Part 1
Daren did not expect his night to proceed that way.
Every night he would just follow his routine. Reach the village, find the spirit, beat him up until he leaves, and then escape from the knights. Of course, it's not like he wanted to have such a tiresome routine. If possible he wished he could just get rid of the spirit for good and be at peace.
However, despite how fast and strong he was, he never managed to end it for good. Spirits can only be purged by the power from the gods and Daren's transformation was a curse.
He always hated that curse because it made him feel like a freak hiding among normal people. Being able to turn into a beast at will every time the sun was gone? How was he supposed to live a normal life now?
To his surprise, while his life was not even close to normal, he did manage to find some happiness.
On a fateful night, he saved a couple that was being attacked by bandits by using his beast form to scare them off. Daren could have easily killed the bandits but he was not a violent person at heart. After finishing his heroic act he tried to leave but he saw that the man had a broken leg and needed medical aid as soon as possible.
The wife looked at him with wide crying eyes and a shaking body, but no matter how scary Daren looked she wouldn't leave her husband.
"Do you need help?" He released these words while reverting to his human form and tried to talk with the sacred woman.
"Please..." She answered the now thin young man and the three started heading towards a nearby city. Daren in his beast form was faster than any horse, or any animal for that matter, and saved the man's life.
The couple was bursting with relief and gratefulness towards their savior. After that, Daren met with the daughter of the couple, love started to bloom and a happy ending in the life of this young beast kid was starting to appear on the horizon. That is... until the night the spirit appeared.
Part 2
"So what does this spirit look like?" said Marceus while taking a stroll inside the forest.
"..." Daren however just looked at him perplexed.
"What? Something on my face?"
"Most people when they find about my curse usually try to ask about how I became like this. I was surprised this was your first question."
"Kid... You're adorable... But I already said it before... You're not special. I've met a lot of weird bizarre people and heard all kinds of tales about transformations, monsters, curses, and all that junk. Whatever it is you are going through right now, trust me... You are not the first."
The two of them where heading deep into the forest. Daren was using his power to sense the location of the spirit. He could have found him anytime he wanted but if he did the spirit would just leave for another village, so it was best to try and keep him locked where he was.
However, now he has a chance to finally end him thanks to the supposed "living weapon" helping him. If they end up failing, the spirit will just move to another place and Daren will have to find him all over again. Who knows how many lives would be lost while that happens.
"Is that so..." Said Daren while curious "My beast form was called many things in the past but I don't think any name ever even come close to adorable."
"Ok, let's make one thing clear, I don't mean your beast form looks like something I want to look at at any moment of my life. Honestly, I rather not have to look at that thing ever again if possible. You look like an abomination that came out wrong when you were being modeled."
"..." Daren was finding himself at a loss of what to say in response.
"That said... What you look like has nothing to do with what you are. I mean you're ugly, my God you're ugly, I have met ugly monsters before but even they would run away from that face..."
"..."
"But in the few months I've known you, you dedicated all your time and effort in trying to protect people that didn't even know you, all while trying to avoid any bloodshed and major collateral damage. You are like a really ugly terrifying hero."
"Is that a compliment? I feel like you could have said that in a nicer way..."
"You wanted me to lie to you?"
"You don't have to lie to be nice."
"If the way you look when you do something you need to do is what wakes you up in the middle of your sleep, then I hate to tell you, you are going to have a hard time living in this world."
"...My wife liked it... She said it was the face of a savior..."
"Yeah... She was lying to you..."
"What!?"
"I'm sure she meant well but there is no way she was not scared every single day of your beast form."
"You never even met her!!"
"Don't have to. I told ya, I've heard all the stories already. She probably was a very strong woman, enduring it every day and not running away from you... But you can't just re-write how people feel about certain things."
Daren was enraged and ready to punch Marceus in the face but his body froze once he caught a glimpse of their target a few meters ahead. Marceus followed his line of sight trying to find the spirit ahead of them but nothing could be seen.
"Is it here?"
"Yes... I know because it's shape takes the form of the person he ate that you love the most... And right now he looks just like her..."
"I see... He probably never ate anyone I care about so that's why I can't give him a shape to see."
"... I guess..."
"Well, alright then... Let's go avenge your lying wife."
"... God, I hate you..."
Part 3
The spirit was about to feed on the villager it had captured while Daren and Marceus were facing each other. A young boy was sound sleep in the middle of the woods while the spirit kept circling him as if deciding which part to bite first. Once it finally made its decision it started to fly towards the child with a massive mouth big enough to bite his entire leg off.
