Scott put his hand out to stop her and began to growl himself. "Welcome back Scott the beastkin," Dawn greeted them, her massive body bowed before them, leaving Ann standing there puzzled.

  "Thank you, Dawn. Is Atlar around?" Scott growled back.

  "He will be back soon; he went out with a hunting party to bring home dinner," Dawn growled.

  "Did you just communicate with this Alpha dire wolf, Babe?" Ann asked, her eyes wide with disbelief.

  "Yes, hun, it's a long story that I will tell you about later. This is Dawn, Atlar's mate," Scott replied.

  "No, you will tell me now," she ordered, her tone firm.

  Scott pulled Ann aside and gave her the lowdown on Dawn and how they met.

  "I know you always talked to the dogs like you could understand them, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised by this," Ann said, a thoughtful look on her face.

  "Yep, now would you like to meet Dawn?" Scott asked Ann.

  "Sure, can I pet her?" Ann asked, a hint of childlike excitement in her voice.

  "I'll ask, but no promises," Scott replied.

  As they approached Dawn, she lay there, waiting and watching them. "Dawn, I'd like you to meet my mate, Anastasia Wheaton, my wife. Also, she asked if she could pet you, if that's alright?" Scott asked.

  "She may approach and pet me only a little bit," Dawn replied.

  Ann petted her for longer than expected, and Dawn visibly enjoyed it. She even found Dawn's sweet spot, causing the dire wolf to shake her leg a bit until Atlar came running out of the forest. Dawn immediately rolled onto her back when Atlar approached, showing him submission. Atlar just licked her, then approached Scott to nudge him and roll onto his back to show his submission. Dawn stood up and stared until she finally asked, "What are you doing, Atlar? We do not submit to humans."

  Atlar got up and growled back at her, "These humans are my family; they took me into their home and raised me from a pup. These are my parents." Then Atlar sniffed Ann for a moment and started to lick her hand until she finally began to pet him.

  "These are your Humans? The very ones you spoke about before?" Dawn asked in a growl.

  "Yes," Atlar replied with a grunt.

  Dawn walked over to Scott and rolled onto her back, showing submission to them until Scott said she could get up. "It's okay, you didn't know," Scott growled at Dawn, acknowledging her new understanding.

  Just then, Scott could see David flying out of the forest alongside a flying fairy, followed by the rest of the crew dragging a massive, elk-like creature.

  "Welcome back," Scott said to David as he transformed back into his Trollkin body.

  "Hey, they found us, and we just grabbed dinner," David said with the biggest smile on his face.

  They all said hello, and the rest of them headed in to prepare dinner, leaving Scott outside with Ann and the boys alone. Scott was in his Beastkin shape when he finally approached the boys, who were throwing rocks at a tree for God knows what reason.

  “Do you remember what I always say to you when we are out disc golfing?” Scott asked the boys.

  Victor turned and said with an annoyed tone, “Dad always said respect the trees and be quiet when I'm trying to throw.”

  Victor then ran up to Scott yelling, “Dad!” and gave him a big hug. That's when Riley finally figured it out and yelled “Dad!” too, joining them in a group hug.

  “You look different,” Victor said as he looked up at Scott's face petting his fur. “And you are super soft.” Tears began welling up in their eyes, and they all found a rock to sit down on. After some time went by, they exchanged pleasantries and caught up as a family until finally Cat walked out of the cave.

  “Dinner is ready.” Cat said.

  “Thank you, we will be there in a minute.” Scott smiled.

  At that point, they were all starving. All four of them got up and gathered inside around the fire-lit cave to enjoy a pleasant dinner. The crew were joking around and telling stories of their hunts while passing the drink around to all of the adults. Even Tomas began telling the kids old war stories that Scott had heard quite a few times, but they were all listening intently to him, taking in every word.

  Once dinner was done, they all found a spot around the campfire, besides the boys who were both passed out in Scott's bed.

  “So tell me. How was your experience with the System Cat? It seems like everyone has had a different avatar thus far,” Scott inquired.

