Zaszi suddenly gained consciousness in the middle of tearing a screaming person in two. Dropping the pieces in horror he tried to pull away but found he couldn’t move. Something was terribly wrong. His body felt wrong, invaded, piloted by an awful force. A voice, not Jamil’s voice but someone else, someone very evil, whispered to him and told him to do terrible things. Slapping his hands over his ears, Zaszi roared to drown out the voice but it only grew louder until he blacked out again—
—and came to on the ship’s deck in the midst of a cacophony of screams. Cold water poured in from ragged holes punched in the deck. A cluster of terrified and injured passengers huddled in front of him, a vaguely familiar-looking girl with green hair guarding them with a drawn sword.
“Snap out of it, Jamil! This isn’t you!” She was shouting, but Zaszi could only screech at her in response. The girl lunged at him with her sword raised but one sharp swing of his powerful tail sent her flying into the side of the cabin with a sickening crunch. Immediately he was overcome with regret, he recognized her now as his friend, but before he could go to her and see if she was okay the darkness swallowed him—
—pain erupted in his side, forcing him back to the front of consciousness and he looked down in shock to see a harpoon jutting from his flesh. Dark blue blood stained its metal-plated tip. Confused and now in tremendous pain, Zaszi bellowed loudly enough to vibrate the wooden deck beneath him, and he whipped around to face his assailant. On the far side of the deck, a wounded man with blood streaking his pink beard leaned heavily on the partially destroyed railing, the harpoon gun still smoking in his hand. Zaszi screamed at him in anger, coiling his tail like a spring as he prepared to launch himself at the man.
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‘No, this isn’t right! I don’t want to do this!’ He shouted in his head, but all that came out was more animalistic shrieking. Rage clouded his mind, chased away all thoughts other than destroy.
‘Don’t make me do this!’ Pleading with the evil inside him did nothing but fuel it. Again he screamed, the force of his voice enough to push the man with the harpoon gun back, knocking him off balance.
“Aye, lad, I reckon ye ain’t in there, are ya?” The man laughed ruefully and spat out blood, but his words meant nothing now to Zaszi. He struck with great force, his massive body barreling into the man and crushing him into the deck. The body slam wasn’t quite enough to kill him but the single blow from Zaszi’s huge fist was. Blinded by the evil voice, he felt nothing.
Everything went black again—
~