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A subtle hiss of gas and the soft glow of the circle before him was all that Therin's senses could pick up. Apart from those two signals. He sensed nothing, no sounds of the animals in the forest, not the sound of the barkeeper behind him talking, nor even the smells of the tavern that had clogged his senses before. The anima mage had attuned his senses to what he found odd in the room. The rugged looking male at the bar had a glowing circle on the back of his neck, so subtle he wouldn't have been able to detect it otherwise, and the soft hiss of gas escaping somewhere in the room. He was trying to tell from where though, and he didn't know enough about the intricately traced runes within to tell what the spell or seal was doing or what it was for. Even after him and his brother had been grilled in the intricacies of magic. Every possible future lord must know at least the basic magic, but Therin had taken a hankering for it. More so then his brother who followed the path of blades, leaving Onik to only follow magic as an enhancement, while Therin made it his primary focus of combat.

Therin didn't look to be of noble descent, in fact, he was rather average in looks. Therin stood at a square 6 feet, identical in height to his brother, and with the same black hair their father had. His was ear length and looked like it'd seen a comb as often as a pig had won a fight with pack of tigers. His eyes were a deep hazel that he defined as his best quality, since it is all he got from his mother. He was garbed in form fitting dark robes, the left sleeve he had torn off to expose his tattoo that marked him as anima mage. At his side dangled his telescoping metal staff, it might be made of solid steel, but he magically sealed it, so not the shock of plain force will travel through it, and the seal to keep it a 1' long rod in a simple leather pouch when not in use. That pouch was just one of the many where he carried his odd trinkets and the like on his person. Other than that he wore sharkskin boots so that he could keep his footing on difficult or slippery terrain like water, mud, and ice.

No matter how equipped he was, he was still human so he didn't see what happened next before it happened, no matter how much he wished he did later. The seal on the back of the man's neck gave a single pulse, before it detonated and the man vanished in a flash of light and raw kinetic force. Glasses shattered across the bar itself from the shock wave, the unfortunate bartender was on the receiving end of some of that shrapnel, he probably wasn't going to walk away from this one. Even further, in a sphere around the man who had apparently exploded, there was complete destruction. The chair was history. Therin saw this all at once as he summoned a barrier before him. It wasn't soon enough though as it didn't have time to properly form and shattered on impact. The shattering of the barrier shattered his connection to the mana in the air and knocked the air out of his lungs as he crumpled to the ground, crumpling to catch his breath.

A commotion upstairs was what followed shortly after as the two who had checked in to stay the night had of course been roused by the commotion. The man who first arrived turn a ghastly shade of pale at the scene of destruction and the pin-cushioned bartender. He quickly rushed for the door, leaving Therin gasping on the floor as he undoubtedly made his way to relieve his nausea outside. The woman that came down moments later, seemed to be able to stomach it better, but she was still obviously daunted by the fact she averted looking at the deceased. Instead, she moved to help Therin up, who badly needed it since it felt like his head had exploded and his lungs were on fire. He was brought to his feet resting on the woman's shoulder and began to ask her for a name so as to keep her calm, it wasn't his first time seeing a body or even a death. He was interrupted by another loud crack, and a thud against the door. Something was wrong, but the woman didn't sense it as she shook her head and called out loud, she even managed a smile.

"Honey, the door is a pull door, not a push. No matter how hard you shove you-"

Her sentence was halted as the door to the front of the tavern exploded in a shower of splinters. Therin wasn't exactly thinking clearly as he looked at the woman. She would have absolutely no idea what happened or what he said, but all she knew was Therin shouted something at her and suddenly she was no longer in the Heart's Fire Inn, she was instead about a half a mile away right outside the town, the Heart's Fire Inn was just the watering hole for trader's passing by.

The loud crack sounding from the teleportation spell set Therin's ears ringing, but it was necessary. He could feel something in the air. The less people here the better, and as the monster stepped in, a shiver went down his spine. The thick furred brown werewolf staring him down was exactly the last thing he ever wanted to fight. Therin's staff was out and extended before the lycan even stepped the rest of the way in. A low growl built in the beast's throat as it leveled his amber eyes level on his. Already Therin began formulating a plan of attack. Speaking the words under his breath, Therin's staff took on a gray aura as he dropped into a battle stance. Though the lycan only laughed and spoke in a low growl. Honestly, everything about this beast made Therin's skin crawl.

"Human. Take a step back. Lie on the floor and wait for me to snap your neck, it'll be easier for everyone that way. I'm not in the mood to play fetch with your stick. I'm a bit hungry."

Therin wasn't an idiot, he didn't wait for the monster to finish speaking, while the wolf was speaking, he indented a groove in the wood beneath him in a specific pattern, a snare. It would activate on pressure and paralyze anyone touching it. Therin's natural impulses told him to run, but he couldn't now not after knowing these people had been killed. He really didn't want to start a vendetta hunt. So he took a defensive stance and stepped back, putting the snare between himself and the wolf. Speaking up he tried to goad the wolf into attacking...as it still hadn't looked away from him, it was just staring him down.

