The Lone Alpha - Rebirth

Chapter 13: Berserk Alpha

Faint footsteps echoed from the distance in the dark and once silent tunnel. A number of small rats and lizards scurried in fright and probably exasperation at having their tranquility disturbed multiple times already tonight.

A couple of human figures cautiously made their way through the sewers, their outfits looking straight out of a sci-fi movie. Despite the near absence of light, they could see just fine as their helmets came equipped with night vision.

"I hate the sewers! So dark, smelly, and full of rats, both big and small." Uttered a feminine voice.

"Rats are quite tasty you know, or so I've heard. I could catch one for ya and grill it nicely." A taunting voice echoed.

The statement caused the others to shoot Sam a weird look, at least he felt so since their faces were covered by black-tinted glasses. He could only cover up the awkwardness with a light cough and a laugh.

"These things sure know how to hide, we've been scouring the place for nearly an hour!" An exasperated Minnie uttered.

"They can't be much farther now, we're still within the area of expected activity." Mark said, his hands gliding over the faint marks on the walls.

They continued to scour through the tunnels at high alert, weapons at hand, for signs and unusual spots. They journeyed for a couple more minutes before they eventually stumbled on some abnormally sized tracks.

"Found something!" Mark yelled, drawing the attention of the team to a couple claw marks.

"Claw marks and quite a number of 'em too," Sam said as he got close enough to examine the marks. “and judging by the position, I'd say we're on the right path."

"We'll assume we've entered monster territory, maintain high alert, watch your back and your partner's." Ian said, his voice carrying a sense of authority. "Chris and Minnie, cover our rear. Alright, let's move."

*******

A wild, savage and bloodthirsty fiery-red aura blasted throughout the cave, pushing back a few rats that were too close and absolutely terrifying every one of them. The Alpha stood in the center of the now dimming glow, his form even more monstrous than before. His eyes gave off a bright red glow that drowned others in an illusion of blood, though they looked unfocused, but only for a moment as they regained a sense of clarity and glared at a particularly annoying wolf.

"Oh s**t!" Daniel cursed as he felt goosebumps staring at the cold, angry, and bloodthirsty eyes of the Rat Alpha in front of him. Its baleful aura made his look less frightening. "How did he unlock berserk mode so soon? This slightly complicates things."

His Wolf's Howl boosted his base stats by exciting his cells and conditioning his body to work at peak capacity. The berserk form on the other hand worked similar to an adrenaline rush for humans, but not exactly the same thing. The beast energy - Ragen - in an Alpha is compressed and burned at an accelerated rate to boost overall stats.

The form was limited to Alphas as only their powerful bodies could bear the after-effects of the deadly form, and betas were simply incapable of compressing enough energy to activate it without killing or severely injuring themselves. Even Alphas had to toughen up their forms first and accumulate enough energy to activate it without too much backlash, making it questionable why a recently evolved Alpha was able to activate it.

Daniel took a deep breath as his fur stood on end in anticipation of a gruesome battle ahead.

‘Alright I might still have a chance, him activating it like this is bound to hurt and I doubt he can keep it up for long,’ He said to himself, switching from all brawn to part brain. ‘All I have to do is survive long enough for it to wear off and..…’

Sadly he was unable to finish his monologue as a large furry hand grabbed onto his face faster than he was able to react, its claws digging into his face, and harshly slammed him deep into the wall. A heavy thud echoed through the cave, accompanied by the sound of deep cracks spreading through the wall, a hint of how much power was in that attack.

He let out a pained groan, his head ringing from the impact, but was again unable to make sense of anything before he felt himself being slammed into the wall once more. The wall cracked even louder, several chunks of earth breaking into particles.

The Alpha slammed him in one more time, its strong hands crushing his face into the earth, before throwing him more than halfway across the cave with all its might.

Daniel's figure cartwheeled in the air, dust and earth flying off his fur, and crashed into the ground, tumbling for meters before the momentum wore off. His body ached and his head spun but he still forced himself to rise.

His disoriented form slowly stood up just in time to see a huge fist heading his way. Clarity returned a split second before the punch hit, his arm hurriedly crossing in defense. His arm shuddered from the hit but held as his feet skid for several meters until his back hit the wall.

A follow-up punch came at him with barely a second to breathe but breathe he did and in that short moment tilted just enough for the punch to sail past his face and drill a hole into the wall, sending a large cluster of earth flying and leaving spiderweb cracks.

Their eyes met for a moment and Daniel saw nothing but a maddened beast, a berserk monster that craved nothing more than to cause him pain. The Alpha’s other arm lashed out at him but Daniel already put space between them, retreating several meters away in a flash.

The Alpha rat growled in annoyance as it dug its huge hand out of the wall, displacing more rocks. Its tail dangerously slithered on the ground, seemingly waiting for the perfect moment to lash out and dig into flesh.

Daniel’s eyes widened as the Alpha disappeared from his vision, reappearing nearly instantly to throw a powerful punch at his gut. He aimed to dodge but the punch followed him like a homing missile, aiming to tear his stomach apart. The punch found his gut, digging several inches deep, and forcing a mouthful of blood out of his mouth.

The glow in his eyes dimmed for a split second before they regained their luster. He grit his teeth against the pain and threw out a fist of his own only to be countered with a powerful kick to his side that sent him rolling.

