REND

During orientation week for Cresthorne Law, several alumni came to speak. One of them was a veteran prosecutor with a tough guy veneer who shared his life-threatening experiences putting various high-profile criminals in jail. Receiving death threats, getting ambushed, the works—he probably embellished some of those stories to entertain us. He added nonchalantly that it was ‘highly unlikely’ any of us would experience having a gun pointed at our face as he did, so we shouldn’t worry too much about it.

Highly unlikely?

Well, Mr. Prosecutor, sir, I had been shot with high-powered firearms by criminals engaged in illegal Adumbrae activities. Mix in there a few missiles, grenades, explosive thingamajigs I didn’t know about. I could distinctly remember, even in my frenzied full beast form, barely hanging on to a thread of sanity, that an attack helicopter joined the party trying to kill me.

So, yeah. Plenty of highly unlikely stuff has happened to me lately.

But you know what’s even more unlikely?

Turning into a half-wolf, half-woman creature with a power given by a possible interdimensional being, infiltrating an underground fight club full of Adumbrae, and getting into a one-on-one fight with a huge mutant that had a gun for a hand.

That’s pretty unlikely to happen to anyone.

Astronomical odds, I'd say.

Yet, here I am.

The fucking ugly mutant, which I decided to call Mr. Ogre, happily flattened the acid bitch although it was clearly way past dead. Calm and peace swept away my fury at the acid mutant. When it died, my desire to eat it suddenly turned off.

There goes my food and my plan to transform fast. I would have to make do with Mr. Ogre. I could tell it would be tremendously way harder to bring down than the acid one.

How do I deal with this guy? Think about the tips I wrote down listening to Blank teach Deen how to fight. Observe. Get a clue of what your opponent’s powers might be. Be on the lookout for hidden weapons or abilities. I had plenty of time to study how the acid mutant worked watching from the side, but it didn’t cross my mind it could also make an acid cloud, which, fortunately, I was able to avoid.

Be more careful this time, I warned myself. I didn’t have the luxury of watching Mr. Ogre fight beforehand.

Super strength was plenty obvious. It could crumple metal slabs; it would do me well not to get caught. How fast was it though? A large size didn’t automatically mean slow so I had to always move quickly. Acid that could burn a hole through my flesh didn’t do anything to its skin. Was that its power? Or was it just naturally, or unnaturally, extremely durable?

How about the heavy contraption on its arm? I assumed it was a gun because it had two barrels, a small one and a large one. Might be a machine gun with a cannon.

But where were the bullets? No magazine sticking out anywhere, or a bullet belt feeding into the gun. Unless the bullets were stored in the horrid device itself? That wouldn’t be too many bullets then. I could probably run around and deplete its ammo. However, it could be a flamethrower or a different weapon that shoots some other nasty stuff a normal civilian like me wouldn’t know of.

After thoroughly mixing the body of the other mutant with the soil, Mr. Ogre grunted in satisfaction. It then gazed in my direction. Nostrils flared, it grumbled an angry gibberish. The fuming expression on its face told me we weren’t going to be friends. The machine on its arm began to rattle and clunkily whir. Mr. Ogre moaned that sounded like the call of a whale.

My knees were half-bent, ready to evade if it decided to shoot me.

Go left or right?

At the corner of my eye, I saw an axe to my left.

Mr. Ogre raised his arm with the gun. Before it could align with me, I rushed to the side. It opened fire. I once again ran on all fours. It was easier this time, more familiar as if my physiology slowly changed to adapt to running like a beast. My ears twitched at the deafening, continuous gunfire.

Huh?

Did the fake animal ears on the top of my hoodie just move?

Before I could process my ears changing, I reached the axe. I picked it up and continued running on two legs. Mr. Ogre suddenly swung his gun sideways, strafing my position with bullets. I didn't have time to react. Tiny explosions from rocks exploded around me. I felt hot spears piercing my body. The force of the bullets nearly knocked me off balance.

An enemy! Eat! Eat the bastard who dared attack!

