Chapter 109 - One-Hundred-Five

The sharing ability skill worked for sure, because behind me, laying on the floor half-sitting, is a red-haired lady with brown widen eyes staring at her own fingers, her wavy long hair having just enough ledge to cover her n.a.k.e.d body.

A dead giveaway of the identity of this strange woman was the pair of ears on top of her head, flickering back, somewhat socked. 

While most of us here surprised by the change, staring at the woman as she moves her fingers and toes with an odd expression on her face, I was unmoved and rather calm by it as I hear the wolfhound on the side say:

"Wait, Lightfang? How did you… W-we can change forms like that?!?" Well, I wouldn't say that it was common but just now I realize that, for others, it must be rather unthinkable to be able to change forms like this. "I-I can change like that too?"

This time I don't ignore the wolf-hound, seeing the desire burning in her sight, but look down on her, provoking her just for the fun of it, adding a sneer as I say: "You are not part of my pack, so you don't get to have that."

Growling she says: "I can always get that myself!"

"Good luck with that…" I say, not amused, looking rather bored.

After me reaction her gaze goes back to the red lady, and for the first time she seems to really think about the pack thing, her tail wagging behind her like a crocked cat's tail, showing irritation, but her eyes never left Lightfang, her stare going up and down and staying for a long time on her face.

"Thilgon!" Says the red hound out of nowhere, her full lips barking and growling in Hound Language, giving her an even more wild look than her unkept appearance gave already. "What the hell?! I wanted to be able to at least chose the abilities! Why the hell did you give me this form?" 

"Are you that honored that your brain turned to goop?" She snarls a half growl that looks oddly animalistic in her humanoid face. "I just gave you one of the most important and hard to come by abilities, you should be honored." I say seriously, would I really need to explain it to her? How a humanoid form makes her able to pass by human society, how she learning how to read and talk and acc.u.mulate knowledge and experience would benefit her, how I just gave her one of the safest ways to travel this land and learn about many things?! 

"How can this be useful?! I can even stand right! Look at this weird limbs!" She keeps complaining after trying to stand and failing miserably, remembering me of my own first time trying humanoid legs, so long ago, inside a dungeon, on a small house, little Leonel beside me, supporting me.

He was so different back then… such a mysterious kid, but somehow cute, how did he become this pervert straightforward man?

Sigh, even my brother now has… has already grown up.

I'm getting old and grumpy aren't I? Well, at least grumpy for sure.

Remembering of both of them now when they were so far away from me makes me uncomfortable and a little sad.

And that feeling only gets worse as after the red-hound keeps complaining and barking, acc.u.mulating with the fact that this little trip resulted in failure, joining with the fact that I still don't have Aeglos cure or my brother's location, my mood turns downhill quite fast.

"What is the point of telling you, figure it out yourself! And you can change back!" I say before standing and walking away before I hit her again only to shut her up. 

Remember me why I thought it was a good idea to bring these hounds along?!

Waste of time, waste of time!

All this search, all this talk, and for nothing!

Urg! I just want to bite something off!

All comes crashing down once more, the reality that my brother was still out there, but now ten times worse since I have the clear image of the captor.

Cain.

That little prick…

He thinks is funny uhm? Like a little game and we are mere pawns… I'll show him that the biggest mistake of his life was getting on my bad side and making me his enemy.

I will show him just how big the rage that once made me hunt down humankind is…

I can feel my fur stand and ignite into my Black Flame, giving an even more wild look to my hound black form as I try to calm down amidst the increasing anger that curses my veins, making me crack my bones and growl at nothing.

That was the bad part about one of my abilities that has grow with me… it was already bad from the beginning I supposed, but since it evolved it turned to worse.

My Berserker Mode.

Now, named Possessed Mode, it was far stronger yet far more uncontrollable than before, with 100% chance of me losing control.

To keep some sort of balance it needs, however, that I fill up a rage meter, named Rage Fuel; the more it acc.u.mulated, the stronger the ability would be.

And the hardest it would be to control my own temperament and not slash out.

And let just say that the last week has being a very, very… productive in regards to filling it up to the brim.

I could feel it boiling inside.

And I just knew the right person to receive it head on once it explodes.

I only had to rescue my brother before that…

But now I had a more urgent problem at hand, so that it doesn't end spilling out on others beside me I hit some trees out and slash and bite, breathing fire on the floor while rolling over it to stop it from spreading, aiming at rocks instead of trunks that were hit by my paws instead, at the same time attacking and trying to minimalize the damage in a weird combination.

At least the group was wise enough to leave me be, even if I was being this loud.

Some time passes before I calm down, breathing between snarls and growls, passing my paw over my eyes and cleaning my face up, sitting down and looking at the bright sky when suddenly something comes to my mind.

I remember that I still haven't seen the contents of the letter Cain left for me.

I turn back from my hound form, my shadow growing like a puddle of lava only to reveal my humanoid form inside, already dressed as my caramel skin is being framed by my red desert clothes, this time made from a thin veil that covered my n.i.p.p.l.es with twin parallel clothe and warping around my waist over my puffy pants, leaving the upper body slightly exposed and the tip of the veil free in the air like a red flame.

If it wasn't enough my hair was tightened up in a high ponytail by the same bright red veil, embroidered by golden metal, as well as circular golden necklaces over my shoulders and upper chest.

Crossing my long legs in front of me I reach for the letter on my shadow, the black paper now unkempt by being tighten on an arrow, unfolding it and taking out the contents. 

And what I read makes me frown.

What was he planning with this?

Inside there were two beautiful big leaves painted in white, the little markings shining like veins and; I take a sniff; embedded with magic to conserve them.

Such fancy items, what for? I turn them around, only to raise my eyebrow in surprise.

They were tickets, and for what the fancy elven words written on them said it seemed to be some sort of party, but not the type humans had with drinks and s.e.x, but a diplomatic one.

Was he showing me his next target? Why would he do such a thing?

Tired of trying to guess Cain's brain I narrow my eyes, thinking. I already planned to go there anyway, so no harm done in attending such party.

Plus it would be interesting to warn the elves about his existence and power too, maybe this party was his debut in trying to conquer the elves as he did with the humans.

There was only one minor problem… that the party was already tomorrow, which means less than a day to go all the way there.

Shit.

What should I do? It would be good to have some time beforehand to prepare myself, and join in with Leonel too… But what would I do with the hounds and Isa? Take them along? Some of the hounds perhaps, but no humans are allowed in there, and I'm not taking Isa with me, even more because I would have to vow on his behalf and pay for anything bad he may do.

And he definitely did not have that level of trust on my part for me to vouch his way in into elven territory, even more because I still have some doubts about his loyalty… after all I remain not knowing how Cain found us in the first place.

Just as I was thinking what to do with so many people around me, and how should I divide the group; and especially get rid of Isaac for the time being; I hear someone shouting for me, and it was easy to guess who by the spoken words:

"Thilgon! You dumb hound, come here for a second!" I tsk again, feeling the calmness slipping from my grasp once more, but even annoyed I went back only to find a magical paper dove standing on Isaac's arm as he read something.

He looks up, about to say something, but before he could I hear a swishing sound of the air being cut that makes me dodge to the side, only for a huge double edge ax to stick on the tree right beside where I had been seconds before.

Alert I look inside the forest, black flames already slipping past my lips as I snarled to the unknown treat.