Post by ParamountKeymaster on Sept 6, 2016 18:38:20 GMT -5
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Ray stared into the sky as the first stars appeared in the inky twilight abyss. The calm of the evening engulfed the park as the lone mage stood firm in the grass of the vacant field. All was eerily silent. The only sounds filling the air were those of the distant city and the whistling wind that gently brushed against his hair and jacket. It seemed there was not another soul around.
He knew better.
His forest green eyes were trained on the skies above him, looking calm, thoughtful, yet narrow with suspicion. From an outsider's perspective, Ray seemed to be searching for something, and they would not be far off with that assumption. Though there was much to look for, he was much more concerned with watching out for it.
They were out there. They had to be. It was only a matter of time before they found him.
"Patrick!"
Ray didn't flinch as Evan approached him from behind. He simply hardened his expression into a scowl.
"There you are!" Evan dashed up to the mage, slowing to a halt beside him. "Where have you been? Why haven't you answered my messages?"
His eyes remained focused on the sky as he took a deep, exasperated breath. "Why do you always assume it's Patrick?"
Evan frowned and let out a sharp exhale through his nose. "Ray. Sorry. But seriously, we should head home. It's getting late."
"Whatever." Finally, Ray tore his eyes away from the stars and cast his glare at the ground.
"What're you even doing out here?"
That is a very good question... Van mused inside the mage's head. You never did tell us what this spontaneous stargazing trip was all about.
"Can't a guy take a walk and look at the stars without being asked a million questions?" Ray grumbled as he shoved his hands in his pockets and started walking.
Evan worriedly raised an eyebrow and followed him. "Yeah, but you don't usually seek solace in the wilderness, Ray. Blanking out and staring into space is more of a Patrick thing."
He's not wrong, Patrick offered.
"Yeah, well guess what, doesn't matter." Ray never even looked at Evan. "Let's just say that I wanted to get away from it all and leave it at that."
Despite his concerns, Evan had to take a deep breath and concede. He wasn't in the mood to argue with the mage's aggressive side, not that it would've yielded any answers anyway. Still, this suspicious behavior had to lead to something eventually, and one way or another, he was going to find out what. And though he was unaware of it at the time, Van shared his thoughts completely.
"Ray... You mind if I talk to Patrick?"
"Actually, I would mind."
Aw, c'mon, Ray...! Patrick whined. My bro wants to talk to me!
"Oh, shut up!" Ray snapped. "It's always 'Patrick Patrick Patrick' with you people! I never get a turn in the driver's seat anymore!"
Neither do I, but you don't hear me complain about it, Van retorted.
"Well, no offense, Ray," Evan muttered, "but if you took the efforts to be more considerate towards others, we'd be more tolerant when you take over."
"Oh, so you'd rather have the bumbling moron in charge than the guy with the gumption and the capability to get s*** done?" Ray snarled bitterly.
"I didn't say that. I said I'd rather have the guy who doesn't insult everybody every other sentence in charge. Or at least the one who's polite and analytical in his criticisms."
Ray cast Evan a sharp glare out of the corner of his eye, then faced forward again. "Evan... to put my random stargazing in perspective for ya, let's just say that there'll come a day when you'll be glad to have me around to save your sorry a**."
With a light shrug and a gentle expression, Evan honestly answered, "I won't deny that."
"Good. Now let's try to keep on the enchanter/necromancer's good side, capiche?"
"We'll seeeeeeEEEEACK!!!"
Ray scrambled to a halt and turned around when Evan suddenly screamed and fell on his hands and knees. Down on the ground, Evan grabbed his head and panted in ragged growls, his body rigid and burning, his mind suddenly coming unhinged. The world was spinning. His heart was pounding. It was nigh impossible to tell where and when he was or what was even real. All of this stimuli completely out of the blue, this sudden feeling of pain and confusion... It terrified Evan, and it left Ray particularly stymied too.
And that wasn't even the worst part.
What is this?
Evan snapped his eyes open, his deep brown irises now a sharp amber. "No... NO! SHUT UP!"
Different... Weak... Can't be DiFfERenT!
"LEAVE ME ALONE!!!
"Uh... Evan?" Ray stared down at the Keymaster as he spiraled into some violent internal struggle. The concept certainly wasn't foreign to the mage, but seeing Evan in such a panicked state wasn't any less unsettling.
W-What's wrong with him?! Patrick yelped.
Wait... Van was quick to make a connection. It's happening again! The nightmare fog tampering with his mind!
"Fog?" Ray looked to the sky again, only now noticing the sickly purple shade it had taken on, masking all the stars. "Oh, not this bulls*** again!"
Can't be WeAK!
"SHUT UP!!!"
MuSt be STROnGeR!
"GET OUTTA MY HEAD!!!"
Must FIGHT.
"NO!!!"
MUsT KILL.
"RRRGGGHHH...!!!"
MUST TAKE OVER.
"RRRRRRAAAAAAUUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHHH...!!!"
MUST BE VLYK!!!
Evan dug his fingernails into the dirt, roaring and snarling, shaking and flailing, as if simultaneously succumbing to and resisting a feral berserker rage. As the fog took hold of his mind once more, a deeply-rooted instinct consumed him, erasing all that he was and replacing it with something simpler yet more beastly, scared yet angry, submissive yet dominant.
"Well now!" Ray smirked and readied a spell, a pink aura surrounding his form. "Looks like I get to prove how much you need me sooner than I thought!"
But as he readied his enchantment magic, something unexpected happened. Or at least something more unexpected.
