FINALE FIGHT: SAM VS WOLFGANG

4 MARCH, THURSDAY, CONTINUED

It was finally the Finale Fight! Oh, man! I was pretty excited to fight by now... My hair rose up like a vampire's dark flame at the prospect of facing the fire wolf.

I mean, did you see the last guy? He could make ice bears and snow wolves come to life! That was like... I mean... That was IMPOSSIBLE!

So I had really high expectations for Wolfgang to burst into flames... which was what Bell already did actually, and shoot fireballs... again, what Bell did, and... You know what, forget it. Now that Bell had done it, it didn't seem particularly special anymore.

I gingerly picked my way across the broken ice shards and mud. It was seriously bad by now. The mud was thick and deep, so the heavily grooved warrior boots would get stuck if I should step on the deeper puddles... Could we call them muddles?

And the million ice shards embedded in the muddles were sharp, so I had to keep on my boots.

Also, the only flat planes available was ice, but the ice was melting so it was slippery ice.

I guess my only advantage was that Wolfgang, not being a real Snow Wolf, would find our arena as cumbersome as I did. Which wasn't really an advantage, just not a disadvantage.

Wolfgang waited patiently for me to approach him. Apparently, his side of the field was in slightly better condition. When we were finally facing each other at a respectful distance, we made our starting bow.

"I don't mind a handicap." Wolfgang offered, "I won't use my wolf power in this match."

Wait... Then what's the point of fighting you? The whole point of fighting you WAS because of your wolf power!

"No, way." I refused immediately, "You promised me a fight. You can't chicken out now."

I looked Wolfgang straight in his eyes, "You need to put on your best fight or there won't be any meaning."

Wolfgang bowed again, "I understand."

Okay... Here's hoping my clothes were as flame-retardant as its Betamen label claimed.

We stepped back to the starting position. The field was in a bad way. Even Titanium called the ready from offside. I guess he realized his boots would get stuck and he wouldn't be able to get out of the way fast enough.

"Begin!" Titanium called.

My hair didn't wait a split second more. It immediately went "shhiiing", turning into a metallic peacock display.

"It's chi-ki-boom from the onset, Fluffy!" EJ announced.

EJ was exaggerating, of course. I grinned and bombed alpha dominance. Boo was out to play.

"Chi-ka-boom! Chi-ka-boom!" My wolves cheered. Which was the dumbest cheer so far in my opinion. I doubt most of them knew what a chi-ka-boom was.

Wolfgang didn't look too surprised. He actually didn't look too much of anything. For a Fire Wolf, he was very calm.

"Sir Wolfgang isn't losing his cool at all. It isn't easy to stand up to that level of Alpha dominance. His resilience is admirable." Fluffy explained.

Cue our wolves, "Snow Wolf! Snow Wolf! Whoot whoot!"

Okay, now this was beyond dumb. I know they were doing it all night, but those previous fights had actual snow wolves. Wolfgang was a Fire Wolf! But I guess that's just another technical detail to my wolves.

For our match, weapons were allowed. I didn't have any weapons on me, so I'm not sure who set the rule and why no one told me anything about it. Maybe my betas really wanted to see me dead.

Wolfgang took out his sword in response to my hair. A red flame wrapped itself across the sword's blade.

{So fun.} Boo noted and my metallic hair lengthened and shifted to form several blades too.

"Woooaaaahhhh..." My wolves said, which was admittedly highly gratifying.

Wolfgang slashed his fire sword twice, shooting out two slashes of fire in my direction.

"Snow Wolf! Snow Wolf! Whoot whoot!"

My first instinct was to move away, but the muddle slowed me down, so I dodged one fire slash and then blocked the other with a couple of blades. My blades proved to be nice and fireproof too.

"Chi-ka-boom! Chi-ka-boom!" Cheered my wolves.

Wolfgang tried again, this time two slashes and a fireball. Not a huge one like Bell's though, just a football-sized one.

"Snow Wolf! Snow Wolf! Whoot whoot!" My wolves were determined to cheer for both of us equally.

WTH, was Wolfgang planning to just stand there and shoot random fire shapes at me all night? Boo got a little irritated, but it was at me, not Wolfgang. Boo felt I was being slow as usual, {He's obviously testing me.}

Ah right. And it wasn't because he was employing the strategy of a cool girl playing touch rugby in a muddy field - you know, stand still so as not to mess up your shoes more than you had to.

I didn't even bother to dodge anymore, simply swiping the fire projectiles away with my blades. But the longer I stood in one place, the lower I sank into the muddle.

"Chi-ka-boom! Chi-ka-boom!"

I'd run over and give him an a** whooping too, but my whole side of the field was a giant muddle now... And plodding over wasn't quite as cool as running over. This entire setup was actually really bad for me. My fight style had always been to run in quick, hit as hard as I could, and dodge fast.

Now would be a good time to have my favorite strategist's help.

"It looks like the previous matches had left the ring in a less-than-desirable state for our fighters." Fluffy commented over the PA, "The real challenge lies in overcoming the environment."

"The mud is like a shallow pool of quicksand." Fluffy continued his analysis, "This can't be good for either of them."

Which were exactly the clues I needed to hear. Wolfgang apparently felt so too. But his response was to double up his efforts in shooting more fire projectiles at me. I easily swiped them away. Please! No matter how many of those things you shoot, they're gonna bounce off me, you know!

