Artal gets frustrated rather often, perhaps something to do with being a being of darkness bent on the destruction of an entire species leaves a little pent-up aggression while working with them? Who knows? Oh, wait, nevermind.
Doctorn: I shall honor your request and not spoil this, that being said, the origin of the female consciousness is the Faunas female Artal killed and ate before it arrived at the Faunas village.
Hispanic Chaos: You may be right, you might not be, I'll never tell! Well, eventually maybe. This story won't be stuck in past forever. Just gotta get there first, turns out time takes time to pass, a life lesson indeed. Annoying one though.
Vashne: The presence is the mental protector and guide for Artal, Artal is aware of it but consistently forgets of it for some reason.
Chapter 21
The pack had been stagnating in size over the last few weeks, maintaining a consistent size of around two hundred, it wasn't sure why its pack was so large but the fact it hadn't increased in size was odd, since it had become an Alpha its pack was relatively consistently increasing in size.
It had leant around sixty or so to Lagune to use as he pleased, their deaths would be uncomfortable but it would deal with it, as it had gained more pack members the loss of each had become significantly less painful to its mind.
Turning back to the forest away from the Faunas Village Artal began trotting whilst calling in every single one of its non-tasked pack members, it wanted to converge and wreak some havoc with the bordering territories, nothing complicated, nothing to trigger… anything, just Grimm bloodshed.
The forest quieted around it as its gait elongated, arms reaching out further and further before the ground itself began to tear up underneath the brutal crashing of its limbs in motion, perhaps its pack could catch up, yes, that would do.
The following hour was much a blur to the Alpha as it ran through the woods south of Vale searching for Alphas, Majors, Giants, anything that would get in it and its pack's way, the lesser Grimm stood not a chance against it and were as much wheat against the scythes of its claws.
It knew the pack was following but it couldn't be bothered, though now that it thought about it, there were an awful lot of Ursa desperately trying to catch up and… ah, there was the prey it wanted, an Ursa Major, just what it wanted.
Changing its stride into a leap to a nearby tree with sufficient girth to survive its upcoming maneuver the Alpha turned to be parallel to the ground, all four limbs acquiring purchase on the tree before springing off back towards the oncoming horde.
The first Ursa was content to let its own girth act as a stop for the slightly larger Grimm, likely used to the large frame it boasted being enough, Artal decided to take that gamble and rammed in, the Ursa quickly found that not only was it not able to resist the oncoming force but the force also promptly rolled over its back, separating its head from the formidable shoulders.
Landing on the other side of the front runner left the Alpha with its back against a wall of very slowly dissolving Grimm flesh, no escape, only forward movement from here.
Feeling very much like a juggernaut Artal flung out its long right arm catching an Ursa by its head before forcing the creature to the ground, the claws finding purchase a moment later in the back of the thick neck, snuffing it out like a candle.
The Ursa seemed more than happy that their prey had paused and had stopped its flight, perhaps due to their natural deficiency in speed compared to a Beowulf, though that applied to most other species of Grimm, Beowulves tended to be swift.
Covering all open sides three Ursa reared up, claws poised to both crush and slash at their target beneath them, the momentary height difference was immediately forced back into the favor of the Alpha as it pounced straight up like it had seen a cat, a small human pet, do before when startled.
The result was a very startled horde of Ursa as the Beowulf clung to the tree it found itself in before kicking off the fragile bark toward the lumbering giant that was the Ursa Major.
Decades of life had taught the Ursa well evidently as it did not seem surprised by the maneuver at all, in fact, the creature reared up to respond to Artal's strike near immediately, the behemoth was far larger than its brethren and evidently faster as well.
The resultant clash went the way of weight, that is to say, Artal swiftly was integrated into the ground via a heavy handed, open clawed swipe, the force of which, left the Alpha disoriented with an unresponsive body.
As Artal looked up at the incredibly large and, upon closer inspection, incredibly dangerous Grimm before it, the realization that it should have waited for its pack came back full force, juggernaut status was rewarded to truly ancient Grimm for a reason, those were the only Grimm that could get away with traveling without a group easily.
Its delirious mind briefly considered how often Deathstalkers traveled alone before remembering that they didn't, it was just that small Deathstalkers tended to be very small and unremarkable.
