For the first time, I examined a wolfstag that was larger than me. Any hunter who knew anything would never get close to a living wild wolfstag, unless they were so stupid as to decide to try testing their Earthspeaking against the beast’s jaws. Again, any hunter who knew anything.

In death and captivity, a wolfstag was easy to discredit. I knew that I had underestimated the sheer mass and power packed into their frames, being among the apex predators of any climate they found themselves in, yet I’d only ever seen them as corpses or a Speaker’s bond. A Soulspeaker’s bond, even if a wolfstag, was so well-controlled that they could only really be seen as pets or companions, never a potential predator. That… was dreadfully incorrect.

In life, in the wilds, looking at one a full foot taller than I was, the wolfstag seemed to be the most sleek yet imposing death deliverer ever imagined. It had lowered itself into a threatening position, yet still it was taller than I was, and its mass of horns signified that it was, in fact, either a Mistral or Voltaic Wolfstag. The mistral and voltaic varieties had more horns than the rest, with a mass of craggy, disorganized horns sprouting from the base of their skulls and sticking out and behind them like a mane of sparking bone. From its teeth spat out flickers of light, the electrical current inherent in the species, and its fur all stood straight from the static that permanently accompanied it. The smell of ozone permeated the air as the crackles of thunder were drowned out by the rising sound of the wolfstag’s growls.

I braced myself, then rushed forward, not wanting to give the beast another moment to prepare itself. It was stronger than us, faster than us, and my every instinct screamed at me that I wouldn’t be able to survive an altercation with this creature. I wouldn’t survive running away from it either, so I stopped thinking and lunged at the wolfstag’s face, my teeth crashing together before reaching my target as it dodged away.

“Don’t let it recover! Charge!!” I screamed as I continued to pressure the wolfstag, swiping wildly and biting at my foe. With my second charge, the wolfstag did not retreat, but instead snapped its own jaws at me in response. I quickly pulled my head back and attempted to retreat. I was only barely able to pull my head out of the way as the wolfstag’s own jaws snapped closed less than an inch away from the tip of my snout. The crackling of its lightning still flitted across my face, regardless of my near escape, and one particular jolt of the electricity jumped out and numbed half my jaw.

I was too slow to catch myself as the beast began to snap at me again, and I knew that it would catch me this time. In a desperate bid to save myself as I tried to throw myself backward, I screamed as loud as I could in wordless panic. The sound burst forth, hurting my own ears as it left my throat, and the wolfstag’s ears twitched in response as it continued its lunge toward me. In slow motion I witnessed the jaws open before my horrified eyes, and as they began to close, I barely noted the body that smashed into the wolfstag’s ear.

Took had lunged forward with a war cry of her own, and had sent her body crashing into the wolfstag’s head with reckless abandon just hard enough to knock the bite off its intended target of my head. Instead, the jaws snapped closed around the final two inches of my tail and, with an effortless snick of teeth, an explosion of pain was sent up my spine. I’d broken a bone as a human before, but this time was wildly different. Maybe it was because a part of my spine was taken away with the bite, maybe it was the electricity that coursed up and through me, or maybe it was something else, but the agony of my tail being severed was indescribable before I lost myself to [Bloodlust].

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No longer could I care about such pitiful things as my disfigurement. No, all that mattered now was returning the pain back a hundredfold. I gathered myself enough to note that Took and Oncli had both settled onto an ear, biting deep and trying to drag the wolfstag’s head down. It was too strong to be brought down by much smaller creatures like this, and was shaking its head through whimpers of pain. As I finally gathered myself, Took was shaken free and thrown cartwheeling away, and Oncli was left alone on the beast’s head.

Our foe lifted its head, its own blood dripping down its face and to the ground below it as Oncli was hauled into the air. The wolfstag began to tilt its head with its jaw open, attempting to lower the still hanging Oncli into its maw.

“No! Oncli, let go!” I screamed as I rushed back into the fray, hoping to save his life. We had already seen what happened to a keelish whose body entered those jaws, and Brutus was there to protect Oncli. He ripped into the wolfstag’s exposed shoulder, his jaws tearing deep into the flesh and muscle as he continued to shred into the muscles supporting the wolfstag’s leg.

It began to buckle and gave up on trying to bite Oncli, instead shaking its head hard and smashing him with its antlers. With a sizzle of arcing electricity and the thud of flesh on an unforgiving surface, Oncli was sent flying with flashes of electricity dancing across his limp body as the wolfstag’s jaws descended upon Brutus. I noted that behind the wolfstag Treel, Foire, and Vefir were trying to hamstring it, but it sent jolts of electricity down its body and legs while lashing out with both feet. Vefir took a paw to the head as he rushed in, and collapsed, twitching then going limp from the Voltaic Wolfstag’s kick.

Finally, I was able to get back into the action and I rushed under the wolfstag while ignoring any consequences. My mind was muddled by the need to spill blood, and this beast, my prey, had provided far too many affronts to me and my pack. Before the wolfstag could understand what exactly I was doing, I, reaching up with both arms, began to try to disembowel the creature.

I’d hoped that the stomach would be soft without any scales or such to protect it, but the bastard’s abdominal muscles were built to keep its innards in and my claws met with resistance. Behind me, I heard Brutus cry out in pain and challenge while I redoubled my efforts at killing this beast before it was able to kill us all. With a scream of effort, I pushed with all my strength upward, and I was rewarded with a moment’s hesitation as I began to lift the entire back of the wolfstag from the ground. Then, with a faint popping noise, both of my hands punched through the abdominal wall of my prey.

With a faint slithering of flesh over scales, the wolfstag slid all the way down to my elbows. I wrenched my left arm free with an explosion of viscera and blood before plunging it back in. My prey bucked in agony and attempted to flee, but I could hear the pack rallying around it and continuing to harass it, preventing any action being taken against me in my execution of the beast.

I pulled both arms out before taking my blade-sharp claws and slicing a gash nearly a foot long in the belly of my prey. With a couple of steps, I was removed from the deluge of gore as the entrails and viscera, and I rushed to the front of the wolfstag.

It had begun to slump to the ground, a twitching Brutus still in its jaws but not yet bisected.

“Not another!” I screamed as I pounced at the wolfstag’s face, both arms ready for battle. It dropped Brutus and opened its jaws in challenge as I jumped higher than the threatening maw and plunged both of my hands past the wrist into its eyes. Again, the grating screams of agony from my prey rang out in the clearing, and I punched my claws again and again, deeper and deeper into the mashed flesh that was the wolfstag’s face, until finally it dropped limp to the ground and went silent.

I collapsed to the ground myself, exhausted and pained, the aftereffects of the wolfstag’s electricity still working through me, as I attempted to reconcile what exactly I had just done.