As I slid the ring onto my right middle finger, I felt a stabbing pain. Four small blades protruded from the inside of the ring into my finger, all the way to the bone. The pain was immense, but oddly it quickly subsided.
"No time for questions Caesar, I'm going to force activate your ability now, this may hurt and be a bit uncomfortable but it's better than dying." The angel said.
I understand and accepted that for now, because being dinner for the wolves didn't sound good to me.
"Do it, I'm not ready to die yet," I said.
As soon as I had said that I could feel great pains all throughout my body. It was as if I was having all the air sucked out of me and then way to much being forced back in in a quick repetition. At the same time I could feel all my muscles tightening more and more, all the while my teeth felt like they were growing out.
"Caesar are you okay?" Icarus asked behind me.
I couldn't even bring myself to answer, and the wolves were coming closer, seeing that their meal was struggling to even stand.
"Now this may sound weird, but trust your primal instincts right now. You'll understand your own power shortly, sadly we don't have the time currently to give you mine too." The angel said.
I didn't understand but had no choice but to listen to him right now. The wolves were only a few feet away now, there was four in front of me and two in front of Icarus. The tension was high as both sides were waiting for the other to make a move.
I made the first move in the end. As soon as the pain in my body had subsided I lunged forward towards the closest wolf, my right arm trailing behind me. Instead of throwing a punch though, I brought my hand down, palm open and fingers out. As soon as I hit the wolf I saw the difference. My hand was no longer the same, it now looked like a claw, just like the wolves, flames and all.
The wolf looked down for the count as I had put a good sized gash in its head. Luckily I had the advantage of reach on my side against them.
As I had leapt towards one of the wolves, the other three had done the same towards me. One bit my arm and another my leg. The third seemed to be hesitant though, trailing behind the others. Searing pain shot through the right side of my body from the bites. They were deep for sure. If it wasn't for the adrenaline from the danger, I doubt I'd still be standing.
Following the animalistic instincts I currently had I grabbed the wolf on my leg around it's throat with my left hand, digging my claw fingers in and squeezed till I could feel something crack. While I was doing that I pulled my right arm closer to my face and bit into the other wolfs neck, tearing it apart. Part of me was repulsed by this, yet another part felt like it was natural.
Suddenly a loud pop was heard, like something exploded from the inside out. Right after the sound of a wolf whimpering as it went away from the mountain was heard.
"You good over there?" I yelled back as I spit out the piece of wolf in my mouth.
"Uhh, I think so, at least I've handled the wolves," he stammered back.
For the most part he was right. The wolves were handled. The two that bit me were dead, and the two he was dealing with had no trace left behind. The only remaining ones were the one who's head I had clawed, and the one who seemed to afraid to fight.
"Well we may as well not leave this unfinished," Icarus said, seeming confident now.
"They don't seem to want to hurt as anymore, we could just let them leave," I said. I don't know if it was because I had partially transformed into one of them, or something else. But just killing them felt wrong.
"And when we go to sleep and they decide they're hungry again?" He asked irritated.
"Fine, I see you won't budge on this, I'll do it then," looking at my clawed hands, "this is what these are for after all."
As I walked over to them, the two wolves seemed like they understood what was about to happen, but one was to weak to move, and the other wouldn't leave it behind.
"I'm sorry you two, I'll make it quick," I said. I never was fond of violence, but I understood that sometimes, that would be the only answer to a situation.
I knelt down next to the injured one, I figured the merciful thing would be to kill it first. End it's suffering. With the idea to turn it over and then sink my claw into its neck I willed my left hand back to normal, but then something strange happened. When I placed my hand on the wolf a strange message appeared before me. It was like a magical floating envelope. I looked over to Icarus to see if he could see it, but he had no reaction and just nodded to me.
Looking back to the strange message I decided to focus my vision on it. When I did so it appeared to open and a letter had appeared. On it it had a single question.
Activate Bastian system and store flare wolf as a familiar?
Being left with more questions than answers I said yes, and suddenly the wolf flashed brightly and vanished.
"Caesar what did you do?" Icarus asked shocked.
"I'm. I'm not entirely sure to be honest with you," I said as I went to do the same thing with the second wolf. "But what I do know, is that we can finally get a full rest."