---
[Innate Ability: Lycanthropy]
---
When the genetic information was activated, Michael's body started shaking from the pain. Having to savor the feeling of his muscle tissue and skeletal structure unceasingly twitch and rip in all directions. Wildy expanding like a balloon.
Meanwhile, as he grew, the cloak covering his body started to tighten around him. Growing increasingly more refined, before completely fusing with the dermal layer beneath. Causing all patches of skin to cease existing.
All human traits eventually disappeared behind the mutating mass. Being replaced by the spitting image of a five-meter tall yeti that had been bathed in the black waters of death.
And now, with both teeth and claws turned into to crooked coal daggers, and a bulletproof hide which resembled a lion's mane flare up, Michael aimed his lantern-like eyes at the vampire before lifting up one of his log sized feet and slamming it into the ground while letting his bellow resonate.
"BRING IT ON!!!"
*Boom!!!*
Michael's long, paw-like foot dug through the earth like an iron crane. Propelling him at the flying aberration like a heat-seeking crossbow bolt.
Hadriel watched the mutated gorilla rapidly advance through the air with a frown. Dissatisfied yet also excited with the challenge.
"But even so.."
The spike-like wings on his back extended. Momentarily stretching out to each side and cause Hadriel's withered frame to arch downwards.
"YOU ARE NOT MY MATCH!!"
Hadriel's wings then kicked back! Launching him at the dark streak.
Michael's fur scraped the passing space while he ascended. Having the air molecules drag behind him like the steam released from a speeding train.
And as the wind glazed his body, Michael lifted up his robust claw and violently slashed it at the approaching branch of starved wood.
"Futile!" But Hadriel only mockingly shouting back while lifting his bloody saber. Cocking it back like a spring, before then smacking it into the large hand at a blinding speed.
*Clank!!*
The air momentarily trembled with a metallic resonance as the two objects connected. However, the lingering vibration quickly dispersed as Michael's beastial frame was effortlessly thrown back into the ground. Reinvigorating the atmosphere with a set of crumbling pops, and a malevolent seismic tremor that shook the surrounding vegetation.
A brown smog of shredded ruble rose up from the crater where Michael had landed. Shielding the damaged spot from all prying eyes.
But the robe of mud did not manage to pique any interest within Hadriel's void eye sockets, as all his attention was focused on his sword.
There was neither a mark nor a dent on the thin red sheet of organic metal. Yet, beneath its vibrant color and impatient aura, there laid a visible change that could only be discerned by its wielder.
"He resisted my slash...?"
Hadriel excitingly mumbled to himself as he stroked the weapon with his glassy white fingers. Generating a sickening screech while he waited for the cloud beneath to disperse.
Not long after he touched the blade, Michael reappeared. Showing his brutish figure once more from inside the trashed gravel.
His rugged hide and yellow eyes were unfazed by the impact. Evident by how they still released both an indisputable malice and newfound shock at the flying rat.
However, that could not be said for his hand.
For on the hairy flesh covering his palm, a large red fissure now laid for display. Torn slices of fur and tissue weakly hung from the wound but were at this moment reattaching themselves at a visible pace.
The regeneration caught Hadriel's attention. Causing him to tenderly eye down Michael's hand from above while his bat-like skull regained a more human-like shape.
"Despite acting like such a mindless brute, your bones are of incredible quality... Tell me, what race are you from?" Hadirel merrily asked. Projecting forth a taunting gist from behind each word.
Michael's body weakly trembled in response. His unwieldy golden eyes seemingly opening past their limit and his spirit shaking from the scorn.
What the hell was that?
Was he just beaten back?!
The muscles and joints in his body started grinding against each other while his heart pounded faster. Starting to furiously beat against his ribcage, and fuel his body with a baleful power.
A power born from the humiliating strain hovering above his head.
---
[Innate Ability Activated!]
.
[Air control]
[Warp]
.
---
"HOW ABOUT YOU COME AND FIND OUT!!!"
His newly repaired hand balled up into a trembling fist as the encompassing air started to fracture and circulate around it. Binding the clenched club in a translucent blanket of fragmented air.
As the current flowed, Michael drew his arm back before yelling within his heart.
'Innate Ability: Multiplier!!!'
