Overgrown Pussycat (Rasuk’s Profile Story) [2/8]

"Overgrown pussycat," I chuckled to myself as I said those words in tweety's voice. I was intrigued about Rasuk's story. Maybe it would tell me as to why he did what he did back at the trials... was he always so cowardice?

***

Part 1: Meow

Kingdom of Ironclad Jungle, 354AR

Rasuk was ninth in line for the throne, which was good for him, since he would never like to take that amount of pressure of ruling over all of Ironclad jungle.

His eldest half sister, Amelia, was the first in line and was the head older sister of a family of eleven children. This all changed when she mated and married a human. She was now out of the line for the throne.

Rasuk was often asked to look after his two youngest siblings as the other seven fought for the throne. 'Looking after' seemed wrong in context... more like played with them a little then handed them back to their caretakers. Each children has a caretaker as their parents ruled the kingdom.

Rasuk's caretaker was an elderly jaguar woman who probably had the easiest job since Rasuk was very low maintenance. Rasuk was very self sufficient and does almost everything by himself. Rasuk wanted to live a carefree life and to achieve that, he wanted freedom.

Being a royal, takes everything out of you and as a royal, there was no freedom. Everything was controlled by their parents. His father and the many women in his harem, he has to call his mothers.

His real mother is amongst them but doesn't want anything to do with him. He actually prefers some of his so called mothers than his own as they treated him more kindly and lovingly.

Rasuk's had always been composed of brawn and brains. If it wasn't for his older siblings taking the spotlight, many would've noticed Rasuk rather than the others. The only setback for him was his overtly cowardice outlooks. Being a genius but would always choose to run even though he was well built, was a bit shameful.

He would always choose life over even the thought of death.

All in all, life was easy for Rasuk as no responsibilities will come to him as his elder siblings would be the ones fighting for it.

That was until his luck ran out.

***

[Please press continue to proceed to part 2]

{Continue}

Ah... so he had cowardliness from the very start? I guess self perseveration was strong in this one... I didn't know if I wanted to laugh or cry as he would be the one leading the were-beasts in my shadow legion...

I pressed continue and hoped that there was something in him we could work with...

***

Part 2: Hiss

When a frightened kitty was cornered, 'fear aggression' was his only response. The kitty would do everything in he's power to try and escape.

Rasuk was cornered. His once easy going planned out life was coming to a screeching halt.

His father, King Leoaire had declared that his son, Prince Rasuk and his second eldest daughter, princess Avoin would battle it out for the throne.

Avoin was like Amelia, in a sense, as she too was a fierce warrior, who would fight tooth and nail to accomplish her goals. The only difference between the two was that Amelia was married to a human and Avoin would only mate with a guy who is stronger than her... there hasn't been anyone yet.

How could Rasuk fight a person who was willing to tear her own brother's balls off. It would be nonsensical of him to fight a beauty who is the beast. Rasuk had heard many of the people within the kingdoms who would praise on her beauty and her beastly form. Some from within his family like his cousins and others like fans from both genders. She was an ideal role model for the girls and a 'super hot, way out of your league' type for the guys.

Rasuk saw no difference, mainly because she was his sister and that he knew things that her fans would only dream of knowing. But this were only trivial things in her personal life, the thing she's most passionate about, the art of battle was far from his, that he wanted to just 'throw in the towel' and lose on purpose.

He didn't want the throne, nor did he want to face his sister who could rip a log in half with her bare hands. 'I want my life back,' was all that he had wanted to think about.

Rasuk couldn't put heads to tails on why he was chosen. For one he was the lowest in line for the throne and second, he was a coward. He's father knew very well that he was a coward.

Rasuk in a calm manner strolled into his father's study room and asked, "Why me?"

His father, not knowing what his son was on about, gave his son a quizzical look and replied with, "why you, what?"

"Why was I chosen?"

Leoaire understood now of what his son wanted to know but continued his charade of bafflement.

"Chosen? For the eating contest, I was planning to hold, in the next few weeks? But I haven't chosen the contestants yet!"

"Father!" Rasuk almost shouted.

Leoaire demeanour changed. From a father who was playing around with his son, to a father who was going to tell his son, what he needed to hear.

"Don't be a fool, child. Because your father isn't one."

"But what about your other five sons? Aren't they more prominent than me. More honourable than me?"

"Yes." He's father simply replied.

"Yes?!" His anger was now at boiling point.

"Like I said, I'm not a fool. I've know my children's capabilities. Their strengths and weaknesses. You, son maybe a coward but you are the most capable of leading our great kingdom. The only way, I could make you see it was for this to happen."

"But I thought the next successor had to be strong and powerful like elder sister Amelia?"

His father's eyes sharpened at his eldest daughter's name. She was his prize jewel and was the chosen one for the succession but with her departure, he had to change his way of thinking. The most logical one, the one who looked the most steady and promising, was always the most unpredictable.

"Your sister, made me realise, what judgmental errors I've made. I have chosen you to make amends to those errors."

