Limitless Path

Beth collapsed to her knees, sitting on her heels as she panted heavily, feeling like she was going to pass out and puke at the same time and wanting to do neither. Blood appeared beside her a moment later, knowing that the monster was dead from both the notification and level-up, dropping down next to Beth and wrapping an arm around her back. They stayed like that for a minute, Blood supporting Beth as they waited for her to recover from whatever it was she had just managed to do, both of them coated in mud and blood and dirt and sweat and gore. Beth reached over and ran a gauntleted hand through Blood's hair, causing the wolf to close her eyes and growl happily, opening them when Beth chuckled. The shorter girl had pulled a small bit of stone out of the wolf's hair, flicking it away to the side.

That wasn't her only reason for brushing a hand through her companion's hair, nor was it just the feeling of comfort it brought the two of them, but it was to check what had happened to Blood's ears. The wolf hadn't seemed to notice, but she had some changes compared to before they engaged in that fight, the most noticeable being the lack of large, pretty, lupine ears on the top of her head. Beth looked her over, glancing up and down as her breathing evened, noticing there was also less fur on other parts of her body, though her furry mantle remained intact.

"What?" Blood growled. "We're both dirty."

"How're the ears feelin'?" Beth asked with a smirk.

"They're fin-" Blood started before seeming to realize something was strange. She had clearly tried to flick an ear manually, realizing when nothing on the top of her head moved, that something was different. Particularly when she felt the side of her head twitch a little, her body naturally interpreting her thoughts to make her very human, very pretty ear jump a little. She reached up and ran a hand through the hair over the top of her head, clearly feeling no ears there, before reaching both hands up and grabbing her 'new' ears, carefully feeling every part of them.

"Do I…do I look weird?" she asked Beth quietly.

Beth just sighed before tackling Blood, hugging her firmly while calling her names, the wolf grumbling and growling below her before wrestling free. Beth stood up slowly then, clearly not in the best of shape after their battle, before giving Blood's hair another stroke. The wolf growled happily before springing upright, standing just as tall if not slightly taller than before, looking around as she sniffed the air before tilting her head.

"My hearing seems fine," she muttered. "In fact, I think it might be better?"

"Didn't we read that you'll get stronger as your humanization progresses?" Beth asked with a tired sigh before plodding towards the west. "Come on, help me find what was left of that arm I tore off."

She started looking around for the arm, not finding it right away, but she didn't really need to have bothered. Whatever the changes in her humanization factor, Blood's senses were just as keen; no, in fact, they seemed even more keen, the wolf easily able to hear and smell things that even her superior senses in human form couldn't have before. She found the piece of arm rather quickly, tossing it to Beth to stash in her necklace where she had stored the corpse when she had stood a minute earlier. Beth, meanwhile, decided to check their status screens, both because she wanted to see if they had made any progress in any skills and to put her points in for her level up.