The Frenzy War by Gregory Lamberson Page A

Blades were heavy and sharp, their deadly embrace almost impossible to evade. Michael had trained for this purpose for a decade and a half, and he did not intend to show his prey any mercy.
    The creature planted its left leg behind it, dropped to its haunches, and seemed to pull itself inward. Then it launched at Michael, who dropped to one knee with his Blade raised in both hands and his head bowed forward.The werewolf’s momentum drove its body into the tip of the Blade, which split it open from chest to groin.
    Feeling hot blood paint his back, Michael stood and pivoted on one foot, holding his Blade as a baseball player would a bat. The werewolf rolled across the floor, entangled in its own guts. Michael crossed the soggy floor as the beast managed to work its way up on its claws and knees, and he swung his Blade downward with grim accuracy.

    The werewolf sitting atop Eun closed its powerful jaws over her face and snapped them together, shredding her mask. It threw its head to one side, spitting out her goggles, then fastened its fangs over her face again. Eun screamed even as Valeria buried her Blade into the back of the beast’s neck. The Korean flailed for the hilt of her own sword, but her frantic movements proved useless.
    When Valeria jerked her Blade free, blood splashed her goggles and mask. Blinded, she wiped the lenses of the goggles with one forearm, smearing the crimson. She raised her Blade again and brought it down with less ferocity because she did not wish for her weapon to injure Eun as well. The wounded woman continued to scream in agony.
    The werewolf spread its front arms out, geysers of blood spraying out in multiple directions from the violated neck.
    Valeria stepped back and kicked the beast, which rolled over. She did not know what sickened her more: the sight of the creature’s head barely attached to its neck or Eun’s face dangling in strips from her skull. She swung her Blade in a powerful arc that disconnected the werewolf’s head.
    Eun clapped her hands over her face, which only caused her screams to grow louder.
    Valeria heard another scream above her: Myles. The remaining werewolf had clamped its jaws over his left forearm, making it impossible for the man to swing his Blade. The muscular warrior stood with his feet braced on different stairs, using his right hand to beat at the beast. The werewolf released his mauled arm and chomped on it again, and Myles dropped his Blade, which slid down the stairs. He threw his right arm around the monster’s head, putting it in a feeble headlock as the creature’s teeth split his bone. Myles screamed as his hand and wrist struck the floor, followed by spraying blood. With what must have been the last of his strength, he dove toward Valeria, dragging the beast with him. They rolled down the stairs together, a tangle of human and lupine limbs.
    Valeria dropped her Blade, seized Eun’s hands, and pushed the wounded woman out of harm’s way.
    The werewolf crashed upside down against the metal front door, and Henri and Michael fell upon it with their Blades, hacking the howling beast to pieces.
    Valeria removed a small first aid kit from her coat and kneeled beside Eun, who continued to scream. She took out a syringe, pulled off its cap, and squirted the clear liquid, checking for air bubbles. Unable to discern such fine details in night vision, she took a chance and drove the needle into Eun’s throat, injecting the morphine.
    Eun grimaced, groaned, and whimpered, her once beautiful face a tattered and grisly mosaic.
    The green glow of her night vision dimmed, and Valeriarealized someone had switched on an overhead light. Tearing the goggles off, she stood. The door, walls, and stairs glistened with blood.
    Michael and Henri turned toward her, their clothes drenched and their Blades dripping gore. Myles lay motionless on the floor between two decapitated werewolves. Valeria’s comrades removed their