Kael's roar shook the air as he launched himself forward, his feet kicking up bloodstained dirt.
His entire world had shrunk to a singular focus—the beast before him. Rage blinded him to reason, drowning out the pain, the horror, and the crushing weight of grief.
"Let him go, you bastard!" he bellowed, his voice raw with fury.
The white-furred beast, its muzzle still dripping with the remains of his father, lazily lifted its head. Its glowing blue eyes locked onto the charging human, and to Kael's growing rage, it looked amused. The damn thing was mocking him.
With a slow, deliberate motion, the monster chewed the last scraps of its meal and stood up, stretching as if preparing for a casual hunt. Blood dripped from its fangs, staining its pristine fur in crimson streaks. It loomed over Kael, its frame massive, muscles rippling beneath its thick coat.
But Kael didn't care. He didn't think. He just attacked.
His fist clenched so tightly his knuckles turned white, and he poured every fiber of his strength into a devastating punch aimed straight at the beast's smug face. He had no weapon, no strategy—just raw, unfiltered fury.
The impact landed clean.And did absolutely nothing.
Kael's fist struck the beast's snout, but it felt like he punched a boulder. A dull thud echoed, and for a brief moment, disbelief flickered in his mind.
The beast didn't flinch. It didn't recoil. Instead, it grinned—a sickening, human-like grin that sent ice crawling down Kael's spine. A low, rumbling chuckle-like growl vibrated through its throat.
Then came the counterattack.
Kael barely registered the blur of a white paw before an earth-shattering force slammed into his side. Pain exploded through his ribs, and before he could even gasp, his body was airborne.
The world twisted around him.
Then—
CRASH!
His back slammed into the stone wall of a nearby house, and an eruption of dust and debris followed. His vision flickered. A strangled cough escaped his lips, splattering blood onto the ground. His limbs felt disconnected from his body, his chest burning with unbearable agony.
He had never felt pain like this before.
'Shit…'
Everything hurt. Every breath was a battle, every twitch of a muscle sent fresh waves of agony tearing through his nerves. His mind screamed at him to move, to run, to do anything, but his body refused to obey.
The beast approached, its steps unhurried, savoring the moment. It was playing with its food.
Amusement flickered in its glowing blue eyes as it loomed over his broken form.
Then, without hesitation, it placed its massive paw on his chest and pressed down.
A sickening crack sounded.
Kael gasped.
The pressure was unbearable. His ribs screamed in protest, his lungs compressed under the beast's overwhelming weight. He couldn't breathe. Darkness tugged at the edges of his vision.He was going to die.
A bitter smile formed on his bloodied lips.
'Heh… guess this is it… at least I'll finally get to rest for as long as I want…'
His eyelids grew heavy.
And just when he was ready embrace the darkness it, a faint, melodic chime echoed in his mind, a strange, resonant hum that seemed to vibrate within his very bones. His hazy eyes flickered open, and a sense of otherness washed over him, a feeling of being watched, of being changed.
A surge of heat, raw and untamed, erupted within him, a burning tide that banished the icy grip of death. A voice, ancient and powerful, whispered in the back of his mind, a fragmented echo of something ancient and forgotten.
And that's when he saw it for the first time. A transparent blue screen shimmering with otherworldly energy. And on it a string of text and resembling runes from ancient times.
[Archive… forcefully established… changes… forced…]
The words were alien, yet they resonated with a primal understanding. He felt a shift, a tearing away of the familiar, replaced by something new.
[Wrath… dying God… Demi-God… activated.]
The pain vanished, replaced by a surge of raw, untamed power. His broken bones knit themselves together, his torn flesh sealed, and a golden light erupted from his body, a beacon in the blood-soaked ruin. The world around him sharpened, the air thick with a sense of dread.
[Stats… increased… 330%… pain receptors… shut down… sanity… reduced…]
A cold, detached clarity settled over him, a strange calmness amidst the chaos. The grief, the horror, the rage—they were still there, but muted, distant. Something else, something dark and predatory, had taken root.
[Bloodlust… peak… fear… 30km radius…]
The beast stiffened. For the first time since the fight started, its confident grin faltered. A shiver ran down its spine, its ears flattened against its skull, and it instinctively took a step back. An animal's instinct was never wrong. And right now, its instincts were screaming at it to run.
Kael rose slowly from the ground, his body moving with eerie smoothness. His once-lazy posture was gone, replaced by something unnatural. His dark eyes, once sleepy and dull, now gleamed with a blood-gold glow. The air around him felt distorted, heavy and suffocating, as if the very world trembled at his presence.
Then, he smiled.
A chilling, predatory smile that sent ice down the beast's spine.
The beast snarled and lunged, its massive claws extended, aiming to rip through Kael's throat in a desperate attempt to reclaim dominance.
But Kael wasn't there.Not anymore.
He moved with a blur of speed, his body dipping low, ducking under the swipe with inhuman reflexes. A cold, detached part of him registered the beast's fear, but it felt distant, irrelevant.
Before the beast could react, he was behind it, his breath ghosting across its fur.
"Too slow," he whispered, his voice laced with a chilling calm. He felt a surge of satisfaction, a dark, primal pleasure that was both exhilarating and disturbing.
His fingers curled into a fist, and this time, when he punched, the results were devastating.
A thunderous crack echoed through the square, the impact sounding like a small explosion.
The beast was sent hurtling through the air, its massive body crashing through the remnants of a burning house. Splinters and rubble erupted outwards, dust billowing in thick, choking clouds. A pained yelp, cut short, tore through the village.
Kael didn't waste time.
Before the dust had a chance to settle, he was already moving, closing the distance in a blink. His body felt weightless, unburdened by fatigue, his movements precise and deadly. His mind was a whirlwind, a chaotic mix of grief, rage, and a strange, unfamiliar detachment.
The beast staggered to its feet, dazed, its once smug expression now twisted in a mask of confusion and rage. It snarled and charged again, its massive fangs gleaming in the flickering firelight, a desperate, final assault.
But Kael welcomed it.
He dodged with fluid grace, weaving between its wild attacks like a phantom. The beast's fear was a tangible thing, a dark, pulsing energy that fueled his own predatory instincts. Each missed strike only fueled its panic, its desperation. It was losing control. It knew it.
And so did Kael.
With a powerful leap, he appeared above the beast, his body twisting in mid-air, gathering every ounce of his newfound strength into his leg.
Then he struck, a brutal, bone-shattering kick.
A sickening crack echoed as his foot connected with the beast's skull. Blood and fragments of bone sprayed outwards, the beast's body slamming into the ground with enough force to create a crater.
It twitched once, a final, convulsive shudder. Then, silence.
Kael landed gracefully, straightening his back as he looked down at his fallen prey. The golden aura around him flickered and died, leaving him feeling strangely empty. The beast's blood still stained his hands, but he felt no revulsion, no triumph, only a detached sense of… completion.
Then, as if a switch had been flipped, exhaustion slammed into him like a tidal wave. His vision blurred, his legs wobbled, and he barely had the strength to whisper:
"Hah… finally… time for a nap…"
He glanced around the ruined village, the carnage a blur of blood and broken stone. A flicker of something, a distant echo of grief, tried to surface, but it felt muted, distant. He couldn't quite grasp it.
He felt a sudden, irrational urge to sleep, to escape the chaos, to find oblivion. The danger, the destruction, the loss—it all seemed… unimportant.
A single tear escaped his eye, a testament to the grief he couldn't fully suppress, a flicker of humanity in the encroaching darkness. His body collapsed next to the lifeless wolf, unconscious as he hit the ground.