Chapter 22: What Kind of Leader Would I Be?

 “What did you just say?” Daniel replied with a raised brow.

“I mean… I don’t know if I’m strong enough to take him out.”

“That is your problem. Do not disappoint the alpha.”

“What if I get killed or caught doing this task?”

“Then you should be proud of dying for your Alpha. But if you get caught, you know better than to mention his involvement in it. I wish you the best of luck child, try not to die yet. You interest me.” He replied heading to the stairway.

Great, now I’m tasked to kill an innocent person. I can’t do that. It just makes me part of the system I fight against. I didn’t want to follow the stairway so I used the balcony again, bringing myself all the way down. Jumping and sliding down different platforms till I was back in the hallway I took off from earlier.

I just had a few minutes more before my lecture, I sprinted as fast as I could, I left the castle grounds in seconds, the lecture wasn’t held in one of the many spaces in the school, rather it was held in the school colosseum which was built away from the school. 

It didn’t take long for me to reach my destination. With my new heightened speed and reflexes, I could burn distances easily. Reaching the gate I sighted Isabella walking with Oliver, Richard and Brad.

“Is that Elsa or have the gods muddled my sight?” Brad asked, acting surprised.

“Yeah, I thought she would still be hanging around Alex balls.” Oliver added, he seemed to be frowning on getting close. He obviously wasn’t happy that I was friends with Alex, knowing that their families aren’t exactly best of friends. The border feud between Estonia and Andovia had began to worsen, with each side feigning historical claims to it. 

Formerly, it was an extension of Andovian soil. But a decade back, Estonia invaded the area acquiring it for themselves, Alpha Otega declared that he just took back what was rightfully Estonian territory in the past. Of course when the two greatest nations, Estonia and Andovia have such an issue, it becomes a matter of who is powerful enough to conquer and claim.

A lot of werewolves have died from this feud. The war is still ongoing with both sides determined to win. I always wondered why the war had to persist all this while, taking millions of lives away. It was always on the news back at home. 

“Slow down there Oliver. You cannot talk to me that way. I’ll choose whoever I want to be friends with. You know you should learn to be open minded, think for yourself. You don’t have to inherit enemies. You’ll be an Alpha someday, what kind of leader do you want to be?” I asked. 

I was quite annoyed with the way he spoke to me. Everyone stood still after what I said. My reply really caught them off guard, including Oliver who got himself after awhile and stormed off.

“Oliver!”

“Elsa, he was just trying to protect you.” Isabella said, staring at his back entering the colosseum.

“Come on Isabella, you know what I said was true.”

She took in a deep breath then went after him.

“It’s okay Elsa, personally I find Alexander cool, you know. I’m a big fan.” Brad said, consoling me with his words as we entered the colosseum

“Yeah, the famous level seven prodigy.” Richard chummed in for the first time. He was usually the quiet type only speaking once in a while.

The colosseum was extremely large. It wasn’t just for classes but also school competitions and huge events.

The Reality Practicals was one of my favorite classes, our lecturer is Ser Godfrey Hernas, a very tall man among even Andovians and Estonians. 

I always found it strange how he was able to easily carry a hammer which weighed about five thousand pounds, that's the size of an incredibly large boulder. I later came to discover how powerful a lycan weapon is. It could make the object lighter and increase the normal stats of the wielder.

He wore battle robes as he stood in the middle of the colosseum. He held his weapon, in which its end reached the ground. The weapon was almost his height, gleaming with energy.

“Students welcome to another lecture. Today we will be learning how to kill monsters with a hardly identifiable weakpoint. There will be times where you'll come across monsters who are extremely powerful. Identifying a weak point could prove rather difficult, but make no mistake, one thing we must always have in mind is that monsters always have a weak point. The hard part is identifying it with your life on the line. But once you master this skill, you become the apex predator.” He said, scanning through our numbers. His other hand was folded at his back.

I was sitting a few chairs away from Isabella and Oliver. I sat beside Brad and Richard, Brad seemed really interested in the exercise.

“I think this would be fun… I hope I get picked.” He muttered excitedly. 

“Yeah but you know what that means? He just said we would have to identify the weak points, this simply means we should expect really dangerous monsters.” Richard said. 

I had to agree with him, if we were going to be looking for weak points, it means this monster won’t be easy to kill.

“You over there.”

I looked around noticing Brad and Richard were staring at me, but not just them. Everyone else too. My gaze gradually shifted to Ser Hernas, and I saw his pointed hammer at me.

“You can do this.” Richard said as I stood up. I got down from the sitting area and made my way to the middle. It seems I was the last person to be picked, because he didn’t call any other person.

“Alright, now class the five of them will be facing this monster together. This exercise isn’t just about finding the weak point of the monster but working together as werewolves to take it down, you'll be tested in your combat skills, teamwork and critical thinking.” He said, moving sideways to watch us.

The five of us looked at each other, I didn't know anyone there apart from Oliver who didn’t try to look my way.

“Alright guys, the monster will be let out anytime soon, we need to make sure we work together and ace this test, you know it'll also be good for our grades.” Benjamin Dixon said. He was one of the top students in level one, known for his charisma, strength and leading skills, most already felt like he would be part of the School Council soonest. 

“Grrrr.”

The sound came from the opening tunnel. It seemed as though the monster was angry and hungry at once.