A dark creature.

The creature that at last emerged into the sunlight of this tropical place caused feelings of both relief and puzzlement in Heracles's mind.

Relief because while it was most obviously a monster, it was also the size of an ordinary man at about five and a half feet. Combined with its lean runner's musculature and even if he was reduced to the strength he'd possessed when he'd first begun to train himself beyond his natural talent as a demigod, he'd likely still be able to beat this creature.

Puzzlement too was present because of its strange nature. It was like and yet very obviously not Lycaon and his kin. The wolf's head baring sharp fangs at him, the standing upon two large wolf's legs, the five fingered human arms with extremely sharp claws and the inky black fur would say that obviously it was one of Lycaon's.

However the bony spikes protruding from its forearms, knees and spine as well the skull like covering and blood red eyes that reflected not even a spark of human thought behind it would say that obviously it was not one of Lycaon's.

But now wasn't the time to debate what it was or wasn't. Not when the creature looked like it was sniffing the air as if to determine how much of a threat he was. If this thing was at all like a simple wolf or Lycaon's ilk, it would call for reinforcements if he smelled strong enough. And while he felt a good deal as he had when first he'd been coming into his own as a demigod, he wasn't willing to chance seeing if this creature could infect him with a similar curse to Lycaon's or seeing if he could take on a pack of them just yet.

It growled low in its throat before it charged toward him, obviously intending to test his defenses. Instead of waiting, Heracles charged forward as well, his experience and razor sharp fighter's instincts allowing him to see the creature's incoming right swipe at his abdomen. While his musculature was bulky enough even in his reduced size to be as wide across in the torso as two average men or perhaps three scrawny ones, it always made him happy that it also caused many of his opponents to underestimate how fast he could be as well.

So in response, he hooked his left arm around and under the creature's now over-extended right arm. His right hand grabbed the bottom of its snarling jaw before it got too close and pushed upward so that his fingers were gripping its mouth shut. Much like every creature with functioning jaws, its mouth was geared toward biting rather than opening. Even as it snarled deep in its throat, it couldn't open its mouth with him pushing up into it with greater **** than its mouth could generate.

Before its left hand could try to tear him up, he tightened his arm's grip beneath the elbow before pushing sharply upward: bending its joint in the opposite direction it was meant to and snapping it with a loud cracking sound.

His left arm quickly released the creature's now useless right as its left hand scrabbled toward his back. Heracles quickly brought his left hand up to grab the back of its head before he twisted with what he estimated to be about fifty percent of his strength.

He apparently had much more of his strength as a base to work with than he'd thought as his twist to simply break its neck instead wrenched it around almost in a complete circle so that its now silent face was now facing its right shoulder after his wrench had turned it past the left shoulder and its back.

He quickly stepped to the right so that the body could fall upon the course sand. He inhaled a deep breath through his nose, exhaling through his mouth as his black hair fluttered just above the top of his broad shoulders in the slight breeze. Not exactly a bad way to start things he felt.

Before his watchful blue eyes, the creature dissolved into black smoke before even that faded into nothing. Only the imprint of its body in the sand showed any indication as to the skirmish that had just occurred here.

As Heracles reflected on what had just happened, his ears picked up the sound of more growls coming closer. Apparently the pack had been closer than he thought. As three more emerged from the tree line, he idly wondered to himself how much of what had just happened had they seen and whether they were intelligent enough to adapt to it accordingly. Two of them remained in front of the tree line, spaced out so that they could approach him from the left or the right while the third appeared to be circling toward the surf and Heracles's back.

He knew that if he was to fight these creatures, he would have to make a decision about what the terms of the battle would be if he didn't want it taken out of his hands entirely. The only question was: how was he going to do that?