I swung my right arm with all my strength, shooting the spike towards the Gryphon. As it was trying to look where the first spike had come from, he didn't realize the second one being shot, and so I took him by surprise, impaling him again.

*Kreeeeeeeeee!*

[Next one!] - I barely waited half a second between the second shot and me starting to run towards the third spike, I had to make sure he couldn't move!

By the time I shot the last one, he couldn't move at all. Quite a few spikes hadn’t been able to pierce his skin, but at the end it didn’t matter. He had been able to cut the vines attached to two of the spikes that did pierce him, but as the vines were soaked on glue, the moment he moved to cut those, the other vines entangled all around him, making him not only unable to cut them, but also to move. – [Hahahaha! It's working!] – I was so excited I could barely stop shaking! What would I get from adapting to the Gryphon?!

I took the one of the two spikes I had carried here without installing them on harpoons, and charged a fine line on its inside, along with the tip and a pretty big part on its back. This way it would first stab, and then slide until the backside, at which time it would completely explode, hopefully killing it.

I charged my arm more than I would like to gain strength even if it strained my muscles, and then shot the spike with all my strength. I saw it flew towards the Gryphon, but then it turned its beak around and hit the spike so fast and with such strength that the spike just changed directions 90 degrees, going straight towards the floor and piercing deep on it, before exploding and making dust jump all around.

It didn’t take me long to realize it hadn’t just hit the spike in a random direction; it had launched through 5 vines, and so cut them in half. It shocked me, but I could not let him escape, or I would be in danger, so I took another spike and charged it again, but instead of launching it I ran towards the Gryphon.

When I was about to reach him, suddenly he looked at my eyes, and I felt fear. Not his, no, he wasn’t afraid at all, I felt my own fear, sipping all over my body and even in my soul, permeating deeper and deeper every second I kept looking at those eyes. I felt as if I was about to lose my mother again, and feared that it would happen again and again…

I dropped on my knees and while keeping my eyes on him, I started crying, I felt the same pain that I felt when I lost my mom, and it was agonizing. Why didn’t I save her? I could have done it, if I just hadn’t went out that night, if only had I stayed home, I would’ve saved her…

[I should die… I don’t know why am I still alive… I shouldn’t be living like this when my mom is dead because of me…] – I couldn’t help but think that as I grabbed a dagger in my belt. Soon I took the dagger and pierced my heart, sighing of relief, knowing I would die…

[Wait, I can’t die, and I know I can’t!] – I suddenly realized what was happening and turned my look away from the gryphon. – [That f*cker can enter my mind!] – I was angered beyond belief about that; I knew I didn’t play fair with the vines and the glue, but it still was a battle of wits, he could have not come down, but manipulating my mind was too low. – [Who does he think he is?!]

I was angry, angrier than I believed I could be, and so I decided that the Gryphon wouldn’t leave alive this pond. I took the spike and fully charged, a thing that I hadn’t done in a lot of time, I also charged my arm beyond its capabilities, which would make it break after exerting strength, but would give the javelin a speed beyond every other.

Once everything was ready I looked up towards the Gryphon, and he was looking at me with disdain, which only angered more. – [He thinks he can manipulate my mind and then look down at me?!] – I grabbed the spike and shot it at him with all my strength, crushing the bone on my arm on the motion. I looked the javelin travel towards its head and saw him trying to stop the spike as he did before, only to provoke the explosion of it, killing him on the spot.

“Ha! That’s what happens to you for taking me as a fool!” – I couldn’t believe he made me remember my mother death again…

[Well now… How the hell am I supposed to carry that back to the cave?] – After I killed the beast I realized I hadn’t planned for after killing it, taking me to the situation I was now, with 2 bodies and no way to carry them…

***

After half an hour, I had built an improvised stretcher which helped me carry both their bodies, I had lost my hands twice, but I had finally got to build the stretcher with some trunks and the glued vines. It took me two more hours to carry the bodies back to the cave, although it had only taken me three quarters of an hour to get to the pond… Damn heavy Gryphon and damn the trees which made me maneuver.

When I got to the cave I sighed of relief, I was glad nothing had attacked me while carrying both the bodies; I didn’t want to fight right now and risk losing my preys. As soon as I dropped the bodies I got to work.

From the birdie I ate almost everything except its feathers, its claws and its beak. From the ape, though, I ate it all. – [There’s no need to waste the food, is it?] – And so after a fulfilling meal, I got to sleep.