Finally registering the incoming death blow for what it was the confused Beowulf flung itself to the side before drunkenly rebounding off a tree, it should probably test what was inside its body at some point, human biology had opened a new avenue of thought, as did the concussion it thought it was sporting, if it could even get them, did it even have a brain like humans?
Two Ursa rapidly approached the dangerously swaying Alpha intent on taking advantage of the addled creature, snapping and clawing they tried forcing the opposing Grimm back only to find that the enemy still had plenty of fight left.
Falling forward Artal successfully registered the threat in front and put the razor sharp blades of its claws forward to ward them away, pulling tis head from the ground it found that it had apparently done far more than it thought, its right hand currently dripping blood while halfway stuck in the Ursa's mask.
The other Ursa connected fully though, the strike throwing Artal into a nearby tree, the disorientation getting worse, yet, something was wrong, the world was distorted distracted, certainly, yet, the last blow had gotten rid of the internal ache, something else was happening, Artal wasn't sure if it had a brain like humans but it was sure that at least it's eyes were different.
Perhaps the first strike had thrown the Alpha for a loop, it had happened before, just never so disorientating, recovery was usually near immediate, in fact, it could feel the recovery having completed, it mind was sharp and without the temporary drunken stupor which initially occurred when the blow landed.
The world as it could see though was still very disoriented, nothing was in the right position, everything was fuzzy, it looked like the land was moving, this would have to be investigated, for now though, it needed to secure a foothold for its pack once they arrived from the north, therefore…
Focusing through the haze Artal took off running around the group to the south, intent on having its pack flank them and wreak the most havoc, secondarily the casualties would be lower amongst its pack members, it could take the blows fine, but losing pack members still felt… avoidable.
The Ursa bit, clawed and lunged at the awkward skim their foe performed by their ranks, sometimes within range sometimes not, a series of new claw marks appearing on the hide of Alpha a testament to how close they came to dragging down the fleet-footed creature.
Already it could sense how close its pack was, it needed the attention of the Ursa and none came to mind that were more effective than what it had been given.
Skidding across the ground while turning Artal turned to the sky, rumbled deeply in its chest and howled as loud as it could, the sound reverberating about the area, the targeted audience now hyper-aware of the presence of their target and hopefully only their target.
As the smugness came back due to its pack pouring in from the woods to the north Artal couldn't help but think about the howl it had just made, the sound wasn't at all like the sound it had heard from so many other Alpha Beowulves, it didn't have much an ear for tone but it was deeper and more… like what it imagined a human would sound like if they could roar that loud, pathetic lungs on those creatures.
The thought was cut short as the melee started in earnest, this time it couldn't just dance around the group, it had to hold their attention to lessen the casualties among its pack, so wading in it went, avoiding the lumbering creatures like the world around it wasn't hazy and shifting constantly.
The cries of pain from the other side of the group drove Artal rather swiftly into bloodlust, the large Grimm all around acting as little more than receptacles for the razor-bladed aggression that was directed their way for a mere moment before their life was snuffed out.
After trading blows rather unevenly with around sixteen Ursa the Major finally managed to find its way to the front, its arrival punctuated by a massive crash where the Alpha had been a mere moment earlier.
The great beast charged forward in a manner very reminiscent of a Boarbatusk, intent on flattening the very large thorn in its side.
As Artal dodged to the side it noticed something odd, when it avoided the charge it had been so intent on getting out of the way it had not pulled off a counter strike, yet despite this the Major tumbled to the ground as if it had been struck instead of recovering from its charge.
Standing back up on its four legs the Major looked around until its eyes came upon Artal, farther away than the rest of the Ursa due to how far its dodge had moved it, yet as its eyes looked at Artal a realization came across the Alpha, the Ursa couldn't see its foe.
With this realization came a chilling thought, the disorientation was probably occurring with the Major right now, a third party or a natural phenomenon like they were fighting next to some noxious gas vent.
A quick check with the pack's eyes confirmed there were no gas vents or anything of the like, there was someone here at the fight, maybe not nearby but most likely at least within sight of the battle, Semblances were weird but there did tend to be certain consistencies they followed.
Realizing quickly that its own eyes would be virtually useless for this task it stepped back a bit further and delved into the sights and senses of its currently in combat pack.
