A Werewolf In Under-Town

With no other preamble, Shaggy dove out of the magical black cloud and into the front line of Phreaks. He swept his claws in front of him, hitting several shocked looking gangsters. His claws slashed through their bodies, and the scent of blood filled the air. The Phreaks' shock soon wore off, however, as they spotted the attacker in their midst. Shaggy was soon bombarded with lead pipes, small knifes, and even some sword slashes.

The deluge was joined with the intermittent ranged fire as well. Occasionally, he felt the sting of a laser bolt hitting him in the side, or maybe a bullet would flatten itself against his skin. The true surprise, though, came when Shaggy disemboweled a weird-looking bunny man with mismatched arms. Shaggy booted the corpse of the thug away and was engulfed in the flames of a fireball.

The red-hot ball of fire exploded against Shaggy's chest and sent him skidding backward. Pain flared across his front, then quickly numbed itself as his healing took effect. His skin was regrown in moments, but the memory of the pain made Shaggy scan the mob in front of him. Behind the line of Phreaks with melee weapons was a smaller line of more normal-looking humanoids. Ones in robes.

"The sumbitches have mages." Shaggy stated over the pack link in shock.

"Well… that kind of makes sense. Any half-decent gang is gonna want some mages, right?" Rita said, sounding thoughtful.

Shaggy dodged a pipe swing from a nearby satyr-looking woman and clawed her arm off. "I guess, but they just hit me with a damn fireball. That shit hurt."

"And I bet you're fine already."

"That's not the point."

"Boss, do you want us to swing around and hit the back of their line?" Stanley asked. "We're almost to you."

Shaggy shook his head as he lined up a jump. "No. Imma get them. You lot just hit them again as soon as I do."

"Copy."

Shaggy ducked a sword from a beetle-looking guy with a shell on his back before cracking the dude's knee. There was a loud pop and the bug-turtle collapsed to his knees. Ignoring the screaming, Shaggy placed a foot on the guy's shoulder and used it to jump into the air as hard as he could. He felt the shoulder break beneath his boot, but he ignored it as he found a red-robed mage and activated his Pounce ability. He wasn't sure if the robe was an identifier of the person's school of magic, but he was about to find out.

Shaggy sailed through the air as his ability launched him sideways. He soared over the heads of the Phreaks as they swatted at him with their weapons, but they bounced off his body. The mage, seeing he was a target, spread his arms wide and summoned a flaming wall that glowed bright red. Shaggy crashed into and through that wall, claws first. He felt the bite of the fire licking at his skin as he plunged both claws into his target and ripped them in opposite directions.

The pain of the fire died as soon as the Mage did, but a new pain hit Shaggy in the neck and he recoiled in pain. Looking around, Shaggy saw that the other mages were moving away from him. When he moved to give chase, an uneven weight on his neck almost made him trip. He reached a hand up to his neck and felt a long ice-cold needle puncturing his neck. When he jostled it, pain flared, and he almost fell to his knees. With annoyance, Shaggy yanked the ice spear out and tossed it aside. He could hear the mutterings of more spells being cast as he spotted a blue-robed Mage and jumped again.

He slashed through his next target as the mages continued to scatter away from him. All the while he was being pelted with more laser and gun fire. Ice spears, fireballs, chunks of earth, and wind blades were all tossed at him. Tanking each one, Shaggy worked his way through the mass of mages. He was ripping an Air Mages leg off when he heard one shout.

"Fuck this! The Deals off!"

The words were followed by a change in air pressure, and Shaggy hurried to find the voice's owner. When he did, he saw the few remaining mages stepping into a gold-rimmed portal. He few flipped him the bird as the portal winked out and the mages disappeared. Shaggy growled, slightly miffed at the absconding mages. But there was still fighting going on in the streets.

Stanley and his group had hit the front of the Phreaks after Shaggy pounced. The second wave of Shaggy's people had blasted through the front of gangsters. Stanley, in his silvered form, was a whirling dervish of destruction. Next to him, the bug brothers were cracking skulls. Sometimes literally with their pincer-like jaws. Seth's blurred form was also making the rounds. The youngest member of his pack was pushing, shoving, and overall being a nuisance to the line of shooters opposite Shaggy's side of the street.

He was about to move to assist the kid when a loud, thunderous roar broke the air. It didn't take long to find the source as Shaggy spotted the gray and furry behemoth stomping toward him. The eight-foot alien had the body of a rock golem, but it was trimmed with gray and black fur. Its hands ended in pointed and jagged-looking fingers. Its beady black eyes sat sunken into the alien's round face and they were narrowed at Shaggy. The furry golem aimed a kick at Shaggy, which he jumped away from.

"I'll crush you! You bastard!"

Shaggy swatted his claws at the alien's outstretched hands, batting them away. Sparks flew as his claws scrapped against the golem's skin, leaving slight cuts. Shaggy backpedaled again as his opponent cried out in surprise.

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"You look like you'll try," Shaggy quipped as he flexed his claws.

Snorting at his words, the furry golem shook out his arms and stomped his foot petulantly. Shaggy was about to attack when the ground shook dangerously. He almost expected more zombies to rise from the ground. But instead, where the golem's foot hit the floor, a long handle shot up from the ground. As the golem gripped the handle, a wide axe head grew out of the asphalt and the golem broke off its weapon from the street. It spun its long handle axe toward Shaggy and growled.

"You're that upstart shifter. Killing you will surely get me better standing in the gang."

"It'll get you dead!" Shaggy shouted, launching himself at the golem.