The trembling log of flesh then momentarily bulged like a balloon before madly swiping away like a launched catapult. Firing off the boulder-sized cannonball of atmospheric shrapnel in a diagonal line.
*Boom!!*
Both the barriers of wind and sound howled in agony the moment the ball of distortion was launched. Their cry only solidifying its might while the elements were forcefully contorted and shattered when trying to intercept it.
Michael angrily watched the bullet near Hadriel while quickly readying his following move. However, the torch of rage in his heart was abruptly drowned within a cold tide of dumbfoundedness. Extinguishing all current thoughts, and leaving him with only one sudden realization.
That being the vampire's unchanging attitude.
Hadriel carelessly watched the twinkling glass ball while he slowly lifted up his saber. Bathing it in the light above for but a breath while waiting.
*Boom!!*
Right before contact was made, Hadriel slammed the edge of his weapon into the attack.
Like a red bolt of lightning, the descending cellular metal roared as it crashed into the spatial imbalance. Completely fracturing it like a brick.
The now severed projectile then exploded before him like a large propane tank in a bright flash. It's contents spilling over into the surroundings like the splinters from a grenade. Decking the arena in a new, dispersing molecular hail which circulated like fallen autumn leaves.
The wind and earth were bathed in the sprinkling glass matter and air gusts. However, not without being accompanied by a certain statement that traveled alongside the wind.
"Did you expect to damage me with a mere breeze?"
Hadriel's voice resounded. Now more domineering than previously. His annoyance clear and disappointment immeasurable.
"Hmpfh, what waste of time..."
But before he could finish his distaining snort, he gave Michael another glance.
The dark veiled beast seemed to have shrunken in size. Still unchanged feature-wise, but now standing at a meager two meters tall.
'Wait... Did his physique change? It seems that this one at least has some proper spirit control..'
Hadriel started intently procrastinating from where he hovered. His invoked interest now paying heed to the brute.
---
[Innate Ability Activated!]
.
[Scorched charge]
[Multiplier]
[Sky Stride]
.
---
The dark fur on Michael's figure began to take on a red shade which grew more profound by the second. Meanwhile, his body and muscles increasingly twitched and ripped open. Growing what resembled cracks you would find on a lump of heated coal.
And just as the show began, it ended. Finishing with Michael's entire frame exploding in a blazing blue vortex of thermal energy that coiled around his limbs.
Hadriel was greatly taken aback but quickly rearranged himself with an excited shout.
"Hahaha! It seems you have some ability after a..."
*BOOM!!*
Before he could finish, the blue wildfire vividly burst apart like a pile of firework. Pushing its sickening gasses and flaming rubble at the unsuspecting Hadriel.
But even as the wreckage started pounding against his airborne body, Hadriel was unable to do anything other than watch in bewilderment at the center of it all.
For as of now there was nothing there.
Time felt like it slowed down in Hadriel's hollow eyes. His brain evidently working on trying to solve the matter before him.
Yet, from behind the endless thoughts that rushed down his spine like a waterfall, a moment of clarity rouse up. Not from realization, but from a horrid chill that invaded his scalp.
Without hesitating, he instinctively pointed the flat edge of his blade against the desolate sky. Shielding himself.
However, right as the weapon moved, a flaming blue pillar of wrath slammed into his body with the weight of a falling star.
Burnt dirt and torched rubble were expelled out from the cavity they landed in like the lava from an active volcano. But before the earthly torrent could finish spewing out, another loud discharge of neon fire burst forth in a brilliant howl.
The fragmented soil which rained from above turned to steamed ash as the hole was further cleaned by the scent of sulfur. Purifying all the encompassing toxins in an unrelenting inferno.
However, from behind the carpet of neon blaze that stretched itself up like an ancient tower, a mangled figure suddenly shot out. Momentarily gaining some altitude, yet only to fall back down a distance away like a fowl struck by stray lightning.
The last piece of untouched wetland caved in like an unfinished road as the steaming mass pummeled to the distant, soggy waste.
But the instant impact was made, the ruined shape seemed to regain life and push itself up. Ignoring the clear aura of exhaustion which was strung to its bones
This was Hadriel. Trying to fight off the urge to cry in his heart as he struggled to stabilize his stick-like claws onto the soft layer underneath. Each distasteful breath of air he heaved in gave off a taste of utter shock.
