Unexpected Creature

8: "Never underestimate Jack!"

Since the sun was still up, the cousins left early to give Dagger some time and space to charge up her strength before the fight in their perspective though what was actually happening after they left was Dagger sleeping for five hours then leaving the house to go to the public library as soon as she woke up. Dagger discovered reading books was fun one month ago when she was looking for a hobby to surpass boredom which was why she had always been going to the public library of the city to read different kinds of novels. Dagger did not really need to charge up her strength since she would always think that that was what only losers do.

In view of the fact that Dagger’s house was just a few blocks away from the public library, she only had to walk because of its near distance. As she walked towards the library, different kinds of creatures like orcs and zombies were selling random stuff by the streets as vendors to earn for a living. Soseji City, the city where Dagger lived in ever since she was born, became a peaceful and friendly city ever since Damon Raze, a vampire who loves peace, became the mayor of the city. It sounds kind of funny that the world here does not really differ from the other world except for the creatures living but it was true. As Dagger arrived in front of the public library, she slowly pushed the wooden door open to not make a noise as the clean and quiet room welcomed her. It looked like a normal library except that the librarian was a human sized slug and the creatures who were reading books quietly in tables were weak small monsters.

“Good day, Ms. Sal,” Dagger politely greeted the librarian, who was reading a newspaper behind the counter, in a low tone to not disturb the others. Dagger tilted her head to the side to see what Sal was up to when she noticed that she did not respond to her greeting, only to see her sleeping while holding a newspaper. “Alright.”

Dagger walked in slow steps beside a book shelf while running her hands on each book, looking for a book she was going to read today. It was unpleasing to see how the books were not arranged by genre or type though Dagger just endured it since she was open to other story genres. The last novel she read was a thriller story where in the protagonist’s lover was a demon who had been killing the protagonist’s loved ones one by one because of obsession. Since Dagger was a fast reader, she finished the book with a word count of 200,000 within a day. Dagger suddenly stopped on her tracks when she felt an unusual feeling as she did not take her hand off the book that had an ancient-like texture. It felt like the book suddenly urged Dagger to grab it and read it as it was absolutely spellbinding. Without hesitation, Dagger pulled the book out from the bookshelf as she sniffed it.

“Weird. My sense of smell is really strong but it’s like I suddenly lost it,” Dagger mumbled as she scanned the front and back of the book. ‘A Werewolf and Human Love Story’ was written in gold on the front cover of the book in a fancy calligraphy font. “Oh, wow. A romance story about a werewolf and a human? Sounds interesting.”

Dagger went straight home after asking for permission from Sal and leaving without waiting for her response. Excited to see what the book was about, she sprinted to her house with the book. As she got back home, she slumped down the sofa and opened the book with an expectation that a bright light with butterflies would come out from the book though nothing came out and it was just a normal book, making her pout in disappointment. As she began to read the first page, a series of loud knocks interrupted her, making her shout in exasperation. She slammed the book close and placed it on the coffee table that had a c***k on the center then went to open the door, only to see the same four faces from earlier.

“Dagger, don’t tell me you forgot?!” Alex said as soon as she opened the door.

“It’s still too early!” Dagger complained.

“It’s not! The moon is literally right there!” Allan replied as he pointed the crescent moon shining brightly above the dark night sky.

“But—”

“No more excuses. We don’t want to be losers for arriving late,” Flame said as they pulled Dagger together out of her house. Flames turned to his wolf form as he carried Dagger behind him and ran first with the twin brothers following.

It was already 7:00 PM and the time planned for the duel was 7:30 PM, which Dagger did not even notice since time went on too fast. Dagger was already too annoyed for not being able to finish reading one paragraph from the book that she just let Flame carry her on his back while they went to the forest near the city where the duel would be held. As they arrived to the place, some goblins and other werewolves were already at the place as the audience. Dagger crossed her arms as she finally landed back to the ground while Flame turned back to his human form. She looked around to find the werewolf she would be fighting even though she did not know who it was until she saw a werewolf sitting on a cut tree trunk while staring at her deeply. As she noticed that he seemed to be her opponent, she immediately walked towards him.

