’W-what? Beans?! What happened to him? Where is he?!’

Belladonna whipped her head around, desperately searching for her Bottomless Bag, only to find it laying on its side with the flap open. A few of her items were scattered around, mostly useless items and random loot that she had gathered.

But there at the edge of the chaos was the jar she kept Beans’ cultivation sauce in. It was smashed open, the contents spilled across the dirt, as a half eaten slab of meat sat in the middle of the puddle.

Beside the meat and the puddle, was the cat in question. He was squirming on the ground, writhing in agony as his bones snapped and flesh bulged beneath his fluff. He let out whimpering cries of pain, as his claws dug into the ground.

His body was changing, awakening through whatever process he evolved through, and in doing so he was emitting constant waves of mana. Belladonna could feel them coursing through her, as could the beast on top of her.

It strained against Belladonna’s grip, slowly turning its head to look at Beans as its crimson eyes gleamed with hunger, and a long tongue eagerly glided over its lips.

Belladonna panicked in her mind, as her body flooded with even more adrenaline. She might not care if she died, because she knew that in the end she would respond. But she did not know what would happen to Beans if he died.

Like hell was she going to let this thing hurt her fluffy baby to find out.

Roaring in a mixture of anger and pain, Belladonna pushed its head away from it. The Man-beast strained itself against her, but where she had been helpless before now it was in the same position. Her muscles burned with the hysterical strength, as she forced it back before letting go and slamming her fist into its face.

Its head whipped to the side, some of its many teeth flying from its mouth, before she pulled her legs back up against her chest and thrust them forwards.

Her feet slammed against the Man-Beasts chest, as the flame runes flared to life. Twin streams of flame burst from her feet, mixing together and turning into a singular collumn of flames that engulfed the Man-Beast and threw it back from the force of the blast.

It was thrown off of her, causing Belladonna to yell in pain as its claws were ripped from her shoulders.

Panting heavily, Belladonna flipped over onto all fours and glanced at Beans briefly. Pity filled her eyes as she saw the pain her precious familiar was going through, before that pity was replaced by blood boiling rage once again.

Roaring in anger, she leapt after the Man-Beast, her body moving faster than it could fly. Her hand clamped around its ankle as she dug her heels into the ground and turned.

It was dragged from its flight path, swung over Belladonna’s head and slammed into the ground. Then flipped and slammed again. And again. And Again. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

"YOU. DON’T. TOUCH. MY. CAT!" She shouted in blind rage, every word being emphasised by the sound of the Man-beasts body slamming against the ground. With the final slam, she left it laying on its back, and leapt on top of it.

One hand wrapped around its throat as the other slammed down into its face over and over. Blood covered her knuckles, and fragments of broken teeth stuck out of them, sending bursts of pain throughout her hand with every punch, but also causing her to rip apart its flesh with its own teeth with every punch.

But that was the problem with punching it in the face. The Teeth.

When she punched the next time, the Man-beast twisted its head and opened its mouth. It’s teeth sunk into her head, tearing through the flesh like butter and spilling blood into its eager mouth. Belladonna could feel its tongue eagerly running over her hand, as its eyes gleamed with satisfaction.

With another yell, she ripped her hand from its mouth, tearing off the chunk that it had bitten, leaving her with only her thumb and index finger remaining, as the rest of her hand had been reduced to a mangled mess of torn meat and jutting bones that spurted blood into the air.

Belladonna panted heavily, partly to control her rage and partly to force herself to concentrate through the pain that was pulsating into her mind even through the reduction, as she activated her [Shade Claw]

Her remaining finger manifested a claw of darkness, that she raised like the blade of an executioner, when five other claws swung towards her face from the other side.

These new claws tore through the arm holding the Man-Beasts throat, slicing deep into her torso, as she was lifted from the ground and thrown through the air.

She tumbled head over heels, sending blood spraying in all directions like a visceral ribbon dancer, before she twisted her body and landed on all fours, or more accurately all threes, as her clawed finger dug into the ground and dragged her to a halt.

Blood spurted from the stump where her arm used to be, and three deep gashes were carved straight through her torso, letting anyone see what was directly behind her through her body. It had barely missed her heart, but had shredded one of her lungs, causing Belladonna to wheeze heavily as she stared down the newcomer.

Another Man-beast stood over its friend, but this one was much more beast than man. The only possible way to describe it was a werewolf that hadn’t shed its human skin.

It stood nearly 7 foot tall, with digitigrade legs and long arms and massive claws that nearly scraped along the ground from its hunched stance. Its face was elongated into a proper snout, with more well formed teeth to go alongside the sabre tooth tiger-like fangs that it had.

But all of this was wrapped poorly in human skin, that was stretched over the wolven body so thin that it tore in places, and yet against all odds remained on the Werewolves body.

"Heh, I see... you brought... friends." Belladonna wheezed, as she glanced between this new beast, and the one that was pulling itself from the ground with her severed arm still clutching its throat.

A new notification pinged into her vision that she risked glancing at, before smirking as a flood of new energy flowed into her body, and the shadow beneath her feet grew darker and significantly larger.

"Well so... did... I."

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[Awakening Process Complete]

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