The wolfstag cub shook Vefir as he continued to scream in pain. With blood still coursing over my face, I was fully in the thrall of [Bloodlust], and immediately blindsided the cub. I went for the throat, looking to end this decisively.

I misjudged where its throat would be and was smashed in the head by the bottom of the cub's curling ram's horns. Fortunately for me, the cub didn't seem to realize that I was coming for it, as it dropped Vefir, confused once it made contact with me. Big mistake. I leapt up and grabbed it by the throat, successfully this time. I immediately wrenched my head back and forth, and, hearing the choked screams of the wolfstag, I bit down harder. Finally, with a determined rip and tear, I took a 10cm chunk out of its throat, and came up, victorious.

These creatures, with an exposed, obvious weakpoint were much easier to kill than those frogs, I thought.

Then, I finally noticed why Silf, Oncli and Foire weren't helping free Vefir. There were three other cubs, one larger than the rest by about 40%, so just shorter than Tieran, but longer and almost certainly heavier. Two were hounding Oncli, as he desperately dodged back and forth, too occupied to even wisecrack or talk. The third, the largest, was toying with Silf while the still injured Foire tried his best to keep the cub from dealing any killing blows. Silf tried his best to get to and protect his brother, but he was being knocked around continuously, and Foire was far from peak condition at this point.

As I looked on, Took and Treel ran in, but, unfortunately for them, the element of surprise was no longer on our side. They both focused on the largest, who had been going for a killing blow on Silf after knocking away Foire, and were able to save Silf's life. Figuring they would be fine for now, I went to help Oncli.

Harried as he was, I could see that he was mostly unhurt. Oncli had sustained a couple of nips here and there, but he had been able to keep himself from any serious blows. The two cubs were obviously beginning to truly corner him, but I came just in time. I dashed to blindside the closer of the two, but it had evidently heard the dying cries of my first kill, and whirled to face me. Damn.

While these wolfstags had much more easily seen and attacked weak points than our frogs, they were also much faster than the frogs as well. In fact, they were quicker on their feet than I was, and I realized how much of a struggle it was to close the distance to them. If one wasn't paying attention, they could be headbutted, bitten, or even kicked. The back feet of a wolfstag were hoofed, and could probably split my skull. Fortunately for me, this cub didn't seem to have much experience fighting, only hunting. It fell, hard, for one of my feints, and I pressed my advantage.

With its horns out of the way, I darted around to the cub's side and bit deeply into its shoulder. It screamed out in pain, turning towards me. It didn't anticipate me backing off, and accidentally struck its newly wounded shoulder with the point of its horn. It screamed again, but didn't realize it had distracted itself. It went to turn back to me, but it was too late. I gleefully sprung back at it from the opposite side and disabled its other shoulder. It had learned its lesson, and didn't overcommit to attempting to headbutt me, but it was too late. At this point, it was mostly crippled, and I was able to mount its back and bite deeply into its spine. With a crunching of bone, I paralyzed it, and its legs went limp below me, but I didn't stop there. The nape of its neck now exposed, I crunched, one, two, three times at the base of the skull, until it gave way, and I ripped its head from its neck and threw it to the side, now going to assist Oncli.

He had done well in delaying his opponent, which had wanted to come help its fellow before it was felled. It had whirled to come attack me, but Oncli had seized the moment and ripped into its exposed side, deep enough to see organs through the deep crimson of flowing blood. It turned back to Oncli, enraged at this apparently weak prey striking back, but, in its rage, forgot me. I was fortunate that these cubs were unaware of how the pitch of battle is constantly shifting, and was able to immediately latch onto its neck, just behind its horns. The cub was surprised, then frightened, and tried to smash me away by crushing my skull with its horn. It turned, hard, but it didn't have the leverage to really hit me. A mere unpleasant press was far from enough to overcome my [Bloodlust] fueled rage. I bit harder, and it squealed as I did so. I saw Oncli ripping back into the side of our prey, and grinned fiercely at his savagery. The cub stood no chance, and quickly succumbed to our combined attacks, falling into a pool of its own blood, ravaged and torn.

I then turned to look to see the results of the battle of the largest combatants. I was amazed to see that not only had Vefir and Silf, injured as they were, been able to move, but that they had come together to hamstring the huge wolfstag cub in tandem with Foire, who was on the other hind leg. Both Took and Treel were injured, evidently having been headbutted and bitten several times, but they had evidently protected their fellows from any killing blows, allowing for the fight to continue to tip to their favor. Under my approving eyes, Treel leapt forward, latched onto the horn of the cub, and forcefully wrenched it to the side, exposing it to Took. She didn't hesitate in making good on that opportunity, and didn't latch onto the neck of her foe, but began mangling it. After two quick bites and tears, the large cub began to cry out, but Took was far from finished. She began biting deeper and deeper, tearing the flesh out of the thick neck of the cub, swallowing it as she went. Took was no longer green, her head nearly matching the fiery red of Foire's, and she gloried in the suffering of the cub. Finally, she reached the spine, and, in one ferocious chomp, severed it. The cub dropped to the ground, dead.

As I came down from the high of [Bloodlust], I looked across the massacre, disbelieving that we had been able to come out of this without casualties, but that seemed to be so. Nonetheless, that wasn't guaranteed to stay that way, and 3 of our 7 were seriously injured.

"I would love to stay here and lick our wounds, but the rest of their pack may be nearby. Vefir, Silf, Foire, can you walk?"

Vefir shook his head no, but the other two shakily rose to their feet and nodded.

"Ok. Oncli, assist Vefir, and the others as you can. Took, Treel and I will carry all the meat from these cubs that we can. We must, however, prioritize mobility." I said this last part looking specifically at Took, and she nodded solemnly.

Oncli, with my help, got Vefir onto his back and began walking back to the den as quickly as he could. Silf kept pace alongside him as best as he could, while Foire stubbornly picked up a leg from the downed bullfrog and dragged it along. Took and Treel looked at each other, and, seemingly at the same time, decided to drag the entire body of the largest of the small pack back to the den. I distractedly nipped up the body of the wolfstag who I'd decapitated.

Distracted by the flashing notification in the top right of my vision:

[Growth achieved. Status updated. Evolutionary Progress: Young Bloodletter Keelish: 10/10. Evolution unlocked.]