Breathing is getting harder by the minute. Ollie's face looms above me in a distance I can't reach, mocking my struggle with his little twisted smirk I can see behind his beak, which he had left hanging open just for that, at least that is what I think. Shit, his mutated leg is massive, reaching from the base of my neck all the way to the bottom of my stomach, pushing it all down with force enough to make my bones creak with every movement I make. The weight of him is no joke either; he could simply switch his weight on this leg if he wanted to kill me.

"Johnny, Johnny, Johnny, you must be wondering I don't just kill you right now. Now, I know that leaving the hero to live just so you could have the final talk with him is a rookie mistake, but I really need your answer to this question; will you join forces with me?"

"What... The... Fuck... Is... Wrong... With... You...?"

"Ah yes, a predictable response, but hear me out. We had... Have our differences, but as I mentioned, thanks to you I have no loyal men left. Making my way to Bayfort immediately after my mutation, as it was where my personal guards were send, as I hoped to join with them. But as said, they did not intend to serve a 'demon' such as me, and we had a... 'Falling out'. And with that I mean one of them shot an arrow at me after the negotiations fell through, so I slaughtered them all. I didn't bother with the rest of my men send into the different havens and port towns, too much work, both the killing and trying to recruit them back under my wing... Wings. The third only showed interest in his family back home, so, well you know how that ended. So the only ally I can make here is you, with the residents thinking me as demon and the possessed dying and showing disinterest. Of course I will simply add you to the dead pile if you say no, so this is more of an offer you can't refuse than actual offer. So, do you want to join?"

"Why... Even..."

"Sorry to cut you off there Johnny, but listening you to wheeze out your questions is such an annoyance that I'm just gonna answer to what I'm guessing you want an answer for. Why? And I don't mean the 'why are you doing this' why, as you already marked me down as a hedonistic sociopath who does things for enjoyment rather than reason or plan, which I'm not even going to argue against at this point. No, I mean 'why do I need you to join with me' why. Simple, I'm a hedonistic sociopath who does things he enjoys, rather than things he needs to do for the greater picture, be it betterment of the world or the opposite of that. So being forced to work for a living is not what I would prefer, no, I want you to work as my agent in the human world and deliver me what I want. That's why I became the thief king, so that my generals could to all the work and I could reap all the rewards, only tagging on the raids when I felt like raiding."

"You're... Insane..."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm insane, it will never work, blah blah blah. But it is actually pretty easy, I play the role of the villain here in the capital, and you drive me off. That is the step one, second one is that the king sends you, the hero of the capital to vanquish me, with or without troops, doesn't really matter. Third, you return triumphant carrying what ever piece we feel like proves my defeat except head, as even the heart can be removed from us without us dying. You become noble or a landlord or something and get the access on the needed resources for me to live the life of plenty, and you get on the position that you need to make the world a better place with innovations from our world. You know, the good king bad mercenary captain deal I offered before. Because you still go for a human as you haven't mutated the plan has a big chance in the succeeding department and the troops send with you can be killed or bribed to join, as they don't have to serve a demon, but a man with a deal with the demon. Other parts of the plan can be worked as we proceed with it, but don't think you're indispensable, I can still get a sufficiently greedy person to join me and play the role of the hero. It just happens to be faster and more reliable to convert a person whose way of thinking I already know.

"Get... Your... Chicken leg... off of... Me..."

"Johnny, have you gotten weaker? Now that I look at you, you have shrunk from the last time, perhaps penalty for not accepting the advancement of the possession?"

"No... You... Just... Gotten... Fatter..."

With that he increased the force he put on his leg a little bit, cracking one or two of my ribs.

"Ah, the memories this stirs up, except the positions were the opposite that time."

Screw you Ollie, I think and sink my claws on his leg. Not really that effective, but I managed to draw a little bit of blood.

"If you think I'm quitting because you managed to make me bleed you're wrong, I don't mind sacrificing the whole leg if it means killing you. In the case you don't accept of course, I don't deliver any pleasure from doing that... Yeah, that's a obvious lie right there."

"...Ahhahha..."

"What? I can't make any sense of your mumbling. Here, let me help a friend out."

The weight behind the leg eases up slightly and I can talk again.

"Hey Ollie... Do you think... That 'steel' is called... 'Steel' in this world...?"

"I don't really care what steel is called in this world, you test my patience with this trivial nonsense, what I want is the answer to the question, do you want to join forces?"

"It probably isn't... But our spirits or demons... Translate it to the... Closest thing in our... Language..."

"Yes, yes, interesting finding professor, still not the answer I asked, so out with it or I crush you, I give one more chance."

"So... When my friend Lewin... Showed me few things... He had worked on is his lab... Imagine my surprise... That one of the poisons... There translated from... Whatever 'foxblood'... Or whatever it... Was in this world.... Into... Cyanide for me."

