13 Worms

The following morning Cahal wakes up, his arm sore as hell and some grass brushing against his face. With a pained groan, he sits up, only for a pounding headache to suddenly try and pull him back down. He leans forward, rubbing his head to try and ease the pain before looking around.

Looking to the left he's greeted by the man from last night, still in his glabro form. Once a bit shorter than him, he's now noticeably taller than him. His torso has grown much larger, the remains of the vest he was wearing sitting at his feet. His face is more rigid and beast-like, with blood-red eyes and a piercing gaze.

"...Morning…" John utters with a much deeper, growling, voice. Despite sitting on the ground with his legs crossed and arms folded, he gives off a very threatening vibe, like he could just jump up and attack at any second.

Cahal just stares at him, unsure what to make of the situation. One of his hands brushes up against something hard and cold and he looks down to see the crossbow sitting by him, along with a couple arrows. They're still stained with blood.

"Are you, coming with me...awake, or unconscious?" John asks slowly, having some trouble talking in his new form.

"What?"

"I'm bringing, you back,"

"To the oil station?" Cahal asks, an irritated frown coming over his face.

"The caern,"

"You went to my home?!" He exclaims in a sudden fury, "Did you kill my daughter too!?" He roars before lunging at him, once more, turning into his crinos form again. John falls backwards onto his back, lifting his legs up into the air. Cahal flies at him, landing on John's feet, before being shoved forward, adding to his momentum, flying into a tree back first. The tree breaks into two, the top falling down and slamming into other trees.

As John gets up, Cahal has already recovered from the blow and is charging at him. He brings his arms up to clock a swing, his arms getting cut into deeply as he's launched backwards. His side hits a tree, causing him to spin a bit before landing on the ground. As John recovers, he's met with a strong gale that sweeps him off his feet, throwing him into another tree. Cahal charges at him, slamming against the trees in his way.

John manages to recover from the blow and jumps to the side, avoiding a slash to the face. He lands on a nearby tree, and starts climbing up it. Cahal swings at the base of the tree, tearing through the trunk, causing it to shake violently. John leaps to another tree before Cahal breaks all the way through, causing the tree to start falling. Cahal waists no time running over to the tree John jumped to and slashing at it.

John jumps to another one as it starts to fall, continuing to climb higher. As soon as he feels the tree shake from Cahal slashing at it, John turns and looks down to see Cahal is focused on the tree trunk. He lets go of the tree, and dives down head first towards Cahal. As he picks up speed and gets closer, he flips his body and stomps on Cahal's head with a hefty thud. John bounces off, landing several feet away from him as the monstrous beast stumbles back a bit.

John turns and jumps at Cahal's back, latching a claw into his shoulder. Cahal roars in pain, but his roar is cutoff as John wraps his arms around his neck. He digs his claws into his arms, trying to pry them open, but John refuses to let go. John retaliates by sinking his teeth into his beck, causing Cahal to pull his claws out of his arms.

Cahal flails about, trying to fling John off, but John digs his feet's claws into him for extra grip. As Cahal finally starts to lose consciousness, strange glowing blood-red worms suddenly shoot out from Cahal's body in a burst of energy. The things stab into John before the wave of energy sends him flying off Cahal. John struggles to push himself up onto his hands and knees as he lifts his head up to see Cahal's limbs and body being wrapped by the worms.

John's vision starts to become blurry as the blood pours from his body, his energy quickly draining from him. As he continues to lose blood, he finds himself back in that dark room with that giant worm creature.

I'm not, losing, to a bunch...of worms!

John lifts his torso up from the ground, letting out a feral roar as his wounds heal out of pure spite and rage. He rises to his feet as the wyrm'd Cahal turns to him. Cahal rushes at him much faster than before, but John runs right for him. He thrusts his arms forward, catching Cahal's. He's pressed backwards, his feet digging into the soil as he struggles to fight back. John digs his claws into Cahal's arms as the two stare at each other, the flames in their eyes flaring up.

The worms wrapped around Cahal's eyes start to move their way toward's John's arms. Before they can reach him, John suddenly gives, and pulls. The force throws Cahal past him, and he slams into a nearby rock, winding him. John wastes no time leaping over to him, standing over him before he grabs at one of the worms on Cahal's arm. It flails viciously as he digs his claws into.

Pressing a foot against Cahal's forearm, John pulls at the worm. It lets out an unnatural high-pitched screech of agony as John begins to pull it out. With a sudden lurch and torrent of blood, the worm is torn out from Cahal's body, Cahal letting out a roar of agony. John rips the worm apart, the worm disintegrating into thin air.

He grabs the next, but Cahal slashes at him, hitting him across the chest and throwing him off.

John lands several meters away, dragging along the ground a bit before coming to a stop. Cahal staggers up to his feet, placing his claw over the large bloody hole in his arm. John gets up, shaking the dirt off himself before he continues his assault. Getting closer, Cahal swings at him, forcing John to jump back to avoid it. However, he quickly jumps forward at Cahal, tackling him in the torso and knocking him down.

He grabs a worm and starts pulling on it, and with another spray of blood it comes flying out before being torn apart and disintegrating. Heavily weekend by the worms being pulled out, Cahal is unable to fight back as John tears the rest of the worms out one by one. As the last worm is pulled out, Cahal lets out one final howl of pain before going limp.

He turns back to human, his body covered in holes all leaking blood.

No longer focused on fighting, the blood's scent is able to finally dig its claws into John's nose.