His once pure and white body was now tainted by a cowl of warm mud, a shirt of charred flesh, and multiple deep gashes which ran all over.
However, these were not the worst parts of his injuries.
As he stood up and tried to gain some footing, he noticed that the boney wings on his back had been burnt to shreds. Their stems churning with a deep frying sizzle that filled his ears.
Disbelief started clouding his mind while a certain sensation began to crawl out from depths of his hollow eyes.
The sensation is an unforgettable reluctance that came from an ancient memory.
But while his mind wandered, Michael exited the growling flames behind in a calm manner. His body resembling the heart of a forge and his aura radiating out like a living fire pit. Loyally singing around him with a melody made from nitrogenic cracks and seething whispers.
"Have you had enough?" A satisfied bellow rang out from Michael's visible smile. His ignited lips aiming a familiar mock at the vampire as he constantly drew closer.
The ground screeched in pain as he excitingly stomped towards Hadriel's kneeling body. Marking his existence on the earthly floor through an increasing set of smoking footprints.
"I...." Hadriel tried to talk, but his reluctance seemd to physically manifest before him. Molding itself in the shape of a vivid dream he had almost forgotten, and starting to play as a shady set of hallucinations.
...
Same as now, he knelt in a field of damp greenery. His figure bathed in the fragrant shine excluded by the tender moonlight and whisps of watery smoke rising above.
The atmosphere was pleasant to the touch, and the ocean of flora sweet on his nose. Yet, as he gazed upon the land, a jolt of realization dawned upon him.
The grass below was not damp with drizzles of water but from a viscous liquid containing a putrid stench of rotten fish and rusted iron.
The puffs of wool floating above were not clouds, but twisted spirals of warped flesh which endlessly vomited out organic rain.
The moon was not radiant nor sweet, but botched and swollen. Crying down all its sorrows in the form of broken light rays that sapped his strength.
Hadriel felt panic run rampant through his bones like frostbite, his throat drying up from the aroma of undigested rot, and his vision blur under the world's influence.
However, as he fought this powerless sensation which punctured his heart like a needle, his pupils abruptly froze.
Beyond the field, he sat on, in a place where he once called home, an endless horde of large, unspeakably shaped things raved about. Their vague bodies draped in what resembled loose flags of human skin, while their shadows spawning sickening shrills that drowned his ears in a diluted hum.
But that was not what he gawked at.
Past the high-pitched shrieks that filled the air, Hadriel managed to inhale a terrorizing wail from within the swarm of dancing derm.
One belonging to a small child who screamed for his name.
....
"Given up?" Michael stared at the frozen dummy of white wood as lifting his hand up. The flesh growing visually more rock-like while his smile increased its excitement.
Hadriel bit his teeth together. Grinding the saw-like structures against each other as streams of water fell from his desolate eyes. Angrily echoing away after hitting the muddy flooring.
"No...."
The veins beneath Hadriel's sickly, paper thin skin shook. Crawling up from the deep like a hive of starving blue worms, and ordering his ancient cells to feed him.
"I have not."
Michael glanced at the defeated figure for a second before his madness abruptly vanished and glowing eyes dimmed. Having been forced away by an internal rumbling which shot down through his spine like an ice cold sting.
The abrupt disturbance made Michael's blazing hand give off a weak twitch before flickering down like a descending sun.
A weak flash of silent, blue light momentarily mingled with the tranquility of lair before getting brutally engulfed and devoured. Completely drowned in a rage-induced cry born from the land's incineration.
And as the screech came forth, a pond of turbulent fire burst out from where Michael once stood. Its body stretching towards the clouds above in the form livid, blue pine trees and spikes.
However, the thermal tide lasted only for a second before dying down like the water within an oasis. Eventually revealing the ones within.
Hadriel had stood up from where he previously laid. His body fully healed and reformed with new bat-like features, yet also neatly dressed by a coat of starry heat.
[A/N: I think this would accurately describe Hadriel's vampire form]; https://www.google.com/search?q=underworld+vampire+marcus&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwjfipTbwePiAhUvHJoKHexXCk8Q2-
Above him, Michael's ignited figure squirmed like a worm while Hadriel's bone-like fingers locked onto the blazing throat. His palm was weakly sizzling as it firmly hung on.
"Are you satisfied now...?" Hadriel angrily retorted at the human torch as his branching arm trembled. Ordering the fingers to dig into Michael's neck.
