Rhaëlya was slightly stumped because her height didn't change from her usual height. Contrary to Crypt, who reached over 8 meters when he completely transformed into a snake.
Still, she didn't dwell much on it. After pausing for a few seconds to look at her new body, she turned around and leaped in a tree, trying to catch the sent of blood again.
The scent hit her again, sharp, warm, coppery. It flooded her senses, blinding everything else. Rhaëlya's ears twitched. Her muscles coiled as instinct surged.
Blood.
She bolted, white blur among the branches, paws silent against the bark. Her breathing deepened. Controlled. Lethal.
Crypt watched her go with narrowed eyes. "She's fast."
Carmen hummed, now back to her human form, crouched on a lower branch. "Smells blood. Might be fun."
They didn't follow. Not yet.
Rhaëlya landed on the forest floor with a thud, her nose scraping the earth.
The scent was stronger now, fresh, dripping from somewhere ahead.
She prowled forward, tail low, eyes glowing like twin blood moons. There.
A figure slumped near the roots of a tree, torn and bloodied. Muscles tense, breathing ragged. Azrakai.
But she didn't see Azrakai. She saw prey.
She crouched lower, shoulders rippling under fur. Lips pulled back in a silent snarl.
One more step-
"Bloom, stop."
Ariel's voice, sharp in her skull. This is the first time he ever spoke directly without using a screen. His voice wasn't pleasant.
"This isn't a target."
Then Orion followed, softer, firmer.
"This is someone you want to protect. Someone you care for."
Her claws halted mid-step. A flicker of something human sparked in her glowing eyes.
She blinked.
The blood.
Azrakai.
She growled low and padded forward, slower now, dropping beside him.
Her tongue brushed over his wound, just once, and the air around her shifted.
Warm. Soft. Green light spread from her paws to his chest, sinking into the torn flesh.
Azrakai's breathing steadied, but his eyes didn't open.
She stayed there, fur brushing his skin.
Behind her, Carmen landed with a light laugh. "So it's him?"
Crypt followed, slower. His emerald eyes sharp. "Guess the cat caught her meal."
Carmen's claws twitched. "Doesn't look dead."
"I changed my mind." Rhaëlya said, voice low and gravelly in her shifted form.
Then the rustling started.
More footsteps. Heavy. Wrong.
Crypt's tongue flicked the air. "Trouble."
Six beastmen stepped from the trees, all carrying cuts, bruises, and dirty smiles aimed at Rhaëlya and Carmen.
"Well, well," one with jagged scars grinned. "pretty cat and scorpion. You females are looking for some more males?"
Carmen tilted her head, golden eyes gleaming. "Are you blind or just dumb?"
Another stepped closer, leering. "You're not mated, right? I'll let you mate me, you're my type little scorpion."
Rhaëlya rose slowly from Azrakai's side.
Her tail lashed once.
"You're in the way."
Crypt rolled his neck. "I'll take the right."
Carmen cracked her knuckles. "Left's mine."
The first one lunged.
He didn't even scream before Rhaëlya tore his throat out.
The others froze, watching his body hit the ground with a wet thud.
Then the ground rumbled.
Carmen's beast form rose behind Rhaëlya, dark crimson chitin gleaming, long tail arched high with a deadly stinger glowing faintly gold. Her golden eyes burned.
"You picked the wrong beasts." she hissed.
The second beastman charged her. Carmen slammed her clawed forelimbs into the earth.
The ground cracked. A jagged spike of stone shot up and skewered him mid-lunge. Blood dripped down as he twitched, stuck like a broken doll.
Crypt shed his humanoid form next, body elongating, scales shimmering black and silver under the fading sun. Over eight meters of thick, coiled muscle slithered out between the trees, emerald eyes flashing.
"Three's mine." he hissed.
His fangs sank into a panicked beastman, flames erupting from the bite. The man screamed as fire consumed him, body folding inwards like burning paper.
Rhaëlya didn't speak.
Lightning sparked at her paws. It licked her fur, ran up her spine, curled around her claws like living breath.
A beastman leapt at her. Too slow.
She surged forward in a white blur, thunder cracking through the forest as her paw collided with his chest.
His ribs caved in, lightning erupting from the impact. He hit the ground already dead.
Another tried to flee.
She vanished, then reappeared above him, a thunderbolt wrapped in fur and fury. Her claws slammed into his back, grounding all the voltage in a single devastating strike.
His body spasmed once, then stilled.
"Five." Crypt counted lazily, tail swaying.
Only one remained, trembling, his tail shaking.
Rhaëlya's fur bristled. Electricity danced along her spine.
"Go." she said. He bolted.
Carmen didn't chase. "He won't get far."
"Let him warn the others." Crypt muttered. "It's more fun that way."
The air settled, thick with ash, blood, and ozone. The earth still smoked where Carmen's spikes had torn through it.
Fire flickered between Crypt's scales.
Lightning arced faintly between Rhaëlya's whiskers.
They stood in a triangle around Azrakai's unconscious body. His breathing was steady now.
Rhaëlya padded closer and curled protectively around him, the electricity dimming in her fur.
Crypt coiled nearby, eyes never leaving her. "You coming back to your senses, Bloom?"
Carmen lowered herself beside her. "Next time, tell me when you're about to snap. I'll bring snacks."
Rhaëlya didn't answer at first.
Then, quietly, "He's mine."
Neither of them argued.
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The cave was quiet, the kind of quiet that pressed against your skin.
Carmen dropped a bundle of small red fruits on her shelf, saying that they're medicine. She didn't fully transform back, she still had her scorpion tail, albeit smaller.
Crypt loosely coiled at the foot of a wall, he too, only half transformed. His scales still glistening with small sparks of fire from time to time while his upper body was steaming.
And Rhaëlya was sitting close to Azrakai, who was still unconscious. Small zaps of electricity still dancing on her tail. She too, was in her half form. She had found out that fully shifting after an adrenaline rush took a lot of energy and she was feeling a bit lazy.
But she was still hungry, though she was lucid compared to when she shifted.
She kept stating at Azrakai.
Crypt slithered over to her, "Are you alright, Bloom?" his voice low, as if he didn't want to disturb her.
"I wanted to kill him." She replied, still staring.
Carmen chuckled, "But you didn't, unfortunately."
Rhaëlya was now staring at the meat that Crypt was roasting, it didn't look nearly enough to satisfy her. Crypt caught her eyes and hurried over to the meat, turned it and stated at Rhaëlya's stomach and eyes before going back out again.
Rhaëlya snarled. "Where?"
Crypt paused, surprised at her reaction. But Carmen laughed, "He's just going to get you more food. The look in your eyes tells us that you want to eat a whole village."
"Sorry. You can go." Rhaëlya immediately apologized, feeling truly ashamed at her reaction just now. She didn't know why she did that.
Crypt just looked at her for a bit longer before leaving, sensing that something was going on. But he won't get anything out of her as long as she was hungry, and he didn't plan on becoming cat food.