Chapter 13: Took an arrow to the...

Third POV

The Black Market was vibrant tonight, colourful paper light tinting the nautical twilight sky, meat of diverse animals could be seen on the various stands, carnivores flocking the multiple streets accompanied with a cacophony of yell, bargaining, laugh and clanking of metal.

Legoshi could be seen zigzagging between carnivores, overwhelmed by the scent of meat in all of its forms and shapes; making him drool at the idea of eating meat, especially Haru.

He ran as if his life depended on it which it did, unknown to him. He was disturbed and ashamed of himself for thinking of the white dwarf rabbit like she was simply meat, a snack for his carnivore appetite.

He lost himself in the market, turning left and right without thinking until he was alone in a dark and dirty back alley as far away from the smell of flesh as possible.

While back in the Black Mark, a large shadow with two purple globes was passing unimpeded through animals, stands, and fire, everything alike that was separating him from his prey. Causing absolute chaos.

The Black Market tonight was set aflame and many would end up badly injured with some dying, the authorities won't interfere, what happens in the Market stays in the Market, unless the Black Devil decides to be more aggressive in his endeavours.

Going back to Cahaya. The hybrid thoughts were bordering on the primal; most of his usual rationality was currently gone.

His whole body riddled with superficial burn marks and tiny wounds, he was moving mostly on instinct, forked tongue constantly flicking the air and showing him where the wolf had run, the other overwhelming smells filtered out.

His vision was red from the rage he felt at himself for being careless, arrogant and stupid resulting in him becoming like this, not that he could currently understand why he felt like this. He only wanted this to stop.

The grey wolf was essentially dead and Cahaya knew it. One bite in his current state and the wolf body would start to necrosis and will die swiftly after but only after living through unthinkable levels of pain.

He doesn't possess the more powerful venom of the animal kingdom (Still comparable in toxicity to the Mojave rattlesnake, the most venomous rattlesnake in the world), his venom is a chemical cocktail of postsynaptic neurotoxin and cytotoxic (really bad for the nervous system and kill tissue). 

In small quantities, it can be potentially survivable however he has a bit more than one litter of this venom in his venom glands, something abnormal even by large venomous snakes and naja mossambica standards.

This amount is certainly enough to hypothetically kill all animals unlucky enough to get bitten by a presently out-of-control naga.

And that is just one of the numerous ways for him to easily kill the gloomy wolf hybrid.

Now the problem is not killing an animal, the problem is the animal in question is Legoshi, Gosha's grandson. Gosha is his Dad's friend and their benefactor, he also liked the old silly lizard, he was a bit like an uncle to him.

This is enough reason for him not to want to eat the wolf. He wasn't heartless, just very cruel and potentially sadistic to the one he didn't care about. And the death of Legoshi would negatively impact Gosha then his Dad and in consequence himself. 

So he cared for Legoshi's well-being in a somewhat twisted way.

But his current mind only translated that killing and eating the 'prey' would 'hurt' more and that it's not worth it. Sadly his body was oh so very hungry.

*BAM*

A figure hurled itself against a big pile of cardboard boxes. Legoshi looked behind at the familiar form and called out while panting and drooling, "Cahaya? Is that yo-"

He didn't even finish before feeling his legs, arms and torso be ensnared by something incredibly more powerful than himself, it was smooth and scaly and seemingly endless in its length.

"FoUNd yOu!", the hybrid hissed out with a crooked snarl on his snout, barely intelligible with how distorted it was, he looked down on the wolf that he trapped. His gills fully expanded while also continuously twitching, showing his current contradictory but intense emotions.

Legoshi was calm, he didn't try to move nor defend himself, feeling it would be futile to even try in his current state of exhaustion.

'I feel so small and helpless… just like Haru must have felt. How arrogant of me…', though the now barely conscious wolf, he saw above him the hybrid wide-open jaw that contained, hundred of small sharp teeth, two long fangs in all of their glory, the tip of his pure black bifid tongue poking out of its contrasting pink and fleshy sheath of the same colour and texture as rest of the inside of his mouth.

'So this is how I die? Pretty ironic for a carnivore like me…', though Legoshi before falling unconscious, and luckily not feeling a droplet of venom falling on his shoulder, reaching his skin, making the affected zone's fur fall off and the skin gradually withers and dies. 

*SLING*

A crossbow bolt suddenly pierced through the hybrid's right eye, then through his right frontal lobe, shredding most of it in the process and ending its course when it hit the top of his skull.

His body stiffened before falling lifelessly on the side of his intact and wide-open eye, just like a puppet whose strings had been cut off. Blood was already trickling out the pierced eyeball.

A tall and muscular panda bear with a claw mark on his right eye and an ugly scar on his left cheek, he walked then crouched next to a 'dead' Cahaya.

"I'm deeply sorry kid, you're very courageous and strong to sacrifice yourself for someone else in this state but… I should have aimed elsewhere…", he murmured with sadness and bitterness and he felt like shit.

He did notice how the teenager saw him and stared at him in the eyes with its own frenzied ones and then at the wolf in its coil. The beast made frenetic eye motions between him and the wolf as if telling him to do something and fast.