The golem swung the axe head up to meet Shaggy and his left-handed claw met the shaft of the weapon. Sparks flew up into Shaggy's face, but he ignored them as he pressed forward and tried to slam his right-hand home. The golem batted the attack aside with one hand while he kept his other on his weapon's haft. Both of their attacks were parried to the side and the both of them recoiled. Shaggy got his feet under himself first and immediately jumped. Throwing both of his booted feet into the golem's chest, there was a loud thunk as the golem-man was pushed backward.

Shaggy landed on his back and rolled away. But the golem was quick this time and raised his axe high and slammed it to the ground. The asphalt ax's edge bit into the street at Shaggy's side as he tried to get up. But a booted foot kicked him back to the floor as the golem raised the axe again. Shaggy rolled away and scooted back before the axe could come down. Throwing himself against the curb of the street, Shaggy used it to roll over and push himself upward. He had just gotten to his feet when the axe head came around again and he was too slow to get a claw up.

The asphalt axe punched into his side and sliced halfway into his stomach. The golem cried in triumph as Shaggy shoved against the weapon in his side. Flushed with victory, the alien Phreak pulled his weapon closer to his body, dragging Shaggy with it. Glaring down at him, Shaggy could see that the golem-man was grinning. His tiny pointed teeth were gleaming in the night as his smile widened at the sight of Shaggy's wound.

"Got you now, little bitch!"

Shaggy said nothing as he simply slashed a clawed hand up into the golem's face. His claws raked the underside of the guy's chin and were pushed off slightly. But sparks flew and Shaggy's claws continued their journey up the front of his opponent's face. Shouting in pain and recoiling, the golem let his grip on his weapon go and Shaggy used that chance to dislodge it from his side. Immediately, his healing went to work. But Shaggy wanted to push his advantage.

Unfortunately, the blood loss and his healing took their toll and instead of cutting the guy to pieces, he flailed weakly for a second. Once again, they were both on the back foot. But this time, it was the golem that collected himself first. Roaring in anger, the golem rushed Shaggy and gripped him by the shoulders. With little time to struggle, Shaggy found himself lifted off the ground and into the eight-foot giant's face. Black blood spilled from the cracks in his stone-like face, but all Shaggy could focus on were the black eyes glaring into his own.

"I'm going to break you now."

"You're going to try," Shaggy sputtered as he kicked the golem in its stomach.

His kicks went unnoticed as he was unceremoniously lifted into the air and was flipped horizontal. Laying sideways in the golem's arms, Shaggy grunted as his stomach was brought down on a boulder-like knee. All the air left him as the golem pushed him off his knee and walked over to where Shaggy had dropped the axe. Choking to get his air back, Shaggy heard the bigger man's steps as he walked over to his weapon and picked it up. Raising to his knees, Shaggy took a deep breath through his nose and focused.

The wolf was ready and Shaggy was done playing. The golem stomped back over and Shaggy could almost hear the sound of the axe rising in the air once again. With a growl, Shaggy met the golem-man's eyes and smiled. He felt the wolf take over and he wrestled what control he could as the axe came down on him.

A long, furry arm reached up and gripped the blade by its edge as Shaggy hopped to his feet. Glaring into the golem's surprised eyes, Shaggy's hybrid form grinned like a wolf as he wretched the weapon from his attacker. Tossing it aside, Shaggy Reached his other hand up and palmed the golem's small head. With a concentrated effort and a groaning cry of pain, Shaggy ripped the stone man's head off and tossed it aside. The golem's body collapsed as a fountain of black blood surged through the air.

A notification flickered in the corner of Shaggy's HUD as the golem's blood hit his furry chest. The wolf ignored it as it scented more blood in the air. The fight was still going and there were two more fights nearby. Meat and prey were in ample supply, and the wolf was hungry.

Throwing himself into the fight against the Phreak thugs though proved too boring for the wolf though. It quickly grew annoyed and relinquished control back to Shaggy. Like an annoyed child, Shaggy felt the wolf curl up in its little space and pout. Trying not to laugh, Shaggy finished the job of mopping up the Phreaks.

Seth was actually fighting better now. He was still a little squeamish, but he did the work and came out the other side. Stanley the bug brothers, though. They were an absolute terror. Between them, they wrapped up the street fight in a matter of moments and soon Shaggy's people were the only ones left panting in the streets. Shaggy canceled his transformation as he took in the street.

Immediately, Seth sped around and started collecting everything he could. When he got to the golem alien's axe, he raised an eyebrow at Shaggy.

"Take it." Shaggy said, shrugging. Someone would use it.

Seth blew out a breath, but by then the others were already helping. The bug brothers grabbed the axe before suddenly shifting into their fused formed. In their giant form, Rin and Vud gripped the heft of the axe and swung it a few times. Until that point, Shaggy didn't know ant-people could smile. It was a disturbing experience.

"North Side, South Side? How y'all doing?"

"Fights over." Cekrass growled, sounding annoyed.

"Same." Rita added. "No survivors. You?"

"A few mages ported away. They said something about a deal being off and then they bolted."

"Intriguing." Ephemara's voice said suddenly over the Link. "I can get my people on that. We weren't aware of any deals between the Phreaks and any mages."

"Something for tomorrow. I think we need to get back to our own turf now. We've hit them hard and they'll know it. I don't want to push too much, though."

"We've given them a black eye for sure, boss."

"Good hunt."

"I'll leave some people in the area to start getting information."

Shaggy nodded but said nothing. The golem alien had been a bit more of a challenge than he expected, but overall Shaggy agreed with Cekrass.

It had been a fairly decent hunt.