Edited by: Flubbykin

Daydreaming again? Johann smiled to himself feeling intoxicated by some weird, awkward, strange, alien-like feeling. His head was light yet his body was heavy. Everything was so simple. The usual feeling of someone that drunk a little bit too much, yet still have some strength and will to continue partying.

Something, somewhere, was slowly, gently – as if afraid of scaring him off – pushing him deeper into his sub-consciousness. He was floating lazily into the deepest part of his existence, letting somebody else take the steering wheel of his body, letting him enjoy the view from the backseat.

He watched his body change, he witnessed as his nails widened and curved into vicious claws, as his whole forearm got so much longer and covered into muscles so dense and heavy, that he had to support his whole body on his frontal limbs.

Something started bothering him in his field of view, something that grew exactly in the middle, yet within seconds his mind learned to ignore it. Barely awake Johann didn’t realize that it was his skull changing its shape, and that annoying object was his snout.

The shadows froze in place for a second or two seeing his change. That second or two were quickly used by Marie, which bite the hand of the creature which was currently pinning her to the ground. Monster hissed more annoyed than hurt, but the sudden shock of new sensation made him loosen his grip. Witch kicked the attackers and rolled into thickset - trying to flee from the field of view of both residents of the forest, and her loved one.

Wolf took over hunter’s body within dozen or so seconds, the process which would usually last at least few minutes causing him a terrible agony this time happened almost in an instant with no harm to Johan’s mental condition. And for the first time, Johann saw everything that was happening to him. It wasn’t merely flashbacks, pieces of memories, tastes and sounds out of place and order. Even though he couldn’t really react nor cause his body to move, he was aware of what was happening… Or at least to some certain point, because the blissful state that over flood his soul caused him to stop questioning actions of a creature in charge.

So – we are preparing for combat? Cool. Trying to snap enemy’s head off? Well, if it has to be done… Wishing to cut his chest open and devour his heart? I am quite hungry, so let’s go for it.

~ See? This is a freedom of hunt. Those are sensations of predators. Get drunk upon their fear. Get high upon their screams. These lesser creatures were born with only one purpose – to serve as our food and plaything.

It doesn’t really sound right… - Johann disagreed, though his tone betrayed his hesitation.

It was just like a creature said. He felt good. It was so natural to do all these things, that such silly things like what is acceptable by the society looked almost funny and inappropriate.

~ Society!? Tis’ but a creation of weak, miserable beings. Pathetic creatures which are lacking strength and motivation to find that strengths. Who needs the approval of those, who are weaker than yourself? Slower than yourself? Dumber than yourself? The only social construct that may be approved is pack – the group of equal predators led by supreme one… and even then you should keep looking for perfection to one day replace his position.

To prove yourself better?

~ No. A pack is gathering of individuals. The stronger are individuals, the stronger is pack, the stronger is pack, the stronger are individuals. Proving your worth is worthless, for you know you're worth every single day when you kill a thing.

Makes sense.

This whole inner conversation took place in heat of combat. Wolf had no problems having a peaceful conversation with hunter and fighting off seven attackers, which after Marie gone missing, completely focus on taking werewolf down.

Or, actually, Werewolf was no longer fighting off attackers, instead, he was charging furiously sweeping his clawed arms in deadly attacks which could easily cut hooded creatures in two. Werewolves were naturally strong, the curse overwrites the body structure with new, enchanted tissue of muscles, but not many know, that it’s just a multiplication of host strength. Johann was quite strong on his own, his naturally colossal body was the best vessel possible for his new wolf-side.

Now, it was time.

The hunters greatest tool is his patience, and even though were-Johann was fighting with a ferocity of a crazy beast, he actually was carefully observing, thinking and planning.

He was looking for weak points, for the chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Once he would locate the fragile spot, he would attack shattering the formation of his foes – no matter what it would be –the command giving leader, the tempo-making fastest attacker or the weakest one – the one that was serving only as a support.

One of the creatures jumped from the side and landed on his shoulder, piercing through the thick fur and reaching muscles underneath it. With his other hand werewolf quickly grabbed the monster sitting on his side and threw it across the clearing, and with a great dose of skill, and even greater dose of luck, the throw made two creatures collapse.

Beasts were running around him, occasionally attacking from the blind spots, now, the two bodies lying on the ground and clumsily trying to get up cause the whole formation to shatter. Now was the time.

He located him earlier – a single shadow that never attacked. He just kept running at the fastest pace very often overlapping his companions. Was he a leader whispering others? Was he the weakest link which was supposed to drag his attention away and force him into thinking that they have an advantage of number?

That’s something that beast in Johann’s body didn’t know. Normally, it would prefer to observe and learn for a moment or two longer, but, the opportunities are bound to be used. He started charging at the individual that desperately try keeping a distance away from thrice time bigger werewolf. Seeing that Johann focused different target, the rest of the group tried stopping him, yet he kicked the ground and pounced in the air.

Naturally muscled legs of Johann now covered in enchanted tissue of werewolf cause that single jump to look almost like a flight. Four meters tall in the air, 18 meters long. In the mid-air he stretched his arms and opened his mouth trying to “cover” as much of landing space as possible, so in case his target would try running away, he would still pin him to the ground.

