Author's note: It has been brought to my attention that there were some inconsistencies with Wretch's bodily changes. I'll go through the previous chapters to make them more clear and push the gruesome changes, but have settled on the following:
Strengthened bones, muscles and tendons, dual claws, black eyes, tail, sharp teeth, improved hearing and the acidic spit (added to chapter 54.)
Your feedback is worth its weight in gold. Thank you, now enjoy a grueling battle against a Blaze._____
The massive hound and the two hunters clashed in the light of dawn. Wretch was the quickest of the three, dashing forward as his flesh changed eagerly, twisting out of his back into a dozen arms. A claw slammed downward, narrowly missing him as the fur-pelted hand ripped the metal rails to shreds.
He spun, dragging the spike of the cross against the creature's hide. It bit deep enough to draw blood from the thick skin, which his claws could only bruise.
It is sharp.
Another clawed hand whistled toward him. He dodged low, crouching against the ground as the razor-like claws passed centimeters over his head. His transformation finished, twelve humanlike arms reaching for purchase against the gravel and stone.
A thud rang out and Vishnii shuddered as Elenya drove the Blinking Blade through one of its arms. She drew it back, blood spurting as a roar shook the frigid morning air.
Wretch did not hesitate. He shot forward from a crouch, hands ripping against the ground, propelling him like a many-legged insect.
Vishnii lunged for Elenya, unleashing a brutal storm of swipes and slams.
Wretch scrambled up a hairy leg, continuing up Vishnii’s back as a handful of fiery eyes stared at him from the fur. He ripped at them with his claws and nails, but they snapped shut.
It learned to close them, huh?
Below him, Elenya backpedaled, red shades dancing across her skin. She dodged strike after strike as Vishnii kept up a relentless string of attacks. The beast gave a wild laugh, snickering through jagged teeth.
She was fast, every move ingrained through unrivaled talent, blessed power, and training. Still, it was not enough.
With the slick sound of cut flesh, the tips of two claws glanced past her torso. They cut through her skin like paper, blood seeping down the front of her stained clothes. She grit her teeth and focused, sidestepping another slam that would have turned her into red mist.
A shape clung to Vishnii’s neck. Wretch was a knot of limbs, gripping fur with half his arms while the others pried two eyelids open.
Two of the many hands lifted the black cross and its edges burned as it elongated into a spear. The eye quivered, rolling in its socket. Wretch burst into motion, driving the weapon deep, rupturing the orb with a wet pop and piercing the muscles beneath. The beast shuddered, half the glowing eyes on its front looking at Elenya and the rest trained on Wretch.
I am not done. I prepared a trick just for you.
He urged flame into the weapon as a claw shot toward him, but Longing for Penance was no longer devoid of charges. He had killed plenty of birds and critters in anticipation of a moment like this.
Skulls of birds and rats pulsed around the black metal. Wretch released them with a single thought. A moment before razor-sharp claws would have shredded him, a string of bursts rocked the creature from within. The force sent him flying, twisting in the air.
That is more like it.
His glee was cut short. He had anticipated the beast would be stunned longer. He had been wrong. A blurred shape came crashing toward him and he realized what it was, a claw.
He did not have time to think, wrapping his limbs around his core out of instinct.
Pain erupted to the chorus of ripping flesh. He was hurled through brush and trees like a projectile.
Vishnii turned, its eyeless head fixing on Elenya. Blood poured from a torn chunk of its neck, icy and dark. Its grin stretched wide, gums exposed, a soft snicker rattling from its throat.
“Ratty?” Elenya called, not looking away from Vishnii.
No answer came and she took a step toward the place where Wretch had crashed into the wall of leaves and thin stems. The creature read her intention, sliding sideways on all fours to block her path.
“Bastard,” Elenya growled under her breath, beads of sweat leaving trails in the dirt on her skin. “He better be alive.”
It lunged into a wild swipe, forcing her back. A groan came from the broken greenery.
“The cleaver!” Wretch’s voice called, wet as if he were choking on water.
Elenya leaped back, snatched the massive blade off the ground, and spun, hurling it in one fluid motion.
Vishnii ducked beneath it and charged. Wretch came catapulting out of the undergrowth, soaring through the air.
Blood gushed from his nose and one of his normal hands was gone, two splintered black bones jutting from the mangled limb. Two half-formed, massive ashen arms stuck out of his back. One held an oversized cross the size of a small tree and the other caught the spinning cleaver midair and fed it flame.
The hound’s many eyes left no blind spots and it spun toward him. Wretch met it head-on.
The air shook. Vishnii’s claws crumbled his newborn flesh like paper, the cleaver severing a finger in return. Awarding him a cut across his eye. The cross came down next. A shout escaped him as he brought it down with every ounce of will, hatred, and fury. With a sickening crunch, its spiked arm buried into Vishnii’s shoulder.
The howl that followed shook the tracks.
