The human habitation was surrounded by very uniform grasses that grew in patches of soft earth. Around the strange grasses were lines and furrows, likely put there by the humans. What its purposes were, I did not know; if I had to guess, however, I'd say the humans were trying to control the growth of their own food. The grasses likely bore some kind of fruit, and the humans would then harvest that fruit for their own purposes. By controling the source of the fruits, they'd have an endless amount of food, without having to venture out into the forest to hunt and gather.

It was all so... fascinating. I'd never even thought such things were possible, though - looking back - I did note how plants would occassionally crop out of prey droppings, especially those, which subsisted mainly on fruits. 'Could I learn to harness this as well? Could my fellow bears?'

Little one, we're getting close - there's something... foul in the air, but it's rather familiar as well. You need to be careful.

Okay

Humans roamed the field of strange grasses, children and adults alike. In their hands, they bore curved instruments, much like the talons of eagles, or long sticks with large, scything blades at the tip. They worked on the uniform grasses, their faces caked with mud and dirt. The whole affair looked tiring, but - considering the alternative was hunting and chasing a creature that could potentially fight back, as opposed to just doing... whatever it was they were doing to grow their own food - it looked to be worth it. After all, if I could grow my own food, I'd never bother hunting down prey creatures - though, when the sweetness was taken into consideration, I probably would still try to hunt down the ones with power in their blood.

The humans, I though, seemed content with whatever it was they were doing as I passed them. There were human children in the distance. 'Huh... I've never seen a human child before; they look so frail - so weak.'

That was the most fascinating thing about humans. They lacked claws with which to fight, furs with which to repel the cold, powerful noses with which to sniff out prey or food; their teeth were blunted and small, incapable of digging through flesh or crushing bone, and their muscles were paltry. What they did have, however, that made them more dangerous than any other predator, was their ability to think, to plan, to strategize, to build tools that supplanted their obvious physical weaknesses, and now, they were growing their own food.

For a moment, I wondered if my fellow bears and I could achieve the same; never again would we need to live in the shadows of the woods, hunting and gathering, but we'd live together in true communities, powerful and united - growing our own food out of the ground and never having to starve ever again. Of course, the biggest hurdle was the simple fact that the rest of my kin were not nearly as intelligent as I; it seemed that, whatever happened to me, was a one off sort of thing and the other bears would not be receiving the same gift anytime soon.

Thunder boomed in the distance, from where the human habitation was, much like the thunderous booms that'd echoed at the forest. Were the humans killing each other? Screams echoed soon after, and the humans, who worked in the field of uniform grasses, dropped their instruments, froze, and ran towards their habitation. Intrigued, I found a large boulder, standing far out of the human-made dens, but close enough for me to see whatever was happening with the humans should I be standing atop it.

The source of the foul stench is moving; it's probably what's causing the humans to fear. Nyx whispered through our link. I turned to glance at the human habitation, but I could scarcely see through the tall structure the surrounded their dens without standing. Whatever was happening, blood had been drawn; the familiar scent of it was slowly filling the air.

The commotion among the humans arose and numerous thunderous booms echoed, alongside the screams.

I activated Blink and crossed a good twenty meters instantly. The boulder wasn't too far now and none of the humans noticed me. Nyx stood firmly upon my back, though much of her attention was turned towards the human habitation. 'Close enough....'

The boulder sat right in front of me. There, I activated Shadow Step and found myself right atop it, overlooking the human settlement. I paused and tilted my head to the side.

It was chaos.

There was something attacking the humans... but it looked just like another human, just heavily deformed. The other humans were trying to fight back with boom sticks, but the misshapen human moved too fast for them to follow - each shot of the thunder stick seemed to bring down other normal humans, instead. The malformed one was stronger and faster; it leapt from place to place, biting, tearing, slashing, and crushing. It was hopeless; the creature - for I could no longer call it human - was far too strong, compared to everything around it. Even the boom sticks, which Nyx had labeled to be "dangerous" hardly did anything to deter its movements, even when they did hit. Whatever wounds it sustained simply regenerated - near instantly at that.

The rest of them were....

'They're... all going to die if they don't run away from that.' It was the sensible thing to do, after all - run away. And yet, it seemed, only the little ones bothered doing that; the adults seemed to be trying to delay the creature's rampage by using their own bodies. True enough, I spotted ten small humans of varying sizes, running across the field of uniform grasses towards the nearby treeline. They were worryingly slow. When I glanced back at the village, the malformed creature had just finished killing the last of the adults.

Before I could react, or otherwise do anything, Nyx leapt right off my back and soared through the air, before landing on the other side of the structure that surrounded the human habitation.

I wanted to follow her inside, but the sight of the tiny fleeing humans wrenched away my attention. They were slow, mostly due to how small their legs were. Something blurred across the air towards them, and my eyes widened as I realized it was the very same malformed creature that'd torn apart the human habitation. It ran after them on all fours, faster than a hungry wolf, chasing after wounded and bloodied prey.

