ensing

t pine and distant rain as I cut through the de

winding through the century-old trees were shrouded in pitch darkness. The university lamp

weeping willow, the

nd vibrating with the sour musk of agitated

unrefined predator strength. The fifth was err

mping slightly into the oversized gray hoodie, perfectly projecting

th the weeping willow, dark silhouettes emerged from

way out, you

let bruises ringing his sunken eyes. His breathing came in shallow, rattling gasps,

three, their broad chests stretching the seams of heavy leath

coming to a halt on the gravel path. I rested my weight

ting witch poison on me! My beast won't wake up! I can't shift! But these are my father's elite

ial bones began to violently distort. Coarse, dark brown fur erupted along his

cer growled, thick strings of predatory saliva dripping between ra

nsect. "You have to invoke a partial shift just to confront

oat out!" Ry

d wolves charge

redatory senses, I was already dead meat-ninety pounds of soft, defenseless hu

ven widen

ssive, clawed paw swinging in a lethal

lur

d only the empty afterimage of my hoodie. The brute's momentum carried him off balanc

rebound, I materialize

de. A single, surgical strike s

nto the mud without a whi

stride, their yellow eyes

t of pheromones. It was pure, terrifying, primordial martial perf

room to process

ward into his sternum. The kinetic shockwave pulverized three ribs, lifting his two-hundred-pou

w drove upward into his axillary nerve cluster, wrenching his shoulder joint completely backwa

dirt, howli

step before I appeared directly in his path. An open-palm strike to his so

sed time:

, broken only by the pitifu

ristine. Not a singl

ned my head

her with loud, hollow knocks. He crawled backward through the di

rs cutting lines through the grime on his pa

oft against the dead leaves. I rai

r has billions! I'll

red, driving my fingers directly throu

hime rang out through

ast was ripped from his spiritual meridian and scattered into dust. His e

ssue over his limp chest. "Cross my path a third tim