CHPT 371: Evolution is Chaos.....Chaos Is-- A Mess....
"Power isn't painless, Frosty...."
"It burns....It burns like chaos.."
His final message to his wolven brother rang through his mind-- rippled through his body, like a writhing whip of fire beneath his skin as he ran through the desert to reach Frosty. He could feel it. Through the Link they shared, he could feel Frosty's burning power. His evolution.
Like a man sitting next to a raging furnace. He wasn't bathed in it's flames. Not like Frosty-- but he could feel it's transformative heat....feel Frosty's anger and confusion. The feeling pushed him to run harder as he fed on the Wild Magic of the world and his boosted pack power. All the while, he felt Frosty's body change and blend with the godly essence that once rested calmly at the pits of his stomach.....
He'd shown Frosty that power wasn't painless and in turn, he'd learned a new lesson.
If power wasn't painless, then sharing it to the one's you love would never be guiltless. Not ever.
***
Time flew by in a blaze of rich night air, darkness, and the faint smell of death that tinged the sands of the deserts. With three different boosts to their movement speeds, they'd made it back to Rollan's forest before Frosty's change had finished.
A good thing for one reason. Most animals didn't wake up from their Evolutions in a particularly good mood. It wouldn't make sense, after using up so much energy and being asleep for so long. They'd be in pain-- confused, and most of all hungry, eager to gain back everything they'd lost for the change.
Like a Bear coming out of hibernation-- only worse. Because Bears didn't awaken with new powers and strengths they weren't yet adjusted to. The prey population in Rollan's forest was in for a very rude awakening. Even if Claude and Ursula carried three hundred pounds of dead sheep shared between them.
"This won't be enough.." Claude snarled anxiously.
"I assumed so." Ursula replied in a similar tone. Even she could feel the heat of change now, shown in the beads of sweat trailing down her forehead like raindrops despite the steady snowfall.
They moved onward. Another few agonizingly long minutes of weaving through the woods, bounding over rivers and hopping over fallen logs. The thick trunked Oak Frosty rested in loomed in the distance like a wooden chamber of horrors.
The tree was stripped of it's bark-- laced with deep fissures and cracks that glowed an intense shade of blue-- unlike Ursula's which embraced the cold icy hue. The blue energy that cracked open the tree and ripped away it's defenses was hot-- intense to the point that it made his eyes water.
He hadn't even noticed he'd made it to the front of the tree until he heard Frosty moving inside and realized he was looking into the hollowed out base of the tree. Into the shadows where his evolving brother was awakening.
His blood rushed through his veins like cords coating lightning. Beside him, he could practically hear Ursula's heartbeat, like the distant pounding of a drum.
Unlike her seemingly loud silence, he'd almost missed the Druidic Warrior sitting on a branch of a tree ahead of them thirty feet up in the middle of drinking. Not even attempting to go unheard as he cast his blindfolded eyes down at Claude.
"Monsieur....what have you done, hm?"
"I took a risk." Claude replied before grabbing the legs of his sheep with his hands and tearing it in half effortlessly.
Blood and entrails spilled out onto the cold grassy ground below him in steaming piles of pinkish red mush. The smell lit his eyes ablaze and made his stomach howl for attention. He knew it would do the same for another...
As if on que, a snarl rolled out of the base of the oak tree like a tidal wave. The grass flattened and shook with a washing breeze as if it were one.
Silence fell.
Something shifted in the shadows of the tree's hollow base. The faint images of fur and muscle under the moonlight. Then a thud shook the ground.
He sounded heavy. Heavier than before.
CRUNCH!....CRUNCH!..CRNCHRNCH!
Claude and Ursula flinched at the sound in unison. With their enhanced senses, the somber sound hit their ears like thunder strikes. When they finally relaxed, it hit them as a much more tame-- and familiar noise.
Chewing.
The only problem was, all that was left in Frosty's den would've been bones.
"[The Furball is eating the....the bones?]"
"Sounds like." Claude replied.
Whatever other theories may have been born in response to the sound never made it to fruition due to the speed of consumption. The sounds of eating had finished almost as quickly as they started.
And then, more movement. Followed by eyes. Frosty's eyes. They glowed like two cobalt suns. It was so similar to what he'd seen of Fenrir that he dropped the sheep carcass and stopped breathing for a series of harrowing seconds.
What was even more horrifying was the size. He couldn't yet see Frosty's body...but he could feel how horribly he fit inside the den.
"[That's not goo--]"
CRSH!
Before Arne could even finish speaking, Frosty lunged at them. Claude and Ursula stumbled backward in response only to find he wasn't aiming to hit them....at least not initially.
"W-What are those?" Ursula whispered in response to the two stained white appendages sticking out of each side of the den exit walls while Frosty's eyes stayed on the sheep carcass at the center.
"[Horns? I've never seen a PitWolf with Horns....]" Arne commented.