The eyes of its pack were focused but that was fine, acquiring the information from the lightest farting of glances was enough, after all it was only taking a tiny bit of information, no processing necessary.
Pushing the information to Art eventually yielded results, one of the pack had glanced and seen a human shape silhouetted against the back drop of the canopy, the figure hadn't moved and was a ways away from the fight but that was enough.
Setting a few pack members to the side Artal created a dedicated stalking unit, focusing on keeping them hidden from the person lest they consider fleeing.
Turning back to the frustrated Ursa Major, Artal decided that with it disoriented as well now was the time for a killing blow, after all, Grimm hit hard but didn't tend to be resilient to physical damage until they got enough bone armor.
Running low to the ground Artal moved between the legs of the larger creature, cutting clean off the front right leg and causing the swift giant to topple to the ground, it's already lost coordination only serving to worsen the effects.
The collapsing creature realized dimly that its target was right below it and decided a crushing was in order, not that it could choose not to, but at least it realized that it was also the correct decision to kill the impudent enemy.
Continuing its forward momentum the Alpha attempted to slip out from under the larger beast, or at least turn its body around to contest it when it was inevitably dropped on.
Swift thought the Beowulf may be it was not fast enough to get out from under its foe and the larger of the two now had a pinned Alpha beneath it, unfortunately for the Ursa the Beowulf it pinned was halfway out, laying on its back and clawing its face and neck.
Biting down on the belligerent Beowulf the Ursa drove its teeth deep into the shoulder and promptly shook its head, intent on ripping the offending limb off of its owner's body.
Feeling the tissue ripping Artal became desperate and slipped it's still functional left arm around the back of the neck as quick as it could to find a sufficient weak point to end the larger creature's existence.
Tissue tearing, the claws found their purchase, a proper killing blow to anything with a spine, or whatever similar construct a Grimm had, the claws slid up the back of the neck, that sweet spot where neck and head met, instantly ending any further intelligent thought or action.
Relieved at the success Artal began to squirm out from under the larger Grimm, after a few squirms though it noticed something was wrong, it couldn't feel it's right arm, looking down confirmed its thoughts, the Ursa had completed it's final task, from the shoulder down was a blood dripping mess.
Slightly panicking Artal saw its arm lying to the side, thrown a short distance by the violent shaking, yet missing a large chunk of the shoulder area, likely still inside the slowly decaying Grimm.
Prying open the jaw of the deceased Grimm was useless with only one arm, the creature likely had more jaw strength than Artal could deal with anyway but it needed that shoulder back before it presumably dissolved away like the Grimm that enclosed it.
The pack slowly started trickling in, the battle clearly having gone well, one pack member dragged the large missing limb over to their leader, looking at it briefly Artal decided something was better than nothing and jammed the slowly dissolving arm into the gaping wound.
Not being sure on the specifics of Grimm healing and how it interacted with missing limbs Artal ordered the grim business of ripping open the maw of the Ursa Major to recover the lost shoulder.
A few short minutes later and Artal had what was presumably it's shoulder, completely impossible to determine though due to the amount of dissolution already having occurred and the amount of blood it was covered in.
Trying to focus on the reattachment of it's limbs Artal almost didn't notice the hunger creeping up on it, nearby was the body of a prime example of a Grimm, one which would be no doubt delicious to eat.
Perhaps it wouldn't be terrible to give its body some nutrients… healing took a significant amount of those as it understood from those books…
Slowly standing awkwardly while holding its still not attached right arm with its left Artal stepped back next to the bulk of the larger creature, the desire to consume becoming stronger as it warred against it, Art insidiously inciting the rapidly flaring feeling.
Artal didn't often consider Art to be against it, in fact, every time Artal considered Art it realized it had forgotten about Art again, how could it forget about something that had been there since the beginning?
Yet Artal had no such defense against this manner of attack, nor did it feel as if it needed any, wasn't this something it would have done anyway if it hadn't been so worried about its arm, natural, this was.
Jaw slightly hanging a last thought crossed the primal beasts mind before it succumbed, who was the one that interfered with its fight?
The thought washed away immediately as Artal dissolved away into the mindless beast of its origins, the great mound of power that was once the Ursa Major now only power for the beast that consumed it.