***

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH! F***********CK! WHAT THE HELL IS THIS F*CKING PAIN?!” – I woke up from the pain I was feeling all around my body, and I almost threw out from the strain it was causing me.

I looked down to see my muscles wriggling like worms under my skin; they were twirling and stretching, then compressing again, and repeating the process again and again. I fell down incapable of enduring the pain, clawing with my blooding fingers onto the floor, trying to distract myself from the pain, all unsuccessfully. I was thrashing on the floor for hours, feeling my bones grow, and my muscles compress, my skin gaining density, and hearing my back crack, as if all the bones on my back were against me and were trying to kill me with pain.

By the time the pain went away, I was drenched in sweat and incapable of moving, although that didn’t last long, because even though I could steel feel a phantom pain from all the muscles and bones, I had already regenerated and was not physically tired anymore.

[Damn regeneration, I can’t even take a nap…] – I stood up and looked around, and as soon as I did I realized something. Everything around seemed smaller. – [Ooh, so I’ve grown… that explains the pain on my bones. And so I opened my system to see what had changed.

Status X-System Status Name: Lyon Ironblood Soul Points: 17.440 Mutations: 3 Powers: 2 Mutations Acquired: Wolverine Locked Deadpool Locked Gambit Unlocked Angel 2 %

Powers: Power origin: Fenrir, the Immortal Wolf G mid tier Wolverine + Deadpool Kinetic conversion and acceleration S low tier Gambit Angel wings ( In Process to Unlock ) Progress: 2 %

The user has started a mutation towards a winged being. Developing further can result in unlocking Angel's powers.

Upon unlock: The user grows feathered wings which help him to fly and are of help in balance.

…

“Wait what?!” – I couldn’t help but exclaim when I saw what I saw. – [I can get mutations even without points?] – It was an enormous discovery! Of course it wasn’t finished, and I would have to devour quite a few winged beings, but if I could completely unlock Angel’s wings without wasting points, why wouldn’t I do it?

It had been around 7 months since the Rock Bear had been here, so it wouldn’t be too long before it came back. – [I need to get ready before that beast comes back.] – I went towards the entrance, collected the poison, and then came back inside, towards the clothes I had almost finished. – [They’re going to be so cool once finished that I almost can’t wait.] – I couldn’t help but grin at the idea of me wearing full scale armor, and thrashing around the forest, but then I remembered the beasts the forest hid, and I decided that thrashing was simply stupid.

After working some time on the clothes, I stood up and started training again in my fighting stances. Equilibrium had some stance which resisted me, in which I had to spin along the dash of the enemy, clawing at him with the arm opposite to my position, so as to say, that if I dashed sidestepping towards the left, and so let him dash by my right, I had to spin clock-wise and claw him with my left hand, then keep spinning, so that my claws would rip where I was thanks to the strength of the dash.

The problem laid in my quite inability to make use of my left hand correctly. I had been practicing since I was little, but I almost always hit with my right hand, so here I was now, having problems with my left hand coordination, which had already caused me two incidents; and these two incidents were against beasts, so imagine if I were to fight a sapient specie. I would find myself too predictable. I couldn’t allow that!

I had been practicing with both my hands to do exactly the same, trying not to feel uncomfortable, which was quite hard. Anyway, I kept training for I needed a left hand as good as my right one.

***

My left arm clawed clock-wise in a spinning motion, ready to pierce an Elk’s skull. The Elk, having been dodged, tried to brake, but that only condemned him. I felt my claws pierce from its neck to its skull, and drag him on my spinning motion, ripping apart part of its head, killing him in the place.

*Sigh*

It had been twenty days since I assimilated the Gryphon, and between adjusting myself to the new body, and practicing to make my left hand as useful as my right one, I had been quite busy, but now I could fight equally well with both of my hands. It was all thanks to the ape, though.

Werewolf Fury G mid tier Progress: 38.6 %

Preys devoured (Naming acording to knowledge):

- Iron Elk ( x11 ) : Improves agility and bone durability.

- Scorpion Panther ( x8 ) : Improves poison resistance, stealth and agility.

- Spiked Lion ( x3 ) : Improves strength and bone durability.

- Draconic Wolf ( x6 ) : Improves speed and agility, and also skin durability.