For the first time since Claude had arrived in the forest, he knew what he was looking at. And they weren't horns.
"They're tusks..."
Following his words, Frosty shook, ripping away the portions of den walls on each side of him in a spray of frothy saliva and wooden splinters. The tree shook so aggressively that the branches above were shaken off, making it look like Frosty was making the forest crumble.
After a few seconds had passed, the Den hole at the base of the tree that was once relatively inconspicuous and hidden in the forest had become a hole so big that when another breeze came the entire tree simply tipped over and fell due to it's base being smashed away almost entirely.
The pale white light of the Moon splashed against the Evolved PitWolf the second it's den fell away, leaving them to witness it's full awakening in perfect detail.
The first and most chilling detail he noticed was that Frosty was sitting and crouched. Even bigger than Claude thought. As he rose and straightened out, muscles bubbled beneath his dark-brown coat of silky fur to an eerily grotesque level. If Claude wasn't so shocked, he could've sworn the PitWolf's size was changing...
When he rose up off his butt finally, he shook-- and the sight of his size changing came a gain. More than muscles flexing and relaxing. More grotesque and unreal.
When he finished shaking, he stood in the silence, steaming and watching them with eyes that glowed brighter than ever.
His fur kept it's dark-brown tint, but the white frosted tips of longer fur that ran down his neck and back had changed. It spread, like jagged spikes, cutting into the brown fur covering his sides while it lengthened, now casting white furs down his head to make it look like he was scowling almost.
But, the fur was a minor change compared to everything else. For one, his snout thickened. Stacked with tough skin and loosened jowls that were lifted to make room for his bottom inscisors that had been transformed or morphed into undeniably thick and powerful Orcish tusks. The saliva that coated them shimmered under the moonlight.
Speaking of moonlight, it's rays seemed to cast Frosty's body in absolute intensity. That or, Frosty had lost even more body-fat in his change.
He was bigger-- four feet tall on all fours, and nothing beneath his fur jiggled when he moved. Even his breaths caused dozens of muscle fibers beneath his fur to strain and jump with feral power.
The next change.
Muscle placement.
Even from where he stood, facing his brother, he could tell that was the greatest physical difference. Frosty's body had become something entirely different.
He had a visible chest, covered in thinner fur that allowed him to see the veins tracing through it. Along with that, he had capped shoulders and heavily muscled arms. They lost any semblance of wolven length or simple grace. Now they were almost....human.
Aside from the huge paws and claws that moved as if they were retractable.
They way the arms came from his sides was humanoid. It spoke of newly developed joints and tendons for greater mobility-- for greater combative potential. He no longer looked like he descended from a species known for running. Everything about his shape spoke of fighting. Holding, blocking, grabbing, crushing.
In fact, the more Claude looked at him, the more he realized why Frosty's newest build looked so familiar.
"Samuel..."
He was built fairly similar to a Lupine of Remus. The shape spoke of canine connection, but both looked like they could manage upright walking. The former more than the latter. Even so, the thought was chilling. That also meant, Frosty would now fight like few he'd ever seen.
Despite all the change, he found himself looking back at the eyes. A fiery blue that raged in deafening muteness. He could still see his brother within them, but they were touched by something new.
Something dark and divine.
Frosty had been blended with a piece of Fenrir. It was successful, and he had no idea what that meant.
DING!
[Congratulations! Your Companion's Evolution Path has been successfully altered by Divine Tampering to create an entirely new Evolution!]
[Your Level 25 PitWolf has Evolved into a Level 25 VanaWarg]
[One of One Evolution Recognized!]
[+5 Skill Points]
DING!
[Your God is very pleased by your actions....]
DING
[All Beast Tamer Specific Skills have risen one Level!]
Before Claude could even look over everything, something crunched through the forest behind him. Far away but close enough to be heard in the silence. Close enough to catch it's scent of fear.
Frosty snarled slightly, gaining Claude's attention again. Just in time to witness his muscles go as solid as stone. He was no longer watching Claude and instead listening to the Buck in the distance with his devilishly long ears.
Their sheep no longer held any value.
Another crunch.
Frosty dropped low to the floor, the muscles in his back rippled and clumped together like a crouched tiger.
The forest went still. The deer now aware of its misfortune.
Absolute silence lasted no more than a few seconds before the Buck took off.
Frosty roared and took off, faster than before despite no longer looking built for speed in a classic sense.
WOOSH!
He bolted past Claude and Ursula in a flash, leaving them to turn and follow after him. The only problem was, when they turned....he wasn't there.
"Where is he?" Ursula said in a panic.
Claude held up a hand to still everyone as he listened to the VanaWargs powerful steps. If he focused, he could see each pawprint in the under the dimly lit grass.
CRHSHH!
Following his silence, something smashed a bush to absolute rubble ahead of them with a snarl. It didn't take long for Claude to understand what had happened.
"He's invisible..."