Several more explosions bathed Mushroom Buddy, drowning the voices of the old man and Slinky planning some shit. The Titan Adumbrae had progressed a few blocks into Compton Street, shaving the faces of buildings in its wake. The blasts also helped bring structures down. Earlier missiles didn’t do much to Mushroom Buddy, but these were apparently different.

The force from the detonations reached me. I tensed my feet, digging my claws into the concrete to anchor myself. But I was still pushed back a step, my fur covered with a blanket of dust. My two opponents crouched down and held tight onto the roof so they wouldn’t tumble forward. My hearing was filled with thousands of glass windows shattering all at once.

And then it came.

Whatever it was.

An inexplicably massive pull, reversing the initial shockwaves and sucking the air back to Mushroom Buddy's direction severalfold in strength. I had to bend down and grab the roof to steady myself.

What the fuck was that? I couldn’t understand what was going on, but the bombs…they were doing…something. Car-sized chunks of Mushroom Buddy’s fleshy umbrella head were seemingly compressed, the vacuum force even pulling parts of the surrounding buildings into the point of explosion.

“The BID twats from Palomar Node are here!” Slinky yelled, his voice distorted by the warped air.

“I’ll get Auron,” the old man said. He took another canister from his belt and rolled it to me before leaping off the building.

As he soared over the narrow side street, I shot forward, using my claws hooked to the ground for speed like a sprinter kicking off the blocks at the start of a race. The corner of my eye caught the canister on the ground burst open. A silvery blob expanded and enveloped me like a net. I ignored it attempting to wrap my body as I followed the old man.

He landed on the peaked roof of the smaller building on the other side and kept running. I jumped after him. My leg suddenly felt heavy. Something clamped tightly around my right ankle, weighing me down. I lost height. My trajectory had descended to the windows and walls instead of the roof. Before I crashed, I checked my leg and saw that reptile mummy asshole hanging onto me.

Both of us smashed against a window, which was too small, so we ended up breaking through the whole wall as well.

“Ghrrwaaa!” I roared, shoving away the wreckage of sofas, tables, and chairs.

The stupid slime shit made my limbs stick to my torso. Layers and layers of silvery membrane kept on stretching to cover my body, wrapping me like luggage at the airport. I furiously scratched it off, snarling in frustration. Even though I was hunched over because of massive back muscles curving my upper body forward, my head was still too high for this room, hitting a ceiling fan as I thrashed about and splintering the wooden planks it was attached.

Slinky was on the floor, still holding my leg. He pulled it as he got up to put me off balance. “I’m not letting ya go—Argh!”

I pulled my leg back down, dragging him to me. My fist met his face. Go back to a fucking pyramid! “Rhhrwaa Hroaarr!”

His head followed by his upper body went through the floorboards. The moment I felt his grip weaken for a split second, I kicked him upwards with my other leg, catching his midsection. He smashed through the ceiling to the floor above.

I went back out of the hole on the side of the building and climbed upwards. The annoying slime plastic cover thing persisted in its quest to incapacitate me, but my continuous growth in power and size rendered it negligible. Flexing my muscles as I climbed tore the sticky membrane it weaved over my fur. The creature, whatever it was, sputtered profuse amounts of slime on my fur and just unceremoniously peeled away from my body.

Annoying little shit. Couldn’t even be useful and hurt me to be my food.

I had gone a few floors up—just one more to the roof—when a massive fist broke through the brick wall in front of me, almost knocking me off the building.

“If ya think ya got rid of me,” Slinky yelled through the collapsing rubble, "think again!" He was winding up for another punch.

I gritted my fangs. I wanted to eat this toilet paper-wrapped lizard, but I should get to Auron first before he could escape. With one hand still hanging on, the bricks I latched on slowly becoming loose, I pulled my humongous body up to the sloping roof, evading Slinky’s blow that removed another portion of the wall of the floor below.

The reptile mummy asshole didn’t give up just yet.