He pivoted in the air and slammed what remained of his mangled arm against the creature's skull. With a crack, the massive creature flew backward, crashing across the rails. Wretch hit the ground just as hard, the newly conjured limbs shattering and the cross too large for him to bear.
For the first time, the creature whimpered.
Elenya pulled him to his feet as what remained of the shredded, conjured arms plunged back into his body, steadying his swaying frame. Vishnii slowly dissolved into mist and they let it, neither having the strength to interrupt.
“Nice one,” Elenya gasped between heavy breaths, blood still dripping down her side.
The mist churned like an indecisive cloud of angry insects and Wretch took the opportunity to whisper flame into his flesh, stitching ligaments back together. If it hadn't been for his strengthened bones and tendons. He'd likely be dead already.
“How much flame you have?” Wretch asked, his throat filled with fresh blood whose source he did not know.
“Half. It is not bleeding enough,” Elenya answered. Her blessings were unrivaled against hordes, but against a formidable foe, theyre weakness was apparent.
“I only have a third. The cross took a lot,” he said, spitting a mouthful of blood onto the ground.
The mist quivered and the beast took form from the coalescing haze. With a roar it slammed a fist into the ground in rage, whipping its long, bloodied fur. One of its arms hung limply at its side.
“Looks like it has not given up just yet.”
It dragged a claw across its stitched eyes. All the other eyes covering its body snapped shut and its long fur quivered as if alive.
“Not good,” Wretch said between raspy breaths.
Its regular eyes shot open, revealing two bloodshot vertical pupils dancing with fire. It gave a howl and a shockwave shook the air, its fur twitching and reaching outward.
“It was not a tracking Blessing,” Elenya said solemnly, knuckles whitening.
“I got a good hit in. Its left arm is crippled,” Wretch said, stepping aside as his flesh quivered and a new dark arm plunged out of his back to grab the oversized cross. “We can still kill it.”
Vishnii charged, sending gravel and earth shooting in every direction. It was faster than before, but Elenya had time, spinning the cleaver once more to launch it at the creature.
It slammed it aside with the only claw that was not limp, fur reaching for her as if alive. Wretch was already in the air, one massive hand planted on the ground while the other struck downward with the oversized cross.
He brought it down toward the top of its skull but the creature caught it inches from its head. The long fur of its body reached toward him, snaking around his ashen arms.
But he was not done. A hook from Wretch’s other arm slammed against its chin. Its head snapped to the side and Wretch flashed a grin.
“RATTY!” Elenya shouted from behind him.
Claws crushed his legs. Vishnii snickered.
What?
He had seen the creature's remaining arm and its toothy maw, but he had thought the other arm was unusable. It had tricked him. Vishnii's left claw sank deep into his flesh, quivering but far from useless.
Elenya attacked the creature with a howl of her own, but it slammed her aside, sending her tumbling along the tracks.
Wretch forced flame into two blades along his forearms and hacked into its palm. It did not let go. He spat acid towards its hide, but it didn't pause. A sense of dread grew in him and he let it fuel him, flailing and biting down on the fur-covered hand, his teeth barely piercing the thick skin.
With a gasp, his pelvis cracked. He forced the last words from his throat.
“Sorry, Elenya.”
Its maw closed over his midsection, tearing his body in two with a wet crunch. It chewed to the sound of tough, but breakable bones and swallowed what remained.
Elenya’s scream was guttural and raw. She struggled to her feet, drenched in red.
Vishnii’s laugh was cut short and a hint of surprise flashed in its eyes. Elenya was rushing it.
It shot out a claw. Elenya, still crying out for blood, pivoted around it and stepped into a strike with the borrowed Blinking Blade, slamming it into its knee.
She dodged and weaved as the beast struck at her. A blow caught her side and sent her flying. She rolled to her feet but could not find her balance. Her left foot was gone.
She stared at it for a moment, then slammed the stump into the gravel and limped forward. Her hair lay wildly over her shoulders and face. Her two fiery eyes were opened unnaturally wide and her lips were pressed tightly together.
“I am going to rip out every eye you have.”
The beast licked its snout and crawled forward to meet her.
“Every hair.”
Vishnii planted both feet on the ground and stood up on its hind legs, towering over her.
“Every tooth.”
It swiped.
“Even if it kills me.”
She dodged and drove the blade into its wrist. The creature launched a barrage of swipes and slams at her. She took several glancing blows that drew gashes along her neck and arms, but she did not seem to care. Not even when the living fur caught her ear and ripped it off.
The maw shot toward her. She did not have time to dodge, not while missing a foot.
It froze, stumbling backward from an attack that would have ended her. Elenya raised the Blinking Blade. The weapon's edge was burning away before her eyes, like paper over candlelight.
The creature bent over in a violent cough that sent a burst of blood spewing onto the ground.
Elenya blinked and, with a look of understanding, tilted her head.
“Did the little dog swallow something it should not have?”