CHPT 355: Break Free....

Blackness was all he knew for what felt like ever. A good feeling nonetheless since it sounded as if the violence had ceased.

He couldn't help but notice how tired he was despite his shock.

"[Claude, you need to check on your pack. Now.]"

Arne's words had him moving before the sentence was even completed. Even in the darkness, he could see. The slim split tongue he walked on that gave with every step he made on his hands and knees. And the grooved roof of it's mouth, split by a giant gash that lead to where he crouched on all fours. At the end of the cut, small clumps of meat and bone dripped loudly.

"I must've hit it's brain....." He thought as he reached the end of it's mouth and hesitantly pushed apart it's jaws as he rose to his feet.

Sunlight and sand welcomed him. He stepped out into the sand, immediately noticing the faint sounds he couldn't hear before.

Tearing, smashing, ripping.

In the distance, Ursula beat away at a Kobold corpse. Her eyes were two white orbs that glowed from her muscled frame covered in her ripped sweater and cloak. Beneath the rips, he could see tufts of silky auburn fur.

The sight reminded him of how close the full moon was-- what it would bring.....

That didn't matter right now.

They did it.

[+750 EXP]

DING

[You have Leveled Up! You are now Level 26!]

[12 Stat Points Available!]

[Your PitWolf Companion is entering Pre-Evolution Stages....]

"[Well done, mate. I can't help but notice something is different.]"

Claude silently agreed with Arne's words as he called out to Ursula while stepping out of the snakes mouth.

"Urs--" His words caught on his throat as a wave of fatigue hit him like a battering ram, causing his steps to drag in the sand. Following the fatigue, a jolting shock rocked his leg repeatedly, causing him to look down at his leg.

Two things had changed. For one, they were fully transformed. Covered in fur and thick leathery grey skin with feet made for both quadrapedal and bipedal movement, creating something that looked akin to him standing on his tip toes.

Aside from what that meant, the broken end of one of the snakes pure white needle-thin fangs stuck out of the side of his quad with his blood dripping all over it.

When he looked back up at Ursula, his vision shook.

"Shit..." He grumbled while trying to move towards the Berserker that was only now coming back to her senses.

But, it was too late. Too much of whatever toxin or venom it had entered his system and sent him to the ground in a state of pure tiredness and shocking pain.

As he laid in the sand, facing a sanded hill in the distance, he couldn't help but notice something was out of place as Ursula yelled out to him in the distance.

A small quadrupedal dot in the shade of a dead looking tree. A cat. An all black cat that watched him from atop the hill with it's eerily perceptive green eyes and shining jewel necklace. The cat looked so out of place it felt like he was hallucinating when combined with his woozy vision.

The last thing he noticed was a canine howl before his vision faded to black.

DING!

[Lupine Transformation Skill Unlocked! (Partial Embrace)]

[Racial Evolution Unlocked! Assimilation Process: One Hour]