"Hey mutt. Ready to fight someone who isn't defenseless?"

The lycan grinned..not growled, and here Therin thought he wasn't intimidated. The lycan spoke in a low voice, the only way to describe the voice as if someone had given gravel the ability to speak.

"Don't think your tricks will stop me so easily. I don't mind an extra snack to tide me over....come quietly and I'll only break your spine. It won't hurt."

Therin just backed away from the slowly approaching lycan, and watched as he simply stepped around the snare, grinning at Therin's disappointed expression. He took a sudden leap at him, but didn't even get close, instead, he slammed into the ground....aiming so that the floorboards beneath him would wrench up towards him seeking to smack into Therin.

The mage steps onto the boards and back-flips as the boards launch him up, firing off a burst of mana to propel himself away from the werewolf in midair. He lands smoothly, rushing forward now, staff glowing with power around the tip! He thrusts it forward towards the werewolf quickly; should it hit him, he'd be struck with the force of the blow and harnessed kinetic energy that was roughly as strong as a solid hammer swing from a warrior. He wasn't bringing out the big spells just yet.

The brown furred lycan growled at him as he charged. He seemed to do that a lot actually. Instead of trying to dodge the blow, he stood his ground and clawed at him in an uppercut with those razor like claws. He would still be open for a hit, but his strange style and the way he threw this hit made it so that if he kept on her current path, he would slash the mage, depending on how much he tried to dodge would determine how deep the cut was.

Therin decided to pull back, and with a spoken word he released the kinetic energy in the lycan's direction anyway, but it would be widely dispersed, ultimately not doing much other than acting as a shove. He did not want to get bit or cut by him, for sure. He takes a more defensive stance now, waiting to see what the wolf would do...

The lycan crossed his arms defensively against the kinetic blast, this sent him sliding on his paws across the ground from the blow. He took a step back as the mage seemed to get defensive, but he did seem a bit disappointed that he'd dodged, then he'd only have to avoid the mage until the changes kicked in. In a sudden move, he spun with a kick and hooked a bar stool with his foot launching it at him, but the sound of thudding paws was quick to be heard behind it as well as the movement of brown fur. He was going to attack right after that stool hit..

The mage quickly knocked the stool aside with his staff and got ready to move with the wolf's oncoming attacks, prepared to duck and weave and strike when he saw the opportunity! With his free hand he was already gathering pure kinetic power. The wolf saw this and wasn't following right behind the stool, he instead had ducked and came from Therin's right with a sharp slash, but of course he didn't have open fists, the claws were bared and ready to cut.

He barely avoids the surprising clawed attack, barely able to feel the sensation of claw on skin on his cheek. That's when he drives her staff towards his stomach and brings that palm full of energy towards his face, that attack left the lycan open! There is a sharp yelp as the wolf tries to dodge. He feels to staff connect since the male wolf only barely started to pull back, thus the yelp of pain. He started to teeter, his balance jarred from his gut shot. The blow to the face not only left the crack of a solid blow to the jaw, but the thud of the wolf hitting the floor. Growling the wolf rolled to get to his feet, but the blow itself left his senses jarred. He looked unsteady.

The mage doesn't let up on the attack now, ignoring the slow drip of blood off his cheek as a stinging warmth built. He conjures fire on his staff now as he advances forward, striking at the wolf's midsection with swipes and thrusts in rapid succession. The wolf obviously lost a bit of his game at that first combo, he was being backed up towards the bar as he tries to find a way to strike back. He blocked the first blow with his paw, only to have the next blow smack that paw aside, the next blow he took to the mid-section with the announcing of a sizzle of singed fur. He was looking for a blow in edgewise, but the burning blows kept him daunted. Only as he reached the bar did he use it as a median to flip himself over it to separate himself from her ducking behind it for a reprieve.

Therin spins his staff and holds it behind him, then points to the bar. "Worthless mutt..." He wipes his cheek, then double-takes, gritting his teeth "... worthless mutt..." he repeats. "It looks like you actually managed to scratch me."

There was a brief silence as it was mentioned he was seen as He used his brute strength to smash out a part of the bar to spray at the mage growling. He threw himself at Therin, fangs flashing. Therin didn't have time to respond and the wolf smashed into him, throwing them both to the ground...as Therin could feel those fangs embed themselves in his left shoulder, hot warmth of his blood seeping around the area. Panicking, Therin gathered all of his mana at once into a solid kinetic force spell, he struck wildly at the wolves chest with it hoping to blast the beast off.

