Conquest Of The Fallen: Dark Dominions-Chapter 306: Wildforce [II]

"Ahh! Mom! She's gotten into the Stables!"

Rafel would recognize the choirboy shrill of that voice anywhere: Yukima. His first thought was that another mutated bastard, high on [V8] must've tracked him from the crash site of the Lightlark. Or Titans Landing even. Beasts that were human before tended to have every sense shot to extreme levels after the change. And the change was not funny.

Mortals that ingested the greenish vial of [V8] transformed into ugly bitches; they were down there with the Trollocs and [Sekkers] of Hel. Malformed. Bodies ravaged by acromegaly and sores, pouring acidic phlegm, corrosive saliva, and literal [Red Cosmo] lighting their blood. The change was so brutal to the poor cunts their minds could not be saved. Same as the pilot of the flight-ship three days ago.

If Rafel knew the man had a chance, he wouldn't have used [Gemini Bladed] ability to cut him into a hundred lumps of oozing man-meat.

So when he heard Yuki's cry, his first reaction was the same as that of her mother's—albeit for a different reason he'd only come to understand later.

"Fuck."

As quickly as she shout tremored through the brittle planes of the dinner hall, rocking a few chairs and thrumming the cubes of the chandelier, Rafel and Ursula were on their feet. The Legata gave him a wide-eyed look just for a millisecond, before she dashed forward in a swiftness that scattered the grand chairs of the longtable in a crescent.

Swoosh! She was gone.

"Wings, Peitho!" Rafel ordered in an instant.

[Ding!]

[THE FORKED ORANGE-TAIL Equipped!]

Rafel didn't wait for the notification to hit before he leaped in the air, right after the blur of Ursula's super-speedy exit. In the air, a pair of great dragon wings, luminous and orange as sunset on the beach claimed his back in a brilliance that shot forward to the domed ceiling, astounding the few servers that hadn't yet runaway. The arc of his orange wings was four times his body; the bony digits extending like the elbows on a rotting man. It'd be scary if the light wasn't so enchanting.

[Mana Core at Optimal Level!]

That was all Rafel needed.

Swoosh!

He shot forward at Ursula's heel. His own speed did it for the chandelier; ringing the golden teardrops to a strange music. A nearby glass window shattered as he flew out a loggia, faster than a Persian arrow.

He became an orange streak blinding eyes turned up to the sky. Neither he nor Ursula used the door. And somehow they got to the Stables at the same time.

Their arrival sent a gust of wind fanning out in all directions.

The Legata's voice came clear.

"YUKIMA?!"

The girl burst through the oak doors swinging a small white flag on one hand and a stick of flattened pork on the other. "Mother!" She called back. Ursula was happy at seeing her firstborn child whole but wasn't as worried as Rafel. Yuki took one look at the flying demon in fiery skeleton wings and shook her head. "I'm not the one hurt," she said, "it's Dash. She's on the prowl."

Prowl?

Rafel kept flapping in the air, looking down to Ursula and her daughter for an explanation.

How was Dash on the prowl?

"She isn't mated." Yukima said, further confusing Rafel.

"—and she doesn't have a Pride yet," her mother added.

Rafel folded his wings, "What! Mate? Pride?"

He had just dropped to the ground when a piercing roar rumbled out.

RAARRRGH!

—GRRHHH!

Yuki leaped out of the entrance into the Stables as if blasted from within by an invisible force. But it was only terror. Rafel saw an aura of deep indigo overwhelm her back as she sped to where he and her mother stood ten feet from the Stables doors. She ran right behind Rafel. He was tempted to tease her with something like, "Aren't you the lawman, or whatever?" He held his tongue; it wasn't the right moment.

"Will somebody tell me what in the bloody Hels is going on?" His amber eyes darted fast between Yuki and Ursula. Hollows of [Umbrage] were already gathering round his legs: an eerie whispering mist crawling up his legs, weaving into his tunic. And even the beautiful gold in his eyes were nearly blotted out by the [Blackfyre] his mana core was pumping.

Suddenly, before the Republican princess or Legata could reply him, the doors to the Stables swung fast outward.

