The beast was a small creature with a purplish black round, fluffy body that resembles a fuzzy softball. It was barely a foot and a half in terms of height and looked very cute and cuddlable. Its two legs resembled chicken legs in terms of appearance but were sturdy and muscular, ending in sharp, curved claws that can tear through tough materials.
Its fluffy body served as a natural armor, protecting it from attacks and making it difficult for predators to grip and hold onto.
The beast was still a bit far out from where Bill, Iris, and Mako were currently standing, and before they could make a move, several more fuzzballs started jumping out of the bush and onto the very first fuzzball.
Iris completely forgot that these were the beasts they would face as she was just so mesmerized by their cuteness.
However, the fuzzballs didn't stop pouring out as still many continued to leave the bush and pile on with the rest of their buddies. Their number was getting concerning for Mako as he had counted at least 150 of them to be in this pile and there was still no end to them pouring out of the bushes.
Mako understood the reason why the beasts had such loud footsteps when they looked so small and adorable. It wasn't because of unique skill or special ability, but rather just through perfect coordination.
Perfect coordination can amplify the effects of any task that weak beings join together. Think of a football game; hundreds and thousands of people are on the spectator seats watching the match and they are all cheering for their team to win.
On their own, a single spectator doesn't have the power to make his voice get heard by the entire stadium, but when all of them cheer in sync with one another, the whole stadium can hear a singular voice cheering for a team and that is the power of coordination.
The reason why the footsteps were so loud was because all of the beasts were taking steps in sync with one another amplifying the sound of their footsteps and making it look like a large beast is approaching.
Their coordination was quite impressive as even now, it may just look like they were stupidly just pilling on top of each other, but they were actually moving within the pile as once a beast found its spot within the pile, it stopped moving and stayed in place.
Mako knew that something sinister was up as the beast wouldn't be dumb enough to just pile on top of each other and wait to be taken out. To confirm his suspicion, Mako quickly used Analyze to find out what these things actually were.
[Analyze]
[Medium-level Puffclaw]
[Ability: Love (Level 2), Speed (Level 3)]
[Description: A Puffclaw is a unique beast born mostly out of a mixture of emotions that shouldn't mix, but somehow has. The unique and unstable mixture of Love, and Mischief has led this beast to be born and rightfully so it has gained attributes from both emotions.
The Love emotion crystallized and formed into an actual ability that the Puffclaws could use while the emotion of Mischief and Trickery had laid its roots deep within the very nature of the Puffclaw.
Although these creatures would seem harmless and friendly at first, they use this to their advantage to lure unsuspecting prey closer and closer toward them, and once they are close enough they reactivate their steel cold hearts and proceed to devour the prey that they lured in.
The Puffclaws are masters of illusions and trickery as they manipulate the emotion of love to make their prey hallucinate and lower their guard making it quite easy to kill. In order to evolve further and achieve greater powers, the Puffclaws have to feed on the blood of prey that they killed while it was under the influence of their ability.
Puffclaws are gifted by nature as even though they appear small in the beginning, they can extend their legs to become twice their size and become twice as large. Once in their active stare, a person can see their tiny arms as well as a large mouth with razor-sharp teeth.]
[Weakness: Fire, Lightning, Piercing Attacks]
[Inherited Skill: Bulk Up] ⓘ
[Bulk Up: The Puffclaws possess an inherited skill gifted to them by their stronger predecessors. The small Puffclaws can pile on top of each other and once enough have gathered together, the skill activates and all the nearby Puffclaws glow in a purple light.
After the skill has been successfully activated, all glowing Puffclaws converge towards a single point and merge together into a single large entity. The single entity is a brand new Puffclaw holding a hive mind of all the individual Puffclaws and brand new abilities and skills.]
[High Level Bulked Up Puffclaw]
[Ability: Strength (Level 4), Love (Level 5)]
[Weakness: Fire]
***************
The system had provided him with the biggest description of a beast so far and Mako was amazed at the amount of information he had just received from the system.
At first, it was the generic description of the beast, explaining a bit about its characteristics, origin, and evolution pattern, with the interesting thing being their unique tactic of luring in prey by using their Love ability to manipulate their feelings and then attacking them ruthlessly in order to eat and survive.
However, it was then that Mako had a visibly shocked look on his face as he came to realize that the description wasn't over and that there was another section of the description explaining something called an inherited skill.
This was the first time Mako had heard of such a term, but it didn't take a genius to figure out what it meant. It was a special skill that they didn't possess on their own but rather it was within their own blood and would only be activated when a lot of them would gather and pile up on top of each other...
As soon as Mako read the details of the Puffclaw's inherited skill, he quickly turned off the system interface in order to warn Bill and Iris and stop what he had just read from happening but it was too late.
Bill and Iris were now a couple of steps ahead of Mako as while he was busy analyzing them, the Puffclaw's love ability was already doing work manipulating their feelings and making them come closer to them; however, they were still strong-minded people which was why they had only walked a couple of steps forward.
Mako quickly tried to warn them to make them stop but before a single word could come out of his mouth, the two stopped on their own as now even they could sense something that was building within the pile of cute fuzzy beasts.
All of a sudden, the entire pile of beasts lit up with purple flames and began to glow.
"GUYS! BACK UP! WE HAVE TO MOVE BACK! THAT THING IS GOING TO GROW BIGGER!" Mako shouted at the top of his lungs catching the attention of both Iris and Bill who didn't ask any questions and quickly complied with his instructions.
Each individual Puffclaws within the pile of Puffclaws began to melt and become dark black angry and oily liquid. Soon all the beasts liquified and the whole pile quickly got converted into a puddle.
Once the Puffclaws had finished transforming into a liquid and becoming a part of the puddle, everything calmed down for a second as there was nothing but a puddle of black goo, a good distance away from the trio.
However, it was only the calm before the storm as a second later, the entire black goo puddle lit up in purple flames once again and this time the liquid began to rise into the air, reaching higher and higher.
After it had reached its desired height, it began expanding from the sides, growing and taking shape. Once the liquid achieved its optimal size and shape, the liquid began to solidify and become flesh again.
Fuzz began to grow on the brand-new skin and the same legs began to form on the base of the creature as the legs of the original Puffclaw. Finally, the liquid began solidifying around the head of the new beast forming a new pair of eyes that looked completely different from the ones they had before.
The original Puffclaws had circular black shiny eyes with no Irises while this beast had sharp rectangular-shaped eyes that were completely red. Finally, the belly of the beast also solidified and formed a large gem right in the middle of its circular torso, that glowed a beautiful shade of baby pink.
The transformation was now complete and now Mako, Bill, and Iris were now up against a super-sized Puffclaw that easily towered over 15 feet and had locked them as its target.
"Um... Mako... You got a plan for this guy, right?..." Iris asked nervously as she made eye contact with the giant red eyes of the Bulked-up Puffclaw.
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