The beast fell to the ground with a dull sound and Baekhyun raised a clawed fist to wipe the remnants of blood that painted his face. The Jorogumo was defeated and it had been a relatively easy battle for him, the creature proving to be not as lethal as it firstly appeared. Or maybe he was just too incensed for it to be a worthy opponent.

As it lay, ripped in shreds by his powerful hands, Baekhyun looked around and frown a little. This was not the middle of the village, it was still near Jongdae’s house, on the outskirts and he feared what he was going to see in the middle of it, where he could here sounds of a battle raging on. While it didn’t take him long to get rid of the Jorogumo, he was sure that he would not like what he would be seeing in mere moments.

The thought was confirmed as Baekhyun continued to stride forward and found the horrifying sight of dead people laying on the ground, mangled bodies stretched onto the soil in twisted positions, making him pray, to whoever heard him, for their peace in the afterlife, if such thing existed.

It was truly a horrid sight, especially when he saw young children in the mixture and even lovers and family members, whose hands were entangled with each other, tightly holding on as if to remain with them forever. On those cases Baekhyun only wished that afterlife did exist so that they could really stay together and he wasn’t a really devoted person.

As he reached the middle of the village, the scenery was different: everything was almost destroyed, very few building surviving the attacked lain upon them by the chimeras and wizards. Baekhyun could see people, alphas mostly, although he could spot some brave betas, fighting with the enemy: battling with chimeras, some of them so strange that Baekhyun didn’t even had a name for them, as they were a dysfunctional mess of random creatures almost sown together, creating a gigantic and grotesque being.

There a few bodies on the ground, lesser than the ones that Baekhyun had already seen but then again he assumed that the ones he had seen were younger or lower ranked wolves who tried to escape but died.

The wolves in front of him fought hardly, with a fury that many could not possess. It was very graphic, with blood splattering on the ground, huge wounds that would have killed smaller being displayed… Absolute gore.

His presence seemed to drawn some attention of some of nearby creatures who looked at him with a confused expression as the man walked forward, very calmly, between the dueling people, eyes looking straight ahead. He was sure that they mostly wondered who this strange man was: everyone recognized him as a foreigner, and why was he so calm. Many even wondered if he was a friend or a foe and Baekhyun couldn’t really fault them for thinking that: he was odd and he stood out from the rest.

However, Baekhyun didn’t pay them any thoughts, merely walking forward. At one point, something looking like a hell hound jumped at him from the side, teeth ready to sink themselves on the expanse of his skin but Baekhyun threw his arm to the same time, claws out and ready, slashing the beast quickly and sending it to the ground. While his action did not stop the fights around him, some people turned to him with an odd interest, mouth agape at the herculean like wolf who had, so easily, defeated an enemy.

When he reached the exact middle of the village Baekhyun stopped, completely halted his steps and looked at the figure before him, wrapped in black velvet, a smirk pulling his lips up in an almost demented way.

“Well, Baekhyun.” Drawled the man. “Had I known that you were here and I would’ve hit this place a lot sooner. It’s always a pleasure to see you.”

“Jaebeom.” Replied Baekhyun evenly looking at the wizard in front him, not paying the minimal attention to the glowing tattoos on the other’s body showing, to anyone who was interested, his high rank among the magical community.

“Aww…Just that? Not even a small comment about how happy you are to see me?”

As Baekhyun stared impassively at the man, without blinking, the man decided to stop pretending and his face adopted a more serious expression.

“You don’t seem too surprised to see me.”

“I am really not. As soon as I was told that the wizard community was here, along with their… pets, if we can define them like so, I knew I would be seeing your face sooner or later. It was a lot sooner than I imagined though, which I suppose that saves me a lot of trouble.” Replied Baekhyun evenly, arms crossed in front of his chest.

“Ever to the point…You are no fun.”

“I am not intending to be. I should’ve ended you when I could. It would save so many troubles… to everyone. Especially since you have, apparently, been making small deals here and there for whatever reason.”

“Oh?”

The wizard, Jaebeom, looked very pleased at Baekhyun’s words, as if the male had said something very interesting and he was proud over such an intelligent remark. He let out a small laugh escape his lips and looked over at Baekhyun, once again, looking highly amused.

“You seemed to know more than I expected you to.” Remarked Jaebeom.

“Yet, it’s less than I want to know.”

Jaebeom hummed, seemingly pondering the words spoken by Baekhyun, still wearing the amused smile. At this point Baekhyun wasn’t sure if it was a provocation or just the obnoxious man being himself.

