It was as if David observed through someone else’s eyes as he prowled the building's interior, clinging stealthily to the ceiling while wedging into the tightest crevices. Before each furtive dart to a new hiding spot, he fired quick Echolocation bursts to scan ahead. On multiple occasions, he concealed himself within crumbling gaps in the walls or squeezed under decaying furniture as small groups of Viktor's minions raced past, drawn by the distant sounds of Claire's flawless distraction unfolding outside.

He let himself go, allowing the powerful instincts to guide his actions in an almost autonomous way, relying heavily on the advice of the predatory drive he’d been largely ignoring. After the fourth wave of the monkey-like creatures raced past from the same direction he’d begun to backtrack along their path, nose working in overdrive as he sniffed their master out.

Less than 8 minutes had passed from him entering the building to when he finally caught a slightly different scent. Whereas the minions themselves had a distinctive smell mixed with the mold and rot he couldn’t seem to escape inside the City Hall, a new smell wafted to his nose, tinted with the scent of aggression and authority. David felt a cold sense of satisfaction creep down the back of his neck, settling grimly in his chest as the predatory voice quieted its savage howling and settled into a wave of silent but murderous anger. The alpha that had challenged him, and driven him out of his territory was close. Unguarded. Weakened. Vulnerable.

David’s mane slicked itself down flat, his ears pricking forward and unmoving as he crept along the ceiling with glacial slowness, not even twitching as he felt his packmate slowly retreating away from the building and drawing the defenders away. She was a capable creature, strong and brave, and David did not doubt for a second that she would be unharmed by the frail and untested creatures sent out by the alpha.

His eyes narrowed and he began to Echolocate more rapidly, firing them behind himself with his flexible neck every so often before continuing his patient advance, somehow managing to interpret the overlapping waves of mental maps that showed multiple locations at once as long as he didn’t think too hard about it. His snout twitched with every change to the scent of his prey as he slowly neared what must have been a central location in the large building.

Den? Inside. Weak, smells of uncertainty. Aggression fading. One other. Unimportant…Whoa, c’mon David. Are you thinking purely in emotions now? You can do a little better than that, don’t go full-feral. You’ve got a brain, try to use that too even if this is useful, whatever it is, I can’t lie. Viktor’s sure as shit using his.

The overwhelming scent of primate was drifting out of a large set of double doors that stood open at the end of the lobby that David occupied, still tightly clinging to the ceiling some 15 feet off the ground. The furniture had been removed, and the large room was empty save for the moldy carpet below him, he slowly crept toward the entrance to Viktor's lair as he forced the instincts down to half-capacity, keeping them on a hair trigger as he asserted himself much to the predatory voice’s displeasure. It wanted him to surge into the room, blanketing it with sonic attacks and Echolocations, and to fill the space with Gloom before retreating quickly to simply wait for his prey to fall victim to its effects before returning to torment his challenger.

No time for all that waiting, feels like Claire’s brawling with someone right now. She keeps running farther back, I feel like pretty soon she’s going to have to bail and I’m going to have a lot of problems. I feel like we can meet in the middle though, spooky instincts. Tell you what…

David crept close to the open doorway, his nose wrinkling in distaste as the scent filled his nose unpleasantly, overpowering even the smells of the building itself. He leaned down slightly to fire his special into the room before pausing and choosing to utilize his subconscious advantage as he fired them against the floor and allowed the waves to spread into the room at an angle, maintaining the barrage until the shadowy figures at the edge of his range finally gave him what he wanted.

–Echo–

The bloom of awareness filled him with a wicked glee that felt like it wasn’t his own, and the room was presented in excruciating detail as it was mapped by the expanding waves of sound.

Viktor sat in a simple folding chair, his legs crossed and his arms thrown back comfortably over his head. He was about the size of a grown man, his body lanky and wrapped in powerfully corded muscle that rippled beneath his short fur with every breath, a mantle of long shaggy fur resting around his shoulders and crawling up his head. His face was elongated and bare, reminding David of the baboons he’d seen at the zoo as a child, and his excessively long canines protruded from his lips slightly as he grinned lazily. More concerning was the large rusty knife that stuck out of the crumbling desk next to him, its blade pitted and a bit fragile but retaining a wicked edge. David snarled, a part of him was truly offended that the man would resort to tools and tricks, but the logical side of him immediately recognized the danger.

Farther back, and perched on the windowsill was a tiny creature whose presence confused both David and his newly awakened instincts. It was fat, toadlike, and probably the smallest thing he had seen that wasn’t an actual animal. It couldn’t have weighed more than 30lbs, its amphibious skin slightly damp as it sat completely motionless, eyes closed and breathing slowly.

Yep, that sucks. I should have figured he’d have something like that. Couple of fire barrels in the room, and shitty-looking torches here and there. Too much light. Not sure how to deal with that…maybe I just knock them over? It’s enough to see with but there’s still a lot of shadows, and I’m not sure how well he sees in the dark anyway. Fuck…I’m so nervous. I wish I didn't have to do this.

David sat perfectly still as he considered his options, slowly realizing that the course of action his instincts demanded was probably the best one. He could blitz into the room, nail both targets with a Screech, fill the entire room with a cloud of Gloom, and retreat to hammer them with sonic attacks from the doorway before finishing Viktor off when he went down. The only addition he could think of was to add more Screeching and some of the tricks he’d learned for mobility over the last 12 days. David waffled over it for a few seconds anxiously before Claire made the decision for him, and he felt her turn and begin to flee deeper into the swamp, putting more and more distance between them as she picked up speed to shake off her attackers. A wave of cold adrenaline crashed through his body when David realized that he had only minutes to complete his dubious assignment and that his opportunities to do so had just shrunk to almost nothing.

