To the inhabitants of The Land of the Titans, the oppressive roar of an apex predator rang out and echoed through its many valleys vistas. In truth however, this ‘mighty roar’ was, in fact, a panicked scream.

Wayne’s yell was cut short as he crashed against a cliff side. Debris sheared free from the impact as dust plumed outwards, invading his nostrils and eyes. He coughed and sputtered, but he wasn’t given a moment to recover. Grasp at the rocks as he did, his claws failed to find purchase, and he was once again dragged into the open air by his attacker.

“Why are you ignoring me!?” He cried out as he flailed helplessly in Kagezora’s grip. “Conversation requires a back and forth, so you’re making this REALLY difficult!”

Kagezora sneered. Wayne’s continued attempts to negotiate only furthered her anger. She angled downwards, diving like a predator as she picked up speed. She flew into another cliff side, opting to make use of her momentum to rake him across the stones rather than simply throwing him against them.

Wayne hissed in pain as the stones grated at his scales. As the duo flew free of the cliff, in the midst of his blind flailing and grasping, he managed to grab hold of a boulder that had been knocked free. When Kagezora took off back into the air, he used the stone to bludgeon at the talons which clung to his flesh.

With a falcon-like screech and a startled flutter of her wings she relented, dropping Wayne mid air. For a moment, he internally celebrated! He was free! Once gravity kicked in however, he realized his folly. Wayne plummeted down to the earth at a startling speed. With a loud thud, he broke through the treeline and began to roll down the slope of the forest below, sending smaller beasts running in a panic. He grunted and groaned as the foliage was pulverized beneath his mass.

Wayne tumbled all of the way to the bottom of a canyon, only stopping when he slammed into the opposite wall. The debris he had unearthed on his way down created a landslide as a stream of debris flowed behind him, burying him in a mound of stone, dirt and plant matter. He weakly dug his way free and took a moment to catch his breath, one which failed to last long enough to satisfy. The avian kaiju let out a screech from above, and he wasted no time in running. If he wanted to survive this encounter, he needed to think of something, and fast.

If he recalled the reports he saw back in the day correctly, Kagezora had emerged in Japan. Unlike most other kaiju, instead of simply launching an attack, she had used her wind manipulation to stir up a storm and herd it towards the coast. Hiding in the eye of the storm, as it broke, she flew free and unleashed pandemonium. From day one, she was classified as an A rank alongside Rei Sol. What chance did he have at surviving this?

Kagezora dive bombed, talons held before her. She aimed to latch onto her prey and carry him into the sky once more.

Wayne dove forward to avoid her grasp. The bird’s talons raked across his back as they failed to meet flesh. The violent winds created by her fly-by sent him further than he had intended, but hitting the dirt a bit harder was a small price to pay for his safety. Thanks to his protective plating, he felt little to nothing from the attack itself.

While his instincts told him he needed to find a way to withstand the kaiju’s mighty gales, the fact that a simple fly-by had caused him to tumble told him that he didn’t have the weight to do so. His back seemed to repel her, so maybe he just had to stay on the defensive and wear her out?

Kagezora came in for another attack, and this time, Wayne figured he would test his theory. He skidded to a halt and hunched over, presenting his plated back to his attacker. He expected to feel a dull sensation much like the prior strike followed by a gust of heavy wind. Instead, he felt a stabbing pain, and was yanked into the air.

Wayne flailed in panic. But how!? He craned his neck over his shoulder and bore witness to his answer. She had hooked her talons under the plates! Not only that, they had managed to dig into the soft flesh beneath. He reeled in pain as his legs kicked helplessly in the air.

“Why are you doing this!?” Wayne pleaded.

Kagezora offered no reply as she engaged in the first of many aileron rolls. Due to his larger size, he lagged behind a bit with each roll, but the avian kaiju's dense musculature ensured he wasn't going anywhere.

Wayne grit his teeth as the motion caused the talons in his flesh to rip, twist and tear. Blood flowed freely from the small chink in his biological armor.

What was he going to do? Was she just planning on throwing him around until he was dead? While he anticipated panic to be his first emotion, instead, something unexpected began to bubble to the surface. Anger. Burning, raging, boiling anger.

It was a sensation that he had felt before, but now, much more potent. Just like when his body had responded to his panic when he was fighting Velostia, the feeling of lightning shooting through his veins struck once more. Unlike before, however, he felt it in every inch of his body.

He wanted to scream at Kagezora! He wanted her to hurt for forcing him through such agony when she was clearly intelligent enough to speak with him! He wanted to TEAR HER APART!