  “Well, my avatar was a talking, fluffy Labrador flying puppy that I couldn't pet. I got so close a few times,” Cat replied, a hint of lingering frustration in her voice.

  “Hunter?” Scott asked.

  “Huh?” Hunter asked, finally noticing that they were talking to him.

  “Bug, your avatar, what was it?” Cat asked, prompting him.

  “Oh, one of my favorite singers from the band Perish,” Hunter replied, after finally registering the question.

  “Mine was weird, it was my mother,” Ann added, a faint smile playing on her lips.

  “Yeah, I had a talking tree,” David said, taking a swig from his ever-filling stein.

  Victor woke up for a second and mumbled, “I had a fluffy flying cat. Move over, Riley, you're pushing me off the bed.”

  “I had a talking chipmunk…” Christine began, but then everyone grew quiet. Some commotion was heard from outside the cave. Scott moved quickly toward the entrance, and once he rounded the corner, he looked through the slot in the door. He saw a group of twenty biker guys fighting the pack outside. A howl rang out, and Atlar jumped out of a deep sleep and ran up to the door next to Scott.

  “Let me out!” Atlar growled, agitated.

  “Stay here and keep the rest of them safe. I'll deal with these assholes,” Scott growled back, his own protective instincts flaring.

  Scott opened the door and walked outside into the moonlit field. “Hey, what can I do for you?” he asked, trying to sound calm. At that point, the rest of the direwolf pack ran inside, and Scott noticed a gleam of metal flying towards him. He quickly slammed the door shut just as an axe hit the door, and then jammed the door shut so no one could get in or out. Yeah, probably not my best move, but I was pissed, and protecting my crew and family was my first thought.

  “Wrong choice, assholes,” Scott said as he transformed into his Beast form and grew out his fangs.

  “Kill all of them,” an old biker man yelled, his voice gruff.

  Scott's eyes lit up red, and he could see eighteen heat signatures out in the field and two up in the trees. Two more axes flew at him, and this time, he spun around, grabbed both of them in the air, and chucked them back at the guy who threw them.

  One of the throwing axes hit the guy in the chest, and the other went directly into the dude's face, taking him down to the ground.

  Arrows started flying as Scott began to run forward. Then he activated Beastmode and his Speed Boost, and the arrows flew right past him. He flew through the darkness quickly, like a beast going for its prey. The first guy he came into contact with swung his axe towards him as Scott ducked and slid into his feet, knocking him over onto his face. He jumped onto the guy's back and bit into his neck, pulling energy from his body. Another biker came running in quickly to stop him, but Scott let go and jumped back, dodging the swing. Two more guys ran in behind him and backed up his buddy, both holding axes.

  Scott, of course, ran towards the three of them, keeping an eye on the rest of the bikers. He dove through the guy's body as he phased through and landed on the other side with both of his swords pulled out. The biker on the right swung his axe down, trying to cleave Scott in half. But Scott just parried the guy and cut his arm. The one to the left swung his axe across his chest like he was trying to cut a tree down, aiming for Scott's head. Scott rolled forward towards the guy on the right and stuck his blade into his side, watching him go down as he pulled out his blade. The swordsman finally turned around to join in on the attack.

  Swing after relentless swing came from the two attackers as Scott had to dodge and weave until his back was to the archers. He could hear the two bowmen release their arrows simultaneously. He activated his Ghost Skin and watched the arrows pass through him and hit the two in front of him. The swordsman took an arrow to the shoulder, and the axeman got lucky as the arrow hit his blade and broke on impact.

  David flew out of the slit in the door, removed the ax to let the crew out, and took flight into the sky. First out the door was Tomas, who stepped to the side of the entrance and began casting. Chains erupted out of the ground as two more of the bikers were now fighting for their souls.

  Next out the door was Ann, who charged out of the doorway towards the swordsman nearest Scott. With a dodge from the swordsman who thought he was out of reach, he got slashed in the gut by her glowing, extended Great sword. The axe man went for Ann but got an exploding disc to the dome.

