13 Cooldown

'I've got to help,' Zac thought, he didn't care for those who had taken advantage of their fellow, weaker survivors, but he did want to help Fredrick and those who had been taken advantage of.

After all he would have been one of those weaklings only a few hours prior.

"Sir, come on. I'm going to see if I can help your friends." Zac pulled on Winston's arm, who had frozen in fear as soon as he had seen the flare fly up into the sky.

"N-, n-, no! I cannot, please!" Winston protested, and dug his heels into the ground. Zac's frustration with the elderly man started to build, why wouldn't he come and help save the survivors who had been taken advantage of with him.

"Alright. I'm going to go on ahead." Zac shook his head, letting the old man go, whatever was happening in the clearing sounded far more dangerous than leaving Winston in the undergrowth around it.

Zac took slow, careful steps forward, avoiding any branches or dried leaves, which was harder than it sounded, since the ground was almost completely covered in leaf litter.

Only where Fredrick's enormous machine legs had stomped through could Zac step completely quietly, but even so, his stride was far longer than Zac's, so he had to screech out his legs to keep quiet.

The ferns just before the clearing were bent and torn from where Fredrick had stormed through, and Zac folded one of the ferns down, peeking into the clearing.

"Holy s***." Zac whispered unintentionally, the clearing was littered with torn apart bodies, limbs were scattered all around, leaking blood, and there were larger chunks of flesh that had been torn away from the bones of the people who lay there.

Far to the right, Frederick stood, a fierce look on his face, his arms wide as he faced off against the culprits of the carnage in the clearing, the thin figure of a tiny woman behind him, clutching a small child to her chest.

Across from Fredrick, was a pack of enormous wolves, each of them standing as tall as Frederick at the shoulder, with shaggy dark blue, almost black fur covering every inch of them.

They had green eyes that flashed as they circled the clearing, growling at Fredrick, they would attack most humans on sight, but they were put off by Fredrick's size and the machine limbs that whirred as he moved, keeping himself between the wolves and the two survivors behind him.

"Forest Wolves." Zac whispered to himself, his heart dropping in his chest. Individually, they were among the weakest of Tier 1 Magical Beasts, but were considered to be one of the most dangerous.

This was due to the fact that they formed large packs, just like wolves found on earth, and would often lay waiting in ambush for their prey, which often ending up being the unfortunate survivors of a Transition.

"I've got to transform.' Zac thought to himself, and closed his eyes, trying to once again see the mana like he had earlier.

It took a few moments, but then Zac could 'see' the wisps of light that were mana floating in the air all around him.

He turned his attention to his chest, and there, saw his Mana Core, glowing white, the tiniest spot of dark red within, spinning around the surface of the white core.

Zac focused on the red spot, remembering how his Mana Core had been a dark red color when he had transformed into the newt hybrid.

But nothing happened.

'What the ****! I get this ability, and it decides not to work when I need it to?' Zac yelled inside, growing more and more angry as he desperately concentrated on the core, but no change happened.

'Hold on.' Zac thought back to how he hadn't been able to transform back to a human when he had first changed, and then thought about how he had finally been able to change once in the clearing.

'There must be some sort of time limitation. I guess I can't transform back and forth whenever i feel like it.' Zac thought, desperately trying to remember how long it had been between when he had transformed for the first time and when he had transformed back into a human.

But of course he couldn't remember, he had been terrified the whole time, with no thought about what was happening except that he had turned into some sort of horrific creature.

'I guess I'll just have to wait until I can transform again.' Zac sighed, sinking back onto his heels, watching the wolves snarl and snap their jaws, pacing back and forth in the clearing.

There were only five wolves in the clearing, but they had been more than enough to take out all the ordinary civilians who had been there.

But Zac and Fredrick both knew that this wasn't the entire pack, packs of Forest Wolves would usually be around fifteen in number, the smallest packs at ten wolves, and the largest recorded numbering in the fifties.

Finally, one of the wolves gathered enough courage to attack Fredrick, it leapt forward, opening its jaws wide, revealing long white fangs, aiming to close its jaws around Fredrick's throat.

There was a loud whirring noise, and Fredrick's right arm moved like lightning, flashing through the air, his enormous hand catching the wolf by the head as it flew through the air, and slamming it down into the ground.

When he had grabbed the wolf, Fredrick had made sure that his fingers stabbed into its skin, and now he pulled his claw like fingers free of the wolf's skull, the ends dripping blood and bits of wolf brain matter.

Now, one of the wolves, larger than the rest, barked at the others, and three of them slunk forward, growling and staring at Fredrick.

Meanwhile, the larger wolf threw its head back, and immediately Fredrick's eyes widened.

It was about to call its pack.