–Health: 165/165–

–Stamina: 390/390–

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

–n/a–

He let go of the reins and his prey drive seized them eagerly, nimbly swinging him through the doorframe like a gymnast from hell, coiling his body like a spring before leaning into the motion and activating Nocturnal Strike to give himself a little extra boost. He twisted as he entered the room, orienting himself towards the pair before they had time to react and digging huge gouges out of the top of the rotting doorway when his hind claws found purchase and violently launched him forward. He was airborne before Viktor had time to gasp, wings completely unimpeded as he surged into the large office and blasted both him and the unidentified creature with a Screech that almost seemed to physically hammer the primate out of his chair.

Before the attack had even finished, one of Viktor's flailing feet snagged the knife deftly off of the desk as he vanished behind it, the toadlike creature leaping straight up in shock before impacting the top of the window frame and tumbling to the floor along with him. David hovered in the middle of the room, flapping violently and inefficiently as he shed an excessive amount of Gloom, a storm of debilitating particles filling the air, swirling violently under the wind from his huge dark wings. David had a strange moment of lucidity as his heart rate continued to skyrocket, and he noticed that the torchlight was glittering prettily off of the crescent moon pattern on his wings, the oddly transparent membrane catching the dim firelight.

–You have taken 17 Impact Damage–

–You are afflicted by Stun–

The toadlike creature had recovered first, firing itself off of the floor in an explosion of wood chips as its unbelievably strong legs extended too fast for David to see, and it barreled into him like a cannonball with pinpoint accuracy. The Screech was cut off as the breath was driven from his lungs, and he fumbled his rhythm and fell to the ground along with his assailant, landing on top of it as it croaked in pain. David struggled to get a breath in, his ears ringing and his vision slightly blurry from the force of the impact as the creature struggled to extricate itself from beneath him.

“What the fuck?!” A gravelly voice cursed loudly from behind the desk, “Edgar, you get ‘em? Hold your breath! This is the shit he got Paul with! It’s that fucking bat!”

“Boss it’s got me!” Edgar croaked frantically from below the tangle of David's wings, “The dust’s sticking to me! I can’t get out! It burns!”

–Edgar Hernandez’s Stun has faded–

David’s eye’s refocused suddenly and he hissed wickedly with the first breath that he sucked in, wrapping his entire body around the smaller creature, seizing it with his fangs and talons before savagely kicking and ripping at it with his hind claws. Edgar’s scream was deafening inside the canopy of his wings as his bare and unprotected hide offered little protection against the furious assault, parting easily and filling David’s mouth with hot blood that splattered everywhere. He released the man after a few heartbeats, springing back to observe the damage and shooting a glance to where Viktor had finally hauled himself up from behind the desk, knife in hand and eyes wide. David took advantage of his hesitation by lunging forward and seizing one of Edgar’s legs in his jaws before crunching down hard, feeling the sturdy bones resist for a single second before cracking audibly as the man’s scream cut off and he went limp, fainting from the pain.

–Health: 153/165–

–Stamina: 340/390–

–n/a–

Viktor narrowed his eyes and brandished the knife, leaping atop the desk and pulling himself into a fighting stance while he bared his long and vicious fangs back at David as he hunched over the fallen underling. Blood dripped thickly from David’s jaws and began to coagulate in blobs on his face as he fixed Viktor with a murderous glare and stared deeply into his eyes, watching the fur along the man's shoulders and back instantly rise as his body language became uncertain. The blade began to shake in his grip as David loosed a sibilant hiss and began to slowly creep towards him as the Gloom began to settle, drifting down to settle over everything in the room as he approached his target.

“Who the fuck are you? What do you want?” Viktor coughed as he began to inhale the Gloom, “Why are you doing this? I don’t even know you, this isn’t even your business, brother.”

David’s response was a feral snarl, “Why am I doing this? Dude. You ate people. What did you expect? Everyone would just let that go? That you’d be Slaver-King of the Swamp? You got one good Ability, and decided to use it to torture people and hold them captive?”

“It ain't none of your business. You don’t know these guys, why do you care? They were weak, and I made them stronger. So what if a couple of them got smoked?” Viktor tightened his grip on the blade as he edged away from David, “We can make a deal, you want me to let them go? Sure. I’ll fuck off. Just le– Ooooo, that’s not…what?”

–Viktor Oslow is afflicted by |Gloom| |Paralysis| |Sleep|–

–Apical Rejuvenation: +12 Health–

David’s eyes narrowed as Viktor began to shake, somehow managing to stay on his feet as he gripped the edge of the desk with his free hand and held himself upright. His pupils dilated slowly as David continued to stare straight at him as he crept closer, blasting him with a short Screech that sent the knife tumbling from his hand as he collapsed under the assault, propping himself up on his elbows and trying to scoot away on the hardwood floor, kicking feebly in David's direction.

“You shouldn’t have done any of this…and I hate you for what your bullshit is forcing me to do right now.” David’s words dripped out of him haltingly as he held perfectly still and regarded Viktor's prone form, “I never wanted to hurt anyone. This whole thing has sucked from day one, and I’m constantly terrified and pretending not to be. I got screwed with my new body to start with, you could have actually made a difference. You piece of shit.”

–Viktor Oslow is afflicted by |Eye of Dread|–

–Victor Oslow is afflicted by |Fear|–

–Apical Rejuvenation: +4 Health–

David lunged forward, his jaws closing over the mans throat and locking in place, the crunch of cartilage the only sound other than Viktor's strangled sounds of struggle and the merry crackling of the fire as shadows danced on the walls. It took longer than David thought it would, but eventually he saw the notification.

–You have slain User: Victor Oslow–

–Gained 800xp!–

–Level up!–

–Gained 2pts!–