Chapter 6 - Dragged back

Erik stood in front of the door while carrying a large, two-handed warhammer on his shoulder, holding the shaft with his clawed hand. The weapon was imposing and clearly designed for both brute force and precision. 

The head was forged from gleaming steel and adorned with an intricate, howling wolf on one side and the wing of a fairy on the other side. 

One side of the head was flat and imposing, ready to crush all opposition. The other side featured a vicious and sharply pointed spike, able to pierce through armour and deliver devastating blows to opponents. 

The shaft was crafted from a combination of dark wood and metal, intricately wrapped in leather for a secure and comfortable grip. 

A panicked voice came from inside, "D- Don't come in, you monster! I- I'll kill the boy!" 

Erik scoffed, "No, you won't. You're too much of a coward to get rid of your last chance for survival. Now, if you don't open the door, I'll open it for you." 

He picked up his hammer in both hands and at the same time, lightning danced around his claws. It quickly spread from his hands to the hammerhead, which now looked like it was encased in a cage of lightning. 

He stood off to the side and swung his hammer in a wide arc with all his strength, causing a loud explosion when he hit the double doors squarely in the middle as several purple magic circles appeared. 

But Erik just curved his wolfish lips into a menacing smile and put more force into his swing. Meanwhile, even more lightning leaked from his hands and into the hammer. 

Before long, the first magic circle broke, and with the first one gone, the second quickly followed and then the third. 

It was mere seconds before the hammer crashed against the door's wood. It made a crisp, breaking sound and shattered into hundreds of splinters that shot into the room behind it. 

Erik stepped past the door's remains and said the first thing that came to him, "Heeeere's Erik!" 

He had seen movies, too, back on Earth. 

Behind the door was a luxurious bedroom with a fat, middle-aged human woman holding a knife to a young elven boy's throat who looked terrified of his situation. 

The woman screamed, "Damn you! I don't know what you are, but d- don't come closer! I'll do it!" 

Erik had quickly learned that neither shapeshifters nor vampires existed in this world. There were beast men and women who came close, but they didn't really transform like he did and instead always looked the same. 

Plus, most of them were more like humans with some beastly features rather than looking like full-on hybrids, as Erik did. 

Because of this, he quickly got into the habit of hiding his uniqueness by only transforming when he was already planning on either killing everyone who saw him or making sure they were weak enough that Elora could wipe their memories. 

Elora also used their connection and her Seidr magic to hide his body's peculiarities from any powerful people who might try and use their magical senses to look a little closer at Erik's physiology. 

The werewolf smirked confidently as his body suddenly started creaking. His bones and muscles rearranged themselves under the terrified gazes of the fat woman and the boy. 

As Erik grew stronger and his body was enhanced through aetherium and Elora's unique ability, his transformation to and from his wolf form became much quicker and smoother. In less than a second, he was back to human form. 

His armour had reshaped itself to fit this form as well, now fully covering his hands as even the leg part now accommodated his regular human knees rather than his wolf form's inverted ones. 

If anyone who had known him back on Earth were here, they would have difficulty recognising him. Most of the kindness and all of the timidity had disappeared from his eyes. 

Erik was a handsome man, and even without his transformation, he still stood at a height of two meters (6'4). Combined with his broad build and the obvious power hiding behind that armour, he looked like a human tank. 

His silver-grey hair grew to just below his ears while looking unkempt and wild; his face was slightly square, and his piercing amber eyes were intimidating. A short, well-kept beard in the same colour as his hair adorned the lower part of his face. 

Putting his hammer down and leaning on the shaft, Erik wore a sly grin as he looked at the woman in front of him, "Never mind what I am, Lady Ironheart." 

Barely resisting the urge to mock the woman for her unfitting last name, Erik continued, "This can go a number of ways. The boy's parents didn't specifically require your death. So just hand him over to me, and you can go." 

He narrowed his eyes, and his tone became threatening, "But if you harm him, I'll have no choice but to kill you so that I can at least get some compensation for my hard work. And if you think I'll let you walk out of here with the boy in hand, you must be a bigger idiot than I already believe you to be." 

Over the last seven years, Erik and Elora had mostly done a lot of mercenary work. It paid very well and allowed for plenty of opportunities to grow in power. 

Despite Elora's ambitions, there was no grand plan besides growing stronger for now. 

Currently, they had been contracted by a wealthy elven family, whose son had been kidnapped by the fat tub of lust in front of him, who held some official title from the local ruling power that made her think she was invincible. 

It was a situation they had already encountered multiple times, with only the races and genders changing on a case-by-case basis. 

Still, it was good money, so what did they have to complain about? 

The woman seemed hesitant as she looked past Erik at the many corpses of her guards and gulped, "Y- You'll let me go?" 

Usually, she would try to intimidate Erik by quoting her status and the many people who would come after Erik for this, but she had already tried and failed to intimidate Erik this way while the man was slaughtering her guards. 

It wasn't that some of those people who would come after him didn't have the ability to kill Erik. In fact, in the grand scheme of this world, Erik was still pretty weak. 

It was just that he would already be far away from here, heading to the next kingdom, by the time they found out what happened here. 

Erik shrugged, "I have no reason to kill you. I just need the boy." 

The woman nodded, "A- Alright, I'm coming that way." 

She dragged the crying boy with her while keeping the knife against his neck until she stood in front of Erik, shaking a little. 

Erik grinned demeaningly and moved to the side while saying, "Leave the boy." 

The woman's eyes shifted nervously between Erik and the freedom that lay behind him. Finally, she quickly nodded, removed her knife from the boy's neck, and carefully started moving past Erik. 

He watched the woman casually, not making any moves to harm her as she squeezed past the formidable Erik and quickly broke into a sprint when she reached his other side. 

The boy immediately hid behind Erik, seeing him as a safety shield. Erik patted the fifteen-year-old boy on his head with his left hand before he turned a little and raised his armoured right. 

The raised hand began to crackle with lightning as Erik looked at the fleeing back of Lady Ironheart while his lips curved into a contemptuous smile, "As if I would leave a disgusting bitch like you alive." 

He swiped his lightning-clad hand, and five curved lightning tears ripped through the air before slicing into the fleeing woman, killing her on the spot. 

He looked at the boy and noticed he looked a little dazed. He asked Elora, who was currently occupying his soul, "Is it done?" 

He quickly received a reply, "Yep! He won't remember a thing of your wolf form, aaaand I also removed some of the memories of his time with that woman." 

Erik gasped sarcastically, "Why, Elora, are you growing a heart?" 

Elora snorted as if insulted, "Don't say such disgusting things! Who knows, maybe I just made it so that his memories will return to him in nightmares! Anyway, be sure to get some additional reward for the kindness." 

Erik chuckled softly, confident that he had at least slightly affected Elora in the last seven years. 

He was just preparing to leave with the boy when Elora suddenly warned him, "Careful! A large concentration of aetherium is heading this way!" 

Erik raised an eyebrow and prepared for battle when the room started rumbling. 

Suddenly, a shining oval appeared in mid-air. Before anyone could react, chains rushed out of it, wound themselves around Erik, and dragged him towards the oval. 

Erik yelled, "What the fuck!" Then, he stabbed the pointy tip of his hammer into the wooden floorboards while gripping the handle firmly in an attempt to stay in place. 

But it was no use. The chains yanked forcefully, causing Erik to release his grip on the hammer. He was pulled into the light, kicking and screaming. 

It all went by in less than a second. 

The boy just gawked at the now-empty space beside him, before realising he was now all alone.