Beleth's heart was racing, he had no idea of what the creature before him would do.
"Ityfend lyrefl cseuoh ild, chivil lagew oud ylaihf mor?" he spoke ? " Tawe yag mor fhetre."
His words made the boy's head ache with sharp pain he'd never felt before. "I am not from any village." Beleth finally answered.
"Hatw?" The man took a step back. He took out a black crystal from inside his glove and shattered it, sending out a weak shockwave all around him.
The headache escalated, it was as if a tree was growing out of his skull. Itylfend? Chivil lagew? The boy writhed in pain, he walked to a nearby tree and began bashing his head in it. Id,: en-ti. - fy…. W- hi (ch Villa..g. ..e ? He thought as hot blood dripped down his nose and cheeks.
The man rushed towards him, "Stop." He yelled at the boy. Who could now understand his words, which caused an even greater pain. Pain he felt on the inside of his skull, pain so severe it made him scrape his forehead on the tree's bark. Something hard started protruding from within his skull.
The cracking of bone echoed as Beleth clutched up in pain.
The human stood still, horrified, from the child-looking monster before him. He got his shaking hands together and made a sign before the fox's skull he wore as a helmet, it began to glow in a bright white light and as he released the hand sign his fingers became claws.
He took a battle stance and pointed his claws at Beleth, "Yare uo human… bei. .. n..g?"
The boy turned to him, antlers had grown from a hole in the center of his forehead. They had covered his whole face except for the mouth from which foam began to drip.
The armoured man prepared to lunge, for the thing before him was clearly not human.
However he was stopped by overwhelming pressure. The pressure of a violent merciless death that awaited him if he was to attack the unholy abomination before him.
"T-T-Th-ey" Beleth said he crawled towards the man. "so-So-soO….. rrrie" White fur grew on his neck from which a black mucus began to leak. My body is not listening. As it fell on the ground it melted the ice and burned the ground beneath. It. Hurts!! The fur quickly clumped tougher and hardened into pale grey spikes with black tips. My head is splitting apart! The nails on his hands lengthened and sharpened as blood vessels spread through them. I beg of you. His mouth twisted itself into a smile bearing countless sharp teeth. "Leeve!!!"
The boy ? began to scratch his face, his nails ripping chunks of his own flesh before collapsing on the ground, twisting in agony. In that moment the pressure behind the soldier lessened. The instant it did he lowered himself to the ground and detonated his claws propelling himself into a tree as his mask cracked. He made the hand sigh and his fingers once again turned into claws.
The seconds the claws manifested again his left arm along with the plates of armor on it were crushed by the jaws of the beast that hid within the shadows.
With a quick motion of his head Noir tore his arm off and sent him flying into the ground several meters away from Beleth.
Noir stood at the top of the tree, his snout pointed at the direction of the soldier who laid on his back. The fox's skull shattered and along with it so did the claws.
The soldier bled heavily on the ground utterly terrified of the silhouette of death that was staring him down. Even so he fought through the fear and pain and managed to get up.
He was looking at Noir, waiting for the beast to finish him off, however he was looking at the wrong beast.
As Beleth slowly approached him crawling on the ground, his antlers grew, their tips pointing towards the soldier. As he prepared to lunge a screeching sound pierced the air. With each second it got louder and louder before a thundering crash broke the silence, followed by Noir's furious roar.
Before Beleth could even look at Noir to see what happened half his antlers were sliced off with a clean slash.
The one who did it was a man dressed in pure white plates, his back hidden by an azure mantle. The wind caressed his golden hair. "Can you stand?" He asked calmly as the wide blade in his hands burst with blue flames.
"My lord, that thing only looks like… a child." The soldier muttered, bleeding heavily. "Do not Hesitate!"
He took a peek at Beleth who was convulsing on the ground in pain, bleeding profusely from where the antlers were sliced off. "I will handle him." He said before bringing the ignited blade to the soldier's arm and cauterizing the wound.
The soldier let out a blood curdling scream before passing out.
The man turned around and Beleth finally saw his face, he had a sharp chiseled jawline and high cheekbones, traits he had never seen on any of the human remains he had seen before.
With the regrowth of the antlers his body changed even more, his legs elongated and he took a stance on all fours. Large spines burst out his back, as his mouth filled up with rows of teeth. Beleth prepared to lunge once again.
The man standing before him raised his sword, the flames from which shot out everywhere with some of them forming a protective barrier around the fallen soldier. For a brief moment the flames covered his vision, in that instant Beleth lunged at him, or so he tried.
He found himself locked to the ground with the man's blade embedded in his shoulder, "Do not be so hasty." The man pressed down the sword pinning the boy to the ground. "Your death shall not be quick, regardless how fast this ends."
With his foot the man pressed on Beleth's antlers, "I wholeheartedly despise your kind." He stomped down, breaking it as the boy's scream ignited his ears. "Honestly, what do you parasites feel when you murder these children? "
Beleth began to sob from the pain, with the sobs turning higher and higher and more frequent. He turned to the man whose eyes threw a disgusted gaze at the boy. As he turned he worsened the damage to the antlers leaving only the original stud from which they had grown , when finally into position to look the man in the eyes the sobbing turned to laughter. Something!! Someone! PLEASE SAVE ME !!!
A pool of shadows manifested below them, as ginormous jaws surfaced from them. With barely enough time the man managed to escape to the side as the jaws swallowed the boy whole.
The earth began to tremble as the pool extended even more to all sides, from it two paws with ten claws on each grabbed to the surface. Noir dragged himself from the depths of the shadows now towering as tall as the trees around them.
Between his horns, on his forehead four eyes had opened. He gently spat the boy below him and took a step forward.
The man stared Noir down and sheathed his sword before bowing slightly, "Oo great beast. Prepare to die at the hands of Erden of Raza."