By that point, the pack mind that had claimed Evan tapped into something much deeper. The feral rage mingled with the pure hope within the rogue's being, consuming it along with the rest of him, changing it as it saw fit. With every fiber of his being, with every shred of his human identity buried, Evan well and truly believed that this was what he was. He was this bestial force to be reckoned with. He was a soldier for the strongest race that ever existed. He was the superior being on this island.
He was not him anymore.
As the aggression filled him to the brim, so too did this belief, further transforming him from man to beast. Ray stood there and watched, rigid as Evan groaned and screamed in pure agony. He jerked and thrashed with each painful spasm, his body buckled beneath his own weight, his clothes slowly ripped as he yanked at them...
Or... was he getting... bigger?
"W... Wha...?"
With each convulsion, Evan's body seemed to contort more and more. His muscles hypertrophied, leaving him uncomfortably tense and overheated as they expanded to unnatural size. His bones readjusted, each sickly, audible snap lurching him further and further into a lupine posture. His fingernails thickened into hooked black claws; likewise, his sharpened toenails ripped through his shoes, the shreds soon falling off his rapidly lengthening feet. His skull stretched, pushing his face outward into a distorted muzzle as razor-sharp teeth slid out of his gums. Shrieks and spittle spewed from his mouth all the while, his voice gradually deepening into something less human.
The mage had seen this before. He had seen it plenty of times during Darien's monthly transformations. Nonetheless, Ray could only stop and stare at the gruesome sight, not just because it was bizarre to see it happening to Evan, but because whatever it was he was turning into, it was certainly not a werewolf, but something far, far worse.
Soon enough, Evan's form had grown to such a great size that even while he was still down on his hands and knees, he towered over Ray, and his growth showed no signs of slowing. Just as the last shreds of his clothes came undone, course black fur started to erupt from his pores, covering every inch of his enormous body, with only a single patch of white on his chest that bore a striking resemblance to the angel wing emblem of the Rogue of Hope. The skin on his palms and the bottom of his feet remained untouched, hardening into black pads. His coccyx jutted out into a long, sleek tail that twitched with every new adjustment.
Even after his pelt fully grew in, the hairs of his hackles continued to lengthen, burying the foot-and-a-half long quills that grew along his back shortly thereafter. His ears stretched into points, but also widened at the centers, giving them long, teardrop shapes that took up a large potion of his head. Parts of his face still shifted and bulged in strange places, two such pustules breaking open on his temples. Rather than crimson blood, foul, mustard-colored fluid leaked from the wounds, and from those wounds erupted a pair of long, thick, curved, black horns.
With a few more cracks and pops, the beast settled into its new form, grunting and panting with a deep, rumbling snarl that was unmistakably animal. By the time it finally stopped growing, it stood at nearly nine feet on all fours. Its clawed front paws gripped the earth, and though they were large enough to crush a head in their grip, their shape still recognizably human, complete with opposable thumbs. In all other regards, the creature that was once Evan Anders in no way resembled anything human. Its body was that of a giant wolf, but with the chest of a bear, the quills of a porcupine, the ears of a bat and the horns of a ram.
A pair of glowing yellow eyes opened up.
Six more yellow eyes followed in rapid succession.
WE ARE VLYK.
The monster stared down at Ray with a wide, toothy grin, ears erect, tail swaying, saliva dripping from its lips.
Ray stared back up at it in complete horror, eyes wide, body stiff, jaw hanging agape.
"Whaaaaaat theeeeee heeeeeell...
"E... EVAN?!
Ummm, Ray? Van whimpered. Perhaps now would be a good time to calm him down?!
"Uh... Okay... S***..." Having lost focus during the ordeal, Ray hastily recharged his enchantment spell. "Hate to spoil your fun before it starts, Evan, but it seems I'm gonna have to knock you down a few size-"
SLAM
"OH F***!!!" Ray quickly jumped out of the way of the beast's mighty paw, its claws raking through the air and slamming into the ground where the mage once stood. Properly shaken from his stupor, Ray broke into a sprint, throwing a series of enchantments over his shoulder in the hopes of placating the pursuing monster. "JESUS, YA FILTHY MUTT, CALM THE HELL DOWN!!!"
NOT HELPING, MAN!!! Patrick screamed internally.
With his long legs and muscular build, the vlyk easily caught up with the human, tackling Ray and clamping his teeth down upon his shoulder. Ray screamed at the top of his lungs and struck the beast with a holding spell, causing it to stumble back and loosen its grip just before freezing up in temporary paralysis. Once free, Ray held his bleeding shoulder and scrambled away, knowing full well that he only gave that spell enough power to hold the monster for a minute.
OW! BLOOD! PAIN! TAG ME TAG ME TAG ME!!! Patrick cried before forcibly assuming control of his shared body. "Loosing blood! Must heal!"
STUPID!!! Just as suddenly, Ray mentally clawed his way back into control. "LET ME CALM HIM DOWN FIRST!"
BUT IT HUUUUUURTS!
"SUCK IT UP FOR A MINUTE SO I CAN FOCUS ON NOT GETTING KILLED!!!"
GENTLEMEN, THIS BICKERING WILL GET US NOWHERE! Van insisted.
"SO SHUT UP AND LET ME WORK!" Ray shouted as he once again prepared an enchantment spell.
He barely even had time to gather the magical energy before the vlyk broke free, howled with fury and charged at the wounded mage, his eight yellow eyes blazing with a feral urge to KILL.
HO...
...LY...
"S***********************************T!!!"
