VENGEFUL WERECATS
The silence stretched, thick and heavy, punctuated only by the gentle lapping of water against the pier. Hours crawled by.
Sparrow Night, the self volunteering bait, remained motionless, the cool night air prickling his skin. Doubts began to creep in. Had they miscalculated? Were the werecats not going to show?
Just as he was about to suggest repositioning, a pair of headlights cut through the darkness. A police cruiser pulled up near the entrance to the pier. Two officers emerged, their faces etched with concern.
"Hey, you there! What do you think you're doing out here this late?" one of the officers called out, his voice amplified by the quiet night.
Sparrow sighed inwardly. Of course. He'd momentarily forgotten how conspicuous he looked. "Just... enjoying the view, officer," he replied, trying to sound nonchalant.
"Enjoying the view? Son, there's been a series of brutal murders around here. The news warned everyone to stay inside after dark. You need to go home." The officer started walking towards him, his partner following close behind.
Autumn, hidden in the shadows, tensed. Sparrow was about to be exposed. She was about to step out and intervene when the unthinkable happened.
Without warning, the water near the pier erupted. The invisible alarm ward glowed red and a long whistling sound pierced the night.
Three grotesque figures, barely illuminated by the distant streetlights, clawed their way onto the pier. Their feline features were twisted into snarling masks of hatred, their bodies unnaturally elongated and contorted.
Vengeful Werecats. And their target was not Sparrow, but the two police officers.
The officers barely had time to register the threat before the creatures were upon them. A horrifying shriek pierced the night as the werecats attacked with savage ferocity, their claws tearing at flesh and bone.
"Crap!" Sparrow spat out rare curse word from his mouth and surged forward, his training taking over. There was no time for stealth, no time for explanations. The officers were in immediate danger.
As he moved, his [Greater Appraisal] activated, granting him a flash of insight about the creatures.
The information flooded his mind: Vengeful Werecats, vicious surreal entities possessing the bodies of three dead kittens... abused, abandoned. Vengeful against any human. Agile body, sharp claws and teeth, thick fur, elastic tough skin… weak bones, weak against lightning and fire.
"Lightning! Fire!" he yelled, relaying the crucial information to Autumn and Canary.
Sparrow launched himself at the nearest werecat, a snarling beast currently tearing at a fallen officer.
Ignoring the creature's snapping jaws, Sparrow grabbed it by the scruff, his fingers expertly applying pressure. He peeled it off its victim with practiced efficiency, then spun it, disrupting its balance and hurling it several meters away from the prone officer.
The werecat landed nimbly on its hind legs. Though barely the size of an elementary schooler, its eyes burned with savage hunger, and a low growl vibrated from its throat. It blurred into motion, launching itself at Sparrow in a whirlwind of claws and fur.
Sparrow, anticipating the attack, sidestepped with fluid grace, the rush of air from its claws ruffling his hair.
Before the werecat could recover, Sparrow snapped a brutal kick into its ribs. The creature yelped, a sound disproportionately high-pitched for its ferocity, and tumbled several more meters.
Sparrow knew brute strength alone wouldn't win this fight. His appraisal told him the werecats were fast and relentless, but not invulnerable. He'd already known their weaknesses, and now he just needed to exploit them.
Meanwhile, Canary had also reacted instantly the moment the three werecats appeared. Her arcana class had honed her reflexes to a razor's edge. She drew and leveled her two semi-automatic handguns and unleashed a volley of arcane bullets.
Her arcane bullets accurately hit their targets, the werecat leaping for the second policeman. The creature shrieked as the bullets found their mark, but the damage was minimal, barely slowing its advance.
Abandoning its initial target, the werecat swiveled, claws outstretched, and lunged for Canary. Gracefully, she executed a jump-roll to the side, never ceasing her barrage of arcane fire with one gun. Her free hand had sheathed its handgun and retrieved a specialized magazine from her utility belt – lightning rounds.
Autumn, a whirlwind of motion, joined the fray. Channeling her arcana class,
With a fluid motion, Autumn drew a weapon from her back. The unfolded three-section staff gleamed in the dim light. Expertly, she spun and weaved the weapon, a shimmering barrier of steel that kept the snarling werecat at bay.
Canary, after reloading her handgun with special magazine, sent a barrage of lightning bullets to her target, piercing the forehead and torso of a werecat that was about to continue pouncing at her. The creature let out painful shriek and convulsed, its body crackling with electricity, before collapsing in a heap.
Sparrow, had crushed her soultool card and summoned his Power Gauntlets. As he used lightning shards from his utility belt to imbue the gauntlets with lightning power, they were now crackling with raw energy. He focused his will, channeling that lightning energy to coat his fist.