His stomach churned as the feeling concentrated in his gut and expanded outwards. The back of his throat burned as his chest ached. When he finally couldn’t handle it anymore, he whipped his head upwards and bellowed. It was not a roar which left Wayne’s mouth. It was a concentrated stream of flames.

Kagezora reared back and flapped her wings in reverse to avoid being singed by the sudden blast of fire as her prey rocked forwards, her grip slipping.

The flames died down, and with them, so did the feelings of rage. Wayne seemed dazed and confused by the tingling sensation in his toothy maw, but that couldn’t compare to the feeling of heat venting from his body and out through the plates on his back.

Kagezora flailed at the sudden blast of heat which bit at her talons. “GAH! Bastard!” With her grip already loosened by her prior course correction, she dropped him in a panic as the winds around her blew in every direction.

Unlike before, Wayne was lucky enough to be in a good position to land with a modicum of grace. He crashed down onto a flat clifftop vista overlooking the plains, jogging until the momentum of the fall was reduced enough to allow him to come to a skidding halt and turn to face the startled bird.

“Since WHEN can you breathe FIRE!?” Kagezora screeched angrily.

Wayne blubbered a bit. “Since… Now, I guess!?”

Dissatisfied with his response, Kagezora began to flap her wings with a vengeance, stirring winds that would put any recorded typhoon to shame.

Wayne dug his claws into the earth, but it wasn’t enough. He began to slowly be pushed back. Once the earth beneath his feet gave way, he was dragged with it. He tumbled over the threshold, just barely managing to catch the cliff’s edge and hold on for dear life.

Kagezora landed before him, raptor-like feet crushing Wayne’s digits.

He grit his teeth and flailed his legs, desperately trying to find a foothold as he dangled. With each kick at the rocks below, more went falling to the plains below. He had been dropped before, but a height like this was far greater than anything he had endured up to now. There’s no way he’d get out of a fall like this scot-free.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

The avian kaiju leaned over the edge, her beak meters from Wayne’s snout. “For a second there, I thought you were finally showing me your true self! Are you really such a bumbling embarrassment that you can’t keep track of your own metamorphosis!?”

Wayne responded in a pained tone, eyes darting around as he looked for a means of escape. “Metamorphosing? Is that what I’ve been doing?”

The avian kaiju dug her talon into the back of Wayne’s right hand.

Wayne let out a roar as he continued to flail helplessly. The rage from before began to creep in. His ears were ringing as his stomach twisted in a knot once more. He remembered how it felt to unleash those flames, and in this moment he knew that he had to do it again if he wanted to live! He breathed in deep and reared his head back in anticipation!

Kagezora’s eyes widened as she immediately let go of her grip and flew back defensively. She wasn’t going to get scorched!

He exhaled, but all that came out was a hot breath. Shit! It was a good thing she had assumed he knew what he was doing! He took the moment to haul himself back onto the vista with what strength he had left. Once atop, he wasted no time dashing away from the edge to keep himself from being threatened with falling once more.

Wayne spun around, trying to spot his attacker. It wasn’t until he looked straight up that he saw her.

Kagezora descended and sharply adjusted her angle just before landing so her momentum carried her forwards, an audible crack cutting through the air as a shock wave burst out from her.

Wayne back stepped and raised his arms, just barely dodging on one foot as the avian kaiju crashed into the earth like a meteor, leaving a trail of destruction in her wake.

She slowly rose from the crater she had created, steam rising from her seemingly undamaged plumage.

“I watched Apocalis and Kath change with every victory until they surpassed me. I won’t make the same mistake with you.”

Wayne held up his arms defensively. “Wait! Is this not normal!? Can you please- c-can you just fucking LISTEN TO ME for ONE SECOND!?” he roared, stomping his foot into the earth for emphasis.

While Kagezora had been adamant about their kind speaking with actions before, she seemed to acquiesce, if only for a moment. She only offered a cold stare as she held her ground.

“I haven’t even been here for long, alright? Until I met Apocalis, I knew nothing about my kind, our kind- whatever!”

“How. How could you possibly be so grossly unaware?”

“BECAUSE! I’m…” he trailed off for a moment. He had to keep his cover. “...From the moon.”

There was a moment of quiet between them, the subtle whispers of the breeze the only thing keeping them from complete silence.

“The moon,” Kagezora repeated. “You mean to tell me you fell from the moon.”

Wayne nodded enthusiastically. “Yes! Does my confusion make a bit more sense, now?”

The avian kaiju began to walk to the side, tracing a circle around Wayne as he continually turned to keep his eyes on her.

