What!? You dare to mischaracterize our Ran Ran as a stupid dog!?
Ran, sick 'em boy!
Ran, after a while, finally realized that, guess what, he had hands!
He patted the back of his head in an effort to find something, anything, but was utterly disappointed. I guess he also forgot he had a hood on and that if he had eyes in the back of his head, he still wouldn't be able to see with them.
"Oh." He was saddened by his lack of extra eyes and the mysterious circumstance, of which brought the suggestion into question in the first place, just glossed over his mind.
He took a second glance at the blood cloud, then he turned his attention to the bulky wolf who was looking at him.
They were, surprisingly, over a hundred feet (thirty meters) apart! And he threw that giant*ss axe from that distance!?
The axe in question, I'll have you know, was over two meters (about seven feet) long ! The axe heads length, from one end to the other, was a good meter as well. The whole thing was already bigger and wider than Ran was.
And while it was made of soul juice, its weight and power was undeniable. It had wolf-like engravings all along the shaft, depicting a pack of wolves hungrily chasing a deer throughout all kinds of terrain. From the freezing tundras, to the rocky mountains, all the way to the grasslands and plains of old.
The axe head itself was similar, in appearance, to a normal woodcutters axe, except its edge was elongated beyond normal conventions, seemingly resembling a crescent moon.
They both looked at each other, even with everyone else's battles entering and exiting their point of view like an eerie dance of death.
Then… they both started walking towards each other, calmly.
Then… they started running towards each other, calmly.
Then… they started sprinting towards each other, calmly.
Then… they both grinned in extremely similar fashions, also calmly.
Then… and this is the most important one… they hugged each other! Calmly!
Except this wasn't an ordinary hug, no! It was a bear hug! A competition of strength!
The two meter tall wolf person, which had the muscles of a professional bodybuilder, looked at Ran in surprise. After all, this puny human was just (and I mean barely) able to keep up with him.
He looked at Ran for a second before saying, "good, very good, but not enough."
The bulky wolf's muscles bulged, the fur stretching taut. At that moment, Ran sniffed a surge of blood wind from his opponent, but it was too late.
Slowly, at first, but also very quickly, the wolf picked up Ran through sheer force before flipping him and slamming him right into his knee!
"Argh!" Ran spat a mouthful of blood from his spinal cord fracturing and the fragments causing a rupture in one of his lungs. Some tiny fragments were also spat out.
Ran felt an intense pain before… nothing. He couldn't even move his arms! Or his legs!
As the bulky wolf coldly watched Ran squirm in agony, his eyes abruptly widened. It was because Ran stopped moving.
This easy?
He was hoping for something more… exciting. Yet, he was sorely disappointed. And yet again, this kind of scene was very familiar to him.
And as he reminisced, he continued watching. However, his remembrance of the past was popped like a bubble by the sudden and strange burst of white-pink flames that completely consumed Rans body.
But… there was something wrong. Or right?
Rans' eyes watched the scene in front of him, the flames consuming all of his vision.
He was reminded of his soul, but at this moment, there was something… more.
"This… this is-" Ran cut himself off as he grabbed a hold of a piece of his flame and found it different.
Strange and unfamiliar, yet extremely familiar at the same time.
And within the white-pink flame laid a peculiar color all on its own.
It looked around, as if in curiosity, before it "nodded happily" and what happened next was something Ran would not forget throughout his entire lives.
The differently colored flame then grew at a pace that's not too fast, but not too slow either. Once it covered half of the original white-pink flame, another change happened.
They began fusing. No, that's right. It's not wrong either. It's more of an intermingling. Both colors separate, yet not at the same time. There was a gradation.
And as the two colors swirled and fused with each other, the resulting image is a beautiful depiction of what can only be described as a divine revelation.
The multicolored, different sized, swirls and the gradation between each color "solidified", becoming the permanent likeness of Ran and if he went into his soul, he would find the same thing.
The white-pink flames covering his body had already changed, in accordance, and the multicolored swirls completely took over, showing its beloved appearance to the world. It was like a budding flower who finally opened its petals for the first time.
The many, many, swirls of all different sizes pulled on each other like whirlpools with their own currents, affecting each other in pleasant ways.
The two colors created a contrast, their own thing, but the gradation harmonized them both; a union, a… wedding…
Two as two and two as one.
"So… beautiful." Ran was entranced by his own beauty, totally forgetting about anything else. His eyes sparkled and dazzled with razzle, having never seen such inner beauty before. The swirls seem to sweep him up and take him to a far away place of magic and Majesty. A place where anything is possible.
However...
