Chapter 180: 180-I Am The Bigger Monster In North
Ian:
My journey began, this time with the white squad. They were a pretty unusual kind of people for me. I noticed they had this weird dynamic where Joshua was the leader and nobody really respected him, especially his girlfriend, his fated mate, and his best friend.
I couldn’t help but see myself in Joshua, in the sense that I was also betrayed by two close people in my life. However, I didn’t feel anxious anymore.
"Is that because of Clem?" my wolf asked, and I shook my head.
"I knew you would mention her. You desperately want me to move on, and I have. Honestly, I’m no longer in love with my ex," I said, shrugging.
"And what changed? I mean, the Ian I know would hold on to it for so long, be angry, try to punish everyone who hurt him before he even moves on. And I’m not even talking about just stop loving someone. That I could expect from you. But to let it go like that, that is not like you," he replied, making me roll my eyes again.
I didn’t want to talk about it, because my attention had shifted to the white squad.
"So remember your roles, right? You two will stand on guard. Make sure no monster climbs up to catch our asses while we go up there and do the important stuff," Joshua ordered, making me roll my eyes again.
Every few minutes he spoke up, reminding everyone how important our task was, more his than theirs.
Suki and Yash had no choice but to bob their heads.
"Oi, Ian, you understand we need to be quick, right?" he called, but I didn’t turn around to answer. I didn’t have the energy for it.
But here we were at the tower, and just like I expected, this thing was a fucking climb. We all stopped, and Yash even gasped at how tall the tower was.
""Okay, we need to fucking hurry up, because I don’t know why they didn’t tell us it was going to be so high up in the sky," Jack complained, walking around the tower.
The tower was a huge metal structure, tall and wide, with many spots to climb up even though it wasn’t like a ladder.
In the middle of the tower, a magical stone was attached, and the energy around it was very strong.
"Fine, don’t say anything, but make sure you don’t delay in climbing. We need to climb fast," Joshu hissed at me, trying to control me as if I didn’t already know that.
But while he was busy repeating himself, I started climbing the tower.
I grabbed onto the metal bars sticking out from the side and pulled myself up, one hand after another. My boots pressed against the rough edges, giving me just enough grip to push higher.
Jack and Joshua were behind me, slower, but I was already ahead of them. I knew I could climb faster, and I wasn’t planning on waiting for them.
"Good lord, you’re fast," I heard Jack say to me. But before I could blink again, I was already standing on the big metal bar, staring at the stone hanging from the bar above me with a metal chain.
It was fixed in a way that we could open it, but not too easily. We were given weapons and enough tools to open these things.
There were specific tools for it. But I didn’t take it off yet, because I needed Jack and Joshua with me before we could start.
My job came last. First, Joshua would climb up, he would quickly learn the carving pattern, then Jack would take it off and wipe it clean, and then I would start carving.
Once Joshua and Jack were finally there, Joshua started to draw the pattern. It wasn’t easy.
There were certain marks I didn’t think I could copy quickly. It would take me some time, but Joshua was fast, and I knew why he had picked this job.
He knew the symbols too, so it was much easier for him. He finished within seconds, making no mistakes.
Then he grabbed the tool, a small broken piece of metal given to us. It had carvings on it to open the stone from the pendant-like thing.
He used it, opened the stone, and pulled it out. The moment he did, a strong gust of wind hit us, and we knew we didn’t have much time.
He handed it to Jack, who started rubbing it. But after a few seconds, panic hit.
"It’s not coming off," Jack said, freaking out.
"What do you mean it’s not coming off? Are you cleaning it with the right side of the cloth?" Joshua asked, panicking.
"Turn the cloth around," I told him.
Jack did what I said, but nothing worked.
"What the fuck?" Jack stopped, eyes wide.
I knew it wasn’t just the shock that it wasn’t working. There was more. It was confirmed when Suki screamed from the ground. Joshua and I turned, following Jack’s stare.
It was the most terrifying thing I’d ever seen. Wrapped in black flesh like old cloth, a woman with a long tail and wide white eyes with no pupils was staring at us.
Her mouth stretched unnaturally wide, teeth growing inside it. She hissed, screeched, and climbed the building next to the tower. Then her movements sped up. Her long black hair made her look like something out of a Ring movie, but worse.
"Put it back, put it back," Joshua shouted.
I snatched the stone from him, shoved it back, and closed the metal box.
"But it will be weak," Joshua warned.
"I know, but we need to get to Matthias," I said.
Before they could argue, we were already rushing down, because that thing had jumped onto our tower. We climbed back down as she came at us full speed.
I had let Joshua and Jack climb before me, so I was the one in direct eye contact with this thing. It had a wide grin, but everything about her was dark.
Even her teeth were black, and it sent a strange fright through my skin.
Behind me, Jack and Joshua were panicking. Jack started complaining he couldn’t climb down faster if he was being chased.
Then he pulled the stupidest move. He jumped from halfway down the tower. I heard him scream as his knee cracked.
"I’m coming, don’t try to put force on your knee," Joshua shouted.
But I didn’t understand why they weren’t transitioning. They could literally shift into their werewolf form and fight this thing off.
"You can transition too," my wolf muttered, but I shook my head. I didn’t want the bigger monster to be born in the North.