Chapter 61 – Unleash the Beast (Patreon)

Henderson stood and watched from the corner of the spectators' area of the central colosseum. Because of his punishment and the reasons behind it, the other Contestants had been tending to give him a wide berth, which actually suited him quite well because of what he was doing and had been doing for the last few days.

Henderson hadn’t been attending classes – mainly because other than combat, he felt they were all useless to him, especially the Class-specific training wherein there wasn’t even an Instructor for his Beastmaster Class. So instead, Henderson had chosen to practise on his own. And practise he did.

Henderson had been sitting and watching dozens of fights as they played out on the sands. He’d watched as monster after monster had fallen to their Contestant opponents, and he’d watched as his peers had been gaining experience when he gained nothing. But he’d also been watching from his spectral form after leaving his physical body sat there seemingly spectating. He had been analysing each and every creature he could for their defences and weaknesses.

Again, no two creatures were alike, so this wasn’t research for Henderson, but each time he saw a new monster through his spectral self, it got easier and easier to determine what he was looking for. After he’d seen more monsters than he’d ever seen in his life before, he also began to get a feel for their levels, even without actually looking at them, solely based on their mental projections.

Henderson had just watched a level seven Imp almost manage to best the group that he’d thought might’ve been on his side, but his mentor had told him otherwise. He’d been watching and hoping that the Imp would win, and it had been so close too, but again through some act of divine luck, the Spellcaster, Defender, and Rogue had managed to scrape through by the skin of their teeth.

And that made Henderson angry. It wasn’t jealousy that was making his blood boil; no, Henderson knew that he was better than them. It was more the fact that whatever situation these three found themselves in, they always just seemed to slip through the net and come out better off.

And that emotion carried to the following fight, where Henderson watched a group of three level eight Blue-Ranked Contestants take to the sands. Two Warriors and one Spellcaster were what Henderson could see, and just their grinning faces were enough to almost make him lose his cool.

Because he knew at least two of these Contestants personally. They’d been the two he’d paid to stick with him throughout his time at the Arena, and the pair who’d fled once it was clear Henderson was going to be punished by the God of Balance and the Grandmaster herself. Janus and Eric were a skilled pair of Warriors, Henderson knew that, but he was angry. So, so angry at the fact that they just kept on getting to live their best lives as if they hadn’t had any part in what happened to him.

They owed him.

And if they weren’t willing to pay that debt, he was going to collect it from them himself.

Janus and Eric both held twin hand axes that looked mostly ordinary, and Sophia, the Spellcaster, carried a long wooden staff. It looked like none of them had anything special to their names, and where the two Warriors wore no armour at all – just their leather trousers and thin cotton shirts, Sophia wore a tattered old robe that looked well beyond its useful lifespan. If this crew had any money between them, they weren’t showing it.

Henderson waited for the announcements and fanfare to conclude and stared eagerly at the iron gate that would open and reveal the Contestants’ opponent. But Henderson had already made his mind up. This was going to be the first time he would ever use his new Class and ability to take control of a beast and see what he could do. The Grandmaster was absent, and this fight was between relatively low-level fighters, so most likely nobody would notice and even then, they probably wouldn’t even care if they did see anything out of the ordinary.

Henderson saw the deep red eyes of the creature before he saw what it truly was.

Coeurl

Level: 12

HP: 600/600

The creature was akin to a cat, though in comparison it was monstrous. Standing on four paws, the coeurl was six feet tall, and from its head just behind its ears floated two long tendrils that culminated in bright green-blue tips. It wasn’t something that Henderson had ever seen before, and as the coeurl stepped into the arena proper, he could see that it had white and grey fur, spotted with patches of deeper grey and its eyes shone with a deep, evil red. But Henderson saw something more: he saw opportunity.

Henderson closed his eyes and called upon his spectral side. The side that the nest guardian had taught him to harness and the side that he’d practised in theory so many times already. But this was something different altogether; this was the real thing, and Henderson was going to go all the way with it.