Cursing internally, Daniel forced himself up, his glowing yellow eyes shimmering with rage. He took in a deep breath, feeling the air rushing into his lungs caressing his beaten body. His glowing yellow eyes gazed at the frozen Alpha a couple of meters away, its aura seemed erratic and the glow covering it could be seen fluctuating and on the verge of extinguishing.

Daniel closed his eyes and took another deep breath, his mind roaming his entire body, his fur, hands, claws, nose, eyes, and the subtle yet ever-present movement of the air. His knuckles cracked as he clenched his fists, the nails digging into his flesh to sharply stimulate his mind. His eyes sprung open, the glow a little dim but nevertheless strong.

Rooooooooooooooooooooooooar!!!

A roar shook the cave as the Alpha let out another mighty roar, forcefully stabilizing his aura. The Alpha glared at Daniel, its claws burning with a dim red coating of ragen. The Alpha snarled as it swiped its claws in his direction unleashing five arcs of burning red ragen.

Daniel already expecting this swiftly dodged the near-instant attack before it even left the Alpha’s claws. The arcs of ragen continued on their path, cutting through any rat in their path and finally smashing into the wall leaving large deep lines.

The Alpha roared once more and in blinded fury began to unleash red slashes in his direction. He managed to dodge most of them by moving out of the way before the attacks were unleashed, but he could only move so fast. A few of the slashes hit him head on, leaving deep s***h wounds and drawing a substantial amount of blood.

A s***h flew past his face the energy ticking his nose as it sailed past, but it was the subtle breeze he felt headed his way that caused his expression to change. He ducked to his left just in time as a spiked tail smashed the ground where he once was.

‘Tch! I have to avoid that tail at all cost, one hit could change things.’ Daniel said internally, warily watching the spike draw gashes in the earth as it slithered back to the Alpha.

He let out a roar and pounced on the Alpha. The Alpha countered with an elbow strike which he narrowly dodged by leaning to his right. His left claw struck out in the same instant, drawing blood from the Alpha's chest but to his dismay it was already healing. He retreated in a flash, the Alpha's claw missing him by a hair's breadth.

The Alpha chased, his claws furiously swiping and aiming to draw blood but taking full advantage of the effects of wolf's howl, he managed to dodge just in time. They rapidly danced around the cave, the Alpha furiously clawing and Daniel dodging with the godly ultra instinct of a fly. Using the subtle changes in the air, he was able to sense the attacks before his eyes could register them enabling him to dodge just in time with his amazing speed.

The other rats had long retreated to the far end of the cave with some already fleeing in fright as the battle had long exceeded their ability to interfere. Daniel dodged another claw attack, this time noting the subtle decrease in speed causing his eyes to brighten.

Dodging became easier as the Alpha gradually got slower, though his body still accumulated some claw marks as he couldn't dodge them all and was also admittedly getting tired. He finally managed to get a punch in, his hard fist connecting to the Alpha's lower jaw with a loud bang that knocked him a couple of meters back, its feet drawing lines the ground.

Drops of blood slowly dripped from the Alpha's bloodied snout causing its eyes to widen in surprise then pain as in the next moment it puked up a mouthful of dark red blood. The fiery aura of ragen surrounding it was barely hanging on at this point, swaying unstably around its body. A loud bang burst from the cracked floor as Daniel's pounced in a burst of speed, appearing a split second later in front of the Alpha.

The Alpha only had a split second to cross his arms in defense as a heavy punch slammed into him, pushing him a couple of meters back. A flurry of punches descended on him a moment later in maddened fury, a bang accompanying each hit.

The Alpha was completely suppressed once more as the effects of Berserk form was nearly gone and the drawbacks were starting to kick in. A heavy hit to the chest threw it off its feet and crashing into a wall, leaving multiple cracks as it slid weakly onto the floor.

Daniel slowly walked closer, his fists slowly dripping with blood. A few rats shuffled closer to their Alpha in a meager effort to assist as they clearly knew they were screwed if their Alpha was out of the fight but even they did not expect what happened next.

The Alpha roughly grabbed onto the nearest rat beside it, opened its large mouth, and chomped hard on its head, easily crushing its skull. It opened its mouth wider as the blood and brain bits flowed down its throat.

This quick turn of events left Daniel frozen, the rats even more so as their hearts sank and their expression turned into one of sheer terror. The Alpha tossed the dead rat in its arms aside, but not before gorging out its heart and tossing it into his throat, and grabbed another before it could resist, chomped again, and swallowed mouthfuls of blood before gorging out its heart and swallowing as well.

This happened within a couple of seconds, precious seconds that could have been used to attack but Daniel just stood there completely frozen. He wasn't new to the brutality of the world and the even more brutal reality of a monster, but for an Alpha to devour its betas was a grievous taboo not to mention the issue of morality.

"Y... you... you killed them?" Daniel stuttered, his expression vacant. " They were your betas… members of your pack! Your family!" His voice got louder as he slowly broke out of his trance. A wave of anger he had only felt once before consumed his entire being and for the first time that night and in a very long time, Daniel raged.

Roooooooooooooooooooaaaaaarrrrrrrr!!!!!

Roooooooooooooooooooaaaaaarrrrrrrr!!!!!

Two loud roars erupted in the cave, as a fiery red aura and a golden yellow aura violently clashed, and for the umpteenth time, violently rocked the poor cave.