"What are you waiting for?" Nocturnis asked. Shadows snapped forward, stopping only a few inches away from the Shadow Panther as he stood. "Kill it before it kills you!"
Arin watched the Fiery Beast roar. It looked like a Beast that simply wanted to be alone.
'What sort of things could a Beast go through to say such a thing?' Arin wondered.
"What?" The Beast twitched, feeling the effects of Arin's blow dissipating. "Are you having second thoughts? Do you think I would bow down to someone like you? When I'm free from your childish blow, I'll rip those pitiful eyes off!"
The fiery Beast's body released from Arin's blows and it rushed forward, slashing Arin's chest, pushing him backwards. It pressed its paws down onto Arin, pinning him in place.
"Master!" Nocturnis rushed forward, summoning the shadows clinging onto his body and releasing it at the Beast. The Beast's body cloaked in flames, dissipating the Shadows into nothingness before it could touch.
The Beast swatted Arin away, leaping onto the human and pinning him in place as he threw an insult towards Nocturnis. "A highly regarded Beast such as yourself reduced to this?!?" Flames ripped from the cloak of the Beast, spewing Nocturnis and keeping him at bay. Nocturnis flickered, disappearing from his space and reappearing in front of a fireball and exploding backwards.
"Noct!" Arin shouted, trying to push the Beast off him. It dug its searing claws into his body, stopping him. Flame and Ash spewed from its mouth as it lowered it's bared teeth at him.
The wolf widened its jaws and went straight for the throat. Something within Arin bubbled and in a desperate attempt, the shadows around him shot upwards, hitting the wolf and sending it flying.
Arin sucked a sharp breath, jumping onto his feet and grabbing his spear. He needed to do something before the Beast really killed both Nocturnis and himself. He rushed forward, adjusting his hand placement with both hands on the spear and letting out a battlecry.
The wolf jumped on its feet and roared. The fiery cloak manifesting and bursting into tiny embers. The embers flew forward as Arin's roar crescendoed. He pushed himself forward, blurring and driving the spear forward. Everything around him blurred and the spear found itself embedded in the wolf's back.
The wolf howled in pain as it reactively exploded in flames. How could a mere human do this to him?
Arin stumbled backwards, letting out a scream of pain as fire seared his hands. He watched with shaky eyes as the wolf burned the spear.
'I just got that spear!'
Arin's eyes radiated like firebugs. He could see a strange blue light appear from the fiery Beast in a circle before stretching outwards in four cardinal directions. The blue light then created a larger circle before runes filled the space between. The blue light exploded in red as the flames died, leaving the embedded spearhead in the Beast's back.
"Master!" Nocturnis roared, rushing forward. Before the Panther could warn his Master of what was coming, the Wolf had already finished the spell.
"Meteor!" The earth shook as earth and fire billowed from the sky.
"Master!"
Time seemed to slow as Arin quickly understood the situation in front of him. He couldn't help but smile in the wake of a high-level Flame spell. He never thought a Beast would be so strong they could use the beautiful spell in front of him.
"Adventure!" Young Arin's voice swelled with excitement. He turned to look at his Mother as she knitted. "Do you think my adventurers could be full of danger like the First Beast King, Momma?"
Mother smiled at the Young Arin and nodded. She temporarily stopped knitting and set it on her lap and leaned forward. Her eyes sparkled as her son rushed over and knelt down in front of her and nodded.
"The adventurer is what you make it, Arin." She brushed his hair and pinched his cheeks. Young Arin giggled and pulled away from his Mother. She leaned back and resumed her knitting. "Sometimes you'll have adventurers like the great Beast King, other times your adventure is like your Father, protecting the place he holds dear. Remember, Arin, when you go on your adventure, you'll feel so much excitement, your body won't know what to do with it!"
Arin snapped forward, disappearing from his spot as the meteors began to fall all around. Somewhere in the background, Nocturnis was shouting his name, but Arin didn't care.
