[REND] - 21.2 - Little Golden Hood

Two robots were in front of me.

Uh, what was a robot? Metal creatures. Food inside? Not really. Small food, barely a bite. Wasn’t strong prey.

My consciousness floated in and out of the picture, with animalistic instincts and simple thinking becoming dominant. All I knew was that I must eat. Food, not metal.

Find strong prey to—

The metal creatures shot me with a beam of light. Electricity! My muscles seized. My entire body shook as it no longer listened to me. Thinking became difficult. But anger remained in my mind. Fury!

Damn metal creatures! How dare they! The smell of burnt hair and flesh enraged me more. My own hair and flesh! I flexed my entire body, seizing control with pure will, and howled. An inexplicable energy erupted inside of me and drove away the paralysis.

I roared at the large metal creatures, releasing a blast of wind strong enough to push back the crates behind them. But the metal creatures endured my roar. They approached with their wide metal feet, the three toes on each one anchoring to the ground with each step. Long, spiky thingies mounted on top of their bulky bodies began to glow blue as they hummed.

They’re doing that shit again? Bending down, I hooked my claws into the ground, stabbing into the concrete. I dug up slabs and threw them at the metal creatures. Whirling through the air, the slabs shaved off the glowing thingies just as they fired.

Small explosions and dancing sparks topped the metal creatures.

But the metal creatures had something else to bother me with. Barrels on their sides blew explosive raspberries, firing more than a dozen rounds a second. I could see the individual bullets heading towards me. I grinned to display my fangs, amused at this pathetic attack.

I charged at the metal creatures as the bullets slapped against my fur. Just tickles. The metal creatures retreated quickly, their feet popping wheels that allowed them to drive backwards. Looked funny. Took me by surprise. But they weren’t moving fast enough to outrun me.

And the metal creatures knew it, so they released long fiery thingies from yet more tubes.

Twin explosions thumped my chest, slowing me for a moment. Though my fur burned, my muscles absorbed the force, and my rib cage held strong. I quickly regenerated my injury, flesh mending itself, skin blanketing the muscles, fur bursting forth from my skin. Good as new.

I easily caught up to the metal creatures. I picked up one and threw it against the other, and then jumped on top of them. A ball of lightning expanded outward, but I didn’t care. My shaking hand pressed the chest of the metal creature to cave it in. Blood leaked through the seams of its metal skin.

The smaller creature inside was too squishy. Shouldn’t have dared to attack me. Not strong prey to eat.

Its brother metal creature was trying to get up. And failing. I ripped open its chest to extract the tiny man inside. He was screaming loudly, annoying my ears.  

His panicked wriggling in my grasp was entertaining for a second. No longer. I granted his wish and let him go, flinging him into the air. I didn’t hear a thank you. Just constant screaming. Until it stopped.

Other tiny creatures were shooting at me. Brave of them. They probably thought they were far away from me. They weren’t. I could even hear their conversations.

“Our fucking peashooters aren’t doing anything!”

“It noticed us, dammit. We shouldn’t have shot at the giant furball.”

“Go, dammit, go! We’re fucking leave this—Aaah!”

Bounding on my four legs, I reached the little creatures hiding behind a squat building in a couple of seconds. I smashed the pile of toothpicks and crushed the little creatures on the other side. Their broken corpses tumbled away as I continued, looking for actual food.

I roared as I sang, Destroy. Destroy! Strong prey come out!

The creatures attacking me weren’t any challenge. But there should be some food around here.

There was also something else I needed to do in this place besides eating. Something… A tiny voice buried in the back of my mind urged me to… What? Maybe I’d remember after eating and destroying more. I drew my full height, looking down at the puny creatures scurrying away. I wasn’t done growing. This wasn’t stopping.

I narrated in my head because it was a fun thing. What big ears I have…

I towered over everything. Everything small below. But my big ears could hear. Voices. Machines. Gunfire. Even the scratching of a pebble against another. I didn’t care for any sound. They were all noise.

Especially the screaming. So many… making noise.

Insignificant sounds. 

What big eyes I have…

Could see everything with. Very easy. A strand of bloodied hair on that corpse. Flaking paint on a vehicle driving away. Big eyes make everything clear. I saw many creatures. Puny. Inconsequential.

What were the creatures doing? Many fled. Others were attacking me? Stupid.

They were too weak.

What big teeth I have…

Rip with my big teeth. Long and sharp. Could eat everything with big teeth. Where food? Creatures trying and failing to hurt me. Were they food?

Not food. Could not harm me.

Get the truck! The pickup truck!  The small voice was back again, trying to assert itself. This was supposed to be important. I just couldn’t focus on what it was. My shopping stuff, you idiot!

This tiny voice was annoying me as I chewed something crunchy. A creature with a hardened shell—its shell broke under my fangs. Screaming in my mouth. Not particularly delicious.

