#WereWednesday: A Siltvelt Werechee in Melromarc

(contains anime-style lycanthrope, muscle growth, level grinding)

Commission for Xilimyth

---

    Being forced into a new world where almost every aspect of life works under video game logic is, for lack of a better term, unusual. People had classes, job levels, skill trees, all the fun stat progression associated with a character. Monsters dropped loot when slain, although respawning didn’t seem to be a thing. Heck, there’s even magic to learn and cast for quality of life use. Living a massive multi-player online role playing game,  MMORPG, in real life might just be every fantasy nerd’s dream come true.

    Not for Desmond. The squirrelfox hated MMO’s even before getting blasted into some backwater kingdom of snobs. Back in his modern world of air conditioners and soap, corporations exploited those types of games to encourage as much extra spending on player benefits as possible. Their content usually boiled down to some boring grind of farming two dungeons ad nauseam for materials to upgrade gear. The part that really ticked him off was how after months of paying to work, new gear would be dropped in and start the grind cycle all over again.

    “Master Fallout, your eye is doing that angry twitching again?”

    “Wha? Huh?” Desmond shook his head, having to brush the blond streak and black bangs out of his eyes afterwards. It’s almost time for a haircut too, apparently. “Sorry, got lost in thought looking over my HUD.”

    The cheetah woman sitting on the bench beside him tilted her head with a cheery smile that always melted Desmond’s heart. Even when standing eight feet tall Xilitalia naturally looked more cute than intimidating. “Yeah. You like to do that a lot. Finding out anything new yet?”

    “Pfft! I wish!” Desmond’s lips fluttered irritably. His attention turned back to the display in front of him. Walls of English lettering and images hovered in mid-air before him, simulating the appearance of computer menus without a monitor.

    Ironically, it was a system directly tied to his own state of being, meaning only he could see it. All Xilitalia could do was watch her shield hero and slave master stare off intently into a blank void. That was something she got used to after so long adventuring together. No doubt careful calculations and plans were swimming up a storm in the little hybrid’s brain. Last thing she wanted to do was break his concentration.

    The reality was that Desmond desperately needed any help he could get. Normally he was fine with playing the tank and support in games. The general strategy was to stay alive as long as possible until the party killed everything. Actually having to manage said party was a bit more out of his reach. His fox side never cohered to the species stereotype of being clever. It was just as likely to create electricity from scratch than figure out an effective combat build. Among other things he had factors like fifty types of shield, the bonuses they provided, magic items, spells, Xilitalia’s entire skill set, combos.

    This was also why Desmond hated MOBA games, but that’s an entire story in itself.

    Fed up with reviewing the list of optional shields, Desmond flicked the HUD closed. His gaze dropped to the kite shield that remained firmly equipped to his right arm. The legendary weapon’s jewel glinted back in the late afternoon’s light offering nothing for comfort.

    “Let’s get something to eat,” he mumbled as he stood.

    “Okay!” Xilitalia practically cheered, leaping to her feet behind Desmond’s steps. The hard bouncing of her chest under a leather tunic momentarily distracted several other townspeople in the square. Being practically a giant firm with the muscles of a blacksmith, and sporting yoga balls for mammaries made it hard to believe she was a slave, let alone Desmond’s. He barely stood up to her waist.

    Not that the shield hero had any reason to complain. Having Xilitalia for a companion was the best gift either world had given him so far. Ever since they unlocked her class levels for this current busty state, adventuring became easy to the point of almost cheating. People’s awed reactions always amused them too, since this wasn’t even Xilitalia’s true size. She had to learn a spell to ‘compress’ things a bit to fit inside normal places.

    And yet not even a mega-sized amazon cheetah would help them soon. Desmond and some other heroes were summoned to this world to fight a growing invasion of monster waves, with the next one hitting in a few weeks. Each one proved to be getting stronger than the last, nearly killing the idiot spear hero in the previous attempt. If he had any hope of seeing this party through to the end, they would need to utilize every advantage they could get.

