The arms scratching at his chest grew thicker. His body hair thickened, growing unnaturally long and wire-like. His claws sharpened and lengthened, tearing deeply into his chest.
It was a clearly abnormal sight.
Jared was stunned into silence, unable to move, and could only watch Drew’s transformation.
“What is that?”
The voice he managed to eke out was filled with shock.
Jared didn’t know what was happening to Drew, but he understood it wasn’t normal.
His limbs were becoming gigantic. His pants, unable to withstand the expanding flesh, split apart miserably. Body hair now covered his legs as well, and his entire body was now covered in brown fur.
Drew’s resemblance to his former self was now only faintly present in his face, as his entire body, not just his limbs, had hypertrophied.
His colossal body, easily surpassing the tall Jared, stood at about two and a half meters.
It was not a change, but a metamorphosis.
“It’s like a werewolf, hey.”
Even Jared, who had experience fighting magical beasts, had never seen a creature like this.
Drew, no longer resembling a human, stopped scratching his chest and opened his mouth wide.
His mouth, lined with sharp fangs, was clearly that of a beast. Although standing upright, if he were to put his limbs on the ground, he would undoubtedly be mistaken for a magical beast.
Jared, now looking up, unconsciously tensed with caution towards the unknown.
Instant—
“Grrrrrrrrroooooooooooooo!”
He was blown away by the roar that erupted from Drew.
It was no ordinary roar. It was a shockwave in the form of a roar imbued with magic power.
Jared was slammed to the ground, but he recovered his posture and stood up. He drew a knife from his hidden pocket and took a stance—but Drew was nowhere in sight.
“Jared, behind you!”
The moment Laurentz’s shout echoed from afar, he was grabbed by the head from behind and slammed to the ground.
He instinctively dropped his knife and assumed a defensive posture, but he was slammed into the ground so many times that he was close to losing consciousness.
Still, he gritted his teeth and held onto his consciousness, took out another knife, and plunged it into the arm holding his head.
A scream of pain erupted, and he was released, but Jared’s movements were slow from the repeated blows to his head.
He thought about how to deal with Drew, who was growling and glaring at him, but his thoughts wouldn’t come together.
He knew this was bad, and at the same time, Drew’s figure vanished again. His speed was comparable to that of a ‘Beast Royal Family,’ a mutated carnivorous beast that attacked human settlements. However, he had defeated that race many times before.
Therefore, even if he moved at a speed that couldn’t be followed with his eyes, there was a way to deal with it.
By interfering with the spirits, Jared conjured fireballs around him to protect himself. Then, a loud explosion sounded behind him, and he saw Drew, his fur scorched.
“Is attacking from behind proof that you can’t fight head-on?”
He didn’t know if Drew could hear him, but he forced a smile and spoke provocatively.
The reply was a roar.
However, he couldn’t afford to be blown away twice. To withstand the shock, which was difficult to comprehend as coming from a human throat, and the impact, he refined a spear of obsidian and thrust it into the ground for support.
The shockwave struck his body with a force like a blow, but he endured it desperately.
Then, Drew charged at him head-on.
He raised his transformed arms, extending his sharp, blade-like claws towards Jared.
But Jared was calm. He didn’t know if his provocation had worked, but as long as he could see Drew charging foolishly, he wasn’t afraid.
He fired the fireballs floating around him in quick succession. The fireballs struck, scorching not only Drew’s fur but his body as well, engulfing him in flames.
With each fireball that hit and detonated into flames, Drew’s body shook from the impact.
His transformed and enlarged body was a good target, and he didn’t miss the fireballs. Nevertheless, Drew, whose entire front had been scorched by all the fireballs, did not stop his charge.
He charged towards Jared, who held the obsidian spear, thrusting his right arm forward as if to pierce him. It was an incredibly fast strike, but he managed to see it.
Jared dodged the blow by ducking and, using the rebound from standing up, thrust the spear he was holding towards Drew’s throat.
It was an attack he would never have made on Drew when he was human. However, Jared no longer thought of the transformed Drew as human. More importantly, he couldn’t hold back against an opponent who intended to kill him with murderous intent.
As Pfeil told him the other day, he would be the one to die if he was too lenient.
Moreover, if he didn’t defeat Drew here, he had no idea what the out-of-control Drew would do elsewhere.
He might even attack Crysta and the others. If they were attacked somewhere he didn’t know, he wouldn’t be able to protect them.
Considering that Drew held a grudge against him, it was highly likely he would target his friends, and at worst, even Olivier could become a target.
Jared wasn’t a saint. Faced with the possibility of his loved ones being harmed, he couldn’t choose not to eliminate the threat.
He wished he could save Drew if possible.
He had no connection with Drew, and he still felt something about the insults directed at Olivier. Although Drew’s current state was his own fault for dabbling in illegal drugs, his transformation and suffering seemed more than enough punishment.
Nevertheless, he remained an opponent against whom he could not hold back, and even if his current abilities were due to the side effects of drugs, Jared’s actions remained the same.
If he had become a beast-like being and his future was unpredictable—Jared believed defeating him here was for Drew’s own good.
And defeating him was the only thing Jared could do for Drew.