Jaebeom and Baekhyun story begun years ago, back when Jaebeom was still a lesser ranked wizard and Baekhyun was a teenager with a quiet demeanor and a reserved attitude. It had started from the moment when a younger Jaebeom invaded a village to prove its worth in his community and, on his return home, he had found a much valuable prize instead on the form of a Oracle wolf and his two bodyguards.

Jaebeom was greedy, wanted power and prestige, recognition as a God among creatures and bringing an Oracle to his home, to tell him his fortune and maybe, who knows, discover the secret behind the abnormal abilities of the wolf, would do just so and he had begun a hunt against the male, Jongin.

The plan sounded much better in his mind, quick and fast even, he clearly hadn’t taken Chanyeol or Baekhyun into consideration, as they functioned like a well-oiled machine when it came to protecting Jongin, always managing to escape from him barely ruffled.

Admittedly, aside from his narcissistic self and his greed, Jaebeom was some who loved a good fight, to go head to head with someone strong only to defeat him and bask himself on the glory of his achievement. While he could do so with Chanyeol, who was all muscle and brute strength, he preferred so much more to go after Baekhyun, a kind of obsession that he had developed that even made him forget about Jongin at the best of times. Why? Because Baekhyun was so much more interesting than Chanyeol and Jongin combined!

People often mistaken his obsession, his own cat and mouse game, as an attraction to the male; however, to Jaebeom, it hadn’t anything to do with it, not even remotely. What he personally enjoyed, or rather was he was trying to achieve, was breaking Baekhyun’s composure.

You see, even in the most dangerous situations, the ones that often lead him to a possible death, Baekhyun was always the perfect picture of calmness, poise and elegance and Jaebeom developed a need to destroy that composed picture of Baekhyun, making the male sweat and writhe, scream and beg and panic. He wanted to see the calm male lose all of his control and generally break him down nicely before delivering his final blow.

Chanyeol didn’t give him the thrill that Baekhyun did: Chanyeol was more emotional and quick to anger, quicker to react and that made him lost all his appeal in the wizard’s eyes. Baekhyun was, as previously explained, more fun to play with.

Jaebeom was not a predator but he wouldn’t deny that he liked to play with his prey.

“You never cease to fascinate me Baekhyun.” Stated the man playfully, his hand rising up slightly by his side, into the air, with an orb of incandescent light floating above it, produced by the magic inhabiting the man’s body. “You’re so smart, aren’t you? Knowing everything, or big part of it, before everyone else did… connecting the dots and then coming here to confront me about it. I like it! I like it so much.”

Jaebeom’s eyes flickered to the orb on his hand, gazing at his own magic tenderly as if it was human and sentient. He closed his hand, making the orb disappear with the gesture, closing his eyes as well, releasing a small discontent sigh.

Baekhyun wasn’t really sure what the man was going to do, Jaebeom was unpredictable and a complete lunatic, which were two traits he hated about the man, among a variety of other things. However, he remained cautious, knowing that nothing good could ever come out of him.

His thoughts were proven to be right when, seconds afterwards, Jaebeom opened his eyes and his hand at the same time, a bigger orb flashing in wisps of black light, the same as the color that know were Jaebeom’s eyes, signaling that the wizard was channeling all of his magic, with an almost demonic smile on his lips, faced Baekhyun.

“I like it!” repeated the wizard with a cavernous voice, pausing a little for the added effect before finishing his sentence. “But not enough to let you live.”

And with that the man lurched forward, as Baekhyun steeled himself for the fight.

It was Jaebeom’s and his fight and only one would be able to survive it.

Yixing entered the perimeters of the village in a record time, since he had ran at full speed from their hideout into this place without pausing for a second or even slowing down. His mind screamed at him to find his brother and to find him now.

Yixing knew he was a little bit brash at times with people, especially those around Baekhyun, overcompensating that with being insufferably clingy and protective. He didn’t like it but he couldn’t deny that finding his brother alive, the mere discovery, was something that had affected him a lot, rendering him unstable. He knew that! He knew that instability was problematic and was turning him to be something he was not, He was positive that he had just been obnoxious seconds ago, in that small little cave, to Kyungsoo, who was a male that was very kind and only treated him nicely.

However, to some extent, he easily justified his actions with the necessity of having his brother safe in order to maintain the last piece of sanity holding him down.´

It was hard growing without parents, even though he had found another family in another pack, and even harder knowing that his younger self had been too scared to look for his brother, allowing himself to believe that such a small wolf would never be able to survive, in order to keep the guilt from swallowing him up and devour him entirely.

