At the sight of the glowing blue crystal, the hunter hesitated, retreating a few steps as the ground beneath us began to tremble. The energy around the crystal seemed alive, pulsating with an otherworldly force that spiraled outward, creating cracks in the earth. The vibrations intensified, radiating an unsettling power.
Behind me, Vantos appeared, his shimmering robe catching the moonlight like liquid silver. His hands moved, tracing patterns in the air that summoned a glowing sigil beneath the crystal. The symbol became brighter with each passing second, creating a field of energy around the shard.
"I suggest you take a step back. This familiar tends to be... a little unstable."
Suddenly, the earth swirling around the crystal clumped together with unnatural force, twisting and molding into the form of a massive hound. Its eyes burned with red flames, glowing like embers as its body solidified from the soil. Its growl rumbled like a distant thunder, echoing across the forest.
"Vantos... why have you summoned me to this forsaken realm?" Its limbs shifted and cracked as it stepped forward. "My time here will be brief due to the... insufficient sacrifice you've provided."
Vantos smiled, unfazed by the hound's displeasure. He stepped closer and reached out, petting the massive creature with a familiarity that was unsettling. "Gaston... it has been too long. Unfortunately, I only had a small shard on me to summon you. But I trust it's enough for you to deal with this little... inconvenience."
The hound's fiery eyes turned toward the hunter, its gaze burning with contempt. "That skinny thing?" it snarled, its voice dripping with disdain. "You pulled me from my slumber for something so... trivial?"
Gaston moved forward, as the burning embers in his eyes narrowed, examining the hybrid hunter. Then, he suddenly stopped, almost as if sensing something, glancing back at me. "A primal blood... it has been over a century since I encountered one. Do I get to fight him as well?"
Vantos chuckled. "The hybrid in front of you should be your priority, Gaston. The primal blood will spar with you another time. Patience, old friend."
The hunter began pacing like a cornered predator, frustrated at Vantos intrusion. His wings twitched as he glanced at us, searching for an opening. "Vantos, why do you always have to stick your nose into matters that don't concern you? Take your shitty familiar and leave—I have an essence to consume."
Gaston let out a guttural laugh, the sound rumbling through the ground beneath us. "Essence to consume? How bold of you to assume you'll live long enough to enjoy it."
"Be careful, don't get overconfident," Vantos said. "This hunter is a hybrid, a mix between a vampire elder and a skillful human hunter."
"Enough talk!" Gaston launched himself forward, swinging its claws at the hybrid hunter, who easily dodged every strike. Meanwhile, Vantos took a step back, watching as his familiar struggled to land a mortal wound at the hunter. Gaston, began to shift his body composition mid-fight, his form morphing fluidly from mud to fire, then to wood, adapting his attacks with relentless intensity.
The hybrid hunter started to hesitate under Gaston's overwhelming speed and unpredictability. A powerful swipe from Gaston's claw connected with the hunter's chest, the impact forcing cracks to spread across the stone-like texture of the hunter's skin.
The hunter staggered back; his hand pressed firmly against the widening crack in his chest. His black eyes burned with pain as his pupils returned to their human form. Meanwhile, Gaston bent down, sniffing one of the splinters that had fallen from the hunter's damaged skin before swallowing it whole.
Moments later, Vantos's familiar shifted again, its form hardening to match the same dense stone material as the hunter's skin. "Now we're on even grounds, freak!" Gaston lunged forward and delivered another crushing blow to the hunter's chest, forcing the crack to widen further and exposing faint glimpses of something pulsating beneath the stone exterior.
The hybrid staggered again but didn't fall, his movements unnaturally fast despite the weight of his stone armor. Gaston snarled in frustration and leaped back, landing in front of Vantos and me.
"I hope you've got a better plan," Gaston said, his fiery eyes flickering with annoyance. "This guy isn't going down easily. I've no idea how he's moving so fast with that heavy stone skin. It's unnatural."
The familiar shifted his stance as he prepared to leap back into the fight. "My time in this realm is almost up, but that doesn't mean I won't swing my claws at a formidable creature like him one last time!"
Vantos turned towards me, concerned. "My life force has been significantly drained after infusing the Ethran crystal. I suspect this is your first time encountering a monster like this in Adams. But let me tell you—there are worse things in this world than a hunter desperate for infinite power. A primal blood like you can eliminate an ignorant fool like him, even with his vampire ability to harden his skin into stone."
"I froze, Vantos. I couldn't move. If you hadn't shown up, it would've been the end of me."