But one second before the child was reached a mass of black and silver leaped out of the darkness and slashed the spirit on the stomach.
The spirit was thrown into a rock and started to build up rage as it realized who his attacker was. It was Daren in his monster form, a black massive creature who looked like a combination of a man and a lion walking on two legs, a humanoid muscular body covered in black fur with a head that showed the face of the king of beasts.
The spirit was familiar with his opponent, they had engaged in battle many times in the past. The monster lion could harm him but never completely kill him. But something was different. The part of the body that was attacked by Daren was burning. This wasn't just pain, it was divine energy.
Confused by how Daren managed to hurt him, the spirit gave another look and noticed something silver on Daren's hands. His hands were covered in metallic silver claws in a perfect shape to fit exactly into his body.
"It worked! I can kill him!" said Daren in his beast form.
[As long as you are ok with killing something that looks like your own wife that is.] said a voice being transmitted directly into Daren's mind.
"What the!!? Who said that??"
[...It's me Daren, your dead grandma! I'm haunting you for all the times you rejected my homemade cook. Who do you think it is idiot??]
"Marceus?? How are you speaking to me right now?"
[I can speak inside the mind of anyone who wears me. By the way, you are about to get punched.]
"I'm about to what?" And as he said that the huge lion creature was smacked by the spirit in the stomach and collided with a nearby tree.
[Whoa... He attacked in the same spot... Guess he is a vengeful spirit haha.] Said Marceus while sounding like he was having fun.
Daren stoop up from his fall and started to charge towards the spirit.
"Take this seriously!" warned Daren with a serious tone.
[Why? Didn't you say that you always beat this guy? Just do what you always do.]
"That's because he knows I can't kill him so he never took me seriously. Now that I can he will be coming at me with everything he has."
[Eh... Don't worry, even if he kills you I will survive and tell your story.]
"Please stop talking!!"
The monster lion and the big-mouthed spirit started exchanging blows with each other. Every once in a while the spirit would try to eat the still sleeping child but Daren was always fast enough to protect him.
[Daren I know this isn't a good time but I need to tell you something.]
"Now?? You need to use the toilet or something? I'm fighting for my life over here!" said Daren while doing his best to try to lend a hit on his opponent while protecting the kid.
The spirit grabbed Daren by the leg and started to slam him on the ground repeatedly.
[It's just that I still can't see the spirit no matter how hard I try, so I just wanted you to know that you kinda look like you're dancing with yourself right now haha.]
Daren was about to be slammed into the ground another time but managed to bury his claws into the earth and forced himself to be freed from his opponent.
[Aaaah!! Get me off!! Get me off the ground! It's dirty!!]
"You promise to shut up?"
[Yes!! Now please get me off the ground!! I can't breathe!!]
The spirit charged towards Daren with immense speed. It's mouth more open than ever before.
"It's trying to eat us." Daren noted.
[!!!] Mareceus then had an idea.
"But with my speed, he will never catch us."
[No, it's ok! Let him eat us!]
"have you lost your mind?"
[Trust me!]
The spirit moved like a bullet towards the duo in an attempt to bite Daren's head off. The two collided and Daren was pushed backward by the impact, with the spirit's teeth covering his entire head.
Then all of sudden, the spirit began to burn with the same pain as before, only this time his whole body was affected by the energy. He screamed in pain and anguish trying to understand what happened.
Daren's claws were still buried when he went for the bite so the silver claws shouldn't have touched him. But on a closer look, he realized that the silver claws were gone and that now Daren had a silver lion-shaped helmet with a massive horn on top of his eyes.
The spirit had been stabbed by that horn, at that speed, and very deep into its body. Survival was impossible. He tried to reach for the sleeping kid one last time, but his shape disappeared before he could touch him.
Daren and Marceus stood close by victorious as their opponent vanishes.
[What happened? Did we win?] said Marceus, still unable to see the spirit.
"The spirit is gone..." reassured Daren.
Daren breathed a huge sigh of relief as he realized his long battle against the killer of his loved one was finally over.
"You can get off my head now..."
[You sure? If we stay like this forever you won't have to worry about people being scared of your ugly face anymore haha!]
Daren grabbed Marceus in his helmet shape and threw him in a nearby lake where he got attacked by an angry-looking crocodile that was sleeping.
[Aaaaahhh!!!]
"Thanks for the help by the way." said Daren as he watched Marceus fight for his life against his new mortal enemy.