Iharu slammed her even larger claws onto the ground and roared to the point where the depth and volume hurt Val’s ears. Her bellow held much the same terror as a sea serpent’s shriek but at a lower pitch.

“Iharu,” Tavras could be heard interjecting, “you have gone too far! Why don’t you calm down now?”

Disregarding his excellent suggestion, Iharu bounded for her at a breathtaking speed.

Val’s heart leaped into her throat. Shutting her eyes tightly, she could only hope that Tavras could act fast enough to save her. In case he could not, she needed to do something in an attempt to save herself.

Val called upon her aversion to what she had just witnessed. Iharu had just mauled the behemoth that was supposed to be her pet and plucked out its heart to digest. Personally, Val would never do that to Foofy. Even thinking about that made her want to destroy the world. As such, she would destroy Iharu.

A blinding light flashed. Aside from the white that filled Val’s vision, there were jagged streaks like lightening. Crystals of her energy solidified in the exact point of space where Iharu’s body was and all around it. Red tainted the edge of these jagged lances.

Once the surge of Divine Judgement had stopped, Val witnessed fully what she had done. Her power had ripped from the inside of Iharu’s body into open air. Where the tips of her quartz-like production had pierced her flesh, blood pooled onto the ground.

“Iharu,” Tavras could be heard gasping. At once, he went to her side with an explosion of water at his feet. This same water clung onto Iharu’s body, as well as all of the moisture in the air from the immediate vicinity.

During their fight, Fang must have come over to the arena because he suddenly appeared next to Val. Swinging her around, he gripped her on either side by her forearms. “What is wrong with you?” he screamed.

“I don’t know—"

“Do you not know any restraint to your own powers? Gods, Iharu!” He went running to kneel at her side. At once, Fang’s green light joined Tavras’s blue one.

The realization of what she just did shocked her. “I don’t know why I did that,” she murmured. Val fell onto her knees because she felt weak just witnessing this. It would feel wrong to run away while Iharu was in a critical condition, so she sat by and watched.

Quietly, Foofy skulked over to her and flopped onto his uninjured side. Some whimpers came from him as he set to licking his wounds.

“Maybe Tavras can heal you next,” she whispered.

“Okay, Val,” Tavras said darkly. “You can remove your weapons now.”

Instinctively, she withdrew her power as he had asked. The white crystalline structure disappeared to nothingness.

“Shift into your human form,” he instructed Iharu.

Her body morphed into a human one, all bloodied from the massive wounds. At least her injuries downsized along with her Transformation, lest she die upon the shift.

The smaller injuries must have been easier to heal. With both Tavras and Fang as healers at work, they had her restored within an hour or so, though not completely.

“Your internal organs still have damage,” Fang said, “but they are stabilized to function in the short term. Let me carry you back. We need to take a break for now. Afterwards, we can do a second course of healing on you.” As he spoke, Fang tried to take Iharu into his arms.

She squirmed around and swat him away. “Let me eat the rest of the behemoth! I can heal myself.”

“No. You act more savage when you eat raw meat.” Against her struggles, Fang bound her limbs with slithering vines. He lifted her up and started to walk away with her.

Thrashing against her binds, Iharu started screaming. “I swear that I will eat out her heart one day. I will!” Her raving shouts disappeared to the forest as Fang carried her away.

What had Val just done? Too shocked to process it all yet, she continued to sit numbly alongside Foofy who now took rest. She only moved to swat away any flies that wanted to fester his wounds.

“Hey.” Tavras approached her with heavy steps, laden by his weariness. Sitting down roughly, Tavras rolled over to lie on his back with arms stretched out. Sighing, he said. “You really have been taxing my healing abilities as of late. First, the sea serpent with salt water. Now, Iharu with moisture from the air.”

Val pouted her lips. “I don’t suppose that I can ask you to heal Foofy.”

“Ugh. Next, I will heal your dog after I have had five minutes to rest.” Tavras closed his eyes. “If you ever learn any healing abilities, let me tell you: it takes a lot out of you.”

“I can imagine.” Fingering a circle in the ground, Val asked, “Did you save Iharu’s life?” Really, she was asking another question. Had she been so reckless as to almost kill Iharu?

“Yes,” Tavras said. “Fang saved Iharu’s life. Those injuries would have been beyond my capacity to heal without a proper source of water nearby.”

Her eyelids squeezed shut in a series of hard blinks. The sense of disbelief would not leave her.

“Don’t worry about her death threat though,” Tavras said with a laugh, false in his good cheer. “Currently, there is god who she already swore to eat his heart over a century ago. That menace is still around, sadly. Iharu is often empty on her threats.”

“Okay,” Val said numbly. The fact that she had just made an enemy out of a goddess did not even register. Clearly, Val had been strong enough to potentially kill a goddess, and that stuck with her as a bone-chilling—but also spine-tingling—discovery.

Best of all, Foofy should now be able to become a divine beast assuming that Iharu would stay true to her word. Val swallowed hard, because she doubted that this would be the case anymore.

Character Update

* New information is marked in cyan.

* All entries are based on what Val knows.

Fangarus (Fang) Title: Brother Wolf Rank: God Attributes: wilderness Abilities Name Class Description Bend Plant combat, practical

- move plants at will

- can grow new plants out of the ground

Natural Rejuvenation medical - heals injuries through the power of nature Plant Sense tactical - can feel through plants to know who is in the vicinity and what they are doing Plant Tongue cognitive - communicate with plants and gain new information Vegan practical - it might as well be an ability at this point Unknown n/a - probably has a lot more abilities