Should have updated yesterday, but had some house problems, sorry for the late chapters.

Mass release chapter 1 of 3

Enjoy reading!!

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As soon as the hounds saw and heard me roaring at them, they directly viewed my roar as a sign of a frontal challenge. They completely forgot about the pup that they were toying with and got into battle formation.

The biggest hound, which maybe was their leader bared its fangs. It let out a loud howl and looked at me fiercely as if to accept my challenge. It was pretty obvious that he was trying to look tough in front of the other hounds, however, I could see the lingering fear and caution in his eyes towards me. 

Following suit, as soon as the leader of the hounds let out a howl, the other hounds got ready for a fight. The hounds were fast, they quickly adapted to the situation and got ready to hunt me.

 3 hounds went towards my back, intending to block my escape path and the other four were surrounding me from the front to attack me directly.

However, I was not an opponent that you could defeat with these tricks. I let out a small grunt and rushed towards the center of the 3 hounds that were blocking my escape route. Seeing my charge toward them, the 3 hounds got ready for a frontal attack while the 4 hounds charged toward me from the back.

However, at the last second, I changed trajectory and went towards the hound that was on the right side of the 3 hounds. 

The hound was surprised by my sudden direction change. The hound was a good predator, even seeing my sudden charge, it quickly composed itself and tried to attack me, however, it was too late. My sharp claws swung towards the right hound. My claws hit its neck, cutting through the flesh and bone of the hound and directly decapitating it. Its head flew and blood sprayed from its cut open neck.

The other hounds were also surprised for a moment at their Ally until now being defeated so easily, but they did not mind it too much and again charged toward me.

I directly grabbed one of them by the neck and smashed it into the ground. Dust flew from the ground blocking the hound's vision for a few seconds. I felt its spine break and its body go limp as I threw him far away all the while turning and smashing another 2 hounds with my strong tail. 

Loud cracking sounds could be heard as their ribs broke from the attack with my tail. The hounds spewed blood from their mouth and coughed vigorously. 

However, I did not have much time to look at their pitiful sights, because the leader of the hounds along with the other hounds was pressing against me and attacking me constantly.

Of the 7 hounds before, only 3 remained (including the leader). I dodged the hound leader's attack and gave two swipes aimed at the other 2 remaining normal hounds. Just with a single swipe with my claws, they both fell, both with a cut open chest. The 2 fallen hounds were gasping for air as their chests along with the lungs were cut open directly by my claws.

The hound leader was enraged at the annihilation of his whole pack. Never had it thought that its whole pack would be annihilated today in these mountains, at the hands of an unknown embarrassed

I did not waste much time and rushed toward the hound leader. Seeing me rush towards it, the hound leader too rushed towards me. Both had their fangs bared and their claws brandished.

I was faster than the hound, before the hound could do anything, I bit its stomach with my strong jaws and clenched my jaws to not let the hound escape. The familiar smell of iron entered my nose and blood trickled down my throat. 

The hound leader let out a big painful howl, but before dying, it tried to bite and scratch me. Of course, even if it was strong, its claws and teeth could not penetrate my scales. My scales were very hard, but the mantis before had used some kind of light attack to tear away the scales. But there is no way, an ordinary monster, like this hound, could tear or even damage these scales. 

Seeing that its claws and teeth were of no use, it realized that he has been playing a losing game from the beginning.

The hound leader gave one last struggle before it went to the underworld.

I slowly looked towards the surrounding for any threats. However, not finding any, I looked for the black pup that was getting bullied. But to my dismay, the pup was nowhere to be seen. 

'Did it run away?! Heh, who am I kidding, of course, it ran away seeing the opportunity. Did I expect the pup to come and thank me...haha I must be delusional.' 

Looking over to the place where the pup was one last time, I turned around and left for my cave. After some walking and occasional hunting of small animals for a quick snack, I finally reached the cave. Suddenly I felt something grabbing my tail. I quickly turned around and swung my claws to the creature on my tail. As my claws were about to reach the animal, it suddenly stopped. On my tail was the same black wolf pup from before.

How the hell did this little fellow got on my tail and even followed me till over here. And most importantly how did I not notice it till now. I looked at the pup for a few seconds. As I thought this pup is a little special. 

I led the pup inside the cave and softly directed it to sit down. As if understanding me, it got off my tail and went ahead and sat near me. 

I could see the happiness and admiration in the eyes of the pup. When I met her, I kind of felt that it was a part of me that I met after a very long time. Was this pup somehow involved in my life as a former human?! Hmm, it doesn't ring any bell, but wh who cares, let's leave the complicated things for later.

As I was thinking about these things, suddenly my whole body got a jolt as an invisible thread-like thing from the pup's head was trying to enter mine, but was waiting for me as if to receive permission to enter. 

Sensing no anomaly and intention to harm me, I let the thread enter my mind. Receiving my permission as soon as the thread entered my mind, it wrapped around my entire head and suddenly I felt a deeper connection with the pup. I could tell if the pup was healthy or not and if it was facing any difficulty etc. Wait...is this..is this what I think it is?!... Is this some kind of a contract?? I pondered.

However, something was amiss. It was as if I needed to do one more thing to complete the contract. As if sensing my confusion, the pup called me and directed its paws towards itself. Suddenly something clicked in my mind as I understood the pup's intention. 

A name!! That's it... That's what I was missing, I had to give the pup a name to finish the contract!! Okay then... What name should I give it?? Oh, wait, is it a boy or a girl. I quickly and lightly lifted the pup as I checked its private parts. Seeing nothing there, I was confirmed that it was a female. 

However, the pup, as if she understood what I did, squirmed in my claws embarrassed, and tried to bite me in anger. As if to copy me back when I roared at the hounds, she also tried to roar at me, maybe intending to make it fierce like my roar...but all that came out of its mouth were some cute little moans or roars...whatever you call it.

Seeing that she could not roar as I did, she bit me a few more times, (not like it had any effect) and sat down on the cold cave floor as if pouting.

Heh, it's so cute to see her embarrassed. Anyways I, for one, did not pay the rantings of the pup too much heed and went on to decide her name. Since her fur was obsidian black and very silky and smooth, she looked like some royalty and maybe some kind of descendent of some big ass ruler. So, I decided to name her, "Fallen" meaning the descendent of a ruler.

As soon as I named her, the contract was established and Fallen became my new partner in crime and her name was engraved deep into her soul. A deep black rune appeared in her soul and engraved itself into her soul.

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Thus, was the beginning of the 4 claws of the Time Lord. Here, was the birth of the 1st of the four future claws, "Fallen the Plague Empress of the Time Lord".

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[ Next Chapter: Mana? ]