His opponent, the first werecat, pounced at him with furious savagery. With a roar, he intercepted the attack. His electrified right fist slamming into its face. And before it could react, his thundering left hook pierced its rib, followed by a rotating electric elbow to the back of its head.
The creature howled in agony as the lightning coursed through its body, frying its internal organs. It thrashed wildly for a moment before going limp for good.
The last werecat, realizing it was outmatched, attempted to flee. But Autumn was ready. She hurled a soulbeast card into the air. With a flash of light, the card transformed into a magnificent Flaming Heron, its feathers ablaze with ethereal fire.
The summoned beast descended upon the fleeing werecat, its fiery talons tearing into its flesh. Within seconds, the creature was nothing more than a smoldering pile of fur and bone.
...
The momentary silence that descended was shattered by a guttural screech that echoed across the pier. Three more werecats, identical in appearance yet radiating an aura of concentrated rage, emerged from the shadows.
These weren't just angry; they were consumed by the primal fury of a pack seeking vengeance for its fallen.
"Pixie! Combo Alpha!" Sparrow roared, the adrenaline sharpening his senses. Immediately, as he felt his mental link with Canary and Autumn solidified, he activated his [Greater Appraisal].
The information slammed into their shared consciousness: Enraged Vengeful Werecats... twisted mockeries inhabiting dead kittens... abused, abandoned, consumed by hate for all humans. Agile bodies, razor claws and fangs, a dense fur coat over resilient skin... strong bones, previously vulnerable to lightning and fire... Now, bones reinforced, fur thickened, resilience amplified... Elemental weaknesses nullified! Extremely enraged!
"No weakness?!" Canary yelled, disbelief warring with the urgency in her voice as she slapped a fresh magazine of lightning rounds into her handguns. "And stronger! They're beyond pissed!"
Autumn's face was a mask of grim determination as she tightened her grip on her three-section staff. "Be careful. These aren't playing around."
The werecats answered with a primal scream, launching themselves headlong into the fight. The first, a furred missile, locked onto Sparrow, moving with a speed that outstripped its predecessors. Its claws, like polished obsidian, gleamed menacingly in the pier's dim light.
Sparrow barely managed to raise his Power Gauntlets, the reinforced metal facing the brunt of the attack. The werecat slammed into him with shocking force, sending him stumbling. The impact was staggering; a brutal reminder of the creature's augmented strength.
He felt the raking claws gouge deep furrows into his gauntlets. A grunt escaped him as he channeled his own strength, shoving the creature back.
Focusing, Sparrow unleashed a roaring torrent of harnessed lightning through his gauntlets. The air crackled, ozone stung his nostrils, and his movements became a dance of desperate defense and counter-attack. He parried the flailing claws, each block sending a pulse of disruptive energy back into the snarling beast.
Nearby, Canary was locked in a frenzied ballet of evasion and gunfire with the second werecat. It was relentless, a blur of furious swipes and guttural snarls.
She unleashed volley after volley of lightning rounds, each impact momentarily stunning the creature. But the lightning, once its Achilles heel, now barely registered. The werecat shrugged off the jolts with unnerving resilience.
A claw ripped across her arm, tearing through her outer suit. She gasped, a sharp stab of pain. Thank the stars for the combat undersuit.
Seeing Canary falter, Autumn moved to intercept. She spun her three-section staff, blurring chain and steel into a defensive arc that forced the werecat to momentarily break its attack. But the third werecat was already on her, a snarling, hissing avalanche of claws and fur.
Autumn barely managed to bring her staff up in time, the impact jarring her bones and nearly knocking her off her feet. She couldn't hold them both off. She needed breathing room. A distraction. Now!
Reacting instantly, Autumn unleashed a sudden, powerful tornado from her
Sparrow, exploiting the momentary chaos, unleashed a devastating counter-attack. He channeled all of his pent-up lightning energy into a single, devastating punch. His fist connected squarely with the werecat's skull. The force of the blow, amplified by the electric discharge, sent the creature flying.
It slammed into a piling with a sickening thud, its body convulsing in the aftermath of the electrical shock. However, with terrifying speed, it pushed itself back to its feet, its fur bristling, its eyes burning with undiminished rage.
Canary, after putting distance between herself and the fight, grabbed her four soulsprite cards. She didn't have enough mental capacity for summoning all. Thus, she crushed three of them randomly, the fragile material shattering like glass in her grip.
Echo, Ink, and Breeze materialized instantly, their forms shimmering. Her mental command was immediate: Assist!
