The Moon Goddess' Chosen

511 Shift

Basketball is a well-known sport in the two empires of the kingdom… and many times comes naturally to the supernaturally stronger werewolves. To make it fair, werewolves are not allowed to use half-shifts during games. Keeping them from drawing on the supernatural strength their wolf sides allowed them was impossible.

So even then, the energy boost from their nature is tremendous, making it nearly impossible for humans to compete.

For that reason, there were sometimes games in which werewolves would only play against werewolves and humans against humans… or games where the number of werewolves and humans on both teams was supposed to be balanced to keep the game fair in terms of strength.

Rarely, however, there were games when humans went against werewolves in a friendly clash of skills.

That said, there is a large difference between flawless skill equipped with fluid technique and the use of brute force to get the game moving in the desired direction.

Because of Brigadia’s remote location, it was hard for anyone to attend the Royal Games unless they were heavily funded.

And frankly, these kinds of people weren’t many in Brigadia and when there was one, the need to go was diminished by the fact that their friends wouldn’t be able to go with them.

As a result, Dexter found himself dribbling a basketball and facing off against a human athlete in a finals match held by Brigadia high school instead of watching the Royal games.

The human he was facing off against was a student at the school he’d attended not so long ago… and he had to admit the skill this ‘human’ exhibited.

.....

Dexter had wanted to watch the Royal games in person. To watch the princess go against all odds and duke it out against the King of Lycaon but that seemed impossible now.

Oh no, it wasn’t. Now he had to stay behind and face off against a gathering of the best humans in Brigadia versing the best werewolves in a match that would eventually end in his victory, if not barely…

In truth, things weren’t looking good for the delta.

“Go, go, Dexter. You can do it, Dexter,” the cheering noise coming from the cheerleaders invaded his ears, invading his senses and filling him with more determination than he thought himself capable.

Sweat dripped down his brow, his shirt drenched with sweat. It was the first time he was this winded during a basketball match against humans.

‘There aren’t even any hunters among these punks,’ he cursed mentally.

“Don’t let them through. Let’s keep a tighter defence. Don’t let any plays through,” the human, Titus, facing off against Dexter called out, exuding an aura of authority that was expected of a captain. The people playing with him, were his age, if only slightly older.

His team contained a mix of students on the basketball team and promising junior hunters. Dexter was not even sure which of these two categories frightened him more. Each member of the team had incredible physical prowess and skill, even for humans.

Titus, however, seemed to be on another level. It was also why he’d positioned himself to face Dexter.

His words were considered law to the humans and they ordered everything he said, making the game significantly harder. Each of his calls seemed engineered at making the game inexplicably harder.

The whole situation was starting to get on the delta’s nerves. These were humans. They were lesser creatures that didn’t have the strength to go against the werewolves.

He passed, dribbled and made severe feints but nothing seemed to faze Titus. When there seemed to be an opening he could exploit from his teammates, the captain of the human team immediately switched with them and covered the hole in the defence too fast for the delta to utilise it.

‘Hahaha, the joke’s on you, Titus. I’m only afraid of one human… Well, when she was still human,’ he grunted, passing the ball once more in an effort to break through the defence. His team was not bad either… however, they seemed to be having as much trouble as he was.

No single player was allowed to hold the ball for too long before giving it to their teammate, lest they risk having it stolen from them.

Incidentally, his team was also the one losing this game. Still, in the third quarter, they were trailing behind with a ten-point gap. The situation was not looking good at all.

“You’re not doing bad at all,” Dexter snickered, locking eyes with Titus’ hazel brown gaze.

“Neither are you. I was sure people like you who didn’t like things like training or honing their skills would be down in the dust by now… but look at you, still standing. Well, barely…” the human smirked, reaching forward for the ball that had just flown into Dexter’s hands.

Dexter saw through the attempt almost instantly and spun to get around Titus. The delta, for the first time, felt an opening and went for it.

There was simply no way Titus would be able to recover from something like that. Because of how much pressure and the numerous decisions he had to make, Dexter didn’t notice that Titus’ movements had been a mere taunt. Titus never actually intended to swipe the ball away from him at that moment, knowing the delta was very aware of his every movement.

Dexter dashed forward, easily reaching the hoop before leaping high into the air and jamming the ball into the hoop. The delta came down from the hoop, pumping his fist into the air in celebration.

Much to his dismay, he was met with gasps and silence. Dexter’s confusion was short-lived. Lying on the ground at the edge of the zone of defence was Titus. The human was coughing a lot and a few of his teammates had crowded him to make sure that he was okay.

‘Did I?’ he wondered, trying to remember if he’d crashed into Titus. Caught in the moment, he hadn’t noticed any resistance.

Dexter walked up to them, trying to discern what was going on. This human had put up an admirable fight against the werewolves and Dexter had no desire to look down on him. In fact, he had grown to respect the cocky point guard.

“What were you thinking? What kind of play is that?” a woman, who Dexter guessed was Titus’ mother, yelled from the bleachers, fighting against her husband’s hold.