A heavy, blotchy thing thudded with a squelch.

Before then rolling some yards in the crusty earth to where they stood.

Rafel peered in. Ursula too; "Is that a horse's fucking head?"

"Now you really need to tell me what's going on." Rafel admonished.

"She's killed a horse." Ursula said again, to no one in particular. "Several, mother," Yuki corrected.

Just then they all heard the low growling again. The stable doors swung out again, almost soundlessly, and the first thing Rafel beheld was the bloody paws.

Thud! Thud! Thud! freeωebnovēl.c૦m

He watched, more impressed than actually afraid as the largest freaking tiger he had ever seen walked out through the damn door. "Is she prancing?" Yuki told her mother. "She's fucking prancing!" "Hush now," Ursula said without turning to look at her, "your sister is more animal now. She hardly knows how to catwalk."

"Well, she's a fucking cat." Yuki retorted.

Rafel zoned out of the ladies discussion and just admired this new. . .creature.

Now he understood when Yuki had said prowl.

This tiger was wondrous: a mane like a nightflame collared its high neck, stopping short of muscular shoulders and a bulk like a bear's. Now Rafel hadn't seen many tigers with manes, or golden-red ones at that. At least not earthly tigers. Her stripes were like rays of sun carved into her skin. Flowing across like a molten river. Boasting secrets, or perhaps an ancient mystical map. This tiger was big as a Sabretooth, proud like a lion, dangerous as a Bengal. Oh yeah; and it was a She!

Rafel had no idea how he knew this. He just did.

"Now that is one large fucking cat," he said.

"THAT is my sister." Yuki rolled her tongue.

Rafel stared into those compelling feline eyes: fairy fucking blue! And he knew. "Daschelle?"

"Yep. That's Dash alright." Yuki didn't leave his back.

"My daughter." Ursula said hollowly, drawing Rafel's gaze to her. How'd he feel if his kid was a [Wildshape]. All he could glimpse of their lore from his days at Emberfall was that they were daunting, unpredictable creatures. And he was right about something not being right about Daschelle Novak's eyes.

His [Intuition] had picked up on the creature in her, just as it did with Lichs and Reapers.

ROAR!

The red tiger lunged forward, paws ready and claws flashing, when nobody was expecting. Here she comes! Yuki tried to warn. But Dash was already aerial, her attack very imminent and absolutely accurate. Her white claws, still wet with horse blood, were three inches short of making a mess of her mother's face when Rafel reached forward and abruptly pulled the woman down.

"Hell! Your Excellency! Are you trying to get your face eaten? Shit."

He kicked up the dead horse's head instead and the tiger grasped that instead.

Crack!

They all heard the skull cave in as the tiger crashed back on the earth, paws sinking through bone. The horse's head split like batter. Still looking, the three of them saw the red tiger drop its beastly head and sink great canines into the muck, raising back up with a heap of brain and blood tissue crunching in its muzzle. A warning. Its cold sapphire eyes pinned Ursula.

Rafel looked to the Legata and said, "Her prime target is you, Your Excellency. [Wildshapes] tend to attack the ones they loved most." He put out his right arm and shifted Ursula behind his back; you are safer out of the fight. Ursula reared up. "I'm not hiding behind your back."

"It'll be easier for me to take her down too." He cut in, using a soft voice.

"Please be careful." Ursula watched him take three steps forward, as he and the red tiger began circling each other. She meant her words for both he and the she-beast.

Rafel raised his deep voice in a taunting laughter.

"This ain't my first taming, kitty cat. I brought to heel the [Elderwyrm] of the Skoatl desert: THE GREAT SAKUHARU. What are you compared to a Kaiju?

HUH?!"

Rafel's voice soared.

"He's mocking her," said Yuki.

"Yeah. It's working," Ursula replied.

"I REPEAT, CAT!!!" Rafel thundered, "WHO ARE YOU?"

The red tiger opened its terrifying jaws, shook its mane in a rain a wet blood and roared so fearsomely it sounded more like a Wyvern's snapping howl.

