[Berserk]

Evelyn's eyes turned bloodshot as she grew eerily silent. Apart from that, nothing seemed about her seemed really different... that was, on the outside.

Her mind went blank, her thought process was reduced to no more than a few words at a time. She was, in every sense of the word, a beast now. If Jason wanted to shake her mentality up so much, then she just had to not have one.

Clutching her fists tight, Evelyn swung an uppercut at Jason despite not being remotely anywhere near him; however, a spike made of Earth rose up from the grow and shot toward Jason.

Jason immediately reacted and dodged to the side, but several more spikes came hurling toward him as soon as he did so. Left with no choice, he hacked the spikes to pieces while they were still mid-air. However, his feat didn't come free of consequences; one of his claws was completely broken, and immense pain spread from his knuckles to the rest of his body. But he didn't have time to wait for the pain to turn numb, as Evelyn continued to send barrages of earthen spikes toward him.

"Hehahahah! DIE!"

Left with no choice, Jason retreated back into the dark room from before, hoping that she couldn't attack him in the dark. However—

"There you are!"

—As if able to see perfectly fine in the dark, Evelyn sent even more spikes toward Jason's location. Sensing the Mana-condensed Earth spikes shooting toward him, Jason dodged them and jumped up to the ceiling beams, trying to escape through the decoy house up in the alleyway.

'This is easy,' he thought, 'I just need to continued blocking and dodging the spikes t—'

But he couldn't continue his thoughts any further as he sensed danger right behind him. Quickly turning his head around, Jason met eyes with Evelyn, who was pouncing on him from a higher ceiling beam. Staring into her bright golden eyes, something clicked in his head.

'A-A predator!'

He should've known better. Evelyn was a cat beastkin, that was why she could see perfectly in the dark. Not just that, she was able to sneak up on him! Although the spikes crashing into the wall was loud and distracting, Jason knew that he would've been able to detect Evelyn sooner if she had made any sound.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

But it was too late now. Evelyn was right in front of his face, and he didn't have time to dodge or block. She grabbed his face with her hand and swept his leg with hers. Then, she fell from the beams alongside with Jason and slammed the back of his head to the ground.

Despite the floor below having been partially destroyed by the impact, Jason was still conscious; though, he wished that he was dead instead. The pain caused by fragments of his own skull digging into his skin and brain was unbearable. Luckily for him, his wish would soon be granted.

Evelyn held her claw up high and stabbed into Jason's abdomen. As if regaining a bit of her rationality, Evelyn spoke with a crooked smile, "You die painful!"

She dug into his stomach, ripping his intestine out with every swing of her claws. Despite Jason's pleas, she didn't stop. No, she couldn't stop. Her hatred combined with the exciting smell of a prey dying made Jason's screams of agony seem like music to her ears. As seconds passed, however—

"Wh-What?!"

—Evelyn suddenly ceased all movements; her body convulsed as if she was having a seizure. Soon, she rolled to the side and spasmed on the ground.

With eyes that were quickly losing their light, Jason smirked. "Heh, the poison finally kicked in. Guess I don't have to go to hell alone..."

It was then that Evelyn's [Berserk] ran out, and she finally grasped the dire situation she was in right now.

'P-Poison! Since when?!'

Despite having thought that, Evelyn knew exactly when the poison came into her circulation. When Jason first hurt her with his claws, she felt less pain than usual. At that time, she had just brushed it off to the adrenaline keeping the pain away but now, she was sure that it was the numbing effect of the poison.

'But he didn't have to time to smear any on. That means...!'

The poison was naturally produced inside his body. Since Jason didn't look like a snake beastkin and he had claws, it could only mean one thing.

'He's a platypus beastkin!'

That was the only explanation. Now, Evelyn couldn't run away from the fact that the man who killed his mother was a beastkin anymore, especially not when [Berserk] had lost its effect.

"N-No..." she shook her head with tears running down her cheeks, "I don't w-want this!"

Forcibly calming her spasming muscles down, she crawled toward Jason.

"Y-You! Tell me that it's a lie! Tell me that you're human!"

Soon, she reached his toes.

"P-Please! I-I don't want my last moment to be like this!"

Her hand travelled to his waist as she pulled her body up.

"T-Tell me that I haven't done all of this for nothing!"

Her head reached his neck.

"Say that I haven't killed innoce—"

But Evelyn halted her speech upon seeing Jason's eyes rolling back with white foam in his mouth. He was... dead.

Evelyn's eyes turned blank as she rolled to the side once more and laid her back on the ground.

'I don't want it to end like this...'

-"Evelyn?"

'Please, someone save me...'

-"HOLY FUCKING SHIT! WHAT HAPPENED?!"

'Please... let me live... to atone for my sins.'