With that I reach in my pocket and see Ollie's eyes go wide, and before he can recover from the shock and crush me, I reach on the wound I gave him. He flies up with more of a natural reflex to avoid danger than actual thinking, something I noticed us possessed to do often from my own reactions, and see me holding nothing in my hand. But the damage is done, and I make my dash towards the machete. I never met with Lewin after breakfast so there is no way I actually had cyanide with me, nor do I even know if it works through blood, as it is always orally administered in the movies, but Ollie knew neither of those things. But the bluff won't work a second time, I think as I reach my machete, grab it and swipe towards the sky. Nothing, there isn't even shadow made by Ollie above me.

After taking a quick look around me to confirm my safety, I move my sight in the surrounding, till I spot Ollie crouching on a roof of a building at the end of the street. He looks at me with disdain, probably still mad for being tricked so easily. Brandishing my machete towards him and beckoning him down with my free hand I lay my challenge forth.

"You know Johnny, those villains in cartoons and comics you read as a kid, who would never repeat the same plan again no matter how successful the plan was? That is because to the stories' writers were bound by the idea of making profit, and there is no profit in repeating the same story over and over and over again. Well, I'm not bound by possible profit and I'm not one of those villains."

Ollie gives his little speech caps it off by tearing a hole in the roof of the building he was standing on. With a sift movement he grabs a person on his talons again, but seemingly disappointed crushes the person. He tears the hole wider and grabs the next one, this time smiling confidently as he takes of and lands on the road.

"A woman hostage, a hero to save her, let's have a repeat shall we?"

"You coward!"

"Put the sword down."

I repeat my earlier response, but as I'm walking backwards from my machete, I see a flash in Ollie's eyes and he throws the woman at me, and lunges after her to me.

"I don't think that this time you kick the meat shield back to me, right?"

With no choice or any plan, I'm left with the options of avoiding the woman and Ollie, killing her, using her as a shield, killing her or saving her and killing myself. I choose to to catch the woman. By allowing myself to slide back a foot or two, I manage to kill the momentum enough for her not to be in danger from the fall, I spin around sending her rolling away from us and raise my freed hands to protect my neck. Soon this is followed by me feeling Ollie's talons digging into my back, and me loosing the feeling from my legs. As Ollie's talons reach their arc outside my body, I fell helplessly on the ground, unable to move either my legs or arms. Ollie walks from near from my feet to my head while talking:

"I'd say that you need to put a little more backbone in your attempts, but that would just be inconsiderate of me, wouldn't it?"

As I see Ollie's feet enter my area of vision, I also see the wolf enter it. Staring at me with its red eyes, time seems to slow down, and rest of Ollie's mockery slows down to incomprehensible mess of noises. I can move now, but I don't think that my actual body is moving, just the one in here, in this barren, scorched land the capital has become in my eyes. I know what it will offer as the wolf walks to me, so I grab its snout in my hand and press the wolf down.

"You want to do this? You want to save me so your mission can continue? Then we do this my way; no unnecessary mutations, no extra hands or eyes and no permanent ones either, I want to be able to return human when I choose to. Need inspiration for that? You're in my head right, so scan for my memories about werewolf-movies and books. If this doesn't please you, then the last soul you ferry to the Nether is mine."

I keep the wolf's snout pressed to the ground little longer than I kept talking for the effect, but release it soon enough. It stares at me for a moment, then explodes into a cloud of ash, with six red fireballs left from it eyes in the center. I don't really know how to take that, but as the cloud fades and the fireballs lose their brightness, my consciousness returns to my body, in time to push myself away from Ollie's attack. I watch from foot apart as Ollie's hand sinks into the ground, deeper than I could jam my machete before standing up.

The transformation is fast, but as painful as it can get. Then yet again, my flesh is tearing itself off from bones that crack into pieces only to rearrange themselves so the now swelled up flesh can reattach, while my organs liquefy, or at least that is what it feels like, and my nerves stretch themselves so they can reach my now displaced internal workings. But it is worth it, I can walk again.

Ollie tries to take flight once more, but this time I jump after him, catching on to his leg. Climbing up by clawing my way up his body makes him wince, and he tries to swat me away, but I simply grab onto the swiping arm mid swat. Now with me hanging from his left arm, Ollie dives towards the ground and slams me to the nearest building he can, while swooping up again. I kick myself up from the rubble and scale the wall all the way to the roof, where I jump as high as I can, managing to get on Ollie's back. His wings provide the perfect shield for me to dig through his feather armor and claw off strips of flesh underneath it. Ollie's respond is to stretch his wings so the air slams him front up, and folding his wings so we fall. I'm quick enough to wait till the last second before jumping off; leaving Ollie no time to reopening his wings and flying off. He crashes on to the cobblestone road as I slide on all fours away from the area.

"No where to run Ollie and no where to fly, I won't let you to grab another hostage so better play fair, cause any moment you waste trying, I will use to rip the hole in your back bigger and bigger, till your wings fall off and I can simply lop off your head."