The Lunar Crest Academy: Marked by The Lycans
Chapter 136: The Unleashing

Chapter 136: Chapter 136: The Unleashing

Lorraine’s POV

I don’t know how long we’ve been fighting. Minutes? Hours? Time felt distorted, like the chaos had its own rhythm, one I was struggling to match.

Blood coated the marble floor of the auditorium. The scent was thick, iron, rage, death. My chest heaved as I ducked another attack, pivoted, and drove my claws into the gut of an elite boy I vaguely recognized. His eyes widened in shock. He tried to say something, but no words came. He collapsed. Gone.

I had just killed him.

My hands shook for a moment. I couldn’t afford to mourn. Not now.

My wolf was awake, there, rumbling beneath my skin, but she wasn’t guiding me. She wasn’t lending me her strength. She was watching... just watching.

"I could use you right now," I hissed through clenched teeth as I turned, slicing through another attacker’s shoulder. "We’re kind of in the middle of something!"

Nothing. Just her silence. Her weight.

She wasn’t leaving me.... but she wasn’t helping either.

All around me, the fight raged.

Aveline stood like a wraith in front of Adrian. her long tangled hair slick with blood, her lips curled in a near-feral snarl. She tore through everyone who got too close. Her claws were slick, her movements sharp, ruthless, and too fast to track with normal eyes. She didn’t just kill, she destroyed. Bones cracked, spines shattered, bodies crumpled under her brutal force.

I tried to get closer to her, but three noble students jumped at me. I dropped low, swept one off his feet, ducked a blade, elbowed another in the throat, then spun to drive a dagger into the last one’s chest. Blood sprayed against my face.

Still, no hesitation from them. No mercy.

These were the same people who used to jeer at the ferals, who mocked us for being weak. Now they fought like rabid dogs for Adrian, like they’d been waiting their whole lives for this.

On the far end of the room, Astrid and Magnus Thorn fought side by side, Astrid with a twin daggers, Thorn with his bare fists, powerful and precise. They moved like trained predators. But I noticed something, they weren’t killing. They fought smart, disabling students, knocking them unconscious, incapacitating them. Their restraint was clear.

They still saw these students as their own.

But the students didn’t see it the same way.

They fought to kill.

Bodies littered the floor. Groans echoed. Screams, clashes, snarls, it all became a vicious melody of war. I was tired. My arms were heavy. But I wouldn’t stop.

Not when I could still see him.

Kieran.

My heart clenched.

He was a force of nature.

His black hair billowed with every rapid motion, his claws dripping blood. His eyes glowed with that dangerous crimson, like molten fire surging beneath the surface. He moved through the crowd like the wind, untouchable, too fast to stop, students flying in all directions as he cut a path forward.

He was heading straight for Adrian.

I watched him push forward, faster, harder, like he didn’t care who stood in his way. Like the only thing that mattered in the world right now.... was tearing Adrian apart.

He was getting close.

Adrian stood still in the middle of it all, untouched.

Smiling.

And Aveline waited in front of him, poised like a creature ready to be unleashed again.

Kieran reached them. Finally.

I had to elbow a noble in the throat and drive my blade I had snatched from another noble, through the thigh of another just to get a clear view. But I saw him, my Kieran, standing tall, chest heaving, eyes burning crimson as he stood face to face with her.

Aveline.

Gods, she didn’t even blink.

She just stepped forward from Adrian’s side, like a shadow peeling off the darkness. A smirk curled on her bloodstained lips as her eyes locked with Kieran’s. Her stance changed. subtle but deadly. She was poised like a predator who knew she had nothing to fear. Because she didn’t.

Kieran was powerful. I’d seen him move through armies like they were made of paper. But Aveline... she wasn’t normal. She was something else. A beast carved from nightmares.

Still, Kieran didn’t hesitate. He lunged first.

Their clash was like a thunderclap, two titans meeting at the edge of ruin. Aveline blocked his claws with her own, sparks flying as they collided. Kieran twisted, slammed his elbow into her ribs, ducked a swipe, and landed a brutal kick to her sternum that sent her skidding back.

For a heartbeat, I thought, he can do it.

But Aveline only smiled.

Then she attacked.