Imagine this – a beast around three meters tall being clawed, toothed, furred nightmare fuel able to shorten the distance of rugby field with five jumps – in 5 or 6 seconds trying to pounce on you. No matter what you are, even a young dragon would shiver seeing this passion in eyes of attacker. Yet, the “weird” shadow was completely calm.

18 meters turned to 8, 8 turned into 4 and 4 into 2. And just when werewolf could almost taste the blood in his mouth. The enemy disappeared. No, not just vanished, but turned into blur so fast, that if not for his enchanted sense of sight Johann could never keep track of it.

He saw his enemy moving to his right. So he twisted his body and kicked with his left rear limb onward. That allowed him to stop briefly on the tree which was just behind his target’s previous spot and redirect the momentum. He swept his arm aiming at enemy’s head, yet a mere step back completely nullified the attack. This time Johann attacked from the other side, yet the shadow once again saved himself by taking another step back, giving field back to the werewolf.

Rest of the shadows stopped attacking. They just froze, standing and observing the fights of two apex predators.

The creature was much faster than werewolf, he had to admit it, but, in those splits of seconds when he had to reconsider where to run in order to avoid attacks most effectively – he became predictable. Werewolf smiled to himself at the back of his mind.

Another swept from right – steps back by his enemy – swept from left – same, swept from both sides at once while making two additional steps onward. At this point his enemy had three options – Johann completely gave up his defense – so he could just jump onward and go for blow exchange, yet because of difference in size and strength, that wasn’t very likely to happen. The other two options were either jumping up and catching branches of the trees or ducking and trying to roll between werewolf’s legs – the ones that right now were spread wide in order to help hunter keep the balance of his colossal body.

Were-Johann hoped that his enemy would pick the last option, and indeed, that happened. When he only saw that hooded creature started falling on his knee, he quickly withdrew his arms, corrected his footing and raised a knee. The momentum of both creatures would cause that the knee of Johan – which now was as big (if not bigger) than regular’s man skull, would hit hooded beast right between the eyes. The impact would cause the skull of much more petite creature (though it was as big as a regular man) to shatter into dust and turn the brain into soup.

Yet, the hooded creature did something that Johann did not expect – it managed to attack from this position. With its elbow, it aimed the knee from the side changing its trajectory drastically and completely shattered the balance of werewolf. Bah, Johann felt his joint being painfully dislocated as the momentum throw his body on the ground and force it into rolling for few more meters before he hit the tree.

He jumped up, grabbed his leg and with a forceful push he forced dislocated joint back on its place, something that would cause most men to either scream in agony or even faint from pain, for him it was like an annoying scratching after a mosquito bite.

He should be dead. At the moment he landed with his face in the mud, his opponent should jump on his back and snap his spine. That wouldn’t be enough to kill him, no, but would paralyze him for few good hours before he would heal up, and that would give his enemy plenty of time to cut his head off. And that’s something that not even werewolf could regenerate.

There was no point in thinking about this now. For now, all that mattered was a hunt. A battle. An adrenaline in his veins.

He charged again at his enemy, this time he saved himself by jumping on the tree into which Johann rammed with his whole body mass. Colossal oak actually tilted greatly in the opposite direction resting on the other trees.

Wasting no time, Johann started climbing up chasing after the hooded creature. Swept, swing, punch, kick – all his attacks were masterfully evaded by his opponent that kept using huge branches either as cover, or as a leverage to jump right and left, up and down.

Werewolf kept running after swift creature to the peak of the tree, from which he jumped back on the clearing. Johann, without thinking twice, followed right after it.

He was in the middle of his flight down when he realized how terrible idea it was. Creature landed in the middle of the clearing – but also in the middle of the formation of remaining six shadows. Into the middle of a trap.

He tried saving himself – trying to grab a branch, kick away, change trajectory in any way possible, all to no avail. Was he outsmarted? Allowed to believe that he had a situation under control while the strongest enemy drag him away from his team members not only reducing possible casualties but also letting them prepare an ambush?!

What a god-like hunter…

Hooded creature landed and rolled right away in order to avoid being trampled by a colossal creature that was about to land on his head. Seconds later were-Johann also tried to roll away into safety, but as soon as his feet hit the ground, one of a shadows threw at his a rope with a hook, which painfully dug into his flesh. From the other side another was throw, and third and fourth.

From every possible directions, his body got leashed and pulled, completely immobilizing him. If there was one, maybe two such hooks, he could still break free with almost no effort, three greatly reduced these chances, but the fourth was like a nail to his coffin. Strip completely off possibilities of fighting back, he kept tarnishing in place for some more time.

He heard as one of the remaining shadows rushed at him from the back, avoiding having his head bitten off, and dug a dagger in his spine. Somewhere between the third and forth cervical vertebra. He felt his muscles tensing and clenching, not allowing him for a single move.

Then, another attack made him lost consciousness. Somehow he still managed hearing:

- “A touched-one? You know what to do with him.”

It was his nemesis speaking.

~ At least the doe is safe

Marie.. – Johann would whisper from the corner of his own mind.

~ Yes, a doe...