Knowing that Baekhyun was alive, through the oddest circumstances possible was what broke the dam and made the guilt invade him with a power that left him knocked out and honestly brother. The protectiveness that ensued was a sequitur of those feelings and also a need to make up for the lost time, a need to make sure that the family he had left was okay. Also, if he was totally honest, there was a completely and consuming jealousy that came from finding that Baekhyun, his little brother, had found people who became his family and called them brothers. The proximity and understanding they possessed make his blood boil, converting his jealousy into anger which then translated itself into poorly made decisions.

He knew that; he knew all of that although his sense of pride prohibited him from speaking it out loud or even thinking about it too much.

Nevertheless, if there was something that Yixing knew he would always have was a deep sense of loyalty and a greater love for Baekhyun, hence the reason while he made the decision to bolt of a safe place and come to look for him, despite the lack of any plan: he was completely unware of the gravity of the situation, of what he would find and even if he could handle it alone, but he came.

Yixing turned a blind eye to everything around him until he found what he was looking for; he didn’t stop to help anyone, as selfish as it sounded, he didn’t stop to look at the dead bodies on the ground and he certainly didn’t pay attention to the beasts that were brought to the village by the wizard. No, Yixing only stopped when his eyes found Baekhyun.

It wasn’t a glamorous sight, not that it was expected to be, but Yixing was more shocked that he should be at the sight of his brother fighting the tattoed wizard, both entangled in a complicated dance that Yixing did and didn’t want to interrupt.

It was scary! The man kept sending small balls of black light into Baekhyun’s direction, panting and obviously tired, while Baekhyun dodged them, some of them missing him by the smallest margin, trying to approach the man at the same time in order to give him a good swipe with his claws. They both had been at this for some time, their faced displaying the tiredness they both felt at such strenuous battle, which only seemed to be increasing in intensity and fury but neither of them wielded; not even when it was clear that both of them were injured: the wizard had a set of claw marks on his chest and Baekhyun’s neck and shoulder were drenched in blood and Yixing was pretty sure that it was his own and not from the wizard.

There seemed to be a lot of other wizards who tried to help the man, approaching with colored balls of light, floating above their hands but the male snapped at them every single time, stating for them to leave them alone and this was a personal matter that he would solve himself. That was a clear indication, at least for Yixing, that Baekhyun and the male had some sort of story together and not a pleasant one.

For a second, Yixing pondered why didn’t Baekhyun morphed into his wolf form and attack like that, since he would be far more agile, difficult to hit and faster. It would give him the upper hand, no doubt about that, Yixing thought, his analytical alpha mind, which was used and more than ready for a battle.

When a glimpse of the multicolored eyes flashed, so fast that it looked more like an optical illusion than anything else, Yixing understood his brother’s actions: Baekhyun was a berserker and exposing his identity in front of so many people could possibly be hazardous to him, since Yixing had no doubts that people would turn against his brother, seeing him as an enemy. Yixing had heard enough stories about this village and those who lead it in order to make an accurate assumption on what was bound to happen.

However, despite his brother’s best efforts, he could see that the younger male was starting to lose his initial focus, his emotions beginning to bleed a little too much from the cracks of his well-built façade; his eyes were flashing more and more, also it had begun to take longer for the colors to dissipate and blend back into the dark brown that people were used to see on the wolf’s eyes.

A black ball of light was hurled against Baekhyun and the male dodged it, not being fast enough for it to not graze his side, making him hiss in pain, taking a hand to cover the place and wincing when it came wet and red.

Yixing took a step forward, ready to intervene and help his brother to stop the wizard, whoever he might’ve been but, to his shock, Baekhyun was fairly aware of his presence and the aurora borealis eyes on him made him stop where he was. They were expressive enough and contained such determination that the step that Yixing took forward was immediately taken back, sending the alpha back to the place where he had been just previously.

The wizard seemed to notice the small interaction between the both of them and a delighted smile came creeping into his features, giving him such a psychopath look that it twisted Yixing’s gut: the air of pure madness of his face frightened him.

“Oh?! What is this? Someone you know Baekhyunnie?”

Baekhyun honestly didn’t know how Jaebeom could easily tell that but he berated himself from being, apparently, too obvious and allowing the wizard in front of him to pick on something that he didn’t wish to other to know, especially since it was something that would easily reveal the identity of Yixing, whom he didn’t want mix with Jaebeom: Baekhyun wanted his brother the furthest away possible from the man.

He grew a little bit weary of the situation because if the information made itself be known, Jaebeom could use Yixing against Baekhyun and Baekhyun didn’t want to have any liability when it came to this dangerous man, let alone his own brother.