And then I realized Wolfgang DID know. Every time I swiped off his fire, it would land around me, melting the ice on my side of the field and trapping me deeper into the muddle. Oh, that sneaky fire wolf!

My favorite strategist was unable to watch on without saying anything, "Although it may seem like Sir Wolfgang is randomly shooting fire at the Alpha Princess, they are really calculated to melt the ice around her and trap her in the deepening mud."

I flared at the direction of the stage, "Shut up Fluffy!"

Wolfgang threw another fireball over. He seemed to feel he should school me, "Alpha Princess, your commentator is not wrong."

"I know!" I flared back, and then quickly swiped the fireball off.

"You knew?" Wolfgang asked, sending another two fire slashes my way. It seemed like Wolfgang's habit was to throw two fire slashes before one fireball. The slashes moved faster, but the ball was hotter.

"Of course, I knew!" I bit back the "duh."

Wolfgang was older and more experienced. I was not in the habit of duh-ing my elders. And also, I was quite aware that I only knew a few seconds before Fluffy said anything, so it wasn't like I had anything to show off about, "But now you know that I know!"

"Then why?" Wolfgang asked.

"Because now that you've melted the sharp broken bits, I can do this." I wriggled my foot and stepped out of my boots. They were really stuck fast so it wasn't hard to pull my feet out. Then I pulled off my sock and stepped into the mud.

Wolfgang stopped shooting fire at me and waited for me to be barefoot in the mud. Snow Moon wolves were just very gentlemanly that way.

"Did you know that it's entirely possible to run in the mud?" I asked conversationally. Running around barefoot outdoors taught me a lot of things as a pup.

On a rainy spring day, running out on the muddy lawn was fun. The mud would squelch through your toes, but you wouldn't get stuck like with heavy grooved inflexible boots.

Running on mud could be slippery though, but if one were to half run and half slide, one could pretend to be a motorbike in the Red Races and dash and skid all over the lawn at full speed. Even if you fell, the mud was soft landing - and you'd still be skidding forwards. It was really fun - at least until an adult caught you and dragged you home.

I grinned at Wolfgang, "Ready or not, Hotstuff, here I come!"

And then I ran. Light quick steps so that my feet wouldn't sink in too deep, and then at the slushiest bit, I angled my body and slid quickly toward the fire wolf. He tried to dodge, but his boots caught on the muck and slowed him just a minuscule of a second, so he wasn't fast enough to avoid the first splattering of mud across his face, and then the rest of me into his hips - a proper rugby tackle down into the pitch. Coach Williams would be proud of me.

"Ooooohhhhh...." EJ winced, "Hotstuff's down!"

"Chi-ka-boom! Chi-ka-boom!" My wolves cried out!

Meanwhile, my tackle had unstuck Wolfgang's boots from the mud and he landed backward with a nice big splat because of the muddle behind him. I took the opportunity to slug him a good punch in the stomach. And then VROOOMPH... hot air blasting towards me! I recognized this feeling - like when Fluffy had turned to magma backstage, back then, Henry had to pull me back. This time, I darted back, kicking off from his thigh. Good thing too. Wolfgang self-combusted like a proper lycan legend, "the fire wolf walking like a human pyre in the night."

The quote just sprung up in my mind because unlike Bell who wore his fire like the blue versions of the Human Torch or teen Disney Hades, Wolfgang's fired-up look was more like a horror film, his fire a brilliant vermilion, the mud dripping off with his silhouette a black dark demonic shadow grinning out from within the crackling tongues of fire.

I took a good moment to just stop there where I was. This had happened before. I was a pup then and I heard from the humans in my elementary school about a guy called Santa Claus.

"I want to meet Santa! I want to meet Santa!" I had bugged my Mum on a shopping trip so much, she turned in her receipt of "$100 minimum spend" so that we could queue for an hour to "meet and greet Santa".

I was going to ask for two new bikes. One for me and the other for Savy. I mean, yeah it's snowing, but spring would come and we'd be speeding down the driveway like the boss... Maybe I should ask for four bikes so Ben and Lizzy could race down the driveway with us.

But when I got to the front of the queue, I realized Santa wasn't the cute cartoon I saw on TV. It was a big old guy in red felt pajamas and white facial hair. And when he picked me up and put me on his lap, I could see that his beard didn't quite stick to his face properly.

"Arughhhh!!!!!" I screamed and kicked till the elf pulled me off and returned me to my Mum.

Yeah. That was the feeling of looking at a real fire wolf now. I had been fangirling, "Fire wolf! Fire wolf!" But it turned out to be another Santa surprise. Real life was disillusioning like that.

It wasn't a pretty sight and suddenly all the phrases used to describe them, like "fire demon" and "horrific apparition of flames" and "the wolves who had run through the dregs of hell" all suddenly made sense.

The Lycan authors weren't being overly dramatic. They were describing it as it were.

"Snow wolf! Snow wolf! Whoot whoot!" My wolves cheered anyway. The fire wolf who was atm approaching me one step at a time like some kind of scary movie monster.

If this were a scary movie, the teenage girl was supposed to scream, and then one of the guys would shoot desperately at the monster, and not hit the slow-moving target AT ALL. But this wasn't a scary movie (and I didn't have a gun). This was real life. Wow. How did my real life become like this?