    It just so happened a rather big opportunity surfaced unexpectedly and on unfortunate short notice. Like many other game mechanics, Desmond was surprised to discover this world had routine world events; timed quests that literally anyone could take part in if they desired.

Tonight would be the start of something called Blood Moon Harvest. As the name implies, the full moon would glow an eerie red light over the area for four days. This had some effect on local monsters to make them more powerful. On the plus side, that also meant kills would earn a lot more exp and rarer materials.

Despite this, the other so-called heroes apparently saw no reason to attend. Putting the obvious opportunity to grind some levels aside, it was not in the duo’s nature to leave a few isolated towns to fend such a menace alone.

Only problem was learning this information eight hours ago. They had to drop their routine maintenance to arrive before nightfall. Both of their armors were looking a bit worn, while Xilitalia’s sword sported several nicks.

“We’ll have to buy whatever fresh equipment these local shops have,” Desmond mused over their early dinner. A street vendor was selling some kind of beef burrito with a sweet pepper sauce.

“You sure that’s a good idea?” Xilitalia said, spraying bits of her second burrito out of her bulging cheeks. Her appetite had grown just like everything else these days. “I mean, they won’t be as good as the weapon drops we got from the cave boss last week.”

“True, but that stuff desperately needs sharpening. Not to mention your leather is looking very brittle over your thick...arms.” Desmond coughed, forcing his eyes off Xilitalia’s bust. “I’d feel safe having new, inferior gear than stuff ready to break at any moment.”

“Okay, master Fallout!” Xilitalia kept her face casual while spotted cat tail wagged rapidly. Ironically, her master was unaware his subtle attraction made her proud of gaining such a shapely body, especially since he still cared about her safety. She was eager to reach the few levels left before they could do the ceremony that unlocked their level cap back at the capital. “With all the planning you’ve been doing, we’re going to dominate this entire event.”

Desmond felt sweat on his face, forcing a return smile. The few vague ideas going through his frazzled mind could barely be called a plan. “Y-yeah, of course, Xili. This will be awesome!”

*    *    *

This event sucked scorpion ass.

The new gear cost Desmond more silvers than he wanted to part with, but they were effective for the killing his party required. Hell, at Xilitalia’s current level she just needed the right shield buffs and a kitchen knife for most threats. A fact they had both realized in a barroom brawl with some shield hero detractors a month back.

No, they had thoroughly prepared to slaughter blood-crazed monsters by the wagon full. Unfortunately, when the town caught word only one hero was even coming to their aid, the town militia took some unexpected initiative. Through calculated shifts and routes they had virtually wiped out every monster within three miles of the town borders a whole day before the duo’s arrival.

“Nice of them not to mention that until the event started.” Desmond kicked off a rock, scanning the open plans in desperate signs of opposition. Thanks to the moon, everything glowed with a red tint that felt both pretty and unsettling.

“At least no one’s in danger?” Xilitalia offered, casually skipping to her right. The optimism was a front masking her own disappointment in rushing over for such a boring adventure. Four hours of hunting only netted them some wild dog monsters, the last of which she became almost reluctant in finishing. It was so weak her half-hearted maneuvers were looking more like a playful dance teasing the creature. “It’s still the first night. The town will probably leave a lot more for us to handle tomorrow. YEEK! Damn it!”

Xilitalia got a bit too carefree in the improvised activity. In the second her eyes broke to glance at Desmond, the dog creature pounced, piercing fresh bite marks in the leather of her right boot. It only did four hit points of damage to the cheetah woman, but the damage to her footwear proved enough to draw some ire. The bronze of her recently purchased blade shone in the moonlight as it came around in an underhand swing that cleaved the monster’s head in half. There was a gurgling whine from the creature and it fell at her feet in a bloody mess. Hardly a satisfying kill now that Xilitalia gained with a minor experience point reward and nothing left to do.

