43 APEX TRANSFORMATION

Before Rex knew it, he was falling. Like a purple-fire meteor headed straight for the jungles of earth for a second dinosaur erasing impact.

Even in his stunned state, the fluids in his ears warbled— ringing like a liquid bell to orient himself. His loosened spine in his transformed state allowed him to twist with inhuman fluidity.

As he fell towards the trees, he adjusted. Flipping with his arms outstretched. Streams of jungle-fire flowed, burrowing into the green woodland, scorching it to all hell. Allowing it to grow more fervently with stronger plantlife and denser canopies.

The sudden thickness of the jungle allowed him a softer landing.

But only by so much.

He ripped through the steamy regrown canopy and grabbed a branch, spinning around it entirely thanks to his built up momentum before flipping off to the next branch.

Before he could grab it, a vampire flew into him, slamming him into the bark of the next tree.

[55% HP Remaining…]

The vampire hissed with its fangs fully brandished.

Rex roared jungle-fire into its open mouth, ashing the creatures lungs in a flash.

[+80 EXP]

Before he could even fall, another three came swinging after him like frenzied bat-monkeys wearing little more than loin cloths.

Rex planted his feet on the tree bark. Jungle-fire spun between his toes and bubbled like noxious gas at the palms of his feet.

He blasted off like a seeker-missile and pounced on the center-most vampire.

Before he could reach the infected, the vampire illuminated from the inside and exploded.

Bloodfire punched him in the face, blinding him and leaving his ears ringing as he was knocked backward.

He fell, landing in a roll on the jungle grounds below with a black eye forming and cuts leaking all across his face. A new type of white-hot burn spread across his shifting skin.

His snarled at the pain.

He snarled at the sound of the vampires closing in. His unit was further behind, chasing down the stragglers, sending the jungle-monkeys the wrong way to locate him.

"It's a trap." Cpt. Camo's words echoed.

"How much of a trap…." Rex thought, "Sure, maybe Beto The Blooded adjusted his plans to focus on me after scenting my blood. But what if that was always the plan. What if he was sent by Remulus?.... No. That can't be right. Me and Lyra had a Vampire-date of two weeks. That's before I got here. Before I was changed. Still... ahhh! I'm tired of this mystery shit. Guess I'll have to wait and see."

He wouldn't have to wait long either. Beto was coming. He could hear him rustling through the jungle in the distance, recovering from Hassan's pounce. He could literally hear the granules of solar-sand sizzling against his skin like hot coals. The sound made his skin crawl.

Something suddenly rustled in the branches above him and the smell of blood magnified.

Rex hissed and rolled aside with his eyes on the canopy when he got back to his feet. Purple and black smoke sparked on his thickened palms.

He saw nothing. Nothing but a dead tapir about the size of a small horse. Its throat was ripped out as it was drapped over the branches like cleaned laundry. The smell of its blood was fresh, reminding Rex of his approaching frenzied state.

Seemingly out of the fading morning shadows, a figure took shape.

Rex relaxed before growing more panicked at the sight of the figure in the trees standing over the tapir.

"Syphen!" The boy shifter crouched in the branches above him wearing the pelt of some dead animal. His curly dark hair smelled like river water. The green speckling of his skin and his elven ears were no different from the usual.

"There are lots of monsters…" Syphen looked around, hissing quietly like an unnerved cat.

"I know. That's why you need to leave." Rex said, "You're my responsibility."

"You're my... I don't know the word anymore. Help, Rex." Syphen said casually.

"Wha— we don't have time to play charades! This jungle is crawling with Vampires." Rex hissed.

Syphen turned his head like he was listening to someone else speak. "Oh…. Right."

Syphen dropped the tapir from the trees.

Rex stepped aside as it plopped at his feet. All two hundred pounds soaked in blood and fat and fresh warm flesh.

"Eat this. Become stronger monster. Panther says you're holding back. Panthers don't do this." Syphen explained.

Beto neared.

His allies grew further away.

He was entering the perfect storm.

Rex looked down at the tapir.

"Fuck it."

It took less than a minute.

DING!

[Predator's Frenzy 100%…..]

[Apex Transformation Activating!]

Rex rose up from the flayed ribs of the tapir with a mouth dripping with blood. The electric coppery taste of the beast magnified. His vision blurred as he stood up from his meal. His ears rang— not in the way it did from the bloodfire suicide bomber vamps, but more lulling.

His eyes were heavy. His muscles felt full and watery. He could hear his blood flowing. Warming. Warb—

Something knocked him off his feet suddenly. The hit was so hard he blasted through a tree like it was mad of paper.