The shingles ahead burst upwards and drizzled me with roofing shards. Slinky popped up like a jack-in-the-box no one wanted to see. Most of his bandages had been torn away, showing more of his reptilian body. Patches of his scales looked diseased, blackening and peeling, allowing disgusting black tendrils to poke through and wiggle in the air like he was a rotten apple housing hungry worms.

Behind Slinky, I spotted that the old man had reached the roof of the building the next street over—Auron’s building.

KABO-BOOM!! KABOOM!!

The weird sucking bombs!

Slinky lowered himself, obviously wary of the incoming shockwave.

I dropped on all fours so I wouldn’t get swept backward. Hey, wait a sec. A brilliant idea popped into my head. I took this opportunity to rush Slinky. “GROAARRGH!”

The force from the blast came. Another blanket of dust, broken glass, and this time, tiny asphalt pieces from the dislodged shingles.

I dug my claws past the roof shingles, into whatever material was underneath. I didn’t know what I held onto, but it was weak and I was starting to get lifted off the roof! I scrambled to regain some hold, looking like a cartoon character running in place on slippery ground. I somehow dug through the roof and reached its thick wood beams.

Okay, that was a fail. Who thought it was a good idea to put this kind of roof on an apartment building in the middle of the city? This should be on a house in the suburbs. Why couldn’t this building just blend in with the crowd and have a simple flat roof?

Slinky’s shoulders heaved as he chuckled after he saw what happened to me. He had also grabbed the roof beams for support, tentacles sprouting from his arms to help him hold on. “Too big for ya own good, ya crazy she-wolf?”

The start of my charge may have failed, but I wasn’t done just yet. I leaped just as the returning shockwave got sucked back to its source. The force propelled me forward, right into a surprised Slinky—I just assumed he was surprised because bandages still covered most of his face.

“The hell—?” He raised his ballooning arm to block me. I stabbed down at his elbow, cutting off his forearm, and piercing his chest. “Ya bitch!”

I snagged his severed limb twirling in mid-air between my jaws and chewed it with gusto. My clawed hand continued burrowing into his body. It exited his back. I pressed forward with my charge, bringing him along, a knight who had won the jousting match but didn’t want to stop.

“Let go—urgk…arghk!” Slinky violently coughed. The bandages hiding his face were drenched with dark reddish blood that had the foul odor of those cursed parasites. He punched me with his remaining arm. He did become stronger by merging with the old man’s parasite gift. Still a mere inconvenience. “Damnit! Let go of me, ya hear?”

I jumped over to Auron’s building. And as I did, I flung Slinky down, sliding my arm out of him. He screamed as he fell. I hit the building’s side. My claws punctured the textured concrete finish.

I pooled all my concentration into eating Slinky’s arm while scaling the walls. I focused on breaking the overlapping armor-like scales, chewing the tough sinews, crunching the bones, drinking the black liquid from the parasite that mixed with his blood—everything was delicious to me. Just eat, just eat, just eat. Don’t go crazy, I coaxed myself like calming a baby on the verge of a temper tantrum.

Surprisingly, I was still in control.

Barely.

I thought I’d lose my sanity and be fixated on consuming Slinky that I’d forget about Auron. It felt so refreshing to have this much control given how far I was into my werewolf transformation. Judging from the height of the window wall opening, I was nearly ten feet of muscle, fur, fangs, claws, and destruction.

The rage was there. I could feel it bubbling just beneath the surface, about to overflow at any moment if I made a mistake. But, so far, the lid had stayed on the boiling pot.

Something cracked in the air. I shifted a window’s width to the side.

A thick tentacle slammed my earlier spot. “I missed you,” Slinky called from about four levels below. His stump of an arm had grown into this tentacle—the work of the parasite inside him. "You get it, huh? Missed me too?"

I looked up. Was that the engine of the helicopter?

That old man!

I climbed faster while slashing up the tentacles that tried to grab me.

Upon reaching the roof, I was greeted by the scene of the old man pulling an unconscious Auron with mangled legs into the helicopter. Its blades were rapidly rotating, sending ripples of air. Its windshield was shattered and it had holes and dents all over its body. The explosions damaged it, but it was still working. I should’ve just destroyed this thing earlier.

No matter. I’d just knock it out of the sky.

