This time around, Zac had expected what was coming, otherwise he would have been rolling around on the forest floor, in tears at his transformation into a wolf/human hybrid.
Zac made the first move, his powerful legs launching him at the wolf, clenching his fists as he propelled himself at the wolf, punching as hard as he could at the wolf's head.
"Arrrrrggghhh" Zac gave a strangled yell as his hand slammed into the wolf's heavy skull, his hand felt like he had punched a rock, evidently, this wasn't the way to use to his new form.
'S***, s***, s***' Zac shook his aching hand, and backed away from the wolf, who seemed slightly dazed from the blow, shaking his head from side to side.
'I've got to use this form to its advantage. Of course, I won't be able to knock out the wolf with a punch, this form is based on it, and it's not as if wolves have powerful punches.' Zac thought to himself as he distanced himself from the wolf, his legs taking enormous striders, while his tail intuitively stuck out behind him, keeping him balanced as he ran.
'Alright. How do Forest Wolves attack?' Zac thought to himself, as the confused wolf turned around to face him, growling in confusion. Its prey now smelt like another Forest Wolf, but not completely so, whatever it was, smelt wrong, and so the wolf was determined to kill it.
Even as the Forest Wolf was leaping forward to attack Zac, everything clicked for him.
Rather than forcing himself to think of ways to attack the wolf, all he did was follow his instincts, and as he did, his body responded.
Zac ran forward, his lean, muscled figure tipping forward, as both his arms helped to propel him forward, his mouth opening wide to reveal the white fangs he had grown, his tongue drooping out of his mouth, looking every bit the wolf.
The Forest wolf was taken by surprise, it was still partially dazed from the repeated blows to its head, and then the prey it had been hunting ran toward it, smelling like a fellow wolf.
Zac's mouth filled with the warm blood of the wolf, as he cleanly ran under the wolf, his fangs tearing out its throat, as he instinctively closed his mouth over the wolf's throat.
Zac spat out the fur and torn flesh of the wolf, the wolf slumped behind him, its mouth bubbling with blood as it bled out from the gaping wound in its throat.
Blood dripped down from the fur around Zac's mouth and chin, onto his chest, but his eyes were vacant, his thoughts no longer those of the worried teen they had been moments ago.
Instead, his mind was filled with the taste of the blood in his mouth, and the fact that he had wanted to kill the wolves that filled the clearing.
Zac's transformation wasn't as simple as changing his muscles and his skeleton, his Mana Core had changed his genetic information itself, and his brain had transformed along with the rest of his body.
Driven almost purely by instinct, Zac ran on all fours toward the smell of freshly spilled blood, and the sound of whining wolves and yells of combat.
The man guarding the survivors turned abruptly at the sound of breaking twigs, and watched in surprise as a dark blur sped out of the brushes surrounding the clearing.
"Watch out Fredrick!" He yelled out, but then stared in shock as the blur slammed into one of the wolves that was about to leap onto the M-Type's back, forming a ball of growling fur and limbs.
"Hold! It might be a friendly!" The man called out again, even as Fredrick turned around, his enormous drill-like hands already swinging through the air toward the new threat, having detected it with sensors implanted in the back of his head.
There was a loud screeching as Fredrick pulled his arm off course, sparks flying from his arm as he twisted it suddenly, the gears inside it squealing in protest.
Frederick looked on in surprise as the lump of fur unwrapped itself, a humanoid figure detaching itself from the torn carcass of a wolf.
Frederick turned away, jumping back into the fray with the surviving wolves, but keeping his sensors trained on the new arrival.
"You're a wild one, huh! I guess some of you G-Types like to really get in tune with the animalistic sides of yourselves!" The man guarding the woman and child called out, grinning as he tapped his enormous metal bat against his palm.
Zac ignored him, leaping at another wolf, still driven completely by instinct, the only hint of his human mind the aversion he felt to harming any of the humans within the clearing.
But as for the wolves, they were fair game to him, and Zac's mind was caught up in the thrill of the hunt, his wolfish instincts governing him completely.
With Zac joining the fray, it wasn't long before all the wolves in the clearing had disappeared, Frederick slamming his fists into the head of a wolf that was still twitching a little.
'Huh? What the hell? What happened?' Zac's consciousness swam back once his wolf brain realized that there were no enemies left, and Zac found himself growling at Fredrick, who was watching him cautiously, one arm raised, ready to strike.
"Look here, man. I appreciate the help, but you need to pull yourself back together, or I'm going to have to take you out." Frederick warned the blood covered humanoid in front of him.
He had seen how the Augmented had torn into the wolves, and he wasn't about to turn his back on such a clear threat.