He should've broken everything. He should've splattered like an egg from the impact. Instead, he landed on all fours.

Then, the pain came.

His shoulders dislocated at the same time with two grisly pops.

"AHHHHCK!"

He felt his forearm bones fuse in an agonizing breakdown and reformation. His ribs cracked and pushed against his muscle and skin as they expanded, preparing for the expansion of his lungs.

All the while, Beto stepped out of the jungle foliage.

His eyes widened as he came upon Rex in the middle of his transformation.

"Marvelous blood….." Beto muttered. "More." He moved in a blur and kicked Rex through another tree.

Rex landed on his side due to his back legs dislocated settling into his hips differently.

On the ground he writhed and grew. He snarled and coughed tufts of flames. He saw the spectral form of feline creatures watching him from the trees.

Then he saw Beto, crashing through the green. Casually ripping through the ancestral apparitions as he came rocketing down onto Rex.

The pain had him locked in place. But his senses were so magnified, it felt like he was watching the vampire descend in slow motion.

DING!

[Apex Transformation Complete!]

[Apex Form: Sabertoothed Dire-Jaguar]

[Sabertoothed Dire-Jaguar Skillset: (Quake-Pounce), (Dire of the Deep), (Jungle-Fire Breath), (Beast of the Shadows)]

The pain was gone.

Rex was up. A massive musclebound Jaguar with black fur, gold spots flickering with purple currents of energy, long sharp ears, sabered fangs and a giant tail. He was larger than a grizzly bear and as tall as Beto on all fours.

He moved faster than ever despite being over four times his previous size.

Explosively, he rose up onto his hind legs. His forelegs outstretched— each one thicker than the branches of the jungle trees. Cords of muscle bulging. Claws curled and sharp enough to cut the wind.

He caught Beto, digging his claws into the vampires shoulders to twist him around and slam him into the earth.

The impact caused a small shockwave to spread across the jungle. Before Beto could try and break free of his monstrous crushing weight, Rex roared.

Audial shockwaves boosted by superheated winds burned the vampire down to the bone.

His entire face was gone.

Rex raised his bear-like paw to smash the white bone until he smelled brain in the air.

Beto's skull remained unmoving as he sent his arms into Rex's stomach in a last ditch effort to save himself..

Rex snarled at the pain and jumped off the vampire.

As soon as he was airborne, Beto exploded off of the ground and met him in the air.

The two blew through trees and cleared woodland walkways in a flash of teeth and claws.

Eventually they came to a violent stop at the edge of a cliff with Beto on top.

He punched Rex in the nose, making his eyes water.

"More blood!" Beto screamed.

Rex hissed and used his back legs to kick and rip at the vampires midsection.

Behind the smell of infected flesh and blood, he smelled water.

Beto tried to fly away with the flap of his back wing.

Rex pulled him close and rolled off the cliff.

As they fell, he twisted and took top mount.

For a mile around, birds fled from the trees as the explosion hit.

A mushroom cloud of dust and sand rose, hiding the two monsters from sight.

When the dust settled, Rex was standing over Beto the Blooded.

Beto laid comfortably under the beast with his fangs in his leg. Feeding. Muscles examping and glowing with purple-fire light as the essence of the Werepanther filled him.

Eventually he threw the beast aside and got to his feet looking stronger than ever. Looking more feline as well with his slitted pupils and Jaguar spots forming on the bat-fur along his back.

"This is….. different blood." Beto mumbled.

Rex rolled in the sand.

[20% HP Remaining]

[Vampirism Infection:10%]

Rex got up, sluggishly stumbling back into the sand and dirt once before rising again and walking away— seemingly running from the fight with his tail between his legs.

Beto studied himself before looking back up at Rex.

"I need more. More marvelous blood…." Beto held his hands up to the sun, ignoring how he was actively burning. He opened his mouth and let out a screech. "DIE FOR YOUR GOD! DIE FOR BLOOD!"

The winds rustled.

From the cliff they just fell from, eight vampires flew towards them.

Amidst the flurry, Beto failed to notice how an invisible force jumped onto one of the bats with a feline hiss and ripped its throat out.

The force jumped to the next and rode the vampire down to the grounds.

Beto was none the wiser, simply watching as the vampires flew towards Rex, burning and exploding as they crashed into him.

Rex was left unmoving and steaming from the bloodfire suicide blasts. The lake before him remained unmoving.

Beto made his way towards him— grinning arrogantly before stumbling as an unseen weight landed on his shoulders.