Blood, fur, bone and other pieces that used to belong to the lycan sprayed against the roof as the wolf's chest was blown out by the sheer force of the spell. The lycan released it's hold as it moved it's jaws as if trying to say something...before Therin had the deadweight of the body on him. His mind was on other things as the bite wound felt like it was on fire. It was just a flesh wound, but Therin was well aware of why it hurt so much...that bite was infected.

If he were to look into a mirror, he would get to watch as his now healed cheek and shoulder was rapidly growing coarse brown fur, spreading rapidly across his face...as his ears began to grow pointed and seem to move move up his head, tufts of fur accenting them as well. Instead he weakly lifted the hand of his uninjured arm to his cheek, feeling the fur growing. He could also feel his nails pressing into his cheek as they got sharper.

The mage stops the doing anything else and just holds his cheek, letting out a cry of pain as he begins to change... "T-this can't be... happening..!" he manages to say, pulling his hand away from his cheek to look at those growing nails. He looks at the downed lycan in anger... but in his pain, couldn't take out his anger on the corpse. "D-damn mutt...!"

The changes didn't stop there, in fact the pain in his cheek was spreading to the rest of his face. Fur continued to spread across his face following the pain, even as his nose would burn with the smell of the alcohol in the air as it became more noticeable, it wouldn't take a genius to figure out why he could suddenly smell better. The fact was only cemented now that the bridge of his nose was slowly coming into view, accompanied by the feeling like someone had kicked him in the mouth.

His body almost felt like it was having a contest as to what part of his body could hurt worse. His feet felt tight and stiff as if someone was shrinking his shoes and stepping on his feet at the same time. Those changes wouldn't be visible at this time, but the fur taking over his neck would. The mage braced himself against the floor and let out another pained groan, now looking down some sort of half-formed snout! He drops his staff to roll across the floor, trying to find the focus to think of a spell to bind his body from changing, but the words just wouldn't come to mind, half from the transformation, half from his mental state.

The changes rolled on, even building speed! His face continued to pull forward as his jaw snapped under the strain, the bone breaking and beginning to reform in a new shape...the fur breaking across the skin as his nose pulled and turned black...he was turning, there was absolutely no doubt now. All he could do was watch it happen. He could feel his ears moving, his skull changing, and if that wasn't enough. His backside burned as pressure built, alien sensations spread across his ass. The ground began to look farther away and his balance was shifting...faster and faster everything that made him human was being stolen by a sea of fur, pain, and nausea.

He lets out a very loud cry of pain as his jaw snaps and reforms, gasping out as it kept on going faster, leaving him no chance to resist the changes! He claws the floor as he clenches his hands against it, aware he was getting taller along with the rest of the horrifying changes... and all he could do was groan, cry out and try to breathe.

A wave of nausea in his gut was accompanied by another sensation, but with the pain of his entire body growing, his new tail forming, his feet exploding into some hybrid of paw and foot. This feeling was out of place. He was hungry. Really hungry in fact, after all, his body did just burn a lot of calories with this transformation. He could even feel it, growing in his mind, this was the part Therin feared most. Not even the body, but the mind of the wolf. It whispered to him, giving him hints, showed him what it would take to give in, a scent assaulted him that hadn't been on the front of his mind before. The dead bartender smelled good...really good. He wouldn't be able to even carry himself to the bar though as his legs snapped, earning a spasm as Therin tried to yell in pain, but he couldn't. His organs were shifting with the change and he couldn't make a noise with half formed vocal chords.

The mage's new tail waves spasmodically as it finishes forming, tearing the back of his pants, and even as he felt the changes might be slowing to a stop. His clothes split, his shoes popping from the strain as the constant pain from his feet was quelled. He suddenly felt like he could breath better and the sea of nausea was gone, only to be replaced by pushing and urging instincts of the wolf. His clothes began to fall away in tatters as he stopped growing, his final height a few inches over 8ft and his muscles were far more toned then before. He wasn't rippling with muscle, but he was in better shape. His entire body was covered in the same brown fur as the lycan that had turned him, but he was different in subtle shapes that made him unique.

He pants out as the pain and nausea left his body, growling at the lycan and holding his head gingerly, trying to get the wolf instincts to just stop. Dragging himself to his feet he looked to the door and put one foot in front of the other....Step by step he got closer to the deceased form of the bartender. He began to drool lightly, in his mind he called for a step, but his vision was blurring..he was just so hungry...one bite wouldn't hurt...

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Therin had no idea where he was when he woke naked with only the sun sifting through the trees to greet him. His head was throbbing and he had no idea what time it was. Shaking off the feeling of nausea, he sat up to look himself over, feeling something was wrong. Therin got to see his blood soaked front as he remembered everything from the night before. By the time he stopped running blindly through the woods, trying to outrun what he'd done. His own blood from his feet had mixed with the blood covering him. He was a monster...just like his father..