"I disagree with that assessment. You're a brand-new alpha. You're still discovering the extent of your abilities, but I can assure you—you will find your connection with the beast far more intriguing than you realize. I have seen primal blood that can switch effortlessly between their wolf and lycanthrope forms in mere seconds. The wolf's agility, combined with the lycanthrope's strength, is all you need to deal with a small fry like him. You're capable of far more than you think. I'm telling you this, because in fifteen seconds, Gaston will vanish, and the shard I used to summon him will be worthless. If you're going to step up, now is the time to prove what a primal blood can do."
Vantos stepped in front of me and then pointed at Derrick. "I want you to take a good look at them. They're injured. They will be easy prey for this hybrid if you don't put your fear aside and show them why they're risking their lives for you."
His words struck a nerve deep within me. As Gaston continued to battle the hunter with unrelenting ferocity, showing no fear, I noticed Antolio had reverted to his human form. He stood nearby, frozen, his eyes widened, fixed on me as if silently urging me to act.
"By the way... did I ever mention you look absolutely adorable as a white wolf?"
Gaston let out a fierce growl—and then, in an instant, his form crumbled into dust. The stone composition of his body shattered, and with it, the fiery essence of the hound vanished into thin air. What remained was nothing but silence and the faint scent of scorched earth.
The hunter straightened; his eyes fixed on Vantos with a malicious glint. Once he understood what happened, a maniacal laugh burst from him, echoing across the chasm.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
"Is that all you've got? Let me guess... you can't summon a familiar from another realm indefinitely, can you? That's good to know. Your little elemental hound was strong, I'll give you that. Fierce, even. But do you know what the real problem is? It wasn't your familiar's fault he couldn't kill me—it was you. You're a weakling!"
The hunter leaped forward, his claws elongating into jagged weapons, aiming for a mortal strike. For a moment, I froze, unable to move, watching as Antolio glanced at Derrick, who lay unconscious and battered from the brutal beating the hybrid had inflicted earlier.
The sight ignited something within me. A deep, primal instinct surged to the surface as I let out a terrifying howl that reverberated through the air. I launched myself forward, recalling the control I had gained over my transformation when trying to turn my hand at the club's entrance. Memories of Annie and her mother flooded my thoughts—promises I had made to protect them, to never allow harm to reach them or those I cared for.
I jumped into the air, aiming to intercept the hunter before he could reach Vantos. But then, as if triggered by the intensity of the moment, a dark figure materialized in my mind, cloaked in shadow but unmistakably powerful. In each hand, it held a sword, the blades gleaming with glyphs etched into the steel. The figure approached me, forcing me to stare at his yellow eyes.
"Shed the fear within you and focus on your target. You are a primal blood—a man and beast merged into one entity. Trust your survival to the beast within you, and the beast will bestow its power upon you."
As the words echoed in my mind, an overwhelming surge of energy coursed through my body, awakening something powerful within me. My bones realigned at an incredible speed, faster and more fluidly than ever before. My wolf form dissolved, replaced by my human body—but it wasn't the same. My hands morphed into jagged, razor-sharp claws, their edges glinting under the eerie moonlight.
In midair, I extended my arm, aiming directly at the crack in the hunter's chest. My claws drove deep into his core, the sound of shattering stone reverberating through the night. Cracks spread like spiderwebs across his body, the hardened stone skin splintering further with each passing second.
The hunter suddenly choked, his form crumbling under the overwhelming force of the attack. Then, with a sudden, violent explosion, his body disintegrated entirely, leaving nothing but dust and fragments scattered across the ground. The only remnants of his existence were his attire and weapons, which fell with a hollow clatter, untouched by the destruction.
I landed firmly in front of Antolio, the beast within me unleashing a triumphant howl that echoed under the moonlight. The victory was ours, and the howl carried the message to every corner of the forest, reverberating through the trees like a primal declaration. As the echoes faded, I stared down at my grotesque hands, realizing what I had become.
The power surging through my veins was overwhelming, unlike anything I'd ever known—untamed, primal, and terrifyingly raw. It thrummed in every fiber of my being, a force that demanded to be unleashed, yet barely kept in check.
At that moment, as the moonlight bathed the ground around me, I understood the grim truth.
A new monster had risen in Adams.
The silence that followed was broken by the sound of slow, deliberate clapping. I turned to see Vantos approaching, his expression one of satisfaction. "Bravo," he said, as a smile spread across his face. "Simply exquisite. The primal blood finally awakens. I must admit, young master, you've exceeded my expectations."
The beast within me began to subside, its feral intensity ebbing as my body slowly reverted from its lycanthrope form to my human self. My skin cooled as the transformation completed, leaving me shaken but whole. Yet, amidst the physical relief, a disconcerting realization settled in—I was still blind to a crucial part of myself. All this time, I hadn't been able to recall anything from my childhood, not a single event before my mother's death. It was as though my past had been sealed away, just out of reach.