As soon as Henderson opened his mind’s eye to the arena, he could see the world turned grey once more. Through the silence he could see the crowds cheering and the three Contestants standing in the middle of the sand. But opposite them stalking its way out of the gate, he saw the shimmering silver coeurl. The creature had lost its colour in this new plane but it was nothing that Henderson wasn’t already used to.

Floating his consciousness over to the creature as it lowered itself to the ground, like with the dragon he found that through its solid exterior, there was no way for him to penetrate the coeurl’s defences. But he knew there was a way in. No matter the level of the beast, there was always a way. And then as Henderson rounded the creature to its far side, he saw the opening he was looking for. A chink in the rock-solid armour, a gap that paved the way to the creature’s mind. It was only small, about the size of Henderson’s hand, but it was there, and he touched it.

Images rushed past Henderson as he took control of the coeurl, images of running through a dense forest, of drinking from a wide-open lake, and of being captured, ensnared in a net by a single human as the feline creature desperately swiped and bit at the shimmering blue net that had trapped it. And then the world returned. The arena, the crowds, and the warm sand under his paws, it was all there. All so real.

Henderson lowered his head and gazed across the sands at his three opponents and let out a guttural growl. Of course, nobody in the entire place knew that Henderson was controlling the coeurl, but that made no difference to the Beastmaster. He was in control for the very first time, and he was going to make the most of it.

Henderson couldn’t tell how much Health, Mana, or Stamina he had as the feline creature, but he could tell that all three were at their maximum and that meant he was about to run riot. His devious grin transferred as a snarl as the coeurl’s powerful paws dug into the ground and Henderson launched himself towards the Spellcaster, supposing that Sophia was likely the softest target.

But Sophia was no easy target because as soon as Henderson moved, the Spellcaster cast her first spell.

And to Henderson, all three of his opponents abruptly disappeared.

To the rest of the world, what had happened was that Sophia had cast her blindness spell, which was denoted by a dark cloud around the coeurl’s head. But to Henderson, his opponents were simply nowhere to be seen. He screeched to a halt and took a second to orient himself. Usually, a creature of Chaos would stop and wait for the blindness to pass, disoriented by the spell. But Henderson knew better. It took him a second, but he figured out what had happened.

And then he pounced towards where he thought he remembered the Spellcaster had stood.

Swiping out at thin air with both his front paws, the second made contact with something unseen and then Sophia reappeared and was launched across the arena with deep bloody rents across her torso. Then it was Henderson’s turn to feel pain. But this was different. This was pain experienced by the coeurl and transferred to him as his own physical body didn’t have the exact same anatomy as the beast Henderson was controlling. But what he felt was a terrible burning pain in his side, and when he turned his head back to try to see what had happened, he saw that one of the two Warriors had actually thrown their hand axe at him, and it was now stuck into his body.

Something important must’ve been hit by the axe too because Henderson had trouble breathing and he couldn’t help but fall to his side. The two Warriors moved in closer to Henderson, Janus still holding both of his axes and Eric just the one.

Knowing that his end was coming and way too soon, Henderson searched within himself for something to do to stop this. He knew he could leave the beast to its fate if he so chose, but something was telling him he should stay. And then a realisation came to him like a piece of knowledge that he’d known all along but had simply forgotten: the coeurl actually had an ability to heal itself by a small amount, and he didn’t hesitate in activating it.

Within a fraction of a second, the pain that had plagued Henderson disappeared, and now as the two Warriors bore down on him, he remained on the ground by choice now, simply biding his time. And now he knew something else too: the healing ability wasn’t all the coeurl could do.

Janus was the closest of the two Warriors and he was already raising his axe to strike, but a split second before the weapon reached Henderson to end his host’s life, he cast Shockwave. It was like time stood still. The feint blue wave that emanated from the coeurl spread in an instant in a circle around Henderson and whatever it touched, it froze. But this would only last for a second, so Henderson leapt forwards at Janus who’d been frozen mid-swing and closed his jaws around the Warrior’s face. Henderson felt the skin puncture between his sharp fangs. He heard the muffled scream as the world returned to his opponents, and he tasted the blood as the Warrior's face was torn away from him. And then Henderson swiped Janus away like a discarded apple core, and the Warrior slumped to the ground without another sound.