“Hey. You the lone wolf I’m fighting?” Dagger impolitely asked as she shoved her hands down the pockets of her shorts. With his thick eyebrows, he looked up to her while furrowing his eyebrows. “What are you looking at me like that for?”

“Are you Dagger?” He asked in a deep voice as he slowly stood up, making Dagger look up to him because he was unexpectedly five inches taller than her.

“Yeah. Duh,” Dagger stayed calm though she hated how he was taller than her, making her have to look up to meet his eyes.

“Then, let’s start,” With her quick reflexes, Dagger instantly dodged his abrupt attack.

“What a rude punk you are,” Dagger commented as she continued to dodge every attack he gave. She jumped highly when he was about to grapple her and wrapped her legs around his neck as she yawned. “Your previous pack must be really weak if you were able to defeat their alpha considering how you suck.”

“Never underestimate Jack!” Jack, who turned to wolf form, exclaimed in rage as he charged towards Dagger, who laughed mockingly at the sight. The audience including her cousins began to cheer for them, mostly Dagger.

“Jack? God, even your name sounds so lame!” Dagger said after laughing as she wiped a tear off while she continued to jump to different corners and trees with Jack following her with more anger. “How could you even beat me if you’re that slow?”

Alex, Allan, and Flame laughed at her remark as they continued to cheer for Dagger while Lyle just shook his head and chuckled since he knew Dagger so well that she would never be serious in fights if her opponent were slow and weak. Jack let out a deafening growl, making everyone from the city surprised from the abrupt noise, as he began to gain more strength and speed. When Dagger was about to jump to another tree once more, Jack went to the same direction at the same time as he grabbed her and pushed her down, making her a bit surprised.

“Oh wow, pinning me down the ground now, huh?” Dagger let out a short laugh as she twisted Jack’s arms when he was about to attack her once again and switched their positions, pinning him down the ground as she tightly held his arms behind him. “What happened to tough Jack?”

“That’s our cousin, Dagger Rakcha!” Alex screamed as he jumped up and down out of excitement when Dagger raised her hand where her claws came out and was about to attack Jack.

Though since Dagger did not want to end the fight quickly, she put her hand down as she loosened her grip on his arms, making him push her off and landed back on his feet. She smirked as she blocked every attack Jack threw to her and only threw some punches to him to get him off her though she did not attack him mostly because she knew that he would lose instantly. Since it had been a long time since Dagger engaged in a duel, she wanted to spend the whole night just fighting.

“That felt nice. But guys, if you desperately want me to fight again next time, please don’t get a weak one. It’s too tiring to keep blocking just to not hurt him,” Dagger said as she stood on the ground with her hands on her hips. Jack, on the other hand, had been knocked out by her final punch, which was why the other werewolves began to carry him as the rest of the audience started to leave.

“Alright, alright, fine. Wanna go grab a drink?” Alex asked excitedly though the rest felt the opposite.

“Hell no, I’m going home. That was nice, Dagger. Bye!” Flame said as he jumped off back to the city.

“Yeah, same. Bye, loves!” Lyle flashed a smile before he left, following Flame.

“Hey! You’re not going to say goodbye?” Allan yelled at Dagger, who just suddenly jumped away back to the city.

It was past midnight though the city was bright and crowded more than when it was daytime. Dagger felt hungry so before she went straight home, she bought a bucket of fried chicken from a chicken place and ate it while she walked home. With scratches all over her body, she headed back home with a light mood since she felt satisfied to engage in a werewolf duel after so many years. It felt as if she was younger even though she was already 324 years old.

After finishing the bucket of fried chicken, she threw the bucket with clean bones to a trash bin nearby as her house came to sight already. With no plans on washing up as she entered her home, she went straight to her bedroom and nearly jumped in shock when she saw an unfamiliar girl sleeping peacefully in her bed.