It took everything Asmodeus had to not let himself fall into the depths of despair. As a young child he'd lost his uncle, suffered heavily, and slowly day-by-day began to heal. The grief felt heavier now that the one he'd lost was none other than Danta, his big-little-sister. To make it only that much worse, her murderer was his uncle. Deus worried that should he allow himself to feel that pain that he'd never crawl back out from beneath it. At his heels trailed two puppies, each who he had been tasked to train into suitable companions to assist him in battle. They were gifts from his uncle, but he could not dwell on that lest he start to resent them, too. They bounded alongside him the entire way to the prairie, where Deus had hoped to find within the plentiful valley a suitable meal to take home to his grieving mother. Prey seemed to be more scarce while the world recovered from the sickness and neverending night, and Deus made two laps around the valley before giving up on all plans for dinner. Finding himself a soft patch of grass he lay himself down and sighed, his Malinois puppies taking his break as permission to go play. Perhaps had he been less caught up in his thoughts he may have heard the crystal-infected bear coming up from his rear. It wasn't until one of the puppies gave a loud squeal of alarm that Deus' attention was drawn swiftly toward the attacking predator. Word Count: 253/1500 "Speech"

Takeshi was overrun with ooze, vibrant liquid pouring from his eyes, nose, mouth and ears, though he was blessed that no growths had overtaken his body and slowed his movements like it had in others in his family. No, he was overrun with ooze of the 3rd kind: the crazies. Voices whispered in his ears, telling him to do horrible things, both to himself and others, and every day was a fight to keep from giving in to them. He woke up to them and went to sleep to them, and even in his dreams they whispered sweet and violent nothings. There was no escape, no silence, only neverending torment. And so he wandered. Wandering was his way of avoiding, hoping he wouldn’t come across any other wolf that would stir his weakening will to not do bad things. He just wanted to be alone.

But, luck was not on his side.

The yearling meandered through the prairie, his glowing gaze staring blankly into the distance. His steps were uneven and choppy, the bottoms of his paw pads bleeding from his almost neverending wandering but he paid it no mind. He was too distracted by the screaming in his head. He was so distracted that he didn’t see the man or his dogs until they were a few hundred yards away, and when he did notice them, his voices told him one thing: kill. Takeshi stumbled, fighting with himself over the overwhelming urge to obey, to do the unthinkable in murdering an innocent who had done him no wrong. When the bear showed up, it was like a blessing. He was able to turn his violent urge from the man to something else, something he could pour his anger into. With a snarl, the massive boy sprinted forward, throwing his weight into the animal with his claws and teeth a flurry of fury, intending to do as much damage and draw as much blood as was necessary to satisfy him. If that were at all possible.

WC: 597/1500

"Speech"

The bear ambled forward, eyeing Deus' companion as if it was the finest steak in all of Boreas. Alarm tightened in Deus' chest, the fear of failing to protect his puppy freezing his paws to the ground. He shut his eyes, knowing he could not reach the beast fast enough to intercept it and not wanting to watch the dog's massacre. With his eyes shut, he prayed, begging Abraxas' help in protecting his charge. A glowing, snarling boy tore across the prairie and into the bear, more heavily mutated then any wolf Deus had ever seen. He stammered softly in response, unable to determine if this was some messenger from his God, another ooze-infected being, or something else entirely. The malinois puppy scream-barked her way away from the grizzly and behind Deus large form, breaking him from his dreamlike wonderings and startling him into action. Whatever had sent the creature to save his companion, Deus could not allow it to fall to this infected bear. The yearling was not attacking carefully and with coordination as the adults he'd hunted with tended to, and Deus knew that an important part in making sure they both got out of this alive would be to redirect the bear from the crazy lunatic wolf who'd tackled it. He threw himself forward as the bear turned to try and bite at Take, grasping the beast's ear in his jaw, planting his paws and throwing his head back with all his might. It felt as if the ear might be detatching, but the bear was just as crazed as Take was and seemed able to fight through the pain. One thing Deus had learned from the infected wolves of his pack was that touching the growths fucking hurt too, and so his next move was to rear up and slap his paws down upon one protruding torso-crystal. The bear roared in fury, turning between the two boys and trying to decide which wolf took priority in his next attack. Word Count: 922/1500 "Speech"

If Takeshi had been in his normal state of mind, he would have been much more careful in his approach. He might have even tried to create a plan with the other man as they fought so that they could more efficiently take down the bear, but in his current state there was no such thinking. He was being driven on pure instinct, acting with such dumb, physical strength that he was practically watching from outside of his own body. All he saw was red, red, red, with occasional splashes of glowing blue-green thrown in as his claws cut into the bear’s flesh. He didn’t even notice when the bear turned its head, huge, thick jaws open with gleaming canines bent on taking a dangerously large chunk out of him.

But, suddenly, it was rearing back and Takeshi looked over in dazed confusion to see the man from before pulling on its ear. He watched as the other pulled a paw back and bapped one of the crystals, issuing an agonized roar from their foe. He blinked slowly, the world stuttering and slowing around him as he watched the bear look between him and the man, then it all seemed to speed up at once and Takeshi was off once more. He leapt, jaws open as he aimed to sink his teeth into the bear’s neck and shake as hard as he possibly could, splattering bright, glowing blood across the ground under paw as he ripped chunks of flesh from it.

Then, he was shaken off and sent correning into the ground with a thud, the impact knocking him sensible instead of stupid and he rolled to his paws, stumbling for a moment. His unfocused, glowing gaze grew slightly focused again as he looked between the bear and the man. How had he gotten there?

WC: 1233/1500

"Speech"

The demonic, might-be-a-messenger-might-not-be wolf thing attacked again and again, tearing large goopy wounds in the bear's flesh and scattering ooze and glowing blood everywhere as he did so. Deus' heart beat more rapidly, his head tucking into his shoulders as he backpedaled, his scruff rolling to reveal the crystalline quills with which he'd been recently blessed. It was a natural reaction - a sort of traumatic reaction to the infection and the memory of those he'd lost - and Deus hesitated to continue across the ooze-splattered and possibly infectious ground. The stranger was flung back from the bear and a small whine escaped Deus' maw. He did not want to see this wolf dead, but nor did he want to catch the sickness again himself. Had anyone even figured out if it was transmittable through spit and blood and ooze? His fur stood on end, his weight shuffling from side to side as he worried, and then watched as the bear turned back to the glowing yearling. Fuck. Swallowing hard against the fear, Deus threw himself back into the fight. The bear was bleeding out quickly from the no-holds-barred assault it'd taken, it's breath coming hard and fast and almost wheezy. Deus intercepted it's stride, shutting his eyes hard against the flung spittle and ooze and sinking his fangs into the creature's unprotected throat, his entire body weight thrown into the attack. The bear reared up, dragging Deus upwards as it did so. He did not release his jaws, holding his bite even while the bear slapped at his back with it's claws. Before he knew it, he was on the ground beside the downed beast, watching it's chest slowly stop rising. Word Count: 1513/1500 "Speech"