A truly ugly looking beast was staring them in the face currently. Its bottom half of its body was like that of a bug, with its four legs attached to the ground, but then its upper body was upright. On its upper body it had four limbs. From the shoulder, to the elbow and at the end it had blades for hands, similar to a praying mantis.

  Its mouth was open slightly and hundreds of sharp razor teeth could be seen with a green liquid spewing out from it. Finally, on its head, it had two large red circular eyes of a single color, which made it somehow look even more menacing. Its body color was a mixture of blue shell with a slight brown underbelly.

  The two of them knew this beast was infected as well, which made Harry think. He now had an idea of why the girls had decided to come here. Possibly there was the presence of the shadow being present in this area.

  No, that wasn't right, the empire must be using the shadow.

  The beast wasn't too large in size, it was only a little bigger than themselves, but they could tell from the presence it was giving off it would be a hard one to beat.

  With no weapons of their own, there was only one thing they could do, transform into their beast forms.

  The beast swung its blades towards Harry who was closer, but he was a bit behind with what Kyle had planned. He didn't know whether they were going to hide their forms or not. Even though it would only take a second to transform, it seemed like even taking a second to turn, would be the end of him.

  The swings from the arm were fast, a lot faster than Harry had anticipated. Even though he could sense and see the attack coming and had moved before. The tip of the bladed hands had scratched across his chest and blood was already starting to drizzle out.

  He dodged again and, each time being cut in the process. Finally, his back had hit against the wall. With nowhere to go but down ward he did, allowing for the blade to swipe past his head.

  A whip like sound was made, due to the sheer speed the attacks were coming at.

  'If only I had my weapons I could do something at least.'

  There was the option to roll, but now on his backside, he knew he would be too slow. It went in for the finishing blow, and when it attacked a loud clunking sound was made. The blade from the beast rebounded and was lifted in the air.

  In front of it now, was a bald headed human who had a torn shirt.

  "Haha, fear the strength of the turtle!" Kyle shouted.

  When selecting the beast crystals, there were only a few to choose from since the others got to pick first. Kyle was so upset by this he had picked a random beast crystal to use in the beasting process. For him, it was one of the turtles. After finding out what he had picked he was upset for days.

  It was one of the easier beasts they had killed on their journey. Not only that, but he was hoping for something more offensive. But it wasn't all bad news, he found out when beasting, one area of his body hardened, in particular his back! However, it was only his back that was hardened.

  He was unable to change the hardening area to wherever he wished, at least not yet anyway as a basic tier human beast hybrid. He also found he had an affinity with the water ability. But had learned no such skills.

  So right now, all his beast form did was aid him with the ability to harden his back. Mixing that in with his Ki. He was able to stop the strike from the beast.

  "OW!" Kyle shouted. "Why does it still hurt?"

  Looking down, Harry could see a pool of blood by his feat. The attack had still gone through the hardening and Ki.

  They thought from the look of things it was an advanced tier beast that had been infected. Making it have the power of a King tier, but its body wouldn't quite be at the same level.

  Now, Harry was second guessing himself. It had to be a king tier beast that had the power of an emperor tier.

  "Kyle, we can't win, not without our weapons!" Harry shouted, pulling Kyle towards him as the creature took another swipe.

  "What do we do then?"

  Harry looked at where he was just moments ago, and in the wall there was a clean cut. It wasn't just a scratch or groove. When the beast had missed and attacked him, his blade had gone straight through the wall.

  "Come on!" Harry said, running towards the door.

  "We can't break this, it's made of glathrium!" Kyle shouted.

  "We can't, but it can."

  The beast followed as expected. They were the only two things in the room. Then when it was ready to attack. Using everything they had, they had jumped to the side. A diagonal slash was made against the door, and the top half of the panel had fallen over to the other side.

  'That's our exit out of here!" Harry shouted

  Now transforming himself, small scales started to appear over his body, his eyes slightly changed shape as his pupil became narrow, and his tongue started to thin.

  "Alright snake boy. You got this." Kyle said.

  "Don't slow me down, turtle boy." Harry replied back as they both charged in at the same time.

  Harry went out in front and the beast had tried to attack him, however his body was now more flexible than before. He was able to move his joints, avoiding all of the attacks, making them slip past him.

  While Harry dealt with the creature like so, Kyle had jumped out the upper half of the door. When Harry was ready, he too slipped past all of the arms, and then made his way out towards the door.

  Running was the only option they had now.

  "Where do we go?" Kyle said.

  "We need to get our weapons." Harry replied.

  The two of them stopped, as they could see the beast wasn't following them. A loud bang was made as the beast charged through the remainder of the door opening it up. The red lights started beeping in and out, and the sirens alarm was played.

  Right now, the two of them were down some type of hallway, with multiple doors similar to theirs that led to the same type of rooms. Opening its mouth wide, showing its teeth a loud wobbly cry was made. It sounded more like a loud screech, but loud enough for it to be heard throughout the facility.

  Shortly after, several cries from the beasts all inside the other rooms were heard after as well. The beasts approached the first door, and used its bladed hand at it. A few seconds later after the door had fallen. A new beast was seen coming out.

  "This beast…it has intelligence." The man said, watching from the control room. This was bad. They needed help immediately.

  Inside the room where Roy and the girls were, they were still hungry with their belly's growling but not one of them had decided to give in to the temptation of the food yet. Although Roy had gotten up several times and picked up the syringe, not once did he inject it into himself.

  Seeing how much Roy struggled with his natural urges to give in, the girls could see he was a good man. They were happy they were locked in with him and not some strange person.

  Then, they too had heard the large cry from a strange beast. The sound had reached even them who were on the second floor. The sirens had gone off, and the sound of numerous guards' footsteps were heard as they ran past their doorway.

  "What's going on, was it another break out form a beast!"?Martha asked, that's when she noticed that Slyvia was leaning over still on the floor. Grasping at her belly as if she was sick.

  "Are you okay?" Martha asked.

  'I don't know, something inside me. It's reacting to that beast's call." Sylvia said.

  She stood up slowly from the ground and when Martha had gotten close, her hand was slapped away. Slowly she walked over towards the door. She looked at the container below, and before Martha realized what was about to happen. It was too late to stop it.

  Slyvia picked up the syringes from the suitcase and injected all three of them into her arm. Giving her more of the shadow's strange power than before.

  "Slyvia!" Martha cried.

  ******

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