DREADWOLF

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“Go!” cried Opal.

Rain burst into motion and his legs powered him across the camp in one fluid leap. He landed on the Hob and smashed him to the ground where his teeth came down on the unfortunate Hob’s neck. With one savage motion he tore out his throat, literally ripping it from his body.

Opal rushed up beside him as the sound of disturbed sleep started to emanate from the tents.

“They’re waking!” she whisper hissed. 

Rain swung between the three tents unsure what to do. He made a decision and sprung on the nearest. Ripping through the side he came down on its sleeping occupant teeth first, viciously biting down with the intent to kill as fast as possible. He had one split second look at a terrified Elf who had woken up to see Rain's blood covered head sticking through the wall of his tent and then his maw descended on the Elf’s face and savagely tore it off in a fountain of gore, along with a good portion of his skull and brain leaving behind a horrifying ruin.

A furious roar came from the tent next door and the Orc charged through the side of her tent crashing directly into the tent Rain was in. A muscular shoulder rammed into him and he went flying from the canvas with a yelp and slammed into the cave’s wall before slumping down. The Orc roared once more and ripped apart the tent covering her with her bare hands. She swung around looking for what she had shoulder checked but completely missed Rain who blended into the shadows. Instead she was distracted by the recently freed Kobolds and Goblins running around in a panic.

“You fucking shits! What did you do to my Elf!? I’m going to kill you allll!!!”

She stomped back to her tent and ripped it apart then pulled her massive anvil hammer free, hefting it easily. She turned and brought it down on a Goblin. The Goblin exploded under the sheer force of it, spraying blood and skin and mashing everything solid that was left into the ground.

She torqued and spun the hammer around herself causing it to obliterate two Kobolds and catapulting part of them across the cave at extreme speed where they pulped against a wall. 

She strode forward swinging at targets as Eliza crawled from her tent and used her staff to climb to her feet. She looked around wide-eyed at the chaos and brought the staff up. Water boiled from a chunk of azurite on its tip and four water orbs began floating around her, each nearly a foot in diameter. She swung her staff and they began gliding forward, homing in on escaped slaves. Once they reached a target they engulfed the unfortunate victim’s head and clung in place as they desperately thrashed around trying to move the unbreathable ball of fluid. Most hadn't been quick enough to hold their breath and were rapidly drowning. 

She suddenly flinched and turned, holding her staff up as a set of teeth leapt from the shadows. Paws grabbed her staff and the teeth came down on it, instantly snapping the staff in two. She let go and the black furred monster flung the two halves aside.

She stumbled backwards in fright as it came on.

“Do you recognize me Eliza? I climbed out of hell for you, but look at the monster I’ve become.” He spread his paws wide, bits of Elf gore dripping from his snarling muzzle.

“W-what?!”

“Let me give you a clue. Me, you, Lira, Adlen, Myra, and Brax all went to do a little power leveling. Then you all stabbed me in the back and tortured me to death for fun.”

Her mouth flapped open, working up and down as she tried to find words.

“Rain!?”

“Yes! You threw me away like trash, and for that, I am going to kill you.”

“W-wait! Please! I didn't mean it! I said as much, I said, I said it was a mistake! I felt bad about it!”

“After you gleefully gutted me like a fish Eliza.”

Eliza's face went from pleading to scowling anger in an instant, as though a switch had been flipped. 

“Oh go fuck yourself Rain. You turned into a monster? Yeah, that would be fitting. I’ll ensure it’s a short lived experience.”

She lifted her hands into the air and the water orbs rushed back toward her in a dizzying orbit. They met and merged forming one massive two foot wide ball of water with a splash. She flung her hands forward and it rocketed at Rain, he tried to dodge but it homed in on him and engulfed his shoulders and head.

“We threw your worthless ass in the lake so I think this is a fitting end for your second death!” She giggled as she held out her palms keeping the huge ball of water over Rain as he stumbled about hopelessly swinging at the yielding liquid. Air bubbled up from his mouth as he panicked, he tried to reach for Eliza but to no avail, she simply backed away and kept him submerged. 

“I’m going to skin you and sell your pelt so you will have at last found a way to contribute a little value to our town Rain. Choke and fill your lungs and di- wait, what are you doing?”

Rain had stopped moving and was standing still with his mouth open wide. Eliza blinked and stared at him.

“Are you... are you trying to drink it? You can’t be serious. Pffaahaha!”

Rain met her eyes through the watery orb and the corners of his mouth curled. Then he began to swallow. The water rushed inward as though sucked in by a whirlpool and the orb rapidly diminished, within seconds shrinking down to a foot across and then vanishing down the wolf’s throat. He belched and patted his stomach.

“Nice try. But it was never going to work.”

“N-no!” She wrenched her hands to the side trying to affect the water trapped inside of him, but Rain simply set his feet and used his superior strength to override her globular control of the mass of water. 