- Fiery Ape (x5) : Improves balance and coordination, small improvement in strength.

- Gryphon (x1) : Improves eyesight, hearing, balance, speed and strength. (+2% at Angel's powers)

It was quite useful, so I had caught a few more, but they were hard to catch, because if they felt you were dangerous they ran, and since I acquired part of Angel’s mutation through absorbing the Gryphon, the Apes took me as a familiar of the Gryphon, and as such avoided me to the best of their capabilities, which were pretty enormous in the art of avoiding. That or I was more terrible at hiding than I thought.

***

It was a dark and cold night, and the normally quiet forest was rumbling, tremors and sounds of trees falling. Inside the forest a shadow could be seen running as fast as it could, dodging trees and jumping over bushes.

The shadow was being persecuted by a much bigger shadow, which was thrashing through the forest breaking the trees that came in its way instead of dodging, but without losing any speed from it. The first shadow was agile and fast, which allowed it to keep the distance even thought it had to avoid the obstacles, but the bigger shadow was getting close, and it wouldn’t be too long before it reached it.

The smaller shadow, obviously Lyon, was totally annoyed at his situation. It had been late, and he was about to go back to the cave when he located a beautiful prey. It was an enormous Elk, bigger than any other Elk he had seen, and instead of a sole pair of antlers, it had two. Lyon had decided it was worth the risk of getting to the cave later if he could catch that prey and that had ended up quite badly.

***

[Damn Elk! Why did it have to bait me there?!] – I cursed on my mind as I kept trying to run away. – [If it was that fast he should’ve fled right away, and not make me lose my time and endanger me!]

After spotting the Elk I charged straight at it, ready to finish him in an instant, but he dodged me at the last second, almost tripping, and then started running away. I mumbled a curse between my teeth and then ran after it; I couldn’t let such a prey run away, after all.

I almost caught him quite a few times, but he always ended up dodging at the last instant which brought me to think he was just lucky and that I could eventually kill him. That thought disappeared when we approached a swamp and he suddenly screeched, followed by his full speed run away. I could barely see a blur in my field of vision, and he wasn’t there, he was astoundingly fast.

Then I heard bubbles and some kind of low growl. And I turned my eyes to the swamp. And there I found the most dangerous beast I had seen. It was 7 meters long and at least 2 meters tall. It seemed a crocodile, but not quite so. It was more like a wingless dragon, and I can assure it was terrifying.

Its mouth, measuring a meter long, was full with disordered grey teeth, which were as sharp as daggers and I was sure he could snap me in half with a simple bite. He had four red eyes, looking straight at me, and I could see its scales standing up, and some kind of red bright substance dripping. As soon as the substance touched the floor, I could see it almost burned, I guess that’s why he lives in the swamp, its humidity makes it impossible for him to burn the forest and with the boiling water it creates a covering for him.

I then saw as the scales slowly went plain, to impede the pass of the bright substance, and as soon as they did, the wingless dragon’s eyes started to shine brighter and I could see his muscles stretch.

I immediately turned around and with a simple charge at each of my legs, I ran!

***

And this takes us here to me running away from him. I was getting near the cave, but I doubted this dragon would care at all; it probably would thrash around the cave and end destroying everything, so I couldn’t guide him towards it. I decided I needed a distraction, so I started charging my right shoulder. When it was charged enough, I punched forwards while holding my right arm with my left one; it snapped completely, sending blood flying around.

I separated my arm so that it wouldn’t regenerate towards my body and waited for my new arm to grow, all that while running away from the dragon. When I was full again, I charged the bones in the arm I had ripped off my shoulder, and launched it backwards, and while the arm was flying, I charged my legs’ muscles in order to run faster than until now, even at the price of a leg.

As I assumed, the dragon didn’t even slow down but opened its mouth to catch the arm, and as soon as it entered its mouth, it snapped its jaws to crunch it. What the dragon didn’t expect was my arm to explode, and it finally slowed down to cough and spit the rest of my arm. In the moments it slowed and stopped observing me, I used all my strength and the energy on my legs to run away, and finally I got out of its range and could run towards the cave.

This was something I wouldn’t forget, even my fully charged bones, while inside its mouth, had merely made him cough, what the hell was that monster?! At that moment I made two promises. The first one to get strong enough to hunt that dragon, and collect its body to make myself a good armor; the second one, to kill the Elk bastard that guided me there!