“Are you all right?” Desmond was at her side in a heartbeat, kneeling down to examine the miniscule wound. His slave gave a curt nod, hoping the moon’s unnatural light hid her blush. There was barely a drop of blood visible on her leather. “Sheesh! Don’t get too relaxed. Taking unnecessary damage never does us any good.”

“S-sorry,” Xilitalia murmured with meekly folded ears.

Desmond declined further scolding, directing his attention on their fresh kill. Being OCD worked in his favor when traveling in a fantasy world. With skill practice his tool knife came out and cut along the monster’s flanks. Soon he had hearty meat and skin added to their loot drops, along with an unexpected rarity.

“What is that thing?” Xilitalia hunched over her master, unable to see the tiny object in his hand. The underside of her breasts brushed against Desmond’s ears enough to make him shudder.

“No idea,” he said, staring flatly at the small grey rock. He presumed it to be a gizzard stone after fishing it from a monster’s stomach. Yet a run of his appraise option in the HUD identified it as a ‘lycanroc’ high-rare monster material. Finding no immediate need to preserve it, Desmond followed his biggest habit when finding a new item and fed it into his shield jewel.

The rock disintegrated into the legendary weapon and a second later a pop-up notice flashed before Desmond’s eyes. As expected, a new shield became unlocked for use with a tree of potential upgrades to grind. With only a flick of his mind, the kite shield blurred into an unfamiliar round shape. Its surface bulged out almost like a half-sphere with several silver studs along its surface meant to resemble the giant moon shining overhead.

“Holy hell!” Desmond’s expression lit up into a bright smile, reading over an endless list of bonuses this ‘Moon Shield’ provided. Virtually every member of his party got enormous offenses boosts, along with several affliction resistances and damage type mitigations. Talk about making a party of instant glass cannons.

That is until his black sclera eyes caught the final two items on the shield’s properties. Muzzle lips dropped into a frown with his confusion. Apparently this shield enforced the lycanthrope sub-type on all party members’ race, and more importantly, none of the stat effects worked unless used during a full moon. “What is this? Team Fortress Two? It almost sounds like this shield turns people into...oh no!”

“M-master Fallout? I feel...funny.” 

Desmond whimpered, glancing at Xilitalia. The cheetah woman’s body had gone stiff, tail curled upwards with arms hanging limp. She was no longer looking at him, but craned her neck back to ogle at the sky. The red moon practically shined in her eyes, making pupils shrink into pencil points. “Uhhh...Xili? Xilitalia? Talk to me, girl?”

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Desmond reached for one of Xilitalia’s hands. The slight brush of their fingers together proved more than enough to shake her stupor. Xilitalia jumped several feet in the air, giving a feline yowl that sounded way more bestial than was comforting.

They continued staring at each other in stunned silence, unsure about addressing the subtle implications surfacing. Xilitalia’s chest gave hard jiggles with her rapidly rising breaths. Being rocked back to reality only made her aware of the warmth spreading over her body, forcing sweat to break out across her face. A thought suddenly crossed her mind, but before she could voice it the cheetah’s ears perked with a noticeable point to their tips. “Do you hear that?”

“Yeah.” Desmond didn’t need to ask. His own pointed fox ears swiveled towards a wood edge a quarter mile away before his gaze followed. The ambient noises of night creatures had ceased, leaving a rhythmic wet thumping breaking the silence. “Something big is heading this way.”

Wood groaned and then snapped, entire trees falling over to make way for the giant beast of a canine that emerged onto the clearing. It seemed to be a mixture of flesh and plant, with grass taking the place of fur and wooden spikes protruding along its back like armor.

Figures they would get into a proper fight at the worst time. The beast emerged fully out of the woods, swatting branches with its bushy tail. It seemed to notice the adventurers as an afterthought, pausing to regard them curiously. Xilitalia’s face twisted into a challenging snarl back, but her body shivered in her anxiety, looking ready to fall over.

