6 Yfen

"Where's the east section?" John asks them.

"Endron's on their way there as we speak, it's too dangerous for you to go right now," Ava states.

"...Fine," John replies hesitantly, "Is there someplace I more, isolated, I can go until he gets back? I don't know what's happening to me, but I know it's not safe for anyone around me,"

"You can just wait back in the barracks where you changed," Ludmilla suggests.

"That's too close," John shakes his head.

"...There's a mineshaft, that collapsed nearby where we entered," She states, "It still goes a few meters deep though, so, you could stay in there,"

"Alright. I'll leave you guys to your reunion. Sorry for uh, upsetting you so badly," He apologizes to Ava before leaving the cave. As he heads out of the cave back onto the downhill curved slope the feeling of being watched comes back. It's like the giant tree in the middle of the area is watching him.

As he reaches the bottom, he spots the entrance to the mineshaft several meters ago. A bit to the right, part of the ground is made of a smooth stone, with several small rock pillars around it. As he passses by it, the ground around him suddenly starts to crumble away.

"What in the-!"

He comes to a halt as the mountains and ground around him split apart, revealing a light blue sky all around, filled with several floating islands of various sizes far off in the distance. Turning to the left, he spots a giant creature sitting in front of the tree looking down at him. It's body is like that of a giant, with green skin and leaves growing on it. The head however, is a giant spiral of woven tree branches, with a large glowing orb in the center.

"Calm yourself. I, am Yfen, guardian of this caern, I am of no threat to you," It speaks to him in a calm, echoing voice. It's the same voice that woke him up this morning.

"Then why the hell did everything break apart? What happened to the others?"

"You need not worry, they are perfectly fine in the material world,"

"Material world? You're making more questions than answering them, Yfen," The creature stares at him, unmoving for a bit before it resumes speaking.

"So it is true...you were human…"

"Were human? Can you please start making some damn sense?" He asks in irritated voice. The creature leans in slightly, the orb suddenly spinning and glowing brightly.

"You are the offspring of humans, yet you somehow had a connection with the Wyld. As you grew, so did your connection, but you buried it deep inside...You're encounter with the Wyrm brought the Wyld, that you so desperately hid, out of you, and now you're more garou than human," The orb stops spinning and dims down as it leans back.

"Garou's are warriors of the Wyld, creatures of man and beast. You have seen them for yourself, these, werewolves, you spoke of. In due time you will learn all there is to be a Garou, but right now my caern needs your help. As we speak, the Wyrm's forces are attacking. Though we will win this fight, I can't be so certain for the future, not as long as Cahal is gone. I must ask of you to lend us your strength,"

John stares up at the giant spirit trying to register everything it just told him.

"...Sure, I'll, try to help,"

With that the world around him suddenly starts to dissolve, turning back to the normal forest.

"Follow my voice, I will guide you," The voice states, this time coming from a single direction. The voice trails off to a nearby tunnel left of the tree. Hesitant at first, John follows it. Running through the tunnel he finds himself looking down over a battlefield. Several people with guns are shooting at each other, using the trees and logs as cover.

Giant mechs with saw blades on the arms appear on the right side, chopping through trees as they advance to the other side. There's a loud roar from the left side as a large dark-grey werewolf suddenly appears, charging towards the mechs. The area John's in gives him a clear path to both sides, and he's far enough away so no one can clearly see him.

"We must be quick, more forces are on their way," Yfen's voice states, "Use your lupin form to reach them faster,"

"I don't know what the hell that is," John replies as he jumps down onto a lower platform. He quickly scales down the mountain side onto the battlefield. The whole forest sounds like a warzone, along with the spinning of sawblades tearing through things.

Not being seen by either party, John decides to run to the right to attack the people from behind.

"What are you doing? Change into the crinos before you reach them,"

"Again, I don't know what the hell that is. You asked for my help, this is how I'm helping,"

John runs until all the gunfire is to his left, and then he heads in that direction. It doesn't take long for him to spot a soldier. They're dressed exactly like the guards back in the prison. The gunfire covers his footsteps as he runs at them. Before they realize it an arm wraps around their neck.

They're pulled up away from the log they were behind and with a crack, he snaps their neck. He grabs their assault rifle and looks around for any nearby soldiers. There's three further down to the left and two to the right. He aims at the ones on the right first, with two clean headshots they're taken down.

The other guys take notice of the lack of gunfire and turn, only to be met with bullets to the head. John hurries over to one of them, ducking behind trees to avoid incoming gunfire from the other side. He takes their clips, shoving them into his pockets before continuing his assault on them.

After wiping out a heavy chunk of their ground forces, the others take notice.

"We're being flanked!" One of the soldiers shouts, some of the others turning around to fire at him. One of the mechs that was in the backline turns to see what his teammates are shooting at and spots John as he looks over the side of the tree he's behind.

"So much for stealth," He mutters to himself as he pulls the pin on a grenade he swiped off a corpse. He chucks it over the side of the tree, and after a few second it explodes, taking out some more men. As he reloads his gun heavy mechanical footsteps quickly approach. John ducks as a saw blade comes swinging at the tree, cutting into it mere feet above his head.

It slices through the tree like it's paper and soon the trunk starts falling over. John runs to the right, diving behind another tree as it comes crashing down. As he stumbles up to his feet the mech is already catching up to him. John just starts running, turning around and shooting at it. As he shoots he spots that the driver of the mech is left quite vulnerable, nothing but a helmet providing any sort of protection. The mech quickly catches up to him and he's forced to stop shooting, diving to the side as a saw blade comes whirling at him.

He rolls and quickly jumps back up on his feet. Before he can even shoot the mech is swinging at him, slamming one of the blade-tipped arms down at him. He's forced to jump again. The blade gets caught in the dirt just long enough for him to shoot the pilot several times in the body. The blades stop spinning as the body goes limp, and soon the mech comes crashing down.

Looking off in the distance he spots the werewolf from before taking on two mechs. John quickly rushes off back towards them.