Baekhyun decided not to answer Jaebeom and his little jab at him, knowing that if he opened his mouth at this point, something would likely come out of it and he would end up making the other suspicious of something.

“I don’t know if I find you silence revealing or not.” Hummed Jaebeom letting a finger tap his lip twice while regarding the situation. “He’s he a friend or a foe? Do you know him or not? So many questions but you are so hard to read Baekhyunnie.”

In an attempt to distract the male, Baekhyun charged at him, his claws almost sinking themselves on the other’s arm but Jaebeom had been expecting it and the attack was evaded.

At the back of his mind Baekhyun hoped that Yixing wouldn’t do anything stupid and understood that Baekhyun didn’t want him there, facing such a dangerous man, and that his brother would go help someone else, keeping up the pretense that they didn’t know each other.

However, luck was rarely on Baekhyun’s side; while Yixing said nothing, he was rooted to the spot where he had stopped minutes ago and Jaebeom wasn’t stupid, anything but really, and immediately understood that the male’s unwillingness to run away from his and Baekhyun’s fight could only mean that the wolf did, in fact, know Baekhyun.

Jaebeom cackled gleefully when he reached that conclusion, looking at them with a mixture of delight and malice.

“So you do know each other!” he said with a tone that was grating to the ears. “He’s not leaving and he is looking at you so intently Baekhyunnie! Who is he? Tell me Baekhyunnie.”

Baekhyun didn’t answer, trying not to rise to the bait although on his mind he was cursing everything to hell and back, his composure beginning to slip. He hated the fact, he hated when his emotions got the best of him at the worst of times and he hated even more if Jaebeom noticed, which he seemed not to, thankfully.

The young wolf attacked the wizard; trying to distract him from everything and making him focus on only him and not Yixing. With an intense bravado, the young wolf managed to strike about four times, making Jaebeom focus on him like he was intending to, It took him a great deal of energy, every wolf knew that, especially taking into consideration that Baekhyun wasn’t even in wolf form, which would save him some  energy.

When Jaebeom counterattacked, Baekhyun fell back, stepping down a little order to line himself with Yixing: he wanted to pass a message. As the older male launched a spell on his way, he ducked behind a fallen piece of a building, gesturing at Yixing to fall back as well and duck behind something, in order to stay protected.

Fortunately for him, Yixing seemed to understand the message and dived into the spot beside Baekhyun as Jaebeom continued to cast spell after spell, trying to hit them both.

“What are you doing here?” asked Baekhyun with a calm voice, thinly veiled with some anger.

“I came to help you!” replied the male with a low tone of voice looking at his brother.

“Didn’t Luhan or Sehun tell you to stay away?”

“I honestly didn’t stay enough time for Chanyeol to talk much since he came into the hideout; I was more concerned about you being here!” hissed Yixing, staring at Baekhyun as if the male was insane. “You really expected me to abandon you? It won’t happen again Baekhyun.”

Baekhyun looked over at the male with sudden serious eyes.

“I appreciate it Yixing, I really do and if this is a guilt thing, which I am sure that deep down there is a small amount of it to it, I don’t have resentments towards you, no anymore and I have nothing to forgive and you don’t have anything to be sorry for. However, I left with clear instructions as to what to do in this situation. You were supposed to help them survive, since they have only two fighters for four wolves.”

Yixing ignored the other’s words, trying not to get too emotional at hearing the kind words. Instead, he chose to change the subject.

“Did you find Seungwan?”

“I did but now it’s not the best time.” Replied Baekhyun, running from behind the debris in order to help a woman who was struggling with a dark haired which who looked far too sweet but possessed a demonic smile that gave Baekhyun the chills.

He swiped at the witch, missing her for a large margin, giving the woman, whom he recognized as a beta, to stand on her two feet again, moving to a much safer position, near two other females who briefly opened their arms for her in relief before throwing themselves back into the battle.

“Come on Mina.” Called Jaebeom loudly making Baekhyun look in his direction. “Don’t mess with Baekhyunnie. Baekhyunnie is mine to mess with.”

Mina, the dark haired witch, with dark moles on her face and a cold look, gave out a laugh before nodding to the male, eyes landing on Yixing and smiling sinisterly.

“Can I play with him?” she asked Jaebeom, making it blatantly clear that the male held such a high position on their community that, not only they followed his commands, but also sought his permission for many things.

“Of course, love. Go ahead.”