"C...CRRKKKK!!!!"
The squirming turned to mad shaking as vaporized spit and clogged blood ran down Michael's gaping mouth. His lack of concentration caused the flickering heat to slowly disperse. Being eventually replaced by the antagonized aura which was excluded by Hadriel's glare.
"You dare?" Hadriel proudly stated. His overflowing anger seething out from his leathery white skin.
Michael tried to increase the intensity of the flames while drawing more power from his genetic codes. However, the instant he gained strength, Hadriel further tightened his clutch as multiple dark veins started wriggling from beneath his leathery skin.
"YOU ACTUALLY DARE TARNISH MY BODY!!!"
Hadriel's voice boomed out like the roar from an offended warhorn. It's mighty call making the land tremble in fear. However, it seemed to also be accompanied by something else other than an immaterial might.
As the sound dispersed, a nefarious, grey gas started to secrete out from the pores on the vampire's body, much like Michaels fire. But unlike the heat, this contained no warmth.
Michael wasn't able to pay it much attention as his vision grew more tunnel-like, but was forced to when it touched his glowing frame.
The moment this powder-like substance slithered over his chest and hands, the flesh began to wither away like rotting vegetation.
His dimming, yellow eyes were swallowed in shock while the fire armor turned to a shallow, blue membrane. His focus concentrated on immediately firing of all bloodlines he had.
However, as the powerful organic codes neared the wounded areas, planning to transform him, the vulnerable cells decomposed and died. Unable to fight this unknown power in their base sate.
Michael's struggling turned dull, the flesh on his limp hands to warm gravel and the light in his eyes dark.
Powerless to do anything, he could only hang there while vaguely look at Hadriel's horrid face that now held a peculiar smile.
'Why are you smiling?'
Michael unmovingly looked at the mischievous grin. Finding it rather familiar. Where had he seen this before?
'No, wait...'
From the depths of his brain, an identical image carved itself before him.
One containing the face of the old man who had taken his life.
Michael's vision eventually turned pitch black. Closing off the world from him.
However, from the void which filled his brain, he heard a voice which made his instincts tremble with excitement.
No, this familiar whisper was not a voice.
It was a slow tick.
....
Hadriel uninterestingly eyed down the now dried candle in his grip. Choosing to only watch as its body was further turned to rotting matter by the grey gas.
But for a second, he scanned over the decomposing frame once, as the corrosion seemed to stopped, but then continued again.
"It seems that your body is not only made from organic matter, but also some type of metal?"
Hadriel nodded to himself. Moving his gaze back up to the beast's face.
"Hm?"
A short hum of surprise leaked out from his mouth as he looked over Michael's face which still had a dying blue light cling onto it.
The creature, although having red rivers of spit and aged blood drip down its jaw, was smiling at him.
"It's too bad you didn't run away when you had the chance." Hadriel mused to himself. Going over to lick Michael's eyes with his own empty gaze.
However, as he locked onto the supposedly dead, yellow bulbs, he found a weak light inside. Desperately following each of his movements.
"Haha, still struggling, are we?"
But as Hadriel bathed himself in the struggling dots, he weakly frowned as something rather unusual caught his interest. Were they growing brighter?
"No, are they expanding?"
An absurd, yet unbelievable feeling coveted his heart for a moment. But sadly, the internal warning given off by his instincts proved to be too slow.
Before Hadriel could take another breath through his devilish mouth, the twinkling lights within Michael's dead eyes brilliantly lit up with a mad gleam which dyed the world red, and filled Hadriel with a bad preemption.
"WHAT IS THIS?!"
The vampire's venomous glare crumbled as he stretched out the spikey growths on his back.
Trying to get away.
However, the instant his claws tried to retreat, Michael's figure was rekindled by a torrent of chaotic, pink steam which gushed out from his body like the heavy water within a hazardous nuclear reactor. This most likely happening due to the cells inside beginning to visibly overcharge.
Snickering limbs of red lightning then started randomly snarling off him like a pack of leashed hounds. Charring everything they struck while growing more restless by the second...
"NO!!"
And just then, as Hadriel managed to let go, the energy welling within Michael's radiating body was abruptly discharged like a sonic boom. Ruthlessly blinding and burning everything in sight within a thundering inferno!