Rise of the Feline Society Chapter 21 - Last Stand
"You have killed an opponent," the system announced in the middle of his shock. "Plus 100 exp. Exp: 430 of 365. Congratulations, you have leveled up to level 4. Your extra experience points will be converted over. Exp: 65 of 500. New skill unlocked: Claw Steal. Minus 20 energy. The Felkin claws extend out, and the amount of damage dealt to the prey is the amount of health granted to the Felkin. This skill lasts for 5 seconds. It has a 40% chance to only cost half of the energy needed to use the skill."
William was staring at the system page when he unconsciously chewed and swallowed the dead woman's jugular.
"20 energy has been restored. 4 HP has been restored. HP: 13 of 50. You have not consumed enough human meat to count towards anything."
I…I…I killed again, William frantically thought as he finished reading the system screen in front of him. He didn't even register that he just swallowed a jugular. He closed his system as he looked at her lifeless body. He looked around noticing that the other gang members were starting to get riled up from the death of one of their members.
"You…you killed her!" One of the gang members shouted as he charged forward, his face filled with rage.
The action caused William to snap out of his daze as he activated his skill, Claw Steal.
"Claw Steal has been activated. Minus 20 energy. Energy: 137 of 180."
At that very moment his nails, which looked like that of a cat's, extended out until it was two feet long. The gang member's eyes widened in shock realizing what laid ahead of him. William sliced at the gang member's legs. The tip of his nails sliced cleanly into his skin causing five deep cuts. William swiped with his other hand creating five more deep cuts, but on the opposite leg.
"Ow!" the gang member roared as he fell to the floor.
"18 Health points of life has been stolen. HP: 31 of 50."
A smiled appeared on William's face as he stood over the gang member, his nails still long. Two seconds later his five second duration was up as the extended nails snapped off, revealing his new nails like they had never extended in the first place.
"Please," the gang member pleaded.
"You don't deserve to plead," William snarled as he grabbed the man's torn up legs flinging him to the side.
"Ow!" the man roared then stopped as he head hit the building's wall knocking him out.
"20 exp."
William snapped his head at the others his anger evident in his face. The other gang members rushed forward. He activated his newest skill, lunging forward and slicing across their bodies, stealing their health. They punched, swung, hit, and stabbed at William. Most of them were blocked or dodged by William, while others got through. He would get hit, being knocked to the ground and stomped on. After a while, only two were left; the rest had been knocked out or were too injured to move.
"HP: 20 of 50. Energy 30 of 180. 7 minutes left to save Jack."
Sh*t, I'm low, William thought. These guys look tough to beat.
For the entire fight he had been trying really hard to avoid these two gang members. There was nothing special about them, but their sheer skill and teamwork meant that whenever he tried to take them on, they perfectly countered his every move. He decided to deal with them last because trying to deal with skillful people while a small army was protecting them was just too much. Now, it was just the two skillful gang members against himself. William being low on energy was really worrying him. He had a skill to restore his health but not his energy. Soon, he was either going to have to eat or the other option was to die. At least he expected that he would die.
"Well, well, well," the left gang member said. "You stole from us and turned yourself into an Animorph. I can't say if that was smart or stupid. Since we found your friend, I guess it was stupid. Too bad you have no backing."
Both gang members had two short swords and they were skillful with them two. William had just his fists, but he was also an Animorph. Even with that he wasn't very confident that he would win.
The left gang member dashed forward swinging his two short swords. William jumped to the side and the other gang member jumped toward him. He slapped one of the swords aside while the other was swung out grazing his shoulder.
"Minus 1 HP."
**
Author's note: During fight scenes, I won't display system notifications unless something big had happened. Big attack, low health or energy, and quests. I won't do it for every little thing like the attack grazing his shoulder above. Only for big things. Now back to the story.
**
After getting grazed William had ducked as the other gang member had attacked. William leapt toward the left gang member, letting out a loud hiss as he prepared to gouge his eyes out. While in the middle of his leap, the other gang member jumped toward his comrade, swinging his sword forward and plunging it into his gut.
"Critical hit. You have been stabbed. Minus 17 HP. HP: 3 of 50. You are bleeding. Minus 2 HP per minute until the wound has been sealed. Energy too low for emergency healing to activate."
He screamed as he fell to the ground as blood was flowing from his stomach.
What do you mean emergency healing won't work; he yelled internally at the system. If you don't heal me then I will die here. He tried looking around but his vision was already starting to blur.
"Whoa!" the gang member who William had tried to leap on exclaimed. "I thought I was a goner there. Thanks man."
"You're welcome," his comrade responded. "To be honest I thought you were too."
They approached the dying William on the ground who was trying to find anything he could use to either hurt them or help his situation.
"You tried to kill me," the left gang member said in an annoyed tone. "If it wasn't for my friend here, I might not have my eyes. Now Amos wants you alive but that doesn't settle right with me. Now, accidents happen, so I'll just tell him that capturing you alive wasn't possible." He smiled as he began to laugh.
He kicked William in the gut causing William to scream in pain.
"Shh," he said. "We don't want to grab the attention of a pour soul, do we?"
He knelt over grabbing William's neck and began to choke him.
"Minus 2 HP. Seal the wound to stop the bleeding. HP: 1 of 50."
At that moment William felt pretty hopeless. He only had 1 Health point left. His emergency didn't have enough energy and his passive healing wasn't going to save him in this situation. He was way to injured for it to work, essentially, he was going to die before it would seal the wound. He was going to die.
The gang member, his hand still firmly gripping his throat lifted William off the ground bringing his face close to his.
"I would ask for last words," the gang member said, "but it looks like you can't say anything. It looks like your silly little attempt to save your friend Jack has…failed."
When William heard the word Jack, his mind snapped back to reality. He remembered that he still had enough energy for one last skill.
"Skill activated: Claw Steal."
His claws extended out two feet as William made eye contact with the gang member and smiled. The gang member tried to react but it was too late. Using every ounce of strength that he could muster, William swung his right arm at the gang member slicing through his neck.
"Guh," he gagged as he collapsed to the floor, dragging William down with him, only half of his neck still attached to his body.
"32 Health points have been stolen," the system notified William. "HP: 33 of 50. Minus 2 HP for blood loss. HP 31 of 50."
He lost two more HP just as his stomach healed on the spot, the wound closing up. Immediately he could feel life fueling his body once more.
I was that close to death, he thought as he swung his other arm stabbing them into the gang member's body ripping him open. This is the best skill yet.
"Health has been fully restored. HP 50 of 50. Energy: 10 of 180. Your hunger is at a critical stage."
At that moment he was filled with hunger that he could not control as he starting digging in to the gang member while he was still alive.
"AGH!" the gang member yelled in agonizing pain.
The other gang member was completely overwhelmed at what he was seeing. His comrade was sliced open, the Animorph healed instantly, and then he tore the man apart like a starving zombie that needed to consume flesh.
His mind was overwhelmed as he thought that what he was looking at can only be described as a monster. He wanted to kill the monster but deep down he just knew that he couldn't, but he could still kill the monster's friend.
"Screw you!" the gang member shouted. "You killed my friend so I'm going to end yours early."
He dashed into the building preparing to drop Jack to his death, earlier than planned.
******
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