Beto spun around.

Nothing.

Syphen appeared on his shoulders— fully transformed with his claws raised.

He reached down and gouged out Beto's eyes before jumping off of him and kicking him back towards Rex.

From the ground, Rex opened his eyes.

Like he was never hurt, he exploded to his feet and pounced on Beto as he stumbled toward him.

His (Quake-Pounce) ability made him move twice as fast with a weight that seemed to be double what it was.

He hit Beto and the earth cratered.

Immediately he closed his massive jaws around the vampires throat and dragged him into the lake.

As soon as the cold water hit Rex his system screen activated.

DING!

[(Dire of the Deep) Passive Skill Requirement met!]

[Healing Rate: +50%]

[Strength: +5]

[Speed: +5]

[MP: +100]

Rex felt more at home in the water. His massive paws and huge muscles cut through the currents like butter. His long body slithered and twisted in congruence with the flow of water. Despite his massive size he moved like a fish. Like a shark.

He dragged Beto to the bottom. Where the second phase of his plan could begin.

All thanks to the first.

When Beto first bit him, he thought it was over.

Panther reassured him in those clouded moments.

"A Werepanther's constitution against viruses is better than the other totems. The jungle fire in you is poison in its own right. The more you use it, the more resistant to poisons and viruses you are. Not to mention the heat makes your body uninhabitable for most. But you're still a kit. I suggest you get the upper hand doing what you know. You're a werepanther, but that's not all you are."

The rest of Rex was simply a kid from the streets. And in the streets, dirty fighting got you clean living. Or at least cleaner chances of winning to see the next day.

So, as a massive monstrous sabertoothed Jaguar, he played possum.

And now he was dragging a vampire-gang lord to the bottom of a lake.

To the sand that rested there under unbroken sunlight for who knew how many decades.

He could feel it's heat. It's power.

They hit the bottom.

Beto writhed and bat his wing, causing small lake-floor hurricanes to spin Rex off balance.

It was too late.

He'd already touched the sand.

From the grains behind Beto, a shape rose. Bubbling as the heat increased and the grains took the form of tough dark skin, green eyes, tattoos, a shield with the face of a Lion engraved in its sandstone and metal surface.

Hassan tackled Beto from behind.

The two hit the ground and immediately, Hassan dematerialized, shapeshifting into sand once more— only now holding the form of binds to hold Beto to the flaming sand.

Rex settled to the lake floor. The sand rumbled and he shifted.

DING!

[Apex Form: Anhurian Maned Sunpanther]

[Physical Form unable to handle the Sunpanther's Apex Skillset]

[Level Minimum: 20]

The sand flowed and rose up to consume Rex.

Like a caccoon he transformed inside. In seconds, the sandstone surface shattered, revealing his new form.

His fur was now golden. He was less long in body— more stout and muscular with broader shoulders and a wider chest. A mane of fire blazed, burning the lake as the rest of the ignited sands had.

Instinctively, he lifted his head and roared to the sun.

The sand rose like a platform, carrying them out of the bubbling lake and towards the sun. Closer and closer as Beto squirmed and screeched for help.

He was being cooked alive.

His back was a collection of glowing red pimples and burn marks. Eventually he couldn't heal past the burn as they rose two hundred and fifty feet above ground.

It was there, above the jungles and drift soldiers and all Rex knew that Beto began to die.

Even so, Rex approached the vampire and bit down on the back of his burning neck.

With his other paw, he held down the vampire and pulled, ripping off his head with the spine attached.

Beto burst into ashes.

[+500 EXP]

DING!

[You have Leveled Up!]

[You are now Level 11!]

[2 Stat Points Available]

Rex fell back to the jungles, splashing into the hot lake as a rainfall of sand followed.

Syphen continued dragging the vampires into the war— goblin ears flinching at the sounds of the approaching operatives.

"Other monsters…. Other monsters…. Not strong like blood-god…. But dangerous. They can't see me. They can't see them... cuts too big. Not creature can do this. Only Rex. They learn, we die. Panther says. I listen." Syphen mumbled before throwing the last vampire into the lake and diving in after them.

A minute later and a unit of jungle monkeys appeared at the cliffs edge wearing agile drift-armor with mechanical tails and sniper rifles held tightly.

"Any sign?"

"No. I can't get a read. The lake is like a fireball— it's frying my optics. Further north I've got bloodfire scans. Let's keep moving."

"Any word on Rex?"

"…."

"Gordon."

The jungle-monkey team leader refocused, "No. again... we've lost sight of him."