I shifted with ease after a long rest to start padding over the space, knowing the layout better than my new opponents. The shattering of glass from above didn’t surprise me, closing my eyes to the bolts of bright lights, smoke began to fill the room. Lowering to the ground, I used my hearing to start tracking the pair entering with laser pointers piercing through the smoke-filled room. The wind began to kick up, shifting the smoke, giving me enough cover to prowl toward the first of the intruders in my territory.
With a stretch of my paw, the first legs hit the claws, his scream echoed as he fell to the floor. Taking the first chance, I jumped to dig through the armor to rip into the soft flesh below. His scream sdied out, but the pain flared over my shoulder from one of the other guns shot, the bullet cutting through muscle into the bone below, leaving me in horrible pain. It was a spelled bullet; it would latch on without letting it naturally push out with the regeneration. Hissing, I jumped away from the soon to be corpse into the blowing smoke.
The pain began to flare, the red flicker of magic growing as the bullet exploded in my side, the shoulder giving out as the bone cracked. I slammed into the wall, pushing off with my right three limbs to tuck myself behind my couch. The pain continued, locking on to my body, continuing to flicker and burn. I wouldn’t be able to stay in this form, the pain and magic interfered with my shapeshifted body. They came prepared this time. The turn began before I had intended, the pain and restructuring of my body making me scream. Once I had a hand, I grabbed my shotgun under the couch as my body came back into its human form. My shoulder bled freely, the bullet having ripped out from the shift, but the damage remained. They couldn’t keep ripping through my body with the round gone. I balanced the shot gun on my right shoulder, having to use my opposite arm, but I could manage. I aimed until I found the first target, the spells flaring between one another, wind whipping between the combatants. Caleb had taken to the kitchen, using my once large island for cover as chucks exploded off. I shot the first one about to wave another spell, adding significant scattering to the body. She fell to the floor, screaming from the several new holes as I shifted to find the next target.
The area lit up from a flash spell, blinding everyone looking. I blinked away the light to attempt to focus on the target that continued to move while I couldn’t see anything. I continued to track it until I got a clean line of fire and shot the next intruder, hitting the center of the body as he fell backward into the wall. He wasn’t out, but he was in too much pain to be much of a threat. I searched the area, seeing Caleb in a magic battle with another mage, locked with spells upon one another. I counted three bodies, meaning one was loose. I pulled over the couch, to look around for the lost attacker. I smelled her scent as she put the gun to my head. I felt the barrel too close for comfort, I couldn’t regenerate from a bullet to the brain. This would kill me.
“Tell him to stop, and we will only maim you,” she muttered softly, close to my ear. I couldn’t stop Caleb; he was so far into the magical soup that he probably couldn’t hear me. Even if I could, I am not sure it would be worth it. These people invaded my home, and I had to defend what was mine. I nodded, allowing her to believe what she wanted to as my claws formed slowly, quietly to handle the situation. She pressed harder, stating, “Too bad, you don’t want to live.”
I heard her start to move her finger over the trigger. It shifted to slow motion before my brain changed. I didn’t want to die, there too many people I needed to protect, and right now, I wanted to live. The veil between my cat and I fell, humanity became a memory as the speed and strength of the were-jaguar flowed into my body. I didn’t feel the shift, I just was something else, something no longer human.
I grabbed the gun from the barrel to slap it from the woman’s hands, and heard the crack of bones from her hand. I hit her away, her body slammed into another wall, the gun far away from her. The lightning came from the other mage only to rebound back to him as Caleb finished him off. My body shifted again back to the jaguar form to start finishing the corpses, going right for the jugular of each of them in turn.
I watched as blood spilled over the well-worn floor that might not be recoverable after a magic battle and bloody war. I padded away to start cleaning myself, humanity still a memory within, the intruders no longer a worry. I would sleep, eat, and relax until something caught my attention. My human came close, bloody and magic tinged, kneeling before me, while looking into my bright gold eyes that were reflected in his glasses.
“Fee, time to turn back, call your friend to get rid of the bodies and stuff. I have the phones that will take us to the
