Just like every time that I awoke from an evolution, I was disoriented. With a gasp, I sat up, and a part of me realized that I actually sat up. I was much more upright in form than I had been previously. Before, I'd been shaped like a normal keelish, with my upper body being held almost parallel to the ground, the forward weight offset by my thick tail pointing in the opposite direction. Now, however, I actually sat up. My abdominal muscles seemed to have rearranged themselves a bit, and I noticed that my upper body was now more humanoid in shape, with pronounced shoulders and pectorals. My arms had lengthened while my five fingers had become four, with all four being thicker than before, and almost looking like I had scaled gloved that went up to my elbows.

I stood up and looked around, seeing nobody as I continued to take in my new body. I stood taller than before, at about 1.7m, getting towards Rulac height. Weightwise, however, I was still outclassed. My snout had been slightly blunted, no longer so long and sharp at the end, but I could feel that my fangs were still just as sharp, curved, and mean as they had always been. In appearance, I figured I looked like a mix between a keelish and a Keel, which I welcomed as a change.

I was about to check my [Status] when I realized that I was hearing screams of pain in keelish, and human grunts of frustration and calls to battle and organization. I quickly decided that running to see what I had missed in these 18 hours of rest took precedence. Never before had I been so grateful to have my swarm's den so close to the entrance of the main den as I rushed out the entrance and beheld... a massacre.

Keelish bodies littered the ground, following an obvious trail back to the forest's cover. There were a couple that I vaguely recognized, but my attention was grabbed by the human host in front of me. Nearly 100 humans stood unified against the waves of keelish attackers. I was proud to see that whenever a Speaker began to try to initiate a strong Calling, the keelish would press in to pressure the Speaker, before pulling back and denying the humans the destructive Calling they obviously craved. In the center of the human group was a pretty sizeable number of wounded, in varying states of injury.

As I poked my head out of the den, I initially heard Sybil's voice, screeching "RALLY! KILL!! VICTORY!!!", then saw her fling herself headlong into heard the humans begin to yell amongst themselves, "The Alpha! The Alpha's here! Kill him and we'll be halfway done!"

For the briefest moment, I looked for Redael, then realized that I cut quite a gallant figure emerging from the hill entering the den. I was initially flattered, then I realized that the whole of the human war band was now focused on eradicating me specifically.

A grin spread across my face, and I moved my magic to my throat, it moving smoothly and quickly there. My voice boomed over the battlefield, and I screamed, with defiance and rage, "VICTORY BY FANG AND BLOOD!!! I AM WITH YOU, MY SWARM!!!" The sound leaving my throat was more of a roar than any sort of spoken speech, but I depleted nearly all of my magic in the one call, and I felt a surging power course through me, then into the surrounding area.

I sprinted down the slope, and could feel the rumbling of the keelish running alongside me towards our foes.

I approached the humans' defensive line and activated my new and improved [Combatant's Bloodlust], bolstering my reflexes... and battle lust. With a roar, I dodged a thrusting spear, used my right hand, claws bared, to sever the two hands holding the spear, and with my left, took the spear for my own, thrust it into the chest of the amazed human and ripped their throat out with my jaws before screaming again,

"VICTORY BY FANG AND BLOOD!! KILL THEM ALL!!"