Greymont quickly arrived beside Craig, standing next to him, his eyes fixed onto Rakan who had yet to catch on that something was wrong. He looked at Craig with narrowed eyes, wondering what was happening to him. Using his focused sight, he could see the tightly compacted threads of energy that filled up Craig's entire body. The reaction Craig was having, he guessed, might be some kind of overload or something.
"It's one surprise after another with the three of you isn't it?" Rakan stated gloomily. "Active regeneration." He exclaimed with a pause, after noticing that Greymont's injury was healing on it's own. "That shouldn't be possible at your level of evolution. Unless, you're only pretending to be weak. What game are you playing with me, Greymont? Who are you exactly? Are you from one the seven families?"
Rakan had grown cautious. He suddenly grew apprehensive upon seeing the mysterious recovery Greymont had undergone. The things that he knew made him wary of many possibilities. The more he thought about things, the more perplexed he became.
First there was Maeli, who had a unique source energy that was unusually attractive. Although she was indeed odd, he hadn't put much thought into it, until now.
Then there was Craig, who he originally had zero interest in, until he suddenly discovered such a mysterious Source energy within him. What was more perplexing was the fact that he was a human, who were innately powerless. They were only able to stand as equals with the other races because of weapons and alchemy. He'd never met a human with any source energy before. He'd only heard that there were one or two with a pitifully tiny trace of it.
On top of all that, Craig was able to fight against him even in his berserk state. Not even the orcs had been able to stand against him, and that was when mentioning groups of them. Yet a single human... He pondered upon Craig's origin as well.
Finally there was Greymont. A wolf he had come to know ever since he moved into this forest, for reasons unknown. He barely had any interactions with Greymont over the time he'd been here. When he learnt he wasn't the only wolf Transcendent in the forest he had seeked him out for a fight over territory. Yet when he personally met Greymont and saw his abundant Source energy, he slightly regretted that decision. He expected that he'd have been taught a lesson for his boldness.
Greymont however, simply stated that the stone forest was their territory and he could claim the rest if he so desired. With how small the stone forest was in comparison to the entire remaining forest Rakan was overjoyed, and thus agreed. From time to time he would have conflicts with Greymont's pack which were always resolved by Greymont in a peaceful manner. He never understood why Greymont was so calm and isolated. He assumed it was probably due to his past or some personal matter.
As his strength grew he got bolder and bolder with his actions, yet Greymont still hadn't taught him a lesson. And so time flew, until a few days ago when he chased Maeli and Craig into Greymont's territory. His strength had grown to a major extent, giving him an enlarged head. He was deeply attracted by Maeli's source energy and felt he was strong enough to take on Greymont. He also looked down on him for being ever passive.
Unlike his expectation, he had lost and lost miserably at that. That loss pushed him to launch a feeding frenzy on the orcs in hopes of getting stronger to take revenge. He was elated that he was able to suppress and defeat Greymont this time around. The fact was, that he 'was' elated, but not anymore. Because Greymont now displayed abilities that forced him to rethink his position. Did he truly win, or was he being toyed with?
"Seven Families?" Greymont had no idea what Rakan was referring to. "Should I know what that is?" He asked in return.
Rakan's eyes narrowed in suspicion, looking at the slowly healing wound on Greymont's shoulder. "Active regeneration isn't just some random common ability. Stop playing dumb and tell me which family you're from." There was a hint of worry in his tone as he said this.
No one understood what he was referring to. Maeli was clueless, Greymont was the same and Craig... well Craig was busy suffering from an ever increasing pain all over his body. He remained on his knees, trying his best to not scream and fall over with his entire body soaked in cold sweat.
Greymont and Maeli's attention were fixed on Rakan in case of any sudden moves. They were also trying to figure out what he was speaking about.
Rakan was no longer paying attention to Craig because he was deeply apprehensive of Greymont. He didn't dare to make another move without knowing who he was truly up against. In fact, the urge to flee was getting stronger and stronger.
"I don't know anything about families Rakan. The only family I had was recently slaughtered to the last wolf." Greymont lamented. "You know a lot more about the affairs of the world than I. Why don't you explain what the seven families are?"
Rakan silently mused for moment, keeping his doubts in his heart. He wondered if Greymont was truly speaking the truth. Eventually he came to a decision. "If you truly don't know anything then forget I said anything. You will eventually find out at some point or another." He ran his gaze over the three of them, pausing on Craig the longest. "I'm sure we will meet again in the near future." With these last words he turned around and left.
He really just... left just like that.
"Well that was unexpected." Maeli said in puzzlement, unable to understand Rakan's actions.
"Hmmm." Greymont hummed in thought. "It seems these so called seven families are a big deal." He realised the reason why Rakan had left was his apprehension towards these seven families, whoever they were.