Dexter forged his way to Titus, ignoring the lady’s pleas and approached her son on the ground, “Hey, man. Are you okay?”

Titus’s face was contorted in pain as he tried to brave the waves of pain that washed through his body. When he heard the delta’s voice, however, he mustered enough strength to at least stare at him.

The eyes that stared at the Delta weren’t those of assurance that he would be fine. Instead, they were filled with rage. Titus gritted his teeth and a look of anger flashed across his face.

“YOU!!! WHAT WERE YOU… ARGHHH,” the pain seemed to triple as Titus lost concentration and tipped his head back.

Dexter was about to step back but something tugged at his mind. ‘Why does this look familiar?’

“Where is he injured?” Dexter asked in a panicked voice.

“Earlier, he mentioned something about his ribs and not being able to breathe well… but the pain got so bad that he couldn’t tell us more,” one of his fellow players explained, looking over his shoulder for the medical officer.

The woman in question was still rushing over with a kit in her hand. Dexter knelt down, allowing his claws to grow out of his hands before he slashed the boy’s shirt open.

On Titus’s chest, a small red bruise was visibly shrinking before their eyes.

The nurse reached them seconds after the injury had vanished, “Give us some space, students. Step back and give him some air…”

The nurse stopped and took a few steps back when Titus let out a blood-curdling scream.

The scream, which started like a cry for help… like the scream of a dying banshee, slowly became deeper and guttural at the end, sounding more like that of a wounded carnivore instead.

Titus suddenly curled into a ball, convulsions shaking his body as something odd started happening, “It hurts… Everything hurts.” Titus cried, opening his eyes.

Tears streamed through his grief-stricken eyes but this wasn’t as significant as the other thing he exhibited.

Along with the tears and expression of pain that painted his face, his hazel brown eyes now shone a brilliant amber.

Everyone took a step back this time… Everyone except for the nurse, “What’s hurting exactly, Titus?”

“Everything… My insides, my gums, my eyes, my ears… everything,” the student yelled out right before the sound of crunching bone tore through the atmosphere.

This was followed by several more sounds of crunching bone and screams of pain. Titus’s mother gasped when she saw her son’s state, unsure of what to do about it.

Dexter, on the other hand, rushed forward, pushing past the nurse and making it to the boy’s side, “Hey, Titus. Listen to me. I want you to stop fighting the pain.”

“WHAT?!! WHAT’S THA—” his words were cut off by a scream of his own. Unfortunately this time, there was another scream that overlapped his, echoing louder than Titus could ever dream of achieving.

Delta looked for the sign of the scream and noticed the cheerleaders standing around a girl who gripped her stomach in pain. She looked like she would be sick. But what brought him a deeper feeling of dread was the elongated canines in her mouth.

Her dark green eyes were lost in a sea of pain as her canines seemed to drop lower than they should have, blood lightly staining her gums as a similar transformation took a hold of her body.

A third scream followed hers and before they knew it, six people from random parts of the court were undergoing a similar painful transformation. Two were players on the team of humans while three came from the audience.

“Nurse Tilda… How can they be going through First Shifts? And at the same time?” Dexter turned to the werewolf nurse.

“I… I don’t know. Guide him through it. I’ll attend to the cheerleader,” the nurse ordered before turning away from Titus and Dexter. She asked for help from some other wolves as well, leaving each of them to their charges. The first shift was one of the most painful moments in a werewolf’s life… and before it happened, werewolves were never allowed to freely interact with humans.

That said, it was easier on children since their bodies grew in preparation for that moment. Humans like Titus, however, were subjected to a whole other world of pain that Dexter could not imagine.

Confusion turned to chaos. A few of the werewolves that were able to relax got focused on trying to guide the humans through the first shift.

Crunching bones, bone-chilling screams and pained growls and wails filled the air as the victims of the transformation got through the painful ordeal, losing their minds to the pain that accompanied the first shift.

The junior hunters kept the civilians away from the shifting humans and tried to convince them to remain calm.

“Hey, focus on my voice. Stay awake and focus on my voice,” Dexter yelled at Titus. At this point, his body was covered in a sprouting layer of soft grey fur. His jaws had extended forward, his hands and legs bent at odd angles and with his back arched and longer than before.

Standing was no longer possible for him…

“How long till it’s over?” Titus’s mother screamed through the hands covering her mortified expression.

Dexter placed his hand on the shifting boy, “He’s almost there. Just a little longer. Titus, stay awake. Don’t resist the shift… You can get through this. You’ll never have to go through this pain ever again. But first, you must make it through.”

In truth, Titus’s pain was far from over. The process seemed to be slowing down the more he slipped out of consciousness.

A slap rang clear as Dexter’s hand struck firmly across the shifting boy’s cheek. Titus’s amber eyes locked on Dexter’s face, memories of the game returning… as well as his rage towards him.

These emotions were shortlived as a pang of pain eclipsed the rage he was feeling sending him into another fit.

A scream followed… along with an increasingly painful shift.