  “Nice throw,” Scott said to Hunter as he entered the battlefield.

  From the shadows, both Rick and Anthony stepped out to attack some of the guys in the back.

  “Take out the archers in the trees and I will handle these guys,” Ann ordered.

  Scott took flight and went for the archers, but a sound of a whip came out of nowhere, wrapping around his leg and pulling him back down towards the ground. That's new, I haven't seen a whip here yet. This should make things interesting. The person with the whip moved in to attack with a hand axe. At that point, Scott went on the defensive to block the attack, but the biker with the whip had other plans. He pulled his whip that was wrapped around Scott's leg, throwing him off balance. Scott tried moving away, but failed. The biker was relentless, towering over him, and swung his axe down. Scott rolled to the side and kicked the side of his knee, taking him down to the ground. He unwrapped the whip from his leg and jumped on the guy's back as he was getting up. He took this biker's whip and wrapped it around the guy's throat, pulling as hard as he could while sticking his knee into his back until his neck snapped.

  Arrows continued to fly from the woods, and one passed by heading for Ann. The arrow made contact with Ann's skin but broke on impact. That's when Scott noticed her Diamond Skin glimmer in the moonlight.

  Scott ran towards the archers, dodging arrow after arrow. The one he got close to dropped out of the tree and ran for the other archer. He put both of his swords away and pulled out the axe, flying up fast because of the wings on the axe to gather momentum towards both of the archers, until he got up high enough to his satisfaction and then added a bit of gravity to himself to speed the drop down. More arrows came and missed while he phased through them like a ghost. Once he finally got low enough, he threw the massive axe sideways at the tree, missing the archer.

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  “You missed, beast,” the archer said with a cocky attitude while knocking another arrow into his bow.

  Scott landed on the ground and smiled, as the true target wasn't the archer, but the tree underneath him. With a crack, the tree the archer was on broke and began falling towards the other archer who was running away, pinning him to the ground. The other archer landed next to Scott and began shooting his bow at him whilst retreating to the forest. Using his gloves, Scott began grabbing the arrows out of the air and storing them in his bag. Another arrow came flying by, and right as he reached to grab it, the arrow exploded, making his hand lose a few fingers in the process.

  Scott began rushing in at that point and marked the archer while phasing through trees and bushes until he got to the tree he last saw the archer panic and hide behind. While phasing through, he could hear the archer's heart pounding outside of his chest until he came out the other side. At that point, the archer was in the process of climbing up the tree, and as soon as Scott came out, he spun around and used his mana to pull the archer's foot just enough for him to slip down the tree. Which he did and quickly got a grip on another branch.

  Using both hands, Scott used his mana like a whip and flung it at the archer's leg and pulled; this time, he fell down, and Scott was ready. As the archer dropped next to him, Scott grabbed a hold of him face-to-face, in which the archer headbutted him, trying to get loose.

  Unfortunately for him, Scott didn't let go. He ended up headbutting the guy back so hard that he broke the archer's nose. The archer put his head back and revealed his neck, and Scott bit into it fast and hard, ripping his neck from his body, leaving blood squirting all over. Taking his bow and gear, Scott quickly stripped him of it and cut off his head because you don't need him to come back to life as a zombie.

  After sucking out the rest of his life energy, Scott finally let go and headed back to the battle. At that point, he could see George at a distance approaching the big boss. George lit himself on fire and got into position to fight him. A shot rang off as smoke came flying out of a single barrel, and Scott could hear him say, “Ha ha, Gun beats fist every time.”

  George dropped to the ground, grasping at his chest as blood came flooding out of his wound. “Okay, this changes things,” Scott growled, a primal rage building within him. His eyes began glowing a deep red, and red veins appeared, pulsing all over his body. He roared in anger and rushed to aid George.