Now that Rakan was gone, they could focus their attention on Craig. Neither one of them had much of an idea as to what was going on with him. Greymont surmised that he was suffering from a backlash, or an overload. Maeli didn't know what to assume because she had less details than Greymont.
It had to be said that, whilst everyone was capable of using focused sight, only Transcendents were capable of seeing source energy. Everyone else could only see or feel auras, or detect movement and the like.
"Do you know what's wrong with him?" Greymont asked, assuming that she would know something he didn't. Although he now knew that she'd also just met Craig a week ago from hearing their story, he figured she'd know more than him who didn't even know Craig for a full day.
Maeli shook her head. "I don't. I don't even know how was he able to fight against Rakan. He's a human, with a weak human body isn't he? How could he withstand the berserk energy from those attacks?"
Greymont's gaze shifted onto Craig. "There's a lot more to him than meets the eye. Didn't I tell you before that he was special. Well, now, he's even more special than he was then." He said meaningfully.
"What do you mean by that? Did you discover something new, or are you referring to the spirit medicine?" She asked curiously.
"You can ask him about it yourself when he's better." He replied. "Right now we need to figure out how to help him. He seems to be in some kind of intense shock. I won--" He suddenly choked on his words as he winced from a sudden jolt of intense pain.
At the same time, Craig finally collapsed onto the ground. Unable to hold back any longer, he first began letting out a forceful grunt in his throat before a series of painful screams escaped from his mouth. His body twisted and turned repeatedly from the intense pain he was under. He sounded like someone who was being tortured in the most horrifying ways possible.
Simultaneously, Greymont had an ugly grin of anguish on his face as he felt a pain unlike never before, coming from all over his body. He stood in a very tense manner as he struggled to hold back his desire to scream.
Maeli was frightened by the sudden conditions of the two of them, wondering what was going on. What should she do? What could she do? She didn't know any magic related to healing and she also had never experienced this kind of situation before. Why had she gotten stuck with such weird companions, she thought.
Boom!
A ring of transparent energy suddenly exploded from Greymont, scattering debris into the surroundings. He finally couldn't hold back any longer and let out a horrifying scream of pain that alternated into a howl.
Boom! Boom! Boom...
Following the first one, ring after ring of transparent energy consecutively exploded outward from Greymont's body. After about thirteen explosions, a change suddenly started happening to his body. His already muscular physique slowly expanded as he nearly grew to the size of a horse. The fur on his body grew in length with a wild spiky look to it. Behind his ears, two curved horns protruded outward, or rather backward since they were facing his rear. His tail split in two and then both split into two once more, creating four tails. The stripes on his body altered slightly into zigzag waves that looked like lighting. And lastly, his teeth grew longer and sharper, taking on a slightly green hue for whatever reason.
As the transformation took place, Maeli looked on in shock and speechlessness. She felt a lump in her throat as she swallowed nervously.
Greymont had just undergone a terrifying transformation in front of her. She had never seen anything like this in her life. She suddenly had the notion that maybe she was dreaming. Maybe all this was just a bad dream. Maybe A'ina was fine, and they had never snuck out on any rescue mission. Maybe she had never met Craig and never gone to the forbidden territory. None of this, maybe it wasn't real.
She closed her eyes, and slapped herself.
Smack!
It hurt. It hurt and when she opened her eyes, everything was still happening. This was as real as real could be. She wasn't having a bad dream at all. This, was reality.
Now the question was, whether or not Greymont would remain the same. Because if he wasn't, then she was unquestionably Dead. There was no two ways about it. She was either dead... or dead.
Breathing heavily, Greymont suddenly turned his head in her direction, looking at her with red eyes that were filled with ferocity. The expression of pain still hadn't disappeared from his face giving him a terrifying look.
Maeli felt chills run down her spine and as she took a step backward, her legs grew limp causing her to fall over. She felt terrified beyond comprehension as if it was coming from the depths of her soul. 'Calm down Maeli'. She thought as she cast the 'Tranquil mind' spell to ease her nerves. Exhaling softly, she wondered what suddenly took over her. She would never succumb to fear this easily.
Unknowing to her, this was a result of the new aura unleashed by Greymont's transformation. It was the final change that occurred after all the physical changes to his body. This aura was capable of instilling deep fear into anyone caught by it.
The look of pain and discomfort on Greymont's face slowly faded away as his expression returned to normal. His red eyes returned back to its usual green, then the terrifying aura he was emitting also faded away as he slowly calmed down.
At the same time, Craig's screaming also came to a stop, as the pain he was feeling eased. The trembling of his body also stopped as he lay motionless on the ground.
Maeli looked at the two of them, a series of questions running through her mind. Was Craig dead? Did Greymont do something to him? Was she next? She calmly assessed the situation, trying to figure out what she should do.