Nom, Nom...

'Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit…' Cody was only "slightly" panicking while the beast rounded the corner.

The huge wolf was sniffing and snorting with its green drool slobbering all over the ground, and an occasional growl was slipping from the beast.

For some reason, when it rounded the corner, it did not immediately lunge for the easy prey in front of it.

The Mastiff barked loudly with the beast only barely paying any attention.

Cody was confused, it should have gone for the easy kill or if it thought it would lose, it should have ran. Just what could this thing be doing?

The Mastiff was backing up while growling and Ira stepped backwards with it.

Cody got the hint, but the orb in his brain was oddly quiet.

Step after step, they had moved to the mouth of the alleyway, and the beast was beginning to lick its dead companion.

Cody and Ira made no noise as the Mastiff turned to run, but just in that moment, it lunged forward.

The giant teeth sunk into the poor dog, the freakish monster's gums even dislocated to move independently like a shark's; landing on the prey before the rest of the mouth.

"WHAT THE FUCK!" Ira was ready and slammed his bat into the side of the thing, but Cody hesitated for a moment.

'What do I do? How do I hurt this thing enough? It shrugs off bat swings…'

He was thinking about fleeing with his Papaw when the words echoed, [True Fist of the Monk, Activated]

He actually could control it this time, he felt his fists heat up, then he proceeded to throw the worst punch in his life.

His fist was traveling and the monster had reacted to the hit from Ira, so it was preparing to lung, leaving its spine wide open.

Cody felt like he was magnetically drawn to the spot and he was so glad they had a healer, because he was about to break his fist on a giant vertebra.

His fist impacted and a golden wave of energy radiated from his fist's strike point, then a loud crunch was heard for what felt like miles.

'FUUUUUUCKKKKKK' Cody was internally prepared for the pain of absolutely shattering his whole hand, but it never came.

The formerly visible spinal column of the beast was now missing a segment, and it was howling in rage.

The back half of the beast went completely limp as the thing tried to crawl like a human at Ira. The thing wanted nothing less than Ira's head in its mouth.

Cody felt another urge coming from his brain.

Attack.

He walked around the beast and threw a nearly perfect punch at the neck of the beast, hopefully fucking the thing up.

"Hyak, hyak, hyak…" the creature was gasping for air and seemed to be collapsing when Cody put it out of its misery with a final hit to the top of the skull.

Ira just stood and watched his Grandson completely dismantle what looked to be a hyena on steroids.

A moment passed as they took in the sight, it felt like ages, but was only 8 seconds.

Ira kneeled and applied a tourniquet to the dog, even with that, he didn't know if it would make it.

"We need to go." Cody was about to walk away when he felt an extremely strong urge to do something to the corpse. (Not like that, perverts.)

Ira lifted the dog and did his best to keep it from licking his face too much.

Cody was standing over the collapsed heap of fur and was confused.

'Loot? Mana Crystals? What is it lassie, spit it out.' Cody was just getting very vague gestures from the orb.

[You must loot the corpse of a Boss, Rare, or Elite ranked monster if you would like a reward…]

Cody felt the strange wording of the orb, it wasn't allowed to interfere with longer term planning...like getting an item on the second day of stabilization.

'Hint, hint, nudge, nudge...gotcha' He squatted down and felt the connection to the beast.

The mind of the creature was so vivid, for being blind and deaf. It could FEEL color through its sensors in its snout, the snarl was its way of cleansing it.

The beast had been a Pitbull that was once abused and used for dog fighting. It was prepared for a battle to the death and Cody experienced it fighting the bug/crabs from before, the beasts had enjoyed a small war as so as they felt the call to form a nest.

The enemy leader was strong and the dog, now turned monster, could not penetrate the thick armor, so they had retreated into town. Alas, most of the things had followed and his pack was nearly wiped out.

The scarred dog was laying on the lap of an older lady, she had been so kind to him.

A flash of golden light surrounded Cody and the corpse as items gently floated to the ground.

Cody returned to his body and was scared.

He had been trying to save a dog, and in the process, he had murdered an abused puppy.

He felt genuine sympathy for the monster, it didn't choose to become this thing, it was like him in a way.

[Warning: Mana and Stamina are below 75%.]

Cody wasn't going to cry, but he was going to tell his Papaw when they got back.

He looked down and saw a bunch of tiny items. 'Are these things shrunk?' Cody asked as a joke, but a hard affirmative came back.

He stashed the small leather bundle, box, and collar in his pocket as he was trying to catch up to his grandfather.

---------

The duo hadn't been gone 10 minutes and the same bored guard was standing there, smoking a cigarette.

He noticed they had a giant dog in their arms as they awkwardly waddled to the door.

"HEALER, HELP!" Cody shouted into the crowded building, and a small man rushed over.

"Which one of you is hurt?" He was looking for wounds on them and could see a lot of blood from Ira, "No, it is this dog. It is a fighter, it deserves a good home."

The man froze, "I-I am not…" he seemed to be conflicted with the decision and then went ahead and healed the dog anyways.

The green looking ivy that had been sprouting out of the wound was slowly killed, it wilted without the fresh blood and dropped to the ground.

The dog wasn't really the doctor's specialty, but a veterinary nurse had managed to find them and was guiding him in typical management of infections for a canine. It was difficult and touch and go, but the healer and veterinary nurse thought the dog should pull through.

Cody had sat down with his Papaw and they were watching as the meeting ended, nothing but typical politics was on display.

The former mayor wanted to create a temporary armed force in arm with the former Chief of Police who had been staying in an old manufacturing plant with thousands of people.

The general consensus was that over 90% of people had either formed small groups around the city, or they had fended for themselves.

Cody was antsy about the coming times and he was hopeful that the dog would make it.