"Bad dog. Sit!" Annabeth shouted as Balduino the nightmare wolf gave chase.
"I already told you that I am not a dog!" Replied Balduino in a voice that almost sounded like a roar.
His claw missed Annabeth by an inch as she had dived away the very moment he threw his leg forward. This was the umpteenth time this dog conversation had taken place, and also the umpteenth time Balduino had missed landing a hit by such a small margin.
"But you look like one!" Annabeth replied, still running and dodging her opponent's attacks while infuriating him by not letting go of her assessment.
"Dogs shouldn't talk you know," Annabeth continued.
"What?! Shut up already!" The infuriated Balduino replied.
"Make me, puppy!" She replied while sticking her tongue out. {A play on words, like 'make me Papi' but it's 'make me puppy' here instead.}
He dived forward to bite her torso but she ducked underneath him, making him bite the air like a dog trying to catch an invisible frisbee. Balduino had gone through enough word exchanges with the girl that he was considering just throwing his front legs in the air and walking out of the fight in frustration. She had gotten on his nerves with her little remarks and the fact that he had not landed a successful hit on her added to his rage.
Annabeth dodged and moved gracefully like a ballerina, backflipping around like an Olympic gymnast. She knew her opponent was stronger than her, but from the time she dodged his first attack she made up her mind to fight him. If she couldn't fight him using strength, she would dodge until her opponent was tired.
For some strange reason, she wanted to win against someone much stronger than her in a one-on-one fight. Some may view it as taking on a challenge while others as stupidity, but this was just plain suicidal. Unlike what you would expect for someone living their third life, Annabeth's needless recklessness only increased with each life she lived it seemed.
Seeing that he was not landing any hits in his wolf form, Balduino decided to undo his transformation partially. Unfortunately for him, this provided an opportunity for Annabeth. While Balduino's body was changing, he stood in one place, unable to dodge or attack. This created a 2-second interval of vulnerability that Annabeth used to kick him on the head, sending him flying several meters away.
The moment Annabeth had gotten contact with Balduino's transforming body, a tiny bit of darkness magic emitting from his fur had gotten contact with her skin. The darkness inside her stirred a little, but she did not notice it.
Balduino's transformation was completed while he was on the ground. His upper body had reverted to its human form while the lower body was still that of a wolf. His teeth were still fangs and his fingers had sharp claws at the end.
Annabeth could not see a point in this hybrid transformation until Balduino made his move. Within a split second, he had covered the distance between them and nearly removed her throat with his claws. At the very last second, she had dived backwards, making him clasp only a few red hairs from her head.
Annabeth's face was filled with shock at how fast he had become. Balduino didn't miss the expression and smirked, a sense of self-satisfaction descending on him.
In his human form, he was extremely fast but lacked any strength. In a fight against someone physically stronger, he would eventually lose if the fight dragged on for too long. His wolf form provided strength but unfortunately, his speed reduced greatly. The hybrid form, however, allowed him to have the best of both worlds, but only for a short period of time. Partial transformations were hard to maintain as the brain would have two sets of bodily functions to maintain, one of human and the other of beast.
While Annabeth was rising to her feet, he gave off a howl that was loud enough to make her use her hands to close her ears. She honestly felt like her eardrums would pop if she didn't cover her ears.
Balduino moved forward quickly, headbutting her and punching her in the stomach before she could even think about dodging. She hadn't recovered fully from the fights against the other bandits and felt dizzy from this attack. As she struggled to maintain her balance, Annabeth tried to conjure an earth spell for protection but was stabbed by four sharp claws in her stomach before she could finish.
She felt completely drained of all her energy as the pain started to spread throughout her body. Her knees buckled and she fell on her back, staring into the sky as her stomach wounds started to bleed out slowly.
Whether it was due to his animalistic transformation or his bandit life, Balduino didn't want her to die too easily. He fused a bit of darkness magic into his hybrid transformation and bent down to grab her head. The darkness he emitted from his body was very little but if injected into someone's head, they would hallucinate as long as he kept injecting it in.
Annabeth started thrashing about and kicking like a dying antelope in a tiger's maws. She was trying to scream but her voice couldn't come out, producing pained internal screams. Whatever she was seeing or feeling made her extremely frightened and she wanted out of it. Her expression turned pale, bringing Balduino some more satisfaction.
He licked his lips and aimed his claws at her throat to end her suffering but his ears picked up on loud gasps coming from a building close by. When he turned to look at the building, he heard panicked gasps from that direction before the slightly opened door of the building shut.
He threw the bleeding Annabeth on the ground and started walking to the building, thinking there could be another enemy around. The strong smell of blood and entrails around had blocked his nose from picking up any other scents. He carefully approached the door, hoping not to be caught in a surprise attack.
Balduino tried to open the door but he felt some resistance to his pushing. He tried again but the door only opened slightly before closing again. Someone was pushing against the door to stop him from entering.
He grinned wickedly and started conjuring his full nightmare wolf transformation spell. When it was done, he transformed into the 2 meters tall black scary wolf with high strength and low speed.
Although he had the strength to breakdown the door now, he decided to have a little bit of fun with his new opponent. He entered into his void form and passed right through the door and the children standing on the other side of it. They were all leaning against the door trying to stop whatever was outside from entering easily.
Unfortunately for them, this big black bad wolf didn't need to huff and puff to get where he wanted to