Desmond considered themselves lucky if that’s all she did in the immediate future. “We should retreat and warn the town guards. We don’t know what’s happening to...you.”

Halfway through his sentence Desmond became deafened by the boss monster’s challenging howl. Now he was sure the whole county would know the beast’s presence. But while his ears folded back, ready to withdraw, Xilitalia stepped forward in an alarming breaking of character. She let loose a meow of defiance before breaking into a run straight at the creature, sword raised for action.

The monster seemed almost amused in its charge to meet this tiny challenger. Its paws thundered into the earth, leaving large prints staining the grass carpet. They closed the distance in seconds, its foreleg baring down onto Xilitalia in a hard strike.

Xilitalia twisted to take the massive paw with her shoulder. It collided with a hard impact that echoed through the night air. Her boots drove into the dirt almost up to her knees, yet the woman did not keel over. This alarmed the beast to the point it came to a complete stop, unsure why its prey remained unharmed. Just the distraction Xilitalia needed to shove the paw back, rocking the boss off balance for a counterattack on its other exposed leg.

The blade struck the canine’s foreleg, cleaving flesh and bone. Unfortunately, it was not the clean-cut Xilitalia intended. Her weapons inferior material gave a hard snap halfway through the bone, leaving her with a virtually useless hilt.

It still did enough damage to send the beast reeling. Trying to charge on all fours became nearly impossible with the fresh wound threatening to snap its limb just as violently as Xilitalia’s sword. Instead, it switched tactics to lung at the morsel, open jawed. Saliva rained from its mouth, staining the strained clothes on the cheetah woman.

Desmond nearly had a heart attack when she took the monster’s bite head-on. They had just finished discussing such reckless actions. Then again, the red glow in Xilitalia’s eyes was so visible in the night gloom. He also considered she was probably not in a right state of mind anymore.

The boss grunted and then whimpered in slow realization that Xilitalia caught its upper jaw with her bare hands. It tried to pull away only to find her grip on its fangs locked them in place.

A growl rose in her throat along with veins in her neck. The monster almost surprised her by trying to push down for a lethal bite. It only got her arms to bend slightly before Xilitalia pushed back. Biceps swelled with the heavy flex and then continued expanding beyond.

SHHRRTTTTT!!

Desmond’s eyes shot open at the familiar sound of clothes tearing. Looked like the shield’s implied effects were finally starting to assert themselves on his unwitting slave fighter. Even from yards away he could see the rippling mass of Xilitalia’s arm shred through the sleeves of her tunic. Her gloves followed behind them, hands lengthening with strong slender fingers, brandishing sharp black claws.

If being pushed back was a surprise, it floored the boss monster when Xilitalia wound back her buff right arm to punch it square in the nose. Pained yelps rang across rooftops in the distance as it reeled back with green blood oozing from its nostrils.

KKUUURRRTTTT!!

More of Xilitalia’s clothes saw an abrupt end. While the beast levered on its hind legs, she dropped into a squat that sent her leg muscles expanding. The rush of thighs blimping into spotted tree trunks disintegrated her pants. A necessary sacrifice in order for her to springboard in a leap that left a small pit in the ground. Her boots made several consecutive kicks into the creature’s snout. The force of which tore away the leather until her enlarged clawed feet were bare.

True to a cat’s nature, Xilitalia hit the ground on all fours with quiet unnatural grace. She watched intently as the giant forest wolf teetered in a slow fall onto its back. The impact caused a seismic quake that broke many cracks across the earth beneath it.

Despite this, Desmond found his attention stuck on Xilitalia’s muscled rear in the remains of torn pants. She stood to a full height that easily matched the creature, at least fourteen or sixteen feet tall. It wasn’t just the magic compression spell wearing off either. The cheetah woman looked...fluffier? Her ears had changed into sharp points, muzzle popped slightly longer, and her tail was massive like a spotted log. In fact, there were also large amounts of fur gathered up on her forearms and shins. Meanwhile, her purple hair had grown so wild that it threatened to drag at her heels like some cape.