“What is your name?” Kagezora questioned.

“Wayne,” he replied.

The bird scoffed. “Wane? Like Waning? As in the phase of the moon? Don’t tell me you picked that yourself.”

That definitely caught him off guard. It made sense for her to be able to observe how the moon changed phases visually, but to know such a specific term? He assumed it wasn’t one to one due to how he figured their shared language seemed to work, but the fact that she was able to misinterpret his name as a similar sounding word sent him through a loop. That’d definitely help with his cover and allow him to keep the same name. The linguistic implications were fascinating, but now really wasn’t the time.

“Ah… Uhm. Y-yes. And I did, because I was alone up there.”

“Your story reeks of desperation and falsehood, yet I can think of no better explanation for your cluelessness.” She stopped and spread her wings. “Say I believe you,”

“Say you do,” Wayne mumbled to himself. “Then what?”

“Then, I must ask you another question. Answer truthfully, and you may escape my continued hostility.”

What sort of a question would she ask that could get her to leave him be? He shuffled uncomfortably as he braced himself for the likelihood that he’d have to spin one hell of a lie on the fly. “Ask away.”

Kagezora glared at Wayne with a gaze that could pierce stone. “What is your connection to Apocalis?”

Things were starting to click in Wayne’s head. Did Kagezora have a vendetta against Apocalis? Was her rancor transferred to him when she saw something they had in common? This metamorphosis, she spoke about it as if it wasn’t normal- as if it were a trait that tied him to the king of the monsters. If her interests truly did put her against Apocalis, then maybe, just maybe she could be a valuable ally for the future.

“He is the king of the monsters, and the first of our kind I met after arriving here. That is the end of our relationship,” he explained as he lowered his guard.

Kagezora scrutinized Wayne wordlessly for a moment. Then, she nodded to herself, seemingly satisfied with his answer. “...That is good.” She spread her wings, revealing the eye-like pattern within each. “Then we have nothing further to discuss.”

“Wait, aren’t you going to tell me about…”

Before Wayne could finish his sentence, Kagezora let loose a mighty gale as she rocked up into the sky, and began to soar towards the horizon.

“...Metamorphosis. What the hell, man..?”

He let out a long, heavy sigh and hung his head. His gaze traveled down to his claws. His arms. He flexed, and felt the muscles of his limbs stretch and tighten. He wasn’t sure of what had triggered this change in his body, but if Apocalis was capable of it too, that explained how he became the king so quickly, and with so little contest. He assumed ‘Kath’ was Skathar, all things considered. Did it have this ability to metamorphose as well?”

He shook his head. There was no sense theory-crafting for the time being. He was exhausted, he just wanted to return to his territory. It would take him a minute for sure, but he was confident in his ability to navigate there by scent alone.

The smell of the geysers that he once learned to tolerate now felt like home. As he lumbered closer, the slight shift in his perspective was what clued him into his increased height. It wasn’t much, but there was enough of a difference that it was noticeable. None of that mattered of course. What mattered is he would finally be able to rest.

The sight of Boss and the hexwolves resting around the area brought him further ease. They were already hopping up and chittering to each other before he had even seen them. Boss was the first to approach Wayne. It wasted no time clambering up his form and along his plates.

Even as much as he commanded them, he knew they couldn’t resist the smell of blood. So long as they didn’t bite at his wounds, he was fine with them cleaning the gore from his plates. They may have seen it as a snack, but he was sure it fell more in line with grooming behavior than a predator sampling its prey. They wouldn’t be so foolish.

Wayne slowly fell forwards into the dirt, shifting around until he was comfortable as the other hexwolves began to move around him, waiting for their leader to issue them orders. He needed a nap after that.

Unfortunately though, sleep would continue to escape him as his mind drifted back to he and Kagezora’s encounter. He licked his gums as he remembered the tingling sensation that he was left with after breathing fire. Was that something he was capable of after his recent metamorphosis, or was that something he always had in him and just couldn’t muster?

Regardless, that didn’t explain how he managed to figure it out. All he recalled was a feeling of hatred and fury, and then it was a blur until he was already unleashing the flames. The more he thought about it, the more it scared him. Was this a case of him ‘going native’ as it were? His human sensibilities giving way to the mindset of a brutal, remorseless predator? He certainly hoped not.

His tail lashed around behind him, knocking a clueless hexwolf to the side. It fell onto its back, flailing for a moment before it managed to clamber back to its feet.

“Sorry,” he called out weakly as his mind continued to wander. Just when he thought he had a handle on how to play the game, the rules and mechanics were beginning to change.

He had to keep his wits about him.