Her answer shook the hinges on the Stable doors:

GRRRRAAHHH!!!

Silently, Rafel smiled. 'Oh yeah, come get it, kitty.'

Inwardly, he told his system: "You thinking what I'm thinking, Peitho?"

[DING!]

[Ever-ready, Lord host!]

She pushed the vision of a Commander saluting into his mindspace. Rafel smiled longer.

'Good. Let's leash this cat.'

Thud! Thud! THUD! BOOM!

The red tiger ran forward fast and leaped all fours in the air, aiming with both adamantine incisors and glinting claws. Rafel stood with both arms akimbo, like a Cowboy. And waited.

"What's he doing?" Ursula shared a look with her first daughter.

He waited still… until the last minute.

"NOW, PEITHO!" Rafel bellowed.

[DING!]

[The PHOENICIAN LASSO Equipped!]

[ILL: Taming of the Beast – Lightning Sting]

[Host Evolution: YELLOW FROST]

[+1000 Influence!]

"WHIPS OF PHAROAH!"

[WHIPS OF PHAROAH]

Rafel's voice joined with Peitho's at that moment so that it sounded like waves raging in the Cold Sea.

"UNLEASH!!!"

Rafel's left arm, formerly hidden behind, at his back, away from the red tiger's eyes, swooped out at the last millisecond. And as it did, a mighty Lasso of golden light went forth in a brutal arc. The rope unraveled three times in the air, dazzling the surrounding in godly halos and brightening Rafel's shadowy figure for the moment.

SLASH!

It caught the red tiger fast on the right side of her great head, sending the she-beast into the dirt with a hit that sounded like a roundcircle kick.

Boom!

The red tiger went down. Dropped like a sack of potatoes. And got a mouthful of drying blood and humus too.

Grrrhh—

Before she could rise her mighty golden bulk, Rafel swept out his hand again, looping the rope around her belly. He then began pulling slowly. The red tiger shook vehemently and tried to wrestle free of the shining Lasso. But the more she struggled the tighter it wound around her body, like a python's embrace.

Rafel brought the red tiger close enough that he could see the darker flecks of navy in her blue eyes.

"Enough," he told the creature soothingly. With his left hand clutching to the Phoenician Lasso, he took his right hand and touched her with it. He brushed her mane tenderly. "You can let go now, Daschelle. It's just us. Let go." He and the creature became swamped in the celestial aura of the Lasso.

"Just. Let. Go."

To speed things up, he made [Virgo Eye] on the space between her fierce eyes.

The ancient Brahma symbol freed her troublous Chi and the coarse scarlet hairs of the beast began to loosen, giving way to the pure, porcelain skin of the young girl underneath.

Thirty seconds passed and Rafel held Daschelle Novak in his arms.

"Hello, Dash." He said as her pinkish lashes fluttered to look up at him. Her mother and sister hurried in with a robe that enveloped her developing body. Rafel spoke to Ursula when the girl could stand. "Lamb's broth perhaps. I hear [Wildshapes] love their steak."

"Thank you," said Ursula. She looked on Yukima, leading her youngest sister away from the Stables back to the mountainous rise of the Gray House; "She's going to need a Pride… soon."

"A Pack, you mean?"

"No. A Pride." Ursula maintained. "Packs are for wolverines. Prides are for cats. Smaller yes, but safe."

"And there's none in Rocasus?" Rafel asked.

The Legata shook her head. "The Republic is not known for being masters of the Arcane. As you well know, some among the Nine Realms are stronger in mana reserves and night-creature population."

"The Freelands, and the Cities of Pompey."

Ursula sighed, "if only I could send her that far. I was waiting for her [Matridire] when I could send her off with a possible mate. But the Turning keeps taking her. I don't know how long I can keep the beast at bay without a Pride to run in, or the release of a Mating ritual."

Rafel looked in the acres of moonfield, across the Stables grounds to the Gray House. He could see the heat signatures of the girls, with a little use of [Echolation]. He focused on the shorter girl, with the little heartbeats.

Daschelle… Mating Ritual… hmm?

To this, he said nothing else.