A horrible and wicked smile crossed the witch’s face before she glided near Yixing, a purple ball hovering above her hand, ready to be thrown at Yixing.

Sensing the witch coming in his direction, Yixing mumbled a small curse before shifting into his wolf form, muscles rippling and the typical red eyes of an alpha, which made the witch coo at him, as if he was a small child who had done something very wrong but it was still very cute. It was very condescending and Yixing felt furious at the witch.

The witch was not Jaebeom, the male was very fast and through the variety of spells sent his way from her, the amounts of energy he could feel from the colored balls of magic, weren’t enough to have him truly worried. However, the witch was something to be aware of, especially because he was accurate and fast nonetheless.

Despite being engaged in a fight, Yixing was still aware of Baekhyun next to him and how the things were going for the younger male, watching as the tired male begun slightly struggling to keep up with the spells being hurled at him by Jaebeom, even if the wizard, himself, seemed to be having some troubles.

Mina, as the witch had been called, while strong, was not a match for Yixing and it wasn’t necessary a lot until the witch hit the floor with a dull thud, blood all over her, lifeless as Yixing slashed up, killing her and hoping that she hadn’t suffer much: just because they were fighting, it didn’t mean that he was heartless enough.

Jaebeom screamed as she hit the floor, clearly not expecting this to happen. He allowed himself to fall on his knees next to the body, cradling it next to his chest, making it clear that the young woman had been special to him in some way, either a lover, family or a close friend.

Yixing took the time to approach his brother, taking in the tired posture and the way he was panting very hard, blood painting half of his face, more than it had been when he first arrived there.

“Are you alright?”

“Surviving.” Replied Baekhyun. “Jaebeom is a high ranked wizard, unlike that girl had been and far more difficult to kill.”

“She’s not a trouble anymore.”

A commotion was heard just in front of them and they looked up to see some wizards retreating, along with some creatures, a hoard of alphas and daring betas had apparently managed to made them fall back, sending them away from the village. Baekhyun was a little skeptic of that theory, not knowing what to believe, especially since he learned that the Council had been working with the wizard community.

There was a small sense of victory that course through their bodied at the thought of this hell coming to an end, at least for now. The wolves were gaining their domain back again, expelling the wizards from their village and that would mean that, for now, things were getting better, leaving them to rebuild themselves after what had transpired.

They were immersed in their thoughts and did not see Jaebeom standing up, Mina still cradled against his chest, and hurled a black magic ball right into the unsuspecting men.

Reflecting upon it, they both knew that they should’ve been paying attention to the male, that they should never turn their backs on an enemy and stop paying him attention but they forgot the golden rule.

The blackness didn’t make itself came late for one of them while a mighty roar was heard at the same time, while the body fell to the ground.

Jongin screamed. He screamed like he never had screamed before, scaring all of the people present inside the small cave. The sound was loud, aggravating and a bad omen all together.

Kyungsoo, who was nearer to Jongin at the moment, held the male while his body shook and seized at younger sobbed, large tears falling from his eyes. He didn’t understand what was happening and he looked around for enlightenment.

Jongdae was terrified and he made himself small against the wall, while Sehun stood paralyzed, eyes darting to Chanyeol at the same time Minseok turned to Chanyeol.

“What’s happening?” he demanded, not liking the atmosphere that fell into the small space.

“I don’t know.” Replied the taller male. “But it was something bad.”

He paused a second, turning to look at Sehun’s horrified eyes.

“It was something really bad!”

A/N: Hello everyone! How have you been doing? I hope that everyone is doing well and that you are happy. I have been a little tired lately, working as been being a little brutal on me BUT vacations are near, a whole month of it!! For those who aren't aware, August is the only time of the year where I can have vacations, working with kids has these things but it's fine. 
The plot has begun to thicken and now Baekhyun has found a enemy from the past and Yixing has come to him, whether to be a nuisance or help, only time will tell! As you understand, the magical community is controling and making the chimeras with some help of the Council to reasons unknown to the moment, which is the first mystery that will be unveiled, the second one is Seungwan's nature (that you know of!) and the other's will be reveiled later on as the action progreeds.
Tell me all of your thoughts about this new chapter via comment or with a message. Subscribe if you like the story and please upvote it if you reeeeeeeally love it. I would love to hear you out!
Lastly, but no least important, I hope that you had good grades on your exams and that the results were better than you expected. I also hope the stress that they caused is now away and that you can rest properly now. 
As always, stay safe and healthy, love yourself, love others and allow them to love you and be IMMENSELY HAPPY!
Lots of love and an amazing wekk for all of you!
<3