Chapter 4

Development

Astro gulped as he got up from his seat and started moving towards the center of the arena where the battle is to take place.

Almost getting there he discovered those workers had also drawn a large circle using blackwood ash, indicating the ring where the duel will hold.

He also saw Keith approach from the opposite direction bare chested, his pale skin glistened from too much oil which he'd intentionally applied for the battle's sake, oily skin prevents grappling, holding and low strikes when dueling.

His blonde hair was slickly combed back, he had more body build than Astro but was a head shorter, and his brown eyes stayed fixed on Astro's grey.

Astro had worn loose fitting cotton clothes, shirt and trouser both, he ran his hand through his hair as he thought the battle over.

Knowing fully well that even when not fully transformed werewolves can be downright dangerous because they would still have their superior senses -eyesight, hearing & balance, smell, speed and strength all enhanced - plus claws on hands and feet, and a hardened body.

He knew he had only the enhanced senses alone to a limited extent, no claws and no hardened body so taking a blow would hurt as hell hence he would have to avoid taking hits as much as he could.

He came back to awareness only to discover the announcer had been calling to him.

"I said are you ready?".

He looked over at where Lucas and Leila were and saw his friend mouth the words "You Don't Have To Do this",

then he glanced a bit more to the side and saw Sheila with worry all over her face but she smiled as their eyes met and mouthed "Be Careful".

He got his resolve then and answered the announcer,

"ready as I'll ever be"

to which the announcer then shouted "Let The Duel BEGIN!!".

Astro and Keith both stepped into the ring and Astro could see that Keith had transformed already,

not fully though as is required and the signs were just his dully glowing eyes and extended claws.

Astro knew Keith was an impatient and hotblooded type and hoped to use that as leverage against him,

sure enough Keith rushed at him and swung both his clawed hands, right first then left in quick succession aiming for Astros head with the right then his chest with the left,

Astro took a step back and swung his head backwards to avoid the right arm claw attack only to realise that he'd fallen into the trap because his chest was now bared.

He quickly took the second step back to avoid the left claw attack to his chest but still got grazed a bit by the claw on his chest and that stung quite a lot and had him landing on his butt as he lost his footing.

He immediately rolled on his side before Keith could regain his balance and launch another attack, then he got up and moved further into the ring, its safer that way so he wouldn't unknowingly step out of the ring as he evaded Keith's attacks.

Keith turned to fully face him and snarled as he headed towards him again,

Astro ran forwards towards him as well but before they met he slid down forward and tackled Keith legs with a sliding leg tackle, unbalancing him in the process,

he immediately rolled away from Keith's fall zone and got up on his feet keeping a safe distance from Keith's body but Keith had quickly rushed to his feet and turned to face Astro, on seeing this Astro as well quickly moved closer, jumped and landed a round house kick to Keith's chest.

As he stumbled backwards Astro followed up, jumped up once again and landed a double legged kick where both his feet connected to Keith's chest at the same time toppling the bulky guy.

Keith fell down hard this time, he snarled and had to roll on his side to get away from Astro before getting up to his feet.

"is that all you got?" Keith called out to Astro hoping to jeer him into making a mistake but Astro in turn sneered at him,

"at least I'm giving something, and I'm not the one out of breath" he said.

Keith rushed forward speedily once more and slashed at him but Astro had seen the move coming from afar, he had anticipated it even,

So he sidestepped to the right away from the slash, then really fast he put his left leg behind Keith's legs and used his left arm to pull Keith over his outstretched leg.

Keith found himself landing hard again on the floor, the wind knocked out of him and heard Astro say, "wow, this isn't even as hard as I thought it would be, maybe I should've been fighting blindfolded".

Astro said it loud enough for the crowd to hear which they started laughing to,

He needed to use Keith's short temper against him and this was how.

Keith got up all furious and snarled as he moved towards Astro again,

But this time his movements were a bit uncoordinated though, probably because he didn't regain his breath before rushing in for another attack, Astro noticed this then he flung himself backwards in a back flip kicking up with both legs coming up hard,

one leg struck one of Keith's outstretched arm meant for his attack but the other connected with Keith's jaw bringing a yelp of pain from his throat even as he stumbled backwards almost falling again but this time he was in much more pain.

