her a chance to explain herself and she told me about the Butcher. The one and only we see right in front of us now. It is a shame that she decided to bring the girl to them instead of bringing her to me," Tobias keeps on smiling all the while.

"Shut up! All of you!" Lyall finally barks. "This is between the Butcher and me and I don't give a shit about all of this for now." I can see Étain surprised by Lyall.

"Do your men even know that all of their misery just came over them because of you? Do they know that you not only bring death to your enemies but also to those who try to help you?" Lyall starts to rage and Ethan's amused smile vanishes in an instant.

"Your maid, your lover, your Lord, even your child! All of them died, because of you! I am not going to wait until you bring the last of us down. I am not even sure this is all your fault, but I know what I have to do. I need to stop you right now."

Ethan releases a loud scream of anger as he darts towards Lyall now. He uses the slippery ground to glide around Lyall as he takes a great swing of his claw clearly to rip Ethan's chest up. Ethan reaches out his healthy arm to push hard at Lyall's chest and brings Lyall down just because he synchronizes this with his foot to hit Lyall's knees from behind.

"Finally! There is the Butcher!" I can hear Tobias exclaim in gleeful anticipation. He looks like a little child watching one of these circus shows. I am not sure I like the way he looks at Ethan. Tristan would not like it either I think.

With Lyall on his knees, Ethan jumps at his back, just to be thrown to the floor and buried by Lyall's weight. The giant of a man comes to his feet again and Ethan mirrors his movements. Both of them are starring at each other for a moment as their eyes flash up and they growl at each other.

With a fast step to each other, I can see both of them reaching out their arms at each other's chest. Étain and I are both realize what they are doing, and release a loud and shriek 'No'. Their bodies crash against each other but both of them keep on standing close with wide eyes looking over the other's shoulder.

The people around are completely silencing again as Ethan and Lyall both start to bubble silently before blood is drooling out of their mouths.

"Do it," Lyall whispers.

"No," Ethan answers before he is slowly taking his hand out of Lyall's chest. Lyall still has his claw in Ethan's stomach.

"Why?" Lyall asks.

"It's enough."

A few moments later Lyall is also taking back and they both just stand there trying not to show the agony they must feel and still stand straight. The blood is dripping from their hands and gushing out their wounds.

"Ethan," I want to start heading over to him but Lester's arm snakes around my shoulder. When I look up his face is hardened and he is watching closely at the two men just standing there in the middle of the clearing. His grip is not determining but trying to tell me something. I reach out my hands to hold his arm and he squeezes my shoulder as if he tries to reassure me.

I look back at the fighting scene. Just when I think they are about to heal again, to continue their fight, Lyall's healthy eye rolls up and he falls flat on his back. Ethan sighs before he also obviously gives in and collapses.

"No!" I can hear Étain cry out before starting to run over to Lyall. Before I could react, I can see the Hunter and Celeste, both heading to Ethan in a hurry. The Hunter kneels down next to Ethan. Without hesitation, he rips open his palm and shoves it into Ethan's mouth.

Celeste looks at him in surprise. "My Ethan is the one you were talking about?" she points out in shock. It only earns her a short look from the Hunter.

Moving over to Ethan myself, I can hear Connor shouting. "Hip, Hip, Hooray! The new leader of the tribe is Ethan, the Butcher! Long live the Butcher!" The crowd then starts to growl and cheer at the outcome of the fight and a glance at the guards show me that they have absolutely no clue what to think of all of that.

Tristan told me about how the beasts are structured, and what this means, but it is not common knowledge. As this fight took quite a while, I can also see some of the former council members standing next to the guards, watching over the scene.

I kneel down at the opposite side of the Hunter next to where Celeste is standing.

"Come on, old man. Drink. You need to heal," he mumbles as he purposely presses his palm against Ethan's sharp canines and holds his nose. I see; he urges him to swallow.

After what seems like a lifetime of waiting for Ethan to even attempt to breath he struggles to gulp down the blood that is already over spilling his mouth. A silent moan leaves Tobias' mouth as Ethan starts to gulp down greedily.

It takes him a while to open his eyes though. When he realizes our faces and whose blood he is drinking his eyes went wide and he slaps away the Hunter's arm.

"No!" he exclaims before turning to the side and spitting out what was left in his mouth. The Hunter smiles at his reaction.

"It's okay. You can have it, really. I don't mind," Tobias tone is soft but I can see him struggle. He obviously wants to be close to Ethan, but at the same time, he is hesitant. Who is he really?