He belched again. “Urff, never drank water like that. Oh, here we go.” He rested a paw on his stomach as it rapidly shrank down to nothing and returned to flat. “Was wondering if that would work, too bad there’s no growth though.”

Eliza stared at his flattened abdomen. “What? Wh-where, did it go!?” She moved her hands trying to shift the now non-existent water.

“Oh is that all you’ve got? Guess this is going to end quicker than I like. Oh well. Time to eat you.”

He stepped toward her causing her to back away in fear.

“H-hey, hold on, you can’t be serious. You’re just some level-less freak, you can’t eat me!”

“I’m going to bite your legs off and splinter your bones Eliza, I’m going to make you watch me eat you alive bit by bit, your fingers, your toes, your limbs, you will beg me to kill you.” 

Eliza’s eyes went wide. “No! No! You can’t! R-rain! I’ll do anything, what do you want? Money? P-power leveling?”

“Power leveling? Is that a joke?” He snorted. “No. Karma caught up Eliza. This is the end.”

Her knees shook as she backed up against the cavern wall, unable to take her eyes off Rain's own yellow eyes she scrabbled blindly behind herself, desperate for an escape.

“Rain! Look out!” cried a Goblin voice and Rain dropped to the ground as the Orc’s anvil hammer flew through the air having been hurled, sailing just past where his torso had been. It struck the wall next to Eliza and fractured it from top to bottom with an ear splitting boom. Huge sheets of rock sloughed off and toppled to the ground. Eliza screamed and threw her arms over her head as she was peppered with high velocity splinters of stone. 

“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck this!” She grabbed at her side and ripped off a water skin attached to her belt. She frantically pulled the cap free and upended it on the ground squeezing it out as fast as possible. Rain looked up in surprise from where he lay prone. She slammed her hands together in a strange hand seal and began breathlessly and rapidly chanting. The puddle of fluid she stood in began to faintly glow and then to Rain’s utter outrage she began to sink into it, her legs quickly disappearing. He scrambled to his feet and lunged at her, arm extended, paw reaching, he grabbed a fist full of her hair and heaved back causing her to scream. Rain underestimated his own strength however and that the pool had an unstoppable grip on her and a good third of her long blonde hair was ripped from her scalp leaving an angry red welt behind. She screamed again and slapped her hands down over her bleeding head. A tearful face shot him a look of pure withering hatred.

As she dipped below the puddle’s surface Rain could only watch as her lips formed words with no sound, carefully directed at him. ‘I liked what I did’. She vanished below and the water stopped glowing and became normal unmagical water once more.

Rain stood there with a chunk of bloody blonde hair held limply in his paw. His whole body trembled with rage. ‘I liked what I did’. She had enjoyed gutting him. Her pretences were always just that, a facade, she’d never had an ounce of kindness in her. She was as twisted as Myra or Brax or any of the others. Demons without the outward appearance of Demons.

He snarled and flung her hair to the ground. He spun around looking for something to take his growing fury out on, just in time as a heavy Orc fist was flying toward his head. He shifted aside as it whistled past, actually brushing by his fur. He dove out of the way of the charging Orc and scrambled to keep his feet under him.

Ola stumbled to a stop having missed and almost lost her balance.

She turned with a massive grin on her face and her eyes gleaming with excitement.

“It’s you! You bloody black furred fucker! You’ve come to fight me!”

Rain ignored her words and lunged at her, arms outstretched, eyes wild with rage.

“Woah there!” said the Orc as claws reached for her muscular neck. A massive green fist came up and grabbed one of his arms by the forearm but not before his other claws managed to lacerate her skin sending a sheet of blood washing down the side of her neck. 

“Savage fucker aren't you. Strong too. I’m gonna enjoy beating you to a pulp.”

She swung her arm out, holding Rain up in the air and away from herself as he struggled. She then shook him back and forth so violently that it caused Rain to be momentarily stunned. 

“Aww does the little monsty not like it when he gets pushed around?”

Rain’s yellow eyes stared her down. “I’m going to make you regret that.”

The Orc blinked in surprise. “Oh, you can tal-AAARGHHG!!!”

She screamed as Rain lunged up and bit one of her fingers holding him clean off. The Orc instinctually threw him aside, sending him tumbling and rolling across the ground.

“You piece of shit! Look what you’ve done to me!” cried the Orc holding up a bleeding stump where her index finger once was.

Rain crawled to his feet and rolled his jaw. He then opened his mouth and quite deliberately showed the Orc her dismembered finger resting there. 

“H-hey, give that back, there’s healers that can reattach shit like this. Good monster, just hand it here.”

Rain swiftly diced the finger with his teeth and swallowed the chunks. Blood dripped from his mouth as he gave her his most predatory grin.

“FUUUUCKK YOOU!” roared the Orc and she lunged for her anvil hammer where it lay, grabbed it up, swung it over her head, and hurtled toward Rain.