“Hrrrkk!!” Xilitalia coughed, staggering out of her dramatic stance. With a frustrated growl, she clasped both hands to her chest and rent the leather harness into a confetto of wasted money.

BWOOOOMP! WOOM! WOOM!

The pair of massive tits that sprang out of the destroyed garment almost made up for its destruction. Xilitalia already got to enjoy a heavy stacking at any size, reaching over three times her head in scope. Under the growing effects of a red moon they looked like furry meteors ready to crush a house. Each little bounce from her movements gave a resounding spring noise loud enough for Desmond's ears, making him blush harder under their glory.

Suddenly the boss monster twitched, snapping out of its daze. Not that Xilitalia would give it a chance to collect itself. She pounced forward, breasts blinding its face while thick arms grappled around its shoulders. With a mighty heave she rolled back, using raw strength to lift the creature’s body off the ground. They came full circle with a surprisingly flexible arch of the buff cheetahs spine, crashing the boss’s skull into the earth for another earthquake that shattered the grassy plans.

This time the wolf fell over, clearly dead. Even with an impact skull, Xilitalia’s fluffy werecat form loomed over it for nearly a minute before her enhanced instincts seemed satisfied.

Desmond nearly wet his pants when Xilitalia whirled to face him. Then he noticed her cheery smile and demeanor changed faster than a light switch. She fell onto all fours, bounding towards him with her tail raised high. Everything waved and bounced so much his imagination made up splashing noises for her graceful gallop.

“I do good, master?” She asked upon stopping mere feet from the tiny squirrelfox. Even playing quadruped she had to sink her soft mounds into the ground, leaning in to be eye level with Desmond.

“You...you just suplexed a boss into submission.” The statement came out lacking any emotion, good or bad. Desmond’s mind became locked in pure shock, processing all the stat boosts affecting Xilitalia’s assets rolling threateningly close at his feet. Realizing this neutral response was making the cheetah giantess wiggle uncertainty, he added a quick, “That is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen you do yet. Wonderful job, Xilitalia!”

FWOOMP!

“YAY! Thank you, master!” Xilitalia still had a lot of unreleased werecheetah tension coursing through her muscles, making her not consider the effects of pouncing Desmond before engulfing him into her chest.

Desmond sputtered and writhed amidst the muscular forearms and soft boobs that came with Xilitalia hugs. His exasperation at the night’s events melted into giggles when she began licking his head with further affection. At least this event took a more exciting turn for them. He just hoped the shield had enough defense to help him survive until moonset.

In the meantime they became quite a sight for the townspeople on the short, thunderous walk back. All the ground shakes and wars practically woke up everyone in the region. Shame that most of them took seeing the shield hero in the tight embrace of a monster cheetahs bosom as a sign of complete doom.

It took Desmond lots of shouting and reassurances that the altered Xilitalia would in fact not be eating him or any villagers for the evening. A few disarming smiles from his giantess slave helped a lot to convey the message. At least he hoped that’s what many of them craned their necks to stare at while they talked.

“Master, I’m hungry.” Xilitalia sat in the square unable to shrink her height while in a lycanthrope state. She seemed content with this anyway, letting breasts rest on her lap while drumming the tops with her fingers.

“Do you need any help?” A wayward guard found enough courage to approach Desmond, though the fear remained in his eyes.

Desmond barely cared for such actions anymore. His justified reputation for bringing odd alterations upon people he interacted with reached the world by now. It made him wonder for a second if they found a cure for the oldest princess being a donkey beast girl yet.

“Yeah, bring us ten pounds of…” Desmond checked his coin pouch. The fluffy squirrel's tail thumped into the dirt. “Actually, just start bringing us cooked meat and tell me when I run out of money. We’ll need a lot of calories to get through this moon phase.”

Xilitalia gave a happy chirp, eager for the food villagers scattered to bring her.