What was that shopping stuff about? Something I should eat. Yes. Food.

Better food than this many-limbed insect with blades I had caught.

“We’re both Adumbrae! Let me live!” she pleaded while trying to stab my arm. Not very sincere.

Squish. And the insect was dead.  

I had a vague idea of where to go. Pickup truck had food. I’d just eat it. Some nudging feeling opposed it. Why, though? The only reason I’d go to the truck was if it had food, which it did. Food should be in my mouth. Logical. I’m so smart.

Nothing better to do. I turned around to look for the truck. And the food. Should be near the water.

Sea.

Ocean?

WHAM! A powerful force hit the side of my head.

My dense fur, thick muscles, and heavy skull absorbed the blow. No real damage. Still, it was the strongest hit that had bothered me so far. I barely caught a glimpse of the human before he zipped to the back of my head and out of sight.

Flying human? Not human.

A prey that could put up a challenge. Even if this flying pest kept to my back, I could smell it. Hear its heartbeat. It was quite fast.  

WHAM!! Another blow, this time to my back. I roared, turning around to catch the mosquito. My arms made loud whooshing sounds as they cut the air. The pest weaved through my claws, hit my flank, and zoomed high.

It shouted stuff at me that might’ve been taunts. But the words of a pest were nothing to a predator. The pest was also talking to someone on the radio. I couldn’t really recall what a radio was. I just thought of that word. It sounded funny. Radio.

“The dumb mutt is following me! Is the barrier ready?”

Some static. “A few more minutes.”

“The fuck? Are you kidding me? I can’t hold its attention for that long!”

“Lure it around the main warehouse.” This other voice was calm. “I’ll tell you when to enter.”

“Will reinforcements get here in time? This dumb mutt had already broken out before!”

“Do your job, and we’ll do ours.”

Those words might as well have been gibberish. My caring was at an all-time low. A gut feeling pestered me—I should be concerned about where I was going. But why? None of these tiny creatures could harm me. And I wanted the pickup truck with food. The best that these insignificant pests could do was annoy me.

Like this mosquito jabbing me here and there. I bided my time, holding back my speed as I pretended to try catching it. I wanted the pest to get used to my movement.

Yet another strike to the back of my head. It made the mistake of not flying up, heading instead to the big, big warehouse. I followed the pest, roaring as I slashed down.

Expectedly, the pest evaded sideways. I held back the downward motion of my claws, twisting them to the side with blinding speed to catch the pest. My claws connected. The pest got torn. Pieces of its body twirled in the air. Arms. Legs. Wings.

I held up my claws. Skewered on them was a torso twice bigger than my palm. The pest was still alive. Somehow. It yelled some stuff at me.

“Eat me, I dare you! We’re going to—”

I put it inside my mouth, chewed, and spat out the mangled remains. Disgusting! Metal mixed with so little flesh. I wasn’t even sure if the soft, chewy parts I ate were even flesh. Metal wouldn’t give me nourishment. Eating the pest didn’t satisfy me at all. I granted him his wish, and that was how he repaid me? What a waste of time.

I should find that pickup truck for better food. Somewhere to the left. Nearer to the water.

At the corner of my eye, I saw a moving vehicle. Just a tiny glimpse of it between two high stacks of shipping containers. In that fraction of a second that I saw it, my mind got rattled by the tiny voice.

That’s it! The pickup truck! My food was running away! It shouldn’t move, should it? But it was running away! Somebody stole it!

I swerved to chase it, causing massive container stacks to topple as I smashed past them. There! The truck. Food! I dove at it, jaws as wide open as possible.

Concrete, dirt, the truck—everything got caught inside my mouth as I closed it. The pickup truck got cut in half. The part with the driver and my food was in my mouth. Standing up, I forced myself to chew the metal, even if I didn’t want to. There should be delicious food inside. Right?

Not the man driving it. He didn’t have a chance to scream because he died from my fangs puncturing the roof of the pickup truck. A box filled with goodies should be here somewhere. But they weren’t fresh. Brains from the dead. Some important stuff too. Still, I chewed through the metal.

This better fill me up, or I’d be pissed.

What pissed me off more was that loud buzzing sound. Another pest in the sky was coming. This was bigger. Didn’t smell like food. I swallowed parts of the pickup truck. The shopping stuff should be there too. I wasn’t sure what—

KABOOM! BOOM!

Immense blasts hit my back. 

I got pushed down almost to one knee. Almost.

“GrrrROOOAaarr!” I bellowed with fury, sending shockwaves outward, ripples of air pushing away the smoke and fire, stirring up dust clouds.

Whistling sounds. One explosion on my shoulder. Another on the side of my face. As the intense heat spread over my upper body, weird blue flames singeing my fur, my senses sharpened like I was waking up from hibernation. This was serious damage. And I was going to get serious.