She unleashed an arc of glowing arcane bullets at the werecat attacking Autumn. It shrieked as the projectiles tore through its fur, drawing blood, but it pressed on. Echo amplified the assault, emitting a focused burst of supersonic sound aimed at disrupting the monster's balance.
Autumn, now facing two werecats, channeled the power of her
Exploiting their disorientation, Autumn moved with blinding speed, sidestepping behind one of the werecats. Before it could react, she slammed the butt of her staff into the base of its skull.
The werecat staggered, its legs momentarily buckling. Canary seized the opening, firing a precise lightning round directly into the creature's forehead. It collapsed, its limbs twitching. For a heart-stopping moment, they thought it was down. But then, with a horrifying growl, it scrambled back to its feet.
Sparrow, seeing the werecats rise again, frowned. These werecats were enraged and turned into much stronger things because of their deceased kins. What about him? He saw them preyed on humans through his retrocognitive vision. Do they think they are the only ones who could get enraged?
Sparrow let a wave of pure, unadulterated rage washed over him. He abandoned any semblance of finesse, reverting to primal instinct. As his werecat opponent jumped to pounce on him, he darted forward, seizing the creature's hind leg with both hands.
He hoisted the monstrous feline into the air, its claws flailing uselessly. Then, with a guttural roar, he slammed the werecat's body against the unforgiving concrete of the pier. Once. Twice. Thrice. Each impact resonated through the pier, the sound sickening and brutal. The werecat shrieked, a desperate, pain-filled sound.
Sparrow didn't stop. He continued his savage assault, each slam more forceful than the last. The concrete cracked and chipped under the relentless onslaught. Finally, he stopped, breathing heavily, the werecat's body limp in his grasp.
But he wasn't done. He knew these creatures were incredibly resilient. He needed to ensure it was truly finished. He dropped the lifeless body and focused, channeling his energy.
His Power Gauntlets had long disappeared as they had already exceeded the summoning time. But it didn't mean that his fists were powerless.
A faint, ethereal glow enveloped his arms as activated [Eldritch Energy Coating], the otherworldly power crackling around his fists. With a final, earth-shattering roar, he brought his fist crashing down onto the werecat's skull.
The impact was devastating. He felt the bones shatter beneath his knuckles, the sickening crunch of cartilage and brain matter. This time, there was no twitching, no struggle. The werecat lay still, broken and lifeless. Sparrow stood over it, chest heaving, the arcane energy dissipating from his arms.
Meanwhile, Autumn was taking a different approach. Realizing she couldn't defeat the two werecats at the same time, she opted for crowd control. Taking and crushing a soulbeast card, she summoned her 'Shining Land Squid'. The air shimmered, and a massive, luminescent tentacles materialized out of the ground.
With a silent command, the Land Squid launched its tentacles. Two of the massive appendages snaked out with incredible speed, wrapping around the last two werecats. The tentacles constricted, binding the creatures tightly, preventing them from attacking or escaping.
Seeing their opportunity, Ink and Echo moved to assist. Ink swirled around the trapped werecats, enveloping them in a thick cloud of Shadow Blinding. The creatures hissed and clawed at the darkness, their vision completely obscured.
Echo, meanwhile, unleashed a concentrated burst of Dizzying Screech. The high-pitched sound waves vibrated through the air, assaulting the werecats' inner ears, disrupting their balance and causing them to stumble and writhe within their restraints.
Canary seized the chance. She quickly focused and began channeling Breeze's wind energy into the remaining bullets in her handguns. The sprite landed on her head, channeling the compressed wind that swirling around Canary's body to her fingertips. The bullets inside the handguns visibly shimmered, now imbued with incredible power.
With a deep breath, she steadied her aim. One shot for each werecat.
The first bullet whizzed through the air, a nearly invisible streak of compressed wind and metal. It struck the werecat directly between the eyes, piercing its skull and exploding with contained fury within its brain. The creature instantly went limp, the restraints of the Land Squid barely containing its lifeless form.
The second shot followed immediately after, mirroring the first. It found its mark with deadly accuracy, ending the life of the final werecat trapped by the Land Squid.
Silence descended once more, heavier this time, thick with the stench of ozone and singed fur. The three agents stood panting, adrenaline coursing through their veins. The pier was a scene of carnage, splattered with blood and littered with the mangled bodies of the werecats.
"That... was rough," Canary said, her voice trembling slightly as she unsummoned her sprites . "What about those policemen?"
The three agents looked over. The two police officers lay on the ground, injured, shaken, but alive.