CHAPTER 37: FULL MOON TRANSFORMATION

I stared at the behemoth of a demogorgon standing just a few feet away from me with a mixture of emotions. No matter how I looked at it, my current form wouldn’t be enough.

"I guess I have no choice then," I mumbled before taking a deep breath.

I closed my eyes and focused on the power of the full moon bathing me. I then shifted my thoughts to my senses, which were now working overtime. Slowly, my body began to change as bones and limbs reconstructed themselves.

The process was painless, as it felt like my mind had been suspended elsewhere. It took only a few seconds for my entire body to transform. I had become a six-foot-tall wolf, covered in deep black fur that was impossible to differentiate from the night itself.

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I was twice the size of a polar bear, with claws spanning roughly four inches. My eyes shone like beautiful orange crystals. The behemoth of a demogorgon faced me with a hint of wariness. It was obvious that it was keeping its distance from the strange creature that had just appeared before it.

I silently circled the monster. I was salivating, and I could feel a burning sensation at the back of my throat. Every fiber of my being was screaming at me to devour this creature whole. My canines glistened with saliva as I pounced at the demogorgon.

The demogorgon screeched loudly and returned my attack. Its four hands acted in unison as it swung its needle-like fingers at me. I danced around its attacks and sank my teeth into its flesh. Immediately, as I tore through its slimy grey flesh, my skill, Devouring Bite, activated, burning away at its flesh and creating a wound that would never heal.

The demogorgon roared in pain as I tore away at its flesh, but then suddenly a fog of black smoke enveloped us. The world around me turned into a haze. For some reason, it felt as if reality itself was warping around me. It lasted only a few minutes, and when the fog disappeared, I was left in complete shock at what was around me.

Absolute darkness...

[DING!]

[You have been transported to the 105th layer of the abyss.]

"What is happening?"

I was left in shock when I glanced around and saw nothing but darkness. I activated my thermal vision, and my eyes widened even further. Around me were heat signatures, but none belonged to humans. They were all demogorgons.

Hundreds of them, crawling out of small pockets in the ground. I growled softly as I saw them all turn in my direction. The giant demogorgon I was fighting before seemed to have disappeared. I readied myself as the swarm charged at me.

The first one lunged at me, but I sank my teeth into its flesh before it could even scream. A hot gush of its vile blood filled my mouth. I tore it open with a savage jerk of my head and ripped out the treasure that lay beneath its chest.

[You have consumed the heart of a demogorgon.]

Another rushed from the side, and I welcomed it. It leaped in the air, aiming to gut me with a single swing, but my ferocious jaws grabbed it mid-air. I ripped its body in half with just a single clench of my teeth.

The taste was as vile as ever, but for some reason, I couldn’t get enough of it. They kept coming, like lambs to the slaughter. My claws ripped across their flesh, skinning them alive. Their cries were short as they were dead within the next instant as I grabbed hold of them.

The smell of their blood and the sound of their heart beating inside their chest drove me wild, causing me to howl at the non-existent moon in the sky. My bloodlust spread like dark clouds on a rainy day, causing them to freeze in their tracks.

I leaped into them. My claws slashing, my jaws cracking against their metallic bones like glass. I felt their ribs crack under my bite. I felt the softness of their flesh and reveled in the carnage of ripping them to shreds.

Every kill sent a sweet release of ecstasy along with power. The power to kill more of them. I was lost in it. Here I was, in an unknown world, facing monsters that would put some of the strongest creatures on earth to shame, but I was enjoying it.

For the first time in a long while, things weren’t boring. At this moment, I was the apex of predators. The one who hunts everything. Their bodies lay broken at my feet until they piled up. I didn’t know how many I had killed or what level they were, but I couldn’t get enough.

I wanted more. But all that lay at my feet were broken bodies, too shredded to even grind my teeth on. At this moment, I realized something: nothing in this world compared to the intoxication of a wild hunt.

That was the reason my life always felt so bland and boring. It felt as if I was born for it. That the only reason I existed was to hunt.

Suddenly, my vision blurred, and I felt a bit lightheaded. That was when I finally took a look at the condition I was in. I was covered in wounds that weren’t healing. But just as I realized that, I was surrounded by the same black fog from before. It enveloped everything, and before I knew it, I was back where I started at the university campus, with the giant demogorgon standing in front of me.

Wasting no time, I bared my fangs as saliva poured out of my mouth onto the ground below. The beast overpowered my growl with a loud scream, then charged at me wildly.

I slashed at the giant demogorgon as it got close, but in an instant, it was gone, and before I could act, it pierced through my stomach. I howled loudly, and that’s when my eyes caught sight of the full moon, slowly fading in the sky.

’How long was I gone for? I felt like it was only a few minutes, but it looks as if it was a few hours instead.’

The demogorgon screeched even louder as it sank its needle-like fingers even further into my stomach and began stabbing me relentlessly with all four hands. I growled in pain, then used the last of my strength to latch onto its head.

Its body was much harder than the other demogorgons I had faced today. My body weakened severely, and it felt as if I was going to pass out, but I willed myself and used the last of my strength to rip the beast apart.

Our roars mixed together, creating an ominous sound that reverberated throughout the night. The two of us fell together in a sickening thud of blood and gore. The beast was ripped in half from the chest downwards. My entrails were left lying on the ground beside me. The good thing was that I couldn’t feel any pain.

[You have slain a Level 10 demogorgon]

Staring up at the full moon, I slowly shifted back into my human form. I weakly raised my hand to take a glance at my watch. The time read 12:57 a.m. That meant there were only three minutes left until the bomb went off.

It would be impossible for me to get off this large campus in time. The others must’ve left, thinking that I would be following behind them.

"Good," I whispered, barely able to move my weak lips.

My eyes slowly began to close, but then I heard something. It sounded as if a horse was coming in my direction, causing me to open my eyes again. The sound gradually approached me, and the more I listened, the more I was convinced that it was a horse.

I was left feeling a bit confused, but soon the horse stopped in front of me. The horse was pale in color, and the one who sat upon it was a man so skinny his body looked like bones wrapped in human flesh. The man looked at me with milky white eyes that seemed to hold no life. And what’s more, I couldn’t hear a single heartbeat coming from either him or the horse.

A chill crept its way up my entire body, and with it came a fear I had never felt before. At the rate my heart was pounding, it felt as if it wanted to rip itself out of my chest. My breath hitched as it became a struggle just to even breathe. The air stank of death and decay, far worse than anything I had ever smelled before.

’What is this?!’

I was afraid to speak in this man’s presence. It was he who opened his mouth and began to speak first.

"And behold, a pale horse; and upon it rode the one called Death, and Hell shall follow with him. And authority was granted unto them to strike down the earth, by the sword, by death, by famine, and by the wild beasts that roam the abyss."