Metamorphosis: Seven Sins VI - Due Departure

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Chapter 6 - Due Departure

Keyren, Melody, and Gekula stood wide-eyed in front of the strangest creature they had ever seen – or, well, Keyren and Melody did. But the blind Gekula certainly seemed equally as shocked.

He was clearly a hybrid. Taking the form of a teenage human boy with abnormally monstrous features, there was no way he could be mistaken for anything else. But still, you could usually tell what kind of hybrid someone was simply by giving them a once-over. In this case, though, the new hybrid’s identity was a mystery.

First and foremost, he wore a plain grey shirt and pants, the latter of which that dragged through the mud. He had a long, slimy tail that moved in a rippling motion. His arms were outstretched, revealing fingers adorned with blunt, claw-like nails. He had bright red fins sticking out of his hair, a pair over his eyes in place of eyebrows, and another pair on his arms. The eyes were a pair of burning orange lights that were just brimming with hostility. Finally, the hybrid’s mouth opened in a snarl, allowing a creepily long tongue to slither out and wave in the air in front of him.

Also, the mysterious hybrid boy’s posture was unusual. He stood on two feet, but he was bent over with his arms dangling in front of him, like he still had the urge to crawl on four legs even after his transformation. His frightful orange gaze never wavered from the three in front of him.

“Whoa there, there’s no need to be scared of us,” said Keyren, recognizing the newcomer’s defensive stance. “We’re not here to harm you, get it?”

Unfortunately, he didn’t. He retracted his tongue and let out a ghostly howl. “HUWAAAAAAAWGH!”

Immediately, Melody jumped backwards in fear.

“What is he?” Gekula wondered aloud. “I’ve never smelled anything quite like him before.”

“You’re on to something,” Keyren admitted, hesitantly. “I… I don’t think a monster like him has ever been seen on the Great Continent.”

“Really?” asked Melody. “I saw the tongue and thought he was just another, although really ugly, Chameleos.”

The unknown hybrid howled again, various fins pricking up with agitation, and this time ejected a blast of purple poison from his mouth. It flew right over the Qurupeco-girl’s head when she ducked, and it struck a random Vespoid instead. The neopteron promptly disintegrated.

“Not a Chameleos,” confirmed Keyren. “Nor any monster any of us have heard of. This hybrid… he’s something new.”

Bending down a little lower, the hybrid’s hands brushed the ground as he backed away, going into a more defensive stance. He never took his evil orange eyes off of the trio, and his tongue never entirely retracted, as if it were a sword he was uncomfortable with sheathing.

In truth, the Baruragaru didn’t know what to think of these strange newcomers. At first glance, they looked almost exactly like the Two-Legs – stick-thin limbs, squishy-looking faces, ridiculous tufts of fur on their heads. But when he looked closer, he saw wings, scales, claws, tails… all the features that separated monsters from Two-Legs. Features that made monsters powerful, and Two-Legs weak.

So if they weren’t monsters, and if they weren’t more Two-Legs, what were they? Some new threat that didn’t exist in the Baruragaru’s homeland, across the Big Water?

And judging by appearance alone, the Baruragaru was now one of them.

No. No, that wasn’t right. He was a powerful monster, a horror that lurked in the dark, whose name was a symbol of fear. He was a Baruragaru – not a ‘boy’, not a ‘hybrid’, not any of those words that they called him.

But the strange, complex language they spoke… he could understand most of it. Including the insults. He hissed at the Winged Female, daring her to speak ill of him again.

“He doesn’t like me,” Melody whimpered. She looked heartbroken, like she had never before met another being that didn’t like her.

“My guess is that he just transformed,” Gekula mused. “He’s not used to having human instincts yet. He’s confused, and possibly frightened. He doesn’t know what we are, or what he is.”

Frightened? How dare the Pale One assume he was so cowardly? By pure instinct, the Baruragaru used his elongated limbs to pounce forward, the razor-sharp tip of his tongue aimed at the Pale One’s heart.

There was a crackle and a sudden blue light, and the Pale One’s fist was clutching his tongue. He screeched with agony as a terrible pain shot down the appendage and throughout the rest of his body.

“That’s right,” muttered Gekula. “Don’t touch a Khezu, freak show.” He let go, and the hybrid collapsed. His body shivered as the electricity died out, and he became still.

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