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The werewolves were only a few feet away and the alpha was glaring at Nico murderously. There were too many of them. Too many, his mind screamed. Then he felt something. A comforting sensation full of faith. Faith for him. Skiá's emotions, she trusts me, he thought in awe. She took a step closer to him and the screaming noise inside Nico's head calmed down. For Skiá.

And then he attacked.

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Thousand years ago, in the woods

Nico's whole body was covered in sweat as he continued to fight the werewolves relentlessly in the dim moonlight. He was covered in scratches and his clothes were torn. The silver dagger wasn't enough and everytime a werewolf fell dead on the ground, it seemed that two new ones took its place. Nico knew he couldn't keep this up for long and he was growing more desperate by every passing second. Skiá was behind him making sure no one could attack him without him knowing it, but Nico knew she wouldn't last long either.

He focused his mind and a huge crack opened on the ground swallowing some alarmed werewolves while a dozen of skeleton warriors rose from the ground. He knew it would drain his energy but he had no choice. The warriors were a great help to him, but they weren't able to kill the wolves, only to hold them back and buy Nico a little more time.

For a moment, it looked like he and Skiá actually had a chance, but that's where things started to go downhill.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a gray wolf lunged at him, making Nico loose his balance. He fell on his side while hitting his head on the cold ground. Seconds later the Nico felt a throbbing pain in his leg and he realized that as he fell, a sharp rock opened a huge wound and now there was too much blood pouring out. His instincts told him to get up no matter how much pain he was in, but the wolf pinned him down. It snarled at the son of Hades, showing its teeth and letting drool fall onto his face.

Nico struggled to get free, but there was no point. The gray Lycanthrope attempted to sink its teeth into Nico's skin, but just seconds before it had a chance to do that Skià attacked it, throwing it off him. Nico felt dizzy and he felt like he might pass out any second. Nico gathered his strength and willed the shadows to grab the werewolf, throwing it a few feets away.

Nico raised his aching head from the ground and looked around in fear. There were no new werewolves appearing to replace the fallen pack members. The remaining four wolves might still be too much for us to handle, Nico realized in terror.

Then the last skeleton warrior was gone, and just like that, only Skiá was left to defend the injured Ghost King. She was clearly bigger than any of the werewolves, but the numbers were against her. Still, not caring about the odds but only about her companion's safety, Skiá let out a loud growl and lunged at the nearest werewolf.

The next minutes were hazy to Nico as he lied on the ground with his eyes closed trying not to think about the pain. He could hear growls and whimpers coming from the wolves, Then everything got quiet and Nico prayed to every god and goddess he has ever even heard of that Skiá had won.

Then the son of Hades felt a warm lick on his nose and he opened his eyes. With the help from Skiá, he managed to sit up and look around while pressing the wound on his leg. Even to Nico the sight was horrible. The whole area was filled with werewolves' dead corpses, bones, blood and soot from fire. All of a sudden one of the bodies moved. First Nico thought he was hallucinating thanks to the fact that he hit his head, but then the groggy and injured wolf got up and snarled at them.

Skiá, despite being exhausted, was ready to fight if the wolf tried to attack. To both their's surprise, the wolf suddenly shifted to its human form. Even though there were over 15 yards between them, Nico could clearly hear the bones cracking. That must have hurt, Nico thought and grimaced. He watched carefully as the werewolf, now in human form, stood up. It was a young man, perhaps only a few years older than the son of Hades himself, but he had a crazed look in his eyes.

"Son of Hades! Our king is looking for you," he shouted and snarled at Nico "Run all you want, but you can't hide. These woods belong to us, and our pack is hungry."

He sniffed the air and let out an evil laugh before smiling at Nico viciously. "And the King is almost here." he said as his bones cracked again as he changed to the wolf form and ran away, probably to meet his King.

Well shit, was all that Nico could think of as he sat on the ground next to Skiá tying his wound like Will once taught him, trying to think of how they would survive.

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Nico and Skiá had been walking in the wretched woods for what felt like forever. It was still dark, but the Sun would rise after couple of hours. Nico's wound had finally stopped bleeding, but he had to use a large stick that Skiá found for him to help him walk. They had rested a bit, but even if both of them were exhausted, they couldn't stop. He wasn't sure where they were heading, but they had to keep going.

Nico cursed as he almost tripped over a stone again. At these kind of moments, Will would have been laughing at him for being so clumsy, but still frowning a bit since he always worried too much.

Nico sighed as he looked at he Moon. For some weird reason, the blue-eyed blond had always liked the Moon and the stars. Of course not as much as he liked the Sun, he was the Sun god's son after all. Before the war, they used to watch the night sky together. Now when Nico thinks about it, the only reason he got over Percy was Will. If only I had realized it sooner, the thought glumly and sighed.

Skiá's alarmed feelings broke Nico from his thoughts. She had stopped and was looking at behind them warily. Nico could see or hear nothing out of ordinary but easily understood what Skiá meant, someone was following them. You really didn't need to be a genius to realize that Lycaon and his pack were reaching them. It would be just a matter of time when the pack reached them.

This was what Nico had been terrified of. They couldn't run nor could they fight. Still, there was one thing he could do, but he wasn't too thrilled about it. Nico's energy was already low but he had to shadow travel.

"Becoming a shadow forever isn't really on my bucket list, but I guess we have no choice" he muttered as Skiá glared at him because of his words. Before she had time to do anything, Nico had already grabbed her fur and the shadows engulfed them.

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For Nico's surprise, he didn't die. He just felt really, really tired. I really need to take a nap, he thought dreamily. As they landed on his destination Nico collapsed on his knees on the black ground as Skiá looked at him murderously for risking his life. Nico just gave her a slight smile and slowly got on his feet and leaned against her. Skiá stood beside him as they both admired the black palace in front of them that was guarded by dead soldiers.

"Welcome home." he whispered to both to himself and Skiá.

Heyoo people! I'm finally starting to update this more regularly. This chapter probably sucked since I've never written anything even close to a battle scene in English before. Lets just hope it was at least readable! :D Tell me what you think! Too confusing, boring, long, short? Anything! I've great plans for this book *grins evilly*

Thank you for reading!