Something extended upward from behind, its expansive shadows streaking across the roof. A bunch of tentacles seized me. They almost covered my entire body with their coils. I tried to spread my arms, stretching the tentacles. Blood spurted from the disgusting appendages as they tried to keep themselves together. I bit the topmost coil. Chomp after chomp, I ate them.

“That fucking hurts!” Slinky screamed from behind.

I turned around. The asshole had also reached the roof. He pulled me to the edge using the remaining intact tentacles holding me.

I didn’t budge.

He lunged with a furious roar. A long scaly snout tore through the bandages covering his lower face. With a wide open mouth, he displayed rows of sharp teeth.

“Grrooarrh!” I roared as his teeth sunk into the side of my neck. Enough of this shit!

After I freed an arm from the tentacles, I grabbed the back of his head and squeezed it. He stubbornly wouldn’t loosen his bite even if his skull cracked. I forcefully yanked his head back. He took strips of flesh from my neck with him.

That hurts you fucking bastard! I opened my jaws as wide as I could and clamped on his snout. I gnawed on his snout like a pretzel, continuing to eat his whole face. And then, I was no longer sure of what was going on.

I only knew I must eat.

Eat!

Eat!!!

Fuck…I’m losing it…so dumb, Erind…

The tiny squeak from the corner of my mind didn’t matter. Food was in front of me! EAT!!!

I gorged on the head, taking bite after bite without pause, as fast as my wide maw could open and close. Pieces of the skull broke like chips between my fangs. The brain was so soft and mushy that I was almost drinking it. In my ravenous hunger, I decimated the head in a couple of seconds and moved down to the neck. Mouthful after mouthful of meat.

Tentacles growing out of the exposed spine tried to stop me. I ate them all. My head bent lower and lower as I ripped chunks of meat off the muscular shoulders. Eating was the only thing in my head. I was going to consume the entire body of any prey stupid enough to fight me.

Hey! Knock it off!

Those who hurt me were all food!

BOOM!!! BO-BOOM! BOOM!

Eh? I swayed to the left along with the body I was eating. Then back to the opposite side, but much more forcefully. I stepped in the direction of my fall. What…what?

As the reverberating noise of the blasts cleared, the sound of a blender touched my ear.

Blender? I continued eating, but I was bothered. I had a kitchen blender. I lost it, didn't I? My poor blender. Someone was using a blender around here. A very, very loud whirring blend—Wake up!

I turned in the direction of the noise. Helicopter?

Helicopter!

Auron!

My other food. And it was escaping!

The helicopter hadn’t gone up that high or that far yet. They were having problems—the shockwaves from the BID explosions must’ve messed up with its flight. It was violently tilting back and forth in the air, almost about to just roll out of control.

I looked down at the body I was eating. It reminded me of a banana, the thick scaly hide was the peeled skin, and the middle part an unexplainable mess of flesh, bones, and helpless tentacles. I rummaged around and yanked out a long and sharp bone, maybe one of the ribs. Dunno, I wasn't an orthopedist.

And away we go! I launched the monster rib at the helicopter. It was wobbling too much. Please hit!

The rib pierced through my target. A small black puff followed by a tiny explosion on its side.

Yes!

I dropped Slinky’s half-eaten body and ran after the smoking helicopter. It was slowly spiraling down.

I raced over rooftops, leaping from building to building using my four limbs. My success at regaining my consciousness had me celebrating in my head. However, my elated mood was disturbed by a new sound. A slight hum in the distance that was gradually catching up to me.

Trusting my instincts, I zigzagged as I ran.

Blinding beams lanced various spots on the rooftop, burning holes on the concrete. A water tank I passed was destroyed, its contents turning into steam. A line of ventilation units was obliterated.

A man in sleek black armor set with engines flew to chase after me. Emblazoned on his chest was ‘B.I.D.’. Two more agents in flying ComExos were coming. They must’ve separated from the main force fighting Mushroom Buddy and spotted an Adumbrae that appeared to be chasing an innocent police helicopter.

The three gate-crashers raised their arm cannons.

Adios. I dove off the building.