"Wait, If you've chosen me, then what's with this duel?"

"Because I needed to make sure. Avoin is much like Amelia, in that they are both fierce warriors. You and Avoin are complete opposites, your brothers and sisters are in the same boat as Avoin, just minor versions of her.

"You, on the other hand is different. You have the brawn and the brains but... you also have your cowardice. I know you wanted to escape but to escape, you needed confidence and I wanted you to show me that. To show me your determination.

"To gain freedom, you needed to grant yourself that, you needed to become king!"

Rasuk was shaken by what his father had said. To have his freedom, he need to become king? Yes! That was it. If he became king, then he could just grant himself freedom.

"Thank you father!"

Rasuk left his father's study room with a newfound purpose.

***

[Please press continue to proceed to part 3]

{Continue}

Eh... I think, that's the wrong way of thinking...

{"I'm so sorry, Master!"} exclaimed Rasuk.

{"Keep reading, I hope your opinion of me would change by the end!"}

I sighed as I lifted my finger to press continue...

***

Part 3: Roar

The king had gathered everyone in the kingdom for this spectacle. The arena that would hold the fight was large enough to hold... well to hold the entire kingdom...

Rasuk was in his room, contemplating of what he had gotten himself into.

In the human world, he would be considered as a teenager but here he's an adult. His sister was only two years older than him but strangely, he was the same size, if not bigger than her. Even if he had this kind of advantage, she has experience and training. He was never a fighter but his physique said otherwise. Even though he was a nobody against his sister, he still had the bod to haunt any guy's dreams.

With time trickling down to the battle, he's been sweating bullets and frantically thinking of ways that he could win.

He knew he had a cunning mind and could be very adaptive under duress...

Dong!

The bell rang for the two siblings to come to the stage.

Rasuk stood on the arena's floor and felt the gazes of all the watchers from the stands.

He was the least popular person on the stage as everyone roared for his sister.

As the battle began, Avoin charged forward like a hungry cat. Rasuk countered her charge by dashing backwards at the rate of her charge. He wouldn't use his strength first, but his agility. Rasuk had made a habit of running away and he was good at it. Avoin chased and would always be a meter out of reach of Rasuk.

With the situation he was in, he's adaptability came into play and changed his trajectory. Rather than moving backwards to escape his sister, he used the force of the momentum to push himself forward and charged into his sister.

They clashed swords which was a bad move at first by Rasuk as Avoin was trained in sword fighting but Rasuk knew that. Avoin was pure swordplay so he decided to do something daring and combined swordplay with hand to hand combat. To beat someone who is skilled in one thing, one must use anything in their arsenal to mix things up.

Rasuk caught Avoin off guard as he swung his sword at her and when she countered, Rasuk grabbed her arm and jerked her in to him. With his hand like a vice grip, he held her hand with the blade steady, as his other hand, grabbed her other. He had her in a arm lock and their hands dropped their swords from the weight.

Avoin struggled in his arms but Rasuk was too strong. Avoin then tried to head butt but Rasuk held her steady with his strength.

"What kind of battle is this!" Avoin roared.

"A battle that's in my favour," Rasuk replied as he transformed into his beast form and used a magical trait he had been hiding, it was an ability to nullify someone from transforming. He used it many times from escaping sticky situations and now his using it to win this battle.

Avoin tried to transform multiple times but to no avail. Her body wouldn't let her. Her face grew red from the powerful hold Rasuk was giving her and she tapped out.

"I give up, you've won, little brother!"

Rasuk had won the battle and everyone was shocked senseless.

Leoaire who had watch the whole thing nodded his head with a smile. He was indeed unique, Leoaire thought. Sometimes to win, knowledge and strategy trumps even the most fearsome opponents.

That night, Leoaire threw a party for his son's victory but no one came except his family to celebrate. Rasuk kind of knew that since he wasn't seen as someone they would've even have thought, that one day he would become their next king.

One year had passed since that event and Leoaire suffered a great blow in battle and lost his life. Rasuk was crowned by his sister, Avoin, a month after their mourning of their father.

Rasuk had been king for five years and had proven himself amongst his people that he could rule and also fight. He was cunning and logical in battle and won many of them with his intelligence. That was not to say that he was still a coward and would always choose to run if there weren't any chance of winning.

Many had said that, that's his only flaw but still viewed him as a good king despite of it.

After many battles of winning, they were on a high. Rasuk was elated but that came to end when the shadow beings came and attacked them.

Rasuk thought he had won the battle and had let down his guard, was when a black electrified cloud swallowed them up. When Rasuk and his army of 20 of the best men and women in his kingdom, woke up, they found themselves in a eerie blackness. They looked at each other and notice that they had turned into one of them.

It was then Rasuk heard a voice.

[Welcome to your new family, King of Ironclad Jungle, King of the were-beasts. Welcome to the Shadow Legion.]

***

{"See?}

Yes... Hey, I have an idea, why don't I make you my strategist?

{"Ah! Yes, Thank you, Master!"}