Eric’s axe landed true a second later, and Henderson howled in pain again but he immediately used his ability to heal himself. He felt his Mana pool reduce as he did so and he knew that he didn’t have much left, but he really didn’t care. He only wanted to do one thing right now, and that was to kill.

Henderson leapt from the ground and broke into a sprint away from Eric, who had now retrieved both his hand axes. He knew that Eric was the real threat now that he had caused some damage to the other two, damage that he very much felt like building upon.

Sprinting on all fours in a beeline for Sophia, who had made it back to her feet, Henderson bared his teeth and pushed as much power as he could into his paws as he sprinted at the Spellcaster.

Sophia, to her credit, did not simply give up; once again she cast her spell to blind the huge feline creature, disappearing from the battlefield. But Henderson was already on track, and he knew her game.

And then a fireball came out of nowhere and struck Henderson in the face, exploding in heat and pain, filling his nostrils with the smell of singed flesh and fur.

But he kept going. He didn’t have time to try to heal himself so he aimed for the place where the fireball had appeared from and pounced.

Sophia’s luck had run out.

As soon as Henderson felt the soft human flesh, he closed his paws around it and bit down as hard as he could.

Sophia’s neck was the unfortunate recipient of the attack and once Henderson had finished, she fell away from him with half her neck missing and no health points to keep her alive.

Henderson had killed his first human, and it made him feel amazing. The blood that coated his face and paws felt like it was a badge of honour, and he turned to find his next opponent.

Janus hadn’t recovered as Sophia had. He wasn’t dead, not yet, but he was still lying on the ground. And seeing the coeurl snarling at him, Eric began shouting for his friend to move, to get up, to do anything.

But it was no use; Janus was unconscious. And Henderson was fine with that.

Janus was on the ground between Eric and Henderson but Henderson knew he was faster than the Warrior so he wasted not a second longer and began his charge.

Eric began to run too the second Henderson made his move, but it was clear to him that the coeurl would win this race.

But he had to do something, anything. Because if he didn’t then he was going to lose both of his friends before this fight had ended.

Henderson couldn’t help but smile as he bounded towards Janus who was likely on the brink of death as it was. He lowered his head and increased his speed, getting closer and closer with every step.

Just a few more feet to go.

And then an all encompassing blinding pain hit him and he looked up to see that Eric had grown an axe that had embedded itself right in his forehead.

Henderson felt himself falling as his legs quickly became numb, but he pushed on willing his broken body to hand on for just one moment.

And then Eric released his second axe and Henderson saw the Warrior’s muscles tense and ripple as he injected all of his might into the throw. He could see the axe spinning towards him but there was nothing he could do.

Lowering his head in defiance, Henderson saw Janus’s’ body appear beneath him and he raised his devastating paws ready to strike.

And then the second axe hit which caused darkness to engulf Henderson entirely.

The coeurl had finally been killed.

Henderson felt his spectral self ejected from the empty shell that he’d been controlling.

It felt to Henderson like he’d been slingshotted from the feline creature back to his body and he had to shake his head to bring the reality of the world back into focus. All the pain and the damage he’d sustained as the coeurl had disappeared and he smiled as he turned his attention back to the arena.

Eric was on his knees and sobbing. Sobbing because his friend Janus was dead beneath the huge coeurl, which when it had died, had finally fallen upon the Warrior as it had died. Blood coated the golden sands and on the far side of the arena lay Sophia too, who Henderson was sure he’d killed outright anyway.

And he’d gotten away with it. Not only had he managed to enact his revenge, but nobody knew that he had anything to do with it. He felt great, and more that that he felt powerful.

You have gained 62 experience points.

XP to next level: 38

Henderson smiled to himself as he looked out across the arena sands at the destruction and death he’d caused. The chaos that he’d seen had been rewarded in so many ways, and it was clear that by doing this over and over again if he could, then he was going to level up quickly.

He’d gained more than half a level in experience points in just one fight and hadn’t been under any kind of threat the entire time.