School had ended, and for once Gary didn’t need to go searching for Kai to inform him about something, or looking for Blake. Since both of them had told him they would contact him when they were needed.
Earlier, Marie had sent them an update in the Howlers group chat saying she would be taking the day off school, and all of them could understand why. Until the swelling went down, she would be harassed with all sorts of questions, especially in a school. Perhaps they would even assume it was her parents, so to avoid questions it was best to just pretend she was sick.
There was club practice as usual, and just like in class, his teammates, as well as Mr Root had noticed his ‘growth spurt’. However, the sportsman had seen radical changes in those around his age before, so they weren’t too surprised. Instead they were proud that one of their star players seemed to be taking the sport more seriously now by working out.
After club practice, while the sun was still out, Gary and Tom had decided to head to the park that was closest to the school. It was also one of the safer areas for that reason. It was the same one that he and Tom had gone to before three days ago to experiment with his Full Transformation skill.
When they finally entered the forest in the park, the two of them sat down and started to drink some water.
“So, tell me, do you think your changing body is a Werewolf thing?” Tom asked, seeing as no one else was around.
“That does seem to be the most likely explained.” Gary nodded, while touching his own hard chest. “It’s hard to explain, but it feels as if my body itself might have evolved. Like it’s grown! That’s why I wanted to invite you out here as well. You’ve understood more about all this Werewolf lore stuff, so I wanted to ask your opinion about it. Did you read anything about such drastic changes?”
Tom honestly had no clue. He had never heard about a Werewolf evolving, and why exactly had that change happened overnight? If anything, the most likely timing for any changes should have been either the moment he became a Werewolf or after his first turning.
The short haired teenager could only think of a few things that would cause this ‘evolution’. An increase in strength and power, perhaps due to fighting, or maybe something else…
Gary took off his shirt, followed by his trousers, leaving him only in his underwear. Although he would need to get new clothes soon that fit him, he thought it was a waste to keep ripping clothes. Besides, he still had to go home somehow
“I wanted you to tell me what I look like, because I think that change allowed me to control my transformation.” Gary said as he looked at his arm.
[Skill activated Controlled Transformation]
[Transformation has begun]
Using the skill, Gary could tell that the system had split his body into several parts. He could understand it all in his head. It was so detailed that it was unbelievable. Gary could, if he wanted to, change just a single finger to grow out his nail, or change the entire hand.
It was the same for all the other parts all around his body. It was as if he had a diagram in his head and all he had to do was select the body part that he wanted to transform. From then on, there was like a slider of some sort, which he could move in his head as he wished.
As a test, Gary had selected his whole arm, from the elbow down to his fingertips. He then visually moved the slider, and he could feel his arm changing by the second. First, put the slider a quarter of the way.
“Whao, your arm!” Tom shouted in surprise. Seeing it live was completely different from watching a recording. When Gary looked down, he could see his fingernails had grown, and his arm was a little hairier than usual. At the same time, it had grown slightly larger. It still looked human but didn’t quite suit his body.
Moving the slider to the halfway mark, some skin had fallen off from his hand, and it was just as painful as before. His arm had also grown bigger and now his arm no longer looked completely human. It was covered in a mix of hair and fur, but underneath it, there was still human tissue.
Finally, Gary turned the slider all the way up, and the transformation had occurred on his arm. It was completely covered in brown fur. It hurt, but not as much as Gary remembered.
Turning it around, both him and Tom were in amazement.
“So you can really control it, does this mean you’ll be okay on the full moon?” Tom asked.
Gary shook his head, as he really wasn’t sure. He still received the message this morning, so something was bound to happen. Right now, he didn’t want to stop the testing there. Gary continued to test the other parts of his body, and he noticed a few things.
Transforming, took up energy, similar to how his Full Transformation used up 20 points of Energy to use it was the same when he used Controlled Transformation on his body parts. Although this energy differed depending on the size of the body part as well as how much he transformed each body part. The other thing was, he could feel that his Energy was zapping away the more parts he turned, just like the system had stated.
However, what was most impressive was his stats while doing these tests. Changing certain parts of his body would also affect his stats. Changing his arms mainly resulted in extra Strength. Transforming his torso and back gave him extra Endurance, whereas his feet and legs translated to extra Dexterity, allowing him to run faster than he could originally.
The bigger an area he turned, the more the slider was on the Werewolf side, the bigger the increase, but also the faster the Energy consumption.
The stats for each area that was partially transformed was even better than when he had used Charging Heart. It was clear this was a big improvement from before. Especially with the Energy.
“Gary, do you understand what this means now?!” Tom shouted after watching everything. “You might not have to hide this any more! If you can partially transform like this, then you can pass yourself off as an Altered!”
He could see in his friend’s eyes, he was truly happy for him. Happy that he no longer had to hide his secret, but Gary felt like he would still have to hide it, at least for now, and he wasn’t happy for the same reasons as Tom. Instead, he thought these were the perfect tools to use against Bill.
——
Outside Bayles High School, Slough’s only all-girls grammar school, girls could be seen walking out in groups as it was the end of the school day. Two girls walked out arm in arm, just like they did every day.
Stacy and Amy would usually walk to the gate before parting ways to head home. They both had gone through a traumatic event together, yet this event had only brought them closer together, and Stacy had solemnly promised she would never do anything as stupid as that.
Just as they were about to leave, though, a figure in a black leather jacket and wearing sun classes stopped in front of the two girls.
“Hey there, I just wanted to ask you a few things.” The man said, as he pulled his glasses down, and recognised one of the girls. “You see my brother, Hawk, has been missing for a while now, and I was wondering if you two knew anything.”