Adrenaline rushed through my body like when the acid mutant first hurt me. This was what I was waiting for! The pain from getting shot several times became nothing. They felt so distant like it was someone else getting hurt.

A surge of rage. Of energy. Of power!

Focus! Forward quickly!

It was still shooting at me. I dashed through the curtain of bullets, debris, and dust.

Throwing an axe was not in my resume the last time I checked, but perhaps sheer brute strength might do it. I raised the axe with both hands above my head to keep its path straight. I swung down with all my might, releasing the axe when it leveled with my eyes.

It beautifully rotated in the air, curving towards the head of Mr. Ogre.

And luck was on my side tonight. A hit! I'm so fucking great!

Unfortunately, it was the handle that connected with the temple of the mutant, not the blade. Whatever, good enough. I'd take any success at this point. Mr. Ogre wasn’t visibly injured. It shook its head for a moment. I took this chance to get closer so it couldn’t shoot me anymore.

Claws spread wide, I swiped with both hands at its abdomen. I tore through the armor it wore, ripping the steel plates and breaking the chains linking them. As easy as opening a gift. Its skin exposed, I attacked even more ferociously. Slashing. Biting.

It bellowed, more in annoyance than actual pain, because I couldn’t even rip through its skin.

I snarled in frustration.

The gun-mace descended. I rolled to Mr. Ogre's side.

If scratching couldn’t do anything, how about stabbing? I jabbed at its flank with my hand and fingers straightened. My claws harmlessly bounced away. The mutant tried to sidekick me but I parried its leg with my arms crossed in front of me. Damn, it was like holding back a truck, not that I’ve done it before. I tried pushing it off balance. But it swung back its leg—which I evaded by ducking down—followed by a stomp right on my crouching body. I dove towards its back.

Fucking sturdy. The closest thing I could compare it with was the water-cornstarch science experiment we did back in grade school. The one where if you punched the liquid it'd turn hard, but if you touched it gently it would retain its liquid consistency. It was the same with Mr. Ogre’s skin. The harder I attacked it the more resistance it offered.

Unfortunately, gently touching its skin didn’t make it soft either.

I recalled that Barb’s armor, aside from heavily protecting her head, was also thick along her back. Mr. Ogre’s head was hard to reach with the large height difference between us, but I could go for the spine. Break the spine, stop the power. I tried to dig its spine out.

My claws and teeth, all ineffective! I punched the middle of its back with all my might. Damn it! I couldn’t make any progress with the thick skin!

It swung its arms wildly around, blindly hoping to catch me. I made sure to remain low while keeping up my fruitless attacks. The low kicks and the stomps were my main concern. But I could evade them. I couldn’t explain it, but I had more focus, better reaction time, and a sort of fighting instinct. The mutant roared in anger. It couldn’t get me while I danced around it.

I couldn’t do shit to it either.

Stalemate.

Once again, the whirring noise started, coupled with Mr. Ogre’s labored groaning. It peppered the ground around us with bullets. But I was too close for it to shoot properly. I didn’t let it move away; sticking to it was my ticket to surviving. Sure, there was nothing I could do right now, but I was buying time to think while preventing myself from being turned into swiss cheese. Minimizing damage was paramount because I couldn’t regenerate quickly from too many injuries without eating what was attacking me. And this mutant was the worst opponent for me.

Mr. Ogre pointed his gun downward. Huh? I managed to think before the earth exploded.

BOOM!

Why the hell was it shooting dow—?

BOOM! BOOM!

I was thrown a few feet away by the explosion along with rocks and dust. I curled up as I hit the ground, then rolled away. So much rolling tonight. It dawned on me what had happened. The fucker couldn’t catch or shoot me so it decided to blow up everything to shoo me away. It was still shooting at its feet, excavating dirt, so I slinked between the rocks and hid behind a particularly large one.

Damage report! I patted my body.

A few gashes, my skin torn away by the debris. It was already mending itself back together. The bullet holes I suffered were also closing. My body was covered with my blood. Yuck! Even my hair was sticky with it. And wow, did my hair start to grow wild.

