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The Shepherd

In the depths of a frigid winter, Oswald, a mere shepherd, fights for survival alongside his pregnant mother in a war-torn world. His life takes a sinister turn with the arrival of a mysterious traveler who claims to carry an urgent message for the royals. An opportunity bearer but at what cost? As night deepens, Oswald uncovers a shocking destiny that goes beyond mere survival. His night wanderings are no mere sleepwalking; they are tied to the dreadful beast that haunts his village. This wolf-like creature prowls the valley, bringing dread as the specter of war looms closer. Blood will flow, loyalties will be tested, and Oswald must face the beast within as he strides the perilous path between humanity and monstrous power.

Mayline · Fantasía
Sin suficientes valoraciones
259 Chs

Bloody hell

The extreme process was difficult to endure. Hundreds of muscles in Oswald's body underwent the change too, the heat each change generated and the bones' extensions produced a nightmarish melody.

His torso first. The ribcage expended in an abrupt manner, making the poor boy wail in pain. He couldn't contract his own muscles, nor relax them, every move he attempted to restrain ended up a failure.

His larynx enlarged before the rest, making him suffocate a few minutes during which he felt what had been described to him as 'hell'.

He couldn't call for help, he was the danger, now that he knew everything that happened during the night hunt, he wanted to bury himself and vanish forever. Alas, the wonderful light show above his head kept him intensely puzzled. He had to keep looking at it.

The moon's glow entered every of his pores, now darkening under a hairy cloak. His forearms became the longest part of his arms, while his fingers shrunk, the palm extended, claws spurted out the tip of each finger, they were yellow at first but darkened as well.

After each vertebra was created, skin covered the tail along with a black fur which grew up to his navel.

Again, his tights thickened due to an important muscle growth, while his heels parted ways with his toes. The shackles he had on his ankles fell down while the ones on his hands became tighter.

After a few minutes of atrocious contortions, he regained partial control of the gigantic body he now possessed. It was how he discovered the second advantage of human flesh-consuming.

He had difficulties to stand up due to the shackles, which he got rid of with a herculean pull. The wrists and the many small bones of his hands regenerated instantly to their hideous non-human shape.

The noise the shackles made while bouncing on the shame pillar attracted the night patrol's attention.

Oswald had yet to understand how to walk that he felt the wind blowing everywhere on his body, the flow on his hair, on his entire fur coat created something he never experienced before, a mind map. All the smells and torrent imperfection the wind carried created a boost to Oswald's sense of touch, he could picture what happened few meters behind the houses, on his right side.

His eyes sunk when he felt the horrendous pain growing inside his body, hunger. His stomach's acids started to consume the walls of the organ itself.

'Make it stop!' He wanted to shout, but nothing of his human mouth remained, only fangs and a flat tongue he couldn't fold decently to form words. Only a growl escaped his mouth.

A green glow hit his nose, it was a guard, astounded by the encounter he just made.

With a clumsy push of his hind leg, Oswald reached the man before the latter could scream. He wanted to strangle it to death, but his fingers had no way to grab strongly now that they had transformed to better fit an all fours run.

Instinctively, his maw opened and pierced the man's skin, with each wiggle, his fangs sunk deeper into the skull and soon, the sphere he pictured in his mind blew up under the pressure.

Squash!

Blood flew up to three meters away, the warm liquid entered Oswald's throat as well and relieved him from his visceral torture, for a few seconds. So he bit again, this time in order to feed himself. The taste it had never mattered, only the pain relief he had from it.

The few clunks and clings he heard nearby made his ears rotate at the top of his head, nothing he was used to.

'Give me back the normal life I had until now!' He thought. 'Made it all cease!' His mind was being consumed by the overwhelming feeling of hunger. The sole remedy he had to the issue was eating. And he could. There was plenty of meat for him to harvest all over the camp.

Leaving the massacred body of the soldier behind, he came toward long tents. He knew there was a lot of people in it and few weapons thanks to his ears picking up a couple of snortings, and lots of steel-like smell.

With his claws, he breached the thick cloth before rampaging.

A dozen people slept on makeshift beds, a few centimeters away from the ground. They all woke up when another skull exploded. Yet there was no light. Only the warm feeling on their skin, blood dripping on their clothes and staining their beds along with their urine.

Two yellow eyes, towering above their heads, a shape, larger than a horse that had a cloudy halo all around.

The beast's boiling blood rose its body temperature further up, leaving behind its steps a steamy aura.

A low growl resounded in the tent, a simple breathe with half a meal passing too close to the respiratory system. The moon's glow entered the breach, making the beast's contour appear bright red.

"Intruder!" One shouted. "Monster!" Another screamed. The sudden increase in noise, to the beast's sensitives ears, was another of his meal's offence, other than their pungent smell.

With his hand moving in an uppercut way, he beheaded one more person. He jumped to tear apart a throat, sliced people in half, squashed ribcages with his mouth, dismembered everyone in the tent.

As the noise lessened in the tent, torches lit up in the camp. People had yet to understand what was happening and react accordingly. There was an intruder, that's all they knew.

Faster than a dashing horse, the monster exited the tent to expend the area of his slaughter. Rage animated Oswald's body, he couldn't extinguish the hunger, he couldn't go back in time, and he couldn't escape an army camp without getting noticed. So he fought, as lethally as possible. Anything that came in range died.

High up on the observation post, hundreds of meters away, two red eyes observed the scene. "Bloody hell! This one is among my favourites so far." Said Satan, contemplating his masterpiece.

After a few minutes, the first weapon pierced through Oswald's skin. An arrow, its head penetrated his back and was slowly exiting its orifice, healing the wound on its way. The archer did not live long to tell the tale.