Massacre

The full moon shone brightly but was covered by thick clouds, as if shielding the land beneath from it's light. The stars acted like little flashlights, some shining intensely while some were so faint that they could be barely seen.

A flickering flame was burning, surrounded by four people sitting on the ground itself. Two of the members were sitting rather closely to each other as compared to the other two. The other two members were maintaining quite some distance, enough for another two persons to sit comfortably between them. Small whispers were exchanged amongst the two who were sitting rather closely to each other.

"We should ditch this job and leave already. I am not getting a good feeling about this."

"I get what you mean, we'll leave before they wake up in the morning. Leaving at night would make it difficult for us to reach the settlement. The number of creatures roaming at night are almost twice as compared to the day."

Jay was sitting with his eyes closed and a calm expression was present on his face.

All of a sudden, Jay stood up from his spot, alarming the other members of the group.

The bonfire flared and crackled up, the wind started to pick up pace, thick clouds covering the moon moved, revealing the luminescent full moon. The rest of the group except Jay felt that the air was heavy or an immense amount of pressure was placed on them, as if a boulder was kept on them.

Noise of ripping of clothes could be heard. The feelings of uneasiness and trepidation were completely replaced by terror. Their faces went pale as a terrifying scene unfolded before them.

A beast was standing where once Jay stood. It was more than seven feet tall and had honed claws. It had brown fur present throughout his body, though less dense on the front-side of its torso. It's torso had a grey scar, running almost throughout its torso, indicating that it had fought fearsome opponents in the past. The feet shrunk forming animal paws, and the legs shaping into hind legs, having similar characteristics to that of a four-legged animal. The sight above the torso of the beast was a sight to behold and to fear. It was a wolf head.

The lower body of the beast resembled human body but the head was that of a wolf! The beast didn't resemble Jay at all! After the New Age, many ability users came into existence who had powers of other creatures such as that of eagles, cats, foxes, and many more. The ones who had the power of animals, resembled the creature in a few ways only. Their fundamental human structure was still present. Also, they cannot transform like Jay did. Unlike Jay, they could only maintain a hybrid form of both the species, which contained some traits of the animal species and mostly of humans. But Jay could transform between his human form and wolf form which was unprecedented. None of the animal ability users could transform like Jay did.

The mystery of Jay having two abilities was now unraveled. Jay had Heightened Senses not because he was born with them from birth, but because of his beast transformation ability. Animal ability-users generally have better senses as compared to non-animal ability-users. But another complication had risen since Jay could change from his human form to his beast form and could even maintain partial transformation.

But at the current moment, all of this was of minor consequence, the main question in everyone's minds' was 'why did Jay transform?' 'Even though there no creatures in the nearby area, why was Jay emitting such ferocious killing intent?' 'And to whom was intent directed?' All these thoughts reached to one conclusion which they didn't want to be true.

Jay glanced in their direction sending shivers down their spine. This was what they were afraid of. The intent of killing was directed to none other than them!

'If I use these two as bait, I can probably survive. And if I use that, I might even defeat Jay.' Rudolf thought, formulating a plan to win against Jay in a fight even if it meant ditching the others'.

"You two, what are you standing for, finish him already!" Rudolf screamed.

On hearing these the words, their expressions turned even more hideous. Since they knew that they won't survive against Jay. They had seen his power as Jay had deflected all of Rudolf's attacks without breaking a sweat.

'How can I defeat this monster! Is he out of his mind?!'

'No way am I going to fight him, I'll escape when his focus is on either of them. I don't want to have the same ending as that idiot baggage carrier!'

All three of them were thinking of escaping by betraying the others. These thoughts came naturally. After all, it was in human nature to think of the best possible situation of survival in times of distress.

Jay howled like a wolf, which resonated throughout the forest. The howl must have been a battle cry because what occurred after it, was no less than a one-sided massacre.

Whoosh.

Blood sprayed out like a fountain from a headless body. A skull flew into the air, spraying red blood.

After a second, the corpse plopped on the ground.

The scalding blood sprayed over an area, dyeing the person standing next to the corpse, the surrounding trees, bushes red.

"One down. Two left." Jay didn't even glance at the corpse, he had shifted his gaze to person standing next to the corpse.

In a flash, another headless body fell on the ground, dyeing the surroundings again, in red.

"Two down. One left." Jay focused his gaze on the last alive person, excluding himself, Rudolf.