Now that I had respite and the rush of battle was dying down, I could feel pangs of hunger. An incessant gnawing of my innards. Food…not just any food. My mouth began to salivate as the thoughts of eating Mr. Ogre came to mind. If I was in any other state, I wouldn’t have found that appetizing in the slightest. But right now, all I wanted was to tear away the mutant’s skin and chew on its flesh.

I turned my ears, the wolfish ones on the top of my head.

Did it stop shooting? Heavy footsteps getting closer. I ducked down just as the upper part of the rock covering me was smashed to pieces. I didn’t have to look up to know Mr. Ogre was there. I fled once again.

That strange bellowing sound came from behind me. As expected, the gun whirred right after Mr. Ogre's wailing. I ran with all my might across the pit with the bullets trailing behind me. I didn’t dare try to zigzag because I was running away and couldn’t see the path of the gunfire. The bullets slammed my back. All the action movies I’ve watched lied to me! I dropped down to let the path of the gunfire continue forward.

How the fuck was I getting hit? Weren’t machine guns terribly inaccurate? Mr. Ogre's strength must be keeping the gun from recoiling wildly. Although it has to have pretty good eyes to be this accura—

The eyes! A plan formed in my head. I turned back to face the mutant.

Mr. Ogre stopped shooting, the mournful groans replaced with a battle cry. It decided to charge at me. Its mace held high, it barreled through the rocks and the corpses like a rampaging elephant.

I crouched down.

Wait for it...

The powerful muscles of my legs coiled, ready to release at a moment’s notice. Twelve feet...eight...five...

Now!

I launched myself towards its head, twisting myself across the air, drawing from muscle memory of my days as a cheerleader, avoiding the mighty mace that came crashing down. I grabbed the sides of its head to stop myself from overshooting. Positioning myself behind its head, I wrapped my legs around its thick neck and locked myself in place.

Let’s see how you like this! I scooped its eyes with my claws. It roared in pain and wildly shook its head. But I kept my claws inside its eyes sockets and rummaged around, mashing up everything I could reach like I was kneading dough.

A massive hand came to grab me. Fat fingers wrapped around my chest and waist, trying to pry me off. I held fast to its head with my fingers holding on to the sides of the eye sockets. I also opened my mouth wide and bit down. You’re not getting me off here!

The fingers holding my body started squeezing me like a tub of toothpaste. My ribs cracked. I couldn’t breathe! It pulled even harder but I kept holding on. My arms stretching, muscles straining. Bones cracking, going to break. Don't let go—!

I was in the air! Pieces of its skull were in my clenched hands.

What?

It pulled me off and threw me up?

As if in slow motion, I turned my head to the left just as the gun-mace was coming at me. WHAAAM!

I slammed into a hard surface, another and another. Ground? Wall? I didn’t know. Everything blended together. I bounced like a ragdoll around the enclosure and came to a stop. I whimpered as I tried to pick myself up.

It hurts…fuck. This hurts so much!

I stood up. Knees wobbling. Everything blurry. I blinked several times to clear my vision.

Wait…Where was I again? I was dancing in a club. Did I get wasted?

Not again.

My ears were ringing…or was that something else? Like an engine humming…whirring.

Whirring?

The gun!

Fuck.

BOOM! BOOM!

I was flung to the wall and fell to the floor with a splat. Thick crimson blood from my mangled body stretched across the dirty floor. I was shutting down. So...much...pain... I could barely move. I pushed myself up with a seemingly broken arm. Fix yourself! Regenerate!

But my powers could not keep up with the damage.

Food...food...

This was not a good idea at all, I kept repeating inside my head.

What was my backup plan again?

“Hey!”

Someone calling me? Who?

"Hey! Up here!"

I looked up and saw a beautiful woman with flowing blonde hair dressed in white perched atop the glass fence surrounding the pit. Was she an angel? A man was trying to get her down. “You said I should do this if you’re hurt,” she shouted at me, raising something in her hand.

It glinted.

A blade?

She threw it at me, the blade burying itself deep in my back.