Chapter 147: More than one way to skin a cat

"Dane!"

Blinking his eyes from the dizziness, Dane laid down on the ground, trying to gain his balance. He could hear his name being called out. There was worry and panic in the tone.

Spurting out blood, he looked down at his chest. There was a huge claw mark in his front. He could see his flesh protruding out from the wound. It was no wonder that he had fallen unconscious. He had lost too much blood.

Spitting out more blood, he tried to get up. He winced in pain as he unceremoniously fell back down on the ground.

Just then, he slowly no longer felt light-headed. Instead, he felt kind of warm. He looked around him. Although he could see Paccia working hard to destroy the wolfsbane crystals, it was still around them.

Then he heard a sizzling sound from below him and his eyes widened in shock as he watched the wounds on his chest start to frizzle. He could see the edges of his wounds starting to heal, closing the wound.

'My powers are slowly coming back,' he thought in relief.

It was then he became more determined to look for his other part of his souls to fully merge them together.

Una, who had been fighting off other rogues and warlocks, together with some of the Cesaro packmates, ran over to him. "Dane!" she shouted, worry laced in her voice. She crouched down and her eyes widened when she saw his wound was healing. She could have sworn that she had seen a huge wound on his chest. She looked at the shift… no, the lycan in front of her.

'He really is the Lycan prince,' she thought in wonder.

Dane immediately blinked his eyes furiously. He looked to the side and saw Una looking at him, a worried expression on her face.

Seeing that Dane was alright, Una quickly got up and stood in front of him, as if she was trying to protect him. "I'll guard you, Dane. You try and rest up for a while," she offered.

At that moment, the other shifters were too busy fighting with the mutated rogues. Aric and Kaius were working together to go against one of them, while Artemis and Elias were engaged in combating with the other.

Dane slowly got up and shook his head. "You go and help Paccia, Una," he said. "Find a way to destroy those crystals."

Una had been fighting with the other rogues and warlocks earlier so she doesn't know about the crystals. When Dane explained as to why the shifters were getting weaker due to the crystals, she finally understood. At first, she thought it was weird as to why the shifters on their sides were weakening, whereas their opponents were getting stronger.

She nodded grimly. Even if wolfsbane was noted as a werewolf's weakness, she would need to strengthen herself to overcome the weakness.

After giving a last look at Dane, she rushed over to where Paccia was chanting her spells and at the same time, trying to defend herself against the remaining warlocks.

Dane was about to assist the others with the mutated rogues, however, before he could reach them, Artemis looked over and shouted for him to stop.

Dane frowned, wondering why the Cesaro Alpha had stopped him.

He waited as he watched the Alpha and Elias attacked the mutated rogue. Despite fighting the Alpha and the Beta, it seems like the mutated rogue can hold on, even if Dane could sense that the latter was getting exhausted.

When there was an opportunity where the rogue accidentally missed, Artemis jumped up and sent a kick towards the rogue's chest. Blood spurted out from the rogue's mouth as bones cracking could be heard.

Artemis then shouted his order. He shouted to Kaius, who was fighting against one of the rogues, to go with Dane to get to the mansion. And as for Elias, he should replace Kaius to assist Aric.

Although Artemis has no power to command an order to the Kendall packs, Elias sees no problem in this as he immediately rushes over to Aric. Shifters, especially the werewolves, were known to be a proud living being. But at that moment, they do not have the pleasure to think about their image, other than to destroy these rogues.

"Just go straight to the north!" Elias yelled as he exchanged blows with one of the rogues. "You will see the mansion right ahead!"

The mutated rogue that had been fighting with Artemis tried to block Dane and Kaius' path, "You won't get away that easily!" he roared.

He ran past Artemis, avoiding the latter's punches and went straight at Dane and Kaius, who were running from the area.

Behind the two shifters, the rogue jumped and was about to drop a powerful punch at the two. However, before the punch could reach them, Artemis had already appeared at his side and sent a kick at him.

The rogue has a quick reflex where he swiftly pulled back his paw and spiralled around to avoid the kick from Artemis.

The two dropped to the ground on their paws.

"Go quickly!" Artemis yelled as he rushed towards the rogue.

Soon after, Dane and Kaius left the area.

They ran until they could no longer hear any sounds of the fighting from behind them. But that did not stop them from lowering their guard as they became more cautious. Worried that they might be ambushed or attacked from behind, they ran faster while keeping an eye on their surroundings.

It was unsure how long they had run but for them, it felt like hours as they still could not see any infrastructure or building. Not even a glimpse.

The two shifters were worried that they might have gotten in the wrong direction or went on a different route after they left the others. But from what they had recalled, they had been running straight, without any turns.

At some point, Kaius had stopped and suggested going back to retrace their steps. But Dane shook his head, rejecting his suggestion. He thought they would waste more time doing that and that they should just continue on.

Hence, they resumed their run.

After more running, Dane finally caught sight of a roof just ahead of them. He shouted at Kaius to run ahead.

Soon after, they stood a few metres away from the mansion, hiding behind the trees before the building. They were squatting on the branches of the trees as they surveyed their surroundings.

Although the mansion looks to be empty and abandoned, Dane could sense that there were people inside. He narrowed his eyes as he studied the structure before him. There were veins all over the huge mansion and the door seemed impenetrable as it was locked shut.

"What should we do?" Kaius asked. He does not know what was happening at the moment. But ever since they got nearer to the mansion, he felt something inside him stirring in excitement.

He wasn't sure why but he brushed that aside as his anticipation to fight.

Dane was quiet as he tried to think of the possibilities that they could do.

"Seeing that the door seems to be locked. And there was no other way to get in but to crash through there, that's probably our only option," Dane said. "But we should sneak in, rather than to crash in. I'm not sure what or who is inside but just the two of us… We probably will not be able to make it out alive."

"And the Alpha did not say that we should fight our way in but rather, find a way to get my mate and the others out," he continued.

"Then what do you suggest we do?" Kaius asked.

Dane went quiet again, thinking.

He then looked up and narrowed his eyes. He could see that there were more trees at the back of the mansion. Even if the entrance of the building was blocked, it does not mean there were no other paths. There's more than one way to skin a cat.

"Lets go to the back."