  His surroundings began to blur around him as he ran as fast as he could, feeling every step taxing to his mana, but he didn't stop—he couldn't stop. One of his crew was hurt, and he couldn't stand for that; as they say, time is of the essence. All he could see in his focus was the biker captain turning and cocking his revolver in slow motion. The captain pointed his revolver, which looked more like a Colt Dragoon Revolver, at Scott and pulled the trigger.

  Of course, Scott used his Ghost Skin, and the bullet flew right through him. The captain continued to shoot until he was out of bullets, now frantically trying to reload and find more ammo. Once Scott reached him, he grabbed hold of the captain's massive arm that was holding onto the revolver and bit into his wrist as hard as he possibly could until his teeth broke through the bones and the captain's hand fell to the ground, splattering blood all over the battlefield.

  With his other hand, the captain was hitting Scott's back until Scott finally rolled away. Then the captain pulled out a short sword awkwardly from his opposite side and stepped forward to swing, aiming for Scott's head and shoulder. In his rage, Scott didn't think straight, which ended up with him grabbing the blade out of mid-air with his right hand. He could feel the blade sinking into the palm of his right hand, and as his fingers wrapped around the blade, they too began to bleed. Lucky for him, his skin was a bit more defensive compared to his old human skin, otherwise, he would have lost his finger and part of his hand. But that didn't stop him. He held on tight and pulled the captain forward, throwing him off balance while standing up to look at him face to face. “Your death will now be quick,” Scott said, his voice laced with pure anger.

  The captain grinned and slammed his head forward to headbutt Scott while bringing up a knee to his midsection in the process. Scott reached down with his left hand and pulled out his Dagger of Reckoning from his side, since it was better to use a dagger in close-range combat than a short sword.

  The captain's head collided with Scott's, and his knee met Scott's stomach, and yet, it did not move him. The captain's forehead split open because in Scott's new racial form as a Beastkin, his bones were a lot denser than that of humans. The captain's knee hit Scott's gut so hard that it made him cringe a little bit, nearly forcing him to let go of the sword. But unfortunately, his other hand dropped the dagger to the ground.

  Blood now covered Scott’s right arm, and his gut was in pain, but on the outside, you couldn't tell. When the captain’s head flung back from the headbutt and Scott could see his eyes rolling into the back of his head, he grabbed his throat and began squeezing, watching him instantly gasp for air.

  A fury of swings with the captain's sword flew and Scott blocked them all with his other hand. Finally, the captain let go of the sword and grabbed Scott by the throat with his remaining hand. Then he lifted Scott into the air with his massive arm forcing Scott's grip to loosen before letting go and grabbing the guy's arm, looking into his dark blue eyes, gray handlebars of a mustache, and slicked-back gray hair with blood trickling down his forehead. Everything started to fade; darkness began to creep in as Scott started to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

  With one final breath, Scott focused and reached down with his mana to pull the blade into his left hand from the ground letting go of the arm. With a swift motion, he grabbed the handle out of mid-air as it appeared to be levitated up like some space wizard shenanigans. While lifting his left hand that held the blade in a fast motion, he plunged it up into the captain’s throat, only to have it blocked by his other handless arm.

  But the blade was deep enough for Scott to release all the mana stored inside. “That is the blade I gave my son, you…” the biker gang captain yelled as the dagger exploded and blew off the whole front half of his face along with the rest of the biker's right arm, making him release Scott from his grasp. Scott fell to the ground while the body hit the ground in front of him.

  For a moment Scott's bestial side was raging, staring daggers at Ann, Before his body started to calm down and the beast released its grip from its control. His eyes changed back as Ann approached him. “Are you good?” Ann asked.

  “Yeah, now that you are here by my side.” Scott smirked.

  “Good, now let's finish this and loot the bodies.” Ann Said. “Plus I am ready to head to bed.” Ann said.