Vantos knelt beside the hunter's shattered body. He reached out and peeled a crest from the remnants of the hunter's armor, inspecting it briefly. "Travis Lumberg, rank three. A powerful hunter in his own right, but he was never meant to be a match for you."
His tone carried a faint sense of inevitability, as though the hunter's defeat had been foreseen all along. Vantos stood, tucking the crest away, and turned toward Antolio, who was still visibly shaken by what transpired in front of him. Reaching into his robe, Vantos pulled out two small vials of shimmering liquid, removing the rubber cap from one of them.
"Here," he said, handing the vials to Antolio. "These are regeneration potions. Drink one—it will accelerate your healing. Give the other potion to your unconscious friend."
My mind calmed, but the flood of questions only grew. I turned to Vantos, unable to suppress my curiosity. "Vantos, what was that little crystal you used to summon your familiar?"
"That was an Ethran crystal," he said. "I must infuse it with my life force to bring some of my familiars into this world. Ethra is another realm, much like this planet, but bound by different laws. When I forge contracts with familiars in Ethra, I need a crystal from that realm to summon them here. It's a tether between worlds, you see."
He paused, watching Antolio pour the potion into Derrick's mouth. "This planet isn't just any world, young master. It's the center of the collective realms. Adams, though small, is a unique fusion of realms, a place where boundaries between worlds blur. That's why anyone can walk into this town—crossing the bascule bridges is enough to enter. But leaving?" He chuckled darkly. "That's a far more difficult feat. To escape Adams, you'd need a powerful warlock to tear a crack in the reality veil. And that's assuming the werewolves don't rip you apart before you get the chance."
Suddenly, a shadow flickered in front of us. Lutia appeared, no longer cloaked in her human guise but in her true form—a void lynx, her otherworldly body rippling with dark energy. She transformed effortlessly back into her human shape and handed Vantos a small black box.
"Your crystal reserves, as you requested, master," Lutia said, lifting her arm. "And your disgusting frog."
At her words, Titus leaped from Lutia's outstretched hand and landed on my shoulder. I couldn't help but grin faintly as the familiar settled in an unusual spot, croaking with what almost sounded like satisfaction.
Vantos opened the box briefly, inspecting its contents with a satisfied nod. Then, he retrieved a few of the blue crystals, slightly bigger than the one he used to summon Gaston. "I will keep a few of these with me, in case of an emergency. You were fortunate Titus returned to me with word of your predicament the moment you exited the club. By the time I stepped out of my domain, you were already chasing the hunter into the forest. If I had been a moment later..."
"I'm very grateful to you, Vantos, for showing up when you did."
"We're business partners, aren't we? There's a rare blood type I'm after and you are the only creature in this realm that carries it. It's just a matter of time until I convince you to part with a few vials."
"One day, maybe. But there's another concern I have. One I just noticed."
"Which is?"
"While I was transforming into the lycanthrope, a memory resurfaced. A tall man in a black coat with yellow eyes and a pair of twin swords. The blades were etched with glowing symbols, similar to the blood seal you had at the entrance to your club. The thing is... I have no recollection of ever encountering this man before. What's more troubling is that I don't remember anything at all—my childhood, my school years, or any event in my life before my mother's death."
"Interesting," he said, crossing his arms. "A memory that surfaces only during transformation... That suggests it's not merely forgotten but deliberately suppressed. The man you describe, he's no ordinary figure. He must have been a man of importance in your life, for that memory to able to resurface like it did. The question is, who—or what—would want to suppress those memories? And why?"
Vantos's eyes narrowed, as he tapped his chin with a finger. "It could be... perhaps. But there's only one way to satisfy my curiosity. I need your permission to explore your mind. However, before we dive into the main event, I'll need to place you under a sigil."
He knelt on the ground, picking up a nearby branch and carefully etching a sigil into the dirt. The intricate lines and curves began to take shape, faintly glowing as he completed the design. "Unfortunately, I'm a bit low on juice to cast this properly. Drawing it by hand like this is a touch unreliable, but it will have to do. Step over the sigil and you must grant me permission to enter your mind. Without your consent, the enchantment won't activate."
I hesitated briefly, but the curiosity gnawing at me overpowered my doubts. Taking a deep breath, I stepped forward, placing myself squarely over the sigil. The moment my foot touched its surface, a faint glow emanated from the lines, flickering as if awaiting confirmation.
"You have my permission to enter my mind."