She moved too fast. I could barely keep track as they exchanged brutal, ruthless blows. Kieran ducked, dodged, twisted, his movements were desperate and precise, but he was clearly straining. Aveline caught him by the throat, lifted him, and slammed him into the marble floor so hard the ground cracked.

"Kieran!!"

I wanted to run to him, to help, but I couldn’t. Two nobles lunged at me. I had to fight, had to fight. But even as I slashed and shoved them away, I kept one eye, one desperate, terrified eye, on him.

Kieran groaned, rolled over, and somehow forced himself back to his feet. His left shoulder was dislocated, his lip split open, his ribs shattered, I could smell the blood, but he stood. He stood like the warrior he was.

Aveline snarled. Her claws extended.

I knew that stance.

She was going for the kill.

"No..." I breathed. "NO!"

Everything slowed.

My body moved before I knew what I was doing. My heart thundered like a war drum. The scream forming in my throat was silent. I wasn’t in control anymore. My wolf, she... she was awake, and this time, she wasn’t just watching.

She took over.

Power surged through me so violently I nearly blacked out. My skin burned, my eyes blurred, and my feet slammed into the floor as I ran....flew, across the auditorium. One heartbeat, Aveline’s claws were about to slice through Kieran’s throat.

The next heartbeat, I was in front of him.

My fist collided with Aveline’s chest, and the scream that tore from my lips wasn’t just sound, it was force. A wave of ethereal, glowing energy erupted from me like a storm unleashed.

It threw Aveline across the auditorium like a ragdoll.

But it didn’t stop with her.

Everyone, everyone, was knocked off their feet.

Elites. Lycans. Nobles. Rebels. All of them were slammed to the ground by the invisible shockwave of that one scream.

The whole auditorium went still. Breathless.

I was panting, my hands trembling, my body glowing faintly. I turned, barely able to stay standing, and looked behind me.

The air still crackled with energy, my limbs trembling from the force that had erupted from me. Bodies lay scattered across the auditorium floor, some groaning, some still. And in the dead silence that followed, a sound pierced through the chaos.

A blaring engine.

A truck skidded to a halt right in front of the shattered auditorium entrance, dust clouding around its tires. The passenger door flung open and a familiar, wild-haired head leaned out.

"Get in!" Thorin shouted. His eyes were wide, frantic. "GET IN, NOW!"

The few students who hadn’t turned crimson, ghe ones still loyal to the Academy or simply too afraid to fight, sprang to their feet and sprinted toward the truck. Screams rose again behind me as some of the rebels regained consciousness. The massacre wasn’t over, but this was our chance.

Varya was limping, her arm clearly broken, but she didn’t hesitate. She shoved her shoulder under Felix’s armpit and pulled him up from where he was barely conscious, blood streaking down his temple and mouth.

I turned to Kieran.

"Come on," I said, grabbing his hand, urgency choking my voice. "We have to go, please...."

But he didn’t budge.

His eyes were blazing. His jaw clenched.

"I can’t," he muttered. "I have to finish this. Adrian, he has to die."

"Kieran....."

"I said I’m not leavin...."

A sharp thud cut him off.

Astrid.

She moved like lightning, her fingers striking the side of his neck with precise force. Kieran’s body stiffened, then crumpled, his eyes rolled back as unconsciousness took him.

"No!" I gasped, dropping to my knees, an attempt to catch him.

"He’ll live," Astrid said, voice tight. "But if we don’t go now, none of us will."

Magnus Thorn appeared next, moving fast. He scooped Kieran’s limp body into his arms like it weighed nothing, his jaw tight with fury and pain. I stood and followed, heart pounding, breath hitching.

We ran.

Thorin yelled again, "Let’s go!"

Magnus leapt into the back of the truck with Kieran. Varya shoved Felix in next, panting hard, blood dripping from her mouth. I clambered in behind them, barely catching my breath as Astrid slammed the door shut behind us.

Thorin floored the accelerator.

The truck jerked forward with a roar, tires screeching, mud and gravel flying behind us. The last thing I saw as we sped away was the burning ruins of the auditorium disappearing into smoke and shadows, and Adrian standing tall among the bodies, his sister Aveline crouched beside him like a lioness preparing to chase.

I gripped the edge of the truck bed and looked down at Kieran, his head on Magnus’s lap, blood smeared across his jaw, but breathing.

He was alive.

We were alive.

But the war?

The war had just begun.