  “I suppose.” Scott replied, rubbing his neck with his now healing, bloodied hand. Two more guys to his left rushed him after killing a dire wolf. But before they could get to him, they met a quick end as his wife Ann stepped in front of him and swung her blade through both of their midsections, separating their top and bottom halves that made a thud and splat right in front of him. Cat flew in to save the day with George's gunshot wound, and a few of the guys, Anthony, Rick, and Tomas, dragged George back to the base to recover even though his body appeared to be healed on the outside, he definitely wasn't on the inside.

  Anyway, David finished off a few guys to the left, and once the field was finally cleared, they all dragged the bodies with all of their equipment into one pile, separating all of the magic gear, of course, and splitting them up before sending a prayer up above and burning the bodies.

  The healers took turns helping the crew, and when it was Scott's turn he looked up from his seat and saw David. “Looks like you have more control of you know what now.”

  “I guess but I am still not sure if I can fully control it, it seems like Ann instantly calms me down.” Scott said watching his fingers grow back in real time.

  “Either way keep up the good work and next time don't lock us in the cave.” David said before he walked away.

  Scott sat and watched the bodies burn for a while, and thought to himself, “What if those guys could have been allies? I've had plenty of friends that were from gangs over the years, and they were loyal and cool as shit. I've known forgers, bangers, enforcers, etc., from multiple different gangs, and for whatever reason, I was attracted to that crowd or they me. Not sure why. I was told that I like to help people in the wrong crowd rather than people of my own class. We looked like a blue-collar family growing up, but my parents lived paycheck to paycheck.” Scott thought.

  “I mean, my parents Arthur and Susan had five children—four boys and one girl—not including the adopted sister, making us six. I happened to be the oldest out of all of them, and the black sheep of the family at first. My brothers Lancelot, Allen, Daniel, and my sisters Joanne and Marie (the adopted one). We had friends that lived at my parents' house over the years, and they took people in because we were a good Christian family that took care of people whenever they could.” Scott thought.

  “I need to make sure that I give people an option to be peaceful rather than just attack them on sight. Controlling my anger should be of the utmost importance on my list besides keeping the crew safe.” Scott pondered.

  Ann approached him from behind, put her hand on his shoulder, and sat down on his lap. Scott kind of came back out of his head, because he does that a lot. He pretty much speaks two times more inside his head than what he actually speaks out loud. But honestly, the distraction was what he needed. He hadn't been able to speak as much as he would've liked to, let alone have any intimacy since the System had arrived.

  Scott lamented, "I'd say that the System was kind of a big cock block. Yeah, the experience is fun and a huge adrenaline rush. In the end, with all of these monsters moving around, it's difficult to be intimate when you could have a monster or even humans show up trying to kill you or your crew."

  He decided to take what he could and kiss his wife while he still had a chance. After everything was said and done, they went back inside. Ann and Scott kicked the two knuckleheads out of the bed and snuggled up a bit before going to sleep. “You know, babe, I'm not sure if I can get used to the large Riley. I still thought I had more time with him still being little before the little guy could grow up and move on,” Scott whispered into her ear.

  “Well, you better get used to it because now you're living in a fantasy world where it seems the sky's the limit and things are changing for the better,” Ann whispered back, snuggling up on his chest.

  “Yeah, I guess I got one of my dreams fulfilled by playing an RPG game with the boys. I just didn't imagine it like this. It's not the safest way by any means,” Scott replied quietly.

  “I know you will protect us as best as you can, and you're not the only one with power, too,” Ann whispered while dozing off to sleep.

  Scott stayed up a little longer just to check on his Ice buddy Amarwrath. "Are you awake in there? Or am I going to have to come in there and wake you?" Scott asked Amarwrath, trying to get his attention.

  All of a sudden, Scott's vision blacked out, and he ended up in a white space. In front of him lay a white dragon licking his claws. “Yes, young one, you summoned me? I'll have you know I sleep when I'm bored. Plus, there's nothing else better to do in here besides watching you make poor decisions,” Amarwrath said, a hint of amusement in his voice.

  “What is this place?” Scott asked, looking around the stark white environment.

  “Ah yes, this place is your mind,” Amarwrath replied.