'Why did I remember that now?' Arin thought as he flashed forward, slamming his fist into the Wolf's face. He didn't bother to entertain his thoughts like he normally did. Right now, one of the coolest Flame spells were being used by a Beast!
Arin drove another punch from underneath the wolf's snout, pushing its head upwards, sending it upwards. Meteors rained around them as they exchanged blows. Arin's excitement grew, glowing brightly through his large smile and radiating emerald eyes caught the fiery Beast's attention.
A flicker of the fiery Beast's old man appeared. A man dressed in an ancient style of draped robes, sandals and a woven hat. For a moment, the Beast thought the human standing in front of him was his old master. Arin's laugh melted with the old man's and the Beast soared through the air, collapsing onto the ground as the spearhead sputtered off to the side.
The Meteor spell had ended from the Beast's brief memory of his old Master. The Beast didn't bother to fight. The kid hadn't budged while the Shadow Panther raced to his Master's side.
'How can this kid be so much like you?' The Beast questioned.
"Master!" Nocturnis rushed to Arin's side. "Are you okay?" Arin cackled as he kept his raised fist in the air. "Why did you take such a risky play? Y-you could've died!" Arin had overturned the cautious nature he was normally used to seeing and replaced it with… a fervor of insanity!
Arin's laughter filled the air. He slowly lowered his hand and eyes onto Nocturnis and smiled at his worried partner.
"You were worried for me?" Arin petted the large cat. Nocturnis seemed to turn into a worried house cat, worried for Arin. He patted the large Panther and turned his eyes onto the fiery wolf.
The wolf struggled to stand as its body struggled to heal itself of the wound in its back. It muttered to itself about something as Arin broke from Nocturnis and slowly made his way over to the wolf.
"Master, you should be careful. What if it decides to hurt you?" Nocturnis asked. Arin ignored him and stepped into view of the Wolf. He looked down at him and for a moment, the Beast could only growl at him.
Arin lowered himself and cocked his head at the Beast. "Are you the one who made me hurt my new friends? Why would you do that?"
"Hurt?" Wolf growled. "I didn't do such thing! You think I'd willingly allow you to use my powers? I only serve one Master and he's long dead! How dare you defile his grave?!? How dare you ruin his promise to me?!? I was supposed to return to where I came from but I'm stuck here all alone!"
Wolf snapped its jaws at Arin, sinking them into the young man's arm as he stretched his hand out to comfort the Beast. Nocturnis roared, afraid the Wolf would hurt his Master. He rushed to deliver the finishing blow, but Arin's voice stopped him and the Beast.
"You live such long lives and you see many people come and go, but you can't forget the one who stood by your side ages ago?" Arin's face melted in a wave of sadness as his own blood spilled onto the ground. "I'm sorry you couldn't go back home."
"No, enough!" Wolf pulled himself away from Arin and tried to look away. Everything about this human only made him remember his old Master. "You aren't him! You can never be him!"
"Your old Master?" Arin's voice spoke with a familiar kindness to the Wolf. He didn't leave his hand out to the Wolf. He knew he was already invading a space long invaded and simply wanted to understand the feelings inside this Beast.
'Were Beasts all this complex?'
"You're nothing like him even if I see him through you! All you human Beastlord's want to do is abuse my power and become powerful! You already have a powerful Beast right there!" The Wolf tried to stand, but collapsed. Arin dropped to his knees in worry but immediately stopped himself from doing anything else. The Beast slowly rose to its feet and looked at Arin with its eyes shaken.
"Can you tell me about your Master? What was he like and why do you guard his resting place?" Arin's words were inviting and the look in his eyes spoke the same question as his mouth. He was genuinely interested in understanding the Wolf, something that made the Wolf want to tear him down where he stood, but a distant memory stopped him from doing so.
The Wolf turned past Arin and wandered over to the broken space where his Master lied. "Do you not cower at what I am? I'm sure stories have circulated around these parts for centuries of the Infernal Beast of Hell."