Why was it after them? It didn't even eat its kills. The amount of bodies it left behind would've sated its hunger five tmes over and yet it wanted to kill more.

It was... wasteful. What was the point of killing if not to eat or defend one's self? The children weren't threatening it in the slightest and so it couldn't have been any form of defense or retaliation.

I....

I hated it.

I hated how wasteful it was and how... cruel it seemed to be.

There was no need to kill the children. There was nothing to be gained from the act.

And so, just as the creature leapt into the air once more, its arms outstretched to grab the nearest human child, I stretched my mind outwards and yanked it away towards myself, using Telekinesis. It gave out a sharp yelp as I easily pulled it backwards.

The human children hardly noticed.

I Blinked towards the creature as I drove it into the ground a few steps from me. It roared into the wind, a sharp, shrill cry that echoed into the distant mountains. It pushed itself up on its feet.

Up close, I noted how it had definitely lost anything and everything vaguely human about it. Its head was a bulbous deformity, covered in bony protrusions that looked akin to teeth and dark red blotches over pale skin. Crimson tendrils and writhing bits of flesh spewed outwards from its mouth. Its eyes were gone, shrunken into twin pits of pure black. The rest of its body was vaguely humanoid at best. Its arms were more akin to tentacles, made of stretched flesh and tendons, marred with bone spikes and maws, filled with jagged teeth; both of its appendages ended in talons. It was much taller than an ordinary human, but still far smaller than I was.

It roared, mouth tendrils flailing outwards, before charging with surprising speed.

I Shadow Stepped to the right. The creature, carried onwards by its momentum, crashed into the tall, uniformed grasses, where it stumbled and fell on the ground in its attempt to turn around. I rushed towards it, running faster than any bear, and slammed into its torso, before it could reorient itself. Its body was hard, but surprisingly light as it practically flew backwards upon impact. I did not stop, however, as I Shadow Stepped once more.

As the creature arose, roaring and flailing, I appeared right in front of it. My right paw surged forward, claws outstretched, and tore into its left shoulder with ease.

My eyes widened as pain flooded the left side of my body. I didn't look. There was no time to do so. Instead, I Shadow Stepped backwards. The creature's left arm hadn't been torn completely off. What remained was a gruesome appendage that barely hung on by a tiny shred of skin and bits of limp muscle. Bits of blood marred the talons at the edges of its left "arm". It was likely that that wounded me; it wasn't particularly deep or grievous, but it was painful.

Pain, it seemed, didn't matter to the abomination.

It rushed towards me, its right arm - if it could even be called that - held back for an overhead attack of some kind, while its left arm simply fell off. Something flashed through the air, like thunder, but much closer. Its right arm lay outstretched in a swinging motion. 'Too fast!'

Something hard slammed into the left side of my body. Skin and fur were shredded. Muscles were ripped and bones were cracked. The world spun over as I was tossed into the air.

I crashed down on the grasses, the whole left side of my torso burning with an unfamiliar pain. I roared, anger filling my senses. How dare that ugly, misshapen, sorry excuse for a human, hurt me!

I forced myself up. 'I can't match it in a contest of might; it's faster and stronger than I am!'

Just one of its attacks had sent me flying; the only other creature I could think of that had similar or greater power was the Necrosaurus - and that was mostly due to its size. This... thing, while small, was incredibly strong.

And I hated it.

Stop trying to kill it with your body; you won't win. Nyx whispered, though I had no idea where she was.

'Ah - right.' Just as the creature lurched forward, I grabbed hold of its entirety with my telekinesis. It stopped, struggling through my power, but I was much stronger. Held in place, I rushed towards it, maintaining my grip over its whole body, keeping it from moving and retaliating. With Shadow Step, I found myself immediately in front of the creature. Though the pain on the left side of my body was overwhelming, I mustered all the strength I still on my left arm for a single, powerful swipe.

My claws fell over its right shoulder, ripping apart the appendage at the joint. It fell on the ground as I eased my Telekinetic grip over it. Next, with my right paw, I stood up on my hind legs and swiped at the creature's head, sending it flying off. But that wasn't enough. I brought the rest of its body crashing down on the ground and held it there, twitching. I stood once more and crashed both of my paws onto the middle of its torso. With a crack, the creature's body broke in half, foul blood pooling around it, hissing.

Growling, I hurled both halves of its body towards separate directions, before finally letting go. "Annoying creature...."

I turned, limping, to look at the human habitation, from where the scent of blood flowed outwards and filled the air. Most of the structures still stood, but the inhabitants were surely all dead. I glanced behind me; the human children had disappeared into the tree line, though I caught their scent rather easily, despite the presence of blood. They were far, but I highly doubted their ability to survive in the woods. Though... that was none of my concern.

A single question rang through my thoughts.

'What was that?'