The bulky wolf was confused. He didn't find anything strange about this fellow other than the change of color. The flames as well; at first, he thought someone else had interrupted and decided to burn Ran to a crisp, but the coldness he felt being emitted was conflicting with that suggestion.
But… he was a wolf of honor who decided it would be more exciting this way. He saw Ran move and his blood boiled, he couldn't wait! And he definitely didn't try to sneak attack Ran earlier!
And as Ran stood up, completely healed, the dazed look in his eyes never faded. No, instead, they seem to develop even further!
Why? It's simple; the mysteries just kept on coming! I should really make a list of all of them or I'll lose track.
Simply, there was another change!
It wasn't from the appearance or color or anything like that. Rather, it was in the quantity. Other than the swirls and addition/change of color, the quality stayed the same. His soul and juice didn't get any stronger or gained any affinities or attributes; it just got larger!
Literally! He felt as if his soul expanded! Now, he felt as if his total capacity had nearly doubled if not more. And his recovery received a boost as well.
And finally, what color was it? It was probably fairly obvious from the get go…
It was blue. An extreme blue! Like Lapis (without the yellow bits), its saturated color created an unseen depth, just like a deep ocean. Coincidentally, that's also a color.
Ran had already connected the color blue with his bloodline of the Koi. Its appearance can mean a variety of things, but there is one that is more likely than the others.
"Its awakened even further now." Now Ran was onto something. And more importantly, when his bloodline awakens, what happens? It grows! After all, it was awakened from the moment he got it, that's why he has some of its effects.
Then there was something else. I know, on top of all of that, there was also the feelings he's getting.
After all, what is this story with its feelings? That's what this whole thing is about!!! Feelings!
But this is when it gets weird. I mean, the kind of vibes Rans getting right now was confusing.
It was love, and but not….
At least, it wasn't the kind of love Ran has experienced or dealt with first hand. Not that he's fallen in love before, but he still got the feeling it was a bit different than that. It has a different taste, so to speak. And he just couldnt quite put his finger on what it is, as if he was lacking something.
Finally, he could only internalize it all and just add all of these mysteries to his list… wait he has a list!? So the character has a list, but the author doesn't!? Oh the injustice!
He fell from being entranced and looked at his sigil.
Indeed, the swirls and gradations of the old and new colors were still there, changing what the sigil looks like. It was a permanent thing, unlike the red-pink that would appear at "random" moments and then disappear as quickly as it came.
He sighed in gratitude, though he didn't know why, and decided to focus at what's at hand.
…
Seeing his opponent looking brand new, and even better than before, the wolf was shocked before he responded.
"Phew, you really had me scared buddy. You know, you're better than I thought."
His bulk (body) moved back as he was only a few feet from Ran before doing a slight bow.
What's this? Only 15 degrees!? Are you saying that Ranny boi here is undeserving of respect!?
It should, at least, be 45 degrees! If not more! Now, face the consequences, this time… hopefully.
"Hah, dare I say it, you might make me have enough respect for you to know my name."
Wolves, of all types, were a particularly prideful bunch even with their packs. If anything, being surrounded by a bunch of prideful folks will only have a run off effect!
And this one here, he can be considered the epitome of that.
Since I'm giving this guy a name, a little background investigation will never hurt anybody.
Okay, let's see here, oh… so he's rank-6. Okay. Definitely don't see how anything can go wrong there.
Hmm, so he's the second son of the tribe's leader? So he's someone special. Very special, Indeed… hehe.
Oh, oooh. He's a sadist?
No, this guy is good for the plot, so I'll have to smoothen things out.
Phew, he's got a lot of… bloodlust. Basically, whenever he trained with his "buddies", normal stuff like that, he would end up somehow severely injuring them; hence why he remembered the past after seeing Ran in the condition he was in.
Other than (the most important stuff), there really isn't anything left. Well, he's really loved by his family, though everyone else sees him as very tyrannical. Okay, that's about it.
Now…
When Ran heard his words, he quickly took apart his words and saw that the wolf wanted him to go first.
Ran also did a slight bow before introducing himself, "Ran, at your service."
"Ran? Hmm." The wolf pondered on his name, repeating it out loud and letting it roll off his tongue (physically). He boobed his head while saying it, paying particular attention to the pronunciations and experimented a bit with it.
"I like it", he decisively said after taking like thirty seconds out of his day for a single word.
He did another bow this time before affirming his existence to Ran.
"It's Bane. And it's the last thing you'll remember before I cut you limb from limb."
He cringed at his own line before he, like a wild bull, charged towards Ran with his axe at the ready!
Wait a minute… Bane. Bane… why does that so sound so familiar. Hmm, wait, a knee to the spine!? Isn't that copyright!?