  “Well, I never knew I could enter a place like this. And what are these poor decisions you're referring to?” Scott asked inquisitively.

  “You know I don't like to pry, but having your family around may slow you down and are mere distractions that will likely get you killed. Us dragons usually mate, and then the female would hide with the eggs until the dragonlings hatched. Once the dragonlings were big enough to fend for themselves, the mother would send them into the wild to make a name for themselves or die trying. Call it cold, but that was our way of life,” Amarwrath said.

  “That's probably why your kind is either dead or locked up. If you band together, the giants would have never been able to take all of you. Of course, some of you would have died, but in the end, more is better,” Scott said plainly.

  “Yeah, I suppose you're right. I may not understand the way humans are or why they do the things they do. Though on the scale of having more than just one, that does up our chances of survival a bit more, unfortunately, that's just not our way of doing things,” Amarwrath said while stretching his body and wings.

  “So can we fight in here?” Scott asked.

  “Yeah, but I can't hurt you here. It's nearly pointless trying to fight. Why do you ask?” Amarwrath replied.

  “I saw it in movies, a few video games, and thought this was like that,” Scott said, giving him a few ideas of what he had originally thought it was like. He figured maybe he could drop items in his head like the door show. You know, like some books, and he would auto-learn it. “Eh, I guess there is no cheating in this place.”

  “What are video games and these said movies you speak of?” Amarwrath asked, his curiosity piqued.

  “Eh yeah, I forgot I'm talking to a fantasy dragon and not a normal human from my world. Movies and video games are what we had in our world prior to the System. Something we liked to do in our pastime,” Scott replied.

  “Interesting, I would much like to try these out sometime,” Amarwrath said, his curiosity piqued.

  “Yeah, maybe someday if we can ever create electronics in this world. Though I don't know if you would freeze the controller with your ice in the process. But I should probably try and sleep before I have to take watch duty. Good night, Amarwrath,” Scott said with a yawn. “Also, how do you exit this place?” he asked, looking for a door.

  “You will yourself out and will yourself in. Good night, young one, and happy dreams,” Amarwrath said.

  Scott began to will himself out of his mind. Yeah, not like the go crazy kind of out of my mind. Returning back outside, Ann and the boys were sound asleep, and he dozed off into a deep sleep and began dreaming.

  Two dragons flew in a star-lit sky, neither of them fighting. It was almost like a mating dance but in flight. One of the dragons was white, while the other was black. After a while, both of them landed next to an ancient, massive tree with etched runes in it. Finally, they laid there together, intertwined in lovers' bliss, right under the tree. The runes slowly lit up on the tree. No words were spoken during the whole scene, and once the sun finally rose up, so did both dragons, flying off in separate directions. “I hope to see you again, Phyiomoore,” the white dragon said, flying in the opposite direction.

  Then a huge explosion appeared behind him. The white dragon turned to see the sky in blue flames and… Then Scott woke up.

  Tomas tapped him on the shoulder and said, “Hey buddy, sorry to wake you. But it's your turn to take watch.” Scott nodded and slowly slid out from underneath Ann to let her sleep. Then he woke David up and went outside the entrance to see small embers coming off of the corpses. David slowly came out and grabbed a stump next to Scott and began singing to the stein, “Here comes the sun doo do doo do, and it's alright.” The stein began singing along, and then Scott could smell fresh coffee filling the stein. David took a sip and handed the stein to Scott, not saying a word.

  “Ah, I needed this,” Scott said, savoring the aroma of the coffee before taking a big gulp.

  “I know, right,” David replied, accepting the stein back from Scott.

  “It's nice having the gang back together,” Scott whispered, nudging David's arm with his elbow.

  “It is,” David replied, a soft smile on his face.

  “What a beautiful night,” Scott said quietly, looking up at the stars.

  “It is,” David replied again, his gaze also fixed on the celestial expanse.

  They sat there together in silence after that, taking turns drinking the hot coffee and looking up at the stars, listening to the crickets until finally the sunrise came.