Rain was caught unprepared by her explosive speed and cut a close dodge, the hammer came down, but it was a bluff and she caught it halfway through the arc. She set her hips and legs and twisted her body torquing into a side swing, it just glanced off Rain’s side, he could practically hear his ribs creak as they deformed under the brushed weight of the anvil. He was sent rolling, his limbs flailing as he went down. 

“I’ve got you now you finger eating fuck head!” crowed the Orc as she strode forward and swung the anvil hammer down on him from above like an unstoppable meteor.

Rain tried to get up in time, desperately trying to get his feet under him quickly enough to have time to get out of the way. Too late. Only one choice left. He reached out his paws above his head, and he caught the anvil. BOOM! The pressure wave blew through him and the stone floor fractured as his feet were pushed down with unfathomable energy. His bones screamed and he could physically feel his muscles shredding apart under the immense weighted momentum he was desperately trying to hold back. His claws dug into stone and rock sheared and shattered in a widening circle around him as he struggled to keep from being crushed. The anvil kept on crashing down and down onto his shoulders. He roared and blood flecked from his mouth and the very air trembled with the noise. But, he held. The anvil stopped still on his shoulder, the hammer had nearly broken him, and his legs shook like leaves in the wind. But, he held. 

The Orc stared at him stunned. 

“Well. That’s a first.” 

She kicked him in the chest.

Rain stumbled backwards helpless to watch as the Orc heaved her anvil hammer around in a full body swing and hundreds of pounds of metal came at him, he couldn't even lift his ruined arms to stop it. The hammer freighted into him. His arm dangling by his side took it first and it shattered instantly, breaking up and down its length. Then his ribcage behind caved in, snapping ribs like twigs. The blow took him off his feet and the force of it sent him flying across the cavern to slam into the cavern wall where stone fractured and flesh tore before he crashed to the floor in a heap.

Rain tried desperately to cling to consciousness as the heavy boots of the Orc approached.

“HAHAHA! Almost had me going for a second you fuck. You’re done now though, it’s a small miracle you’re still breathing. I think I’ll mount your head on the wall as my trophy. You’re bodies a mess so ain’t much salvaging that yeah?”

Rain ignored her and pushed himself back up against the wall, then with immense effort he pushed upward with his legs, managing to stand, leaning against the stone for support, his back leaving a bloody smear in its wake, his arms useless at his sides.

“Oh the fire in you. Shame Elfy died, woulda done him good to see someone with a pair.”

Every breath Rain took was pain.

“You…” he whispered.

The Orc stepped closer to hear.

“You’ve got green on you.”

She tilted her head not understanding and Opal slipped her knife around the Orc’s throat and slashed at her muscular neck. The blade penetrated, but shallow, the Orc yelped and a hand came up to grab at the Goblin riding her back, but she was already gone, only a cut to match the previous one Rain had made with his claws left in her wake. 

Rain leapt on the opportunity and heaved himself away from the wall. His jaws opened wide and his teeth fell on the forearm of the arm carrying the hammer and bit down like an unstoppable guillotine. Skin, fat, muscle, all split apart, teeth met bone and sheared through them such was his do or die strength. The hammer crashed to the ground with a green hand and part of an arm still clutching it. 

“WHAT!?” screamed the Orc staring at her severed stump in horror. Rain stumbled forward blood sheeting from his maw, his eyes intense and wild. The Orc panicked and grabbed at his face with her other hand trying to keep him away. SNAP. Half her fingers vanished down Rain’s throat. BITE. Her hand was inside his mouth and rapidly disappearing. She tried to pull away but his jaws would not let go and each bite made more of her vanish behind those hungry greedy teeth, already he was working his way toward her elbow. 

She screamed wordlessly and smashed her head down on the wolf in a wild headbutt. It worked, stopping Rain long enough for her to pull her arm free. 

She turned and ran, long legs shoving her forward, one step, two- A weight clamped down on her ankle and she tripped and fell. She turned and looked down in fright to see the black furred thing had thrown itself and managed to catch her in its jaws once more. It crunched down and severed her foot. Then it began to eat its way up her shin. She screamed and bellowed in fear and her other foot came down to kick at the wolf. CRUNCH. The teeth bit at that foot too, shearing through her boot and right through to flesh and bone. She could only watch as it continued to eat her alive bit by bit, using its legs to shove itself forward as its arms were broken. It was consuming her from the feet upward.

She screamed herself hoarse and tried to crawl away, the stumps of her arms fruitlessly dragging against the ground as she hyperventilated.

“Stop! P-please! Oh gods!”

Rain didn’t hear her. He was no longer conscious and his body was working of its own accord.

Her muscular thighs soon went inside the beast, then her hips, then her abs and stomach.

Her vision was getting dark and she stared up at the cavern ceiling unseeing.

“The Elf was right… He was right damn him. There’s always something… something out there... something worse than a nightmare...”

Her eyes fluttered shut as implacable teeth met her rib cage and devoured her.