'Fuck! Fuck! Why didn't I aim somewhere else!? I am a doctor, not some fucking murderer!', thought Gohin in bitterness and anger at his blunder, he could have done something else but he was instinctively frightened by the strange animal in front of him and made an enormous mistake. He then punched the ground multiple times and enough to draw blood.

He calmed himself down. He wasn't some immature kid, he was going to take responsibility for what he did and anger won't help him solve anything.

He was going to close the left one which had a hollow look and was surprised at the peculiar pigmentation of it, now that he paid attention to it, however, he was interrupted when he heard the quiet sound of cloth moving.

He gawked in disbelief when he saw the right hand of the supposed cadaver move. 

The hand moved where the 50,8 centimetre (20 in) bolt penetrated its head, it then grabbed the bamboo bolt, and twisted it slowly making an awful sound of squelching flesh and blood while pulling it out with surgical precision, but bits of eyeball and brain still coming out with it, due to the shape of the crossbow bolt head.

He then saw the tissues where the right eye was, knitting themselves back together, the tissues were regenerating at a speed visible to the naked eyes, approximately 5 minutes later the eye was fully regenerated.

Then he heard a low hiss-like-snore coming from the creature in front of him.

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This morning in the drama club at Cherryton Academy.

Third POV

"Morning Juno. How is life in the dance team?", joyfully asked the blue peafowl.

"Hiya Juno!", saluted Kibi, a small anteater.

The pensive female grey wolf turned and responded, "Oh, good morning.", then she said, "Um, Dom?"

"Yeah? What?", replied Dom.

"Is Cahaya here today?", she asked hopefully, having a positive answer.

The peafowl bent his head in her direction and asked with wide eyes, "Huh? Why do you ask?"

"Oh um… Cahaya rescued me from an awkward situation some time ago and I wanted to talk to him more thoroughly about what he said.", she said, sounding more hesitant and embarrassed than it should have been.

Kibi winced at the amphibian name knowing how ruthless he was, 'Cahaya!? Ahh! He must have traumatized her, the cutest new member of the drama club!', he thought in outrage.

While Dom thought we're, 'Good luck. You will need it with how dense and uninterested he seems.', he remembered how Cahaya didn't realize or care about girls and some guys who were interested in him more sexually than they should be.

"Sorry but *cough*… Cahaya went downtown to help with the meteorite festival preparation, well more likely dragged around by the other to have fun than anything else.", he said with an embarrassed smile on the side of his beak and mumbled the last part under his breath.

"Oh, okay…", she muttered, ears slightly falling in disappointment.

"Want me to call him or do you want his phone number?", he then proposed.

"YES! Um uh sorry, umm do you need help with the box, let me help!", she replied way too excited before changing the topic, then she picked one of the boxes not letting Dom answer.

They walked quietly in the corridor and the wolf asked another question, "Um so, what do you think of Cahaya?"

Dom answered first, "Well he is clearly Beastar material so… he is unique in more than one way. He is very studious, helpful, and polite however he is extremely violent and this is the thing that set him really apart the most from Louis. 

But he is fair; he does use violence when he deems it necessary. I think for him violence must be answered with more violence… or total annihilation heh.

I'm personally okay-ish with what he does since he doesn't attack innocent students and he only uses physical violence in defence of others or self-defence. And it works so far, bullying has been reduced by more than 95℅… But true, sometimes he is certainly a bit too excessive.

He is overall a very nice person to be around if a bit intimidating. He is a living paradox.", Dom finished with a chuckle and looked at the dreaming anteater for his answer, he poked Kibi's shoulder. 

'What did you do to h-'"Huh? Oh yea Cahaya, he urg, he scares me a bit umm not badly but like he is a large carnivore and he acts like one, no offence to you Juno.", Kibi told them, he didn't like the amphibian very much, he was too strange, too violent and too much in general.

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Cahaya POV

I woke up in a stranger's room. I know it since I don't have bamboo plants in pots or wallpaper with bamboo or a camera, well I have a camera but not a reinforced one. 

I was in some sort of clinic or hospital of some kind. The scent of medicine in the air and the IV on my right arm connected to a half-empty nutrition bag were clear indications.

I tried to lift my left arm, feeling it was a bit stiff but not that hard to move. Same for all my left side. 

'What… Oh, I remember, I chased after Legoshi through the whole Black Market, then caught him, I was going to eat him when someone shot me an arrow in the eye.  I will need to thank him and hope when he brought me here that he didn't touch too much of my blood.', I analyzed, still angry at myself but glad that nothing catastrophic happened.

And my stiffness will disappear in less than 30 minutes if the clock on the wall is right.

I noticed that I surprisingly wasn't chained or muzzled, I then sensed something heavy walking behind the door to my left.

'Must be my 'killer' eh.',  I guessed, if something wants to kill me it will need more than one arrow to the brain and will need me to stay motionless.

The door opened and I saw the beefiest panda I have ever seen so that doesn't amount to much but still. He looked at me then said smugly with a cigarette in his snout, "Ah! So you're finally awake?"