Astro landed and looked towards his opponent holding his jaw, he hadn't meant for the attack to be that strong, his plan had worked just a bit too well.

A low growl came from Keith and he started fuming, a few cracks and pops could be heard as Keith started to transform the more,

his mouth grew into a snout with wicked canines,

his hair grew shorter and bristles of fur came out from all his exposed body, a bright yellow coloured coat seeing as his hair was blonde, his arms extended with more muscles bulging and was tipped with wolf claws,

his legs also extended and became like the hind legs of a wolf mixed with human legs too,

by the time the transformation was complete which took about three seconds tops, Keith was standing huge and two heads taller than Astro and he lunged straight at him.

Astro could only blink as he'd not expected this outcome at all, Keith came at him faster than before because he had transformed fully now and had more of everything.

His first claw swipe was at Astro's feet as wolves instinct always dictated,

Astro flung himself upwards as high as he could to escape it, but the next attack already closed in as Keith's body slammed into his midair.

He landed far away from the impact of the hit and was knocked really hard on the floor, his body rand out with pain, then he looked sideways and saw he was only a stretch away from the other side of the ring, he needed to end this duel as it had gotten out of hand, there was no way he could take on a fully transformed werewolf.

He got to his knees and saw Keith coming at him again, more sure of himself this time.

Keith raised his arm up poised to strike as he approached but then Astro placed one hand over to the other side of the ring palm down on the floor clearly indicating that he'd lost because a part of him was out of the ring already.

The bell rung annoucing the end of the duel.

At this, Keith stopped right in front of him,

Astro looked up into his oppressors face and smirked but Keith didn't like that one bit, he felt mocked so he brought his hand down hard clawing Astro's face.

Lucas was immediately on his feet transforming as he ran towards them super fast,

Sheila was also already running close behind him heading towards them as well.

Keith moved closer to Astro intending another strike but was blocked by Lucas' fully transformed body.

"Enough!!" he said to him and glanced at Astro who was holding his face in his palms, he glanced up at them, teary eyed, bloody faced and in pain.

He looked at Keith then at Lucas who said "I'm sorry, this wasn't supposed to happen".

A couple of healers were already rushing towards them as well.

Just then, Sheila tripped and fell as she ran towards them, she must have landed on something hard and sharp because as she got up the side of her face was bloodied.

Her short cry of pain as she fell reached Astro's ears and he looked towards where she was to see her face bloodied, he look at his palms as well to his own blood.

"you caused this" he looked up at Keith with so much anger in him as he repeated in an outrage "You Caused This!!".

The shout came out as mix of a roar and a deep growl inhuman voice,

he was fuming and he allowed himself to, he was furious and he allowed himself to be.

He closed his eyes, something clicked inside him and thunder boomed clapping hard and rumbling continuously as Astro started to transform for the first time in his life.

His bones popped and cracked, his flesh ripped to allow space for more flesh, he grew taller and broader,

his clothes ripped off leaving scraps here and there on his body,

arms mixed with wolf, legs mixed with wolf, mouth changed to snout, fur bristles springing out in black glistening coat color,

he opened his eyes and they glowed red, not the usual dull glow of their eye color that everyone had at transformation, no, this was a strong red glow,

then lines started forming on his veins, fiery red and orange lines where all his veins showed, (actually his veins were glowing as if lava was flowing in them and not blood).

The transformation took a total of five seconds and had everyone wide eyed and mouth agape, it hadn't also stopped thundering all through the five seconds.

As the transformation completed Astro howled, a loud long deep howl that wasn't unlike a roar.

When he stopped his howl the thunder also stopped then,

he stood defiantly as the events that led to his breakthrough development had been temporarily forgotten, all that mattered now was the development.

He looked at those he knew and could see a proud happy look on their faces,

even Keith though his was mixed with fear, actually everyone's look was mixed with fear because this was an unusual transformation.

Then he looked at Sheila, her face brightened and beamed at him, he felt really elated, then he felt exhausted, the transformation started to reverse, he turned back to human and crumbled in Lucas' also back to human arms.

He looked up at him and said "congrats man" but Lucas shook his head and replied "no dude, congrats to you" to which he could only smile as a reply before he drifted off, going unconscious.