The Choice is Made for You

Before you could choose, someone else jumped in. You saw Pollick mutter a few words, and Brandon started glowing. You watched as his cuts and wounds vanished, the berserker standing to his feet with a shout as he started slashing through the horde of wolves trying to dogpile him.

You were angry about missing your chance to kill him, but another one would come soon, right?

Either way, you turned and started charging towards the struggling redhead.

"let me go! Figures my best Animal Form for fighting would be a wolf, if I tried using that here, I'd probably get killed or something by another player!" Kaelynn complained as she tried to kick the wolf in the head, her attack doing very little to deter him.

What's more, as Brandon recovered, cutting through all the other wolves, the new ones entering the battle wised up, coming to help kill Kaelynn.

Not if you had anything to do with it! It took you only a few seconds to reach her, a few seconds all the time the new wolves needed to meet up as well as you reared up, bringing your hooves down on the struggling wolf's back, the furry menace vanishing in a cloud of sparkling dust.

"Huh, you came to help me?" Kaelynn sounded surprised as she climbed to her feet, dusting herself off.

You would've answered, had a sudden weight throw you to the ground, the new pack of wolves leaping on to you. You gave a loud bellow of anger, trying to buck or swinging your horns around to get rid of them, but your wounds from earlier as well as the shift in weight lessened your efforts.

You managed to throw a few of them, some vanishing in the now familiar swirls of dust, but they continued to bite and claw at your flanks and legs, teeth trying and failing to tear out your throat until one got lucky, latching on like a leech, even as his body was thrown around by your troubled struggles.

You tried once more to summon up the saving anger that had helped you survive so far, but it slipped away like the raindrops on your back as your vision darkened.

You closed your eyes, 'let me just rest for a second and I'll keep fighting, just for a minute...

You have died... Respawning in 10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1...0

You shot awake, newfound strength filling your pained body, chasing away the aches and bleeding wounds as you looked around, ready to go another round!

You found yourself in your stall at the farm... had it been a dream, all that time, the journey, the symbols?

No, the letters couldn't be a dream, you'd been seeing them as long as you could remember, not that that was a very long time.

But still, had that cave been in your head, a fanciful daydream? Kaelynn, killing Brandon in ****, the bandit attack?

The wolves? No, even from here you could hear the distant sounds of fighting, the occasional howl of a wolf.

You didn't understand what had happened, nor why you'd woken up back here, but you weren't dead yet, and that meant you had to keep fighting!

Bucking around, ramming your massive body into the sides and door of the stall, you felt the wood creak before you, but it held firm. You didn't have enough room to chare, as that surely would've broken down the door.

As if bidden, the letter formed before you, still in a state of flux, but where they had formed words, you could feel it, as if the words were part of you.

Feats: Raging Blood: You can boost your physical stats proportional to the amount of damage taken so far. You can only activate this feat after taking more than 10% of your total health in a short time.

This, was this that fiery anger you felt bubble up in you, was it your body calling for ****?

Regardless, this would get you out of here, you still recalled the power flowing through your body in those moments, but as you tried to summon it up now, it still just slid away, like water.

'Mooo! I want fire, not water!' You bellowed, ramming your head into the stall door as it shook but held fast.

"Moo?" "Moo?' "Mooo?" You heard them, the fellow members of your herd, the docile splotchy cows that the farmer pulled on, filling pails and buckets with their milk.

Feat: Head of the Herd: You are the leader of the herd, its power is your power, its danger is your danger. 20+ CHA with Beast-types weaker than you. +1 level of Liegelord.

Yu didn't know what Liegelord was nor did it really matter, even as the words filled your head, you knew them to be true. You were the head, the one who fed first, the one who watched over the herd.

"Come on, let's get out of here!" You ordered as you tried to charge again, the wooden door rattling, and again, as it rattled, and a third time as more stall doors rattled, your fellow bovines fighting for their freedom. The fourth time the wood held fast, and the fifth, sixth, and seventh time too, but the eighth time you felt the wood splinter and felt more powerful than ever before.

You squared up, horns down and threw your full weight into the attack as your horns pierced the wooden sinking to the base. You began throwing your head and body around, trying desperately to break down this door before with a final triumphant challenge to the skies above, the wooden door tore, chunks of wood falling down on your head as you charged out, a few fellow cows following behind.

Even if most of the herd was still trapped, now you had room to move, and showed that off as one by one, your tore down the doors, freeing your herd as they milled about, not quite sure what to do next.

Your body overflowing with strength and charisma, you walked to the front of the herd, and bellowed to the heavens as you started into a charge, and slowly more joined you, 2...5...11...17...23...28...34 as your singular charge turned into a stampede across the pasture.