My regeneration kicked in. My fur grew as it burned. I felt my muscles bulging ever larger, the skin torn by the explosions, struggling to cover them. My bones extended, claws and fangs unsheathed more of their fierceness.

The annoyances were just making me grow bigger… and madder.

The world slowed to a crawl as my concentration heightened. I could feel the minuscule stones and individual cracks on the concrete under my feet. I stepped forward, out of the rolling smoke. My feet sank a few inches into the ground, the earth breaking under my tons of weight.

There it was. A flying iron pest. Big pest. Had some whirling things on top that kept it afloat. I should know what to call it, but I couldn’t remember. It made droning sounds as it sprayed me with bullets.

Not sure what that was supposed to accomplish. It didn’t hurt me at all.

It fired those tube explosive thingies, streaking smoke in the sky. I didn’t even flinch from the explosions. My eyes honed in on the last explosive thingy. I stepped aside and caught it. Then I threw it back at the flying whirly pest. It didn’t hit it, but did explode nearby. The whirly pest flew away in a wobble.

Following it with my eyes, I sighted buildings in the distance. I lost interest in the whirly pest.

Would there be suitable prey for me there, in those buildings? I should destroy and destroy until strong prey came to stop me.

Good idea.

“Stop! Blanchette, stop! You can’t continue doing this!”

Huh? This voice. My ears turned in the direction of the sound. The pleas made me stop.

“Blanchette! Please!” An urgent pitter-patter of tiny feet. This creature, whom I felt I should recognize, was approaching my back.

Someone else called out. “Deen! Uh, Ambriel, dammit. Get back here. You’re not going to talk to that!”

“Blanchette! Blanchette! I’m down here!”

I turned to see a human frantically waving up at me. Her head was fully covered, but I knew that she had blonde hair. Her gray eyes peering through the holes of her mask were very familiar. Why do I feel like she was a friend? Did she give me food earlier?

“Stop this!” she shouted. “We have to get out of here now!”

What was she talking about? Of course, I was leaving. I was going to the buildings far away. Find food. No food here.

“The BID should be already on their way. Maybe Corebrings, too! Follow us!”

BID. Corebrings. I know those words. They were strong, challenging prey. I growled, not wanting to leave. Staying here meant food would come.

“Blanchette, I know you can hear me somewhere in there! Please!”

Warmth coated my heart. This tiny creature… I could sense her emotions. She wanted me to be safe. Strong emotions. Reaching for me. I disliked emotions, but they were forcing their way into my mind.

Fucking gross!

Light filled my vision. I was no longer at the docks. Wait, I remembered I was supposed to be at the docks! My mind was clearing up. That was Deen. My pastry-giving best friend. She was trying to talk some sense into me and…

…where was I?

Darkness.

And light.

Lots of light filled the darkness. I couldn’t stare at the light—I was in a dreamlike dimension or something. Spooky Erind’s place? The light wasn’t just light. There were strands, glowing filaments. They wrapped around me. I couldn’t tear them away!

The strands concentrated on my wrists, ankles, and neck. They coiled around and around and around. Heavy! Constricting me. What the fuck…?

I was blacking out…

As I came to, I was on my knees. I had my tongue out, panting like a dog. Saliva dripped down from my tongue, forming a pool on the ground. Fires and smoke around me. To my side was the red of a shipping container, scorched black in places by the flames.

Difficult to concentrate. My mind was still reeling. What happened?

I couldn’t focus my eyes on my… golden clothes? “Graorgh?” The hell?

Jumping to my feet, I examined myself and saw that I was back to my Blanchette body. But there was something different. A lot different! My hoodie had turned gold. Shackles had clamped on my wrists, ankles, and neck, just like my vision. And a different sensation bothered me. Checking my back, I realized that I now had a long swishing tail. I moved it around. Such a weird feeling to have an extra limb, sort of.

Okay… I had no idea what was going on.    

“The giant mutt is shrinking!” shouted some moron who was about to die. “Attack now!”

(Author's Notes: Blanchette went Kaiju mode. As she grows bigger, Erind loses control. It's like the Great Ape form of Super Saiyans. Erind has to practice controlling this someday. It's funny how we have chill earlier chapters, like shopping scenes and class scenes, and we get wild rampage scenes later on.

And is that Erind's next boss phase? A rough explanation of what happened—all that stuff that Erind stowed away affected her. Plus, the power of friendship from Deen, amplified by the Core connection, somehow activated the Core inside of Erind.

I was writing the next Smite Happens chapter yesterday when I decided to change the core "gimmick" of the magic system in the story. I decided to let the idea marinate for a while and wrote a REND chapter instead. We'll have a Smite Happens chapter after this. Also, I've decided to publicly release Smite earlier, around the last week of October. Lastly, a heads up that I might have a trip for work next week. If we end up missing a couple of chapters, I'll make up for it in the following week or so. Thank you all for your support!)